Reached my goal weight!

Hello fellow r/loseit user and lurkers! Happy motivation Monday! I got to my goal weight!

What people came to see: [Imgur](https://i.imgur.com/3OK0p8P.jpg)

⚠️⚠️Long post warning ⚠️ ⚠️

Long goal reached posts like these really helped me in the beginning when I knew nothing about weight loss so I knew I had to make one when I finally hit my goal. To the people who started losing recently, already losing, or near your goal I hope this helps you get a little more encouragement or help as I did from other post like it. I’ve sectioned it so you can skip to what you want to see.

I'll start off on why I started.

Since my teen years, I've always been on the higher end for BMI for my height. I'm shorter than my younger sisters but I've always been bigger than them. I thought it was because my dad had obese people in his family that I was the one most likely to have the obesity gene and thus gain weight the easiest. It was this kind of thinking that kept me from thinking I could have the slimmer or fitter body I wanted. I completely ignored that they were taller, ate less, and drank way less sugary soda than I did. I can't believe I actually thought this way but I've learned my lesson. I had so much wrong about weight and weight loss. I'm glad to finally be rid of these misconceptions.

I've never tried to lose weight seriously before. I thought it was for the people who could afford special diets like Jennie Craig. Or even do a complete change to plant based, take diet pills, or appetite suppressant pills.

I couldn't maintain my weight so I figured my weight would just continue to rise and I feared it would reach a point where I would just be complicit about being very big. However, I learned it doesn’t matter how big you get, you can always lose. There is no “too late” or “too big” to lose. However, it’s simple but not easy, if it were, everyone would be successful. It is worth it and rewarding in its own right.

I had no knowledge on how to lose weight and no one helped me. Wish someone just told me to calculate my TDEE and count calories. Or that it doesn’t matter what diet you choose, it’s all calorie counting and your body is calorie counting even if you aren’t. Find a diet that works for you, if it be keto, vegan, whole 30, intermittent fasting, low carb, or low fat to make calorie counting easier. Try not to think and associate food with being social, comfort, or a treat but try to think of food as fuel and not to binge because it’s a special day or you need a pick up. I’m not saying don’t go out with your friends at all to eat or you shouldn’t eat a desert because you had a bad day, just try not to do it as often as you did in the past. Just do you and do your best. No every day is going to be perfect. Not every thing has to be. So I am very thankful to this subreddit for teaching me how to lose weight in a healthy manner.

I started because wasn't doing well at the top of my weight. I always panted going up my university's stairs. There aren't even that many but I would still huff and puff. When I came back from summer break- not once did I have that out of breath feeling. My upper body strength sucked. I couldn't hold myself up on the bus. So I either had to lose weight or get strong. Losing weight is easier so I went with that. I didn't carry my weight well at all. My thunder things and lil tummy could be hidden but I wanted to rid myself of them.

Most people said I didn't need to lose weight or that I looked fine. People are trying be nice but they don't see my naked body in the mirror everyday or see that my BMI was getting to the overweight range. I wear clothing that isn't revealing and for the most part hides my stomach. It's also not flashy or stylish at all. I wore black tights and large jackets or shirts for the most part. I don't even think I tried to consciously hide my body but I just felt more comfortable in that kind of clothing. Obviously, now that I've gotten to my goal, all my old clothing will be donated and I'm getting a whole new wardrobe. I want to wear stylish clothing. Yes, I could have worn this clothing at my highest weight but I didn't feel confident in myself at that weight.

A lot of my self esteem problems stemmed from my weight. I was never over weight but I always felt too heavy for my weight. I felt I couldn't wear the clothing I wanted because I thought that I wouldn't look good in them. This is just me. If you feel comfortable in something or want to wear something, go for it. I just wouldn’t do it unless I was comfortable in my own skin.

Since the beginning of my weight loss journey I've taken care of myself more. Other users have similar experiences with this too. My face cleared up a lot more. My routine in the morning is more than it was, which was basically just shower and go. I sometimes reward myself for getting to my mini goals with a beauty or skin product. I try not to reward myself with food. I started caring more about my appearance and stop letting myself go. Not to say I completely neglected self care before but I didn't love my body at my heaviest weight.

