I went off the rails this weekend after the sudden loss of my cat, but I didn't binge, and I'm back to eating right. And I don't feel guilty at all. Big NSV for me.

My 16-year-old cat suddenly died on Wednesday night and I have been a complete basketcase ever since. She was healthy, wasn't sick, wasn't acting weird - but randomly, suddenly dropped dead in the middle of the living room. I screamed and cried so much my throat went raw. I was extremely connected to her. I've been feeling lost and incredibly depressed since. I didn't even have the energy to do anything except cry, sleep, and eat. I've been eating nothing but takeout because I could not bring myself to focus long enough to clean the kitchen and do dishes, which I was already behind on before this happened. I've needed to go to the store to restock all my healthy foods but I've barely been able to peel myself out of bed, much less face being in public.

I've lost 30 pounds since May and this is the first time that weight loss has really 'stuck' for me. I've been concerned that falling off the wagon just once could derail me entirely, as it has in the past. I've avoided stumbling until now. Losing my cat has completely rocked my entire world. I used to binge absolutely incredible amounts of snack food and soda whenever I felt an emotion I didn't want to feel, like sadness or anger, or if I was bored. Trust me when I say that the urge was strong this weekend. But... I didn't binge. I ate a lot of stuff I don't normally eat anymore, like Chinese food and pizza, but I tried to keep portions reasonable and stop when I was full. I finally recognized that whatever the problem is, bingeing pretty much universally will not solve it. It won't bring my cat back. It won't remove my sadness and despair over losing her. All it will do is make me feel guilty afterwards, and put my body through physical stress for no benefit. And practically speaking, I don't think my stomach could handle that sort of intake anymore. (It's certainly pretty cross with me already after 4 days of takeout.)

Today, I'm back to tracking. I gave the kitchen a quick once-over and will be restocking on all my healthy food tonight. I'm still sad, confused, and angry, but life continues on and I am only going to set myself back further if I continue to allow myself to wallow. I'm only 2.5 pounds heavier today than I was on Wednesday morning, and I think most of this is water weight that I will quickly shed, as I have been eating a lot of very salty foods. Going a little crazy on takeout over the weekend didn't kill all my progress like I'd feared. I didn't binge. I didn't throw my hands up and call it all off when things started getting difficult, which is what I've done so many times before. I'm not bothered about 2.5 pounds of water weight. In the past, this would have been enough to discourage me completely. And what's even better is that I don't feel guilty at all for any of it. I'm trying to be gentle with myself and remember that I'm going through a difficult time, and I refuse to beat myself up over it. I'm just a handful of pounds away from being under 200 for the first time in probably 8 years, and I'm going to let that excitement buoy me through the next few weeks as I adjust to life without my furry best friend. I'm just really happy that for the first time ever, falling off the wagon isn't the end of my journey. It's just a bump in the road. This situation is temporary, as so many situations are, but improving my health will benefit me forever.

I'll miss you forever - thank you for everything.

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Difficulty with weight loss during cal restricted keto

Alright, I’m going to give this a shot to see if any of you beautiful Reddit people have any resources.

I’m struggling with my weight. I’m boarder-line overweight, have been for quite some time. I’ve tried both keto and intermittent fasting multiple times. I’m celiac with multiple other chronic health issue that excess weight makes even worse, so I’ve always been a healthy eater. It’s my most recent effort to loose weight that has me at the end of my rope.

For 10 months I threw myself into a combination of extremely strict clean under 1200 cal keto where I obsessively tracked and calculated macros and weighed/tracked everything (up to and including electrolytes) I consumed. I paired this with daily 16:8 intermittent fasting. My energy levels weren’t consistent throughout this process, and towards the end I found I was getting more and more fatigued; for context I have multiple health conditions that impact energy/pain/stamina, etc. Frustratingly enough I. GAINED. WEIGHT. Specifically what feels like a LOT of belly fat. And my stomach feels permanent bloated (I started low FODMAP again because of this since halting keto... but no luck so far). I have since upped my calories to around 1800 which feels a little bit more manageable, but with it the slow weight gain has continued. I worry that unless I find a solution soon I will be firmly in the overweight category and this will increase my pain and fatigue even more so.

