Welcome to Day 1 of the Run Faster 5 Day Challenge! This is your starting line. You get a fresh start. You get to define your goals and define yourself. Today you’re a runner with BIG GOALS – and nothing’s holding you back. Let’s go! Day 1: Goal Setting Today we’re talking about setting smarter […]
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So, I'm a 24-year-old, 173 cm/ 5'8'', 67 kg/148 lbs woman who's firmly recovered from an eating disorder. It controlled every waking moment of my life at ages 18-22, then it was slowly getting better for a year (where I technically didn't fulfill the diagnosis criteria anymore but still struggled with disordered thoughts and behavior), and finally, for the last year, I haven't had any ED-related compulsions or thought patterns whatsoever anymore.
My ED started out as anorexia - I was at 63 kg/138lbs for pretty much my entire pre-ED life and I got down to a BMI of 17 within half a year, but then the binging started, getting me back to normal weight, and it evolved into full-blown bulimia pretty quickly, where I tried to compensate my binges with extreme restriction/fasting, overexercising, and eventually purging.
The thing that characterised my whole ED journey though was OBSESSIVE calorie counting. My daily limit wasn't even that low, even at my lowest weight I still ate at least 1200 Calories a day (unless I was compensating for a binge), but the aspect that burdened me the most and turned my whole life into hell was the complete and utter obsessive-compulsiveness of it all. Aside from water (and even that was deeply suspicious to me sometimes because those cals are SNEAKY, right), I weighed every single thing I put into my body, from the three thin slices of cucmber I put on my sandwich to supposedly zero-calorie-drinks like diet coke and black coffee. And the thought that maybe my black coffee had slightly more calories than I accounted for because I let it steep for slightly longer than usual kept me awake at night more than the actual black coffee itself! Not to mention that you can't be 100% sure of any calorie count because food just naturally varies in its nutritional value and, on top of that, food companies are allowed a lot of leeway when it comes to labelling. That shit made me anxious to the point of public nervous breakdowns even if logic told me that 50 calories more or less wouldn't affect anything.
It goes without saying that this ruined my social life. I would never accept any food that I hadn't prepared and weighed myself, I would avoid any social outings where food would be around, I would cancel meetups even if my friends promised there wouldn't be food because I needed the time to exercise.
If I ate anything outside of the food that I had meticulously planned for that day, it would inevitably trigger a binge. And my binges were MASSIVE, not the kind of oh-no-I-overate-on-Christmas-and-now-my-tummy-really-hurts-binge, but >10,000 Calorie binges, which started out with "normal" binge food like sweets and takeout and McD's, and ended with me shoveling weird concoctions like flour-sugar-water-sludge (raw, of course) ar just straight sugar right out of the packet into my greedy gullet. Funny enough, the whole binging behaviour was triggered by a single event in my life - the first "cheat day" I allowed myself. My stupid brain immediately associated eating ANY unplanned food with just going all-out pig mode because "well I might as well turn it into a cheat day and then be good for a week", and it got addicted to the dopamine rush of sugar and fat and excess and gluttony.
I should mention that my eating disorder was never about beauty ideals, I never did it for my looks. It was purely a control thing for me. I was getting through a hard time in my life back then, everything seemed beyond control and unpredictable; my food intake was the only thing I felt in control of, and the fact that it was all so calculable and logical was deeply comforting. Eat 7000 kcal less than you burn, lose a kilo, period, no exceptions, you can count on it, it's science. It made me feel safe. So I kinda overdid it on the calorie counting thing lol.
Okay, enough background context, skip forward to the present day. As I said, before the whole ED thing started, I was always stable at 63kg without thinking about what I ate. My post-recovery body weighs in at 67kg, which is more than I ever weighted in my entire life, and it's also the first time I've ever felt chubby and uncomfortable with my body. I'm also still gaining slowly but steadily and fear that I might become overweight if I don't change my habits. So now I want to lose weight for purely aesthetic and health-related reasons, not because of underlying control issues.
