Do you guys think that calling ourselves big or heavy is being dishonest to ourselves?

You always see posts everywhere where people say “i’m a bigger person” or “i’m on the heavier side” as opposed to saying “I’m fat”. Do you guys think it’s being dishonest to yourself? I don’t know about others but what helped me was just honestly realizing that I was fat and obese and not just “healthy” (as my parents kept calling it) or “big boned” (a la Cartman). Back then I didn't realize how fat I actually was because people around me just called me a healthier kid or a bigger kid. That caused me to be a bit delusional for decades. What woke me up was when I saw myself in the mirror one time and realized how disgustingly fat I actually was and not just "big". I think it's part of the mental aspect of weight loss. I found it important to be truly honest with myself even if it hurt. It's even helping me to not go past a certain weight because I don't want to physically see myself as fat anymore. I feel like being honest with ourselves helps more when it comes to our journey. The mental aspect of it is the hardest part.

Maybe people who are susceptible to emotional eating prefer to not call themselves fat because it kinda stings and they become depressed and then binge eat again? Maybe my perspective is just wrong but I would like to understand your view on it. I am still 10kg away from my goal weight and still consider myself fat.

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I've Lost 35lbs. I am Using Data (and more than that) to Make a Change.

I have been a lurker in this community for almost a year now and often wanted to speak on my progress. I haven't felt I met my goal enough to congratulate myself on this sub. I still don't feel like I do. But as of today, I am 35 pounds lighter than I was on Jan 1, 2021. While that has been great progress, I am still working through my internal overachiever ego that always wishes I need to do more. Weight loss has been the most difficult challenge I have endured. That being said, I am beginning my new diet adjustment that I plan to hold onto between now and the end of the year. I am ending my fling with keto and moving back to an adjusted low carb Calories in Calories Out (CICO) diet.

Over the course of the year I have tried CICO, keto, and an adjusted whole 30. I also had a period where I backslid into old habits. Throughout the entire year I actively weighed myself almost daily. While weighing myself daily has its own consequences on my psyche, it has given me some really valuable data that I can look at. Weight hardly ever tells the full story, but tracking weight over time has given me insight into how my body is responding to the food I am feeding it.

With that being said, today, I pulled the data of 10 months, 100 data points onto an excel sheet and looked at what I can see.

The Data:

• Data was sourced from my Rephno app Bluetooth scale. There are 100 entries beginning 1/5/21 and ending 10/11/2021.
• There is little data between 2/27/2022 - 8/11/2021 where I spent a lot of time no focusing on my weight but my mental health. I also backslid between February and June where I gained most of my weight back from my CICO progress.

​

Calories in Calories Out 1/5/21-2/27/21

Calorie intake:1450-1800 on average.

Weight lost: -14.9lbs

Comparative weight loss: (removed initial weight crash at the beginning to normalize the data.: -13.6lbs

Adjusted daily weight loss (days/total weight lost): -.28 lbs

Standard deviation: 1.314

Pros: Easy to follow, freedom to eat what I want, less variable, easy to track.

Cons: Counting calories suck, can blow calorie count easily, hungry often. Slower results.

Overall thoughts: this was the best diet for my mental health. It made it easy to understand the amount of food I was putting into my body. Portion control and understanding worthless calories became a real game changer. I found easy alternatives to empty calories. Early results were fast and constant weight loss became easier to see. However, when things got tough, it became easy to fall back to old habits. I fell off and regained most of my weight. I was hungry a lot and this diet did not offer a lot to keep that under control. Overall it taught me portion control.

​

Keto 8/11/2021-9/30/2021

Calories intake: unknown

Weight loss: -15.8lbs

Adjusted daily weight loss (days/total weight lost): -.32lbs

Standard deviation: 2.965

Pros: No focus on counting, easy excluding food groups, fast results, better attention to what food I consume.

Cons: keto flu, no fruit, easy to do dirty keto, shame around cheating (no leeway), long term worries about heart health, cholesterol.. Expensive.

Overall thoughts: This fad was being tried out in my office and I jumped on knowing I gained a lot of my weight back. I needed to look good again for back-to-office. Keto was fast. It was easy to just exclude carbs. I became more aware of what I was eating. Sugar is in EVERYTHING. This diet taught the importance of the quality of food I was putting into my body. It taught me so well that I became more critical of keto. Keto flu, keto fog, and ketosis is my body not feeling good. If I am not feeling good, something is wrong. I am concerned about long term health effects on my heart, cholesterol, and BP. Weight loss was more erratic and cheating became non-existent and shameful.

