Day 1? Starting your weight loss journey on Thursday, 06 August 2020? Start here!

Today is your Day 1?

Welcome to r/Loseit!

So you aren’t sure of how to start? Don’t worry! “How do I get started?” is our most asked question. r/Loseit has helped our users lose over 1,000,000 recorded pounds and these are the steps that we’ve found most useful for getting started.

Why you’re overweight

Our bodies are amazing (yes, yours too!). In order to survive before supermarkets, we had to be able to store energy to get us through lean times, we store this energy as adipose fat tissue. If you put more energy into your body than it needs, it stores it, for (potential) later use. When you put in less than it needs, it uses the stored energy. The more energy you have stored, the more overweight you are. The trick is to get your body to use the stored energy, which can only be done if you give it less energy than it needs, consistently.

Before You Start

The very first step is calculating your calorie needs. You can do that HERE. This will give you an approximation of your calorie needs for the day. The next step is to figure how quickly you want to lose the fat. One pound of fat is equal to 3500 calories. So to lose 1 pound of fat per week you will need to consume 500 calories less than your TDEE (daily calorie needs from the link above). 750 calories less will result in 1.5 pounds and 1000 calories is an aggressive 2 pounds per week.

Tracking

Here is where it begins to resemble work. The most efficient way to lose the weight you desire is to track your calorie intake. This has gotten much simpler over the years and today it can be done right from your smartphone or computer. r/loseit recommends an app like MyFitnessPal, Loseit! (unaffiliated), or Cronometer. Create an account and be honest with it about your current stats, activities, and goals. This is your tracker and no one else needs to see it so don’t cheat the numbers. You’ll find large user created databases that make logging and tracking your food and drinks easy with just the tap of the screen or the push of a button. We also highly recommend the use of a digital kitchen scale for accuracy. Knowing how much of what you're eating is more important than what you're eating. Why? This may explain it.

Creating Your Deficit

How do you create a deficit? This is up to you. r/loseit has a few recommendations but ultimately that decision is yours. There is no perfect diet for everyone. There is a perfect diet for you and you can create it. You can eat less of exactly what you eat now. If you like pizza you can have pizza. Have 2 slices instead of 4. You can try lower calorie replacements for calorie dense foods. Some of the communities favorites are cauliflower rice, zucchini noodles, spaghetti squash in place of their more calorie rich cousins. If it appeals to you an entire dietary change like Keto, Paleo, Vegetarian.

The most important thing to remember is that this selection of foods works for you. Sustainability is the key to long term weight management success. If you hate what you’re eating you won’t stick to it.

Exercise

Is NOT mandatory. You can lose fat and create a deficit through diet alone. There is no requirement of exercise to lose weight.

It has it’s own benefits though. You will burn extra calories. Exercise is shown to be beneficial to mental health and creates an endorphin rush as well. It makes people feel awesome and has been linked to higher rates of long term success when physical activity is included in lifestyle changes.

Crawl, Walk, Run

It can seem like one needs to make a 180 degree course correction to find success. That isn’t necessarily true. Many of our users find that creating small initial changes that build a foundation allows them to progress forward in even, sustained, increments.

Acceptance

You will struggle. We have all struggled. This is natural. There is no tip or trick to get through this though. We encourage you to recognize why you are struggling and forgive yourself for whatever reason that may be. If you overindulged at your last meal that is ok. You can resolve to make the next meal better.

Do not let the pursuit of perfect get in the way of progress. We don’t need perfect. We just want better.

Additional resources

Now you’re ready to do this. Here are more details, that may help you refine your plan.

• Quick Start Guide - Build your foundation!
• Loseit Compendium - Frame it out!
• FAQ - Answers to our most Frequently Asked Questions!

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Cheat days

So we all know we have cheat days, and we all love them (especially when you feel you've earned them! 😁) and from my weight loss experience (at a normal weight finally and been keeping it steady for a whole year) I've noticed I've been getting more and more healthy with my cheat day options! Instead of gorging myself on a whole six pack of snickers, I usually now buy just a pastry with whole unsweetened fruit or berries (today is a cheat day for me, like every week, and I've noticed im staying away from the unhealthy options more and more) I've got questions for you r/loseit

How do you deal with cheat days, what are your options, have they changed after you've normalised your weight? One comfort food I keep coming back to that I want to ditch is a whole can of Pringles 😁

Or are you guys super strict with your diets and cheat days are NOT allowed?

