Anyone else's perceptions surrounding weight loss and fitness distorted by The Biggest Loser?

Hello all, I've (24F; SW:311 CW:225) been on my weight loss journey for almost a year and a half now, I've lost a total of 85 lbs. I've attempted weight loss multiple times, including during childhood and my teenage years. I was always a chubby kid and my parents have struggled with obesity and weight loss my entire life as well.

While I also do not agree with the approach my parents took in trying to get me to lose weight as a child, something I have been thinking about recently is how my family used to watch shows like The Biggest Loser when I was growing up. We used to watch it as a way to stay motivated with our own weight loss and also for information, tips, advice, etc. on weight loss. Obviously we seemed to trust the expertise of the trainers on the show as they are considered professionals. We had no reason to question how this show presented weight loss and fitness.

As an adult who finally found some success in weight loss, I realized just how toxic this show was. If you've ever seen the show, you know these contestants are forced into brutal workouts, presented food temptations in exchange for rewards like money or contact with their family, cut off from their primary support system and isolated from the outside world, expected to lose 10+ lbs every week just to secure their safety on the show, and made to feel bad about themselves if they don't lose at least 5 lbs in a week. I realized that this show set my own personal expectations of weight loss as a child/teenager and it made me believe that if I'm not doing intense workouts for 2 hours every day or not losing at least 5 lbs a week, that I was a failure and wasn't doing it right. I've had to reset my own mindset around food and exercise to create a healthier relationship with my body and food to achieve successful weight loss. I would say I've been doing well in achieving that but I wish The Biggest Loser had never existed. I feel like I could have achieved weight loss a lot sooner or avoided getting as heavy as I did had I not been exposed to it.

Has anyone else had similar experiences with this show? Or a different experience? Does anyone feel like media similar to The Biggest Loser helped them? I know the show isn't on air anymore (even after a revival season that didn't make many changes) but I feel like this is something people struggling with their weight don't realize, that their perceptions surrounding weight loss have been distorted by things like The Biggest Loser.

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Tantrum Tuesday - The Day to Rant!

I Rant, Therefore I Am

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Well bla-de-da-da! What's making your blood boil? What's under your skin? What's making you see red? What's up in your craw? Let's hear your weight loss related rants!

The rant post is a /u/bladedada production.

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Please consider saving your next rant for this weekly thread every Tuesday.

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My 10th Day 1.

Hey, all.

I’ve been here before. New username, same old me. I know HOW to lose weight, I just struggle to find the motivation or inspiration. The truth is, I never really cared about my weight because I had other things going on in my life to worry about.

I‘m 31/M, 5’6, 225 pounds, though at my highest I was pushing 250. I have always been above average for my age, and I have had a potbelly since I was a little kid (I’m told this is a sign of something, but idk). My mom shows affection through food, and that’s really her only way of showing affection, so I have a pretty unhealthy relationship with food to say the least.

Almost exactly a year ago, I had a major life-changing surgery that corrected over a decade of pain. I dropped 10 pounds right off the bat. Now, I’ve ruined that progress and gained a bit more back. For the first time in my life, I have high blood pressure, my cholesterol is a bit high (despite being a vegetarian for over 15 years), and I‘m beginning to develop sleep apnea. I’m tired and depressed every waking moment. Somehow I’m not yet pre-diabetic, despite diabetes being incredibly common in my family. I guess that’s a win.

I’ve done the calorie counting, without success. It just made me mad, legitimately mad. I hate tracking my food or calories. I hate spending time logging information into the app. I’ve done keto, which is so freaking hard as a vegetarian. I’ve done intermittent fasting, on which I saw the most success, though it becomes nearly impossible to hold the same schedule every day.

I looked at my TDEE again, and I was reminded that my weight loss does not have to feel impossible. My BMR is estimated to be about 1900. I can do that. That is not impossible.

My initial goals are easy ones: drink enough water every day (aiming for 2L/day), and just pay attention to what I’m eating and WHY. I eat out of boredom, and that needs to end.

I don’t know. I’m mad at myself today. But I’m trying to turn it into motivation. I can do better. This shouldn’t be this hard. I have dealt with worse.

Here we go.

Ryan.

