Beginner with health problems, questions, and a LOT to lose

Hi, I'm F(28) and I've been over weight all my life. I'm currently around 300 lbs though I'm not positive, and I've been that way since my teens. I'm pretty embarrassed but trying to be open about my situation to try and help myself and get help from you guys as best as I can so please be gentle. And it's gonna be a lot, I KNOW, bear with me if you're ready.

I was always a big kid, and just never lost the weight. Genetics play a big part, my immediate family is all heavy, not just heavy, but stocky. Even at a healthy weight we are.....sturdy people. So as well as a bad up bringing, I didn't grow up with healthy eating habits at all so now I'm deciding to work against a life time of bad choices and try to change it.

Problem is, my weight isn't my only hurdle. I've got a host of health issues that are probably either contributing to my weight or caused by my weight and I'm worried if I jump into weight loss without a little guidance I may hurt myself.

I've got joint problems of an unknown type, ever since I was a little kid as far back as I remember ALL my joints pop and crack with any movement, even my elbows ache and crack so I know it's not just weight like what's happening to my knees, hips and back. I'm also naturally very flexible. A nurse casually told me I have loose ligaments but I've never been diagnosed with anything officially.

I have a very mild case of scoliosis so of course, my back hurts upper and lower pretty much all the time with the weight adding to it and making lower back pain worse. I've got carpel tunnel and my fingers and hands fall asleep all the time, even when I'm not using them. I might have nerve issues somewhere as holding my hands about my head for longer than a minute causes burning and tingling and numbness; my doctors getting me further testing on that issue. Laying down in bed makes my hands fall asleep and my thumb joints burn so badly that I can't stand it, and the only relief is sitting up. Even if I'm laying on my left side, my right side will still fall asleep so it's not that I'm laying on my limbs. It's gotten bad enough to cause some loss of sensation in my finger tips.

I've got a thyroid problem so that makes weight loss harder of course, but I am on medication currently. I also have PCOS which can cause hormone imbalances but also I have very large cysts needing surgery on at least 1 ovary so there's always some level of pain or discomfort there and exercise has exacerbated it in the past unfortunately.

I've got IBS and a lot of constant stomach and abdominal pain. And beyond that, I may have an issue with my gallbladder, though no stones have been found from past tests, but I have constant pain in that spot on my abdomen that sometimes knocks the wind out of me. Testing has shown slight liver swelling and the early signs of non alcoholic fatty liver disease.

The way I store fat is maybe one of my biggest hurdles. I don't store it in my arms, or my boobs, or my legs or thighs or hips. I wish it was a little bit more evened out but no. It almost all goes to my middle, aka my tummy, especially lower abdomen just above the pelvis. It hangs, and I know even after much weight loss I will likely need a panniculectomy**.** Would love one actually. But it causes so much pain on my organs feeling squished and pulled, my ribs, my back especially. I can't even lift my knees up because it hangs over my thighs. I've got crazy strong leg muscles from all this but of course it's got to go.

And last but certainly not least, throw in anxiety, depression, C-PTSD, and a load of bad habits and bad childhood and well...sometimes I binge eat. I can go long periods of time without eating. I work full time and regularly eat nothing from my waking time to when I get home again about 10 hours later, maybe snacking during that time and eating for about a 3 hour window in the evening. Because of my stomach issues I actually don't want to eat a lot of the time and feel sick about it and have to force myself to eat anything or even drink water, but eventually something switches and I just can't stop myself. And when I have a lot of free time, I will eat out of boredom. I also fixate on food, I love cooking as a hobby and watching recipe videos. There's a lot of times I watch tons of healthy cooking videos, but it's the same kind of fixated mentality I have even if it is in the name of 'health.' It's where I find my mind wandering without meaning to.

That's basically everything. It's a LOT, I know but I'm feeling overwhelmed myself and looking for direction. I have plans and goals, so I'm not completely lost though!

I do have plans to consult with my doctor about these specific issues and how to tackle them from a medical point of view and fix myself, like getting needed surgeries and testing done for everything mentioned.

I'm also going to start eating a lot better, and less. I've been told the keto diet works wonders but I'm not sure a high fat diet is right for me with my liver the way it is. I feel like paleo or Mediterranean is more for me but that's why I'm here for some advice. I'm also planning on starting to include more exercise than just my daily walking but that's what worries me the most...

Weight loss is my starting goal, I think realistically I'd like to start by getting down to 200 lbs, but weight loss is not my ultimate goal. My final goal is the be healthy and not feel trapped in a body that hates me and holds me back from everything. I want to be able to run again, and go on walks without worrying about how long it's going to be and how much time I'll need to spend recovering from it. I want to live a life without constant pain, I want to be able to fit into cute clothes, I want to go on hikes and explore outside (cause I live in NV, we've got a lot of outside) without worry anymore, and keep up with people on these adventures and just live my life. I want strength and stamina but first I've got to lose this weight!