Now I know I’m likely going to get unhelpful responses telling me how I couldn’t possibly have been tracking properly or following keto as strictly as I was, and how it was likely my lack of adherence that screwed things up... I’ve heard this the last few times I’ve asked for help on similar platforms. What I’m cautiously hopeful for is even a few resources as to why this could have occurred and what does end up working in difficult cases. Any help is really appreciated.

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A note about discouraging comments.

Hello all. The moderation team here at /r/loseit wants to say that we're so proud of all of you for your continued work and amazing weight loss and self-improvement progress. We wanted to talk a bit about mental health related to weight loss, though. In any journey of personal progress, a person often discovers what an inseparable part mental health plays. While we aren't doctors, or therapists, and don't intend to give medical advice, there is a small matter we wanted to address.

The effect others have on our progress can be pernicious. Negative words from family, friends, or even strangers on the internet can be discouraging, and sometimes make you want to quit. That is why it's so important to find motivation and satisfaction from inside, no matter what others say. Setting realistic goals for yourself and reaching them is such a large part of that -- finding that satisfaction can make a large journey feel like just a few small steps. That's one thing we love about the NSV/SV posts -- small accomplishments can bring a lot of happiness!

Discouragement happens, though, and it can come from unlikely sources. People who are in a different part of their personal progress can speak out of a place of despair, or even jealousy. That's part of the "crabs in a bucket" saying. It can feel like people who see you trying to better yourself react negatively, by trying to sabotage, discourage, or outright hurt you. While, sadly, we can't affect what others do or say, we can affect how we respond to it, and how we proceed. The only person who can make your progress is you. No one else, whether by trying to hurt you or help you, can change your life for you, unless you let them. If you face discouragement, whether from family, friends, or even comments from random users online, keep going. You're making a change for yourself, and you're doing your best to reach your goals and improve yourself. So block that troll. Don't let snide comments slow you down.

We'll all get there, sooner or later. We're rooting for you.

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Dear Scale: You tell dirty lies!

Okay so fam, I go FOUR months on a calorie deficit. Doing great. Decide to take a maintenance break for a couple weeks and gain 10 (read it! TEN!) pounds .... Still looking good though :)

Just wanted to share for all you all who have a tough time with the daily fluctuations. It's normal. It can be jarring but it's normal.

It's definitely been a challenge the last few days to transition back to deficit. I feel like I lost my groove. But I am trying to remind myself of some of my favorite weight loss related thoughts:

• It feels really good to trade high cal things for low cal "nice" things. It feels like I'm taking care of myself.
• Boredom is not hunger. Hunger is hunger. Hunger is also not an emergency. Our brains like to think it is because hunger meant we should start looking for food back when it was scarce, or we put ourselves at risk. These days, we can do our best to take over with logic and tell ourselves, "I can wait, the food is right there when I really need it."
• So many foods are literally engineered to make us overeat. Taking control over that has been really empowering and I like the feeling of knowing I CHOOSE what and how much of it I put in my body.
• My body is not the bin! I reeeeeally try to not eat stuff that I wouldn't put in a container for later. If I didn't want it enough to save it - why on earth would I eat it?? (In truth it's because I was taught to clear my plate. But I'm really working to retrain that way of thinking.)
• Trust the process! If I'm eating at a deficit, the scale/measurements WILL go down.

<3

tldr: FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK -- The scale is not the full picture.

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Need help! Struggling to deal with going back to work, working shifts etc. Weight loss stalled and too exhausted to exercise. Any tips/advice?

As the title says, I have just gone back to work after 6mo of quarantine fun. I also have changed from a 9-5 job to shift work.

I am REALLY struggling - my step count isn't high so I can't even say I'm getting exercise at work, though I am on my feet constantly, but I am finding I'm too tired to exercise. My weight loss has stalled and I am finding myself discouraged and therefore snacking and making worse choices.

I know I am likely to adjust in a few weeks, and I know part of it will just be pushing through and being strict with myself. But wondered if anyone had any advice or suggestions of what worked for them in similar situations?

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Any tips on getting rid of flabby arms?

