My own weight-loss model / a visual representation of different calorie intakes

This post was inspired by u/Sacyro's post earlier on his/her weight loss projection model. I'll share my spreadsheet if there's interest for it, but here's some pictures and comments from my own model. I shared it in a comment on his/her post, but the data and graphs were in Norwegian, so I've changed the pictures to English. BUT: the weight is still in kilograms, height is in centimetres and date format is DAY/MONTH as is the standard in Norway. I haven't used the graph the last few months, I stopped tracking weight and calories when 'rona happened, that's why there's missing weigh-ins. I'm not tracking calories at the moment, but I've started tracking weight again though.

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I made this model because I like working with Excel and I personally find the graphs more motivating than just knowing I lost half a kilo the last two weeks. Sacyro's model is more comprehensive than my model, as his/hers contains the calculations in the spreadsheet. My numbers (starting weight, sedentary activity levels, expected calorie intake) were shamelessly plugged into losertown.org's weight-loss calculator and copied over to Excel. I used the data to make a visual representation (PICTURE 1) of the weight-loss and expected goal weight date at different calorie intakes (1200-, 1300- and 1400 kcal).

I wanted a flexible diet so that I didn't have to eat 1200 kcal daily, but I still wanted to see how it affected my diet to eat in a calorie range than the constant 1200 kcal. It gives me the freedom to eat less during the week, and indulge a little in the weekends to catch up on the calories. As long as the weekly average was above 1200 and below calories needed to maintain weight, I was content.

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HERE'S MY MODEL. Imgur is being a lil' bitch and not letting me add descriptions to the pictures, so here goes:

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PICTURE 1: Projected weight-loss at different calorie intakes + tracked weight. The trendline isn't correct anymore, as there's too many values missing.

PICTURE 2: Daily calorie intake over a 7-day period, with calorie limit line and average calorie intake. I put in expected calorie intake for the next week on Sundays/during Monday. As the weekdays pass and correct calorie intake is filled in instead of the expected number, the graph modifies itself.

PICTURE 3: Data tab. I only input data in the yellow cells (some of the tracked weight cells are supposed to be green, since the date has already happened). I tracked measurements at regular intervals, weight (picture 1) was tracked weekly and calorie intake (picture 2) was tracked daily. Before the week starting, I put in expected calorie intake on each day. I eat mostly the same on weekdays, so it was easy to predict. This let me have some freedom in the weekends. As you can see, the last time I used the graph I expected to eat 1600 kcal on Saturday and 1300 kcal on Sunday, the correct numbers hadn't been input yet.

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The charts are dynamic. Everytime I filled in data, the charts modify itself to the data. In picture 1, the tracked weight is just filled in, but the trendline changes as I track more weight. If I didn't adhere to the calorie intake, the increasing weight data would result in a flatter/upwards trendline, which is no bueno. Additionally, the trendline also shows how little it matters in the long run if I didn't report weight-loss that week. In picture 2, I put in expected calorie intake and filled in correct numbers as the days passed. That meant that the green line (average weekly intake) changed upwards and downwards depending on the numbers fed in. The red line is a guiding line, which shows me how many calories I need to maintain weight. As long as the green line was below the red line, weightloss would happen. I'll probably add a new red guiding line for 1200 kcal, as a lower limit. As long as the green line doesn't exceed the top red line, I'll lose weight. As long as the green line doesn't dip below the bottom red line, I'm eating enough.

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TL; DR: I like looking at weight-loss numbers visually.

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Day 1? Starting your weight loss journey on Friday, 16 October 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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No, you won't feel hungry all the time

I think it's a common thought that someone starting out on CICO has early on. I certainly did, and I was warned about it too - you're going to be so hungry.

They weren't wrong, at least in the beginning. You start out by just eating less by just cutting out snacks between meals and making smaller meal portions, and inevitably you start feeling very hungry for large portions of the day. Doubt creeps into your mind..."is this what I want to do from now on?", "am I going to feel this hungry forever?"...

So if that's you then here's where you need to make some small adjustments before you start to think about giving in. First, maybe you've cut your intake too much too quickly? Weight loss and weight management is always a long-term lifestyle change, not a quick fix, so make sure that thought is firmly fixed in your head and then reconsider the size of the cut you made to your daily consumption. There's no point in being miserable by eating a ridiculously small portion of food if you know full well you'll be hungry again in one hour. Adjust your calorie target and slow down, or else you might quit.

