Weight Loss Tips

Monday, March 22, 2021

Realizing how mathematical losing weight is, has give me so much hope! I feel totally in control, knowing I can literally calculate how much weight I’ve lost and it be accurate. 😊😊

So when I first started looking into weight loss advice, years ago, I would always get discouraged within 5 minutes of searching Google. I would find random forums (outside of Reddit) where people who were unnaturally muscular in their profile icon, would post things like “LosiNG WEiGht isN’t rOCkEt SciEnCe” 🥴 “Just count your macros and have a calorie deficit, duh.”

Not knowing what any of that meant, I would literally roll my eyes SO hard. I felt like they were over simplifying it all, that it’s no way I can control my weight. I figured whatever they were talking about was likely too difficult for me to commit to.

In current day, I’ve discovered so many helpful subreddits. People are so good about explaining things in lamest terms. I’ve been doing CICO, using the Lose it app, IF of 16:8/18:6, and keeping my carbs low. I’ve bought a food scale for accuracy of servings. I wear my Apple Watch every day now, solely to track how active I’m being.

The other day I decided, to put my knowledge to the test and calculate what my deficit would have been since I started my journey in mid-January based on the tracking within the Lose it app. I couldn’t believe me eyes!! What I calculated in my deficit, was around 23 lbs and guess what?! I’m actually currently down 22 lbs. THE MATH WAS RIGHT!!! Give or take a pound, the math was freaking right!!!

I’ve never felt so in control in my life. Knowing that there’s a science behind what I’m doing, and that I can literally calculate what I’ve lost shows that all of this working. I feel like I have some sort of super power all of a sudden 🤣.

Though all of those condescending people on the forums I use to read definitely could change their delivery, I can totally agree now that it doesn’t feel like rocket science anymore. It’s no secret elixir I can drink, no magic involved, I can lose weight if I’m discipline enough to have a healthy deficit, while burning more calories than I eat. Not only that, but I have insight to exactly how much weight I can potentially lose over time.

I know this is probably not a big deal to most, but I just feel so seen, so validated that I’m doing this journey right finally! And I’m just so thankful for this subreddit and all the others for making weight loss so obtainable. 🤗

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Bouncing back from a breakup

Weight Loss - Imgur

On December 1st 2020 I was the heaviest I had ever been, 227 pounds. I started out small by walking my dog twice a day for at least 30 minutes, gradually increasing that to 45 mins twice a day. This was a good starting point and motivated me to start doing more intense exercise. I started using a stationary bike in my house and doing the apple fitness classes that I had a trial for. Started out doing the easiest 10 minute workouts and was COMPLETELY gassed by the end of them. Again, I slowly increased the amount of time I cycled for until I reached my current level, 30 minutes in the morning and a 45 minute at the end of the day.

After awhile of seeing no progress I took on the most difficult part of weight loss... DIET CHANGE. I ate like absolute trash everyday, any junkfood/snacks in my pantry would be devoured with little to no after thought. I ate out for nearly every meal, and usually not the healthiest choices. I started to change that by no longer eating out for breakfast or lunch, and ordering a salad for dinner (shoutout California Chicken Cafe). I began cooking every meal in March, no red meat and few carbs. Typically I had fruit for breakfast, a can of tunafish with hot sauce for lunch, and baked/grilled tilapia for dinner. My next step is to start intermittent fasting as I have reached 199 pounds today, on the way to my goal weight of 180.

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Food marketing is a scam

One of my favorite things to bring light to is to remind people to check food labels on everything! People would be surprised to see how much stuff that isn’t typically marked “healthy” is as equally nutritious as the health food. For example, you pass by the frozen meals section, and the health-appearing ones have pretty, clean font, the boxes are light colored, they have the calories and protein right on the front and a little bigger in size than other brands so you notice them easier. The meals are all balanced appearing - broccoli, red pepper, and edamame, tossed in a tangy mushroom sauce with linguine, chicken, and Parmesan cheese - all to make you feel like it’s something special and a little indulgent still.

If you move down a little more in the freezer section, you hit the Stouffers, Banquet, and Marie Calenders’ meals. The healthy frozen meals are usually 200 to 450 calories, with 9g to 23g of protein or so. This is also going to cost anywhere from $2.75 each, upwards to $5 each for the ultra fancy ones. The fancy “high protein” ones are the same marketing, but this time they turned the background color black, because they want you to feel like you can “hang with the boys”, since you can have like 4g extra of protein now apparently. But the cheap meals are like $2 a piece! An individual serving of lasagna is 370 calories and has 21g of protein.

