To preface, I am not posting this because I want to complain about my situation-- I am the person who brought myself here and I will get myself out. Rather, I hope that people can learn from my mistakes and avoid falling into the self-destructive habits that I did.
I am a 16-year-old male who has been in the "obese" BMI category for as long as I can remember. I began engaging in unhealthy eating habits at a pretty young age-- I distinctly remember binge-eating to escape from whatever "diet" I put myself on in like the 5th grade.
In 8th grade, I weighed around 210 pounds at 5'5. I had tried to lose weight in the past, mainly to please my parents and my relatives who I rarely see (as they live in another country), but had never succeeded. Through a concerted effort of hard work and determination, I successfully brought myself down to 180 pounds at the beginning of my freshman year of high school. When I got that first taste of success in my efforts to Lose It, I was hooked. Naturally, my weight did fluctuate a little bit in my first year of high school due to stress-eating, but I got a handle on my weight again and brought myself down to 170 pounds at 5'8 before the end of the year. At that point, I was beginning to appear "normal" and was rarely ever being called "fat" outside of a joking scenario. My doctor, friends, and relatives could all see my success, and I was very proud of myself. In hindsight, this was probably the best time in my life so far from the perspective of both my health and my self-confidence. I was beginning to feel good about myself and was happily running upwards of 6 miles a day simply because I enjoyed it.
Awesome, right? Well, not so much. At the beginning of my sophomore year, I decided to go on a "final push" to get "jacked af" as I thought of it at the time. I watched as many AthleanX videos as I could, and developed a comprehensive-- and quality-- workout regimen. I adhered to this regimen strictly for several months and began to experience some of my best success yet-- I got down to 160 pounds, and for the first time in my life, I was at a normal BMI. Under all that success, however, something bad was happening, I was unhealthy. I was deprived of vitamins and nutrients (other than protein of course) and was maintaining a net daily caloric intake of less than 1300 calories while lifting and doing heavy cardio (I realize that the folks at r/1200isplenty wouldn't think 1300 was too bad but for a guy like me with little prior experience that was a huge step up). This strict pattern of eating exacerbated my issues with binge eating, and in around February of this year, I completely gave up on everything. I stopped going to the gym, went back to my old destructive eating habits, and even stopped stepping on the scale. Long story short, I weigh 200.5 pounds today and am back to that good old "Obese" label on the BMI scale. In the short span of 4 months, I destroyed all of my hard work and am the same fat kid I was two years ago. My weight permeates into every aspect of my life, and it almost casts a dark shadow over my entire day.
Many times within those four months did I think about "getting back into it". There were many moments in which "something finally clicked", and I decided to get my weight back on track. In hindsight, if I had actually gotten it back together during those times-- even if I simply stopped my weight gain without going to the gym-- I would have been a lot better off than I am now. Instead, every time I went back to the gym, I got discouraged by how much progress I had lost and decided to close my eyes and go back to my old ways. Sometimes you really don't want to acknowledge a problem until it is staring you right in the face. So, members of r/LoseIt. Don't be me. Try to learn from my mistakes, so you can learn the lessons I've learned in a cheaper way than me.
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No effort to lose weight is "not good enough". Even if your way to get your health back is to simply eat at maintenance and stop the weight gain, that's 100x better than giving up entirely and eating as much as you can.
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Know your limits. Or, rather, don't push yourself beyond your abilities with no prior experience. Start small. When I was taking small steps to weight loss, I was succeeding. When I decided to go as hard as possible, I failed in a short period of time. Don't be me.
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Nutrition is key. Micronutrients are just as important as having the proper balance of macronutrients. If you only eat protein, it will be much harder to successfully follow a diet plan.
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Breaks are not the end. Even if you binge-eat for an entire week, it's not the end of the world. You are not a robot, and taking one break is much better than giving up for four months straight. Will binges/cheat meals slow your progress? Possibly, but if you can forgive yourself for them and keep going, your progress will be much better in the long run.
I hope that at least one person can learn something from my situation, and thanks for reading my story.
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