I exercised as a kid for a few weeks because I thought that was how I would lose weight. That plus I would stop drinking soda because I read that people who quit soda lost 20+ pounds in one month. I thought I would lose all the weight if I cut out that one to two sodas I drank a week. I really didn't realize that people who lost that weight drank a lot every day. I drank a ton of water and lemon water to try to lose weight too. The whole "water makes you lose weight" think needs to go. My friend keeps telling me this and it's not true. Water keeps you full. It's not going to eat up fat.

I didn't weigh myself often when I was just starting. I'm kind of sad I let myself get as far as I did. Now that I have a proper bathroom scale you can bet I will weigh myself once a week to maintain. I'll still continue logging for sure.

I'm lucky to have supportive family and friends. I'm fortunate to not use food as a coping mechanism for my depression. To those of you reading this who do, I wish you the best on rebuilding your relationship with food. I think my relationship with food was pretty average before this journey so changing the amount wasn't too drastic for me to change my habits. There are people might not be so lucky but I wish you all best once again.

I'm proud of my 13 month journey. I know some people don’t like when people call their diets journeys but I find it more fitting than say life style change. Lots of things happened during this last year. I fasted for a month. I was in my first major hurricane. I had a bit of power in my house thanks to my neighbors but managed to do my best with what was available. Data was off and on and even then very weak so I couldn't really scan my food but I had time to do so occasionally. Maria was a big bump in the road but I'm still here. I could have written down calorie intake and made a new offline streak. Where there's a will there's a way. I'm glad I didn't have to do this because I love my MFP streak so much but it was always an option. I made some friends on Reddit. I'm learning to take care of my face. I've also started to learn how to do my make up. My username is "chance-change-118" because I wanted to take a chance to make a change and get to 118 and here I am!

To those of you that are long time losers or new to the game- thank you for reading! Thanks to all the users who answered my questions in the daily Q&A threads, to those who encouraged and helped me, and shared your stories with me!

Stats

Start date: May 8, 2017

End date: TODAY

• Height: 5'5 (actually 5"4.5, calculations done with 5'5)
• Starting weight: 148~150 pounds
• Current weight: 118 pounds
• Starting BMI: 25
• Current BMI: 19.6
• MFP streak: 397+ days
• Bust: 37.5 in -> 32 in
• Chest: 33 in -> 30 in
• Waist: 35 in -> 27.5 in
• Hips: 37.5 in -> 32 in
• Neck: 14 in -> 12 in
• Thighs: R: 24.75 in L: 24.75 in ->R: 21 in L: 21 in
• Calves: R: 15 in L: 15 in -> R: 13 in L: 13 in
• Upper arms: R: 12 in L:12 in -> R: 10.5 in L:10.5 in
• Forearms: R: 10 in L 10 in -> R: 9.25 in L: 9.25 in

Calorie intake

1000-1200 a day (there were days I went over 1500-2500+ but I'm here!)

Future plans Maintain? Build muscle? Lose a bit more? No idea yet but I'm going to check out xxfitness now and I’ll still be posting here for sure.

Longest plateau

5-6 weeks long (139-140 then finally 136)

Time to notice a difference

Two months? So around 10 pounds. Others saw a difference in my face within a few days.

Food

I had to buy my own food and make meals exclusively for me for the first time. The whole "I would lose weight but healthy food is so expensive" thing is an excuse for those who don't really want to lose weight. You can buy exactly what you eat now and still lose. Just make sure to measure it and calculate the calories. I almost bought into the "Eat X food and you'll lose weight". I ate a lot more salmon than I did before because it was the easiest to prepare. Overall, the food I made was hit or miss depending on how much effort I put in. I'm not a great cook but I'm better now or would like to think that I am better cook now.

Water

As much as I could drink or remember to drink a day. I'm not the most organized person so I don't fill my water bottle the night before then remember to bring it. There were periods when I drank a lot of water and didn’t really eat because I was stuffed from a night out the day before.

