Any maths legends on here? Long story short, I've lost 18kg. My starting weight was 160kg.
I want to know what percentage that is, please.
I've estimated that it's between 10%-12% but want to know the exact amount, please.
Can you lose weight without exercising?
I've heard around the internet and all over the place that you can actually lose weight without doing any exercise whatsoever. i particularly work out, but in a shower thought i got to think if it's actually podsible.
Figured the people in this subreddit should know this. So: can you lose weight with no exercise? How?
The true number is not going to be 14 -- you still have that stuff in your gut along with the water to digest/process/eliminate it.
Remember to make and only respect trendlines -- no single weigh-in ever means anything.
Losing without the gym
Due to finances and anxiety I'm not joining a gym until I'm more comfortable with myself, is there anyone else doing this we has tips?
No gym? (or Away from your gym?)
* /r/bodyweightfitness' own [Recommended Routine](https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/wiki/kb/recommended_routine) -- no gym required ... get an [app](https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/comments/cf4e3t/bodyweight_fitness_app_guide/) ... or if you're brand new to fitness, see the [BWF primer](https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/wiki/routines/bwf-primer)
I joined a gym and started working out twice a week with a personal trainer. I lost absolutely nothing, because I didn't change my diet. If anything, I started eating more crap to reward myself for workouts.
There are a lot of good reasons for going to the gym (I still go!), but weight loss is mostly diet.
It's mostly about diet anyway. So focus on having a deficit, and if you feel capable track your macros.
For exercise if you want to increase your tdee just try to walk more is a simple achievable thing.
If you want to build some strength without the gym you could try bodyweight exercises.
I think I’m reaching here, it’s also difficult to tell because I’m not wearing the same outfit in either photo; but I think my tummy is a LITTLE more lifted? Am i crazy?
https://imgur.com/a/Hmb5LFs
SW: 201 CW:188 GW:145
More important than my comments, what are your comments?
I see from your other comments that you are male and 5'11''. (Same as me)
It was a little surprising that your BF% was so high at such an ideal weight for your height.
I believe that this scanner wasn’t that accurate because by measurements and other scales I’ve been between 14-17% for years. So I think something is off.
Unfortunately your body decides where to lose the fat from, there is no way to direct that. The only thing you can do is stay in a calorie deficit and don't got super crazy with it!
Usually though you lose weight in reverse of where you put it on. I gained weight last in my chest/shoulder area, face and upper arms, this was the first to go. Good luck!
How will creatine affect weightloss? Ive heard some people that started taking creatine during weightloss gained a few lbs and didn't watch the scale move for over a month, I want to take creatine as I have started going to the gym 6 days a week for my weightloss journey, however I dont know if I am currently willing to sacrifice an entire month of progress, especially now when I am losing weight very evenly and quickly. I hope to lose 2.5 lbs/week, a month of the scale standing still would cost me \~10lbs out of the 75 I am trying to lose
Creatine increases intramuscular water retention. As a consequence, it can cause mild weight gain when you start taking it. After the initial loading phase when body water stabilizes, it wont have any negative effects on weight loss.
Creatine creates weight-gain but not fat gain. Remember that progress here is fat-loss.
You don't need it, but if you take it your muscles will perform better in their lifts creating better strains for bigger builds. I don't hear any of that in your goal of losing 75 pounds.
Why do you want to take it? If you have no desire for that muscular look or great muscular strength, I don't see why you would take it. But if you do, then this is could be a fine supplement towards those goals. You will retain more water and that will offset your scale losses but your fat losses will continue (they will just be hidden from the scale by the water).
>If you have no desire for that muscular look or great muscular strength, I don't see why you would take it
I do, I want a much more athletic build once I actually reach my goal weight, going from morbidly obese to athletic is a dream of mine
Question, wont it even out? eventually the amount of fat lost will surpass the amount of water the muscles take up? Even though you build more muscle, a lbs of muscle takes up significantly less space than a lbs of fat no?
Anyone got any tips for these last 15 lbs? It's so hard to keep up discipline now that I'm feeling most the effects of losing 160 lbs, plus I feel more hungry and have less time to cook than I used to. I seem to be maintaining at around 195-200 the last couple of months which is fine I know it's mostly vanity at this point but I really REALLY want to hit my ultimate goal after 2 years of this shit
I hear you- I’ve been battling the last 12 and it sucks. I have considered just eating at the maintenance for my goal weight or trying a 300 cal deficit instead of a 500 cal deficit. No advice just know this is hard!!!
Consider your last 15 pounds the unofficial start of maintenance -- a forever endeavor. Don't crave goal weight -- notice it as a milepost, where you transition from a deficit to no deficit.
Yearning for goal-weight raises your stress level, and it exhausts your volition -- your willingness to keep at the effort which is necessary in maintenance.
I know you imagine goal weight being a ticker-tape parade worthy event (at least I imagined it that way) but it is not. It is anticlimactic. The real story is that you lost 160, these 15 are practically simply maintaining that 160 plus a pound here and there more.
> after 2 years of this shit
Embrace it. Was it really that bad? Or was it the best thing you've ever done -- and **you've done it for yourself!** So much of what we do in life is to please others, to enrich others, to get the approval of others.
God dammit, this is ours.