The problem is that my hunger cues are still kinda fucky from all the binging-restricting stuff - regularily eating >10,000 cals and fasting for a few days will do that to you, even if my last proper b/p-cycle was two years ago. I don't know if my feeling for hunger and satiety will ever come back, so I can't rely on standard tips like "eat more protein and veg to feel full" since I never feel hungry or full, same for intermittent fasting, keto, etc. I fear that the only thing that will work for me is good old calorie counting since uncle CiCo never fails you, but I'm terrified that this will turn into an obsession again as soon as anything bad or unpredictable happens in my life.
Asking a professional like my old therapist if this is safe for me would probably be the best bet, but every therapist I've met seems to be in the Body Positivity/Big-is-Beautiful camp, and while I would like to think like that and just not care about my weight, I don't think I ever will. I feel like they will just tell me that trying to lose weight is too risky for any ex-eating disordered person, or even that my urge to lose weight is just the good ol' ED voice in disguise trying to sneak back into my mind, and that I should just try to accept my new body, but I disagree with all of that on an emotional as well as on an "intellectual" level. Hunting an impossible beauty standard was never my motivation, neither in ED-times nor now, I just want to get back to my pre-ED shape that I've had for all of my (healthy) life, being overweight is not beautiful to me, and I don't think I will ever become convinced that it's healthy either.
So I'm asking here instead of seeking a therapist again:
Sorry for the wall of text and thanks in advance for any tips and opinions!
I'm feeling really discouraged by the scales as per the title but surprised by the measurements. Is this actually progress?
My common sense says yes since I'm a bit smaller but I can't help but freak out about how dismal the numbers on the scale are and it feels like I'm going wrong.
I have increased my exercise from 4 to 6 hours per week and started to incorporate jogging and strength training within that (about an hour a week). I've been logging 1,440calories max everyday with the exception of 4 days over the month when I probably went over substantially. I'm careful not to eat more than a quarter of my exercise calories which I only do if I'm really hungry and can't sleep cause of it, so again, I probably do that once a week.
It seems unreasonable that such little weight loss progress could be due to muscle gain.
I'm looking for some advice on whether this is actually progress and if so, how to mentally be okay with the fact that the scales suck when I'm working my ass off to lose weight.
Hello all!
I've been on a diet for 3 weeks now and it has been going successfully so far. Yesterday I screwed though when I came home from a trip endlessly tired and with sleep deprivation. It wasn't that late but I felt like I was about to fall asleep so when I went to grocery shopping I bought a pint of ice cream. I had also been snacking some chocolate the whole day to keep me awake and a long story short I ended up eating quite a lot of the ice cream too. Luckily not all of it but I estimated about 1000kcal, in addition to 1000kcal of chocolate. And guys that is on top of what I needed that day as I had been travelling and didn't exercise. That's 2000kcal of extra! No wonder I had been piling on the pounds this past year as I have been calming myself down with sugar and fat. If I did every day what I did yesterday, I would gain 2 kilograms in a week!! Two kilograms in a single week, that's insane.
My normal daily deficit is around 500 kcal. That means that it takes four normal days for me to compensate those extra calories. Imagine if I binged every week like this. I should be on a huge deficit to compensate, otherwise losing weight would be impossible!
This was just a huge wake up call. One small chocolate bar or a few extra cookies don't ruin your progress but a whole day of bingeing certainly does harm. My goal is to lose weight slowly and steadily so I don't mind if I don't lose every day. But I don't want to bounce back like this anymore either! I mean, now I can be back at losing only on Saturday because it takes Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to compensate the extra that I ate on Monday.
For me the good days are easy, they go smoothly, I feel good and all that. It's the bad days that change the direction from losing to gaining. From now on my attitude should rather be: Minimise the harm on the bad days and stop bingeing immediately. 500kcal of extra can be undone in one day, 2000kcal takes 4 days and 4000kcal takes more than a week.
