Day 1? Starting your weight loss journey on Monday, 12 July 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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How to maintain positive pandemic habits as the world goes back to “normal”?

Weirdly enough, during the pandemic, I did great with weight loss. Eating in for all meals helped me make better choices and track calories more accurately. The only fun thing to do with friends was walk or hike outside - so I walked daily! I wasn’t going to happy hour or dinners out so making healthy choices was pretty easy for me.

Now that the world is going back to “normal” I’ve put some of the weight back on, and I don’t know what to do. Suddenly, my daily exercise habit feels more stressful than it does relaxing (the way it felt during the pandemic), especially when I’m choosing between exercise, seeing friends, going to church, reading, practicing my guitar, and other self improvement activities. Exercise has an opportunity cost now - and I hate that.

I’ve also constantly been invited to happy hours and dinners out. This is just the way my friend group spends quality time together. Sometimes I’ll indulge and sometimes I’ll just drink sparkling water or something. But being at these activities constantly is exhausting my willpower. I definitely got distant from some friends during the pandemic and now I don’t want to decline invitations.

Basically: now that I have more demands on my time and competing priorities, it’s so much harder for me to prioritize my weight loss. Ha anyone else experienced this? Do you have any tips? Thank you in advance for any help.

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This took a year and several months to achieve. Binge eating on the left, controlled eating on the right. Left is 465 @ 47% bf on the right 315 @ 17% bf. Stay up kings! Any questions will be answered in comments!

I’ve always been the big guy and tbh it’s was cause my whole life was me being overweight. When I was 12 I was around 200lbs and by the time I reached high school I was a staggering 350lbs. Living life at that weight a young teen was very hard emotionally, physically, and mentally. My freshmen year I joined the football team, it was safe to say I was the biggest kid on the football team, but also the biggest kid in the whole school. You see what got me to this weight was a very dysfunctional home life along with coddling from my mother and grandmother in the form of eating to make me feel better. My sister was very overweight I’m talking obese upwards of almost 380 at her heaviest. Now my father always did everything for her, and of course she received weight loss surgery. Looking back I’m happy I never was offered the opportunity, but during the time of all this happening.. yeah I was a bit salty about it. It wasn’t till my jr year of high school where I wanted to make a change, and that really all came from wanting to fit in, and have friends. You see back in 2010 I don’t think people were as accepting of someone who is extremely overweight as they are now. So with that being said it’s a combination of not being accepted, the dysfunction home life, using food as a coping mechanism, and having multiple health issues like high blood pressure an enlarged heart and high visceral fat. All those things mentioned is what fueled my first weight loss journey. So in the course of 6 months of dieting, playing football, staying after weighting training to do cardio. I ended up losing 100lbs and continued to lose till I was around 240lbs or so. Now you can imagine by sr year I was at my peak in fat loss, muscle gain, and confidence! I was offered by my father at the end of 2011 to get skin removal surgery! I was so happy and so excited! Went through with the surgery and was in my long road to recovery! I did some bodybuilding after that in my late teens to early 20s and was loving life I had a couple of relationships, I was working for a gym I was like man I’m going places! Well somewhere in my early to mid 20s I had a huge breakdown my grandmother passed away, I had some health scares, my gf left me, I was doing things I shouldn’t have been doing. And I just spiraled out of control. During that time from 21 to 25 I ended up gaining 230lbs of just pure bf at 465 my bf was an insane 47%. I was just back to my old ways of coping and eating food to suppress my emotions. In one sitting I could consume 3 large pizzas, 2 pints of Ben and Jerry’s 2 bottles of rootbeer and 2 of those 5 dollar boxes from Carl’s Jr. back when they had them still. I developed an eating disorder (which I think was dormant within me and I awoken it in the process of the lifestyle I was living) where I would binge eat at night and fall asleep soon after. I’d sleep till 6pm go out for a bit come home play video games and spend on average about 40 to 50 dollars a night in fast food. In 2018 I had the biggest scare of my life. I had a heart attack at 25 years old it was mind boggling... I was blown away. Years of bad food, smoking, drinking 4 2ltr bottles of root beer a day. It was awful

To be clear: I have a condition called hypergonadism basically means I have super high test lvls since I was a teen. My test lvls in high school where around 1127 which is why I mentioned on another thread that I have heart issues enlarged heart, high bp and pvcs.

In high school I was supposed to be on t blockers and my mom was all for it. However the doctor said at his age it’s safer to take care of the heart issues first because his test lvls should lower as he got older. So I was put on bp medication and my heart was doing better.

Now my test lvl sits around 950 I have “good genetics” if that’s what you want to call it, but having high test like this is not safe nor is it fun. Sure I can gain muscle like super fast, but the health problems that come with it are not worth the muscle gain.

progress update:

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Hit my weight loss goal and you can do it too!

