Saturday, February 18, 2023

Weight loss and how to do it

Similar to everyone here, I want to lose weight. I've been to gyms. I've dieted, I've spent loads on workout plans, guides, etc. I've been researching this for about 3 years now. The more I learn the more upset I got at the guides I paid for and how scummy it was. I lost motivation countless times because I was confused. I got conflicting opinions. I got mixed signals. For the life of me I couldn't get a straight answer. So I'm gonna break it down and cut the fat to help you cut the fat.

Sciency bits:

  • You lose weight by burning more calories than you take in. Truth is, exercise burns very few calories. 600 jumping jacks in 10 minutes burns 120 calories. That's like a cookie. Working out helps but don't count on it to lose weight.
  • 1kg (or 2.2 lbs if you speak in feet) of body fat equates to about 7700 calories. Get a rough estimate of how many calories you burn a day by using an online calculator. I say rough estimate because it varies from person to person and websites don't know you.
  • You burn more calories as your metabolism increases. The easiest way to increase your metabolism is to increase your daily activity. This can be as simple as standing more or walking more or as complex as a whole ass fitness regime.
  • Calorie counting isn't as hard as you might imagine. I was terrified to start because I thought I'd be weighing apple slices all day. But it's as easy as searching it up on google. And after a while you'll get used to mentally calculation how many calories certain things have. The goal here is to know how many calories you burn in a day, and making sure your intake is lower. A decent deficit I'd suggest is 500 calories. After a while you'd be surprised at how easy it is.
  • Other simple tricks include drinking a cup of water before you eat. Pushing your breakfast later towards lunch and drag your dinner earlier so you end up having two meals instead of 3. Drink more water. I have a 1.5 litre bottle and aim to kill it off in a day. Remove as many snacks as you can.
  • Sugar. Cut down on sugar. You'd be surprised at how easy it really is. Replace sweet snacks with fruits. A side benefit is that the less sugar you eat, the better it tastes when you do have it. Fruits have never tastes better I promise.
  • Why bother working out? If all it takes to lose weight is a caloric deficit then why bother? It's because as your body burns fat, it can and will burn muscle too. So while you will lose weight, you'll lose muscle too. And if you're on the heavier side, you'll have huge muscles as you're basically living life with weights as is. You work out to maintain and grow your muscles. So you lose weight while keeping muscles.
  • As much as it sucks, there's no way to reduce fat in certain parts of your body. You can't lose fat around your gut. You can't lose fat in your arms. Fat loss happens everywhere at the same time. Your whole body will get slimmer.
  • Like it or not, there's no hack or unknown secret method lost to time that will have fat melting off you. Weightloss takes time. Months, years. But it will happen if you keep at it.
  • After reaching your weight goal. Don't go back to your old ways. You don't need to keep dieting, but you'll know what to eat. Your actual stomach will shrink and you'll get full after eating less.
  • DON'T STARVE YOURSELF. Don't go days without eating. You shouldn't be in a situation where you're experiencing physical pain as a result of not eating. Furthermore, if you starve yourself, your body will go into panic mode, resulting in preservation and lower usage of your reserves (fat).

Food:

In my research, the most annoying thing was evaded me was food. What was healthy? What should I eat? What should I avoid? I also hated that I could never get an answer to what should my daily food intake look like. Here's what I found.

  • Good foods include Greek unsweetened yoghurt, white meat, fish, nuts, ofc fruits and veggies, oats, muesli, cottage cheese, red meats (although be careful and focus more on white meats), eggs
  • In regards to what to eat in a day. Ofc everyone's situation is different and we all have different tastes. But to give you an idea, here's what most of my days look like. Breakfast is 3 tablespoons of high fibre no sugar muesli with 3 tablespoons of greek yoghurt. Lunch is usually an apple or a smoothie (made of half a tub of spinach, 3 tablespoons of greek yoghurt, a teaspoon of chia seeds, a dash of milk, half a cup of berries, and a banana. Looks gross but tastes pretty good) and dinner is either chicken or fish with a salad or roasted veggies.
  • Keep water with you at all times. If you have a long day and can't refill your bottle easily, honesty, bring a big bottle. If you find yourself peckish, drink water. It doesn't replace a meal, but it stops you from snacking. And after a while you'll find yourself reaching for water more.
  • Avoid sodas and juices. An alternative I'd recommend is carbonated water and squeeze in half a lemon. -Try replacing cooking oil with olive or coconut oil

Exercises:

-There's no exercise that won't benefit you. There are that work on more muscles than others but for thr most part if you're exercising you're already doing a good job. -A simple beginner regime I'd recommend is: (feel free to take a break between every set) (also do increase the number of reps and the number of sets. There are just my uneducated recommendations)

60 seconds of marching on the spot. 2 sets of 30 knee lifts (where you stand straight, and lift alternating knees as high as you can) 2 sets of as many pushups as you can manage (If your max is 2, your max is 2. There's no shame in that. But do try to slowly increase it) 2 sets of 25 squats (You can place a chair behind you and sit down then get up if you're having difficulties) 2 sets of as many sit ups as you can ( again, there's no shame in not being able to rep out 500 like a gym bro freak) Get up on your tiptoes 20 times. Repeat for 2 sets.