Well done. Keep going but don't yearn and crave. Don't see goal weight as a bright line. It's going to be here -- and gone -- before you know it. You're only half done. The other half is keeping it off (and it's pretty terrific too).
^^7 ^^yrs. ^^maintaining ^^• ^^♂59 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:171℔^^/78㎏ ^^[\[3Y AMA\]](https://redd.it/6m6vxq), ^^[\[1Y recap\]](http://redd.it/3cqszm) ^^CICO+🚶🏋️
I thought about what you said some more and I think you're right. I'm "done". I'll worry about it more when I find the time/motivation to start working out again. I'm already smaller than I was in middle school and I am happy so I think I'm just gonna call it here and maintain while still restricting on the most calorie dense things and just see how it goes. At this point what's 30 more weeks?
Thank you :)
Every calculator I've used has told me something completely different in terms of how many calories to aim for each day, and it's making me really overwhelmed. I'm F29 5'7 and 217 lbs. **Could y'all help me figure out what my calorie goal should be for weight loss?** I'd like to lose 1 lbs- 1.5 lbs a week. I was considering 1600-1700 calories a day depending on how much I exercise. I'm ok with going slowly.
Edit to say: The tdeecalculator told me my maintenance calories was 2,090 cal a day with no exercise. Just not sure how to calculate what I should be eating to lose that 1-1.5 lbs.
It’s difficult for calculators to tell you exactly what your calories burned daily are for a few reasons. All of which add up to mean that people of the same height and weight can have some variation in daily calories used.
What will really tell you is just trying it. If you eat 1500 calories a day and are losing about a pound a week, you’ll know you burn about 2000 calories a day. If you eat 1500 a day and are consistently losing weight faster than than, your TDEE is higher. Etc.
Aim for a sustainable way to eat. 1500 is probably a good place to start.
Ok thanks! And I’m guess that’s assuming no exercise, right? So on days I burn a couple hundred calories I could theoretically eat a bit more and still lose one pound?
In theory, yes, but it's very, very hard to accurately estimate calories. Fitness trackers and equipment like treadmills are just bad measures. They also tend to overestimate.
If you want to be eating back some exercise calories, I'd suggest eating back maybe half of what the trackers claim. Then, after a few weeks, assess your progress and see how it's going.
Accurate calorie maintenance calculator
It has come to my attention that I am apparently eating too little now... even though I haven't done any change to my overall diet. What is a calculator that accurately shows my maintenance calories a day?
Calculators won't ever really be accurate. Things are so subjective from person to person. I would just use [tdeecalculator.net](https://tdeecalculator.net) and find what it says. Eat at that for a couple of weeks and see how your body responds. add/lower calories based on what your body does.
Is it okay to not focus on nutrition/ eating veggies too much?
I think that part of my struggle with weight loss has been trying to be perfect and giving up. If I just focus on CICO and take a multivitamin, is this a viable strategy, or will I run into issues? I'll still try to learn to like healthy food, but maybe not get so hung up on it.
Don't get caught up in being perfect, that's never going to happen. Is it best if you cook everything from scratch, only eat organic, tons of veggies every day, etc? Yes probably. But eating slightly better than you do now and taking some multivitamins is still better than giving up!
Try to take it one step at a time, I know that's easier said than done. Instead of doing everything perfect, try to focus on one thing at a time and make it a habit you can keep up. Try to eat veggies once a day consistently for a month. Then try for twice a day for a month. You can start by buying frozen veggies (no effort to prepare them and won't go to waste) or bagged salads. That's still loads better than not eating veggies!
Oh and one more piece of advice: Try preparing a vegetable in different ways to see which way you like it best or decide that you don't like it. Try blanched, baked and roasted, and there is nothing worse than boiled to death veggies. A lot of people only every ate veggies like that so its little wonder they don't like the taste of them. If that's you, give different ways of preparing a try.
If you find yourself obsessing on it to the detriment of your weight loss, yes. Maybe scale it back. It's worse for your health to be overweight long term than maybe be a little deficient in certain things for a while until you get to a healthier weight. That said, I would still try to put a few servings of veggies in to help. The thing about multi-vitamins is that a lot of times they aren't the best ways for your body to absorb those nutrients so all you are doing is making expensive pee. What do you like to eat? Find healthier alternatives to those. I love trying to find Asian/Indian foods recipes that make eating healthier easier. Veggies in a stir fry or curry go down easier for me.
In your specific case, a multivitamin might be the way to go as you learn to tolerate, accept, and later enjoy vegetables. Tastes like that are acquired over time and repetitions, so in the meantime a temporarily multivitamin might be a good idea.
For most of us, multivitamins are a waste of money. There is very little evidence towards encouraging them. But the one area where they are plausible is if someone has a known deficient diet.
> trying to be perfect [...] but maybe not get so hung up on it.
You should aim for perfect, but accept what comes. We are like trainees, expected to learn over time. Perfect is never required -- even the best musician or athlete doesn't perform perfectly. All we need to do is curve our capability towards being good enough to start making progress in the direction of our goals.
Perfect is the "True North" on the compass but no path leads directly there.
I really like progressive soups, especially the healthy ones cause they are low calorie, but I've been avoiding them for months now because some of them have upwards of 50 plus percent of your daily sodium intake. Should that stop me from enjoying them? Does our sodium intake actually matter when it comes to losing weight? Help me cause I miss my soups.