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F/20/5’2”/SW:160/CW:153/GW:125/ It’s Finally Working!

I’ve never posted about weight loss or any adjacent topic before. And for a long time, my weight didn’t bother me—it just existed. I previously had been a competitive long distance swimmer at 135 pounds of pure cardio driven muscle. And I took that for granted.

After quitting swim, I ate little—which made me not think to why I had gained so much weight. And I finally wanted to step up and think about it. I did a week long food journal to realize my one and a half meals a day were adding up to almost 3,000kcal. Which is…. Clearly not ideal.

I kicked it into gear doing 1800kcal a day, 33/33/33 on macros, and…. Saw no progress for 3 weeks. Thought to myself, “That’s okay, that happens” and kicked it to 1700kcal for another 2 weeks— not a single pound dropped, still 160. At this point I was panicking and was in what felt like a worthless death spiral. I kept with it, no cheat days at all in regards to calories and dropped to 1500kcal.

This was a struggle for the first week, I couldn’t regulate times when I ate very well and was incredibly sluggish and ill feeling the first week. I’m thankful that this got better and now it’s just part of my schedule. So 3 weeks later, I’ve lost about 7 pounds. And I’m finally so excited to see some progress and really wanted to share— as I didn’t think it was worth sharing before when I had not lost any weight—although I had been determined, dead set, and consistent.

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Day 1? Starting your weight loss journey on Tuesday, 01 June 2021? Start here!

Today is your Day 1?

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Welcome to r/Loseit!

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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.

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Why you’re overweight

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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.

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Before You Start

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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.

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Tracking

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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.

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Creating Your Deficit

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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.

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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.

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Exercise

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Is NOT mandatory. You can lose fat and create a deficit through diet alone. There is no requirement of exercise to lose weight.

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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.

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Crawl, Walk, Run

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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.

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Acceptance

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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.

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Do not let the pursuit of perfect get in the way of progress. We don’t need perfect. We just want better.

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Additional resources

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Now you’re ready to do this. Here are more details, that may help you refine your plan.

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• Quick Start Guide - Build your foundation!

* Lose It Compendium - Frame it out!

* FAQ - Answers to our most Frequently Asked Questions!

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[Directory] Find your quests here!

Welcome adventurer! Whether you're new on this quest or are towards the end of your journey there should be something below for you.

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Daily journal.

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• Q&A "I have a question."
• Day 1 "I am starting my weight loss journey."
• SV/NSV "I have an accomplishment to share."
• 24hr Pledge "Today I am going to..."

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Interested in some side quests?

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• Motivation Monday Share some motivation, get some motivation.
• Tantrum Tuesday Need to vent? People getting on your nerves?
• Weigh-In Wednesday
• Track With Me Thursday Did we just become best friends?!
• Free Talk Friday What's on your mind?

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Community bulletin board!

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• Running With Lose It Run with losers. Avoid arrows.
• Maintenance Monday Lost it? Work on keeping it.
• Wecipe Wednesday Swap and discuss recipes!

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Need some questing buddies?

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• US Accountability Challenge
• (EU Accountability Challenge)
• (Travel to neighboring communities!)

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If you are new to the sub, click here for our posting guidelines!

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Struggling with my next decision

Hi all Just for a little context, I am 20(M) and have been on my weight loss journey for the past 8 months. in October, I took a little time with myself to reflect on the poor health choices that I have made and decided to make a change. I started at 250 pounds, and now at the time of posting this, I am 175 pounds. I feel amazing, and it has been one of the best decisions that I have made. It has motivated me to do many other things in my life that I never thought that I would do. For example, today the infamous memorial day CrossFit workout, the Murph challenge, never in a million years would I have thought that I would do it, but did the entire thing in 42 minutes. but today, after working out, I did a little thinking about what is next for me, and honestly, I have for the past month. I want to gain some muscle and prioritize lifting because through this entire journey, I found a passion for it. One of the things that I am struggling with is knowing that I will have to increase my calories, and as expected being restrictive on my diet, I will gain a little bit of weight. The issue that I have with that is I am terrified of gaining weight back. I busted my ass for the past 1/2 a year, and am struggling to come to terms with knowing that it is something that is going to happen. Any help or clarification would be greatly appreciated.

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