What was your first month like? What do you wish you'd known?

Hey everyone. I'm currently three weeks in to my first ever attempt to seriously lose weight.

It's a fascinating process. It involves a lot of learning–about nutrition, about food preparation, about personal psychology, about how to set up new routines and change longstanding habits that I didn't even know I had. I feel like I've learned more about personal health in the last three weeks than I have in the entire rest of my life.

I've had a range of challenges I didn't anticipate. Two days of incredible, mind-numbing tiredness. Moments of extreme hunger. Being shocked many times to learn which ingredients are calorie-heavy, and which ones are basically free. Learning how to space my meals in a way that works for me.

And I've also learned about a lot of the common experiences that we don't really know about until we start controlling our eating. I've had a rush of magical weight loss right at the start, then stagnation/gain for a week, followed by a surprising loss... and while experiencing those things I've learned about water weight, plateaus, and the "whoosh".

We hear a lot from people setting out on the first day of their journey, which is awesome. And we get a lot of inspiring reports of long-term progress. But what I want to know is–what was it like in your first few weeks, when you were transitioning from "today's the day I make a change" to "I have a long-term routine that's working for me"? What did you learn? What surprised you? What were the biggest challenges and how did you overcome them? What do you wish you knew?

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Cheat meal guilt

How do you deal with guilt after having a cheat meal? I wasn't intending on having a cheat meal, but it's my dad's last night being home until he leaves for work for a few months so we decided to go out last minute. I logged my meals for the day including the cheat meal and I ended up at 1500 calories instead of 1200. I am trying my best not to feel guilty since it's a one time thing, but for some reason I feel awful and feel as if all my hard work this week with calorie counting has went down the drain. I also feel disgusting since I haven't eaten out in almost 2 months. The mental aspect of weight loss seems to be just as hard as the physical aspect for me. As someone who is an all or nothing type of person I am finding myself struggling to find a balance.

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How do you cope with attention from weight loss?

Not sure if this is the right sub but here goes: how do you cope with the attention??

When I lose weight I'll feel great, feel healthy, etc. But suddenly I'll get to a point where everyone is telling me how attractive I am, random men (and women?) are chasing me out of work all the way to my car, stalking me on social media, touching me for no reason, etc. It feels like every 1/5 people I meet/see is treating me like an object instead of a person, and 1/10 can't just leave me alone and harasses me or pursues me. Even when I'm actively being mean/cold, people are triggering me left and right, like strangers asking me to do sexual favors, and I'll get stressed and start eating again because the adrenaline makes me feel like I'm starving to death. My stomach literally never growls unless I'm stressed out/high on adrenaline, but when that happens I'm never satisfied (even if I eat an entire family sized salad).

I know there's got to be others in the same boat. How do you deal with all that nonsense? I'm obviously not coping properly. I either stay "skinny" and never go out, or I go out and get stressed and gain weight again.This is definitely not the right way to deal. I don't know what change I need to make but change needs to be made. It seems like the older I get, the more I feel the pressure to be healthy.

And before anyone asks,, for the sake of personal info, no, I don't "dress sexy" or anything, so there really isn't anything to fix physically to make me less attractive.. I just wear some jeans and a baggy t-shirt, beaten up sneakers, and throw my hair up in an ugly messy bun. Sports bra that makes me look flat chested bc too much uncomfortable loose skin for a regular bra. I don't do makeup, I always sport my raccoon eyes and half chapped lips. I'm probably just an average 4-6/10 on any given day. Honestly, I kind of look like my name would be Olga or Magnus, if that gives you a picture. I almost look like human Shrek with an unkempt man-bun, except it's not as hot on me imo because I'm a female. Lol.

TLDR: People are just weird to you when you get thinner and I need help coping with the weird people instead of stress eating & punishing myself and ruining my heart and knees.

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Weight loss/exercise tips for an anxious guy on medication that might cause weight gain?