What I really need is guidance, especially from other extremely heavy people or people who have lost significant weight, 100 lbs or more. How did you start? What helped and hindered your early progress?

For other people, maybe others with chronic illness and disabilities, if there's any exercise regimes or routines you can recommend that are low impact and not too intense but like.....actually work would be the biggest help. Any websites or links are appreciated. And yes, I'd like yoga recommendations too!

Of course please point me in the direction of any more specific reddits if they fit what I'm needing, I don't use reddit much and I'm not familiar every group out there but I think a support group is something I need but am lacking.

ALSO any tools you recommend? Weights, balls, mats? Where to start on that or recommended companies?

I'd like to hear your stories! Even just the motivation would be awesome! Thanks in advance everybody and if you read this far, thanks again for sticking with it to hear me out.

TLDR; I'm super fat with a lot of chronic health issues looking to know where to start without hurting myself...and like...if you saw all that and decided to skip it to and still want to give me your opinion maybe don't cause I already know to eat better, exercise and talk to my doctor so thank you, I'm looking for more specific advice or resources.

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Thoughts on indulging and social eating in the midst of weight loss

I just wanted to spill some of my thoughts on developing a healthy lifestyle, rather than simply "dieting."

In my early days of trying to lose weight, I had to focus so much on it - I would spend literal hours every day looking through this and other subreddits to keep me in the right headspace. I'm now about 4 months in (and about 26 lbs/15% lighter) and can finally say this really does feel like a change in my lifestyle. I've gotten very used to eating my daily budgeted calories, my IF schedule, near-daily exercise, making tweaks to my meals while I cook for me and my partner, all of it. That's not to say I never have a difficult day, but for the most part all of this stuff is now in the back of my head rather than constantly at the forefront of my thoughts.

I also finally feel like I've come far enough to start learning how to handle occasional social and indulgent eating for the long-term. I've known from the beginning that even if I could successfully lose weight, I never wanted to be that person that can't just enjoy food - I don't want to eat dressing-less salad anytime I'm at a restaurant or skip out on a delicious meal someone else has lovingly prepared for me. I feel lucky that I started my weight loss journey in the dead of winter during a pandemic when I was largely able to hole up and meticulously plan every meal I ate - I worry that if I had tried to go to a party or whatever in that first month I might have had one high-calorie day and then used that as justification to give up. Now that I have grown used to tracking my daily weight and calories, I've proven to myself that CICO works and I understand the daily fluctuations I will see on the scale so I feel much better-equipped to handle eating socially as the weather gets nice and more people are vaccinated.

The past few days have been interesting - Friday a friend unexpectedly wound up in town so we grabbed lunch together, Saturday I went to a family BBQ, and Sunday I was just wiped from the week and my partner wanted to order out. But I was able to be totally up for all of those things, and not even super worried about it because I know now that my weight is a reflection of the sum of my lifestyle, not a handful of meals. Just as 3 isolated days of healthy eating wouldn't have made me lose meaningful weight before, 3 days of enjoying "non-diet" food wasn't going to make me put it all back on either.

Of course I was somewhat thoughtful about my choices this past weekend - I didn't use any of these instances as an excuse to binge, I tried to watch my portions a bit, and I did OMAD each day since I was eating far more calories in a meal than usual (though still permitted myself a healthy evening snack if I was hungry). But I also didn't take the bun off my burger, or skip the beer I really wanted to drink, or stress about tracking everything down to the exact calorie later. I mostly just lived my life, knew I was kind of hitting "pause" on my weight loss but didn't stress about it.

And when all was said and done? I was 147.2 lbs on Thursday, and 147.4 lbs today. There were higher and lower fluctuations in between that I assume were related to water retention. Sure, I could've been losing during that time and instead I delayed my "goal" a little bit - but another goal I have is to eat food that I like, enjoy gathering with loved ones, and sometimes hang on the couch with my partner on a Sunday and order in. For the longest time I thought losing weight and being "thin" would mean giving up stuff like that forever. It sounds ridiculous now, but I really did think that. So I'm posting just to remind everyone that establishing a healthy lifestyle doesn't mean never getting to enjoy food again, and that in fact you may actually enjoy it MORE because it no longer feels like a barrier between you and feeling good about yourself.

Be well everyone!

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My first weight loss adventure.

I thought I'd share my first weight loss adventures here. I'm not familiar with the acronyms and abbreviations. It all started with my wife buying Dr. Nows book. I thought it was something I could do. I am basically doing 1200 calories a day. No sugar, low carb, and high protein. 3 meals a day and no snacking.

