Hitting my goal weight saved a life.

January 1st, 2021, I decided to try to lose some weight. I was a few months away from turning 40 and I’d weight more and more each year for the past decade. I was also beginning to develop a knee problem related to my weight that was starting to impact my life.

On New Year’s Eve I weighed 300.2 pounds as a 6’1” dude. I started using calories-in-calories-out and tracking what I ate with an app, cut way back on my drinking, and started lurking in /r/loseit.

By February I had found a rhythm. I had found filling but low-calorie foods that I liked. HUGE shoutout to /u/wesevans whose free recipe cards, mentioned in his r-loseit post here became a major component of my meal planning. The pandemic actually helped a bit, as I wasn’t going out to restaurants, getting beers after work with colleagues, or spending inordinate amounts of time at our local brewpubs. I had tried and failed many diet attempts before, but it looked like this attempt was working.

By May I had lost more than 30 pounds. With added confidence in my body and newfound athletic energy, I decided to augment my dieting with some exercise. My knee problem was still an issue, so I took up swimming laps at the pool at the health club that I had just joined. I was never a great swimmer but, eventually, I got pretty good at it.

Jump ahead to this month. I’m down 65 pounds and I’ve hit my goal weight. I’m on vacation with my family, enjoying a day on a pretty remote beach—we’re the only ones there for a quarter mile in either direction. I’ve just poured myself a gin & diet tonic when we hear a faint yell out in the distance. It’s a swimmer in distress about 250 meters offshore. The guy has a neon orange swim cap on for long distance swimming so he is easy to spot, even at that distance. There’s a split second where we are trying to figure out if he needs help or not, but something about how he was moving clicked with me as trouble, so I ran into the ocean to help. I swam as fast as I could but, even with the surge of adrenaline, it still felt like it took forever to get to him. As I approached, I could see he was having a harder and harder time keeping his head above the water. I tried to yell “Help is coming!” a few times as I approached but I was so winded I had trouble getting a shout out. His back was to me as I arrived. Just as I reached him his head dropped below the water. I put my shoulder behind the back of his head and was able to forcefully tread water to elevate his head so he could breath. I could feel how weak he was in my arms. I was getting weak too; I was far too exhausted to try to bring him back to shore, but I knew my cousin had followed me in after grabbing an inflatable tube thing and would be arriving eventually, and I knew I could hold on treading water for however much longer it would take. After another few minutes of treading water and holding him up my cousin arrived. We were all able to hold on to the float and support him much more easily. We could also see that the professional lifeguards were hauling ass down the beach on their ATVs—a family member on shore had called 911 and given them our location. The lifeguards came out on a rescue surfboard and we all made it back to shore safely. I have never been as physically exhausted as I was while treading water out there after a 250 meter sprint swim.

Here is what I know for sure: if I had not lost the weight that I did, there is absolutely no way I would have made it to him in time. You could say the same for me making the decision to start swimming for exercise, which itself was brought on by the weight loss.

And yes, I know, it is really stupid and a huge drowning risk for a mediocre swimmer without a floatation device to try to rescue someone way out in the ocean. But here’s why I did it, and this is also the big plot twist: The swimmer in distress was my father.

Losing 65 pounds might have saved my life… time will tell. But I already know it saved my dad’s.

Many thanks from this former lurker to all of you in the /r/loseit community for your weight loss tips and tricks, without which my weight loss wouldn’t have been possible. Thanks again to Wes for his recipe cards, and of course a huge thank you to the lifeguards!

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Fitness and weightloss channels on social media: They keep telling me 1200 calories is too low?

Hey everyone!

Hope your weightloss endeavours are going well!

I just thought I'd ask this community, as it's something cropping up that I've not come across before. Well, not until now, anyway.

A lot of the fitness pages that are beginning to crop up on my feeds (algorithms know I'm trying to lose weight, it's insane how much it's become common place on every social media platform I have now when I've barely searched for it on said platform) lament that 1200 calories is way too low/unhealthy for sustainable weightloss.

I've been on and off 1200 calories for a while, now. It's certainly the most effective(?) weight loss deficit I've found that works for me (F, 5'4"), and I genuinely had no idea it was supposed to be this unhealthily low amount? I've seen a few posts on here and on progress pics stating they followed this deficit for x amount of months to achieve their goals.

Whilst I agree it is not exactly the most sustainable (I do find after a few weeks I tend to lapse, not binge, but I do ease up and relax the strict nature of my diet), but I don't find it personally unhealthy? Sometimes I think I'm doing something wrong, as even with strict monitoring there'll be a week where I won't lose anything on this deficit - I do think hormones and menstrual cycles, water weights etc come into this, so I try to look at 2 week progress points than 1.

