Lost 11 pounds in the last few months by essentially stopping snacking and adding physical activity. Feel like I *finally* cracked the code on weight loss - it’s a sad realization that from now on, I will just have to treat food as fuel and not as a source of comfort or a treatment for boredom…

Title explains. My stats: female, 33 yo, 5 11 tall, currently 147 lbs, down from 158 or so. Started this process in July.

I am tall so the weight loss barely shows. But it’s started to show in conjunction with physical activity, I have mini abs now? And clothes fit more comfortably.

Food-wise I basically stopped snacking outside of meal times. For bf, I do oatmeal, cereal or eggs w sourdough slices. Lunch: I like to make a curry or a chili and just warm it up for 4-5 days straight. I work from home so it’s easy. Dinner: husband and I usually eat fish or chicken w some of grains and vegetables. I have started to enjoy paleo meals and cutting carbs, but I still eat a lot of quinoa, rice. Cheating on weekends. But not the way I used to.

Snacks-that was hard. I try to avoid food inbetween meals, maybe have a banana if I’m starving. When I watch movies at night, I eat seaweed or pea snacks. Also bought a huge box of Skinny pop from Costco-100 kcal per bag and I get my fix.

It’s been sad to accept that food is just this fuel now but if I want to maintain my weight as a woman in her 30s-40s and etc, I cannot turn to food just because. I try to eat when I’m hungry and ask myself “am I really hungry right now” or just bored or anxious? I scratch the itch with drinking a lot of tea-when I want to ingest something, I make myself a cup of holy basil tea, for example. And try to chill…or do some organizing task around the house.

I’ve always hated exercise. I suck at it. I got an Apple Watch and got serious about counting steps. Aiming for 7000-10000 daily. I also started doing yoga and Pilates with video and recently went in for an in person Pilates class.

My other amazing finds were the Mobility workouts on daily burn. I hate cardio, weights and HIIT, the mobility workouts are just a good way to get your body moving again without crazy jumping and cardio-movement should feel good and I’m done trying to do things that I do not enjoy.

One of my motivations was actually the fact that it was getting more difficult to find bottoms that would work on me, I was constantly inbetween sizes, M or L, 6 or 8, 30 or 31 jeans. Nothing fit because as a pear shape, my waist is small so there would be a huge waist opening, but then the fabric would pull at the hips. Shopping became frustrating and I don’t have the patience to take everything in for alterations. I am just trying to go back to being a medium bottom. I’ve been a medium my entire life, so at some point I will just stop trying to lose a bit more and try to stay there. My current goal weight is 143.

It’s a journey. It’s the hardest thing. I wish everyone luck.

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Weight loss while disabled/injured?

Hi everyone! This is my first Reddit post (ever haha) but I'm looking for some community support and maybe a little brainstorming help! TL;DR: I'm trying to lose weight but I basically can't use my legs for exercise, besides biking. What exercises do you guys suggest for weight loss that don't rely on legs?

I've always been naturally slim--I was a beanpole as a kid (tall and VERY willowy) but I filled out during puberty once I got hips, thighs, and a butt (and that butt will not quit, let me tell you, it's my greatest asset). I'm 5'9 (cis woman) and have been since high school (I'm 22) and I usually hover around 130-155 depending on the circumstance, but I'm usually at my healthiest around the 140-150 area (the only times I've consistently been under 140 since puberty was when I was super depressed and couldn't eat anything, so...). However, spring/summer 2020 I gained about 20 pounds, mostly because I wasn't constantly walking around campus and because my body likes to store fat during times of constant low-level stress. Wanting to lose the weight, I started tracking my food and exercising regularly. I ran 4-5 times a week and did body weight exercises on my days off. Met with a nutritionist, got protein powder, the whole nine yards. Consistently ran a calorie deficit of about 500 (idk if that's the right terminology but it was 500 more calories out than in). I felt really good while I was running regularly and lost about 12 pounds in 3 months, which I know is pretty slow but felt good and sustainable! Down to 163 in December from 175 in August (started running in early October). My ultimate goal was 150 but I was really proud of myself that all my effort made a dent!