I had to add that I know five days mean nothing in long term. :) But just a great reminder that one can't keep doing things like that and expect weight loss.
Hi everyone, this is my first post, so please let me know if I need to fix anything regarding my post.
Quick background: been heavy for most of my 20s. Peaked at 211 lbs when I was 26. Struggled with depression brought on by some setbacks in my early 20s, and I turned to food, soda, and video games for comfort. I'm turning 30 at the end of this year and my goal is to be out of the "obese" BMI range before my birthday.
I took progress measurements for the first time since I started seriously dieting and working out 6 weeks ago. The scale hasn't moved as much as I'd hoped, and it was so frustrating to see that little number hovering around the same 3-4 lbs every week for the 3 weeks or so. Even though I kept telling myself, "It's okay, you're probably gaining a little muscle" I didn't really believe it until this morning, when I took my measurements. A total of 6 inches lost, 3 of which were from my thigh! In an instant, all that work felt worth it. All the meal prep, all the times I drank water instead of the latte or soda I really wanted, it was worth it. I actually cried a little, because that's the most progress I've seen with weight loss in nearly a decade.
As far as my diet goes, I have a daily goal range for each of my macros. For example, my daily protein goal is 140g, but I allow myself +/- 5g. For fat I give myself a range of +/-3g. It makes dieting so much less stressful and flexible. I also avoid processed foods as much as I can, but I don't feel bad if I have some bread or some cheese once in a while, so long as I get my macros within my ranges. I've also quit drinking sodas, and I drink almost exclusively water now. I try to drink about a gallon a day, but that's not always possible. I always make sure to get at least 64 oz though!
Exercise has been ice skating 2-3 times a week (easy skating, nothing really intensive. just working on balance and basic skills), body weight circuits twice a week (one upper body and one lower body), and then one day dedicated to cardio, usually rowing. I might drop the cardio day as I get better at ice skating, because I'll start getting my cardio workouts during skating.
My biggest takeaway is this: take measurements! If the scale isn't moving much, it could be because you're gaining muscle, but without measurements, you won't be able to tell that just from a number on the scale. Also, find a diet that's flexible enough for your lifestyle without indulging your prior bad habits. It took me a while to settle into this diet, but it allows for situations like an impromptu invitation to an office lunch, meeting with a friend after work, an last-second invite to a concert, etc. without feeling bad about it. Just hit your macro range, and you're good to go!
You CAN do it. Just because you haven't seen progress in a while doesn't mean it will never happen. Start with a small change that's not too hard to do, and work from there. For me, that first small change was going from full sugar sodas to zero calorie sodas. From there, I replaced 3 bottles of soda a week with bottles of water. Then I kept replacing my soda with water until soda was totally gone. It didn't happen overnight. It took about a month, but I never felt deprived doing it this way. Keep adding small changes rather than radically shifting your lifestyle all at once. After a few weeks, you might really amaze yourself with how differently you're eating, how you're working out, etc.
Good luck to everyone else on this journey. I'm rooting for you!
Today is your Day 1?
Welcome to r/Loseit!
So you aren’t sure of how to start? Don’t worry! “How do I get started?” is our most asked question. r/Loseit has helped our users lose over 1,000,000 recorded pounds and these are the steps that we’ve found most useful for getting started.
Our bodies are amazing (yes, yours too!). In order to survive before supermarkets, we had to be able to store energy to get us through lean times, we store this energy as adipose fat tissue. If you put more energy into your body than it needs, it stores it, for (potential) later use. When you put in less than it needs, it uses the stored energy. The more energy you have stored, the more overweight you are. The trick is to get your body to use the stored energy, which can only be done if you give it less energy than it needs, consistently.
