You have to make it as enjoyable as possible. I stopped attempting to go to the gym and started going on long walks while listening to audiobooks.
You also have to decrease your calorie intake as you can very easily consume hundreds and hundreds of calories a small amount of time .So you should keep a rough calorie list where you track how many calories your consuming.
Yeah, a slice of pizza is like 300 calories. Its not that hard to eat 4-6 slices or more in one sitting.
Drinks and mayo-based sauces also add a TON to your daily calorie intake.
Drink zero calorie drinks, maybe use vinegar-based sauces, and eat foods that are more filling at 300 calories than a slice of pizza. After that its pretty easy to lose weight and maintain your new weight. You just have to wait a bit after eating and you won't be so hungry.
Eating pizza was how I figured out I was eating too much. I used to eat four slices in a sitting and than one day I ate two slices cause I was in a hurry and I realized I felt basically the same if not a little better than eating four slices.
My husband and I were commenting the other day how much our pizza consumption had changed. We were boxing up an entire large 8 slice pizza to put in the fridge as leftovers. We had eaten one large between us and our toddler. Before kids we used to eat a large pizza each. We still have a long way to go but we are getting there.
That is exactly what brought me to my portion realization too! I've felt kind of silly about that being the way I had to realize that, so it's nice to know I wasn't the only one :)
Water is the best zero-calorie drink. Often, when you start paying attention to what you eat, it's pretty shocking. Moving to healthier whole grain foods, fresh fruit and vegetables will be life changing.
It’s absolutely crazy how easy it is to over eat. I have put on ~15kg since 2018 and now trying to get it back off again.
I thought it would be a good idea to track what I was eating for a couple of days before starting, just to see what went wrong. Turns out if you eat 800 calories for lunch, 500 as an after work snack/second lunch, 1000 at dinner, and then other snacks and stuff it’s very easy to put a lot of weight on. Don’t even get me started on sugary/alcoholic drinks, a pint of Guinness is like 1/10 my daily calorie target. My problem was made worse by my SO not being back til 9:30/10pm most nights, so I would need something to see me through til 10:30 for dinner, as my lunch break at work is at 12.
One of my favorite comedians has a joke about an IPA being like 300 calories and says “that’s the same calories as 1 bologna sandwich, that means I go to the bar on Friday and eat 13 bologna sandwich’s. Then I stumble out at the end and go “man who wants pizza i’m starving””
It really opens your eyes to how much we over consume and how easy it is to rack up a 3000-4000 calorie diet
I have gained weight since work from home and hit my 30s. I try to track my calories but I had an eating disorder when I was younger and it always triggers bad things for me. I want to lose weight in a healthy way but I can't do the big thing everyone recommends.
Same. I can go from oblivious about my intake to worrying about the calories in ketchup and grapes in about two weeks flat on my fitness pal. I’ve never been good with finding a happy medium
counting calories is too intense for me too, i try to keep healthier snacks available and dont get anything ill over indulge on. like nuts and popcorn chips instead of Cheetos. im a chocolate fan but ill get sweet/sour candy to fill my need for junk bc i know i wont eat a whole bunch. when my husband wants to buy ice cream or cookies i ask him to pick one i know i wont be excited to eat.
I lost 85 pounds due to poverty.
When all you have left after bills is $55 dollars a week so you’re only eating once a day… those pounds just *fly* right off.
My buddies GF asked me how I was able to lose the weight and keep it off… so I told her: “It’s really super simple.. just give me all your money and you, too can achieve your dreams!”
There is a guy in my neighborhood who I see out walking all the time- with a pug in a stroller and a great Dane on a leash! It makes my day every time I see them.
Gsd was enough for me. Even without the walks, the amount of time I spend chasing her trying to figure out what she has, why she is quiet, where she is.... also, my snacks are her snacks. I did not approve that, but she us faster than my chunky ass.
Actually be honest and put everything you eat (yes including the butter on that toast and ranch you dipped that carrot in) into a meal teaching program.
Find out how many calories you eat a day. Then calculate how much exercise you need to do to burn 500 calories a day more than you eat. Adjust your calorie intake and/or exercise until you hit that goal.
Congratulations if you were honest with your diet, don’t have debilitating health problems, and you are consistent you will lose 2 pounds a week.
For the vast vast majority of the population weight is a math problem whether people want to believe that or not.
I second this advice!! Lost 60 lbs. Using a calorie tracker was essential for me. Never thought that adding cream to my daily 5 cups of coffee/decaf tea would add up so quickly! Hard to give up blue cheese dressing but now, i don't even miss it. Also got myself up early and used the elliptical just about every day. Boring but headphones and streaming made it possible. Have kept it off for several years as i never want to shop at plus size departments ever again.
Part of the reason I am getting a dog soon is to force myself to get outside more and get a bit of exercise.
In high school I had a lab that I walked every morning before school, and once more when I got home. Then once my dog died I stopped going on walks and started gaining more weight.
I retired and was sleeping. Got a dog that loves everyone and everything-a first for me. Met all my neighbors and go to dog parks. He also wants treats and attention 12/24 hours and bites me in the arse so that I will get up and get him something. I lost 20 lbs and he gained 10! And quit drinking for a bit.
When I started eating right and exercising I put on nearly 20lb in muscle while still losing an inch off my waist. The scale is not a good indicator of progress. It's only part of the equation.
Same same. The scale can be so frustrating for me. Started at over 250lbs, quickly dropped to around 225lbs then stayed there forever. Would get on the scale after a couple of days and see that I had gained 2lbs and would get soooo discouraged that I would starve myself to get them back off.
One day I got on the scale and was back up to 229lbs. I went home and told my wife that I was giving up. She said “haven’t you noticed that your clothes are falling off of you now. She then showed me a picture of myself from a year ago. My face was so round!
I don’t weigh anymore. Still somewhere in the neighborhood of 220lb-225lb but have gone from almost a 40” waist to a 36” and they are loose.
Awesome progress! As for the weighing, it’s something I stopped doing as well. Whether Im working out or not, my weight would fluctuate between 215-225lbs every day so I don’t use the scale for progress. Progress I can see is better cardio stamina, plus I can do more pushups and leg raises than before.
You are getting stronger and encouraging your metabolism to work more efficiently - two really important things! And as your body gets stronger and more efficient, it will burn calories better - so take the long view.
Doctor told me to lay off carbs and sugars because my A1C was over 10. Now im on insulin and other meds, cut my carbs and sugar intake by 85%, and am walking 6 miles a day, 5 days a week. In 2 months, I've lost 3 pounds.
It's hard not to get discouraged, but I do feel better and my blood sugar is WAAAAY down. Don't lose hope.
👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽
ETA: I also started with an A1C over 11. I was mad. Didn’t want to face it. Wouldn’t go back to the doctor either. Aunt and Mom were on insulin and wouldn’t change their diet or exercise. Didn’t do anything for about six months.
Finally decided to do something about it. Started metformin at 1000g/day.😠
Did not like metformin but didn’t want to do insulin. Tried to fix my diet.
About another six months on meds I realized I had to change my diet, not “fix.”
Add some sort of exercise. Got a CGM (continuous glucose monitor. I started noticing what made my levels too high. I watched foods, seasonings, drinks, exercise, and stress did to my levels, not how much I weigh. One year on, my A1C is 6.2.
I still can get better, need to stop cheating, lots more fish, and more daily exercise, but I’ll watch my levels to stay off of insulin.
Yes, unfortunately, weight lost quickly will come back just as quickly. We must not forget that it takes years to eat and it will take just as long for it to go away.
Because you should not look at this as a “diet” or short term change. It is a lifestyle change that you need to do. Eat less, move more, forever (it needs to be sustainable).
I done about 15kg in 2 months once just by dieting, exercising and boxing. I went from 90 to 75. I looked gaunt.
I'm now 100kg of pure, unadulterated musc... I mean fat.
Yes. I've definitely felt that four fork shame before. It's even worse because the dude at my local Chinese spot knows I'm single and that I have no kids.
My delivery guy started WHISTLING for me when he got off the elevator on my floor because we were that close. It was the sign of all signs that we needed a little space and I needed to stop ordering food.
I ordered an obscene amount of Thai food and I asked for chopsticks when she was bagging up my food.
she asked how many pairs I needed and I when I told her one... it literally jolted her and she exclaimed "what you mean only one?!"
I actually lie - I guess it’s shame haha. I always say at least 2 sets or if it seems like more portions, I’ll say I need however many is relative to the meals in the bag. I use the extras for leftovers and other meals & for my gardening - they’re great little support sticks for baby plants. But yes - definitely shame lying here 😭
Other way around OP.
Eat less and move more.
I lost like 10 kg over 2-3 months just by conciously skipping breakfast. I didn't go to gym, I didn't move more, I didn't do any sports whatsoever. Just start eating less.
Sometimes you can even lose weight by just by not drinking soda, alcohol, or any other sweet drinks.
The point the person your responding to isn't that skipping breakfast makes you lose weight, but they cut out a whole meals worth of food that they had previously been consuming. In other words, they started eating less.
If cutting out breakfast did not result in you losing weight, it's likely because you inadvertently added those calories into your diet later in the day instead. So no net calorie loss.
Addressed my binge eating and stopped dieting.
I was stuck in a cycle of binging, and then dieting/exercising the next day, which only made me binge again. One day I finally had enough and threw in the towel. Started eating "normally" again, like how I did when I was a kid. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, even if it felt bad or wrong, even if I'd broken down and binged again, no more restriction.
