Sooo I did it. I lost the weight. This sub was hugely helpful to me during my journey, so I thought I’d add my story in case it helps anyone with theirs.
Backstory: I was always skinny growing up. So skinny that I was the flyer on my cheerleading team. People told me my entire childhood that I was lucky I could eat whatever I wanted and stay so thin. I believed them, until I learned the hard way how untrue that was. In October 2019, I was planning a group Halloween costume with friends. We decided on an outfit that included a “one size fits all” skirt. I was terrified it wouldn’t fit me. I spent the week before it arrived researching how to add elastic to it, etc. That was the moment for me I knew I had to change. I was 25F, 5’2 and weighed 178lbs.
Method: Once I decided to lose weight, I had to learn how. Before doing any research, I vaguely expected losing weight to be some complicated and expensive combination of diet pills, severe and restrictive diets, and maybe some laxative tea for good measure. Looking back, this (completely incorrect) belief is why I waited years to get started. I could write a book now on how I feel about diet culture, but I just want to highlight that if anyone has ever felt that, you’re not alone and I promise it’s so much less scary than Instragram will have you believe. It took about 5 minutes of actual research to discover CICO, and I was thrilled to learn I could lose weight just using basic math. I downloaded a calorie tracker, bought a food scale, and was off.
The Process: I set a goal of 1200 calories/day. There were a lot of days I went over, and plenty I went under. In the end, it seems to have balanced out since it took me roughly 13 months to lose 63lbs, so pretty close to 1lbs/week. I weigh myself daily, and just being able to confront the scale every day the first few weeks was very therapeutic for me, since I’d avoided the scale for years.
For exercise, I walk 10k steps a day 6 days a week. I don’t like working out, and this is the only thing I’ve been able to stick with. I listen to a lot of audiobooks and I find the walk passes pretty quickly each day.
In the beginning, I saw a look of positive feedback for IF, so i decided to try it out. Folks, I hated it. I know a lot of people have found success with it, and that’s wonderful for them. For me, I found I was often going to bed hungry, which wasn’t going to be a sustainable lifelong habit. IF brought about some almost comical moments where I’d have plans (pre-COVID) and want to eat beforehand to avoid overeating at a restaurant or getting fast food during the trip, but I couldn’t because it wasn’t in my eating window. So of course then I overate out. I say this not to discourage IF, but as a reminder that weight loss isn’t one size fits all. If you try something on your journey that doesn’t fit with your lifestyle, don’t give up, just change the methodology.
Another lesson I learned during this journey was the importance of being mindful browsing this sub and other weight related forums. While I found this sub incredibly helpful, there were moments where I’d see a post from someone maybe 20lbs, maybe 40lbs, lighter than me and looking to begin their weight loss journey. Those posters are just as welcome, valid, and important as someone looking to lose 100+lbs, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t make me feel like an absolute whale, even if I was previously excited about reaching a new low. My takeaway is simply to skim before reading and ask yourself if that post is beneficial to your journey. If not, there’s no harm is continuing to scroll. Ideally, each journey is our own and we shouldn’t compare ourselves to others, but if you struggle with that (like me) it’s okay to skip some things.
I developed a few little tricks along the way. Takeout was a huge reason for my weight gain, so I started telling myself that I would order the size I want to be. Now instead of large subs/pizzas/Rita’s, I always get a small. It might sound like an inconsequential change, but it had major results. I stopped drinking my calories with soda or juice and now drink water almost exclusively. Low calorie popsicles changed my life, and I eat one daily with no guilt.
The results: I lost 64lbs, and I’m going to do my best to maintain at 114lbs. I didn’t build muscle, so my body is far from taunt, but I’m done. Picking a weight to stop losing was an unexpected challenge for me. Probably the hardest part of my journey, honestly. At first I aimed for 136lbs, which is the highest weight I could be and still classify as a normal BMI. Starting from an obese classification, just reaching normal felt like an almost impossible obstacle. Once I hit 136lbs, I decided to lose to 118lbs, or the middle of a normal BMI. Then I hit 118lbs and dropped to 114lbs, justifying it by saying I wanted a buffer to never see the scale read above 118lbs. The truth is, I could look in the mirror and see my skeleton and think I had fat bones. 114lbs is a healthy number, and I’m going to accept it and maintain it.
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