Starting my weight loss quest

(Throwaway account) I can't take it anymore. For years, I've struggled with the effects of obesity and tonight I think I'm hitting my breaking point.

I served for 4 years in the Marine Corps. I was in the best shape of my life, and when I got out, service-connected depression and anxiety hit me hard. Over time, I lost motivation to exercise and eat healthy, and I'd eat unhealthy simply for the fact that I could now that I was out of the military.

Since 2016, I went from 198 (5'11) to 310 lbs, where I am currently. I HATE myself! This very second, I'm typing this out laying in bed having puked for half an hour due to acid reflux. My girlfriend doesn't sleep in bed with me anymore due to my snoring.

Nothing fits anymore; I'm a size 42 waist and it emotionally wrecks me having to buy that big of clothes. My shirts are XL, and even some of those don't fit me. I can't live this way anymore. I can't look at pictures of myself and want to paint a big black box over me. I can't look in the mirror and be happy with what I see. I've ruined my life and something needs to change.

I've started the weight loss quest several times before. A girl I liked motivated me to start losing weight, and I did drop about 15 pounds, but stopped due to a big spike in my depression. That girl is now my girlfriend, and while she NEVER calls me overweight and is always promoting body positivity, I just can't see myself being happy with someone if I'm so unhappy with myself.

Last Saturday, I achieved a life long goal of mine and earned my black belt in karate. I was so excited, but my custom ordered, embroidered black belt with my name on it doesn't fit. If that isn't bad enough, that size belt I ordered used to fit just fine when I started karate in 2017. So now it's sitting on my belt display, my name etched in gold, taunting me because I'm such a fat loser.

I have to change and I have to change now. I can't be overweight anymore. I want to look at myself and feel pride. I want to not be winded all the time. I want to wear my black belt, and I want to live a healthy lifestyle again.

My plan is to download MFP, get started with that, and see what I have to do towards my goals. I don't have the money for a gym membership, but there is a running trail a mile from my apartment. I guess we'll start there. If anyone has good advice for starting a running weight loss journey, please let me know (example being distance, how hard to run / how much to walk, etc).

Thank you so much for reading. I'm excited to start my journey, but really hoping my depression doesn't stop me this time. I can't keep living this way.

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from loseit - Lose the Fat https://ift.tt/2Xpv7Ni

Day 1? Starting your weight loss journey on Monday, 18 October 2021? Start here!

Today is your Day 1?

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Welcome to r/Loseit!

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So you aren’t sure of how to start? Don’t worry! “How do I get started?” is our most asked question. r/Loseit has helped our users lose over 1,000,000 recorded pounds and these are the steps that we’ve found most useful for getting started.

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Why you’re overweight

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Our bodies are amazing (yes, yours too!). In order to survive before supermarkets, we had to be able to store energy to get us through lean times, we store this energy as adipose fat tissue. If you put more energy into your body than it needs, it stores it, for (potential) later use. When you put in less than it needs, it uses the stored energy. The more energy you have stored, the more overweight you are. The trick is to get your body to use the stored energy, which can only be done if you give it less energy than it needs, consistently.

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Before You Start

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The very first step is calculating your calorie needs. You can do that HERE. This will give you an approximation of your calorie needs for the day. The next step is to figure how quickly you want to lose the fat. One pound of fat is equal to 3500 calories. So to lose 1 pound of fat per week you will need to consume 500 calories less than your TDEE (daily calorie needs from the link above). 750 calories less will result in 1.5 pounds and 1000 calories is an aggressive 2 pounds per week.

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Tracking

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Here is where it begins to resemble work. The most efficient way to lose the weight you desire is to track your calorie intake. This has gotten much simpler over the years and today it can be done right from your smartphone or computer. r/loseit recommends an app like MyFitnessPal, Loseit! (unaffiliated), or Cronometer. Create an account and be honest with it about your current stats, activities, and goals. This is your tracker and no one else needs to see it so don’t cheat the numbers. You’ll find large user created databases that make logging and tracking your food and drinks easy with just the tap of the screen or the push of a button. We also highly recommend the use of a digital kitchen scale for accuracy. Knowing how much of what you're eating is more important than what you're eating. Why? This may explain it.

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Creating Your Deficit

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How do you create a deficit? This is up to you. r/loseit has a few recommendations but ultimately that decision is yours. There is no perfect diet for everyone. There is a perfect diet for you and you can create it. You can eat less of exactly what you eat now. If you like pizza you can have pizza. Have 2 slices instead of 4. You can try lower calorie replacements for calorie dense foods. Some of the communities favorites are cauliflower rice, zucchini noodles, spaghetti squash in place of their more calorie rich cousins. If it appeals to you an entire dietary change like Keto, Paleo, Vegetarian.

