Hi all. This may be a long one, but I appreciate anyone who sticks around to offer advice.
About 3 years ago I started losing weight but fell off after 4 months and 50lbs. However a month ago I started counting calories and being more mindful of what I ate again, and this time with a tremendous amount of support from friends and family with a goal of 230lbs. I started at 352lbs on June 8th and my lowest since then has been 326lbs. Quite a lot of weight, and I'm still trying to remind myself not to expect that level of weight loss all the way down to 230.
Eating Habits
I'm a 20-year-old male, and my BMR is about 2875cals. Every morning I have either 4 eggs and 4 pieces of bacon or a cup of plain oatmeal, usually adding up to be about 500cals. Then I'll usually have some sort of protein for lunch or dinner like chicken breast or pork tenderloins, which generally adds up to between 500 - 600cals.
Sometimes for lunch, I may have some form of pre-made meal from Aldi for lunch like Pulled Beef Brisket, Artichoke Stuffed Chicken, or Pulled Chicken; again all are about 500 calories. Every week or so I'll treat myself to a small calzone from Aldi for lunch, which is usually about 600 calories.
When I'm visiting friends and away from my home, I'll try to stick to "healthier" options for breakfast(380 calorie sandwich from Tim Hortons and a cup of coffee) or lunch(Sub from Subway) and will generally try not to eat much while I'm out.
My meals are usually about 600 calories overall, and I try not to tempt myself with bad junk food by not eating any snacks. I've also been trying to allow myself to enjoy certain evenings and not worry about counting until the morning after. I've had about 3 days over these past 5 weeks where I ate food I wouldn't normally eat. The first day was towards the middle of June where I went way overboard one night on accident at a friend's place and had nearly 4,300 calories. The other was on the 4th of July at a party (about 3,400). And the most recent was this past weekend where I had some hotdogs, beans, and fruit at a family reunion and still managed to stay below my calories for the day.
While my meals are by no means the healthiest possible, they are a dramatic reduction in what and how much I used to eat. Chips and cheese for breakfast, Bucket of popcorn at 2 am with a 1/2 stick of butter, 5 burritos at Taco Bell, entire extra-large deep dish pizza at Jets (you get the gist).
Lifestyle
The other major thing that I've been doing Is not eating past 7 pm, no matter what time I wake up.
I've found that my lifestyle before this never really made me accountable for anything, and by forcing myself to stick to two solid rules, not only am I prolonging my life, but I'm also teaching myself valuable lessons about self-control and impulsivity.
I want this lifestyle to be sustainable and I don't think being extremely strict about everything all the time is the way to do it. Never going out to eat with my friends just isn't a realistic concept, but learning to pick better foods and how to incorporate those days into my week is.
The Problem?
I've started to plateau over the past 12 days and I'm not sure If I may be hurting myself in the long run with what I'm eating and how much I'm restricting my diet. I'm also not sure if I'm reading into this too much, but It's hard not to when It's one of my biggest motivators to get up out of bed and eat healthier. Here are my weekly totals and averages of calories since I started:
|
Week 1 |
Week 2 |
Week 3 |
Week 4 |
Week 5 |
| Total Cals |
~ 13,900 |
~ 11,400 |
~ 15,900 |
~ 12,800 |
~ 12,300 |
| Avg Cals |
1,985 |
1,628 |
2,271 |
1,828 |
1,757 |
| Avg weight |
343.6 |
339.1 |
333.5 |
329.3 |
327.5 |
This means that I'm averaging about 1,900 calories a day compared to my BMR of about 2,900. So about a 1,000 calorie deficit. Is this too much of a deficit? I don't feel hungry most of the time, and when I do past 7 pm, I just go to bed so that I can weigh myself in the morning and actually see what that hunger turned into.
The next table is all of my weight logs every morning since the 4th of July:
| 4th |
5th |
6th |
7th |
8th |
9th |
10th |
11th |
12th |
13th |
14th |
15th |
| 328.7 |
N/A |
331.1 |
N/A |
329.3 |
328 |
327.8 |
327.6 |
N/A |
326.5 |
327.6 |
328.7 |
I also make sure that my body is in the same state when I weigh myself every morning.
Hopefully, this post and responses will be able to help out other people who are in a similar situation to me. To anyone still sticking around, after all that, thanks :)
The Questions
- Am I plateauing or is it just in my head?
- What could I do to further contribute towards my weight loss?
- Am I on the right track?
- Should I change anything?
- Are there any helpful tips that may have helped you?
submitted by
/u/CutlassS1968
[link] [comments]
from loseit - Lose the Fat https://ift.tt/3fzRDa2