This will probably get buried but I just wanted to share my experience of my weight loss journey that is currently shifting from the actively dieting and losing weight phase to more of a maintaining healthy lifestyle phase.

I have been obese for the majority of my life. I've always been told I wasn't that big but I definitely felt it. I've always gravitated towards sports so I was always the biggest guy in my group of friends (not that that's how they refer to me but it was definitely true).

While I played sports, as most or all of you are aware it takes a lot more than just exercise to keep a reasonable weight. I've always eaten like absolute crap. When I was really young I often stayed with my grandmother and she was definitely a poor influence on my eating. I'm talking at like 7 years old getting a big bowl of sugary cereal, eggs, bacon, and like a pastry for breakfast. Whatever I wanted I pretty much got, and if I didn't ask for it but it was put in front of me, well, I ate it. I was very much told from a young age, like most of us were, that you had better finish what's on your plate and to be grateful for how good I had it. Anyways, pretty much between my grandma, mom, and stepdad, had exactly 0 good influences on healthy eating habits.

Well, this year I decided to change my life. Some of the reasons are more personal than others, let's just say that I felt that if I didn't do it right here and now that it was never going to get done, and if it doesn't get done then I'm going to regret it for the rest of my life. When I started my weight loss journey back in March I weighed 237 pounds.

The changes to my diet were pretty strict at first, but to be honest I found it easier to make it even more strict as I went along. My main plan of action for losing weight in terms of dieting was to stop eating/drinking excessive sugars, cut down on carbs overall, and just in general eat less. Before I started dieting I was eating literally whatever the fuck I wanted. Desserts, fast food, sugary drinks, you name it I was throwing it down. Now my diet consists generally of sone fruit for breakfast. For lunch I'll generally have some air fried veggies with protein. (Seriously people if you cut up a tomato and a bell pepper, toss it in oil, salt, and pepper, and throw that in the air fryer it is a super delicious and pretty good for you meal. I generally set the air fryer for 400 and 15 minutes, then throw the tomatoes in at 13 minutes left, the peppers in at like 10 minutes left, and then for the protein my go to is some leftover pork shoulder and I throw that in with like 5 minutes left to get nice and crispy). Then for dinner I usually haven't been very hungry so I'll just have a salad.

I think a large part that some people overlook and which I think has been hugely successful for me is getting out of the damn house. I've really been getting into playing disc golf lately, which is awesome for getting me out of the house during the morning and afternoon (I WFH in the evenings). Beyond the fact that disc golf is a decent exercise, it gets me out of the house for several hours at a time where not only am I burning calories, but I'm very much not sitting on my computer being tempted to go check what's in the kitchen.

Anyways, through a lot of hard work and focus, I've just last week gotten down to my long term weight goal of 175. It happened so much faster than I ever dreamed of it happening. It's probably faster than one should lose weight but Im definitely not starving myself either. As I started to lose more weight I just really haven't had a desire to eat much, and I really don't even want to go back to eating the foods I was eating before. Like absolutely 0 desire for snacks. I guess I'm lucky in that way? Idk I really think that once I saw those first few pounds quickly fly off the scale I got really motivated.

So I guess I've rambled on long enough to get to the point of the post. This is so much more of a mental exercise than I expected. I'm going to be different that everyone, but what really worked for me was just finding little motivations for keeping the diet going. For me personally, I really made a game out of seeing the number on the scale go down everyday. There were some days where the number went up, and those days hurt, but they were at best 10% of the time. Also, getting into disc golf and wanting to be better at it has helped, as being in shape definitely allows me to be better at the sport. And also, id be lying if I said I didn't enjoy the compliments I get from people lately, particularly people who I haven't seen for a while, and especially people who I haven't seen since before covid.

So in closing, I just want to say that if you don't think you can do it, yes you fucking can. It doesn't need to be anywhere near as fast as I did it, but if I can lose 65 pounds in 4 months, you can absolutely at the very least get started today. It isn't going to be the easiest thing you've ever done, and frankly will probably be among the hardest. It's fucking worth it. This isn't to say that losing weight is going to fix all the problems in your life, because it hasn't for me. But at the very least getting into a more healthy lifestyle has made me want to be better in other areas of my life. I've still got a long way to go in terms of keeping the weight off and keeping these healthy lifestyle changes, but I've never been more motivated to do so.

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My personal experience with realizing slow weight loss is OKAY (maybe even better!)

(I mention this later in the post, but I wanted to preface this by saying that I understand losing weight for health reasons is completely different than losing for aesthetic reasons. The first 30lbs I lost were for health- I struggled to walk upstairs and was almost in the obese category. I know that if you feel unhealthy and are overweight/obese, you might be more inclined to try to lose at a faster pace. Do what works for you always!!)

From 2019-2020, I (26 female 5’9) went from 195 to 165. I did this by cutting my portion sizes down, eating when I was hungry/stopping when full, and walking 10k steps a day. During this time I felt great- mentally I had balance and was motivated and happy, and I did it in a very healthy way vs previous weight loss efforts that were always extreme all or nothing.

