I (24f, 5"7) let myself go for an entire year, I'd say its because I just lost my father at the time, I was trying to make sure I graduated university ASAP to find a good job and was thrown to the deep end of adulthood but its also because eating was my way of coping. I went to the gym, but I was never consistent. I was going just enough to be "active". I was in denial about my weight gain and kept saying to myself I'm still 80kg (~175 lb). That was until stretch marks started developing, the clothes I looked good in didn't fit me well, and my face was physically puffy (mooning). I blamed it all on high cortisol (that I never tested for, but the symptoms were all there) because I was stressed; there was no denying it, so I got all my bloods done because I was blaming my environment, not me.
All my bloods came back fine, I had nothing else to blame but myself in the future and my choices, so I went on the scale, I weighed in at 100kgs (220lbs). I had never been so disappointed in myself.
I was always familiar with diets like keto, fasting, or just stopping eating. I also knew I caved after 2 weeks. So I started calorie counting to understand how much I ate and how much I needed to eat to lose weight. I was going to do the generic 1600 calorie deficit and, through scanning, manually inputting foods that I ate every day for a month, with working out 2-3 days per week, I had lost...nothing. How can someone else lose 5kgs on that diet and I don't? How was that fair? I lost that motivation until I started getting angry at myself for thinking of giving up.
I went further and said to hell with it, I'm going down to 1200 calories. Initially, it was challenging and frustrating because I was eating so little, but I tried to make sure what I was having was healthy or filling, and it was full of fibre and protein. Sometimes I'd have a sweet treat coz I deserved it, but it was always within my calorie intake. I made my workouts more intense and started going to the gym 4 days a week. To motivate myself more, I bought expensive jeans two sizes too small, and every 2 weeks, I'd try them on to see how they fit. Slowly, I was able to button it up, my thighs filled out the jeans where it was meant to be more loose, my stomach stuck out no matter how much I suck it in. Still, I could zip it up, and then see that my thighs no longer filled out the jeans. My stomach wasn't bursting out of them, and then the jeans had some extra space at the back... I was no longer filling them out.
After 4 months, I weighed myself in and was 90kg (198lb). The progression was slow, but I liked it because I still enjoyed life and eating the food I loved.
I wanted to lose another 10kg (20lb), so I kept going, kept being consistent, 3 months went by, and weighed in at 88kg. I've been on this same diet and routine for 7 months. Why is my weight loss slowing down? Would settle at that weight out of frustration, but I couldn't allow myself to put all my hard work to waste. I told myself I NEED to see what my body is capable of and how much stronger and healthier I could get.
I researched for days on what could be the cause and narrowed it down to my body needing a break, my hormones being imbalanced, I need to make my workouts more intense, and I need to have enough protein. So I changed my plan, I ate at maintenance for 2 weeks to reset my body, and instead of going back down to 1200, I did a 1400 calorie deficit. I was eating more food, but this also allowed me to ensure I was getting enough protein in my diet, where I ate at least 100g instead of 50g. I also continued working out 4 days a week, but I started to prioritise compound workouts and progression overload. PHYSICALLY, I could see the changes; my muscles were becoming more visible, and that scale was moving again. After a month, I weighed in at 85kg. Finally, it was working again and I AM proud of myself.
My next steps are to take care of my hormones through supplements or finding foods that help support them, to take my journey to the next level.
I'm sorry if this was a long post. I wanted to share my story of what's helped me not just to return to the person I was, but to a better version of myself. If someone who sees this is in my position, please don't give up; time passes anyway, so you might as well do something with it.
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