2 month update along with some encouragement and tips to pass on

SW(6/1/21): 330 lbs. CW(8/1/21): 304.8(25.2 lbs. lost) GW(7/1/22): 230 lbs.

40(m) yr old here. Just a quick background on me. I have always been on the bigger side growing up but I played sports year round so it never got too bad. Went off to college and gained the freshman 50 not 15 😂. That gain was due to a combination of eating/fixing food on my own and not playing sports or working out as often. Got up to 300lbs by my late 30s but being 6’3’ with a large chest/shoulder frame I didn’t really mind it. My ex wife did weight watchers so I did it by default since she got rid of all my “bad food” but it worked I dropped down to 240. We split up and I stopped doing the weight watchers so naturally I slowly gained the weight back…and more 🙄

Present day: The last few years I have had a little heart palpitation but it comes and goes, I never thought much of it. Well back in May I had several in a row and legit thought I was having a heart attack. I was clammy, short of breath and freaked out. After going to the ER and doing all the tests, I had no blockages or anything wrong but the doctor said I should prob drop a few pounds, cut back on caffeine and exercise again. I have 6 kids(3 of them are step kids) and a new wife of a year and a half, so naturally I want to be around for a while so now I am back on lifestyle change which weight loss will be a by product.

I am no expert but in my field of work I know what to do to keep weight down and how to eat properly, exercise and live a healthy lifestyle. Picture a lung cancer doctor that smokes cigarettes…that would a similar situation. Here are a few things I know/learned from my previous weight loss and this time around too.

1. Find a reason to lose weight other than aesthetics. For me even though I’ve been big I haven’t cared one bit how I look. Obviously looking skinnier will be great but I’m using my kids/wife as motivation. I want to live a long healthy life and be able to enjoy myself and not be too big and unhealthy to get around.

2. Plan, plan, plan! I don’t sit down and package my food in meat nice containers for the week but I absolutely think about my meals. If I don’t know what I’m going to eat or plan it out, then I usually jus grab some quick and unhealthy.

3. Cut back on alcohol and other drinks. I love alcohol, I love whiskey, I love a cold beer on the beach or Sunday during football season. However, 5-6 nights of drinking wasn’t healthy plus I was usually consuming 1500-2000 calories a night. Now I just drink on Friday and Saturday nights.

4. Don’t deprive yourself of foods you love, reward yourself. I latter my most recent weigh in crushed it, so I rewarded myself with pizza that night and got my wife to cook biscuits and gravy the next morning and then crushed that as well 😂. I know if I just never eat anything “bad” then I will overdo it and eat an entire pizza when I do get a slice

5. Don’t punish yourself if you slip up

6. Fad diets may help temporarily but they aren’t sustainable and will kill your wallet. My sister and brother in law do one of them, they can only eat a bar/shake for bfast and lunch and one of the companies meals fo dinner. It also costs them $400 per month!

7. Exercise helps but diet is more important. It’s easier to eat a deficit of 500 calories than it is to burn 500 calories.

8. Keep healthy snacks handy

9. Drink lots of water

10. Chew gum to trick your body into thinking your eating

I’m sure there are plenty more and I’m sure some will disagree with some of these, but this has worked for me!

If you have any questions about my meals or what I’m eating or what types of workouts I’m doing let me know, I would love to share what I have learned but also what I’ve known for years but was just too lazy to do

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How do you deal with mental side of weight loss?

I’m[18f] finally starting my weight journey again after giving up. I’ve been fat my whole life and I really want to be healthy. My main problem isn’t the methods. It’s dealing with the mental side. I eat whenever I feel negative emotions. I didn’t even realize that until I started a food journal.

I don’t eat because I’m hungry. I can feel full pretty fast. I eat because I want to. I eat even if I’m really full. I eat even if I don’t like the food. so any advice to eat more vegetables to feel more full doesn’t help because I overeat while full.

How do I break my emotional attachement to food? I want to break the mental connection between bad feelings and food so I don’t gain weight when I’m having a hard time.

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9 weeks in.

23 male, 186cm, SW: 96.7kg / CW:86kg / GW:83kg

Hey guys,

4 1/2 weeks ago, I made my first post on this sub. In the last post I had reached my first goal of under 200lbs.

Now 4 1/2 weeks later I am at 86kg(189.5lbs), there are a lot of interesting things I have learned about myself and weight loss over these 9 weeks.

