I’ve struggled with weight my entire life. I was always the fat kid, attempted to lose weight a few times, but did a lot of lying to myself in the process. I was thankfully spared from being bombarded with yo-yo diets. When I decided I wanted to try to lose weight, my mom taught me to track my food. Which is great, unless you don’t write half of what you eat down.
In 2018, I found out that I was pre-diabetic. Not a huge surprise, I wasn’t only obese, but I also have PCOS and a strong family history of type 2 diabetes. But it was a small wake-up call. At the time, I weighed 337 lbs. Over the course of 4 months, I lost 55 lbs. Things got busy with school finals and holidays, and I used that as an excuse to stop. I didn’t regain, but then in February of 2019, I found out I was no longer pre-diabetic. I had full diabetes. That pushed me into a long depression. I started taking metformin, but it didn’t do anything (which I didn’t know, because I refused to check my blood sugar – big needle-phobia, couldn’t do it). I let my diabetes go on uncontrolled with no changes in my lifestyle and eating fast food for just about every meal or just really unhealthy foods at home.
I went in for a physical because I moved and needed a new primary care doctor for my prescriptions. Still didn’t do anything about the diabetes, just decided I didn’t care. I was in denial and wanted to believe despite my blood work that the metformin was doing what it was supposed to. Covid hit, I gained 10 pounds. By mid-2021, I decided to get things in order again with my health. In May, I lost 10 lbs, and I have no idea how – I didn’t make any changes then. At the end of May, I went in for a check-up again and got bad news. My triglycerides were dangerously high, my A1C was the worst it had ever been. This was the big wake-up call for me. I also had to start taking a new injectable med (Ozempic), which with my needle-phobia was just fantastic. Thanks to a pharmacist and a lot of patience from her, I was finally able to do it.
After that, I changed my entire diet overnight. I started calorie restriction (1600-1800 calories, which was above my calculated BMR), saturated fat restriction (less than 22 g a day), and carb restriction (for the diabetes, less than 40 g per meal). I later found out with a DEXA scan and an RMR test that my bare minimum was really 2000 calories and made that adjustment when I found out. I did not restrict foods outright, but I did avoid fast food for a while (I don’t now, but I only eat it occasionally, and instead of binging, I order a reasonable amount of food within my calorie limit), and I learned that I am not responsible enough to keep gummy bears around my apartment yet. I will add here that the Ozempic did help significantly with the first 6 weeks of weight loss. I would have lost weight without it, but it caused severe nausea and made me very full very fast, so that weight loss was amplified until those side effects passed. I had another appointment yesterday.
As of now, I have lost 45 lbs in 4 months, which makes a 100 lb total loss from my highest weight (in 8 months combined). More importantly, my triglycerides have dropped from 470 to 150 (dangerous to normal), my HDL cholesterol is up, my LDL cholesterol is down, and my A1C went from 9.4 to 5.6 (for those that don’t know, anything over 6.4 is diabetic, anything from 5.7-6.4 is pre-diabetic), which puts me in the normal A1C range (albeit on the edge) for the first time since 2017.
I’m just extremely happy and proud today and wanted to share my journey. I have a long way to go, but I know what I’m doing now, and with the calorie adjustment and the Ozempic side effects gone, I am losing weight at a safe and steady pace.
Also, here’s the reminder to always take before/after pictures, they are a hell of a motivator. I didn’t at my highest weight, but I found some pictures from that time. I really had no idea how big I looked then. I also didn’t really see a difference in the mirror until I found the pictures. They’re not direct pictures because I didn’t start until recently. But I think the difference is pretty clear.
https://imgur.com/a/6aSAQzO
I also know I needed a morale booster, because after hitting 100 lbs lost, its easy to fall into a trap of wanting to quit. So here are my mini-goals for the rest of my journey. I don't necessarily have an end number. I just want to be healthy and with any luck, end the diabetes and get off my meds.
232 lbs - 50 lbs lost in 2021 226 lbs - more weight lost on second journey than first journey 224 lbs - third of total body weight lost 203 lbs - 75% of the way to a normal BMI 199 lbs - first time under 200 lbs as an adult 190 lbs - obese to overweight 159 lbs - overweight to normal
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