Aim to do this every other day and from there add more workouts or do more reps or sets

Motivation: -Take a picture of yourself before you start and aim to take a new picture every week. There's no need to run to a bathroom scale every day itching to see results. Weightloss takes time. Don't beat yourself up if you're not seeing immediate results. Everyone has different genetics. Some people lose weight easier. Some people take longer. And that's okay. If you go to the gym and you're afraid of people judging you, think about it. How pathetic is that. They're not making fun of you, they're making fun of themselves at one point. You think they spawned there with the gym with no jobs and too much time? No. They were you once. If they're good people, they'll be happy for you and proud that you're making a difference. Whenever you're lazy or not upto it, try thinking about what you'll look like at the end. Keep pushing yourself. You'll love the results I promise. And in case no one ever told you this before, I believe in you. I know you can do it. And the fact that you've read this far means you're pretty serious and I'm proud of you for that. That's a big first step. Now take the second, then the third, so on and so forth. I want everyone reading this to be healthy. You don't need to be ripped. You don't need to have muscles bulging everywhere. You just need to be healthy. Give it time, take it easy, and you'll love who you'll see in the mirror.

Closing notes: I'm not a professional but I'm happy to answer any and all questions to the best of my capabilities. If you want more exercises or you want something cleared up, I'm happy to have a chat either in thr replies or in dms.

Disclaimer: I'm not a pt nor am I in the industry. I'm just parroting shit I've found after extensive research to hopefully make things easier for others. If you have any health conditions please please talk to a doctor before starting any form of diet or workout regime. Again, this is just what I found to be helpful for me personally as well as common points repeated in several guides I found. I don't know you personally and I'm not liable for any harm that comes your way directy or indirectly from this post.

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Sometimes the little things are exciting

You guys ever get excited about small things that go with weight loss?

I feel so happy over the fact that I can see my collar bones agan! And my wrist bones and tendons! They both vanished for quite a while and it's kinda wild seeing them again.

Another exciting things? My skin is way clearer than it used to be. I feel like I've gone from breaking out before my period every single time, to barely breaking out at all.

Yay for collar bones!

Yay for wrist bones!

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(19F, 480+lbs) What caused my dramatic regain?

Hey everyone. So not too long ago I lost over 50lbs, I don't know the accurate weights, but I think I went from over 450lbs to under 400. In less than a year, I've slingshotted back and regained all the weight and more. I'm now in the high 400lb range.

As far as I can tell, I've been maintaining my weight loss plan. Eating much lower calories and being a lot more physically active despite my poor mobility. It worked extremely well for a while, and I've definitely been doing the same stuff.

What could have caused this? Some people have suggested seeing an endocrinologist, or maybe getting a diagnosis for a thyroid problem?

I really thought I was making progress and then I've slingshotted back and ended up at my highest and most debilitating weight yet. Feeling a little depressed about it all as you might imagine.

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How fundamental is cardio to weight loss?

So I’m 117kg and have started strict dieting and going to the gym with a personal trainer,today I asked him wether he will make me do cardio or strength training exercises and he told me we will only be doing strength training exercises/building muscle and that weight loss is sufficient through being in a calorie deficit. Now I do agree with him and it’s widely known that CICO is what matters most to weight loss,but should I add cardio to the mix? I currently go to the gym 3 times a week with a personal trainer,should I go to the gym the other 3 days to do cardio alone?

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Reverting to eating suboptimally after reaching GW. Any tips to help nail the maintenance phase as a lifestyle?

Context: I am 5’6 F and lost 42 lb over the past ~10 months, going from 162lb to 120lb. My goal wait initially was 125lb but somehow I’ve ended up at 120. This is despite the fact that I am not doing strict CICO anymore. For the loss phase, I ate a net of 1200-1400 calories for close to the initial 6 months and then 1400-1600 for the remainder. I also do some form of a workout (usually barre) at least 3 days a week.

Weight loss was an important goal but the overall thing I wanted to achieve was to get to a healthier self. I’m also hoping to start a family in the next few years so looking to minimise risk of developing any lifestyle diseases (which I was at risk of given my pre weight loss binge eating habits). I’m eating 2000-2200 calories since the past month and have not seen the scale budge either direction. I’m eating unhealthy. A chocolate mousse every day for the past week and hot chocolate twice a day before that for a week. This is in addition to my nutrition fuelling meals but ends up under 2200 cals still.

Question: The scale not budging doesn’t make sense to me. And goes against all the info I have on CICO which I practiced so religiously. And as a result, I’m afraid if I continue using the scale as my metric, I might be inviting back some of those lifestyle diseases due to unhealthy habits like daily sugar/ fat overdose. How does one embed the lifestyle and not get swayed by numbers solely?

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Friday, February 17, 2023

Idiot telling me I've become 'healthier'.

SW:216 GW: 123 CW: 165 5 ft 4 inches

On mobile and wearing long nails. Sorry for my errors.

So, my (26f, indian) wedding events are starting from today. And I'm meeting relatives that I have not seen in years. Earlier this evening we checked into the hotel where my whole family is staying for 5 days for the celebrations.

What's the first thing that a male cousin (who btw I have only met twice so far, in my life) tells me?? "Oh you have become healthier. You are so much thinner in one of your Instagram pictures!"

If you have indian/asian relatives you'll know calling someone 'healthy' is just a not so subtle way of calling them fat!

I have been trying to lose weight sensibly and that in unfortunately means I have not been able to hit my weight loss goals for February

This thing has just completely thrown me. I mean who says something like that. Especially to someone who's getting married, stressed (somewhat visibly) and most importantly someone they don't even know??

I'm sorry for ranting. I just feel so lost and horribly disconnected from everything.

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What if I’m not happy even after losing the weight?

I’ve lost 25lbs so far. I’ve been on this journey on and off for about 5 years, but this is the most I’ve lost and longest I’ve stuck to it. I have less than 60lbs to lose, but something has crossed my mind lately. What if after I lose the weight I’m not happy? I know the answer will be things about going to therapy, but unfortunately I can’t afford it. Right now, I’m not happy with myself and idk if I’ll ever be. Maybe I’m just ungrateful. Idk. Anyways, what steps can I do to help myself along this journey to improve my happiness atm and at the end of my weight loss journey? Thank you.

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