Meal prep ideas

Skinnytaste.com

How I handled restaurants

•ask for a to go box and put away half the food instantly to eat a few hours later for the next meal

•go to drinks: sweet or iced tea, Diet Coke, or water which are often had free refills

•dressing to the side if you order a salad, wings, ect. Tried not to finish the entire container they put the condiments in

•No condiments on my meal/fries

•Water/tea soda only if I skipped a meal that day and have it in my budget.

Dealing with fast food

•Websites for fast food companies have the nutritional information online and on the price boards

•no ketchup on fries

•no cheese on sandwiches and ordered hamburgers not cheese burgers

•stuck to fish or grilled chicken sandwiches

Break down of what I ate at fast food chains before and after being calorie conscious for weight loss:

I’ll break it down by fast food establishment as well.

McDonalds:

Before:

Whatever the meal of the day way or McFina or quarter pounder with cheese for the drink: Coke or Red Cream

After starting:

Chicken sandwich with fries or meal deal for 5 bucks (only meal for the day) OR a kids meal, hamburger but once in awhile the cheeseburger drink: Diet Coke

Subway:

Before starting: Foot long tuna or teriyaki that I would split with my sibling or foot long roast beef by myself with both American and white cheese.

Drink: Coke, Red Cream (however I usually didn’t get a drink)

After starting: One of the FreshFit under 400 calories when it was the meal of the day for 5~ bucks Cookie: Chocolate chip (which I often gave to a friend) Drink: Diet Coke

Wendys:

Before: Crispy chicken with chili or a baked potato with cheese Drink: Coke or Root beer

After starting: Either a grilled chicken sandwich or the cod sandwich with fries OR 5~ dollar meal deal (only meal for the day)

Dominos:

Before: chicken pineapple (3-4 slices for one meal)

After starting: cheese or black olives (3-4 slices for one meal)

KFC:

Before: 2 drum sticks, lot of mashed potatoes, coleslaw, and gravy

After starting: 2 drum sticks, less mashed potatoes, coleslaw, and gravy Drink: 2-4 cups of Pepsi

KFC closed after the hurricanes and my family rarely bought food from there.

Cheat days

I had meals where I didn't care too much about the amount of calories it had. I usually didn't plan for these meals though. I tried not to deprive myself of foods I really want to eat because I thought about what I would do when I get to my goal weight. I wouldn't turn it down. I would just know how much I could eat. I think it’s okay to occasion get a treat you haven’t eaten in awhile but I wouldn’t make a whole day of eating high calorie foods and potentially falling down a spiral. It works for some people but not for me.

How often I weighed myself

In the beginning once every few days and then almost everyday after I hit 147/148 pounds since I fluctuated between 148-150. Some days I didn't have access to a scale so there are a few days that were skipped and some days I ateor drank something then weighed myself.

*Every day tips*

•chew slowly to enjoy your food and savor it/pace yourself

•eat meals with water (at least a small bottle's worth)

•eat on 10 inch plates

•don't eat in front of a screen

•input your meal prep foods as soon as you wake up

•have a general sense of what you will be eating for the day/the next day if you don’t meal prep

•don't beat yourself up about not sticking to the plan though

•over estimate the calories in food you didn’t make yourself

•stay away from dressings or toppings

•there are lower calorie options for so many things and just looking at the nutritional information for more than one item can save you hundreds of calories

•if you don’t like water, tea is a great alternative but I also drank Diet Coke

Weight loss tracker

HappyScale (Premium was like a 5 dollar one time payment) The free version is great, too.

Weight loss predictor

http://www.losertown.org/eats/cal.php

Calorie tracker MyFitnessPal (username: chancechange118)

I do have a LoseIt account but never use it.