Thank you for reading! :D

Starting weight: 331 pounds (150kg) Current weight 198 pounds (90kg) Height - 6'3 (190cm) (hopefully didn't fuck it up, I'm familiar with the metric system)

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Fat Soldier

I know what you are thinking. There is no way a soldier can be fat with what they do. I am the testimony of the fat Soldier. I joined the Army in 2018 as an infantryman. I wanted to serve and protect the country. I showed up to my unit fit and ready for action. I was a paratrooper ready to jump out of high performance aircraft and slay bodies. On one of our training exercises I jumped out and long story short I shattered my left femur in 3 directions. This required a very invasive surgery and 9 pins, partial hip replacement and a metal rod stretching from my hip to my knee. Effectively ending my career as a soldier. I was never seen the same again. I quickly fell into a deep dark depression. Over the course of the next year I was unable to walk without crutches or a cane and turned to food and beer to down my sorrows. With nobody really caring about me I managed to balloon from a fit 215 lbs to a very chunky 310lbs. I had to purchase larger uniforms 3 different times. Nothing changed until we got a new First Sergeant who actually cared enough to talk to me and find out what happened and why I allowed myself to gain so much weight. After a very well deserved wake up call from him I went into weight loss mode looking for a lifestyle change. With such a severe injury I had to focus 110% on my diet. Keto was my solution. I cut all carbs and focused on my fat intake. Because of my size my TDE even being sedentary was still around 3000 Cals. So I cut down to 2000 Cal with the only carbs I ate being leafy vegetables. Here I am talking to you 8 month later down to 240lbs. This has been the hardest most eye opening experience of my life. I have lurked this page the entire time I've been losing and I still have more to go, but I wanted to say from the bottom of my heart thank you for helping me through the rough times and as I lose this last 20lbs I know that I can count on this sub to keep me going!

TL;DR: was injured ballooned up to 310 and through keto and r/loseit dropped down to 240 20lbs from my goal weight.

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My 3 month plan to change my life (month 2)

Rated this post NSFW due to my progress pictures being a bra.

(prev post; https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/hi5k64/my_3month_plan_to_change_my_life_month_1/ )
So this is month 2 of 3 of changing my life-style habits.
I am just going to repeat that this is not something I do to loose weight quickly - and well it shows lol

My goal for July was to;
Eat food - not candy, for every meal.
Start walking every day

and I can say I smashed at least the 2nd one out of the park. A goal for August, was to cut out energy drinks and chocolate bars, they where what I reached for when I was stressed out - but since I started walking, the craving for energy drinks and chocolate just kinda dropped off after 2 weeks, so I have been almost 3 weeks clean now!

This might not seem like a huge deal, but I've had either an energy drink, or a coca-cola every single day, since the day I turned 15, so that is 14 years of habit to break, and it just suddenly didn't appeal to me anymore. It for sure helped that I did some math and I realized I spent almost $200 a month on a habit I didn't need. (so thank you sugar tax)

For meals, eeeh it was a little harder. I definitively ate dinner almost every day, and I snacked a lot on fruit. But my calorie intake went from about 3k a day, to plummeting to 900-1200 a day - simply because I was no longer filling it in with junk. I was able to eat very good (and calorific) dinners at my sister's house about once a week though, so that helped. And I now have a working fridge and freezer in the new place so I plan on furthering this step in August when I also start meal-prepping. since I am a convenience queen of habit, I think I will eat better when I have something healthy prepared. My goal was and still is around 1500 pr day, since i think that is a sustainable amount for weight loss at my activity level. And then I can increase it when I am more active, or want to maintain (maybe 1700)

I also joined the lose-it challenge, and by that I was introduced to the Hairy biker's recipes and boy and boy is there a lot I want to try! Trying my first one tomorrow when I have some friends over after the move :) (pandemic safe measures in place)

My mini-failure; I don't like the word failure, but a 3 day binge on a chocolate cake might at least count as a temporary one!
I was at 85kg (187lbs) and I was down to 83 kg (182lbs), but after my chocolate cake binge I didn't weight myself until the 3rd of August (surgery date) and I was back up to 85. So no progress there.

Progress picture;

https://imgur.com/a/6BfEw7V

Honestly not much changed, other than the background. But I do think I look less bloated - and I think that is since I no longer drink fizzy drinks. I hope that I will be able to see more changes in the future.

I planned on doing meal prep this month and so far so good. I am broke AF currently (that $1 in my bank account life lol), due to moving last week, and also my co-pay for the surgery, but I hope to get that cash tomorrow so I can start properly. My walking have been replaced with sleeping now too due to the leg - but I still manage to get up and hop around and clean around the house, so it's not completely sedentary.

Next month my plan was to start exercising more, and I need to figure something out for that one now, as I have been completely banned from any high impact activity on my leg for the next 6months. so that includes jogging, jumping etc. I could in theory swim, but I do not want to swim when I still have an open hole into my ankle joint where all those nasty bacterias can get into it lol. I'll see if I can get a physiotherapist to drop me some tips. So yeah, that was my very boring update. I am a person of taking it slow and steady - so I can't compete with the massively different progress shots on here lol, But I do believe I am finally on the road to a healthier life-style. one where I take better care of myself at least.