Review:

Both diets offered me something to work on. CICO taught me portion control and empty calories. Keto offered a deep look into what I was eating and the effects of sugar. Both offered positive weight loss results. While keto offered a higher daily adjusted weight loss of -.32lbs, towards the end of September it began to stagnate. At no time did CICO slow down in loss for me.

The deal breaker:

For me the deal breaker is seen in the Standard Deviation (SD). The standard deviation for CICO was 1.314. The standard deviation for Keto was double the amount at 2.965. What this tells me is that over time, the weight loss for CICO was more steady and constant, whereas Keto was erratic and had lots of deviation. The SD plus the way it made my body feel were clear indications that my body was experiencing something it shouldn't be.

Either way, the lesson for me is to listen to my body and follow the weight loss plan that makes me feel good too. The end number is a goal, but how to get there is really the lesson of the day for me.

Thanks everyone, I see your posts everyday and you all inspire me to do better.

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At my goal weight after 50 Lbs lost in 10 months. Some things I've learned.

40th Birthday in 2.5 months.

Starting Weight: 229.9 (January). Goal Weight: 185. Current Weight: 179.2 (October). Weight Loss: 50.7 (10 months).

I also wanted to say how much I've enjoyed the community in this sub for the past 10 months. Been very inspiring seeing people's progress, and also been a treat to help others where I've been able.

Maybe some of the things I’ve learned along the way can help somebody else! None of this is in any order.

The Practical:

• Track your food consumption. In order of importance: calories, protein, fiber, water. Get a food scale. You don’t need to use it all the time, but use it for every single bite for at least a couple of weeks. After that, start guessing at the weight, calories, and macros of your food, and confirm your guesses with the scale. When you start to get within +/-10%, feel free to use it less. For tracking, I use FoodNoms.
• Track your activity. Apple Watch, FitBit, whatever you want. I used AppleWatch, and the apps of the exercise equipment I used: Garmin, Strava, Peloton, Tonal, FitBod.
• Track your weight. Weigh yourself every day, same time, same conditions. For most people, I’d imagine that it’s first thing in the morning, after the bathroom, before a shower, and naked. Day to day fluctuations don’t matter. Every week, take each day’s measure and average it. You want to see that weekly average going down at 1% of your body weight or less. Think of weight loss like walking down stairs while playing with a yo-yo. The yo yo goes up and down wildly, but generally slopes downward as you walk down the stairs. Remember, weight loss is not the goal. Fat loss is. For tracking I used a combination of my Withings scale, Apple HealthKit, and Happy Scale.
• When it comes to all of the measurements above, know that they are going to be inaccurate. They are meant to give you *directional* information on how you’re doing. It doesn’t necessarily matter if you’re “right” about having eaten 1,800 calories, but it *does* matter if you’re right that you ate more or less than yesterday, or last week, or if the amount your eating is materializing on the scale.
• At the end of the say, CICO (Calories In, Calories Out), is all that matters. But just saying that marginalizes the psychological battles you’ll need to win to be successful. CICO is a description of the physics, but not the psychology. In a calorie deficit, you’ll be hungry. Managing that hunger is important. Intermittent Fasting worked wonders for me.
• In my opinion, Intermittent Fasting is the best hunger management technique there is. For my 10 months, I did an 18:6, where I only ate from Noon - 6 PM. No calories outside that window. Not even a breath mint. For the first 2 months, I also did longer fasts where I stopped eating at 6 PM on Tuesday, and had my first calorie on Thursday at 8 AM. These were difficult, but absolutely helped with hunger management during the rest of the week.
• Get shit food out of your house. Literally throw it away.
• Find staple foods that you can rely on. It should be: low caloric density (low calories / high volume), high protein (5-10g of protein per 100 calories), easy to make, fast (able to be prepared in less than 10 minutes), and *most important* enjoyable. For me: Egg whites French toast with frozen berries; Think! Protein Bars; Think! Oatmeal; Turkey Sandwiches; Avocado Toast with eggs; Ground Beef and mixed vegetables with spices; Chomps brand Jerky; Magic Spoon Cereal; Enlightened Ice Cream Bars; Protein shakes; Chicken Breast, Chicken Thighs; Steak; Pork Chops; Pickles.
• “You can’t outrun a bad diet” - “80% of weight loss is in the kitchen”. These things are true, but exercise is important for health, and is part of the ritual that reminds you why you’re doing this. I’ve found resistance training to be more enjoyable than cardio, so I do 2 - 3x per week resistance training, and 1 - 2x per week of cardio.
• Giving up booze (or significantly cutting down) is like playing this game with a cheat code. It reduces empty calories, eliminates an agitator for bad eating, and improves your sleep.

