I've slowly realized how versatile weight loss is

At first I thought weight loss was about being strict: Less carbs, less fat, more protein, more veggies, more exercise, and sticking to your daily calorie goal religiously. But, obviously, that's a recipe for disaster.

This has taught me to shun things like potatoes, for example. Or olive oil. What I didn't know is that things like these are actually my best ally.

At first, I started counting the calories in food by measuring the food as calories per gram, instead of just estimating. Which made me realize that my mashed potato recipe is a lot less caloric than I thought:

1000g Potatoes ~800kcal 400g heavy cream ~800kcal garlic, paprika and salt ~ negligible

1600/1400 = 1.2 calories per gram. Which means that 400g of these mashed potatoes is only ~500kcal. 400g of mashed potatoes is INSANELY filling, although it doesn't last long as it's mostly carbs. But it means I can incorporate it into my diet without ever worrying about it.

Hell, even deep fried stuff isn't as caloric as I thought as long as you control the amount of oil that it absorbs. So instead of deep frying it, you cook it in an air fryer with measured oil, so that it doesn't come out paper dry, and you get to control how many calories it'll be. And to add onto that, store bought food also doesn't have to be high calorie. I've found ramen that comes for ~300kcal a pack and a 400g pizza that comes out at ~900kcal.

Another thing I've tackled is the daily calorie goal. I've come to realize, individual days don't matter as much as I thought. They're important, but not game-changing. Say I eat 2800kcal in a day, 400kcal over my maintenance TDEE, and I should be eating 1800kcal. Instead of eating only 1400kcal the next day, I could just eat 1700kcal for the next 4 days. Or keep eating 1800kcal but also walking in place for like 10 minutes for those next 4 days.

And lastly, exercise. I just mentioned walking in place for 10 minutes, but it doesn't even have to be in place. You could just choose to walk to a place you usually drive to. Or you could play a game that needs physical movement. Or you could put some music on and dance. It does not have to be a chore, nor does it have to be arduous, or get you all sweaty and sore. It's just as simple as moving more, however that may be.

Sorry if this was obvious to you and you were expecting something more, but this seriously took me years of trying to lose weight to figure out. Hopefully this helps someone realize that too.

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How would you avoid the yo-yo after an intense diet?

Stats: Female 18 165lbs 5’4-5’5

So here’s the situation: let’s say I have to do in intense diet, for I will admit a really dumb reason lol. There’s this stupid weight loss competition that I pooled my money into and now it’s coming to bite me in the ass. Say I eat and exercise unhealthily for a short amount of time. Two to three weeks per se. I’d eat around 1000-1200 calories a day, while doing hiit 90 minutes a day. Something along those lines.

I understand that this is unsustainable, which is exactly why I’m not doing to continue it for an extended period. It would actually be very very damaging if continued in the long run.

But my problem is that I don’t want to immediately gain back all the weight I lose after stopping this diet. What measures would need to be taken in order to avoid yo-yo? Slowly upping the caloric intake weekly? Monthly? Is it even possible?

I’d greatly appreciate the help. Thank u

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The catalyst this time was not fitting into the uniform for a "dream job"

Hello, I'll start positively by saying a week ago I restarted CICO. Got the PCOS, IIH and a back injury so it's not my first rodeo. Lose it somehow set me to maintain weight so I enjoyed 2x 3000 calorie days before I realised and set it to be more targeted on weight loss. After a week the scales reflect a 0.8kg loss which I'm proud of 🎉 I'm currently trying to love the process of adapting to healthier habits again and considering ozempic.

But yeah, a week ago I also attended a "group interview" that on arrival actually turned out to be a paid job trial. We were introduced to the managers by name and role and were told we pretty much had the job but they wanted to see if it would fit us (ironic). They then asked us to change into scrubs and "if you're shy just change in the bathroom". I didn't want to be shy, I wanted to be part of the team so when I got into the tiny change room and saw they had an assortment of sizes I felt hope. It was dashed pretty quickly when I realised all the XL sizes were still new in bags and only the biggest available... God I wanted this job so badly that in front of 3 others I squeezed myself into a new shirt and pants and stood there bewildered. I couldn't move in the pants and from the faces of the other women changing it didn't look good on me. When the others were dressed up, I explained. The manager held up the boys coming in and told me to just wear the pants I came in with. Alas I'd thought it was only an interview and would look smart to wear one piece denim worksuit but we now required no pockets for the work hence scrubs... She then said to just put the shirt over it. At this point I'm alone in the changing room, holding up people. The shirt was too tight over the suit and I couldn't breathe so I panicked and opted to leave the uniform shirt on and wear the suit half zipped/clipped. As I didn't have a belt on, it later fell down.

During the work section of the trial I was stupidly scattered. I later realised it was a trial by fire, in that we were given little direction/instruction and then observed. The tight shirt on my chest and the arm fat squeeze feeling sucked. My usually steady design hands shook horribly enough that I nearly cut myself, I messed up multiple times, didn't feel confident asking questions or for help and all the work related knowledge left my brain. Trying to walk, talk (with existing employees) and learn all at once while being watched sent me into a shut down/panic attack. My insecurity was intense but this job was a rarity, something I really wanted so I persevered through my brain screaming for an exit. I didn't disrupt the flow but the second phase of trial I really embarrassed myself. We were set to work solo and be interviewed by the second manager at the same time. Pretty sure he could see my undies while I was knelt and bent over working and again, brain had shut down to "just breathe" while my hands shook and streams of sweat poured off my face. I had nothing useful to offer the conversation, brought up my back injury and didn't take direction given. A humbling spiral. In the 1:1 final interview we were given a minute to talk while walking out and it was very indicative that I was unsuccessful. I cringed the whole 1.2 hour drive home. It reminded me of the Eric Andre/Wiz skit where he says "nightmare, nightmare, nightmare". I felt like a joke.