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Start a food journa

Hey

SW:246lbs CW:191lbs GW: 143. Female, 5'5

tl;dr: CICO is the secret to weight loss, not counting calories. There are other ways to achieve CICO. food journal might be a great tool on understanding yourself more and might even help with weight loss

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Many of use have tried myfitnesspal at some point. It is a great indicator of calories which help with CICO. But there is another usually overlooked great tool you can use: food journaling

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it is simple, just write what you ate, doesn't have to be daily, only write it per new kind, and what effects they have on you. Either mentally or physically

At first, I started with only writing a junk food diary. I wrote what I felt prior to eating them, while eating them and after. That journal was eye opening. There are many food that tasted good while I ate them, but they PHYSICALLY affected me negatively, like causing diarrhea or dizziness. Some DID NOT even taste that good! I have been eating them for too long I started feeling like I MUST eat them to feel good when I didn't particularly love them. Thanks to this journal, I cut every food that caused me physical discomfort or the ones I hate without craving them. I dropped a couple of pounds but I felt tremendously better!

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After the junk food journal success, I started an official food journal, where I record my feelings, the time and what I ate -didn't include calories-. I discovered that I eat too many small meals per day. When I eat, I am usually half full, which causes me to eat a little bit. Then get hungry half an hour later and the cycle continues.

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To solve feeling hunger all the time and the fucked up body signals, I started intermittent fasting + 2~3 big meals a day. I learned a lot about my food signals. What does hungry look like? what about full? half-full? half-hungry? boredom? you got the idea. I found out that I tend to overeat the most when I am half-full. On the other hand, half-hungry is the best state to study and be productive.

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When I first started intermittent fasting, I dropped a lot of weight then plateaued. I once again started watching my habits carefully. At that time, I was only eating 3 meals max per day. I watched the food I was consuming. I noticed that my most weight drop was in the period I was eating two meals and no junk food. The second major drop was when I ate three meals as long as one of them is small, and the plateau period was when I ate 3 large meals. But that is not everything. I have NEVER eaten 3 healthy large meals before. The third large meal was one of the junky food that passed the first test: it was junky, but tasted good and didn't make me feel physical discomfort

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To solve the problem, I had to either eat two meals a day, or eat 3 meals but no junk food. I alternate between the two depending on my mood. I dropped 55lbs so far!

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What I want to say is, CICO is the secret to weight loss. But you don't have to count calories to do so. I know that to some people, simply counting calories is easier than keeping a food journal. But to me, counting never worked. I am a perfectionist who tend to get too nerdy with the number. And the moment a food scale is not available, I tend to miscount. Also, I was never able to maintain it for long enough. So once I stopped counting calories, I was lost. And counting calories for the rest of my life is not something I wanna do

On the other hand, I feel like I wanted to know the reasons behind my weight gain. Yes it doesn't take a genius to know it is overeating. But like, why am I overeating to begin with? what am I overeating exactly? I was always at loss because my default eating style was 6~7 meals a day. So when I stopped counting calories I reverted back to eating that much. I didn't want to be stuck in this cycle of counting then stopping then counting again. Food journals helped me finding the reasons behind some of my habits and feeling. I am busy so I never had time to sit down and eat a full meal so I ended up eating 6 small ones a day. But then I noticed that my performance with two meals is better. It saves money and time too!

my weight loss is very slow, but it is gradual and steady. And I have been able to stick to it even when I was traveling, sick, bored, tired, stressed and on a deadline.

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I have 50lbs more to go. But I am optimistic about this. for the first time in my life I have a system to fall back to. I know for a fact that once I decide to stop dieting, I won't be lost about what to eat and whether my calories are in check. For the first time ever, I start minding my food and getting my body signals

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To summarize, start a food journal. Discover yourself and the reasons behind what you're doing. Then take the necessary steps against them. Maybe count calories? ditch sugar? go vegan? eat more meals? eat fewer meals? fasting? or even not fasting. You get the idea

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Good luck everyone!

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What is your favorite physical activity?

Hi everyone! I was hoping you could help give me some leads on fun ways you have to stay active. I started my weight loss journey about 3 months ago and I'm down from 255 lbs to 231! I've been practicing CICO and have been sticking to around 1200 calories daily. I'm happy with my progress so far but I am still very close to being a couch potato due to studying and taking care of things at home, but I know that's no excuse to not be active. What are some of the ways you like to be active? I've been talking long walks around town and doing the chloe ting challenge online but I feel like that's still a bit advanced for me in my current state. I'd love to hear what everyone else has been doing to stay fit and keep covid at bay! Thanks for all the help this subreddit has already given me so far (:

Edit: spelling

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I won’t truly be happy or content with life until I am my dream weight

I have never looked how I dream I could look in my head. When I picture myself living my best life, I am slim with perfect legs and bundles of confidence but that’s never been me. I’m nearly 30 and I feel as though I have wasted my whole 20’s thinking “one day I’ll look that way and I’ll be that person and then life will be good” but I never make it happen, I never see it through. I have been on my weight loss journey for the past 2 years and lost 50lbs to just go and regain it all by my 29th birthday. I put off life because I think that someday I’ll be the girl I wish I was, but that day hasn’t come so far and what if it never does. It’s like I can’t accept that i am the way I am, and that’s how others perceive me and that that version of me is good enough as she is.

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