The Psychological:

• Think hard about why you’re doing this. The harder you think, the more you’ll have invested in your answer. Remember that answer as you go along. For me, it was about family. having Having more energy and more confidence helps me show up better to my kids, to my wife, and to my career. On those days you lose motivation, this will be your rock.
• Figure out what motivates you, and what scares you, and use those to your advantage. For me, seeing the “scoreboard” motivates me. I’ve tracked as much as I possible could, even if this information was practically useless. Can I take any specific action knowing my breath ketones, for example? No. But having the information is a powerful motivator for me. Especially the rituals: Entering the data, looking at it in the morning and the evening, seeing the progress over time. It gets you committed to your project. Key Apps I used: AppleWatch, HealthKit, Withings HealthMate, Peloton, Tonal, Strava, Happy Scale, Biosense, Zero.
• Find content online that keeps you engaged with your goals. Listen to heath and wellness podcasts, watch fitness YouTube videos. Having that “background noise” in your life will ensure your brain doesn’t get distracted, and that you’re constantly reminded about your priorities. Stuff that I like: Mind Pump, Greg Doucette, Peter Attia, Andy Galpin, BioLayne, The Move.
• Discipline > Motivation. Motivation is a great catalyst to get one to act, but do NOT depend on it being there for long. Motivation fades quickly. When it does strike, use some of that impulse to create discipline. It may seem like a waste, but it’s not. Discipline you can depend on, motivation you cannot.
• Take a multivitamin. Drink tons of water. I’ve learned that some hunger is actually just thirst, or a micronutrient deficiency, or simply a craving. Craving does not equal hunger.
• Achieving your goals will take a lot of sacrifice, but does need to take a lot of suffering. It’s OK to deviate from your plan when a higher order value calls for it. I had impromptu ice creams with my family sometimes that I didn’t budget for. Enjoying time together with them is more important than hitting my day’s calorie goal on the button. I can go a few hundred calories over my budget now and then.

The Interesting:

Learning about physiology has been truly enjoyable, all the way down to the atoms. I posted this as a comment to a post by /u/Calepria, and people seemed to like it:

“Your body is a machine. It’s input, or fuel source, is carbon. Carbon is in food (carbohydrate = carbon and hydrogen). It can do two things with that carbon you eat:

1). use it immediately (break apart the carbohydrates (C & H) and combine it with the oxygens you breathe (O) which creates energy (ATP), and converts it into CO2 which you breathe out, and H2O which you pee or sweat or soak up)

2). store it as fat. All those carbons get put on a big chain and 3 of those chains are attached to a glycerol molecule. That’s what a triglyceride is. Then that triglyceride is stuck in a fat cell for a rainy day (or a workout more accurately).

When you eat more carbon than you use, it gets stored as fat. That’s called a calorie surplus. Yes, you’re still breathing out CO2, but you’re eating more Cs than you’re breathing. You could eat less (less carbon coming in) or breathe out more with activity such as exercise (more carbon going out).

When you eat less carbon than you need (a calorie deficit), your body needs more carbon to function. Where does it get it? It liberates the carbon it has stored in your fat cells, and treats those liberated Carbons as if you ate them. This is called lipolysis. You’re literally eating yourself and breathing yourself out. It only works in a calorie deficit. If you need 2500 calories, and you only eat 1500, the other 1000 calories come from your fat stores. You ate carbons months or years ago, and your body is now getting around to using them.

The cool part is when you breathe out those CO2 molecules, where do they go? They literally become plants. The plants do the exact opposite. They take in CO2, combine it with water, and store it. The source of energy for this process is sunlight, and that’s what photosynthesis is.

The circle of life!”

So the next major step in my plan is to keep my weight between 180-189. You’ll notice my goal weight was 185, but I’m currently at 179. I intentionally overshot my goal, knowing that the next phase for me is to maintain my weight in a slight deficit, and do recomposition. I’ll be focusing more on resistance training, and hope to add some more muscle mass, losing fat, while staying the same weight. Formal goals: Maintain 180-189. If ever over 189, immediately cut back to 185. Increase strength and muscle mass. Increase athletic endurance. <— these goals aren’t S.M.A.R.T., and they need to be. Going to smarten them up in the next 2 weeks and kick off phase 2.

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What to do about loose clothes?

I’ve lost about 45 pounds so far which is halfway through my weight loss journey (my goal is to lose 90lbs by the summer!) which I’m super proud of. I’ve gone down from a US women’s size 14 to a little under a size 10 (size 10 is a little big on me but size 8 is a little tight). Unfortunately, that means that my entire wardrobe has become way too loose on me and looks ridiculous. Shirts that used to be too tight around the chest now sag close to my knees, and I can’t take a step in my old pants without worrying they’ll fall down.