Hi! I'm a 23yo Female, I don't know how much I weigh, I haven't been on a scale in years because of how it affects my mental health. Started getting serious about weight loss this month. I'm a week in starting tomorrow. But to be clear, I am pretty overweight.

One of the main problems I've had for years has been my arms and the flabby bits just flapping around when I move. I don't like them. I want them gone.

I've bought a treadmill and I'm buying a gym bike soon. But I've realized that this won't be enough. And it definitely won't help to get rid of the flabby arms.

I did decide to do one of my old on and off again workouts, a total ballet body workout from YouTube. It really works on the arms and legs. I could barely do 5 minutes. But it's a start.

I just wanted to ask this sub for any other advice, anything that might have helped on your journey. I don't know if I'll be able to afford weights at this moment because I'm buying the gym bike.

For now I'll do the ballet workout and yoga along with the other workouts but I'm just curious to see what other people have done to get rid of the flabby arms.

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Hey guys! I have been reflecting a lot on food related issues that I have. If its ok, i would like to just share some thoughts I have been having about this, as I think my bad relationship with food has been the biggest hinderance on my weight loss success.

This is mostly going to be a revelation post, and I have been doing a lot of thinking about my habits lately. About a year ago, i did end up losing about 40lbs, went from 335 down to about 295, which was a huge accomplishment for me. I have since gained all the weight back. i could go and blame quarantine, or a whole host of other things, but honestly, its up to me to keep myself accountable, so im not going to make excuses for it. It happened, and now I dont know how to fix it. I honestly dont remember making a huge change in my eating habits in this time, i was exercising A LOT though, which I have fallen off of hard due to gyms being closed, etc. I’ll put a TL;DR at the bottom, for what that’s worth, bc this is gonna kinda be a long post.

So I have a lot of weirdness when it comes to how I view food, both consciously and subconsciously.

When I get a plate of food, i usually go big or go home. This is an issue I have been working on - i bought and use smaller plates to cut down on the portions, and i am gradually getting smaller and smaller plates/bowls. My theory on this stems from my mother filling my plate as a child/teenager and then guilting me into eating it all by saying that i “might want to eat it now” because we were never sure what our next meal would be. So, of course, this lead to an extremely unhealthy relationship with food into my adulthood. My husband and I are not necessarily struggling with our finances like my parents were when I was growing up, but I still have that subconscious need to fill my plate up and eat it all, that way i would be super full and wouldn’t need to eat again for a good while. The issue woth this is , now that I have enough money to actually put food on the table, i am doing this for every meal. Again, this is something I have been working on.

Another thing that I have noticed is that I get a lot of anxiety about finishing my plate. I have a compulsion in my brain telling me that if i dont finish the food, that something will happen. whether that something be wasting food, or me starving to death, or whatever. Once I start, i feel like i cant stop. i feel out of control when I eat, and it sucks because I dont WANT to feel that way. I want to be able to stop once i am satisfied, but I have been clearing my plate and being overstuffed for so long, I don’t know what satisfied feels like. If i eat and am not super full, I go back for more. This has been the hardest thing about my weight loss journey. Feeling hungry makes me SO anxious and it has been a fight and a half trying to curb my eating habits because of it.

Side note, I hope this doesn’t come off as I am making excuses for my bad habits,or like im not trying to change. Because I am not, and im trying my hardest to recognize the bad habits so I can change them. But its SO HARD. It has been a good 6 years now since ive lived with my mother, and she passed away around 3 years ago, but I still have these issues. My mother has given me a lot of strife when it comes to my body image, weight, and overall mental health and wellbeing, but I think that’s a story for another time. I blame myself more than her, though, because i had so many chances to fix myself and I always end up “relapsing” i guess because of one excuse or another.

I guess in conclusion, i am mainly posting this to just kind of get my thoughts about this stuff out to someone other than my husband. if youve made it this far, thanks for reading. if anyone has any insight or advice for me, im all ears. I think I need all the support and advice and help i can get, because I am struggling.

TL;DR: I have a bad relationship with food, and feel weirdness and anxiety surrounding large portions sizes, finishing my plates, feeling too full. I don’t know what feeling satisfied feels like when eating due to a history of overeating. Advice welcomed.

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