Enter disability. Partly triggered by the running (but doctors don't know for sure why it happened), I developed a thing called exertional compartment syndrome. Basically, the fascia in my legs doesn't expand when my muscles expand, causing a buildup of pressure, which means that running is excruciating. And I mean excruciating. If I run for the bus, I'll be on the verge of tears by the time I get there, and I'll be feeling it for the rest of the day. At first, when I was running regularly, I could play through the pain by stopping and stretching regularly. Now, though, it's gotten worse and worse and I can't even go for a walk, go up stairs, or do body weight exercises. I can bike because it doesn't have the propelling motion that triggers pain, and I often bike places just for pain management. A good 20% of my mental load is taken up by dealing with constant pain, which is why I've fallen off of exercise so much--I'm just fatigued all the time. And of course I gained the weight back.

I'm (hopefully) getting surgery to fix it in January or February, but I want to be able to feel good in my body for the next few months, and create healthy habits for after surgery recovery. I'm tracking my eating and trying to eat full servings of veggies and fruits, get enough protein, and not mindlessly snack. I'm still running a calorie deficit, but it's harder to maintain because I'm not exercising and therefore I can't eat as much, which means I'm dealing with distracting hunger in between meals. Drinking water only helps so much, and I feel a little like I'm just replacing the constant hunger with a constant need to pee? Anyway, that's a problem for another day.

Before you ask, here are exercises I can't do: plank/push up (the leg positions aggravates my pain), squats, walking, running (obviously), stairs, weightlifting that's standing (I can do incline bench), yoga (sad face, I was really getting into it), any sort of aerobic dance.

I can swim, but realistically, knowing myself, I won't. I know it's great exercise, but it's waaaaay too much effort and though I can swim well enough to pass a swim test and not drown, I'd have to teach myself proper form. Juggling work, undergrad, two honors theses, and the job/fellowship application cycle, it's just not gonna happen. I do bike often, but the amount of biking I need to be doing for it to be equivalent to the exercise I was getting while running makes it difficult to rely on that alone, so I need some other exercise options. Any thoughts? Or it not, any encouraging words?

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Looking for help on breaking through a plateau

I feel I should start with a little background information on me: I am a male in my 30’s and I am 6’2”. I have slowly but surely lost 166lbs over the last 5 years (56lbs this year alone) from my highest weight of 368lbs to my current weight of 202lbs as of this morning. I use CICO, I log everything, and I weigh my food to the gram to make sure my logs are perfect and I know I’m operating in a very real deficit. I also lift weights three days per week using a simple/beginner friendly full body routine. My goal weight is 185lbs and I’ve never been this close in all of my past years of losing and regaining weight so I’m fairly determined to see this through to the maintenance phase.

As for my problem, I have hit a plateau in my weight loss and this time instead of saying fuck it and eating 5000 calories a day I’m asking for advice. My “maintenance” calories according to most calculators or formulas should be around 2600 calories/day and I have been eating 1600 calories/day so I should be losing 2lbs per week going by the standard 3500 calories = 1lbs. Instead over the last two full months I have lost a combined total of only 4.8lbs when previously I was losing 10-12lbs/month.

Now, I know and understand that I was at a far larger deficit when I had more weight to lose and I’m not expecting anything like 4lbs/week but I am expecting more than 0.6lbs/week at a 1000 calorie/day deficit.

So is this just what it’s like when you get within 20lbs of your goal? Should I be re-feeding or adding cheat meals? Should I go down to 1400 or 1200 calories/day?I’m kind of at a loss for what I should change as I’ve always just trusted the deficit and things have worked out but after two months of dragging on I’m starting to get frustrated and I’m losing sight of the end goal. Any advice is appreciated.

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Small Victory

TL; DR: Have never had good eating habits. Have gained a ton of weight since marriage and COVID hit me hard. I’ve tried starting to lose weight multiple times but always fall off the wagon when I have a gathering with family/friends and have a “cheat meal” that turns into cheat week, month, etc. Was out with family and ordered fajita plate, ate no chips or tortillas, used salsa on the fajita platter, and felt really proud for standing firm when I always cave.