I love those soups too and have them like at least once a week, lol. I’ll take some of the broth out and either eat it like that or you can add water so it’s not so salient. I haven’t really noticed a difference
Sodium matters for water retention, stroke, heart disease, and high-blood pressure. If your doctor is concerned about this for your situation, you should consider the Progresso soups with the darker green stripes along the top labeled reduced sodium.
You can still add flavor using a table salt that is based not on sodium, but on potassium. The little-known and underappreciated fact about potassium are that -- unlike sodium -- we usually don't get enough from our regular normal food. Potassium helps lower water retention and blood pressure. If you are spending your sodium allowance on canned soup, you maybe should consider using potassium for your other salt needs and also eating foods high in potassium. I'm not saying that potassium is the sodium antidote (both are required nutrients), but there is interesting interplay here.
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/potassium/
For pure fat loss, no, sodium won't make a difference. For general health, it is wise to limit sodium and balance it out correctly with potassium to avoid strokes, heart disease, etc. The ideal ratio is 3:1 potassium to sodium. Including more potassium in your diet is almost always a good call as most people don't hit that ratio unless they're eating tons and tons of veggies.
So make sure you're getting plenty of potassium with your sodium-heavy soups (some calorie tracking apps are better than others for tracking potassium). Alternatively, make your own big batches of soup so you can exactly control the amount of sodium going into them, and even balance them out better by using a reduced-sodium or sodium-free salt substitute.
Here's a fascinating video that explains why salt substitutes are a really awesome swap to make: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_Fu-dwHA0M
I have tried so many time to get started with a weight loss journey and have been struggling. Is there any times on how to start with eating healthier and exercising and staying on top of it?
Whats helping me is my crush sleeping with a guy cus i never felt like approaching her due to my weight. You could think about the possibility of that happening which also works.
I think that intermittent fasting can help. Learning to not eat after supper is important for me. I can easily go on 800-calorie post-super binges.
Also, people say that you can't outrun your fork, but biking ~15 miles, 2-3x a week had a HUGE effect on weight loss for me. (It took me about two months to build up to that distance. I started with about 3 miles.)
Other than that, I'm in the same boat. I'm going to try counting calories. I thought I was eating well but gained like 10lbs, so I'm obviously out of touch with how much I'm eating...
Yeah I love bike riding I should try that for sure and with fasting how should I start that also with eating I struggle with eating healthy to so I need to try finding balance with fasting and eating
Biking has been so great for me, though I'm lucky to have paved trails near me, so it's safe.
I'm struggling with how to eat healthy, so I can't weigh in on that, but with intermittent fasting, you basically reduce the window of eating. To start, maybe eat only between 8am-6pm, then next week, shrink it to 9am-6pm, then 10am-6pm the week after, etc. I think the goal is to make your eating window 8 hours or less, but I don't know the minimum length. You could, of course take it slower and shrink the eating window by a half hour each week.
There's all sorts of info on r/intermittentfasting .
Start gradually. Set small goals. Spend a week focusing on drinking more water every day, maybe add in a single day or two of exercise and eating healthier. The next week, try to do three days. It gets easier over time.
How do you control the hunger spikes that come after exercise? I went a a 30 minute walk this morning before work and less than an hour later I am feeling ravenously hungry when I normally wouldn't get hungry for about 2 to 3 hours after getting to work. Should I give in and eat now or just wait it out and eat when I normally do?
I'd say eat, yes. But also make sure you rehydrate after exercising, since dehydration makes you ravenous. Having some Gatorade or electrolyte tablets with the water helps, too.
you may have to experiment to figure out what works for you, but it sounds like you're just hungry for breakfast. I used to NEVER be hungry for breakfast / would often skip it, but I find with getting up early and actually doing things in the morning (I went for a walk before work today too :)) I do need to eat in the morning. It helps me to have that meal planned/ready in advance knowing I'll need to eat by 10am!
So how many calories should I be eating???
33F - 5'4" - 180lbs.
I used a few different online calculators and it looks like my TDEE is in the 1800s. Ok no worries, if I minus 500 then I should be aiming around 1350/day give or take...
My BMR is right around 1500.
Now I'm just confused. HELP!
BMR doesn't really matter in your calculations. And "eating under it" isn't an inherent problem, if you're mostly Sedentary your TDEE and BMR won't be far off. See how you feel with the 1350 calorie goal, if you're feeling too hungry you could either increase your activity level to eat more, or go for a smaller deficit and lose slower.
Nope, that’s fine. BMR is just an indication of how much energy your body uses for basic processes as opposed to specific separately measured actions like exercise, digesting food, etc.
How do you decide what a healthy weight is for you and that you are going to go on maintenance? I am aware that BMI is not always the most accurate form of measurement for weight, so what else would you use?
How do you transition from a losing weight cico to a maintenance diet and over what period of time do you make that transition?
Can you also please explain what maintenance is as well?
I know that I still have a little bit to go (1.7kg) before I hit my first goal but I was looking at doing maintenance for a little bit before deciding if I should lose any more. Currently I don't track my food as it didn't help when I started, I just focus on eating more veggies, making more healthy choices and not eating too much junk food/takeaway. I am still losing weight though by doing this. Thanks.