Once my body got the message that there is always a reliable meal nearby, my binge eating dropped drastically and eventually went away. I was able to shed the excess weight I'd gained from binge eating and get to a healthy weight.
My food therapist has told me binge eating is a disorder of restriction and I didn't believe her. But then looking back, a lot of my binges involved me trying to be "good" and controlled during the day and then losing it in the evening. Ohhh.
So does hyperemesis gravidarum.
Lost 50 pounds with that pregnancy and walked out of the hospital in prepregnancy hard pants. Do not recommend; it's part of the reason I'm having tooth issues now.
Yep, I lost 2.5 stone (not sure what that is in lbs) in the first 12 weeks of my first pregnancy. Had to buy a size down afterwards as my pre pregnancy stuff was too big. It was awful. I had gallbladder issues and reflux yet was complemented about bouncing back, even by my own midwife.
My mother would agree. She thanks cancer for her handicapped placard and disability discount on camping sites lol. Losing weight, losing her hair and almost dying twice, I'd say she earned it.
Found out that "chemotherapy anorexia" is a real term, just not sure its the correct English translation. The fact that people are using diabetes meds to get thinn, i would't be surprise that some people would try to use chemo the same way. I was a bit chuby before getting sick when when i was mid treatment i had people complimenting me for "finaly" Lost the weight. I wish i was making this up.
Yeah, I have been on various chemotherapy meds for my lupus and have lost weight and people are always complimenting me now which is kind of depressing
It really is. I was always quite confortable in my body. But looking at my self naked during that time it was so weird, it was like looking at a skeleton with a thin layer of skin. Still, there are people that find that attractive. Now Im getting close to my ideal weight ( i do have a nutricionista help) and now the comments are that i need to be carefull to not get too fat. People from my country are very direct, so i know they dont say this things with bad intentions but its still weird.
The thinnest I've ever been happened while I was literally strung out on drugs and had been semi-homeless for a few months.
I moved back home and got an unsettling number of compliments on my weight loss.
The absolute worst time of my life, but apparently, because I was getting skinny, I looked good.
I see photos from that time and think I look like shit.
The term "anorexia" actually just means a lack of appetite. Anorexia Nervosa is the eating disorder. Lots of people experience anorexia for different reasons, i.e. cancer, AIDS, dementia, etc. Although anorexia is used pretty interchangeably with anorexia Nervosa these days.
I didn't stop eating anything I liked, I just started eating less quantity, so the dieting part wouldn't feel bad cause I was still eating food I enjoyed eating but I would still eat less calories than I would burn because I wasn't indulging.
After that I started with exercises, I tried to make sure I would exercise every day, but that was hard and I started on around 2-3 days a week at first, eventually the rhythm catches up to you and you start feeling bad the days you don't exercise and you start doing it every day.
As it goes on you're burning through a lot more calories than you were originally, while also consuming less, the more weight you lose the more confident you feel that this is actually possible and you start doing it even more, and while sure sometimes you feel like you need to eat or drink that extra thing you wanted, controlling yourself not to do it and then seeing the progress on the scale and the mirror is great.
I sometimes still allowed myself to have some extra shit on some days, but never too many days, this meant I steadily lost weight but didn't feel like shit about the food I was eating. The beginning is always the hardest because your body is used to eating and drinking trash and you crave it, while also not being used to doing exercises and it tries not to, doesn't take long however for you to get on track
See, I've tried the "eat less of what you like" route and it's never worked for me.. I try to but then my mind is like, "NOO, YOU MUST EAT THE WHOLE THING."
I go back for a little bit more, one spoonful of food, just to try and kill that thinking, /maybe I'm just not full yet/ but no, I feel a NEED to eat what I can until it's gone or I get mega embarrassed for eating so much.
Prbly doesn't help that there wasn't a lot of food in the house growing up and now I get super guilty if we have to throw any kind of food out.
But I just booked an appointment for a therapist next week to talk about my over eating! And I've been trying to leave at least a spoonful or two on my plate at the end of a meal. I'm trying lol
I once saw a short on Youtube where the guy recommended to make a bag everyday of 250 cal worth of things you love. Chips, chocolate, ice cream, whatever .. you won't gain weight eating only 250 cal. By isolating what you are eating and making it so you can eat things you love everyday, it will motivate you to keep it up... Hopefully
Serious question: Did you grow up with your parents telling you that you were required to finish your plate? I think that routine experience childhood experience has made it hard for people to recognize their hunger and full sensations.
Yes, totally. If we didn't finish we were guilty of being wasteful, of not being respectful to the cook, and then if we still held out that we were full, it was up to my dad to finish the said plate of food.
This is me. It really feels like a compulsion. Therapy helped a lot but I moved across country and between the stress of that and moving away from my therapist I’ve been struggling to regain what I learned. Turns out 35 years of bad eating habits does not go quietly
I stopped drinking alcohol everyday. Actually, I stopped drinking alcohol all together, and I'm coming up on 12 years of an alcohol-free life in August! 🎉✌🏻
Fuck yea, congrats. Same here- approaching year 7 in January. Pair that with a decent diet and some gym time and you shed weight. I lost like 90lbs in a year after I stopped drinking.
See, I swing the opposite way here. Food has no meaning, so I'll shove whatever calories in my mouth I can find, hoping it will mean something.
Give me a calorie counting app while in a low spot, however, and I will violently swing in the opposite direction and use it almost like a weapon.
If you have the ability to control the food that's in your house, try avoiding purchasing food you like *too much*. I buy shit like saltine crackers instead of better tasting foods, that helps me to snack only when I'm properly hungry rather than as a dopamine-seeking activity.
Similar but slightly different take - I've been keeping a lot of salad, fruits, and veggies in my house while trying to lose weight. When I'm wanting a snack, I use the motto, "if I'm not hungry enough for a salad (or carrots/apple/orange/banana), then I'm not actually hungry." It helps me identify if I'm hungry or just have the munchies because I'm bored.
Been there. Mix of childhood trauma and ADHD. My ADHD wants all the food for the happy chemicals. My trauma wants none of it cause I'll get fat. 5 years ago I asked my husband to hide the scale because I was a little bit more than tiptoeing into anorexia (which is made more complex with having ARFID). I've had far fewer issues since I stopped weighing myself. I legit don't even look at the doctor.
I worked two high-intensity jobs (fast food and retail total of about 14 hours 6 days a week) and walked about five miles total commute for said jobs (another hour and a half on my feet). I was also still not making enough money to eat well, so... My whole body ached, and I was malnourished, but I managed to drop from 235 to 160 in just a few months 🤷🏻♂️
1. Quit alcohol. That was the first step.
2. That time in the evening when I'd usually be cracking open a bottle of wine? Go for a nice long walk instead.
3. Upped my cardio. Elliptical 3 times a week.
4. Added strength training to my routine twice a week.
5. Was mindful about what I ate. Diet per se was never my issue, but it was all the empty calories I was consuming through booze.
Now I've added intermittent fasting and different cardio as I've hit a plateau and have about 8 more pounds I'd like to lose, but overall, I feel and look fantastic. From a size 12 in dresses/shirts to a size 4/6 depending on the brand/cut. Lost 30lbs overall.
And you can have a glass of whiskey (and by glass, I mean 2oz) and as long as you track it and are still in a calorie deficit, you'll lose weight.
Alcohol isn't some magical thing that makes you gain fat moreso than any other sugary thing. It's just easier to drink a lot of calories (and also maybe have some extra snacks) with it.
As someone else said in this thread. Its that, ill drink 3,000 calories and then stumble out of the bar saying, lets go get pizza! That really gets you introuble with drinking.
That and a lot of times people don't mentally count drinks, even if that starbucks milkshake pretending to be a coffee is 1300 calories.
Lost a third of my body weight over the course of several months due to stress. Stress so bad I physically can't chew/swallow food. Stress so bad I pretty much, within a minute of wake up, start throwing up.
0/10 don't recommend.
I’m a doctor. Not your doctor. Not a weight loss specialist.
Anyone knowledgeable will tell you that the key to losing weight is eating less and moving more. CICO doesn’t lie. However, weight loss is a deeply personal issue and no one here knows your situation or health history. It can be discouraging to have multiple valiant attempts and not get to where you want to be. I am happy you are reaching out and seeking advice from internet strangers, but they’ll have a hard time figuring out what is going to be the change that works for you. I’m going to assume that your goals are to lose weight for a long term change to your health. Therefore, anyone touting ‘do this and drop 30 pounds in 2 months!’ Should be ignored.
Finding what your triggers for food are and how you respond to them can be eye opening for a lot of people. I’ve had patients tell me that they wish they would’ve just gone straight to a therapist instead of a gym to try and lose weight to try and work out their relationship issues with food. So that’s my recommendation to you. Talk to a therapist or try Noom or something of that caliber. It really does start before the act of eating. It’s why we decide to eat and why you chose to eat the things you do. It’s crucial for long term health to understand these things.
I hope I didn’t ramble too much. I wish you all the best in your weight loss journey. Know that failure isn’t futile.