Knowledge about weight loss before r/loseit: ZERO

Most important tools

• My Fitness Pal
• Meal prepping
• Meal prep containers
• Microwave
• Food scale
• Scale
• Measuring cups
• Dedication
• Patience
• Water and Green tea
• r/loseit

Not necessary to lose:

Exercise

I did NOT exercise every day or five to six days a week. Power to you if you do it though. I've never been fan but I might start soon. I did exercise but not enough. I will be exercising more to improve my posture and tighten up my core.

Expensive foods

Eat what is available to you. You really don't have to get things you don't already buy. I kept it simple. I suggest you cut out sugary drinks and alcohol. This helps so much. I don't drink alcohol but I love soda and sugary drinks so much. I went through spurts of drinking a lot of water to none on and off the past year but it's all about balance.

Motivation

I hear "I'm not motivated to lose weight" a lot. After a while it's less motivation and more dedication and routine. So long as you make a habit after a month or so you'll be golden. I don't leave my house to go out to eat and drink like my sibling do almost every weekend. I make my weekly meal prep and eat that for the week. It's simple and keeps temptation away. Even then, I've learned to find the best option for me at restaurants and such. I never completely cut out going out or having sociable meals. It was hard to stay motivated after a tragic event like a hurricane but I still kept up with losing by not gaining back. I was depressed but never let myself fall into a deeper state by keeping my weight in my control.

Think about it like motivation isn’t as necessary as dedication or commitment. Let’s say you like someone or learning self love. Liking someone is like motivation, it is short, simple, and erratic. It really gets you no where. Loving yourself or someone takes time and dedication. You might not like them (or yourself) as much as you did initially as the honeymoon period is gone but you continue to love. You are so accustomed to doing what you do that you keep on it. There are good days and bad days but most days are good days. You love and therefor are committed. If you are struggling to love yourself and your body, I’m sure you’ll see that by treating it right, you’ll start to.

MFP tips and notes

• Best way to keep a streak is to weigh yourself every morning and input it into MFP and or logging your food for the day as soon as you wake up
• Don't just keep up a streak but log your foods.
• You can delete the app and redownload it the same day and have your streak
• You can log in online and keep your streak if your phone isn’t working
• Sometimes the app says you didn’t log in for the day (even when you did and reminds you to log in before mid night)
• Streaks are for opening the app, not if you logged your food or not.
• Logging the food a day in advance won’t keep your streak going for the next day
• Sometimes if you are messing around with your weight for the day and you put in a number that passes a bench mark weight (usually 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 pounds ect) You get the celebratory message but if you delete the weight and later when you achieve that goal- you won’t get the message.
• When you get a message for a friend request, that message isn’t saved in your inbox

