I am sorry for the clickbaity title.
I am f(33, 5'7", 215 lbs). Just sharing my own experience. It may not be everyone else's. There is obviously no one size fits all for health and fitness.
Bit of ( what I think is ) relevant backstory:
Fall of 2013:
I was an overweight 25 year old ( was 170 lbs at 5'7") trying to lose some weight through exercise, rookie mistake I know. My boyfriend and I liked exploring new places to eat and I was gaining steady weight.
By year end, I was up to 185 lbs and my boyfriend moved to USA. I was alone in my home country and LDR is tough. I stopped exercising and leaned on food for comfort :(
Summer of 2014:
I finally moved to USA to be with my boyfriend. I was ecstatic but I had reached 200 lbs by then. I read a book about CICO and was convinced I had to eat 1400 to lose weight. In theory that's true but it's not easy to do without changing eating habits. I was still eating out all the time , snacking on chips, cookies, brownies.
When you eat like that , 1400 calories look so little. I stuck to it but was hungry and miserable all the time. I lost 15 lbs in about 4 months.
Then life hit me with a ton of bricks. I lost a family member. I was devastated and crying all the time. I stopped calorie counting.
Winter of 2015:
I had gained almost all my weight back and then some . I was also getting married to my boyfriend. I tried CICO again and had a small weight loss again.
I stopped after my wedding. I wanted to enjoy my newly wedded bliss. And I did. I was happy and content. But also Obese . I didn't realize until the photos from our Anniversary trip jolted me awake . I weighed myself. I was 215 lbs.
New Year 2017:
I didn't want to get back to CICO because that made me miserable and obsessed with calories and my scale. I discoved Paleo. I was Paleo for most of 2017. I lost a ton of weight and I actually felt healthier. I wasn't hungry ,I didn't have constant headaches.I reached 180 lbs. I was feeling pretty good.
But Paleo is very restrictive. No grains , no dairy, no legumes or lentils,no alcohol. It's difficult to have a social life . Also as someone whose culture has a lot of rice and lentils , I missed my homemade traditional food. I also didn't like the amount of meat I was having.
Inspite of all this , I stuck to atleast a loose definition of Paleo when I could. But I was eating too much of healthy stuff and weight started creeping back. Very slowly.
By the end of 2019 I was almost 200 lbs
Then came 2020 and the pandemic. I was stuck at home. I again went back to food for comfort. I gained 29 pounds between March 2020 to June 2021.
That brings me to my latest stint with weight loss.
I decided on not doing Paleo. But 3 years of following it had altered my eating habits for good and I am finding it easy to eat at a deficit . I eat everything but most of the time it's veggies and some protein. I have also learnt to love a lot of low calorie swaps. Cauliflower rice and zoodles are my friends now :). I still eat whatever is offered at social events but in moderation. Eating adequate fiber, protein and healthy fats really helps with satiety.
I have lost about ~15 lbs in two months!
I will never go back to Paleo but I am thankful to it for teaching me these healthy eating habits.
I think the moral of this long , rambling post is that while calorie is a calorie, getting those calories from healthy sources makes CICO sustainable.
I am hoping it will stick this time!
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