How Would You Handle This?

My mother-in-law is a matriarch of the old school. She is a wonderfully welcoming, kind and generous woman who has helped my husband and me out immeasurably over the years. I love and respect this woman a lot, and she and my husband remain very close.

Unfortunately for where I'm standing now, one of the ways she has been helping us out has been by providing us with food, and I'm sure you can see where this is going.

Times are tough for us as they are for everyone, though my in-laws are well off enough not to be feeling it. Telling my mother-in-law to stop cooking for us would not only be seen as rude on our part, but impose an added financial burden, especially given that my CFS/ME is severe enough to mean I cannot work, leaving my husband as the sole wage earner. Yet, the fact undeniably remains that my having this little control over what goes into what we eat is not a tenable position for sustainable weight loss.

All things being equal, I personally would be inclined to stop accepting her help. That said, this isn't solely my decision. I do not pay the bills in this household and I'm not in a position to simply pay for our groceries myself - the price of which have already jumped to accommodate my new eating habits. I'm not sure I even reasonably can expect my husband (who is not trying to lose weight too and has no need for houmous and celery) to shoulder more.

What would you do in this situation?

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Can an physically demanding job help with weight loss?

So I'm AFAB, 23, 5'5", and 168 lbs. I got hired at a FedEx and work part-time in the unloading area. Where you're doing heavy lifting for 5 to 6 hours a day, 5 days a week, in at least 80 degree heat with no breaks (aside from going to the bathroom, refilling my water bottle, and cool down breaks if you need it and are experiencing heat illness). And these boxes can be VERY heavy, like over 100 lbs. The ones I can pick up by myself are around 50 lbs at the most, anything over that I would need to do a team lift with.

Aside from the heat it's a good job and I feel like it's good exercise but I don't know if it's enough to lose weight. My current intake is 1300 calories. Sometimes 1500 at the most. But I don't know if I should raise it due to this job. But I'm basically wondering if this is enough to lose weight while im a calorie deficit? I can't do other types of exercise like cardio because it messes with my tachycardia issues (that doctors are thinking is POTS). Even though this job is intense, it doesn't affect me as bad as jogging around the block and walking up and down the stairs does.

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Going to try meal replacement during a big transition in my life

Hi first post here! This post is sorta a mix of an advice post and a journey post I guess. I'll try to keep it short as possible!

I'm 22/F/5'2/~300lb and I'm finally moving out of state from my abusive family and going no contact, and I'm so excited (and a bit scared) for this new chapter. A big goal I have in my new city is to become healthy and fit, it's a slow process but I'm so ready. I've struggled with binge eating for so long to cope with my abusive environment. Losing weight has always been so difficult as I could never do it healthy, it was always extreme restriction or excessive binging. In October-November, I had to go cold turkey on my psychiatric medication because I lost my Medicaid which was hidden to me by my mother, which triggered a huge binge episode. As I was getting over this episode, an abusive family member moved back into my house which led to me losing access to most of the house and being confined to me room most of the days as well as developing a "trauma touch" problem with everything in the house especially food. During this time, I basically just relied on door dash or snacks from stores by my job to eat, sometimes spiraling into binge eating. To this day, 6 months later, I'm still getting over these food habits as well as my trauma touch issue (which hopefully subsides when I move out). A family member got a bag of Ka'chava from food donations, and I've been trying it here and there. It's honestly keeping me full and satisfied for half a day. I'm heavily considering using meal replacements to deal with this big transition in my life while I learn to be healthy again and get used to the grind of sustaining a well balanced diet. I don't plan on being on meal replacement long term, just something to make the transition smoother and easier to maintain while I settle down.

Short term goals are to stay consistent on a HEALTHY calorie intake, learn how to make healthy food more desirable for me on an affordable budget, learn to "trust' foods again, cut out most junk food, go vegetarian (not entirely related to weight loss but it would help), and lose some weight.

Long terms goals are to feel better about myself, love food in a healthy way, go to the gym regularly, get in decent shape, and most of all, just heal.

I've always wanted to be healthier, for my confidence, for my health, for aesthetics, for my mental wellbeing, to not feel guilty after every meal, to be able to go shopping, to look in the mirror to be happy, to ease my chronic illness symptoms, to be the pretty girl my mom told me I'd never be able to be.

Now to the advice part lmao. Does anyone have any good replacements to Ka'chava? This is all I've tried but it's a bit pricey, I'm looking at getting Huel but I'd love to hear suggestions. Also, if anyone has great healthy recipes or hacks for people not skilled in cooking that helped them eat better, I'd love to know! If anyone has experience or advice with meal replacement, please tell me your story!

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Readjusting calories for exercise

Hi! Me again; it's been two months since my last post and I've lost 16 pounds so far. Due to certain life events, I did not start my fitness plan as I had hoped, so for now only dietary changes. I have revised my 8-week fitness plan into a more gradual 12-week one, and plan to start again tomorrow.

My confusion is here, adjusting my calories due to increased exercise. Right now I use a combination of the top four calorie calculators to determine my maintenance and deficit. (I put my info into all four and then average it out) So right now, at 5'5", 236lbs, and sedentary, my maintenance calories are 2150, and my deficit is 1650. But starting tomorrow, at 236 and with my increased exercise, my maintenance would be 2600 and my deficit would be 2100. Which is almost my current maintenance. Plus, as my exercise plan progresses I will be doing more and more exercise, and even if I adjust for (~1lb a week) weight loss, my deficit will actually be above my current maintenance after some time. (12 weeks is when it would go over 2150 to 2350.)