I was always really “healthy” in high school but later learned that I was never actually taking care of my body. Both of my parents are severely overweight and the food and eating habits in our household were terrible. The only thing keeping me in shape or appearing healthy was being a young kid and playing multiple sports. In college I started gaining but it really took off once I got married and started a desk job. I’ve tried multiple times over the last seven years or so to lose weight and have always failed. I tend to do great a a few weeks or months and then when the holidays or outings with family (who have horrible eating habits) come, I will decide to enjoy it and have “a cheat meal” but it usually winds up in overdoing it and falling off the wagon and just eating poorly again until my next decision to eat better.

There have been a lot of times where I have gone to a party or to a restaurant and prepared myself mentally to “order healthy, avoid the junk, eat dinner before the party” but always wind up being tempted and eating the junk or bad menu items and it transitions me back into the bad habits.

This weekend we went to a place with a bunch of food stalls and trucks with some friends. My friends ordered unhealthy items, my wife and young kid got some Mexican platters, and I felt beyond tempted. I overcame and found a juice/smoothie bar and ordered a much healthier option and felt so good mentally, physically, and emotionally.

The same thing happened when we were out with my parents and aunt who was in town that evening. We wound up at a Mexican restarting and I have always eaten bowls of chips and then order the chimichanga. I stood firm to my plan and ordered chicken fajitas, ate no chips or tortillas, and used the salsa on the chicken and veggies. Walked out feeling so good physically, mentally, and emotionally.

So far I’m doing really well (closing in on a month) and want to keep making progress in weight loss but also life change. Most of my friends or family couldn’t understand why these small victories mean so much to me but I know you guys can. Thanks for the support and all the stories that continue to motivate and encourage me!

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I think the more I push my body, the more it fights against me.

I struggled with a binge eating disorder since I was 15 (now 21F) so my weight would fluctuate a lot. At the beginning of the year, I broke down and had never binged so much which made me go up to 70 kg (154lbs). I thought I was meant to struggle with it for the rest of my life and cried almost every day. Weirdly enough, I no longer have any urges to binge because I learned to listen to what my body needs and have been steadily losing, now sitting at 63kg (139lbs), 5’5, 24% b.f. for reference. My goal is to get to 20-21% b.f.
But there are times I’d want to speed up my weight loss so I would increase my deficit and exercise. Then, I find my body refuses to let go of any weight, sometimes I even gain. Energy levels and mood shoot down… It feels like a slippery slope.
I don’t know if it happens to anyone else. It’s frustrating, but I need to remind myself that this journey is about gaining trust with my body. I fought with it for too long. If it wants to go slow and steady, then I’ll take this time to learn to love it where it is at.

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sharp pain udnder my left ribcage every time I eat

So me (15M,94kg,190cm) lost 20kgs this summer and I am getting worried that I might be eating too much

Before my weight loss I got this pain constantly but I assumed it was just from eating too much

But now I am getting this pain again despite my meals being a lot smaller

I am struggling to keep up my weight loss

Sometimes I go to 96kg but then I drop to 92kg That is basically how my weight jumped around this September

So about the pain. It is only under my left ribcage and well I got this acidic taste in my mouth. That is about it. It helps when I lie down

Could this be a sign that I am eating too much again? Or is this something normal?

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How to lose weight when you have no work/life balance?

F, 5'2, 176 lbs.

I spend all my time either at school, commuting, doing homework, participating in clubs, or at my job. My average weekday I get around 5-6 hours of sleep, and 1-3 hours of rest. I can balance all of those aspects pretty well, but it leaves me with pretty poor physical and mental health. I've been meaning to exercise more and eat better, but with food having been my coping mechanism for so long it's so difficult to get myself to expend the energy to work out or get something healthy. I can't really seem to get the idea of weight loss out of my head either- I know I'll be so much happier if I can force myself to delegate any of my rest time to working out and if I make better food decisions. I've been wanting to lose weight and be comfortable in my body for the past 6 years but I just seem to gain more and more. Does anybody have any tips for trying to squeeze little things throughout the day that take little mental energy to be healthier? I would really, really appreciate it.

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