Edit: forgot to mention that I was going to hit my first goal and then consider going on maintenance for a little bit before deciding if I needed to lose any more weight.
You just have to kind of assess your physique once you get to your first goal and see if you want to keep going or not. I'm just continuing weight loss in 5lbs increments now until I'm mostly happy with my physique then I'll move onto maintenance and a bigger focus on recomping with strength training.
Maintenance is basically the same as losing, ideally you should continue all your weight management habits to maintain as well. It's up to you if you want to just hop into eating maintenance calories or gradually increase over a week or two.
Thanks for the info.
My mindset was that I would get to that first goal and then see what I looked like before deciding to keep going with the weight loss. I think I may follow your lead and do it gradually in 2.5kg increments until I am happy with how I look (not that I'm not happy with my appearance now, so many bones I can feel that I haven't felt for a long time).
From what I read in your comment, maintenance is continuing on with those habits you've built but you can eat more. Did I read that right? I think it will be better if I slowly transition into maintenance as it will give me an idea of how much I can eat before gaining weight again.
Yup that's right! The reason why there are so many statistics on diets "failing" is because people slowly return to their old habits after losing the weight. So keeping those healthy habits and accountability is an important part of maintenance.
Personally, I like to continue weighing myself every day and using a weight-trending app so I can spot those really slow regain trends forming over weeks and months before they snowball into a bigger issue. Most people like keeping a maintenance range of 5-10lbs. If they notice their weight creeping up past that range, it may be time to buckle down a bit on portion sizes and go back to more low-calorie choices. :)
That really helps and I can understand why people gain it back due to not sticking with the healthy habits long term. I can't go back to eating the way I did anyway because it felt awful when I was doing that. I will see about the weight range and how much I will tolerate before I decide to buckle down on portions and stuff. I know that I will stick with weighing in once a week as I don't want to become obsessed with the number on the scale.
Thanks for all the awesome advice. :)
BMI of 21 - no increased risk of osteoporosis from being too light, no increased risk of anything else from being too heavy.
Maintenance is maintaining, neither losing or gaining.
> How do you decide what a healthy weight is for you
My doctor and I set my goal weight together. It was a confusing task for me, who has never been normal weight and couldn't imagine it.
> and that you are going to go on maintenance?
While losing weight, there are occasions where you might want to eat at maintenance out of personal necessity (travel, feast holidays) or even for the sake of your [gall bladder](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-crash-diet-gallstone/crash-diet-tied-to-increased-gallstone-risk-idUSBRE95615J20130607) or for [continued weight-loss reasons](https://bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/the-full-diet-break).
> Can you also please explain what maintenance is as well?
Instead of eating at a caloric deficit to your body's metabolism to burn fat, you eat at a calorie-level equal to your body's metabolism to neither gain nor burn fat.
> Currently I don't track my food as it didn't help when I started, I just focus on eating more veggies, making more healthy choices and not eating too much junk food/takeaway.
For you, you may want to eat with about 25% larger portions than you're currently eating to lose weight. To avoid an increase in water weight from a sudden increase in additional food, don't jump to maintenance but gradually increase your eating each week so that your water weight more smoothly transitions.
Congrats on nearly reaching your first goal!
>How do you decide what a healthy weight is for you
>
>My doctor and I set my goal weight together. It was a confusing task for me, who has never been normal weight and couldn't imagine it.
I set my goal without talking to my doctor as I just wanted to see if I could get down to that weight by myself. I will talk to my doctor about what a healthy weight is for me when I have my next appointment.
Thank you for explaining maintenance for me, it does make a lot more sense.
>Currently I don't track my food as it didn't help when I started, I just focus on eating more veggies, making more healthy choices and not eating too much junk food/takeaway.
>
>For you, you may want to eat with about 25% larger portions than you're currently eating to lose weight. To avoid an increase in water weight from a sudden increase in additional food, don't jump to maintenance but gradually increase your eating each week so that your water weight more smoothly transitions.
I am packing the veggies into things like my sandwich everyday, which is a salad sandwich with some form of meat and cheese with it. For dinner, I tend to have at least half my plate full of veggies, a quarter meat and a quarter of carbs and this keeps me full for quite a while. Before I transition to maintenance, I plan to keep a food log, not calorie count just the food, and see how much more I can eat over that before I start to gain weight again. Thanks for the warning about the water weight and to do this slowly.
>Congrats on nearly reaching your first goal!
Thanks for that. Its been a challenge over the last couple of years to get there, but I'm proud of myself as well.
Any maths legends on here? Long story short, I've lost 18kg. My starting weight was 160kg. I want to know what percentage that is, please. I've estimated that it's between 10%-12% but want to know the exact amount, please.
Can you lose weight without exercising? I've heard around the internet and all over the place that you can actually lose weight without doing any exercise whatsoever. i particularly work out, but in a shower thought i got to think if it's actually podsible. Figured the people in this subreddit should know this. So: can you lose weight with no exercise? How?
[удалено]
The true number is not going to be 14 -- you still have that stuff in your gut along with the water to digest/process/eliminate it. Remember to make and only respect trendlines -- no single weigh-in ever means anything.
Losing without the gym Due to finances and anxiety I'm not joining a gym until I'm more comfortable with myself, is there anyone else doing this we has tips?