Firstly, I am (still) quite proud of myself, I have stuck to my plans, I stuck to my calorie goals, to my macros and to my exercise regiment. BUT when I say I stuck to them that doesn’t mean I didn’t have days where I ate less healthy, overshot my calorie goal for a single day, or stuff like that. I learned to look at the thing wholistically. I had Fast Food one day? No Problem, I’ll eat less the next day and won’t have any for the next 7 days, I didn’t finish my 5km in a "good" time, no problem, Ill just go out in two days and try again.

I often struggle with setbacks, where I lose focus or motivation for, from the outside, stupid little things, but this time I didn’t let that happen to me.

So if you want to take something from this post, other than my overblown sense of pride, take these two pieces of advise.

​

1. No one keeps the good things they want to stick to up 100% of the time. Well maybe there is somebody, but most people wont, I am certainly not. Thats fine, just dont let one "slip up" dicourage you to stick with the good things you had going
2. HABITS, HABITS, HABITS!

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Do i have to eat a certain amount of calories?

So basically i've been intermittent fasting for a few months, and it's working great for me cuz It prevent me from snacking!

The thing tho, is that i have to eat 2.894k calories to lose 0.5kg a week (according to calculator.net) or 2,394k calories for extreme weight loss (1kg).

I have figured out that i eat roughly between 1500 calories a day (sometimes more, especially on weekends), and that's way off the recommended amount that i should eat. I don't feel hungry at all, but it does worry me if i am eating less than i should.

I am a 24M, 186cm/6'1 - and i do resistance training 5-6 days a week for 1 hour each session

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Not losing weight, maybe my SSRI?

I've been down this road before in attempting to lose weight and I am losing my mind rather than my weight during this progress. I've tried dropping calories, changing macros, working out, eating more or less and anything I can think of that doesn't involve some lunatic diet that I won't be able to stick to and still I have had 0 change in weight. Shy of going to my doctor or a nutritionist I feel like I am doing the right thing but clearly not, so my only other idea is that maybe my SSRI is what is holding me back? I see lots of conflicting information online about it so I am not sure who to believe as some say it does make you gain weight and others say it doesnt.

​

Either way I'm a 30y/o male 6'0 at 220lbs give or take right now. Currently eating 1800 calories per day with 35% carbs 30% fat and 35% protein. Sometimes I won't hit my protein but will hit my calories overall but in terms if CICO I think 1800 is well below maintenance for my height and weight. I've tried 1600 calories and it was too little for me to function on and still resulted in 0 weight loss. I am also on 10mg cipralex which is an ultra low dose already but that is the only thing I can think of that would even remotely maybe mess with my weight at this point.

​

Does anyone have any experience with the drug or any pointers over all at what I am doing wrong? I absolutely hate being this weight and it's adversely affecting how I perceive myself and that only makes other things worse! Any and all suggestions are appreciated.

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Does anyone have any tips for how to keep motivated during a depressive episode? (+ My story)

TL;DR: see title

Hi everyone! This is my first post here. I (21F) have been on my weight loss journey for a few months (on/off) now, and before I started, I was 5'4" 240 lbs, which is the heaviest I have ever been. I have lost about 5 pounds so far.

I have struggled with my weight ever since I hit puberty, and I'm not sure I have had a "normal" BMI since I was a kid. In my first year of high school, I was up to about 210 lbs, but by my senior year I was back down to 160 and I was feeling really good about my body. I was still a little chubby, but I felt good about my size and physical ability, and loved how I looked in clothes. I still had insecurities, but it was the happiest I have ever been about my looks and the capabilities of my body.

The thing was, I lost all of that weight without even actively trying to. I had a fear of working out or doing anything physical in front of other people, as I was very self conscious about it. And I have always eaten mainly comfort foods and I am really bad at getting vegetables and fruit into my diet.

The things I think caused my weight loss were 1) I took a weight training class at school and actually saw progress in my physical abilities which was really encouraging. 2) I joined the marching band so I was getting even more intense physical activity on nearly a daily basis 3) I didn't really eat that much. I struggled heavily with untreated depression and anxiety, so I didn't really have motivation to take care of myself properly. I am not a morning person and I always woke up like 10 minutes before the school bus would arrive at my stop, so I never ate breakfast. I also hated the food at school and I didn't have a job or a car (and had no motivation to pack lunches), so I didn't eat lunch either. So what usually would happen is I'd get home from school starving, eat a huge serving of carbs (often pasta) and then go to my room and sleep for the rest of the day. Sometimes I would wake up and eat dinner or have a snack before going back to bed (I was exhausted all the time and slept A LOT). But I think even though I ate lots of food at one time, I was overall in a calorie defect. Plus I was kinda accidentally intermittent fasting in a way? But in a super, super unhealthy way. I would never want to go back to eating like that because I felt like crap all the time and I know it's unsustainable and bad for me.