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The most important thing to remember is that this selection of foods works for you. Sustainability is the key to long term weight management success. If you hate what you’re eating you won’t stick to it.

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Exercise

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Is NOT mandatory. You can lose fat and create a deficit through diet alone. There is no requirement of exercise to lose weight.

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It has it’s own benefits though. You will burn extra calories. Exercise is shown to be beneficial to mental health and creates an endorphin rush as well. It makes people feel *awesome* and has been linked to higher rates of long term success when physical activity is included in lifestyle changes.

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Crawl, Walk, Run

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It can seem like one needs to make a 180 degree course correction to find success. That isn’t necessarily true. Many of our users find that creating small initial changes that build a foundation allows them to progress forward in even, sustained, increments.

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Acceptance

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You will struggle. We have all struggled. This is natural. There is no tip or trick to get through this though. We encourage you to recognize why you are struggling and forgive yourself for whatever reason that may be. If you overindulged at your last meal that is ok. You can resolve to make the next meal better.

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Do not let the pursuit of perfect get in the way of progress. We don’t need perfect. We just want better.

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Additional resources

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Now you’re ready to do this. Here are more details, that may help you refine your plan.

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• Quick Start Guide - Build your foundation!

* Lose It Compendium - Frame it out!

* FAQ - Answers to our most Frequently Asked Questions!

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from loseit - Lose the Fat https://ift.tt/3AOVHNp

For anyone struggling to lose weight: personally, truly kicking sugar addiction (not all sugar, just the addiction!) is the best thing to overcome the slippery slope!

I am already a healthy weight, but I have gone on and off of sugar every now and then and the difference it makes in quality of life are insane. And of course weight loss is already implied! Mainly cause of the calorie deficit, but also you will literally feel your body thanking you! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, we don’t exist to feel like crap all the time! 🙌

Truly kicking artificial added sugars (not talking about breads, fruit sugars, etc.) to as much as you can stand, will actually make you crave healthy foods like crazy. At least that has been my experience!

CAUTION THOUGH: It’s so easy to get hooked again. Still let yourself live a little, but save it on the good memories with friends, for special occasions! And even then, know that not going overboard and overeating too much is actually the opposite of taking care of yourself! Treating artificial/added sugars like a dangerous drug will change your lifestyle. A drug addict shouldn’t keep his drugs easily accessible to him at all times, and if we know sugar can even practically slowly destroy us emotionally, physically, mentally, why should we take it so lightly?

Not to say we become orthorexics!! But just to overcome societal double standards on health (that one size fits all way of thinking I guess) for our own well-being. Don’t make it too complicated, and do what works for you!

Not telling anyone what to do, these are just some of my thoughts! Hope this could help someone!

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I have had an enormous anxiety and insecurity in taking off my shirt in front of anyone, even family. I am currently feeling very depressed that I will never look good shirtless even after losing 120 pounds thanks to loose skin and discoloration.

As the title says, I just want to be comfortable in my own skin and not be perceived as ugly. I'm only 24 years old, but my skin is terrible. When I began losing weight I asked my dietician about the pace I should keep at to avoid loose skin. She laughed and told me not to worry because I'm young, and I was relieved.

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But she was quite wrong. When I was 320 lb at 5 foot 9 inches, I already had huge stretch marks all across most parts of my body... after losing weight and gaining plenty of muscle over 2 years, and maintaining 2 more, while trying dozens of creams, ointments and diets, I still look a lot like the Youtuber ObeseToBeast after his weight loss, but with much bigger flaps on my chest. Hyperpigmintation runs in my family and I have bands of skin discoloration around my chest from where my folds used to be, though they have gotten better over time and don't bother me anywhere near the loose skin does. My thighs have the texture of a popped balloon skin. I can't do the surgery due to cost and the complications it can cause for me, so I'm stuck with this skin.

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My life is better in every way when I'm dressed. But I don't go to beaches or pools without a swimming shirt on. I can't really show off my gains to anyone without a layer of clothes hiding the terrible flaps and wrinkles underneath. When I meet a girl (never been in a relationship before) I can really connect, feel confident and that I look good, but never take it too far because my crippling anxiety about intimacy in this body stops me dead in my tracks. I don't despite myself, and even when I was obese my self-esteem was never super low, but a huge part of my weight loss journey has been inspiration to look and feel sexy shirtless like my bros do. I love seeing other people work on themselves and their bodies, but always feel gutted when someone who has lost around the same weight I had comes out the other side looking like a Greek God instead of a semi-melted action figure. Makes me feel like I lost the genetic lottery hard despite my efforts.