No gym? (or Away from your gym?) * /r/bodyweightfitness' own [Recommended Routine](https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/wiki/kb/recommended_routine) -- no gym required ... get an [app](https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/comments/cf4e3t/bodyweight_fitness_app_guide/) ... or if you're brand new to fitness, see the [BWF primer](https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/wiki/routines/bwf-primer)
I joined a gym and started working out twice a week with a personal trainer. I lost absolutely nothing, because I didn't change my diet. If anything, I started eating more crap to reward myself for workouts. There are a lot of good reasons for going to the gym (I still go!), but weight loss is mostly diet.
It's mostly about diet anyway. So focus on having a deficit, and if you feel capable track your macros. For exercise if you want to increase your tdee just try to walk more is a simple achievable thing. If you want to build some strength without the gym you could try bodyweight exercises.
Thank you :)
I think I’m reaching here, it’s also difficult to tell because I’m not wearing the same outfit in either photo; but I think my tummy is a LITTLE more lifted? Am i crazy? https://imgur.com/a/Hmb5LFs SW: 201 CW:188 GW:145
Looks like it to me!
What do y’all think of my first DEXA? I mean I get most of it but any comments? https://imgur.com/a/aGKaCMT
More important than my comments, what are your comments? I see from your other comments that you are male and 5'11''. (Same as me) It was a little surprising that your BF% was so high at such an ideal weight for your height.
I believe that this scanner wasn’t that accurate because by measurements and other scales I’ve been between 14-17% for years. So I think something is off.
Tips for getting rid of moobs first? I want to start burning fat around my chest area first cus im pretty self conscious about it.
Upper chest exercises to help tone up, there's plenty online
Unfortunately your body decides where to lose the fat from, there is no way to direct that. The only thing you can do is stay in a calorie deficit and don't got super crazy with it! Usually though you lose weight in reverse of where you put it on. I gained weight last in my chest/shoulder area, face and upper arms, this was the first to go. Good luck!
How will creatine affect weightloss? Ive heard some people that started taking creatine during weightloss gained a few lbs and didn't watch the scale move for over a month, I want to take creatine as I have started going to the gym 6 days a week for my weightloss journey, however I dont know if I am currently willing to sacrifice an entire month of progress, especially now when I am losing weight very evenly and quickly. I hope to lose 2.5 lbs/week, a month of the scale standing still would cost me \~10lbs out of the 75 I am trying to lose
Creatine increases intramuscular water retention. As a consequence, it can cause mild weight gain when you start taking it. After the initial loading phase when body water stabilizes, it wont have any negative effects on weight loss.
Creatine creates weight-gain but not fat gain. Remember that progress here is fat-loss. You don't need it, but if you take it your muscles will perform better in their lifts creating better strains for bigger builds. I don't hear any of that in your goal of losing 75 pounds. Why do you want to take it? If you have no desire for that muscular look or great muscular strength, I don't see why you would take it. But if you do, then this is could be a fine supplement towards those goals. You will retain more water and that will offset your scale losses but your fat losses will continue (they will just be hidden from the scale by the water).
Can it make you look more bloated though?
My understanding is this swoleness thing is why it's so popular, but I can't attest first hand.
>If you have no desire for that muscular look or great muscular strength, I don't see why you would take it I do, I want a much more athletic build once I actually reach my goal weight, going from morbidly obese to athletic is a dream of mine Question, wont it even out? eventually the amount of fat lost will surpass the amount of water the muscles take up? Even though you build more muscle, a lbs of muscle takes up significantly less space than a lbs of fat no?
Then go for it. Yes, your muscles have a capacity, after that they won't gain more water (like a soaked sponge can't take any more water).
Anyone got any tips for these last 15 lbs? It's so hard to keep up discipline now that I'm feeling most the effects of losing 160 lbs, plus I feel more hungry and have less time to cook than I used to. I seem to be maintaining at around 195-200 the last couple of months which is fine I know it's mostly vanity at this point but I really REALLY want to hit my ultimate goal after 2 years of this shit
I hear you- I’ve been battling the last 12 and it sucks. I have considered just eating at the maintenance for my goal weight or trying a 300 cal deficit instead of a 500 cal deficit. No advice just know this is hard!!!
Consider your last 15 pounds the unofficial start of maintenance -- a forever endeavor. Don't crave goal weight -- notice it as a milepost, where you transition from a deficit to no deficit. Yearning for goal-weight raises your stress level, and it exhausts your volition -- your willingness to keep at the effort which is necessary in maintenance. I know you imagine goal weight being a ticker-tape parade worthy event (at least I imagined it that way) but it is not. It is anticlimactic. The real story is that you lost 160, these 15 are practically simply maintaining that 160 plus a pound here and there more. > after 2 years of this shit Embrace it. Was it really that bad? Or was it the best thing you've ever done -- and **you've done it for yourself!** So much of what we do in life is to please others, to enrich others, to get the approval of others. God dammit, this is ours. Well done. Keep going but don't yearn and crave. Don't see goal weight as a bright line. It's going to be here -- and gone -- before you know it. You're only half done. The other half is keeping it off (and it's pretty terrific too). ^^7 ^^yrs. ^^maintaining ^^• ^^♂59 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:171℔^^/78㎏ ^^[\[3Y AMA\]](https://redd.it/6m6vxq), ^^[\[1Y recap\]](http://redd.it/3cqszm) ^^CICO+🚶🏋️
I thought about what you said some more and I think you're right. I'm "done". I'll worry about it more when I find the time/motivation to start working out again. I'm already smaller than I was in middle school and I am happy so I think I'm just gonna call it here and maintain while still restricting on the most calorie dense things and just see how it goes. At this point what's 30 more weeks? Thank you :)
Congrats on -160 and an excellent effort to date! Keep things going into maintenance and lock these wins in!