I am 35 5'7 and my last recorded weight was 176lbs almost 2 years ago. I weighed myself 2 weeks ago and I was about 181lbs. I never watched what I ate, pretty much ate whatever I wanted. I am fine with eating the same meals everyday day so I basically eat the same meals everyday. I have lost 11lbs in 2 weeks.

In those 2 weeks, Saturday is my cheat day. I eat whatever I want that day. I seem to average 2 cheat meals a week. Usually not on purpose. I am usually under my 1200 calories and I don't know if I should be increasing my intake to account for calories burned. I do not exercise, my job can be pretty active. I go for the odd walk and bike ride.

So far the most difficult thing has been getting used to the ridicule from coworkers about losing weight. They usually make fun of me saying my wife is making me do it. If I change up the ingredients in my meals they blame my wife. If I have a different meal, they accuse me of cheating on my diet. It's getting pretty annoying.

Some of my changes in my diet have been good and I will be keeping them. I changed my coffee with sugar and creamer to just sweetener. My tuna salads have been very enjoyable. I've started taking multivitamins. I was fine with my body and I still am. A lot of the low calorie options I've found I will probably also keep.

Anyways that's my adventure. I may not be giving it 110% but I am still losing. I'll keep it going for as long as I'm happy with it. Thought I would share with everyone.

Thanks.

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High Caloric intake at breakfast vs. dinner differentially influences weight loss of overweight and obese women

I was searching up when a good time to eat dinner would be, as my meal is pretty much always the last activity I do before my nighttime routine (i.e. about an hour before bed). In addition to discovering that leaving a 2-4 hour gap between bedtime and the last meal is recommended for digestion/melatonin release, I found a REALLY interesting study!

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/oby.20460

Long sorry short, a ground of 93 overweight/obese middle-aged women with metabolic syndrome were randomly split into two groups for a 1400 kcal weight loss diet, a breakfast group and a dinner group. The former ate their biggest meal in the morning with smaller meals throughout the rest of the day, while the latter had the opposite pattern.

The breakfast group experienced significantly more success than the dinner group, even though the nutritional content + overall caloric intake of the groups were the same. You can check out the changes in blood pressure, waist circumference, and more within Table 2 of the paper — most notably, the BF group saw an 11% decrease in weight over 12 weeks while the dinner group saw only a 4% decrease. They also had lower drop-out rates from the study.

Big ideas of the study, taken from the paper's conclusion:

"Our findings demonstrate that the same caloric intake throughout the day for a period of 12 weeks leads to a different final body weight and glycemic response. This concept is novel, as dietary interventions nowadays take into account only total daily energy intake rather than the timing of food consumption."

"our results demonstrate that high‐calorie breakfast shows increased compliance and is more beneficial than high‐calorie dinner for weight loss, insulin sensitivity, and hunger suppression."

I really hope this starts a good discussion — I found these results compelling, particularly because the research seemed to put in quite a bit of effort to consider potential obstructions! It seems to contrast the idea that meal timing doesn't matter unless you're an athlete...

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I've lost exactly 100 pounds in almost exactly 6 months (April 28th will be 2 months)

The title is supposed to say "April 28th will be 6 months" not 2 months, sorry!!

Here's my progress picture: https://i.imgur.com/Zu1GtJj.jpg

The short version of the story is basically: I'm 33 years old, male, 5 foot 7, and was 287 pounds in October 2020. I weighed in this morning at 187 pounds. I made the decision to do something about my weight and health on October 28, 2020. I starting eating a low carb, high protein diet and I exercised a ton. Like, a crazy amount. More than is probably feasible or maybe even healthy for most people. I got a DEXA scan a few weeks ago and I was at 18% BF at 195 lbs. My final goal as of now is 175 lbs although I recognize that the scale number is not that important to me, I just want to like how I look and I'm not quite at where I want to be yet. I also recently injured my left AC joint falling off my bike and have been unable to workout for about 3 weeks but have maintained my cardio and have continued to lose since then.

---

The longer story:

I’ll preface this by saying that I was a competitive tennis player and rower ("crew") in high school and was very active in college, albeit non-competitively. I gained like 130 pounds over several few years post-college, but I did continue to work out sporadically during that time. I say this to indicate that while I have certainly increased in muscle mass and strength while losing the weight, I had a fair amount of muscle prior as well. So I didn’t put it all on in just these last six months.

I made the decision to get healthier on October 28, 2020. I was feeling pretty down about some personal romance issues (lol) and also realized I wasn’t going to able to overcome them or many other things I was unhappy about without getting my ass back into shape. As I imagine is usually the case with this sort of thing, the weight was really more of a symptom of other underlying problems/unhappiness.

