1 Year Update: I’ve lost just over 72kg (160lbs); gone from 4XL to a M/L; dropped 19 points from my BMI; walked over 4.2M steps; and have a gorgeous little boy!

I’m back for a 12 month update (here’s my 6 month update from the end of June). Probably another long-ish post, sorry!

Obligatory updated before and after picture.

M / 30 / SW: 153.2kg / CW: 80.6kg / GW1: 100kg / GW2: 90kg / GW3: 85kg

Hello! As per title, I’m back for a 12 month update. These last 6 months have flown by, both in terms of weight loss and fitness but also in life. As the year comes to a close, I thought what better time to sit down and reflect on the past.

Overview

I’ve continued to track everything I’ve eaten and drank; I try to be consistent as possible. My daily steps and exercise calories burnt are still tracked in a spreadsheet. My goal was to track everything for a whole year, as a little experiment, which I won’t continue to do after the new year. If I wanted to, I could always go back and get the data, so no biggie. Here’s an update to my progress.

My daily calorie limit went from 2000, to 1800 (when I wanted a last bit of weight to budge), and then back up to 2250, which is what I have kept it set as. My TDEE is around 2350 when I last checked but 9 times out of 10, I will consume around 2350-2500 calories a day.

Intermittent fasting helped amazingly in my weight loss journey, but I have since stopped and starting eating breakfast again. IF is a great tool to limit calorie intake, but towards the end of my IF journey, I found that I was just consuming more calories at night and it kind of offset why I was doing it to begin with. I now have smaller calorie meals throughout the day and I’ve still slowly lost some weight!

Food

Looking back over this year, I would say my diet has changed now. For breakfasts, instead of calorific chocolate porridge (porridge with like half a jar of chocolate spread melted in (don’t knock it until you’ve tried it haha)) that I would have had a couple of years ago, I now have a bowl of Greek yoghurt, some fresh berries and some nuts/seeds or a bowl of porridge with apple and blueberries for breakfast.

For lunches, I now eat salads with either a can of tuna or some cooked meat and some cottage cheese. Oh, and when I say salad, I mean a mahoosive bowl of the stuff! It’s super low calorie and fills me right up. Keeps me going all afternoon.

Dinners have been pretty much the same as I’ve had in the past, but really, portion control was the winner here. The kitchen scale is truly my best friend!

For groceries, I’m going back to the supermarket. I found that the click and collect retailers’ prices were increasing and found that going to Aldi, I could keep our costs down. We still plan our meals out for the week, and keeps those costs right down!

My outlook on food has definitely changed. I now see it as fuel and making sure I try and consume more satiety foods, more fruit and vegetables and less processed foods. I also try to get as much protein in me as possible. I love to cook now, I’ve tried so many dishes and keep checking Pinterest for new inspiration.

Drink

I have since had the odd drink throughout the year. As I said in my 6 month update, I’m not really a big drinker and that is still the case (even though I could quite easily understand how easy it is to turn to a bottle during this pandemic!)

I don’t drink squash (cordial drink that you mix with water, for the Americans out there) anymore. I purely drink water for my hydration. I got a lovely big 1L bottle for my birthday and drink a minimum of 2L a day, pushing for 3L, but I’m not strict on myself for this. I still have a Pepsi Max every night with dinner, I love it!

Exercise

­I continue to track everything on my Apple Watch, and still close my rings every day. In January, I think around the 9th, I’ll have closed all three rings for 1 whole year. I walk the dog everyday at a brisk pace, usually around 9 minutes/km, but if I’ve woken with a lot of energy or have a burst of energy after work, I can get this down to around 8:30/km.

Ring Fit Adventure is still played, but much less now. With having our new baby, my priorities shifted, and I couldn’t devote as much time to this. I still like to play when possible, but it’s probably only once of twice a week now. Gyms have been opening and closing with the pandemic (I can hardly keep up lol), and with our baby, I haven’t joined a gym yet, but I’m eyeing up the bodyweight fitness recommended routine in the new year.