My point of all this is, yes, while the quality of the ingredients is likely better in the health food frozen meals, you need to do whatever you need to do to make this process sustainable and possibly even enjoyable at times. Don’t get fooled into believing you have to look the part, and buy this bullshit, inflated health food. Losing weight, and the mental struggle that comes with it, is an ugly part of the weight loss journey. We are constantly telling ourselves that we didn’t lose enough weight this week, or that we messed up one meal, so now we feel like a failure already, that you have to stop eating “bad” food. But that’s such crap! You are completely capable and strong, and damnit, if you want to eat the “trashy” Stouffer’s lasagna, do it! It’s got the same calories, same protein as the health food meals. So don’t feel bad! Just read your labels and don’t fall into the trap. Popcorn, chips, yogurts, cheese, dressings, candy bars and health food bars - you would be surprised at how much of the “bad” versions of these foods are literally no different than the good ones. So let’s stop the guilt trip. If you want the regular Cheetos instead of the baked Cheetos, go get you some! It’s only like 20-40 calories more per serving anyway.

Good luck!

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I really want to lose weight but I lack the discipline.

So I’ll try to make this quick, I’m a 29 year old male and I weigh 265 lbs and I’m 5’10”. My ultimate weight loss goal is 180 lbs but I know I’m supposed to take it in manageable chucks to make it seem more realistic. My biggest issues are starting a fitness routine and maintaining any diet I’m doing. I have all the motivation in the world to do it, my overall health being #1 and I have a baby on the way in September so I need to be healthy for their sake. I work 12 hour nights 4 days a week and sometimes 5 days which leaves me feeling tired and I don’t want to do anything. Any advice on how to just make myself do the damn thing already? If I need to explain further I will.

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weight loss and confidence

so, about 3 years ago i was 5'5 and 180 lbs. i was severely low in confidence, suffering though the worst depression id faced. about a year ago, i was 5'6" 142 lbs. neither of these times was i really happy. its now 2021, im about 160 lbs, and guess what? for the first time in weight loss, im happy

i can say for a certain theres been a post like this before, but i feel like its important to day that if you feel like as you lose weight your confidence is plummeting, you should stop. when i reached my lowest weight of 142, i was fasting for days on end. i was convinced i was fine in terms of weight loss, and needed to keep going till i was smaller. i didnt realise it, but media had put an influence on me that it was healthy to deprive myself of nutrients, and that i was ugly unless i was dying. it shouldnt have to be said, but that is not the formula to good, healthy, permanent weight loss. after the episodes of starving, id binge HARD on foods. eventually i reached a pount where my confidence was so low, i couldnt take it. i stopped truing to lose weight

its been a year since that. i decided to reeducate myself. ive decided to take an approach on life that works for me. im eating enough to function snd do activities, but not too much. im losing weight at a rate that isnt too fast, but i still feel comfortable with. i wear clothes i want, i feel CONFIDENT. i feel pretty. not skinny, not fat, because those arent real. i feel GOOD.

i guess in whole, the message or tl;dr of this post is, happy weight is better than a low weight. do not pressure yourself so much that youre worse than when you started, and do what works for YOU.

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Don't Be Afraid of Rest

I just wanted to remind everyone here that it's okay to take a break. Normally at work, I walk 10KM per shift, 4 times a week. Now, I am tracking that through Apple Fitness so I am unsure how accurate that really is, to be fair. Outside of my 4 scheduled shifts, I usually go for a 5K walk to exercise and take a mental break - tracked by MapMyWalk so there is data to back that up. The weather is becoming nicer here in Canada and for me, there is nothing more peaceful than walking down quiet streets blasting Ice Cube in my ears.

For real though, I was a person that thought I always needed to move/exercise in order to lose weight. So I would work out/lift and exercise on days that I worked as well. On my one scheduled off-day from work and training, I would manage to go for a 5K walk as well. So my rest days (1 of 7 days) were turning into another day of full exercise and grinding.

Let me say that there is nothing wrong with that - if you want to go hard 7 days a week feel free. But for those that need to be reminded that a little rest and relaxation is okay, don't worry about that either. Your body needs rest and maintenance. I know, it can be addicting to keep moving and exercising once you see progress. If you feel fine, do it! But don't knock yourself for wanting to sit on the couch and relax once in a while.

I am typing this as a reminder to myself. I had a rest day today and I am itching to get back to working out and moving. I know my body will thank me for a little R&R, too.

It's cliche, but this weight loss journey is a marathon, baby. Keep working hard but don't forget to slow down and smell the roses once in a while ;).