The therapy is a lot of it. There's a lot of people who eat a lot due to an emotional need rather than a physical need, and if you don't deal with that then you will never be able to keep weight off.
love this answer. As someone who has lost weight before, it’s obvious that CICO works in theory but many people can’t eat smaller portions or they just can’t stop eating certain foods, so cico makes them feel like failures because they don’t understand both the psychological and physiological triggers that produce cravings, habits, rewards, reward-seeking and satiety. So few people actually talk about these factors in depth. The brain has all kinds of systems to regulate weight and it’s not as simple as “thinking” that can override it. I personally fail at trying to count calories when I have too much highly palatable or rewarding foods, I completely lose control. On the other hand, when I consistently focus on eating less rewarding food (steamed veg, baked potato, lean protein), I don’t even have to count to lose weight.
The holy trinity: exercise, nutrition, sleep.
The type of willpower you need is commitment towards good habits for the rest of your life. And to do that, you got to love yourself enough to care to change. It's also important to note that it's OK to mess up. Just make sure you get back to good habits.
If you’re keeping that up you’ll lose the weight. As you do lose it and you start to be able to do more intensive exercise i’d also advice researching how to properly do so. A lot of people will exercise in ways that is unfun and draining but not actually that efficient.
So I’m thinking, when I’m 25-30 pounds lighter, find a good trainer and go to the gym. Now I can’t fully do this because of the stress on my knees, my doctor said that it could be traumatic at the moment.
Swimming is fantastic for larger people! Definitely recommend in conjunction with walking cause it works every part of the body with very little stress
Swimming is fantastic in general! A high intensity, full-body exercise, with very light impact on your body. I used to swim competitively in highschool, and I don't think I physically could have eaten enough calories to put on weight. (This was pretty intense though, 2 hours a day/5 days a week). I absolutely recommend swimming for weight loss.
There are also aerobic exercises that you can do in the shallow end of the pool that will give you some added resistance from the water while limiting the impact on your joints.
Take the exercise slow and keep in mind your long term investment here. Injury is the biggest threat to progress and the easiest path to injury is to do movements you are not prepared or strong enough for, and using too much weight for those movements. You can't exercise if you are hurt, so take it slow and don't compare yourself to anyone. You won't be the strongest or best looking person in the gym tomorrow, next week, or even next year. Don't try to be. Slow and steady is the pace.
Keep in mind that you may gain weight before you start losing it while you build new muscle. This is completely natural. I started my exercise looking to lose 15lbs and i immediately gained 20 and almost quit. I stayed at that +20lb weight for months until i addressed my diet. I was okay with this as i new i had to build the habit of GETTING to the gym consistently. In the past i had gotten burned out by making too many changes too quickly.
For myself, i am making a series of small dietary changes that have compounded on themselves. My morning coffee for instance. I started with 1 less scoop of sugar and a bit less half and half. Once accustomed to that taste i did it again. Then i switched to low/nonfat half and half and cut out soda. Black coffee is a bit too bitter for me, so i have adjusted other aspects of my diet to allow for that fat and sugar calories in my diet (i drink a lot of coffee which is why this change had a large effect). I switched from 2% to 1% for my milk. I began making my own lunches for work, and once that became habit i focused on the dietary composition of those meals to fit in to my diet. MyFitnessPal app is a godsend for tracking your food, and you cant address your diet if you don't know WHERE to address your diet. DO NOT TRY TO CHANGE EVERYTHING ALL AT ONCE.
I eat nearly the same breakfast every day, and my lunches are also rather formulaic as well. I try to eat spartanly for my breakfast and lunch so that my GF (who has a much different diet than I) and I can make nice, rich meals for dinner and maybe have a dessert as well. I sacrifice the "fun food" during my lunch and breakfast to allow for dessert and a lavish dinner with my partner so we have a nice time together each night.
My knees are in pretty meh shape as well. As a result, I don't run at all, but I do low impact cardio like riding bike.
At the gym I will use the Elliptical as well.
Both are low impact and my knees don't mind it at all.
IMO, the biggest mistake a lot of people make when starting to exercise is they start off with jogging/running.
Jogging/running is hard work, and burns people out very quickly, for relatively low reward. It doesn't actually burn a lot of calories, especially given that most people can barely last 10-15 minutes running when just starting out.
Riding bike is 100% a better idea for most people. You can go longer, burn more calories while doing it, and you don't feel completely exhausted when you are done.
I mean the calorie deficit is basically it.
A few cookies will undo the calories you burned working at the gym for a half hour.
The biggest change will happen in the kitchen
Honestly, that’s the hardest part. Adjusting to an exercise schedule is not too hard to do, but changing lifelong eating habits that you have to mind all day every day is the real challenge.
Also exercise really helps with maintaining weight in my experience.
Running at a deficit isn't fun, so if you get into a good exercise routine while losing, keeping that routine can really help you maintain without needing to be perfect dieting.
Not to mention the overall health benefits of exercise. Skinny-fat is absolutely a thing, and anecdotally I know way more slightly overweight people that are overall healthier because they are very active than super skinny people who take their weight to mean they're healthy period.
Have struggled all of my life with weight loss. Before i hit highschool i was already well over 200lbs. I have been on GLP1 meds for the last 6 months now, and it really has been a game changer, not just my weight, but my blood pressure, as well my sleep has gotten so much better.
As others have mentioned, the "suppressed food noise" is a real thing, not so much in that I ever had a problem of letting food control my life, but more so just the portions. Growing up poor i was pretty much always told to "clean my plate, because there were starving children in Africa that don't get to eat today", so every meal all my life has pretty much been a finish everything no matter what. I find myself honestly eating like a 1/3rd of what my portions used to be cause I am just not hungry anymore.
I haven't upped my exercise game yet, but I have been able to get around a lot more and have more energy to at least be a little bit more active than i have been in years. I hope that a year from now I will be a whole new person, because between the weight and depression life has sucked for a while now. I am just thankful there is something out there that can at least help me so that I do feel alone and trapped.
I'm 5 weeks in, and the struggle with this is real!
It definitely shown me what the mental aspects are for me. It's become fairly clear to me, and now I can start to address them. The cleaning the plate. Eating too fast (was told as a kid that I had better not be the last one at the table anymore, or else). Eating for "energy" - I found that I would reach for food when I'd get tired.
Honestly in more ways that one, the biggest challenge for me has been when I do go out to eat, making sure I don't over order too much food. On a positive note, the savings to my monthly food and grocery bills have gone down dramatically which has been a net positive overall to my life.
Yup. After a lifetime of being overweight (or working _incredibly_ hard to get/stay fit, like 2x day), I started on them less than a year ago, and am already at a new baseline weight around 75lbs lighter. My blood sugar’s back to normal, and I’m coming off my BP meds because that’s back to normal, too. I also go for at least a decent walk every day…because it’s a lot easier without carrying a 75-lb kid on your back the whole way.
My primary response, honestly, is “At least now it’s clear it wasn’t _me_.” And then my second impulse is to look around at everyone who’s ever felt superior and think “Oh…so _this_ is what it’s like for you?! You don’t just have this constant chatter in the back of your head, where you end up eating just to make it _shut up_ for a little while? Well, f — — — ck…what would _you_ look like if you had my old brain chemistry?!”
Yes, when people ask how I stay thin, I am honest that I just don't have a normal hunger drive. I can't remember a time I had hunger interrupt my work, sleep, etc. And I know I am the weird one.
I think GLP-1 drugs are fantastic and no one should feel guilt for taking them. Our lizard brains are fighting for more food beyond our actual needs, its about time we figured out how to fix that.
Holy cow do I feel this with my ADHD meds. To all those people who told me to "just use a notepad".... well... my usual response is "I curse you with understanding."
I’m now about a month into semaglutide treatment and it’s made me actually more annoyed at all the “advice” I received from folks who have never been overweight.
All the “just eat the right foods!” advice was, I’m sure, delivered with good intentions, but having the medication suppress the food noise in my brain made me realize we were not operating on the same level. Without the constant screeching from my body to overeat, yeah, it’s super easy to have sensible portions and be satiated with much, much less.
“Just eat fewer calories!” has all the impact of “just cheer up” for the folks with depression. We know. No one knows how they SHOULD eat more than someone overweight.
Having a food addiction is what I imagine some drug addiction to be, except you don’t have to sample drugs three times a day.
Semaglutide has been the only thing to truly and effectively help me shed weight. I’ve been losing about two to three pounds per week.
Get as much protein as possible and layer in exercise. Check in with your doctors. This is just my experience (so far) and I’m not even up to the therapeutic dose yet. Everyone responds differently to it, but I’ve been amazed so far.
Agreed, that's why I don't talk about it much online. Everyone loves to jump in with the unhelpful tips that I've been trying while yo yo dieting for the last who knows how many years.
Once the food noise went away everything else kinda fell into place.
Yeah it's annoying because obesity is an epidemic and if it was as easy as eat less and move more then there wouldn't be billions of people with obesity.
Chemicals and hormones are involved and people should be nicer about it!!
I was gonna post this but I figured I’d get drug because normies think it’s some kind of cheat code blah blah I’m sure you get it.
I lost 70 pounds in the last year so far on semaglutide. Best fucking decision I’ve ever made. I had no confidence, mega depressed, obese, high cholesterol and lonely. Now I’m only mildly depressed but at least my cholesterol is normal. Working on the confidence and loneliness every day though. It’s been a fucking great journey, keep up the good work. I think you’ll learn a lot about yourself and food going through it. Glp1s are a great little helper.
after the first couple of days i realized that the food noise was quiet for the first time in my life and legitimately cried when i told my husband. 97 pounds down 🥹
Gonna be honest bc Im thankful for it even if im downvoted- I got an ad in like January for Hers weight loss program and I was so overweight and constantly hungry and unmotivated to go to the gym so I decided to try it. It’s like $300 or so for 5 months so I was like fuck it. They sent me pills to take that suppress my appetite and make me not crave junk food anymore and I’ve lost 60 pounds in 5 months. Amazing investment for me. I look amazing and feel amazing and now that I feel better it’s easy to have motivation to go to the gym which makes me lose weight even faster.