Second, adjust the foods you take in. I love to bake and recently have made different types of cookies for my family. They're delicious, but each one is over 200 calories each. For a satiating snack I'd normally have at least 2, but for the "price" of just one cookie I have have at least two apples instead, which will satisfy my stomach far more than a cookie. Nobody is stopping you from eating a small portion of French fries or chunky chips with your chicken breast tonight, but you could eat far more broccoli than fries and ensure you're under your target for the day. If broccoli doesn't sound as appetising as French fries (i.e. if you're human!) then try grilling it with some olive oil, and sprinkle both lemon zest and a bit of Parmesan cheese when it's done and ready to serve. Find lower calorie options to substitute for your regular side dishes and play around with flavours.

I'm not a dietitian so I am not qualified to comment on metabolism and any potential biological adjustments going on inside your body to stop feeling hungry. It's probably best to make adjustments to your calorie target and the foods you eat rather than relying on anything internal like that, if it's at all true or even significant. Taking this attitude means you're taking control of your hunger sensations rather than just hoping they'll go away.

Good luck!

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Why I eat

I've struggled with weight loss for a while. For 2015 to 2020 I always wanted to lose weight, fantasised about how life would be so great once I lost it, how everything would fall into place. But I never got started. I finally got around to it during quarantine like a lot of people. I implemented a healthy diet and half an hour of exercise every day. Great! Dream life here I come! And drum roll please I lost.... 5 pounds, in a week. Then i started eating again. I had fallen back into the same self destructive spiral: what's the point of trying to lose weight? You'll always be like this etc. Life fell back into misery. I just desired food too much.

Over the next few months I carried on as I was, eating and playing games, rarely going out. Scrolling through reddit. I was miserable often, always about my weight, my lack of social skills, the list goes on. I'd occasionally find myself reading or watching stuff about mental health, eating and habits but I never took it seriously. I thought that while a part of my eating was emotional, it wasn't a huge part. So i never really applied much of the advice I heard/read/saw. The only improvement was that I was being more open about my struggles with my friends, and they were more open about theirs with me. While at the time this didn't improve my overall state it greatly improved my mood on those days I wasn't feeling so good - basically talk to your friends when you're feeling down, if they aren't having it, fuk them, find someone who will life is so much more bearable when you can share the shitty parts with someone.

So a few months passed and here we are, early October and I'm okay mostly, but miserable once every few days, and I don't know why but I end up binge eating, going to my favourite corner shop or stopping off at the local tesco or sainsburys. But one thing from all those mental health posts and videos sunk in: mindfulness. I never actively acknowledged it or actively tried to apply it to my life, but somehow I started thinking about things i was doing and how i was feeling when i was doing them. So I started thinking today why did i just buy 6 pounds of food? I'm trying to save wtf have i just spent that for? The logical reason I led myself to was that I wanted to eat those foods, but when I thought deeply about that, really thought, I realised I didn't desire the food itself. I wanted the feeling of the food, the feeling of being full. Food fills a void in me. I had fragments of this thought over the past week or two but today it seems so clear. My mind seems clear for the first time in a long time. I have a deep emotional connection to food. It makes me feel good. Especially when I'm in mental disarray. I'm always angry at myself for spending so much on junk food, feeling crap at the end of it and questioning why I ate it. But today I realise why despite being later pissed off for buying so much junk food, I always ended up with a bagful. I haven't been buying the food, I've been buying freedom from feeling miserable. Idk what it was but today, it seemed so clear how much I didn't actually desire to eat the food and I felt so stupid for spending 6 whole pounds on something I didn't really want. One of the biggest reasons I couldn't quit junk food and overeating for more than that week was because it's the only way or at least the only real way I've been dealing with how I feel.

(Holy shit I'm like one of those alcoholics in those movies, drowning themselves in hooch after some traumatic event)

Worst part? After eating it I didn't even feel that much better. I just became tired, felt like crap physically and was still miserable. The only thing that improved my mood? Talking to my friends. At first not even about feelings, just talking to them helped me 100x more than the food.

So where does that leave me? I don't know what the future holds, whether or not I'll lose the weight but I'm hopeful, and even if I don't end up losing it at least I've posted this, maybe it'll help someone if it makes sense? Idk either way whether this gets 1 or 1k upvotes, at least it's out here, on reddit so next time I feel like eating my feelings I remember today, how shit it felt after eating and how much better relying on my friends was to cope.