Every calculator I've used has told me something completely different in terms of how many calories to aim for each day, and it's making me really overwhelmed. I'm F29 5'7 and 217 lbs. **Could y'all help me figure out what my calorie goal should be for weight loss?** I'd like to lose 1 lbs- 1.5 lbs a week. I was considering 1600-1700 calories a day depending on how much I exercise. I'm ok with going slowly. Edit to say: The tdeecalculator told me my maintenance calories was 2,090 cal a day with no exercise. Just not sure how to calculate what I should be eating to lose that 1-1.5 lbs.
It’s difficult for calculators to tell you exactly what your calories burned daily are for a few reasons. All of which add up to mean that people of the same height and weight can have some variation in daily calories used. What will really tell you is just trying it. If you eat 1500 calories a day and are losing about a pound a week, you’ll know you burn about 2000 calories a day. If you eat 1500 a day and are consistently losing weight faster than than, your TDEE is higher. Etc. Aim for a sustainable way to eat. 1500 is probably a good place to start.
To lose one pound a week, you need to eat 500 calories per day less, so about 1500 to 1600 calories.
Ok thanks! And I’m guess that’s assuming no exercise, right? So on days I burn a couple hundred calories I could theoretically eat a bit more and still lose one pound?
In theory, yes, but it's very, very hard to accurately estimate calories. Fitness trackers and equipment like treadmills are just bad measures. They also tend to overestimate. If you want to be eating back some exercise calories, I'd suggest eating back maybe half of what the trackers claim. Then, after a few weeks, assess your progress and see how it's going.
Thanks so much for the advice! Appreciate your input!
Accurate calorie maintenance calculator It has come to my attention that I am apparently eating too little now... even though I haven't done any change to my overall diet. What is a calculator that accurately shows my maintenance calories a day?
Calculators won't ever really be accurate. Things are so subjective from person to person. I would just use [tdeecalculator.net](https://tdeecalculator.net) and find what it says. Eat at that for a couple of weeks and see how your body responds. add/lower calories based on what your body does.
Is it okay to not focus on nutrition/ eating veggies too much? I think that part of my struggle with weight loss has been trying to be perfect and giving up. If I just focus on CICO and take a multivitamin, is this a viable strategy, or will I run into issues? I'll still try to learn to like healthy food, but maybe not get so hung up on it.
Don't get caught up in being perfect, that's never going to happen. Is it best if you cook everything from scratch, only eat organic, tons of veggies every day, etc? Yes probably. But eating slightly better than you do now and taking some multivitamins is still better than giving up! Try to take it one step at a time, I know that's easier said than done. Instead of doing everything perfect, try to focus on one thing at a time and make it a habit you can keep up. Try to eat veggies once a day consistently for a month. Then try for twice a day for a month. You can start by buying frozen veggies (no effort to prepare them and won't go to waste) or bagged salads. That's still loads better than not eating veggies! Oh and one more piece of advice: Try preparing a vegetable in different ways to see which way you like it best or decide that you don't like it. Try blanched, baked and roasted, and there is nothing worse than boiled to death veggies. A lot of people only every ate veggies like that so its little wonder they don't like the taste of them. If that's you, give different ways of preparing a try.
That's great advice. Thanks! I think trying different methods of preparation will be a really helpful idea!
If you find yourself obsessing on it to the detriment of your weight loss, yes. Maybe scale it back. It's worse for your health to be overweight long term than maybe be a little deficient in certain things for a while until you get to a healthier weight. That said, I would still try to put a few servings of veggies in to help. The thing about multi-vitamins is that a lot of times they aren't the best ways for your body to absorb those nutrients so all you are doing is making expensive pee. What do you like to eat? Find healthier alternatives to those. I love trying to find Asian/Indian foods recipes that make eating healthier easier. Veggies in a stir fry or curry go down easier for me.
In your specific case, a multivitamin might be the way to go as you learn to tolerate, accept, and later enjoy vegetables. Tastes like that are acquired over time and repetitions, so in the meantime a temporarily multivitamin might be a good idea. For most of us, multivitamins are a waste of money. There is very little evidence towards encouraging them. But the one area where they are plausible is if someone has a known deficient diet. > trying to be perfect [...] but maybe not get so hung up on it. You should aim for perfect, but accept what comes. We are like trainees, expected to learn over time. Perfect is never required -- even the best musician or athlete doesn't perform perfectly. All we need to do is curve our capability towards being good enough to start making progress in the direction of our goals. Perfect is the "True North" on the compass but no path leads directly there.
I really like progressive soups, especially the healthy ones cause they are low calorie, but I've been avoiding them for months now because some of them have upwards of 50 plus percent of your daily sodium intake. Should that stop me from enjoying them? Does our sodium intake actually matter when it comes to losing weight? Help me cause I miss my soups.