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Currently my depressive thoughts go back to the years where my diet spun out of control, where I didn't care what I ate, where I was in constant self-isolation and disconnect from other people and just wanted to sleep and eat myself to oblivion (though largely because of environment and not self-hatred). I keep desperately wishing I could go back in time and start my weight loss before I had stretched my skin too thin, and I've even grown somewhat resentful of my parents who were too busy, dismissive and uninvolved in my health during those years and let me ruin myself while I was in a bad mental state since late childhood... I saw that movie About Time the other day and it just brought up all those feelings to the surface (sounds silly, I know).

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Anyways thanks for reading this rant. I know a lot of it is psychological, but even the fact that I can't just be like the people around me who don't have to get over such a confidence hurdle makes me depressed. I always wonder what my life would be like if I'd had the "aha" health moment in my teen years and not after I'd already done irreparable damage to the way I look. Maybe some day I'll risk it all and get the surgery.

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Down 20lbs since Jan 1!

29 F / 5’ 6” / SW 170 / CW 150 / GW eh whatever feels good

I have always fluctuated with my weight. In my last bout, I spent a short period of time about 6 years ago watching everything that I ate and was working out 6 days a week. This period of time was only 2 months and I dropped 20lbs. It came to a head where I just felt exhausted all the time and slowly stopped caring what I was eating since I felt like shit which just made me crave shitty food. Then I gained even more weight than what I originally started at. However, even when I was at my goal weight, I personally felt terrible and still nit picking at my body image.

In those 6 years I started going to therapy to learn some self love. I got a better hold on my anxiety and depression. I’ve learned how to disconnect from toxic relationships and stressful situations. I was diagnosed with PMDD and apparently have difficulty absorbing vitamin d. And with that, developed a better relationship with food and also my body as a whole.

I didn’t realize how much my hormones affected my weight and I shouldn’t feel shitty about my body adding a couple of pounds for doing…exactly what bodies do. I’ve learned that I can cheat like everyday as long as it’s balanced with either exercise or fueling foods. Eating when I’m actually hungry and not because I’m bored. I also stopped beating myself up with my ever changing schedule with school and maybe some weeks I can only go to the gym once every two weeks — it’s okay! I’m walking thousands of steps a day, that’s gotta count for something even if it wasn’t in a gym setting.

Although I’m not at my initial goal weight (I think I was aiming for 140-145lb) I don’t think my actual goal has a number attached. The fact I’ve been able to stay on the progress for 10+ months without feeling exhausted all the time and trying to understand my body rather than hate it, I feel like this is an awesome spot to be in.

Anyway, I’m just ranting because I’m really proud of myself of finally getting a better grasp on my weight. I hope someone finds this helpful that weight loss is a slow process and very much part mental and emotional health as it is physical health. Also talk to your doctor and have routine blood work done so you can work with your body rather than fight it.

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Birthday cheat day didn’t go as planned

So today was my birthday, and after a long 6-day week at work I was ready to have a day in today. I recently moved to a new job, so I don’t have any other plans going on, and as part of my birthday I was just going to watch Netflix and eat junk food, allowing myself to go past my calorie limit while still logging everything.

I bought myself a pizza, started digging into my pantry of junk food, but I quickly realized I simply can’t eat that much anymore. I’m going to clock out my day at around 3000 calories, and with my maintenance calories being 2200 it’s hardly the cheat day I was expecting. The greasy food just slowed me down and made my stomach upset, which is something that hasn’t happened to me since I started this weight loss process. I’m happy that my body physically prevents me from going too far overboard.

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Can I reset my eating habits?

I think I have binge-eating disorder, or at least just disordered eating (which would make sense considering I'm bordering on morbidly obese). When I eat, I have to eat until I am uncomfortably full. Like bursting, otherwise, I don't feel satisfied, and I can't concentrate on things like work until I'm really full. I know the 'right' thing to do is eat until no longer hungry but it's like I can't focus and I feel anxious unless I'm uncomfortably full. How can I stop this because it means even if I'm eating a 'healthy', varied diet I'm still consuming too many calories which means weight loss isn't happening :(

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