I’ve added in some running to my exercises. I can now run 7-8k without stopping, something I couldn’t have done this time last year, that’s for sure! It’s not an area I’m focusing on (I just use it to burn calories), but I have noticed that I’ve gone from running around 6:30/km to 5:30/km!

Life

Welp, this hasn’t really changed has it! Coronavirus is still here and possibly (especially in the UK, that is) in a worse place than we were earlier in the year. Our son is out of NICU, he was discharged at the end of July, so a little bit after I made my previous update. He continues to be my motivation; I want to be active with him and run around and play with him without getting out of breathe.

Sleeping is still so weird. My knees are knobbly and bony, I’ve sometimes had to add in a pillow between my legs. I’m much happier in myself: clothes fit me better, able to shop at high street shops, my lower back doesn’t play up anymore, I’m much more confident, I look after myself such as skincare and haircare. I like to look good now, and get dressed properly every day, not just sitting in jogging bottoms all the time.

I’m now below by goal weight and have been in maintenance for a couple of weeks now. I’ve still lost a little weight, but at a much slower pace than before. This isn’t intentional: I think because I don’t eat back my burnt calories as I always saw those as extra, I still am in a slight deficit. Maintenance is something I’m still learning about, but it’s a great feeling knowing that I can just have a spoon of almond butter or peanut butter to help add the calories on when I want. I don’t have a new goal weight: my new goals are fitness related such as participating in a RunDisney event (when they’re running – excuse the pun!) and gaining some more muscle.

Sign off

That sums up my last 6 months and a brief look back at my year-long weight loss journey. Hopefully there’s some bits in here that help you on your journey. I’m happy to answer any questions you have and hope you and your families have a wonderful and safe Christmas. Here’s to a much better 2021!

P.S. I’m still logging in daily on MyFitnessPal under the same name here if you want to add me or say hello.

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Day 1? Starting your weight loss journey on Wednesday, 23 December 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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Lost over 50kg - here's 2 important things I have learned over the years.

It's been alot of years since High School, however in high school here was my situation; I was 172cm tall. I weighed 110kg.

The first weight loss journey: The first time I lost weight, I have no idea what came over me. I had no motivation at all to do much of anything. I stayed up late one night, playing video games as usual, it must have been about 2am and I found a motivational YouTube video pop up into my feed and decided to click it. For some reason this video just resonated with me. The next morning, I got out of bed around 7am and walked to the garage where my Father's old school home weight lifting kit was setup. Hadn't been used in years. I spent 2 hours using a pressure washer and bug spray ensuring it was clean enough and ready to use. The first day I just did some weights. I didn't lift heavy, because at the time, I had no idea that I had little to no muscle mass. I maybe did 20 minutes of physical activity. That was it. The next day, I got up and did it again. For the next few months, I just continued to do this. I'd put music on and just lift weights. Within 3 months, I'd noticed family and friends commenting on weight loss. It was astounding.

TLDR FOR THIS SECTION; The lesson in this little section is simple and I continuously say this to people who ask me what I did and how I did it. JUST START.

I have a firm belief that starting is the hardest part of it all. So if you're waiting for your sign to get off your butt and do it. THIS IS IT.

For those wondering, in 3 months I went from 110kg down to around 100. I did not change my diet at all.

After the first 3 months; I had gained a small amount of knowledge of calories and what calories are and became far more conscious of what I was eating and how much. I downloaded myfitnesspal on my mobile and began scanning barcodes. It was around this time I realised how bad most of the stuff I was eating actually was for me. Now, my main problem has ALWAYS been soda. Coca Cola, in particular. MyFitnessPal made me realise, I could drink the same amount of coca cola but more than 99% less calories simply drinking Coke Zero.

I can't remember how long it took, but 1.5 years had past and I was down to 63.4kg. I remember the number on the scales EXACTLY as this was my downfall. I remember thinking to myself "thats it. You've done it. You can rest now".

TLDR FOR THIS LESSON; The lesson in this section; MyFitnessPal is an absolute GODSEND. Use it. After a few weeks of using it youll realise how much of a powerful tool it is. Its also extremely powerful in realising how and what to replace. For example; 3 pieces of Cadbury 'Snack' chocolate is a whopping 120 calories. OR you can have a whopping 500 grams of watermelon for 150 calories - Sure the chocolate is great. But 500 grams of watermelon will fill your stomach far more than 3 pieces of chocolate.