The very first step is calculating your calorie needs. You can do that HERE. This will give you an approximation of your calorie needs for the day. The next step is to figure how quickly you want to lose the fat. One pound of fat is equal to 3500 calories. So to lose 1 pound of fat per week you will need to consume 500 calories less than your TDEE (daily calorie needs from the link above). 750 calories less will result in 1.5 pounds and 1000 calories is an aggressive 2 pounds per week.
Here is where it begins to resemble work. The most efficient way to lose the weight you desire is to track your calorie intake. This has gotten much simpler over the years and today it can be done right from your smartphone or computer. r/loseit recommends an app like MyFitnessPal, Loseit! (unaffiliated), or Cronometer. Create an account and be honest with it about your current stats, activities, and goals. This is your tracker and no one else needs to see it so don’t cheat the numbers. You’ll find large user created databases that make logging and tracking your food and drinks easy with just the tap of the screen or the push of a button. We also highly recommend the use of a digital kitchen scale for accuracy. Knowing how much of what you're eating is more important than what you're eating. Why? This may explain it.
How do you create a deficit? This is up to you. r/loseit has a few recommendations but ultimately that decision is yours. There is no perfect diet for everyone. There is a perfect diet for you and you can create it. You can eat less of exactly what you eat now. If you like pizza you can have pizza. Have 2 slices instead of 4. You can try lower calorie replacements for calorie dense foods. Some of the communities favorites are cauliflower rice, zucchini noodles, spaghetti squash in place of their more calorie rich cousins. If it appeals to you an entire dietary change like Keto, Paleo, Vegetarian.
The most important thing to remember is that this selection of foods works for you. Sustainability is the key to long term weight management success. If you hate what you’re eating you won’t stick to it.
Is NOT mandatory. You can lose fat and create a deficit through diet alone. There is no requirement of exercise to lose weight.
It has it’s own benefits though. You will burn extra calories. Exercise is shown to be beneficial to mental health and creates an endorphin rush as well. It makes people feel awesome and has been linked to higher rates of long term success when physical activity is included in lifestyle changes.
It can seem like one needs to make a 180 degree course correction to find success. That isn’t necessarily true. Many of our users find that creating small initial changes that build a foundation allows them to progress forward in even, sustained, increments.
You will struggle. We have all struggled. This is natural. There is no tip or trick to get through this though. We encourage you to recognize why you are struggling and forgive yourself for whatever reason that may be. If you overindulged at your last meal that is ok. You can resolve to make the next meal better.
Do not let the pursuit of perfect get in the way of progress. We don’t need perfect. We just want better.
Now you’re ready to do this. Here are more details, that may help you refine your plan.
I have to say it takes a lot of experimenting and time, and energy, and resilience, and resolve, and...... What I can take away from the first half of this journey is that you need a large toolbox to get through weight loss. I think the tool that moved me forward the most was my resolve while what helped me most on my journey was experimentation with diets and the specifics of diets. For years people said eat 5 small meals a day. That is compleat s***. I was hungry all day and ate more than 2000 kcal. When I discovered the fasting community my life changed and I saw extreme results immediately, and I saved money. Who knew dieting was so cheap?
The experimentation with fasting went beyond vitamins and eating schedules, everyone thought I would die by not eating every day. One person tried to have me sent to the psyc ward because they thought missing meals would end my life. Fasters hear this all the time. So the social aspects were often against me but Reddit was always there for me. The physical aspects of fasting: I found that at the core I really needed a few things daily, a multi vitamin, electrolyte tablet (you need to replace your electrolytes you pee out daily), plenty of water, and coffee/tea.
Butter coffee/fat coffee: burning fat is difficult but saturating your system with fat helps the body switch faster to burning fat and not using up whatever carbs you have left (I know you'll be here to fix this Reddit) . I good a shot class and mixed ~.5 g avocado oil, coconut oil, and 2 g butter and filled with coffee. I experimented with the mixtures and found that the taste is the most difficult part so this blender was the easiest for me. After I chased it with water.
Thanks to all who have helped along the way!