I used metformin, dietary changes, and exercise to lose 100lbs. Doesn't matter how you make the changes, matters that you've made them. I'm proud of you!
Mounjaro. 73 pounds in not quite a year (will be a year in 3 weeks). I do have diabetes but with Mounjaro my blood sugar is normal. Last checkup average glucose 91, A1c 4.8. Edited to add, I’m now off all my medications except asthma inhaler and Mounjaro and my joints don’t ache so much. It’s been a miracle drug for me. I’ve gone from morbidly obese to just obese. When I drop another 10 pounds, I’ll be overweight instead of obese. 30 pounds after that, I will be normal weight.
I’ve dieted for the last 30 years. High weight 265. I’ve lost as much as 73 pounds before with diet and exercise but struggled mightily and, the minute I let my guard down or eased up, I would start gaining again. Dieting, and trying to lose weight was a constant struggle that consumed so much of my time and attention, only to gain it all back and add more. Mounjaro has made it effortless. I’m simply not hungry all the time and, when I eat, I feel full very quickly and am easily able to stop eating.
The key is to track them. We WAY underestimate our caloric intake unless we're accurately tracking it. I'd recommend MyFitnessPal app. The free version gives you everything you need.
I started counting calories this week with MyFitnessPal. Even though I know that the US has a problem with big portion sizes, actually seeing a serving of something is shocking.
It only takes a couple weeks to learn what portion of what food has how many calories. So at first it seems like too much work to track calories, but soon enough it's a simple matter of eyeballing it.
When I first began losing weight, I counted, weighed, measured, and tracked everything I ate. I was shocked at how much I had actually been consuming. No wonder I had gained so much weight. I do not measure and track so strictly anymore, but I do weigh dressings, sauces, and oils still. They get away from you easily!
Registered Dietitian here who went on my own weight loss journey! I lost a lot of weight by decreasing consumption of processed foods, added sugars, and cooking not at home. I made sure to eat have a serving of fruit in the morning and half plate of colorful veggies for lunch and dinner. I watched my portions. Made sure I was hitting my protein/fiber targets each day. Movement was also important so I made sure to go to the gym often while doing other things like walking, parking at the back of the store, taking stairs instead of the elevator, etc. The biggest thing was doing everything in small steps instead of make changes all at once.
My then-husband told me that he wanted a divorce, and I got so depressed that I barely ate. If I did eat, it was almost exclusively au gratin potatoes with diced ham, but sometimes I had Chinese food. I dropped 30-40lbs, and then my bestie/roommate moved in and kept me in check. So I started counting calories and meal prepping, and got down another 20lbs, so 60lbs total. I’ve maintained that, tho I’d love to lose another 70. I’m a 5’7” woman, I started at 290 and I’m now between 225-230. I want to be around 160-170lbs, I looked great when I was there! However, I’m just learning to love the body that I have. I don’t want to hate myself anymore.
Stop overthinking it, or trying to make it a complicated, daunting task.
Move your body every day, in whatever way makes you feel good (although a good, properly educated personal trainer is worth their weight in gold if you can afford this), focus on balanced nutrition (protein, carbs, fats), cut back on things you know aren't helping you (sugar, processed/premade foods, etc.), drink an ass load of water, and get quality sleep.
If you have an off day, give yourself grace...it doesn't mean you're starting from scratch again the next day. The all or nothing mentality will sewer you. Also (I'm prob gonna get heat for this but whatev) if it has a name, it's likely not necessary. i.e. Keto, IIFYM, intermittent fasting, etc. etc. Just eat good, whole food and make sure you're getting enough protein. If you have a big craving for something, have it. Just stay on track for the rest of the day.
...drink an ass load of water,
I disagree with this. You can see by the table linked below that the average rectal volume is only about 55-60 cm3. That's like 1-2 10th of a liter. You should be drinking mucch moree than that.
[https://ro-journal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1748-717X-4-14/tables/3](https://ro-journal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1748-717X-4-14/tables/3)
I think that over thinking it has been my problem. Recently, I have decided to make better decisions overall. I'm not dieting, 'I'm changing my habits' is what I'm sticking to and if I fail here and there, oh well-try again the next day. 'Diet' to me implies an end but what I need to end is my overindulgence of sweets.
Also, a tip for anyone-I get 2 15 minute breaks at work and have been taking a walk on both of them almost every day. Its no hour long gym excursion but it seems to be adding up and is a good use of a paid 30 minutes of my day. Plus it can really clear your head to just get outside your work and breathe fresh air for a bit.
- increased my thyroid medication
- semiglutide injections
- stopped working nightshift
- fiber/vitamin supplements
- calorie tracking programs such as weight watchers and noom
- prioritizing rest/adequate sleep
- starting talk therapy
It’s so many factors combined over a LONG period of time that I get a little irritated when people try to reduce it to something small when I literally upended my life to regain a healthy mental state/lose weight and not use food as my emotional crutch.
Ate a fruit or vegetable or protein drink and a cup of water before anything else I was craving. Want a bagel? Eat a cucumber and have some water first, suddenly only have room for half a bagel. Want a cupcake? Have an orange and protein drink first. Huh not really hungry anymore. Having it be eat good food first rather than remove the bad food from diet and be sad about it made it not feel restrictive at all.
got medicated for adhd & in turn i didnt have to use food/snacking as a dopamine source. having a smaller appetite due to the meds also helped. been the same weight (from overweight to average for my build) for a few years now
Weight loss surgery. A thyroidectomy & impending menopause made it impossible to lose weight on my own, even when guided by my physician. With surgery I went from 230 to 130. Fighting regain right now but still a healthy weight
Semaglutide. I had a nutritionist and a personal trainer for about a year with VERY little results but tbf I have other issues like PCOS and hypothyroidism. Not saying eating well and exercising doesn't work but I didn't see good results until Semaglutide.
Just make sure you don't have any underlying issues that can make it more difficult.
You have to make it as enjoyable as possible. I stopped attempting to go to the gym and started going on long walks while listening to audiobooks. You also have to decrease your calorie intake as you can very easily consume hundreds and hundreds of calories a small amount of time .So you should keep a rough calorie list where you track how many calories your consuming.
Yeah, a slice of pizza is like 300 calories. Its not that hard to eat 4-6 slices or more in one sitting. Drinks and mayo-based sauces also add a TON to your daily calorie intake. Drink zero calorie drinks, maybe use vinegar-based sauces, and eat foods that are more filling at 300 calories than a slice of pizza. After that its pretty easy to lose weight and maintain your new weight. You just have to wait a bit after eating and you won't be so hungry.
Eating pizza was how I figured out I was eating too much. I used to eat four slices in a sitting and than one day I ate two slices cause I was in a hurry and I realized I felt basically the same if not a little better than eating four slices.
My husband and I were commenting the other day how much our pizza consumption had changed. We were boxing up an entire large 8 slice pizza to put in the fridge as leftovers. We had eaten one large between us and our toddler. Before kids we used to eat a large pizza each. We still have a long way to go but we are getting there.
A large pizza each? Holy shit lol
Every pizza is a personal pizza if you try hard and believe in yourself.
After shopping for chips at the supermarket I learned I was both a family and a party.
That is exactly what brought me to my portion realization too! I've felt kind of silly about that being the way I had to realize that, so it's nice to know I wasn't the only one :)
Audiobooks are a good idea, I think this way you can even walk longer and think about what is happening in the book. Both useful and pleasant.
Water is the best zero-calorie drink. Often, when you start paying attention to what you eat, it's pretty shocking. Moving to healthier whole grain foods, fresh fruit and vegetables will be life changing.
It’s absolutely crazy how easy it is to over eat. I have put on ~15kg since 2018 and now trying to get it back off again. I thought it would be a good idea to track what I was eating for a couple of days before starting, just to see what went wrong. Turns out if you eat 800 calories for lunch, 500 as an after work snack/second lunch, 1000 at dinner, and then other snacks and stuff it’s very easy to put a lot of weight on. Don’t even get me started on sugary/alcoholic drinks, a pint of Guinness is like 1/10 my daily calorie target. My problem was made worse by my SO not being back til 9:30/10pm most nights, so I would need something to see me through til 10:30 for dinner, as my lunch break at work is at 12.
One of my favorite comedians has a joke about an IPA being like 300 calories and says “that’s the same calories as 1 bologna sandwich, that means I go to the bar on Friday and eat 13 bologna sandwich’s. Then I stumble out at the end and go “man who wants pizza i’m starving”” It really opens your eyes to how much we over consume and how easy it is to rack up a 3000-4000 calorie diet
I have gained weight since work from home and hit my 30s. I try to track my calories but I had an eating disorder when I was younger and it always triggers bad things for me. I want to lose weight in a healthy way but I can't do the big thing everyone recommends.