What I've learned since starting or advice to share

1. You have to really love yourself or want to improve yourself in some way to start losing. You need a reality check before you start doing anything to improve your health or yourself in general. Many people start because they don’t like what they see in the mirror or how they feel about themselves. Try to find out where you are lacking. Be real about how you feel about yourself and improvement. Be open to seeing that you don’t have a great relationship with food and how to solve it slowly but surely. Be real about how much you eat and what you eat and then you will be able to slowly rebuild your relationship with food. To love your body you really have to treat it right by not over eating or eating poorly.
2. Losing weight is a lot simpler than I thought it was. Then again I was very clueless as to how to lose weight in the beginning. Even reading the wikia and guides for r/loseit made my head spin. I read it over and over and was learning more about nutrition and weight loss / maintaining weight than ever. Growing up, I set limits to my weight. "Just don't go over 130 then 135 then 140, and finally 145. Seeing 150 on the scale was my indication to start losing weight rather than let myself gain slowly over the years. As a teen, I thought there were fat burning foods and pills that had super powers like Devils Fruit to burn fat. I would make my own money and buy these foods and be skinny.
3. Just because it's simple doesn't mean it's easy. It's easy to give up or not log for a while. It's easy to lose to yourself and let yourself down. I've given up on so many things in life because I hated losing but I don't want to give up on myself or my health.
4. I'm not as lazy as I originally thought. I really exercised more than I thought I would. It still wasn't much but whatever!
5. Sometimes you will feel happy you have so much control over your weight however this power is a downside because you are accountable for your ups and downs and gaining back or plateauing may make you feel like giving up but you are in control. You can power through this.
6. Being a little hungry is okay. There are tips to avoid hunger. My favorite is drinking a lot of water with my meal. Always ask yourself if it is worth eating if you want to eat past your budget for the day.
7. Don't reward yourself with food too often. I rewarded myself with things that I wanted. I saved up and when I was finally at a weight loss goal I bought it for myself. Usually make up or skin care products that I normally wouldn’t buy.
8. Water weight, bloating, and gaining back are really annoying. You can tell the difference by what you ate the day to week before. Water weight will come off in a week or so usually for me. The main culprit is a bag of popcorn. I bloat on my period but I don’t see a difference in the scale for more than a pound or two. Unless you consistently ate 500 over your TDEE for a few weeks every day, 1000 over for a few days, or 3500 over in one day, there is no way you could have gained it back.
9. Take the smallest place or portion when you can. If you want to buy a brownie or something on impulse and it kinda fits into your calorie budget for the day, find the smallest piece you can. Before I would always look for the biggest piece, biggest plate, or when my mom served the food, mine would sometimes be slightly bigger. Now that I’ve really noticed that and come to terms with losing, I don’t eat more unless I drank a decent amount of water between the meals and was actually hungry. I don’t eat just because I’m bored or I’m still a little hungry after the meal.
10. Take a progress pic every once in awhile. Use measuring tape and get your waist size every month or so. Be mindful to share the progress pics with people you trust. Even then they can be taken without your permission.
11. Don’t get down over the rate of loss between you and others. Height, sex, starting weight, level and amount of exercise, pre existing conditions affect rate of loss so if you see others losing a lot in the same amount of time with different stats as you besides being happy for them know you have your own rate and it will be different. Progress is progress. Every one is doing their best and you should do.
12. Wanting others (friends or family) to join you won't won't get them to start. I wanted to lose weight with a few of my friends and only one is losing successful. You have to let this go. Most people want quick fixes or to keep eating "healthy" and expect it to come off. Some will use the same excuses you used to give even when you offer them encouragement and advice and show them your progress by simply calorie counting. You can tell your friends to measure their food and calorie count but they likely won't listen and continue on their path with no results or calorie count for a few days and never again. Also be mindful that if you are smaller than them, they might have a harder time on being willing to listen to you. If you’ve given them the tools they need to lose don’t be surprised if they never get used. It’s probably not their time. You have to also accept that it may never be their time and they will always be over weight. Don’t feel like your friend is rejecting your help or not thinking about losing weight or getting in shape. It’s such a personal thing and difficult to initially have the resolve to start especially if you have a lot of weight to lose. They may log for 2 days of calorie counting before quitting on MFP or LoseIt. Many people have failed and failed to start and some may never even attempt because of the fear of failure. You can still discuss your latest weight loss achievement with them, if they are comfortable with it. They have their own lives and how they deal with food isn’t something you can solve. You love them and want to help them since they are your friend/family but you can’t want something more for someone more than they want it themselves. You can’t control their eating habits. You can’t control their behaviors but definitely don’t enable it. I wouldn't suggest trying to get them to count calories again if