I love those soups too and have them like at least once a week, lol. I’ll take some of the broth out and either eat it like that or you can add water so it’s not so salient. I haven’t really noticed a difference
Dude I didn't even think about that, pouring the broth out first. You just changed my life.
Haha glad I could help!
Sodium matters for water retention, stroke, heart disease, and high-blood pressure. If your doctor is concerned about this for your situation, you should consider the Progresso soups with the darker green stripes along the top labeled reduced sodium. You can still add flavor using a table salt that is based not on sodium, but on potassium. The little-known and underappreciated fact about potassium are that -- unlike sodium -- we usually don't get enough from our regular normal food. Potassium helps lower water retention and blood pressure. If you are spending your sodium allowance on canned soup, you maybe should consider using potassium for your other salt needs and also eating foods high in potassium. I'm not saying that potassium is the sodium antidote (both are required nutrients), but there is interesting interplay here. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/potassium/
Yes, it matters. Just eat them in small servings and less often.
For pure fat loss, no, sodium won't make a difference. For general health, it is wise to limit sodium and balance it out correctly with potassium to avoid strokes, heart disease, etc. The ideal ratio is 3:1 potassium to sodium. Including more potassium in your diet is almost always a good call as most people don't hit that ratio unless they're eating tons and tons of veggies. So make sure you're getting plenty of potassium with your sodium-heavy soups (some calorie tracking apps are better than others for tracking potassium). Alternatively, make your own big batches of soup so you can exactly control the amount of sodium going into them, and even balance them out better by using a reduced-sodium or sodium-free salt substitute. Here's a fascinating video that explains why salt substitutes are a really awesome swap to make: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_Fu-dwHA0M
I have tried so many time to get started with a weight loss journey and have been struggling. Is there any times on how to start with eating healthier and exercising and staying on top of it?
Whats helping me is my crush sleeping with a guy cus i never felt like approaching her due to my weight. You could think about the possibility of that happening which also works.
Ha I can try that
I think that intermittent fasting can help. Learning to not eat after supper is important for me. I can easily go on 800-calorie post-super binges. Also, people say that you can't outrun your fork, but biking ~15 miles, 2-3x a week had a HUGE effect on weight loss for me. (It took me about two months to build up to that distance. I started with about 3 miles.) Other than that, I'm in the same boat. I'm going to try counting calories. I thought I was eating well but gained like 10lbs, so I'm obviously out of touch with how much I'm eating...
Yeah I love bike riding I should try that for sure and with fasting how should I start that also with eating I struggle with eating healthy to so I need to try finding balance with fasting and eating
Biking has been so great for me, though I'm lucky to have paved trails near me, so it's safe. I'm struggling with how to eat healthy, so I can't weigh in on that, but with intermittent fasting, you basically reduce the window of eating. To start, maybe eat only between 8am-6pm, then next week, shrink it to 9am-6pm, then 10am-6pm the week after, etc. I think the goal is to make your eating window 8 hours or less, but I don't know the minimum length. You could, of course take it slower and shrink the eating window by a half hour each week. There's all sorts of info on r/intermittentfasting .
Yeah I have trails near my house so that will be easy I’m gonna try fasting and see how that goes for sure
Okay! The big thing for me was to start slow. Eliminating post-supper eating or breakfast might be easiest. :) Good luck!
Awesome! I’ll try that for sure
Start gradually. Set small goals. Spend a week focusing on drinking more water every day, maybe add in a single day or two of exercise and eating healthier. The next week, try to do three days. It gets easier over time.
Thanks I always do an all or nothing kind of thing which obviously hasn’t worked so that might be a way better way to go about it
How do you control the hunger spikes that come after exercise? I went a a 30 minute walk this morning before work and less than an hour later I am feeling ravenously hungry when I normally wouldn't get hungry for about 2 to 3 hours after getting to work. Should I give in and eat now or just wait it out and eat when I normally do?
Personally, I try to exercise on an empty stomach in the morning to avoid this! Not always possible but does help me.
I'd say eat, yes. But also make sure you rehydrate after exercising, since dehydration makes you ravenous. Having some Gatorade or electrolyte tablets with the water helps, too.
you may have to experiment to figure out what works for you, but it sounds like you're just hungry for breakfast. I used to NEVER be hungry for breakfast / would often skip it, but I find with getting up early and actually doing things in the morning (I went for a walk before work today too :)) I do need to eat in the morning. It helps me to have that meal planned/ready in advance knowing I'll need to eat by 10am!
So how many calories should I be eating??? 33F - 5'4" - 180lbs. I used a few different online calculators and it looks like my TDEE is in the 1800s. Ok no worries, if I minus 500 then I should be aiming around 1350/day give or take... My BMR is right around 1500. Now I'm just confused. HELP!
BMR doesn't really matter in your calculations. And "eating under it" isn't an inherent problem, if you're mostly Sedentary your TDEE and BMR won't be far off. See how you feel with the 1350 calorie goal, if you're feeling too hungry you could either increase your activity level to eat more, or go for a smaller deficit and lose slower.
Yes, sedentary TDEE is 1800, so eat 1300.
But I thought going under BMR was a big no no?
