So I have been on a weight loss journey since the pandemic started. I followed CICO. I started keto then progressed to high volume high protein. Had great results. However at the end of 2021 I injured my back and had to have surgery. I am recovering but the injury and recovery has me on light duty. I’m having a hard time staying satiated. Breakfast to lunch is usually the hardest. Any tips and tricks to get back on track?
Have been noticing something abnormal, not sure if anyone has any idea or similar experience?
Recently as my weight loss stagnated (only lost 1kg the past month), I decided to let myself enjoy an unhealthy meal (McDonalds and potato chips) for once and binged a little for a day. Was expecting the consequences to show up on the weighing scale. But what I notice however, was that sort of kicked started my metabolism and my weight loss trend seemed to be on a steady descent without increasing the amount of exercise I am doing.
Wanna ask if this is a common thing to experience during weight loss?
As February draws to an end, I came to the realization that I just finished my sixth month of my weight loss journey. Just putting this here because I spend a lot of time in this sub and things like this help me keep myself accountable.
28F 5'4.5" HW: 195 lbs. SW: 193.8 lbs. CW: 164 lbs. GW: 140 lbs.
September (Month 1): - 10.6 :. Lowest weigh-in: 183.2 lbs.
October (Month 2): - 11.6 lbs. Lowest weigh-in: 171.6 lbs.
November (Month 3): + 2.2 lbs. Lowest weigh-in: 173.8 lbs.
December (Month 4): - 2.6 lbs. Lowest weigh-in: 171.2 lbs.
January (Month 5): - 3.6 lbs. Lowest weigh-in: 167.6 lbs.
February (Month 6): - 3.6 lbs. Lowest weigh-in: 164 lbs.
My Routine:
I use MyFitnessPal (Premium), Happy Scale, and Apple Watch to help set and keep track of my goals. I currently do 1200 calories/day Monday thru Friday and 1500 calories/day on weekends. I eat at maintenance (About 1650 calories/day) during that special time of the month. I'd be a liar if I said that I stuck to this plan perfectly at all times, because I don't. I go over my maintenance calories several times a month (life happens). Macros are not a huge concern to me, but I do try to meet the protein goal set by MFP.
In terms of exercise, I do a mix of cardio and strength training. I go the gym 2-4x a week and try to walk or run 4+ times a week. I am currently resting from an injury, but anticipate getting back into running within the next day or so.
NSVs:
- Upon starting my weight loss journey, my average mile time was about 12 minutes. My fastest mile time to date is 7:41, and my average mile time is about 9 minutes.
- My resting heart rate used run between 70-75 bpm. It now runs between 55-60 bpm.
- There was a pair of jeans I purchased at the start of my journey. They fit now, and are starting to become loose. I anticipate needing a new pair of goal jeans in the near future.
- I was able to size down in workout leggings, from a Large to a Medium this month!
Goals for March:
- Get down to 161 lbs. I've found that setting smaller goals to hit each month has been really helpful, especially since my rate of loss has decreased over time.
- Run a total of 50 miles.
- Don't give up.
Started off in mid-August as a slob with a highly motivated athletes mindset. I’ve been active my whole life but the only think keeping me in shape was sports. Eventually my eating habits became fast food twice a day and no exercise. COVID accelerated my weight gain all the way to 275 LBs at 6’0. I also took pictures of myself and realized I was a slob at the time, with no goals. Went on a pretty extreme diet while playing high school football and taking a strength training class. Like 1500 calories a day. Kept that diet for months and struggled through sports. Right now it’s late February, I’m at 233 weighing myself in the morning, and about 238 at night. I just changed my calorie intake to 2300. However I feel super pathetic in the weight room. None of my lifts will progress despite being consistent with PPL. At this point, should I just aim to maintain my weight, and at least get to good base numbers? (135 Bench, 155 Squat, 175 Deadlift)
I’m a 29 year old, 5’0 fairly sedentary woman. In April, I was my highest weight ever - 231 lbs. I’m not entirely sure how or why it happened, but I had a sudden burst of motivation and I got my shit together. For seven months I was able to do lazy CICO (1200-1500 cal/day). I’ve never had willpower before but suddenly I had it. I could have ONE McDouble Cheeseburger and small fry, I could actually put away the cookies after a serving size (or two if I had the extra calories lol). It was almost too easy.