And as I was writing a follow up email to apologise for poor performance the next day I got the rejection text. The manager was nice and when I apologised for my obvious anxiety over it, apologised for not having my uniform size, said I seemed very peaceful, not anxious at all and thanked me for being sweet... I'm tired of being sweet. I want to be able. I want to not feel like an elephant in an antique store. The last time I worked a "dream job" they sat my desk under an A4 print out of big chungus for the first few months and said it was just a joke... I wish I'd stuck to CICO then. Like a lot of people here, I wish I'd done something sooner.

Cheers if you read, I'm thankful this community exists. I hope it's okay to post and set the marker for change here. The last week has been rough but I'm not giving up, just moving forward. If you've had a similar experience it might be a relief to hear??? 😅

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I'm in the midst of a mild weight loss plateau after consistently losing weight for the past 4+ months. How do you keep yourself out of your own head when you run into stumbling blocks?

39M 6'4" SW:342 CW:278 GW:210 Desk Job but building in some fitness routine

Lurking in this sub for awhile now and feel like I could use some advice/motivation.

I was in the midst of a weight loss process (40+lbs lost) two years or so ago before I ran into a life hurdle. I developed a series of medical issues that culminated in a Crohn's diagnosis. This threw me for a loop, my weight loss stagnated and I gave up. I ended up putting on every last one of those lbs back on over the following year as we struggled to get the Crohn's under control.

I finally decided at the start of this year that I needed to get my life in order and set a goal to get healthier before I hit 40 in December. I specifically didn't set any specific goal weight, just wanted to build a healthier life for myself.

Weight loss has been progressing steadily with a combination of calorie counting, exercise, and Wegovy. But now, over the past few weeks, my weight loss has screeched to a halt and is even starting to creep back up, despite no changes in how I'm managing calorie intake, fitness, etc. I find myself catastrophizing and worrying that this is the setback that will cascade into a bounce back to bad habits and weight gain.

How do you all keep consistent in the face of minor/major setbacks?

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Does obesity cause constipation?

Hi everyone,

I’m 21yo (assigned female at birth), 4 11, and around 111kg (246lb) - I gained around 39kg (87lb) of the weight during the past year and a half, though I was only 54kg when I graduated high school 4 years ago. I take full responsibility for my weight gain and unhealthy relationship with food; I’m a binge eater, and a lot of the weight that I gained was because of the birth control implant Nexplanon. It made me hungrier and caused me to lose control over my pre-existing addiction to sweets and fried food. But I’m getting better by doing jumpropes every day and always walking places instead of taking the train or bus

As I track my weight loss, I’ve been kind of confused as to if the reason I have not been seeing any progress over the past 4 weeks (started weight loss journey on 4/20/2023) is because I have been experiencing extreme constipation that makes it look like I haven’t lost weight but I have. The number has stayed the exact same throughout the past 4 weeks, and I have been diligently exercising and following a Mediterranean diet (I also don’t eat red meat). Does anyone know anything about this or experienced anything similar? Thanks so much xxxx

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Plateau after 5 pounds?

A month ago I started tracking my calories and exercising more consistently. I decided that my calorie intake will be ~1500 calories. I am 28F, 5’6 and started at 183 and currently weigh 177.6. Last week I reached 177 and was so excited, I was hoping to see 176 soon and so on. The opposite happened, I am now at 177.6 and I even lowered my calories to 1400 and the scale is only moving up. Could I have hit a plateau so early on? It’s very discouraging, I am tracking meticulously, weighting my food, etc. has this happened to anyone? Did the scale go down and reflect the appropriate weight loss at some point?

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Social eating has started to scare me

Hey everybody - I’m ( M29) a second time user of lose it. I lost about 70+ pounds the first time and reached my goal . I went from 225- to 155 during 2020.

I stopped tracking and ballooned over two years back to 207lbs. I am super thrilled that since the new year I have reached a weight in the 170’s and have made great progress. I am super aware of my eating issues and I know that I will need to continue logging indefinitely due to my habit of binging things without a thought.

My moms birthday weekend was on Mother’s Day and it turned into two days of Italian restaurants and going out for seafood and snacks etc. I am freaking out because I cannot control myself in a family setting with food. I have a pretty tight deficit that lose it calculated and I’m upset about having to go over . When I prepare my own meals I can budget for things like snacks or sweets , but not at a family style Italian place or with cake and ice cream.

I know that my weight loss is now going to stall for a few days or so and I may even have plateaued which is giving me anxiety.

I wish that splurges like this wouldn’t give me anxiety. I totally get the need to kick back , but I’m so nervous to gain back again that I didn’t even enjoy the food and spent so much time worrying about how much over I went in my calorie limit.

I’m really looking for support because I feel intensely guilty and sad about what I’ve eaten and resent that I couldn’t even enjoy it.

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