Am I just woefully ignorant? There's quite a few that seem to agree, and I'm a little worried now, as I don't think I'd lose much or consistently if gave this deficit some slack (even this week I've struggled to lose, and that's with exercise).

I'm more than happy to see the other side if this deficit is way too low. I don't want to be messing myself up without realising, but the weight loss so far attests to its effectiveness for me, personally.

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I feel like the odd one out for saying this but I decided to not track calories and I’m wondering if anyone else here does not either.

Before I begin, I’m not at all suggesting that counting calories is wrong. I just noticed how nutrition and the weight losss journey itself is so incredibly individual because no ones body is ever 100% identical.

I feel a bit alone and misunderstood on this . back when I was 13, I had to lose weight due to being prediabetic and having high cholesterol. So I started working out with my dad and eating less. Back then I was not tracking calories at all. I was working out, including veggies and eating less.

I’m 23 now and on my final weight loss journey. I decided to start tracking calories but it never stuck out for me. In fact, it became rather detrimental to my mental health and seeing the amount of calories available to me made me feel powerless, weak, and more deprived and restricted in my options.

So I decided to stop counting calories. I will use the app ATE to track what I eat, but I won’t be counting the calories because it causes me more stress and makes me overthink. The only times I do count calories is if I’m going out to eat, but on those days I choose to maintain.

But how do I know if I’m under track? I don’t. I’ll be honest, but I can feel it more by listening to my body and seeing how it feels so much better. Some days it wants more food and other days it want less.

I will admit I started fasting for 16 hours. But this doesn’t stop one from completely going over calories for weight loss.

If anything, not counting calories gives me power in myself and this ability to trust myself, which is something huge I’m working on in therapy and outside of it.

I also stopped snacking. A healthy granola bar or hard boiled egg wasn’t doing me justice. In fact, the act of snacking was making me more moody and hungry. I also decided to go back to doing low carb. I can never do keto, but low carb gives me an ability to be flexible and still have a slice of pizza or brownie when I want to.

I do fasting because it helps me listen to my body and enables self-discipline within me; the ability to make a good choice. I also weigh myself daily and input it via happyscale. I know the scale alone doesn’t determine success, but it helps. I also have my Fitbit to encourage me and to keep me going.

I’m also not in any rush to lose weight quickly anymore. I’ll get to my goal weight when I get there. I will happily say, however, I’ve reached 237.4 lbs. I’m 37.4 pounds away from onederland!

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Thoughts on Running During Weight Loss

(Obligatory disclaimer: these things are true for _me_; YMMV, always and forever)

I re-entered my healthy weight journey in April of this year. At the time, I wasn't anywhere near ready for exercise other than walking the dog slowly one time around the block. I felt heavy, my joints ached, my ankles popped, and I knew there was no way I was going to be able to run. I have been a runner off and on since my teens (more off than on), and I love it. I was feeling really sad that I was too heavy, in my mind, to run. I was also too exhausted all the time to even consider it.

What happened is that after I lost about 20 pounds I started to crave running. By the time I had lost 30, I was dreaming of it. So I downloaded a simple run-walk app, checked to see if my sports bra fit, and bought a couple of pairs of leggings from Walmart. Then I started. I have been running again for four weeks now, and it was the best decision I could have made.

What hadn't happened? Being "light enough" to run. I'm still pretty heavy. What DID happen? My transition to healthier eating habits, where I was eating more fresh fruits and vegetables, and very importantly, not overeating. Overeating for me leads to heartburn, fatigue, laziness, and malaise. Not so good for running. Once I started eating well, my body felt like running. And because I am working up to it with a run-walk program, I am giving my joints time to catch up. I have experienced no pain, shin splints, etc. since I started.

Benefits of Running for Weight Loss (for me):

1. Appetite suppression. I tend to have less hedonic hunger (cravings that are not a need for food) when running. I am more satisfied with keeping to my deficit calories.
2. Increased appetite for healthier foods; decreased appetite for junk. Nothing makes me want a plate of nachos more than sitting on the couch all day. When I am running regularly, however, I start to crave fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.
3. Mindfulness of my eating's effects on my running comfort and performance. I'll just say it: if I snack in the evening, especially if it is a lot of something fatty, I am going to get the runner's trots the next morning, guaranteed. Not fun. Plus I'll feel otherwise, um, shitty.
4. Increased energy. On the three days a week I run, the alertness and energy boost is insane. I take a medication that makes me tired, so running really helps. More energy means that I am moving around more in general throughout the day, standing at my desk more, taking more little walks, being willing to do activities in the evening if they come up, etc. It's a great feedback loop.
5. Increased body positivity. When my body is running, I feel good about it. I feel proud of what it can do. When my first little extra thigh muscles popped up, I was thrilled. Even when I'm in a stall weight-wise, my body is changing shape in ways that I like.
6. Walking is now a restful, leisure activity. Because it is low-effort compared to running, my walks feel more recreational. Therefore, I am more likely to do them. They don't feel obligatory, but like treats to myself. I don't worry about speed or distance. I just leash up a dog and go.