30 yo Male:
I'm going to try not making this a long thing. I quit my job a month ago for mental health reasons; basically my supervisor drove me into a mental breakdown, and I've come out of it with probably an anxiety disorder and some nasty insomnia. To top it off the pandemic fifteen has gotten gotten to be the pandemic thirty (I'm now nearly 229). My doctor has put me on Hydroxizine (an antihistamine) and Metoprolol (a beta-blocker) for treating the anxiety, heart palpitations and insomnia. I'm not yet taking the Metoprolol because I want to triple check that it won't explode/implode my heart by reacting with one of my ADHD meds (Clonidine), which also lowers/moderates blood pressure - my doctor knows I take the Clonidine and I've called the pharmacist once and they said it was fine, but welp Anxiety (Yay!) Anyway, I want to lose weight and get in shape, I have a family history of heart disease and diabetes, and while a trip to the ER two weeks ago due to a panic attack showed my heart was perfectly fine (Which I guess is good), that doesn't mean I should simply slack on it. Anyway, I want to lose the weight, and exercise is supposedly good for anxiety in general, but I've heard that Beta Blockers can cause people to gain weight, a small amount in some, large amounts in others, and that they can make it very difficult to exercise, which sounds bad for someone who already sort of hates exercising. Any tips, tricks? Advice on diet or exercise? I unfortunately don't have access to a gym due to the loss of employment and COVID (apartment gym is closed) so my bike is probably going to be my go to. Also I live in the Pacific Northwest so in a few months (maybe as little as one) the rainy season will come and it will become quite nasty outside, so indoor exercise suggestions would be most appreciated!

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Anyone else struggling with body image post weight loss?

So recently i lost around 30 pounds over the course of quarantine and still find myself adjusting to living in this new body. I’m 5’3 and went from 157 to 128 pounds, so it had a pretty significant impact on my looks. When i take photos now and look at them, i still am shocked 90% of the time thinking “wait is that really me?” It’s almost as if the 128 pound girl in the photos is a completely different person to the 157 pound girl who i still identify as. When i walk on my college campus with friends, they’ll point out that i get stares and my first words are always “they’re looking at you.” When i calculate my BMI i always put in my old weight first before i realize that’s definitely not accurate anymore. Is anyone else struggling with this? It sucks that i lost all this weight and cant even enjoy it because in my head I’m still overweight.

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Can't stop thinking about food; overeating on "healthy" food

I've been on a weight loss journey since January 2020, and I started eating in a deficit since May of this year.

I started by eating 1240 kcal/day (5'3 150lbs) and also eating back exercise calories. Did a fair amount of cardio during this time and lost 6 lbs in 1 month. However I think I lost a good amount of muscle mass and felt pretty horrible from under-eating. So I decided to switch things up.

I then bumped up my intake to 1500/day w/o eating back exercise calories, which was going really well until I hit a plateau. So I decided to try out 1400/day just to give my body a little push and have been doing that for the past few weeks.

I'm glad I'm finally becoming healthy again and taking time to nourish and strengthen my body, but this whole journey has been incredibly mentally exhausting. Some days are fine and I think "I could do this any day". Other days are almost torture. I am constantly thinking about food and wanting to eat. Sometimes I stare off into the distance just thinking about a meal I want to make tomorrow. It's just sooo hard because in the past I was eating food every waking hour of the day, so I never had these all-consuming thoughts about hypothetically eating food--because I was actually fulfilling those thoughts. Now I can only sit with them and let them take up all my headspace.

And the worst part is that I don't even crave foods like fried chicken, ice cream, pizza, cookies, fast food, takeout, etc. I cook 99% of my meals and hardly ever think about fast food. I dream about eating a large bowl of granola and almond milk pretty much all day. Sometimes I really just want a giant thing of grapes. I think about hummus and grilled chicken on a bagel, tofu & broccoli with rice......all foods most would agree are relatively "healthy" or nutritious. But the issue is that after I have already reached my daily calorie limit, I still want more.

I don't even think I am binging, because I have slipped up many days recently (while still tracking), and I always eat around maintenance on these days. It's just that eating in a deficit to lose weight has been really really mentally challenging, especially while trying to balance work/academics/personal life.

I literally daydream about the day I reach my goal weight and I can start eating at maintenance......the thought of being able to eat one more apple or that extra tablespoon of peanut butter or an additional scoop of granola. I don't want to eat like shit, I just want to eat more.

Not sure where I was going with this rant, but anyone have any words of wisdom or advice? encouragement? criticism? can anyone else relate? all is welcome, thanks guys.

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Are hot baths after a workout a thing?

I started taking hot baths right after a workout in the winter just because I was too tired to stand up for a shower and also I hate being cold/love a good bath (or a sauna, or a steam room, or a hot tub) but then I noticed on my Fitbit that it extended my “active minutes” and kept my heart rate up in the workout range for another 30-45 minutes. And I get out feeling like I had a second workout! I think it might also help minimize DOMS, but I’ve also read that it can inhibit recovery because it delays autonomic nervous system responses in some way. I’m just kind of wondering if anyone else does this, if it’s an actual weight loss thing, if it’s safe, if it’s advisable, if it’s good/bad/neutral for recovery? I see a lot of info on the ice bath thing but not a lot about hot baths.

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