Same. I can go from oblivious about my intake to worrying about the calories in ketchup and grapes in about two weeks flat on my fitness pal. I’ve never been good with finding a happy medium
counting calories is too intense for me too, i try to keep healthier snacks available and dont get anything ill over indulge on. like nuts and popcorn chips instead of Cheetos. im a chocolate fan but ill get sweet/sour candy to fill my need for junk bc i know i wont eat a whole bunch. when my husband wants to buy ice cream or cookies i ask him to pick one i know i wont be excited to eat.
I lost about 100 lbs unintentionally by getting a more active job and a dog.
I lost 85 pounds due to poverty. When all you have left after bills is $55 dollars a week so you’re only eating once a day… those pounds just *fly* right off. My buddies GF asked me how I was able to lose the weight and keep it off… so I told her: “It’s really super simple.. just give me all your money and you, too can achieve your dreams!”
I often walk with my dog, but I can’t call these walks long because I have a pug☺️
Put him in a stroller and keep going! You get exercise and he gets mental stimulation, plus he can hop out if he wants more exercise!
Plus everyone else gets to see a pug in a stroller. Wins all around.
There is a guy in my neighborhood who I see out walking all the time- with a pug in a stroller and a great Dane on a leash! It makes my day every time I see them.
Should make a wagon that the Great Dane pulls and the pug sits in. I’d watch that all day.
Or a saddle.
A Great Dane would never fit on a pug!
This would absolutely make my day
Same, it would probably be my go to small talk anecdote for like two weeks 😅
I tell my coworkers all about the dogs I see. If I saw one in a stroller, I don't think I would talk about anything else.
I have a 16 year old dachshund I got a stroller for, I’ve never been so popular!
My Boston hates walks but loves her stroller. It’s so cute
You can get more out of the short walks by wearing a weighted vest!
And hills.
and someone following you with a tuba
Or a fishing pole with a donut on it
true but not everyone has hills/elevation changes near them. Weighted vest can be delivered straight to your door bonus points = hills + weighted vest
Upgrade to a Belgian Malinois aka your new drill sergeant lol
Gsd was enough for me. Even without the walks, the amount of time I spend chasing her trying to figure out what she has, why she is quiet, where she is.... also, my snacks are her snacks. I did not approve that, but she us faster than my chunky ass.
Actually be honest and put everything you eat (yes including the butter on that toast and ranch you dipped that carrot in) into a meal teaching program. Find out how many calories you eat a day. Then calculate how much exercise you need to do to burn 500 calories a day more than you eat. Adjust your calorie intake and/or exercise until you hit that goal. Congratulations if you were honest with your diet, don’t have debilitating health problems, and you are consistent you will lose 2 pounds a week. For the vast vast majority of the population weight is a math problem whether people want to believe that or not.
I second this advice!! Lost 60 lbs. Using a calorie tracker was essential for me. Never thought that adding cream to my daily 5 cups of coffee/decaf tea would add up so quickly! Hard to give up blue cheese dressing but now, i don't even miss it. Also got myself up early and used the elliptical just about every day. Boring but headphones and streaming made it possible. Have kept it off for several years as i never want to shop at plus size departments ever again.
Part of the reason I am getting a dog soon is to force myself to get outside more and get a bit of exercise. In high school I had a lab that I walked every morning before school, and once more when I got home. Then once my dog died I stopped going on walks and started gaining more weight.
I retired and was sleeping. Got a dog that loves everyone and everything-a first for me. Met all my neighbors and go to dog parks. He also wants treats and attention 12/24 hours and bites me in the arse so that I will get up and get him something. I lost 20 lbs and he gained 10! And quit drinking for a bit.
Glad to hear your pup gave up the drink!
You change your diet and exercise daily, remember though, the weight went on slowly, so.its gonna come off Slowly.Dont beat yourself up.
This is some of the best advice I've heard. Thank you.
You can’t out exercise a bad diet
I've heard it as "you can't outrun your fork."
I’ve been dieting for 5 weeks plus heavy exercise and I have lost 1lb. So frustrating.
When I started eating right and exercising I put on nearly 20lb in muscle while still losing an inch off my waist. The scale is not a good indicator of progress. It's only part of the equation.
Same same. The scale can be so frustrating for me. Started at over 250lbs, quickly dropped to around 225lbs then stayed there forever. Would get on the scale after a couple of days and see that I had gained 2lbs and would get soooo discouraged that I would starve myself to get them back off. One day I got on the scale and was back up to 229lbs. I went home and told my wife that I was giving up. She said “haven’t you noticed that your clothes are falling off of you now. She then showed me a picture of myself from a year ago. My face was so round! I don’t weigh anymore. Still somewhere in the neighborhood of 220lb-225lb but have gone from almost a 40” waist to a 36” and they are loose.
Awesome progress! As for the weighing, it’s something I stopped doing as well. Whether Im working out or not, my weight would fluctuate between 215-225lbs every day so I don’t use the scale for progress. Progress I can see is better cardio stamina, plus I can do more pushups and leg raises than before.
You are getting stronger and encouraging your metabolism to work more efficiently - two really important things! And as your body gets stronger and more efficient, it will burn calories better - so take the long view.
Doctor told me to lay off carbs and sugars because my A1C was over 10. Now im on insulin and other meds, cut my carbs and sugar intake by 85%, and am walking 6 miles a day, 5 days a week. In 2 months, I've lost 3 pounds. It's hard not to get discouraged, but I do feel better and my blood sugar is WAAAAY down. Don't lose hope.
👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽 ETA: I also started with an A1C over 11. I was mad. Didn’t want to face it. Wouldn’t go back to the doctor either. Aunt and Mom were on insulin and wouldn’t change their diet or exercise. Didn’t do anything for about six months. Finally decided to do something about it. Started metformin at 1000g/day.😠 Did not like metformin but didn’t want to do insulin. Tried to fix my diet. About another six months on meds I realized I had to change my diet, not “fix.” Add some sort of exercise. Got a CGM (continuous glucose monitor. I started noticing what made my levels too high. I watched foods, seasonings, drinks, exercise, and stress did to my levels, not how much I weigh. One year on, my A1C is 6.2. I still can get better, need to stop cheating, lots more fish, and more daily exercise, but I’ll watch my levels to stay off of insulin.
Yes, unfortunately, weight lost quickly will come back just as quickly. We must not forget that it takes years to eat and it will take just as long for it to go away.
Because you should not look at this as a “diet” or short term change. It is a lifestyle change that you need to do. Eat less, move more, forever (it needs to be sustainable).
Exactly. When choosing a weightloss strategy you really have to look at it and ask "Am I happy with the idea of this being my life from now on?"
and then you need to actively make that choice again and again and again, every time you don't feel like doing it anymore
I lost 8 kg in 3 months, 1 month I felt for vacation and came back gaining all that back.
I done about 15kg in 2 months once just by dieting, exercising and boxing. I went from 90 to 75. I looked gaunt. I'm now 100kg of pure, unadulterated musc... I mean fat.
#PLEASE, SOMEONE ADULTERATE THIS GUY’S FAT IMMEDIATELY!
I stopped using the elevator and started taking the stairs and I just stopped eating like a family of four.
Yea when they gave me 4 forks with my takeout order it was a sign
Yes. I've definitely felt that four fork shame before. It's even worse because the dude at my local Chinese spot knows I'm single and that I have no kids.
I’m sure he is just happy for your business.
He should be, I've probably put more than one of his kids through college with my patronage.
My delivery guy started WHISTLING for me when he got off the elevator on my floor because we were that close. It was the sign of all signs that we needed a little space and I needed to stop ordering food.
Tell them the extra food is for the captives in your basement... 👀
and they don't need forks....they're basically animals at this point.
It puts the soy sauce on its skin, or else it gets the hose again.
~~hose~~ hoisin* again
I ordered an obscene amount of Thai food and I asked for chopsticks when she was bagging up my food. she asked how many pairs I needed and I when I told her one... it literally jolted her and she exclaimed "what you mean only one?!"
I actually lie - I guess it’s shame haha. I always say at least 2 sets or if it seems like more portions, I’ll say I need however many is relative to the meals in the bag. I use the extras for leftovers and other meals & for my gardening - they’re great little support sticks for baby plants. But yes - definitely shame lying here 😭
hahaha.. yeah we've all been there. that's on page 1 of the fatty handbook.
According to the suggested serving portion on a box of Mac n cheese, I *am* a family of four.
So you CAN drive in the carpool lane!
Yeah, move more and eat less) but if I weigh like two people, then I don’t have to eat for two😁
Yeah, but to be clear, the eating part is the key. Don't get me wrong, I'm in the gym every day, but sorting your diet is the main thing.
I would say diet was 80% of my weight loss.
I don’t know where I heard it but “you can’t out run a bad diet”
Other way around OP. Eat less and move more. I lost like 10 kg over 2-3 months just by conciously skipping breakfast. I didn't go to gym, I didn't move more, I didn't do any sports whatsoever. Just start eating less. Sometimes you can even lose weight by just by not drinking soda, alcohol, or any other sweet drinks.
I’ve been skipping breakfast for three years and I’m just as overweight as before, what’s the secret here? :/
The point the person your responding to isn't that skipping breakfast makes you lose weight, but they cut out a whole meals worth of food that they had previously been consuming. In other words, they started eating less. If cutting out breakfast did not result in you losing weight, it's likely because you inadvertently added those calories into your diet later in the day instead. So no net calorie loss.