After I hit 165, however, I decided I wanted to lose more fat and work towards ab definition. That’s when I started noticing a change in my mental attitude towards fitness. I started getting into my all or nothing mindset again, comparing myself to others’ progress (online), obsessing/fixating etc.

What was happening was that I would go 110% and then burn out. When I look at my weight trends, it’s been a few times now that I’ve gotten to a lower weight, then end up gaining some of it back. Obviously this isn’t sustainable and I realized something needed to change.

So what I did was I took a few weeks of relaxing with my eating and my workouts. I took time to think about what needed to change and where I was. I realized social media (fitness influencer IG & YT) wasn’t doing me any favors- it caused me to compare myself to others and second guess everything I was doing. I also realized that putting a time frame on my goals (which I was doing by trying to do cut/bulk cycles and lose a certain amount of weight by a certain date) put unnecessary stress on me. Finally, I realized that when my life is stressful or I’m not doing well mentally, it directly correlates with my attitude towards fitness because I start to hyper focus on being perfect.

Something else I realized was that losing fat for aesthetic purposes is different than losing it for health. I always knew that- but it hit me that I don’t need to be in a rush to lose the ‘aesthetic fat’. I’m lucky enough not only to be at a healthy weight, but I’m confident about how I look and feel to where I don’t have to rush. I can just enjoy the process. I know not everyone is there, but if you are trying to lose fat for aesthetic reasons, you can take it slow. Even if you are still overweight/obese you can take it slow if you need to/choose to because losing it slowly is still so much better than not losing it at all.

So NOW - I am still wanting to lose fat, but I am doing it without putting a time frame on it. I’ve been losing on average about half a pound a week and that’s OKAY! I’m enjoying summer. Eating chips, candy, ice cream- sometimes more than a little! I’ve stepped back from lifting for a while to give my body a much needed break. Most importantly, I’m not fixating!!! Not constantly thinking about food, my next workout, tracking what I’m eating, etc. I’m just doing what I need to do and letting the process happen slowly. I’m also spending significantly less time on fitness IG/YT and that has made a big difference for me.

TLDR; You don’t have to lose 2lbs a week or lose this much weight by this date. It’s okay to take it slow. Slow progress is still progress and it’s so much more sustainable, easier on you mentally, and makes life more enjoyable.

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My “Food cache” trick

This is STRICTLY just based on my own personal experiences with weight loss attempts over the decades. There may not be any peer reviewed science to back this up. But it is something I’ve observed.

When I’m “hungry” ie, experiencing some kind of a physical or chemical demand in my body which my brain is attributing to a food requirement, I will crave foods from some kind of temporary list or memory cache (hence food cache) that my brain keeps. This list seems like it’s only good for about a month or two, and it’s populated with recently eaten foods. If you eat hamburgers every day, there will be lots and lots of hamburgers in your “food cache.”

When you perceive a hunger signal, your brain will only attempt to satisfy it with recently eaten food items stored in the cache. Your brain knows the macro nutrient content, your dopamine response, etc to every food in the cache and it’s able to efficiently select the best tool for the job at hand. The choice it makes manifests as food craving.

So knowing this, you can exploit the cache by allowing certain types of items to leave it or become less populated, thereby preventing your brain from having access to certain nutrients or chemicals it might have used to treat a “hunger signal”. Simply start trying to avoid the food and eventually if you’re somewhat successful your brain will select for it less.

For example, if you haven’t eaten any carbs in a month or two, your brain will forget altogether that you can get a dopamine response from food, and so will stop identifying “irritability” as a hunger signal as food is no longer the most effective way to treat it. Cutting out Mountain Dew eliminates both a powerful caffeine and sugar source, which may make you forget that “tired” is a hunger signal.

Imagine feeling slightly sleepy and wanting to take a nap instead of eating? Amazing.

This is also why, yes in fact eating one piece of cake WILL kill me. Because the cake and all it’s milky sugary goodness gets added back to the front of the cache which reminds your brain it has a more effective way to treat a dopamine low besides napping or exercising.

Like I said this is real for me, I don’t know if others experience the same thing but it’s a good way of looking at the way our cravings work which I think is at the core of why losing weight is so difficult.

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Looking for an accountability buddy to add on discord !!

Hi! My name is Krissy and I am 26 years old. I currently weigh around 230lbs(my scale arrives tuesday!!) and im hoping to get down to 160-170lbs. I have started a healthy lifestyle change very recently and im looking for someone who is also on this weight loss/healthy eating journey to support and encourage and also keep eachother accountable! And help one another along the way! I’m mostly on discord so id much prefer to talk over there if you have one.

Just leave a comment if youre interested! Ill accept multiple buddies because you can never have too much support and encouragement in your journey!!!!

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