By November I had dropped to my lowest adult weight - 181 lbs. Physically, I felt great. I wasn’t as exhausted as usual, I was thoroughly enjoying longer and longer walks with my dog, the 3 flights of stairs to my apartment were a breeze. But my mental health took a big hit. I didn’t have food as a crutch anymore and when I did eat something “bad” it gave me no joy. I started becoming depressed. I tried so hard to fill the hole food had left but I was struggling. The more weight I lost, the less I cared, and the harder it was to get out of bed every morning.
I decided to take December off of logging. I was gonna eat what I wanted, within reason of course, and keep my diet changes (minimum dairy, more veggies, no rice, no soda). I started feeling better. But December turned into January, and then February, and will soon be March…
This morning I’m back up to 192 lbs and I’m so disappointed with myself. I did so well for 7 months, but I lost it for 3 now and I don’t know how to get back to the original motivated mindset I was in. I’m a little grateful I’ve only gained 11 lbs back but I swore I’d never see 200 again and I’m inching my way back there.
I don’t know what to do. I feel so lost. I’ve told myself every day that I’ll get back to it tomorrow, but then I don’t. I’m not even trying right now, just giving myself empty promises. I’m frustrated, I’m disappointed, I’m angry, and I’m unbelievably sad.
Gonna start looking into therapy on Monday and hopefully while I work on my mental health, I can get back to bettering my physical health.
Sorry for the long post. I just wanted to put my thoughts somewhere.
So I thought I was going nuts, because every time I use a TDEE calculator it tells me my sedentary maintenance calories are about 2500, when I know I can maintain on about 1900. 2000 tops.
Turns out when they say 'body fat percentage (optional)', it is absolutely not optional. I'm very obese, and a couple of different estimation methods (add up your waist and hips and subtract your neck, do a complicated calculation with your height weight and age, etc) give my BFP at 52 - 56%. When I put this into the calculator, my TDEE drops by four hundred calories.
Sheesh. I know the world isn't exactly set up for people with a BMI over 40, but is it too much to expect the weight loss tools to take us into account?!
Anyway, rant over. I went for an 8 mile hike today so at least that wasn't very sedentary of me. Damn desk job, I've got to make more of an effort - at least it's spring soon.
REPOST :
Hello everyone, I hope you are all doing great. I started my weight loss journey Jan 27th 2022, weighing at 293 pounds, 5"11, with a BMI of 40.9.
I intake a maximum of 2800 calories. It usually ranges from 2300-2800, very few days are less than 2300 so far. I eat whole wheat brown rice with Quinoa, whole wheat grain bread and have fruits for carbs. I include eggs, mozarella cheese, very little red meat( for breakfast) and chicken breast daily in my diet. For the most part, vegetables are in my meals atleast once a day. Drinking Water only ( very few times I drank some Prime Hydration which only consists of 20-25 calories per bottle.)
As for exercise, for my first month I am only doing cardio. I do HIIT, for 20-24 minutes on the elliptical machine. 1 minute of high resistance (15) fast paced, then 3 minutes of low resistance (3) quick paced and I sweat bullets with my heart rate continously up.
I checked my weight yesterday Feb 25th 2022, and hooray! I weighed 278. Today is my cheat day and I will be eating whatever the hell I want (at a caloric restriction), and wont check the scale untill after another month. I will change my workout routine to 30 minutes of HIIT for 4-5 days a week and I will include 3 days of weight training. I know the weight loss isn't much to many, but for me that's a ton. Hoping to weigh 265 pounds by mid April! Cheers!