So I recognize that my first weight loss wasn't healthy, however, once I lost the weight I was really enjoying the benefits and I was in a better place mentally.

After high school, I gained the weight back and more over a period of 3 years. A few things I think contributed to this: I started dating my boyfriend who eats a lot of junk foods and soda (and stays very skinny 🙄) so I am constantly exposed to snacks and treats and temptations, and if we order food it is often not the healthiest of places. He doesn't do it on purpose or anything, but he is a really picky eater with a lot of allergies and it has been hard to find healthy meals to cook that we can both eat. I know we could eat separate meals, but eating together is one of the ways we bond and have fun, especially since the pandemic started and there isn't much else to do. I also feel a little responsible to make food for my boyfriend, because if it weren't for me he would literally eat a grilled cheese and fries for dinner every day. I sometimes do eat separately from him, but eating together isn't something I want to give up, and sometimes it's hard not to fall into that convenience of cooking a meal he likes or picking up Taco Bell.

Another thing is I finally started treatment for my mental health issues, and I started taking antidepressants. They have really helped me with my depression and anxiety, but they may have made me gain some weight. I was also taking trazodone for a while due to sleep issues, and that may have made me gain weight too.

Finally, I have been more sedentary. Outside of my job (where I do spend a decent amount of time walking around and going up stairs) I stopped engaging in physical activity. I'd usually spend the rest of the day lying down and watching something with my bf.

Since deciding to make a change, I have been trying to do the following:

-Calorie counting (1200/day goal)

-Exercising at least 30 mins 5 days a week

-Getting more vegetables into my diet

-Avoiding calorie dense foods

-Still allowing myself treats now and then, as long as it doesn't impede my progress

-Switching my antidepressant from Prozac to Wellbutrin/Bupropion as it can actually help with weight loss

Every time I start up with my routine, I do really well for a while. I have even gotten to a point where I enjoy exercising. I started losing weight and seeing progress, and feeling better about myself and my body.

Here's the BUT: Even with my medication, I occasionally fall into depressive episodes, usually about every month or two. When this happens, everything falls apart. My anxiety gets worse, and that makes calorie counting feel obsessive and overwhelming. My depression pushes my motivation levels to their lowest. All I can think of is how much work this process is, how exhausting it can be, and all the things I miss about my old lifestyle. It seems so exhausting to maintain, and knowing I'll probably have to keep it up for at least a year, and then I will still need to put in effort to maintain my goal weight, it just feels impossible and pointless to even try. I start to slip up. I stop counting calories, I stop exercising. I go back to my old habits. When my anxiety levels are high, I get intense urges to binge eat, and sometimes I give in. I stop losing weight (or even gain) and my poor diet makes me feel worse.

Eventually I'll claw my way out of the depression, and start feeling like myself again. Suddenly I am very motivated again! I start the routine, things are going well, and then...the depression comes back.

I'm sure some of you have been in a similar situation, and I was wondering if you have any tips for me for when I get this way. I can say without a doubt that it is the biggest hurdle for me to overcome in order to reach my goal weight. I try to have the mindset that setbacks are normal and that I just need to get up and keep trying, but it's starting to feel a little frustrating and discouraging.

Thank you so much for reading this whole thing! And thanks for any advice you may have.

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The Difference between Male and Female with weight loss

Fun fact: I am a nutritionist at a zoo that cares for both a male and female lion. The male is a healthy weight, and the female is overweight. The male gets, on average, 10 lbs of food a day. The female? THREE. The only significant difference between the two is their sex - essentially, their hormones.

I think about this a lot when comparing male and female weight loss. I am female, down over 35lbs so far.... but SO is my male partner in the same amount of time (without dieting)!

Of course, this is a wonderful thing. Simply eliminating our frequent fast food trips, dinner outings, and weekly drinking nights has been enough for him to lose the same amount of weight as I have. But he still gets fast food/drinks occasionally on his own (jerk), yet if I cheat once or twice in a week, my progress is all but stopped!

Hormones are serious business. Men, be thankful of your weight loss advantage. And women, be proud of how you're able to achieve your goals DESPITE the challenge!

(Note: I realize I am referring to a binary here, but trans and nonbinary people certainly still exist. I am making a generalization based on my observations and experience and unfortunately don't have any input outside of gender/sex binary).

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