People, we need to consider the mental aspect of eating more. There's a reason I couldn't give up eating. It's my coping mechanism. But by realising when I'm not feeling right and want to turn to food I will try my best to remember to be mindful, realise something isn't right and fix it, not through my destructive habit but by relying on my friends and developing new, healthier coping mechanisms. Weight loss has always been about calories, exercise, hard work etc. But from now on it's about first, no longer emotionally relying on it, then being better than yesterday, improving my diet bit by bit each day and then bringing sone exercise in.

Wish me luck, and good luck to you all. Love yourself or some sappy shit like that.

Links to shit I think is really helpful or some crap :

no zero days truly something to live by

getting back on track, what failing with your weight loss journey actually is (its not eating junk or overeating) Changed my perspective on this whole thing. Let's hope it'll help stay on track and not give up with one little failure.

Also check out r/getdisciplined it has a lot of good shit.

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NSV-measurements really work!!

Sorry for posting so frequently in this community, it is just such a positive and helpful space. I really appreciate you all.

I have been frustrated by such little movement on the scale in the last two-three weeks. The first 15 lbs came off in less than two months. Then everything seemed to stall. One of the members of this group suggested taking measurements. I was skeptical, but they were totally correct. In the last three weeks I have lost 1 lbs, but I have lost 4 inches when you add up the loss around my waist/hips/thigh/bust areas. That really made me feel positive that I am making the right choices and continuing on my journey. I still want to lose more weight (currently at 167lbs/5’5”/F/26) but this NSV is actually really exciting. I kept re-measuring to make sure that I was getting the correct numbers!

I still have a long journey ahead of me, but sticking through the hard parts is new for me in the weight loss world. My goal is to get into the 150s by the end of 2020, but if that isn’t possible that is okay. As long as I am sticking to healthy eating/CICO/healthy mindset I know I am on the right track!

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Made a weight loss projection model to help keep me on track. Figured I would share!

Hey /r/loseit, I have been lurking in this sub for quite some time. Have gotten so many great insights and advice here over time. When this pandemic started I totally dropped the ball and let things get out of hand in my own journey. Decided this week to get back on the horse.

My day job has me create projection models regularly so I figured taking a hard look at the numbers for myself would give me the sobering motivation I needed (and BOY did it do the job). Figured some of you all out there might enjoy a similar exercise .

Designed a simple model that outputs daily figures for weight loss based on total daily energy expenditure calculations in Google Sheets. TDEE is recalculated dynamically based on your projected weight each day so it shows you a realistic long-term timeline to your goal weight(I do not believe the online calculators do that, but correct me if I am wrong on that).

You can grab a copy here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1uXvaB6jyhmiIPzFvGXnsoaKC3g2OidDJOtgzhuhSpP8/copy

Included a 1-year tracker and a 3-year tracker. The model tries to predict when you will hit your goal weight based on the set parameters, all you need to do is change the inputs in Section #1.

It additionally charts out your progress alongside your goal for a nice visual.

If you guys find this useful I figure we can expand this thing into something more that the community can leverage, so please let me know if you have any suggestions or follow-up questions.

I would add some pictures but the functionality on this subreddit to add them seems to be greyed out. Not sure why.

Keep trucking on the journey everyone, I know I will :)

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Lost 40kg. Super happy but now a bit lost. Need advice?

Hello! 7 months ago I started my weight loss journey. I went to a dietist and started eating out as healthy as I could. I weighed 133kg and I am 1.76cm tall. Now I am standing happy and proud at 90kg. I've never been happier with my weight before. But I am feeling a little lost. I don't know if I should "continue" or start some kind of maintenance or what's next.

I worry a bit about loose skin but my belly still feels "hard" so I think there's still fat in there. I have looked up many sources of information looking for a "proper weight" but there's a lot of different opinions. It's also true that I haven't lost any weight these past 2-3 weeks so I am also a bit scared about that.

I guess im looking for suggestions on wether im at a healthy weight, or if i should lose more or i have to go lower with my calories. I cant see my dietist right now because of covid so that doesnt help a lot right now. Many online sources say that I should be at around 75kg but that feels too low? Of course i have no idea but im curious. There' also the matter that if I still have weight to lose, I don't know if i should restrict my diet further. According to her, I am eating between 1500-1700 calories a day.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions and please do tell if I need to elaborate any further! Have a great day everyone!

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