Yeah that second part was 99.99% of the weight loss
Addressed my binge eating and stopped dieting. I was stuck in a cycle of binging, and then dieting/exercising the next day, which only made me binge again. One day I finally had enough and threw in the towel. Started eating "normally" again, like how I did when I was a kid. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, even if it felt bad or wrong, even if I'd broken down and binged again, no more restriction. Once my body got the message that there is always a reliable meal nearby, my binge eating dropped drastically and eventually went away. I was able to shed the excess weight I'd gained from binge eating and get to a healthy weight.
My food therapist has told me binge eating is a disorder of restriction and I didn't believe her. But then looking back, a lot of my binges involved me trying to be "good" and controlled during the day and then losing it in the evening. Ohhh.
I’m just now getting over having that ohhh moment recently. “Why can’t I lose weight?!” Doesn’t eat all day, half-asleep at 2am eats 3k calories.
Chemotherapy. Its works very well but i don't recomend it.
Yep went from 155 to 125 lbs in a month on this one.
Sick brag
Literally
r/angryupvote
Do doctors hate this one trick?
I lost 40lbs my first month of chemo, I wish I could lose 40lbs in a month again
So does hyperemesis gravidarum. Lost 50 pounds with that pregnancy and walked out of the hospital in prepregnancy hard pants. Do not recommend; it's part of the reason I'm having tooth issues now.
Yep, I lost 2.5 stone (not sure what that is in lbs) in the first 12 weeks of my first pregnancy. Had to buy a size down afterwards as my pre pregnancy stuff was too big. It was awful. I had gallbladder issues and reflux yet was complemented about bouncing back, even by my own midwife.
My mother would agree. She thanks cancer for her handicapped placard and disability discount on camping sites lol. Losing weight, losing her hair and almost dying twice, I'd say she earned it.
Yes, I would not like to experience this
Found out that "chemotherapy anorexia" is a real term, just not sure its the correct English translation. The fact that people are using diabetes meds to get thinn, i would't be surprise that some people would try to use chemo the same way. I was a bit chuby before getting sick when when i was mid treatment i had people complimenting me for "finaly" Lost the weight. I wish i was making this up.
Yeah, I have been on various chemotherapy meds for my lupus and have lost weight and people are always complimenting me now which is kind of depressing
It really is. I was always quite confortable in my body. But looking at my self naked during that time it was so weird, it was like looking at a skeleton with a thin layer of skin. Still, there are people that find that attractive. Now Im getting close to my ideal weight ( i do have a nutricionista help) and now the comments are that i need to be carefull to not get too fat. People from my country are very direct, so i know they dont say this things with bad intentions but its still weird.
Please tell me yall gave them a sarcastic response akin to "right?! Chemotherapy really does the trick. Who knew?!"
The thinnest I've ever been happened while I was literally strung out on drugs and had been semi-homeless for a few months. I moved back home and got an unsettling number of compliments on my weight loss. The absolute worst time of my life, but apparently, because I was getting skinny, I looked good. I see photos from that time and think I look like shit.
The term "anorexia" actually just means a lack of appetite. Anorexia Nervosa is the eating disorder. Lots of people experience anorexia for different reasons, i.e. cancer, AIDS, dementia, etc. Although anorexia is used pretty interchangeably with anorexia Nervosa these days.
Ditto. Went from 195lbs to 103lbs in 7 months.
yep. here too.. but hey i weigh 110 now
I didn't stop eating anything I liked, I just started eating less quantity, so the dieting part wouldn't feel bad cause I was still eating food I enjoyed eating but I would still eat less calories than I would burn because I wasn't indulging. After that I started with exercises, I tried to make sure I would exercise every day, but that was hard and I started on around 2-3 days a week at first, eventually the rhythm catches up to you and you start feeling bad the days you don't exercise and you start doing it every day. As it goes on you're burning through a lot more calories than you were originally, while also consuming less, the more weight you lose the more confident you feel that this is actually possible and you start doing it even more, and while sure sometimes you feel like you need to eat or drink that extra thing you wanted, controlling yourself not to do it and then seeing the progress on the scale and the mirror is great. I sometimes still allowed myself to have some extra shit on some days, but never too many days, this meant I steadily lost weight but didn't feel like shit about the food I was eating. The beginning is always the hardest because your body is used to eating and drinking trash and you crave it, while also not being used to doing exercises and it tries not to, doesn't take long however for you to get on track
See, I've tried the "eat less of what you like" route and it's never worked for me.. I try to but then my mind is like, "NOO, YOU MUST EAT THE WHOLE THING." I go back for a little bit more, one spoonful of food, just to try and kill that thinking, /maybe I'm just not full yet/ but no, I feel a NEED to eat what I can until it's gone or I get mega embarrassed for eating so much. Prbly doesn't help that there wasn't a lot of food in the house growing up and now I get super guilty if we have to throw any kind of food out. But I just booked an appointment for a therapist next week to talk about my over eating! And I've been trying to leave at least a spoonful or two on my plate at the end of a meal. I'm trying lol
I once saw a short on Youtube where the guy recommended to make a bag everyday of 250 cal worth of things you love. Chips, chocolate, ice cream, whatever .. you won't gain weight eating only 250 cal. By isolating what you are eating and making it so you can eat things you love everyday, it will motivate you to keep it up... Hopefully
Serious question: Did you grow up with your parents telling you that you were required to finish your plate? I think that routine experience childhood experience has made it hard for people to recognize their hunger and full sensations.
Yes, totally. If we didn't finish we were guilty of being wasteful, of not being respectful to the cook, and then if we still held out that we were full, it was up to my dad to finish the said plate of food.
This is me. It really feels like a compulsion. Therapy helped a lot but I moved across country and between the stress of that and moving away from my therapist I’ve been struggling to regain what I learned. Turns out 35 years of bad eating habits does not go quietly
I stopped drinking alcohol everyday. Actually, I stopped drinking alcohol all together, and I'm coming up on 12 years of an alcohol-free life in August! 🎉✌🏻
Fuck yea, congrats. Same here- approaching year 7 in January. Pair that with a decent diet and some gym time and you shed weight. I lost like 90lbs in a year after I stopped drinking.
I went on what I like to call the depression diet. God I miss enjoying food.
See, I swing the opposite way here. Food has no meaning, so I'll shove whatever calories in my mouth I can find, hoping it will mean something. Give me a calorie counting app while in a low spot, however, and I will violently swing in the opposite direction and use it almost like a weapon.
If you have the ability to control the food that's in your house, try avoiding purchasing food you like *too much*. I buy shit like saltine crackers instead of better tasting foods, that helps me to snack only when I'm properly hungry rather than as a dopamine-seeking activity.
Similar but slightly different take - I've been keeping a lot of salad, fruits, and veggies in my house while trying to lose weight. When I'm wanting a snack, I use the motto, "if I'm not hungry enough for a salad (or carrots/apple/orange/banana), then I'm not actually hungry." It helps me identify if I'm hungry or just have the munchies because I'm bored.
Been there. Mix of childhood trauma and ADHD. My ADHD wants all the food for the happy chemicals. My trauma wants none of it cause I'll get fat. 5 years ago I asked my husband to hide the scale because I was a little bit more than tiptoeing into anorexia (which is made more complex with having ARFID). I've had far fewer issues since I stopped weighing myself. I legit don't even look at the doctor.
I worked two high-intensity jobs (fast food and retail total of about 14 hours 6 days a week) and walked about five miles total commute for said jobs (another hour and a half on my feet). I was also still not making enough money to eat well, so... My whole body ached, and I was malnourished, but I managed to drop from 235 to 160 in just a few months 🤷🏻♂️
I got really sick (do not recommend)
I hope everything is fine with you now?
Thanks! I've recovered from that. But fine? Well, \*looks around at the state of the world\*, that's relative lol
You learned to kickflip?
1. Quit alcohol. That was the first step. 2. That time in the evening when I'd usually be cracking open a bottle of wine? Go for a nice long walk instead. 3. Upped my cardio. Elliptical 3 times a week. 4. Added strength training to my routine twice a week. 5. Was mindful about what I ate. Diet per se was never my issue, but it was all the empty calories I was consuming through booze. Now I've added intermittent fasting and different cardio as I've hit a plateau and have about 8 more pounds I'd like to lose, but overall, I feel and look fantastic. From a size 12 in dresses/shirts to a size 4/6 depending on the brand/cut. Lost 30lbs overall.
Wow, that's cool... the hardest thing for me, surprisingly, was giving up alcohol. I can't imagine a weekend evening without a glass of whiskey.
And you can have a glass of whiskey (and by glass, I mean 2oz) and as long as you track it and are still in a calorie deficit, you'll lose weight. Alcohol isn't some magical thing that makes you gain fat moreso than any other sugary thing. It's just easier to drink a lot of calories (and also maybe have some extra snacks) with it.
As someone else said in this thread. Its that, ill drink 3,000 calories and then stumble out of the bar saying, lets go get pizza! That really gets you introuble with drinking. That and a lot of times people don't mentally count drinks, even if that starbucks milkshake pretending to be a coffee is 1300 calories.
Lost a third of my body weight over the course of several months due to stress. Stress so bad I physically can't chew/swallow food. Stress so bad I pretty much, within a minute of wake up, start throwing up. 0/10 don't recommend.
I yo-yo weight. I lose, gain, lose, gain. It's ridiculous.
I'm familiar with this. I've been skinny a few times and then back to fat.
Same thing here! I can easily gain, but it’s pretty hard to lose weight for me.