My problem is, I’m only halfway through my weight loss journey and want to continue losing weight, which means I’ll keep going down sizes. I don’t want to waste lots of money on a new wardrobe now if it means I’ll just end up having to replace it all again in a few months. But I still feel ridiculous showing up to work wearing a blouse that’s two sizes too big and need stuff to wear now. I know thrifting is an option, but I still don’t want to be wasteful and buy all this clothing only to have to get rid of it soon. How can I find clothes that fit (or maybe reuse the clothes I have) so that I have something to wear while continuing to lose weight?

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What you need is not motivation, it's a routine and habits

First, sorry for the mistakes, English is not my first language. I just want to preface this text by "this is my experience in the last 48 years of my life" . I don't claim to have THE TRUTH! only my own truth and experience. It might not be applicable to you and it's completely ok. You might think that I am full of it! You might be right! That I have no idea what it is to be in your skin.....I don't but I try my best to be a supporting person.

I've been around a few orbits now, had 10 pregnancies and 6 live births, been a single mom and in a couple, been healthy and unhealthy. Happy and suicidal. Obese and skinny.

One thing I learned is that motivation NEVER last. Motivation is the essential ingredient to start losing weight but has nothing to do with a successful weight loss and maintenance.

So you want to lose weight? You change everything you eat, you spend hours in the gym, you are MOTIVATED! Then after a few weeks you are miserable, hungry, angry and exhausted. Almost nobody that miserable is motivated (except maybe those doing bodybuilding but even them will tell you that they are insane) .

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at the time. What if instead you change one thing this week? Just one doable thing. - I want to walk 5000 steps a day 3 days of the week. Download a walking app, get good music on your phone and try it just for a week see if you enjoy it. - I want to stop drinking my calories and find alternatives that I enjoy. Forget all the 8 cup a day of plain water if you don't enjoy drinking water. Maybe Sparling water can replace soda? Maybe diet soda .....is it the best? Probably not but for now close enough is good enough.

You don't have to be miserable !!!! It doesn't have to be horrible and hard. It can be enjoyable! It won't be fast but it will be lasting! Each new little decisions will bring you closer to the life you want and deserve to have.

And now I'll get off my soap box, take my cane and tell you kids to GET OFF MY LAWN lol

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How to accept the fact that weight loss will take so long?

CW 300, 5'9, 23M

I distinctly remember when I turned 19 and promised myself I would lose weight by the time I'm 20, though here I am 4 years later with 50 pounds more. As far as I can remember, I have not managed to eat healthy for more than two days in a row over these 4 years, though every single day I’ve told myself that I was gonna do better and made plans to become healthier. I always feel like I’m making progress towards fighting the addiction but the results don’t show it. I’ve realized that I eat for emotional reasons, usually after a tiring day, and always got to have some Netflix to watch otherwise I have no interest in food; but that doesn’t really help me. Losing weight is such a long process that I can’t start it and get mentally drain each time I have to fight an urge to eat junk food.

I feel terrible every time I binge, then motivated and empowered every morning after when I feel like there’s no way I’ll fail again. I have barely no friends anymore, mostly because I shut down everyone and refuse invitations because I feel ashamed. I do thankfully still have a few online friends, who I’ve told everything except that I’m fat, and who would probably accept it but I’m too scared of rejection and would use any excuse so they don’t find out.

I’ve been looking at that subreddit for years but never had the courage or motivation to post. I’m not expecting anything from it but it felt nice writing this, even if to complete strangers) Anyway I have a few quite awesome opportunities of living a happier life coming up next summer, and if I haven’t made a dent in my weight by then, I know for sure I won’t take them. Seems like I have so much time to make it happen so it shouldn’t be that hard?? If it weren’t for that stupid brain tanking me every single day over and over. And on the other hand, I so wish being able to explore my body and discovering all the amazing things it can do, like climbing etc.

Anyway, I am now "officially" starting yet another attempt at living healthy, Tuesday Oct 12th 2021, 0:27am Western Europe time :) And best of success to everyone else out there fighting against themselves ♥️

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Maintenance Monday: October 11, 2021

If you've reached your goal weight and you're looking for a space to discuss with fellow maintainers, this is the thread for you! Whether you're brand new to maintenance or you've been doing it for years, you're welcome to use this space to chat about anything and everything related to the experience of maintaining your weight loss.

Hey everyone, here's your weekly discussion thread! Tell us how maintenance and life in general is going for you this week! And if you missed last week's (or simply want to reread), here's a link.

If there's a specific topic you'd like to see covered in a future thread, please drop a comment or message!

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