And that's it. That's the first time done. That's all it took was to start, track calories and be mindful of what I was eating and drinking. Now for what most people want to know - the diet. My diet consisted of; Anything I wanted to eat aslong as I was at 1500 calories. McDonald's? Sure. Aslong as I skip x meal or whatever.

TLDR first time diet; No diet. Anything I wanted aslong as I was 1500 calories or below.

These days, I am roughly 80kgs, and have been able to maintain that weight within 4kgs. I have put on alot of muscle mass in comparison to when I began and hit 80kg the first time. I also work a physical job now which stops me packing it all on again.

Anyway, I've been keeping up with this sub for awhile and really just wanted to try and give some kind of motivation to people who just need a push. If you have any questions about routine or diet, please let me know and I'll tell you what I did in more depth.

It doesn't have to be complicated. Anyone can do it. YOU can do it. I believe in you all.

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Afraid of Death

The other day, I hit 300 lbs. When I was 210, said I would never get to 220, when I was 240, I said I would never get to 250 and when I was 285, I said I'd never get to 300. Well, here the fuck I am. I can't even look at myself in pictures without feeling sick. This isn't my body, this isn't who I am. My friends that met meet within the past 3 years say that I'm beautiful and I wear it so well and all I can think is, you didn't see me before. I was happy at 210, I wore THAT well. I had big boobs, a nice butt and thunder thighs. I felt beautiful. Now, I can't even take pictures with my baby cousins. Recently, my anxiety from a mix of life, Covid and my weight has given me breathing problems. Every night I pray because I think I'm going to die in my sleep and I want to at least get into Heaven. Every day I say will be the first day of my weight loss journey and everything will be better in a year, but I always end up on my video games or on my phone, snacking all day. I got the MyFitnessPal and the BetterMe apps, I love fruits and vegetables and I love walking. But I can never keep track of my calorie count for more than a week, I love chips and soda and chocolate, and I don't have the motivation to get up and get dressed and do my hair so I can go for a walk. I know what I have to do, but I am so fucking lazy and I really don't know how to change. I guess I'm waiting for that light bulb moment that I had when I went from a 2.01 gpa high school student to graduate college Magna Cum Laude. ....I don't know....but I don't want diabetes, or high cholesterol or breathing trouble. I mean, I'm only 22 years old for fuck sakes, I don't want to die yet and I feel like this 300 lbs is weighing me further and further into the ground. I can't promise myself that after this post I'll get my shit together, but it feels good to get it off my chest before I go to sleep. Hopefully, I'll be able to breathe tonight. Thanks for listening.

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Proud of where this year has taken me! (25M, 70 Pounds Lost, 300 to 230)

This year has been a wild ride to say the least.

Weight loss has always been a struggle for me. I've always been highly overweight or borderline obese since I can remember back at the beginning of high school. And as I'm sure some of you are aware, kids can be pretty damn cruel which probably didn't help with my overeating at all. It was only made worse when me and my family made the move from Canada to North Carolina 6 years ago. The move didn't last for long, but it was definitely long enough to make my already terrible eating habits even worse, and the pounds gained while I was there stuck with me when we eventually came back.

I never really gave my weight much thought at all. And then the pandemic hit. I got into what could only be described as "a funk". My days mainly consisted of sleeping until 2 PM, playing Animal Crossing for several hours and stuffing my face with junk food. This was routine for at least a month. At least, it was until I stepped onto the scale for the first time in a long while and came face to face with the one thing I thought I was incapable of doing to myself. I had reached 300 pounds. I knew at this point something had to change and I was the only one who could change it. My work had been temporarily closed as we're considered non-essential and I figured that now was as good a time as any to make a difference. These were my methods for getting where I am today:

1. Intermittent Fasting. Everyone always talks about this working wonders and I was pretty skeptical about it when I first started. I certainly can't account for whether or not it does anything for your metabolism, but for me it was a fantastic way about teaching myself self-control and that I am in control of how I eat, food does not control me.
2. Exercise. I started with just doing a walk around the block initially, and then I eventually worked my way up to alternating daily between a half hour walk and a full hour on Ring Fit Adventure for the Nintendo Switch (which is one hell of a workout, I'll say that much.) It doesn't matter where you start, as long as you continue to try and better yourself and keep consistent.
3. Love yourself. Tell yourself that you are worth keeping healthy. You deserve the best and you are capable of sticking to this. If you need to leave yourself notes around the house to remind you, do it. But keep planting that seed in your mind. The only person who's opinion matters is yours, so make it a positive opinion. But don't let self care be an excuse for sabotaging all of the progress you've made.

It wasn't a fast or easy process. I had tried in the past to lose weight but I always gave up at the first sign of a plateau. But I managed to stick to it this time. I am so damn proud of being able to say I am finally at a weight that I wasn't ever at even in high school! There is still progress that needs to be made (when things settle down I would love to start hitting the gym to drive the last few pounds away), but for where I'm at right now, I can say I've truly accomplished something great. I want to thank the loseit community for showing me that it could truly be done, I will be forever grateful.

https://imgur.com/a/QGFGIgP This is the progress that I have made so far, I didn't take a photo when I started, but you can at least get an idea of the difference since the start!

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I’m so ready! But I’m so freaked out by calorie counting

24 year old female here and suppose I’ll share my story! I’ve been overweight for most of my life but by the end of high school I hit 200 lbs at 5’6”(although I very intentionally did not weigh myself at the time so it was probably more).

I then lived in Nicaragua for a year. There was a pool and tennis courts inside the ‘quinta’ where I lived and towards the end of my time there I was swimming for half an hour 3 days a week. I also wasn’t eating any processed food and was walking most places. All of that to say, 10 months later I was down to 160 lbs and toned as hell. I should say I put absolutely no effort into weight loss, it all happened very naturally.

Fast forward a few years and my weight has fluctuated a lot in that time but I generally stayed at about 175. I really love the idea of having a healthy lifestyle! I love vegetables and I like cooking healthy meals (although I also love ice cream). After getting married I gained some weight and my husband was having some health issues and we wanted to jumpstart some better eating habits so during the first quarantine this Spring we whole30. Basically only ate paleo for a month to see how reintegrating different food groups affected our bodies. It is not a weight loss diet. In fact we weren’t supposed to weigh ourselves at all for the month. But I lost 10 pounds, which reinforced this idea that if I just have a healthy lifestyle I’ll be healthy. I gained it all back by the way. This crazy year has got me eating frozen pizza for every meal...

So that brings me to now. I have noticed that my ankles and knees are sore after everyday activities like washing dishes or doing my makeup, my back is sore when I wake up in the morning and other small things that tell me my body is affected by the weight that I’ve put on. I decided I need to make a change. I got batteries for the scale and weighed myself and was shocked to see 197 lbs. I had no idea.

I know I need to make a serious change, and I want to! But I’ve always said I’ll never count calories because it’s not a sustainable way to live. But maybe it is? Is that the only way for me to lose a significant amount of weight in America? Or can I just be more intentional about not eating sweets and processed foods and actually start working out? I really don’t want to believe that counting calories is the only way for me to lose 50 pounds, but maybe it is. I just need someone to be honest with me.

Thanks guys!

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Hi , new here, thinking of trying the accountability buddy thing.

Hello

sorry if this is the wrong place for this.

I’ve never really done this before but thinking of trying the accountability buddy thing. My biggest struggle with weight loss is motivation and sticking to a plan for more than a few days.

I lost 6 stone back when I was 20, I’m 25 now and I’ve put 1.5 stone back on in the last year (currently 11.5) because of moving to a super stressful job and being away from my family during COVID (I’m in China, but I’m a Brit). It’s all stress and depression belly weight, Feeling pretty downtrodden about things. Anyone want to be an accountability buddy for food and exercise ? I’m a bit shy with this but thought I’d reach out for support and visa versa give some back :)

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