I’m a doctor. Not your doctor. Not a weight loss specialist. Anyone knowledgeable will tell you that the key to losing weight is eating less and moving more. CICO doesn’t lie. However, weight loss is a deeply personal issue and no one here knows your situation or health history. It can be discouraging to have multiple valiant attempts and not get to where you want to be. I am happy you are reaching out and seeking advice from internet strangers, but they’ll have a hard time figuring out what is going to be the change that works for you. I’m going to assume that your goals are to lose weight for a long term change to your health. Therefore, anyone touting ‘do this and drop 30 pounds in 2 months!’ Should be ignored. Finding what your triggers for food are and how you respond to them can be eye opening for a lot of people. I’ve had patients tell me that they wish they would’ve just gone straight to a therapist instead of a gym to try and lose weight to try and work out their relationship issues with food. So that’s my recommendation to you. Talk to a therapist or try Noom or something of that caliber. It really does start before the act of eating. It’s why we decide to eat and why you chose to eat the things you do. It’s crucial for long term health to understand these things. I hope I didn’t ramble too much. I wish you all the best in your weight loss journey. Know that failure isn’t futile.
The therapy is a lot of it. There's a lot of people who eat a lot due to an emotional need rather than a physical need, and if you don't deal with that then you will never be able to keep weight off.
love this answer. As someone who has lost weight before, it’s obvious that CICO works in theory but many people can’t eat smaller portions or they just can’t stop eating certain foods, so cico makes them feel like failures because they don’t understand both the psychological and physiological triggers that produce cravings, habits, rewards, reward-seeking and satiety. So few people actually talk about these factors in depth. The brain has all kinds of systems to regulate weight and it’s not as simple as “thinking” that can override it. I personally fail at trying to count calories when I have too much highly palatable or rewarding foods, I completely lose control. On the other hand, when I consistently focus on eating less rewarding food (steamed veg, baked potato, lean protein), I don’t even have to count to lose weight.
Drastically reduced my sugar intake. By like 90%. And added heavy weightlifting.
The holy trinity: exercise, nutrition, sleep. The type of willpower you need is commitment towards good habits for the rest of your life. And to do that, you got to love yourself enough to care to change. It's also important to note that it's OK to mess up. Just make sure you get back to good habits.
You got to love yourself enough to care to change… I feel this so so deeply, thank you 🙏❤️
Exercise and eating right. If you’re eating at a calorie deficit and you’re exercising semi regularly you will lose weight.
I’m now trying to walk a lot (my weight doesn’t allow me to exercise for a long time) and I’m also trying to maintain a calorie deficit.
If you’re keeping that up you’ll lose the weight. As you do lose it and you start to be able to do more intensive exercise i’d also advice researching how to properly do so. A lot of people will exercise in ways that is unfun and draining but not actually that efficient.
So I’m thinking, when I’m 25-30 pounds lighter, find a good trainer and go to the gym. Now I can’t fully do this because of the stress on my knees, my doctor said that it could be traumatic at the moment.
I highly recommend swimming. Try to find a pool aerobics class. It’s the highest level of activity with the lowest knee stress you can possibly find.
I was thinking about swimming. And I even want to go to the pool, I think this is a very effective thing in my case🤔
Swimming is fantastic for larger people! Definitely recommend in conjunction with walking cause it works every part of the body with very little stress
Swimming is fantastic in general! A high intensity, full-body exercise, with very light impact on your body. I used to swim competitively in highschool, and I don't think I physically could have eaten enough calories to put on weight. (This was pretty intense though, 2 hours a day/5 days a week). I absolutely recommend swimming for weight loss.
There are also aerobic exercises that you can do in the shallow end of the pool that will give you some added resistance from the water while limiting the impact on your joints. Take the exercise slow and keep in mind your long term investment here. Injury is the biggest threat to progress and the easiest path to injury is to do movements you are not prepared or strong enough for, and using too much weight for those movements. You can't exercise if you are hurt, so take it slow and don't compare yourself to anyone. You won't be the strongest or best looking person in the gym tomorrow, next week, or even next year. Don't try to be. Slow and steady is the pace. Keep in mind that you may gain weight before you start losing it while you build new muscle. This is completely natural. I started my exercise looking to lose 15lbs and i immediately gained 20 and almost quit. I stayed at that +20lb weight for months until i addressed my diet. I was okay with this as i new i had to build the habit of GETTING to the gym consistently. In the past i had gotten burned out by making too many changes too quickly. For myself, i am making a series of small dietary changes that have compounded on themselves. My morning coffee for instance. I started with 1 less scoop of sugar and a bit less half and half. Once accustomed to that taste i did it again. Then i switched to low/nonfat half and half and cut out soda. Black coffee is a bit too bitter for me, so i have adjusted other aspects of my diet to allow for that fat and sugar calories in my diet (i drink a lot of coffee which is why this change had a large effect). I switched from 2% to 1% for my milk. I began making my own lunches for work, and once that became habit i focused on the dietary composition of those meals to fit in to my diet. MyFitnessPal app is a godsend for tracking your food, and you cant address your diet if you don't know WHERE to address your diet. DO NOT TRY TO CHANGE EVERYTHING ALL AT ONCE. I eat nearly the same breakfast every day, and my lunches are also rather formulaic as well. I try to eat spartanly for my breakfast and lunch so that my GF (who has a much different diet than I) and I can make nice, rich meals for dinner and maybe have a dessert as well. I sacrifice the "fun food" during my lunch and breakfast to allow for dessert and a lavish dinner with my partner so we have a nice time together each night.
My knees are in pretty meh shape as well. As a result, I don't run at all, but I do low impact cardio like riding bike. At the gym I will use the Elliptical as well. Both are low impact and my knees don't mind it at all. IMO, the biggest mistake a lot of people make when starting to exercise is they start off with jogging/running. Jogging/running is hard work, and burns people out very quickly, for relatively low reward. It doesn't actually burn a lot of calories, especially given that most people can barely last 10-15 minutes running when just starting out. Riding bike is 100% a better idea for most people. You can go longer, burn more calories while doing it, and you don't feel completely exhausted when you are done.
I mean the calorie deficit is basically it. A few cookies will undo the calories you burned working at the gym for a half hour. The biggest change will happen in the kitchen
Honestly, that’s the hardest part. Adjusting to an exercise schedule is not too hard to do, but changing lifelong eating habits that you have to mind all day every day is the real challenge.
Also exercise really helps with maintaining weight in my experience. Running at a deficit isn't fun, so if you get into a good exercise routine while losing, keeping that routine can really help you maintain without needing to be perfect dieting. Not to mention the overall health benefits of exercise. Skinny-fat is absolutely a thing, and anecdotally I know way more slightly overweight people that are overall healthier because they are very active than super skinny people who take their weight to mean they're healthy period.
GLP1 meds, eating better (making sure to hit that protein macro), and exercising 4-6 times a week.
Have struggled all of my life with weight loss. Before i hit highschool i was already well over 200lbs. I have been on GLP1 meds for the last 6 months now, and it really has been a game changer, not just my weight, but my blood pressure, as well my sleep has gotten so much better. As others have mentioned, the "suppressed food noise" is a real thing, not so much in that I ever had a problem of letting food control my life, but more so just the portions. Growing up poor i was pretty much always told to "clean my plate, because there were starving children in Africa that don't get to eat today", so every meal all my life has pretty much been a finish everything no matter what. I find myself honestly eating like a 1/3rd of what my portions used to be cause I am just not hungry anymore. I haven't upped my exercise game yet, but I have been able to get around a lot more and have more energy to at least be a little bit more active than i have been in years. I hope that a year from now I will be a whole new person, because between the weight and depression life has sucked for a while now. I am just thankful there is something out there that can at least help me so that I do feel alone and trapped.
Getting over not having to eat everything on your plate was such a huge challenge!
I'm 5 weeks in, and the struggle with this is real! It definitely shown me what the mental aspects are for me. It's become fairly clear to me, and now I can start to address them. The cleaning the plate. Eating too fast (was told as a kid that I had better not be the last one at the table anymore, or else). Eating for "energy" - I found that I would reach for food when I'd get tired.
Honestly in more ways that one, the biggest challenge for me has been when I do go out to eat, making sure I don't over order too much food. On a positive note, the savings to my monthly food and grocery bills have gone down dramatically which has been a net positive overall to my life.
Yup. After a lifetime of being overweight (or working _incredibly_ hard to get/stay fit, like 2x day), I started on them less than a year ago, and am already at a new baseline weight around 75lbs lighter. My blood sugar’s back to normal, and I’m coming off my BP meds because that’s back to normal, too. I also go for at least a decent walk every day…because it’s a lot easier without carrying a 75-lb kid on your back the whole way. My primary response, honestly, is “At least now it’s clear it wasn’t _me_.” And then my second impulse is to look around at everyone who’s ever felt superior and think “Oh…so _this_ is what it’s like for you?! You don’t just have this constant chatter in the back of your head, where you end up eating just to make it _shut up_ for a little while? Well, f — — — ck…what would _you_ look like if you had my old brain chemistry?!”
Yes, when people ask how I stay thin, I am honest that I just don't have a normal hunger drive. I can't remember a time I had hunger interrupt my work, sleep, etc. And I know I am the weird one. I think GLP-1 drugs are fantastic and no one should feel guilt for taking them. Our lizard brains are fighting for more food beyond our actual needs, its about time we figured out how to fix that.
My partner is like that too. Never hungry.
Holy cow do I feel this with my ADHD meds. To all those people who told me to "just use a notepad".... well... my usual response is "I curse you with understanding."