My question is, if I increase my activity level consistently, should I adjust my calories straight away? Should I gradually increase my calories? Do I need to give my body time to adjust to the new exercise and do something else? It seems so extreme to start exercising and then eat so much more straight away, when wont my fitness change gradually? I don't know and I can't find much research online so I figured I'd post here for opinions.

I'm willing to share my fitness plan outline and my calculations on calories if that helps.

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I wanted to share a big loss (big for me at least) and hope for reaching my goals.

I have struggled with my weight since I was a teen, and I spent much of my teens and 20s obese and believing that was just who I was. That, combined with the depression that comes with being overweight, meant I didn't try and improve and just accepted I was going to always be this way.

At my height, I was hovering around 110kg (highest 111kg). I have been trying to lose weight for years and only managed to lose significant weight once when I was unemployed and had little money for food and used exercise as a stress release. This was unsustainable because I needed a job and couldn't maintain that diet and exercise whilst working.

I regained all the weight, but at the start of 2023, I decided to finally fix things, and I spent last year learning good exercise habits and learning some basic recipes. My weight didn't decrease that much, and I ended the year at 105.3kg. At the start of this year, I decided that this year I would be below 100kg by the end of the year and wouldn't rebound above it. I.e. I would get below 100kg, and once under, it would not go back above it for the rest of the year.

I weigh myself at the end of each month. My end of May weight was 103.5kg, and my June weight (I did it a little early) was 100.8kg. I basically lost as much weight in June as I did in the preceeding 5 months.

If I keep this up, I will be below 100kg in my July weigh-in and then can spend the rest of the year making as much progress under 100kg as possible.

If it helps anyone, the change that I think did it was replacing sugary soft drinks with black tea without sugar. I have been trying to make this change for years, but in May, I decided to put in the effort and finally make the replacement.

The next step is to try and cut down on sweet treats, which I still snack on, but I am slowly replacing with fruit (still sweet but also has nutrition).

I know my weight loss is not as big as I'm sure some people have managed, and the bar I set for myself is low, but it is progress for me.

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One year of losing it: Down 75 pounds and healthy

This week was the 1-year anniversary of beginning my weight-loss journey. I’ve lost 75 pounds, going from 240 to 165, and I’ve been at the top end of my maintenance range since April.

https://imgur.com/a/IsatfUy

Although I’m still learning how to eat sustainably and fluctuating up and down a little, I’ve been holding fairly steady near 165 for 2 months.

I’ve evolved my approach over time but it’s built upon CICO (r/CICO), a Mediterranean-style whole-foods diet, and exercise (cardio and strength).

My blood pressure dropped out of pre-hypertension, my cholesterol improved into healthy levels, I’m off my prescription medications, and I’m in better shape than I’ve been in my entire life. I’m sleeping better, not snoring constantly, and waking up much more easily. My knees used to hurt all the time, and now that’s entirely gone.

Originally, I just estimated calories and aimed for 1500-1800 per day. I initially skipped breakfast and had a couple of afternoon snacks (Greek yogurt, cottage cheese). Since then, I’ve re-introduced breakfast and cut out non-mealtime snacks entirely.

After a few months, I introduced cardio (walking) and strength training (r/bodyweightfitness minimal routine). I’m now walking 3x/day, about a mile after each meal. And I use the 8x3 app for strength training at home, which is easy and convenient. My only two pieces of equipment are a doorway pull-up bar and a Nordstick.

As I lost more weight, I started using an app and a scale to track more precisely, targeting 1500/day for a 1000-calorie deficit. I consistently lost 2 lbs/wk throughout my journey as I re-adjusted both exercise and my calorie targets to maintain my rate of weight loss.

I also focused much more on increasing my protein and fiber intake, as well as eating high-volume foods (r/volumeeating), vs just hitting a calorie target however I could. I don’t use like to use “tricks” though, so no protein powder/shakes, no konjac noodles, etc. I eat primarily whole foods that can be found at any grocery store.

All along, I’ve saved some calories for some of my favorites, beer and chocolate. I made room for beer once or twice a week, and a little chocolate almost every day.

I also kept eating at restaurants / getting takeout throughout. A focus on ordering a salad/veggie to start, eating half-portions of everything, primarily getting lean protein + veggies without fatty sauces/cheeses or deep-frying, only allowing 1/4 of my meal to be starchy carbs, and skipping the bread & caloric drinks has worked very well.

In the past few months, I’ve been reading a lot about sugar and ultra-processed food. I’m now trying to cut out both UPF (r/ultraprocessedfood) and overly sweet foods (added sugar and all sweeteners). I’ve definitely seen the impact of sugar & sweeteners on my own ability to control my eating, and I’m much happier that I have less of it in my life.

What’s next? I’m aiming to lose just a bit more so I’m safely within my maintenance range (160-165), re-comp to build muscle over the next couple of years, and keep improving how I eat in a healthy, sustainable way. Maybe then I’ll decide to do some lean bulks and cuts as I continue my fitness journey, but that chapter has yet to be written.

Thanks for reading this far!

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How does this plan sound?

new to dieting/ weight loss For context, M 24 c 193 | have been riding my peloton twice a day for now two weeks and adding in 4 core classes per week I am eating 1000 calories a day and about 70-80g protein. My job involves lots of walking as well. Is this a sustainable plan to lose weight? Goal is 170. The past 15 days of this havent been as bad as i imagined.

I am not excluding any food groups but trying to maximize protein and minimize carbs only due to them being high in cal count. Also, i only eat from noon-8 every day if that matters. I am very new to this whole thing so please try to ttmli5

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