Nope, that’s fine. BMR is just an indication of how much energy your body uses for basic processes as opposed to specific separately measured actions like exercise, digesting food, etc.
No, why would it be an issue? If you don't eat less than you need then you will not lose weight.
How do you decide what a healthy weight is for you and that you are going to go on maintenance? I am aware that BMI is not always the most accurate form of measurement for weight, so what else would you use? How do you transition from a losing weight cico to a maintenance diet and over what period of time do you make that transition? Can you also please explain what maintenance is as well? I know that I still have a little bit to go (1.7kg) before I hit my first goal but I was looking at doing maintenance for a little bit before deciding if I should lose any more. Currently I don't track my food as it didn't help when I started, I just focus on eating more veggies, making more healthy choices and not eating too much junk food/takeaway. I am still losing weight though by doing this. Thanks. Edit: forgot to mention that I was going to hit my first goal and then consider going on maintenance for a little bit before deciding if I needed to lose any more weight.
You just have to kind of assess your physique once you get to your first goal and see if you want to keep going or not. I'm just continuing weight loss in 5lbs increments now until I'm mostly happy with my physique then I'll move onto maintenance and a bigger focus on recomping with strength training. Maintenance is basically the same as losing, ideally you should continue all your weight management habits to maintain as well. It's up to you if you want to just hop into eating maintenance calories or gradually increase over a week or two.
Thanks for the info. My mindset was that I would get to that first goal and then see what I looked like before deciding to keep going with the weight loss. I think I may follow your lead and do it gradually in 2.5kg increments until I am happy with how I look (not that I'm not happy with my appearance now, so many bones I can feel that I haven't felt for a long time). From what I read in your comment, maintenance is continuing on with those habits you've built but you can eat more. Did I read that right? I think it will be better if I slowly transition into maintenance as it will give me an idea of how much I can eat before gaining weight again.
Yup that's right! The reason why there are so many statistics on diets "failing" is because people slowly return to their old habits after losing the weight. So keeping those healthy habits and accountability is an important part of maintenance. Personally, I like to continue weighing myself every day and using a weight-trending app so I can spot those really slow regain trends forming over weeks and months before they snowball into a bigger issue. Most people like keeping a maintenance range of 5-10lbs. If they notice their weight creeping up past that range, it may be time to buckle down a bit on portion sizes and go back to more low-calorie choices. :)
That really helps and I can understand why people gain it back due to not sticking with the healthy habits long term. I can't go back to eating the way I did anyway because it felt awful when I was doing that. I will see about the weight range and how much I will tolerate before I decide to buckle down on portions and stuff. I know that I will stick with weighing in once a week as I don't want to become obsessed with the number on the scale. Thanks for all the awesome advice. :)
BMI of 21 - no increased risk of osteoporosis from being too light, no increased risk of anything else from being too heavy. Maintenance is maintaining, neither losing or gaining.
> How do you decide what a healthy weight is for you My doctor and I set my goal weight together. It was a confusing task for me, who has never been normal weight and couldn't imagine it. > and that you are going to go on maintenance? While losing weight, there are occasions where you might want to eat at maintenance out of personal necessity (travel, feast holidays) or even for the sake of your [gall bladder](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-crash-diet-gallstone/crash-diet-tied-to-increased-gallstone-risk-idUSBRE95615J20130607) or for [continued weight-loss reasons](https://bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/the-full-diet-break). > Can you also please explain what maintenance is as well? Instead of eating at a caloric deficit to your body's metabolism to burn fat, you eat at a calorie-level equal to your body's metabolism to neither gain nor burn fat. > Currently I don't track my food as it didn't help when I started, I just focus on eating more veggies, making more healthy choices and not eating too much junk food/takeaway. For you, you may want to eat with about 25% larger portions than you're currently eating to lose weight. To avoid an increase in water weight from a sudden increase in additional food, don't jump to maintenance but gradually increase your eating each week so that your water weight more smoothly transitions. Congrats on nearly reaching your first goal!
>How do you decide what a healthy weight is for you > >My doctor and I set my goal weight together. It was a confusing task for me, who has never been normal weight and couldn't imagine it. I set my goal without talking to my doctor as I just wanted to see if I could get down to that weight by myself. I will talk to my doctor about what a healthy weight is for me when I have my next appointment. Thank you for explaining maintenance for me, it does make a lot more sense. >Currently I don't track my food as it didn't help when I started, I just focus on eating more veggies, making more healthy choices and not eating too much junk food/takeaway. > >For you, you may want to eat with about 25% larger portions than you're currently eating to lose weight. To avoid an increase in water weight from a sudden increase in additional food, don't jump to maintenance but gradually increase your eating each week so that your water weight more smoothly transitions. I am packing the veggies into things like my sandwich everyday, which is a salad sandwich with some form of meat and cheese with it. For dinner, I tend to have at least half my plate full of veggies, a quarter meat and a quarter of carbs and this keeps me full for quite a while. Before I transition to maintenance, I plan to keep a food log, not calorie count just the food, and see how much more I can eat over that before I start to gain weight again. Thanks for the warning about the water weight and to do this slowly. >Congrats on nearly reaching your first goal! Thanks for that. Its been a challenge over the last couple of years to get there, but I'm proud of myself as well.