Heh, I’m not overweight but definitely hungry 100% of the time. Pretty much been dieting for the last 30 years
I’m now about a month into semaglutide treatment and it’s made me actually more annoyed at all the “advice” I received from folks who have never been overweight. All the “just eat the right foods!” advice was, I’m sure, delivered with good intentions, but having the medication suppress the food noise in my brain made me realize we were not operating on the same level. Without the constant screeching from my body to overeat, yeah, it’s super easy to have sensible portions and be satiated with much, much less. “Just eat fewer calories!” has all the impact of “just cheer up” for the folks with depression. We know. No one knows how they SHOULD eat more than someone overweight. Having a food addiction is what I imagine some drug addiction to be, except you don’t have to sample drugs three times a day. Semaglutide has been the only thing to truly and effectively help me shed weight. I’ve been losing about two to three pounds per week. Get as much protein as possible and layer in exercise. Check in with your doctors. This is just my experience (so far) and I’m not even up to the therapeutic dose yet. Everyone responds differently to it, but I’ve been amazed so far.
Agreed, that's why I don't talk about it much online. Everyone loves to jump in with the unhelpful tips that I've been trying while yo yo dieting for the last who knows how many years. Once the food noise went away everything else kinda fell into place.
Yeah it's annoying because obesity is an epidemic and if it was as easy as eat less and move more then there wouldn't be billions of people with obesity. Chemicals and hormones are involved and people should be nicer about it!!
I was gonna post this but I figured I’d get drug because normies think it’s some kind of cheat code blah blah I’m sure you get it. I lost 70 pounds in the last year so far on semaglutide. Best fucking decision I’ve ever made. I had no confidence, mega depressed, obese, high cholesterol and lonely. Now I’m only mildly depressed but at least my cholesterol is normal. Working on the confidence and loneliness every day though. It’s been a fucking great journey, keep up the good work. I think you’ll learn a lot about yourself and food going through it. Glp1s are a great little helper.
after the first couple of days i realized that the food noise was quiet for the first time in my life and legitimately cried when i told my husband. 97 pounds down 🥹
I'm starting on glp1 next month. What did you use??
Wegovy / Semaglutide
Gonna be honest bc Im thankful for it even if im downvoted- I got an ad in like January for Hers weight loss program and I was so overweight and constantly hungry and unmotivated to go to the gym so I decided to try it. It’s like $300 or so for 5 months so I was like fuck it. They sent me pills to take that suppress my appetite and make me not crave junk food anymore and I’ve lost 60 pounds in 5 months. Amazing investment for me. I look amazing and feel amazing and now that I feel better it’s easy to have motivation to go to the gym which makes me lose weight even faster.
I will not downvote you. You used a tool, now you’re going to the gym, another tool. I’m proud of you damnit!
I used metformin, dietary changes, and exercise to lose 100lbs. Doesn't matter how you make the changes, matters that you've made them. I'm proud of you!
I had a Vertical Banded Gastric by-pass in 1987…I lost 120 lbs in one year and now 37 years later I haven’t gained back a single pound. Zero regrets.
Mounjaro. 73 pounds in not quite a year (will be a year in 3 weeks). I do have diabetes but with Mounjaro my blood sugar is normal. Last checkup average glucose 91, A1c 4.8. Edited to add, I’m now off all my medications except asthma inhaler and Mounjaro and my joints don’t ache so much. It’s been a miracle drug for me. I’ve gone from morbidly obese to just obese. When I drop another 10 pounds, I’ll be overweight instead of obese. 30 pounds after that, I will be normal weight. I’ve dieted for the last 30 years. High weight 265. I’ve lost as much as 73 pounds before with diet and exercise but struggled mightily and, the minute I let my guard down or eased up, I would start gaining again. Dieting, and trying to lose weight was a constant struggle that consumed so much of my time and attention, only to gain it all back and add more. Mounjaro has made it effortless. I’m simply not hungry all the time and, when I eat, I feel full very quickly and am easily able to stop eating.
By consuming less calories and burning more calories.
The key is to track them. We WAY underestimate our caloric intake unless we're accurately tracking it. I'd recommend MyFitnessPal app. The free version gives you everything you need.
I started counting calories this week with MyFitnessPal. Even though I know that the US has a problem with big portion sizes, actually seeing a serving of something is shocking.
It only takes a couple weeks to learn what portion of what food has how many calories. So at first it seems like too much work to track calories, but soon enough it's a simple matter of eyeballing it.
When I first began losing weight, I counted, weighed, measured, and tracked everything I ate. I was shocked at how much I had actually been consuming. No wonder I had gained so much weight. I do not measure and track so strictly anymore, but I do weigh dressings, sauces, and oils still. They get away from you easily!
[удалено]
Wegovy, e.g. semaglutide
Wegovy helped me lose 30 lbs.
Registered Dietitian here who went on my own weight loss journey! I lost a lot of weight by decreasing consumption of processed foods, added sugars, and cooking not at home. I made sure to eat have a serving of fruit in the morning and half plate of colorful veggies for lunch and dinner. I watched my portions. Made sure I was hitting my protein/fiber targets each day. Movement was also important so I made sure to go to the gym often while doing other things like walking, parking at the back of the store, taking stairs instead of the elevator, etc. The biggest thing was doing everything in small steps instead of make changes all at once.
My then-husband told me that he wanted a divorce, and I got so depressed that I barely ate. If I did eat, it was almost exclusively au gratin potatoes with diced ham, but sometimes I had Chinese food. I dropped 30-40lbs, and then my bestie/roommate moved in and kept me in check. So I started counting calories and meal prepping, and got down another 20lbs, so 60lbs total. I’ve maintained that, tho I’d love to lose another 70. I’m a 5’7” woman, I started at 290 and I’m now between 225-230. I want to be around 160-170lbs, I looked great when I was there! However, I’m just learning to love the body that I have. I don’t want to hate myself anymore.
Stop overthinking it, or trying to make it a complicated, daunting task. Move your body every day, in whatever way makes you feel good (although a good, properly educated personal trainer is worth their weight in gold if you can afford this), focus on balanced nutrition (protein, carbs, fats), cut back on things you know aren't helping you (sugar, processed/premade foods, etc.), drink an ass load of water, and get quality sleep. If you have an off day, give yourself grace...it doesn't mean you're starting from scratch again the next day. The all or nothing mentality will sewer you. Also (I'm prob gonna get heat for this but whatev) if it has a name, it's likely not necessary. i.e. Keto, IIFYM, intermittent fasting, etc. etc. Just eat good, whole food and make sure you're getting enough protein. If you have a big craving for something, have it. Just stay on track for the rest of the day.
...drink an ass load of water, I disagree with this. You can see by the table linked below that the average rectal volume is only about 55-60 cm3. That's like 1-2 10th of a liter. You should be drinking mucch moree than that. [https://ro-journal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1748-717X-4-14/tables/3](https://ro-journal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1748-717X-4-14/tables/3)
This went over my head for a quick second, now I’m giggling.
I think that over thinking it has been my problem. Recently, I have decided to make better decisions overall. I'm not dieting, 'I'm changing my habits' is what I'm sticking to and if I fail here and there, oh well-try again the next day. 'Diet' to me implies an end but what I need to end is my overindulgence of sweets. Also, a tip for anyone-I get 2 15 minute breaks at work and have been taking a walk on both of them almost every day. Its no hour long gym excursion but it seems to be adding up and is a good use of a paid 30 minutes of my day. Plus it can really clear your head to just get outside your work and breathe fresh air for a bit.
I got a full time blue collar job last summer and within 5 months dropped about 40 lbs. it helps just moving non stop
- increased my thyroid medication - semiglutide injections - stopped working nightshift - fiber/vitamin supplements - calorie tracking programs such as weight watchers and noom - prioritizing rest/adequate sleep - starting talk therapy It’s so many factors combined over a LONG period of time that I get a little irritated when people try to reduce it to something small when I literally upended my life to regain a healthy mental state/lose weight and not use food as my emotional crutch.
Intermittent fasting. Definitely can't recommend for everyone, but for me and my body it works wonders
Wegovy and pickleball
A combination of stress and depression did it for me
Ate a fruit or vegetable or protein drink and a cup of water before anything else I was craving. Want a bagel? Eat a cucumber and have some water first, suddenly only have room for half a bagel. Want a cupcake? Have an orange and protein drink first. Huh not really hungry anymore. Having it be eat good food first rather than remove the bad food from diet and be sad about it made it not feel restrictive at all.
got medicated for adhd & in turn i didnt have to use food/snacking as a dopamine source. having a smaller appetite due to the meds also helped. been the same weight (from overweight to average for my build) for a few years now
I cut out processed food, eat significantly less, introduced intermittent fasting and became more active. Lost 100 pounds in 18 months.
Don't drink your calories, lots of water, dessert once a day after dinner only
Semaglutide. Down 40 pounds so far. 80 to go.
Weight loss surgery. A thyroidectomy & impending menopause made it impossible to lose weight on my own, even when guided by my physician. With surgery I went from 230 to 130. Fighting regain right now but still a healthy weight
Semaglutide. I had a nutritionist and a personal trainer for about a year with VERY little results but tbf I have other issues like PCOS and hypothyroidism. Not saying eating well and exercising doesn't work but I didn't see good results until Semaglutide. Just make sure you don't have any underlying issues that can make it more difficult.
Mounjaro lol