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Slow & Steady: 30lbs down in 3 years

TL;DR life happens and sometimes it takes a while to lose weight. But as long as you're making small lifestyle changes, those baby steps add up over time. Don't lose hope.

And for the nerds out there, I've got a link to my Libra charts & explanation near the bottom.

Long-time lurker, yada yada, so I got dressed this morning and actually noticed the weight loss in my mirror for the first time since starting on my journey almost 3 years ago. I got so excited, I wanted to make a post about it. I always found it inspirational to read stories from this subreddit about people who lost their weight over several years. Because life happens and sometimes it throws you some curve balls and you fall off the bandwagon. And sometimes all you can do is make little baby steps.

For some reason, it won't let me post my flair, so 28F, 5'2" | SW: 200 lbs | CW: 170 lbs | GW: 163 lbs. I'm literally 7 lbs from my goal weight of crossing out of the Obese category and into the Overweight category. I thought of waiting until then, but I was way too excited this morning, lol.

Front Profile

Side Profile

What I found worked best for me

Intermittent Fasting - I am not a big breakfast person. I literally can't eat first thing in the morning. Most foods make me nauseous. I've been that way since middle school. So, I usually don't start eating until lunchtime.
Clean Plate Mentality - like most of us, I grew up being forced to eat everything on my plate. Most of the time, I just use smaller plates so I can still fill up my plate. When at restaurants, I have forced myself to not eat everything, and almost always box up some of my food. Side Note: I live in the US where portion sizes are ginormous.
Mindfulness - I try to be mindful of how full I feel & definitely have worked on slowing down and chewing my food. Sometimes, I'll record how certain foods make me feel, especially when I get an upset stomach or acid reflux. I now have a list of what foods to avoid. I have learned that all types of peppers (including bell peppers) give me acid reflux.
Eating Whatever I Want - to counter my earlier bullet, I do not have a "bad food" list. I still eat burgers & pizza & ice cream, just less often and a smaller amount. Those days I usually do OMAD (one meal a day) to counteract all those extra calories.
CICO - find out what your maintenance is and eat less than that to lose weight. For my height & activity level, my maintenance is around 1500-1800 calories. So, to lose weight, I try to eat 1200-1400 calories. I do look at a weekly average. And overall, I end up eating 1200-1400 calories for about 3 weeks of each month, and about 1 week at 1500-1800 calories. Since I'm still obese, that lets me lose about 1 lb/week. I know as I lose more weight, I'll need to be a bit more strict, but right now what matters is making sustainable choices.
Lifestyle Change - cannot stress this enough. I didn't quit any foods cold turkey. I've tried all the fad diets out there. The only thing that has worked for me is making small, sustainable choices. For me, that was ordering a smaller burger & fries, choosing to eat fewer slices of pizza or sizing down the pie, and not forcing myself to eat "healthy foods" (sorry if this upsets anyone, but I actually hate eating salads).
Stress/Emotional Eating - this one was a tough one & I still do this from time to time. But instead of eating a giant bowl of ice cream, maybe I'll eat 1/2 cup. Or instead of eating a whole box of oreos, I'll only eat a single row. The more often you make small adjustments, the easier it gets, I promise. But ultimately, the only way to help here is to work on your mental health. It has taken a lot of self-reflection & talking with my therapist to combat this particular vice.
Working Out - I really hate that term, lol. But no, I don't work out. And since covid, I've been averaging about 6,000 steps a day. Sometimes I'll go on a hike or walk around my park, but that's all for my enjoyment & mental health. You do not need to work out to lose weight.

Here are my quickly edited images from Libra, somewhat to-scale of my journey so far: 3-Year Journey from Libra

2018: Journey starts. Weighed in at the Doctor's office at over 200 lbs with clothes on. At my height (5'2"), this puts me in the Obese Class 2 category. Immediately started changing lots of things to try to lose weight. Also, to add more stress, I decided to go get my MBA, while working full-time.

Total weight lost this year: -17.4 lbs

2019: Lots of ups & downs this year. Mainly due to stress. Finished my MBA in August & moved across the country in September. Ended up gaining some weight back.

Total weight gained this year: + 5.1 lbs

2020: Lots more stress, thanks to covid. Probably gained and lost the same 5 lbs until August. Started getting serious about the weight loss again. And then my spouse & I decided to separate & get divorced.

Total weight lost this year: -12.0 lbs

2021: Stress has decreased significantly (taking care of mental health is important). Aiming to hit the overweight category by the end of May. Haven't been this low since undergrad.

Total weight lost so far this year: -6.6 lbs

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