I hope you can find an activity (and if it is walking for you, great!) that can support you in your quest for a healthier life.

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Should I take a day off?

Hi everyone! I’ve been on a weight loss journey for some time now. For the past 30 or so days I’ve been waking up every morning and running a mile and lifting some weights. It may not seem like much to some, but I’ve been trying to be active every day so I can develop a habit of going to to the gym. It has worked. It’s also a major change from my 0-2 workouts a week that I was doing prior.

For the past 14 or so days I’ve stayed within the same 2lb range on the scale. Is it time to take a day off from the gym? I know if your body starts to become use to a routine that you have more potential to become stagnant. Just curious as to what y’all’s thoughts are!

Thanks.

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Has anyone tried Wegovy or Saxenda? My first round of wegovy is getting delivered tomorrow!

To start, this is not intended to be a crutch for my weight loss journey or a replacement for getting a healthier lifestyle. My doctor recommended a weight loss drug because I have heightened covid side effects (after 8 months since I had it) which she believes is tied to my high BMI (close to obese). I'm working out incredibly hard and track my calories and eat healthier, so Wegovy is intended to just be a support in the process. I'm only going to be on it for only 6 months (there's a coupon making it only $25 a month for 6 months!)

I'm curious if anyone here has had experiences with Wegovy or Saxenda, which I believe is kind of similar. I'd love to hear your thoughts on side effects, effectiveness, etc. if you're comfortable sharing!

Disclaimer- I understand if you're anti-diet pills even if it's from the doctor so I'll just respectfully ask that you mutually respect my decision to try this. Thank you:)

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Starting my WL journey - managing thought patterns and breaking the cycle?

possible ED trigger warning /

Hello y'all! I've lurked this sub for a mad long time but finally made an account so this is my first post, and I'm looking for a little advice too. Sorry in advance for the length of this, I find it literally impossible to summarise lmao

So I'm 24F and been big my whole life, but had a real wake up call lately. I was weighed for a routine medical procedure and came up at 135kg (~297 lbs), and it really shocked me. Not just because it's a high number, but because when I last weighed myself a year ago, I was only 110kg (~242 lbs). I knew I was overweight but the degree of gain in 12 months blew me away.

I ended up speaking to my doctor and we found some hormonal and some thyroid problems that helped explain why I'd gained so fast, but realistically I know it's my own doing mostly. I despise exercise, eat in ridiculously big portions and have a crippling sweet tooth. I've always hated my body but not enough to do anything about it, at least not in adult life.

Anyway, wake up call, it kicked my ass into gear and I've been doing really well! I'm going to the gym pretty regularly, made some big dietary switches and am relying on CICO to stay in a healthy calorie deficit. It's been a couple of weeks, I've not weighed myself yet as I'm still starting slow and gaining traction, and I know I might feel discouraged if I've not lost yet.

My problem, historically, is old thought patterns coming to the surface. As a teen and young adult I had a horrible relationship with my body and food. I was never diagnosed with anything as my parents are "mental health isn't real" types so I had no avenue to seek help. But I was really severely restricting my intake (think under 700 calories) as well as overexercising. Like I say, never got help, and really just dealt with it myself. As I've gotten older I've improved but sometimes struggle in the opposite direction with binging.

(note: I definitely know I could benefit from therapy around this, and am working on that. This post is really looking for general advice, I'm not expecting you guys to play Internet Therapist with me!).

I've started and stopped weight loss plans a hundred times, and always given up, and part of that is because I've tended to fall into old habits and bring back that toxic mentality, and I don't even really notice the change until one day I wake up and realise I'm over-restricting myself again. I ended up adopting a mentality of "I'd rather be fat and mentally well" and gave up on losing weight at all.

Which brings me to now, this wake up call I've had, and this new journey. Not to speak too soon, but I really think this might be where I properly change for the better, and I'm excited. But I'm also really scared, and a bit put off, by the idea that I'm going to fall back into my cycle.

How do you guys keep your mentality healthy while you lose? How do you stay on track without being all-consumed by it? I already find myself just constantly on my Fitbit app thinking about my deficits, and how I could make it better with more exercise. Part of it I think is I have quite a one-track mind and since this is now a big part of my life, I need to make sure it doesn't become the only part.

I don't really know where I'm going to finish writing this, I partially wanted to just say hello since I've just joined, and get any initial general advice. But I really want to break this cycle of self-sabotage and if anyone has any pointers, similar experience, or advice to share I'd be super grateful!

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