Anyway, I’ve been eating a low carb, but not technically keto diet for the duration of this time. High protein, lots of vegetables. I don’t have a problem eating the same thing daily. I eat a lot of turkey burgers, lettuce, broccoli, chicken, etc. I sometimes eat salmon or a steak if I’m feeling fancy but I have to save up calories if I’m going to have a huge ribeye or something. And I cut out alcohol. Huge issue. I was overconsuming alcohol big, big time. The pandemic made it worse for awhile. That alone may be the most important thing I cut out if only for the long-term health and mental health issues, notwithstanding the effect it has had on my weight loss.

I try to keep myself to about 2200 calories a day but I do cross over up to 3000 with some frequency because I am doing a huge amount of physical activity. I’m currently biking around 45-60 miles every day (2-3 hours of biking, between 18 and 20 mph) and working out using a modified P-P-sorta-L routine at home with dumbbells--mine are adjustable up to 150 lbs on each side. I floor press ~220 right now, so I won't be advancing past what I have available for awhile. I recently started adding about an hour of running in the evenings because I know I've become very adapted to the biking. So I run about 25-35 miles a week. I also walk an hour in the evenings some days, but that's more to have some "thinking time" rather than specifically for the exercise aspect. So total exercise is: probably an average of about 350 miles a week biking, about 30 miles a week running, maybe 10 miles a week walking, and weight lifting 5/7 days a week.

I say “modified” PPL because I have bilateral SLAP tears (labrum tears) in my shoulders, so I can’t do things like the bench press; I do a floor press instead, as mentioned above. And I say “sorta-L” because I don’t really try to hit my legs too hard. I only do fairly lightweight Romanian deadlifts along with various hip stability exercises (clamshells, monster walks, banded box squats, and so on). I know my knees are under a lot of pressure from the constant biking and I have had knee injuries in the past, plus I’m happy with the size of my quads/hamstrings/calves just from the biking and RDLs, so I don’t feel much pressure to go for heavy squats or anything.

I started out biking even more than I am now. I biked something like 1000 miles in a couple weeks back when I started and actually dropped 25 pounds in a very short time (much of it water weight I’m sure, but it was still a huge number of calories to burn for my weight at the time). I injured my knees from biking too much and had to take time off the bike for all of December and January. Not recommended, but I'm being honest about what I did.

I lost very rapidly at first but seem to be in a pretty consistent pattern of things plateauing for 2-3 weeks at a time and then wooshing over a few days for the last few months. It averages out to about 2-3 lbs a week, or 10-12 lbs a month. I carry the last of my fat in, as far as I can see, the following order of most to least: belly, thighs, calves, arms, chest, face. I don’t really care too much what the scale says, I just want to be happy with how I look. It sounds vain but right now I’m most eagerly waiting for the last bit of chub in my cheeks and neck to go (harder to see because I’ve chosen the best pics of myself, of course). I think they’ll be last to go, unfortunately, lol. At least that ensures I'll finish the job, I guess!

Ultimately I feel better in so many ways, more energetic, and happier and more confident socially and elsewhere as I get "back" to where I used to be. It's intense how much of our value we tie up in our appearance (or at least it is for me). While I wish I had more confidence without needing to feel good about myself physically that's just how it is for me.

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[QUESTION] What's a good app for daily 10-15 min home workouts specifically designed for weight loss, starting at beginner level?

Hi everyone,

I'm looking to get into working out to help with my weight loss, and I'm in search for an app to help with a daily 10-15mins workout program.

Ideally, I'm looking for something with no equipment required, with increasing difficulty/intensity, and with some degree of customisation (I live in an apartment and I can't really jump or do anything like that)

For the record, I'm a 29 years old male, 176cm, 115kg. I have been exercising quite a lot in the past during my last diet, but it involved going to the gym 3 times a week for long workouts, and my schedule doesn't really allow it anymore. So I'm looking for shorter, daily workouts that I can do at home.

I'm also open to buying some equipment if really needed, but I would rather start off with no equipment requirement before I adjust my program.

I'm open to any of your suggestions, and I would greatly appreciate if you told me about your experience with said app and why you recommend it.

Thanks!

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How do I lose weight in a household where I don't have control over diet?

I have a BMI of 26, and I am not happy with how I look, but my parents(who control what I eat) insist that "I'm fine". When in reality I am overweight(by BMI standards and I don't like how I look)

I've read that diet is REALLY important in proper weight loss and I've recently actively trying to lose weight. So what can I do here where I don't have control over what I eat(but to be fair to them they don't make "bad" food(food that makes you gain weight, I dunno how to name it otherwise) that often)

But they are completely fine with me working out and stuff so yea, any advice regarding my situation(oh and I am 16, maybe that is some useful info)

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