Will the hair grow back after eating normally (at maintenance or surplus)?

I [26M, 5'9"] lost A LOT of hair while dieting, and I'm scared that it's not coming back. Basically, I lost a little over 20 lbs. in 3.5 months over the fall (from 179 lbs. to 158 lbs.), gained about 11 lbs. over the winter (in large part due to holiday gorging), and then lost 9 lbs. again over the next 3 months. For reference, I was eating 1700-1900 calories per day, not counting cardio, then went on a binge week once during the fall weight loss period and once during the spring weight loss period. I noticed increased hair shedding (nothing shocking like hair falling out in clumps or onto the pillow - just more hair ending up in the shower/sink and on the floor than usual), particularly during the fall weight loss period, and I continued to lose hair when resuming the diet in the spring. My hair is noticeably thinner to both family and the hairdresser (not just me), and I think I lost probably a third (maybe even half) of my hair volume. I've been eating in a small surplus (for bulking/muscle gain) for about a month now (starting from 161 lbs.), and I can't tell if anything has improved or if I've ruined my hair permanently and put myself on the road to baldness. I'm starting to regret having dieted in the first place, and I'm wondering if I need to gain all the weight back in order to get my hair back (and if so, I'd rather gain the weight back), or if there's a way to save both, or if I'm just screwed at this point.

(Also, if it makes a difference to recommendations/interpretation here, I have very low natural testosterone levels and have been on prescription testosterone for several years now, and over the past year my blood testosterone levels had mysteriously spiked to double the male average despite injecting the same dose. After talking to my doctor, I've cut down the dose substantially in the last couple of months, but I don't know how long it takes to see any hair-related changes).

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Comments on my weight loss make me uncomfortable - how do you deal with them?

Hi everyone! Here is a 26F who managed to lose 11 KGS in the past months A bit of context: my whole life, I had always been overweight and had at times suffered from binge eating. I had a rather disordered eating structure (?) and had been dealing with some digestive issues for most of my life.

To Long to Read: I (happily) lost weight and hate people commenting on it.

In January I decided to go and see a nutritionist, who provided me with a calorie deficit custom plan - whose main aim was trying to ease my digestive issues and see if a structured eating plan could help. Combined with increased physical activity, I soon started to also lose some weight. 6 months down the lane, I have seen a general improvement in my health, I feel and see myself better and I have a much healthier approach to food. I personally think that my main achievement has been managing to learn how to eat nutritious, balanced meals, yet all people seem to comment is that I have lost weight and "look soooooo much better!". Now, I am not naive: I am also happy about the weight loss and I know other people have no way of knowing was goes on in my brain in terms of achievements and goals hahah But these comments are making me SUPER uncomfortable especially because 90% of the time they come from co-workers, with whom I had never shared anything neither about my weight nor about my 'health journey'. You can see them staring at you, scanning your body and going "Omg! You lost soooooo much weight! You look soo much better!" or " Did you lose weight?! You really look fit! Are you following any diets?". I understand people are always going to judge other people's bodies (even unconsciously) and that the lost weight is the really tangible measure they have visually (since I don't share anything about my health status in general). What I don't understand and what makes me the most uncomfortable is how easily people are ready to comment on other people's bodies without knowing what one is going through. I can only imagine what it would feel like to hear such things, had I lost weight beyond my control (stress, diseases, etc..). To me, it feels like they are implying that my previous body was not okay according to their standards and now that I lost the weight I look SOOOO much better. It's probably the emphasis most people put in the compliment that pisses me off the most hahah I was fine with how my body looked before and never know how to react to these comments. On the one hand, I cannot deny the obvious- I clearly have lost some weight - but I can't and won't thank people for the "you look so much better" part. I really can't.

What do you think? Has it ever occured to you? Before losing weight, I would have never guessed that I would react like this to such comments.

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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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