they don't come to you for help since you don’t want to annoy them. Some would rather exercise the weight off but usually don’t change their diet. The friends who do this I never really see any results for weight loss. There is no pill, tea, homemade remedy that will make them lose weight. No amount water plus apples and cinnamon or apple cider vinegar will reduce your weight. I wish it were that easy. Many people never stick to it because of lack of dedication and they want a quick fix. I want my friends and family to succeed in every positive thing for themselves but I can't control their forks. I can't lose the weight for them. You have to accept some of your friends will never lose weight and be overweight or even gain more weight. A lot will spout fatlogic and you really can try to correct them but it’s won’t make them lose with you. You can help and be there for them but there is only so much you can do. Best to focus on yourself. I know you want the best for them and have the best intentions but there’s not much that can be done. Some people have their wake up calls when their health is at risk. Some ignore it and don’t attempt to lose weight or attempt and don’t devote themselves. You probably had your own wake up call and decided to act but there are people who won’t act or won’t be successful in getting to a lower or healthier weight or making a healthier lifestyle change.
13. Don’t be afraid to vent or ask for help. Even to non Reddit losers. Your friends and family can give you encouragement. I won’t lie and say that I haven’t read many stories of crabs in buckets on here but if you have someone you feel comfortable talking about your progress and problems with that’s fine. There have been a few users I reached out to in their inboxes when I first started because they had similar stats and almost at their goal weight. They gave such great advice and because we had similar stats it was easy to relate to them.
14. Stumbling is okay. Falling is okay. Walking is okay. Turning back is not. It's a long walk in the park not a 100 meter dash. I wanted quick results when I started but now I'm a lot more level headed. I can go weeks without seeing a significant change on the scale and not bat an eye. I see my MFP streak or my starting weight compared to my current weight and it puts my mind at ease. You'll get there eventually.
15. Gaining back is a no no. I read those stories and want to avoid that as much as possible. People catch yourself when you see yourself or others putting back on the weight. You regain when you return to your old habits. A lot of people do yo yo dieting rather than take time to lose the weight in a healthy manner and rebuild their relationship with food. I fear gaining it back so much. I will maintain well for sure. If you really cannot stick to your usual budget that day, week, or month, eat your maintaining calorie budget. Don't eat 3500 over that.
16. Probably the most important in my opinion. No days zeros. If you missed a day of logging or went over by a thousand calories don’t stop. I know it sounds weird but I had that mentality of “all or nothing”. It doesn’t have to be like this. Don’t give up because you broke a rule you set for yourself. You already started so don’t turn back or even worse reverse the progress you made.
17. Mistakes happen... I thought I was 5'5 only to see I'm 5'4 on OCTOBER 3, 2017. Your height changes from day to night but I- I was so disappointed. You night read the serving size wrong and accidentally over eat. Just pick yourself up again.
18. Losing weight can improve certain things about your life but don't expect all your problems to be fixed. My self esteem is up but I still have a long way to go feeling good about myself. Don’t get me wrong, it helps a lot to lose. I started smiling at my reflection in the mirror. There is no more sucking in when I look at my naked body but I still struggle with being truly comfortable with my body. I’m all for self improvement like things I can change through dedication, things in my control, and a bit of work like my weight and my skin. Some people had thigh gaps at my height at 140 but I don’t have one and that’s fine. People have different shapes at the same weight. There is a lot I can’t change about my body or things that can change but I would need thousands of dollars to do so I would rather just accept that I’m never going to have the perfect body but rather just being the best me that I can be.
19. Be glad you started wether it be 1 day, 100 days, or 1000 days ago. Start if you haven’t started. To those who are contemplating starting and always think “next week”, “next weekend”, “next Sunday”, “next year”, “next summer”, “beginning for Jan/Feb/Mar/Apr/May/Jun/July/Aug/Sep/Oct/Nov/Dec” “after [holiday , birthday, or life event]” please consider starting today. The time is going to pass by anyway but where do you want to be six months from now? A year from now? Two years from now? You could possibly be at your goal or half way there or a quarter of the way there. A year looks like a long time looking forward but a year is nothing looking back on it.
20. Start when you feel comfortable but be mindful of time. I tried many times in the past but after getting to r/loseit and finding the time that was right for me I began slowly but I got here. I started in the summer because I knew I would have time to do what I wanted and already get into the swing of things before going back to school. I tried to get my friends and family to join and it wasn’t their time and there is a good chance it will never be their time to start.
21. Patience is so important. Dedication isn’t the only think you need to start seeing results. I remember making one of my first post asking why I haven't lost weight when I started four days ago. I know. I lasted through plateaus, salt bloating, and period bloating. Patience is my new best friend. If you have 30~40 pounds to lose like I did, the first month or two is when the weight really comes off. Then it's a lot of waiting and waiting because you aren't losing the water weight you were in the beginning. You can’t look at others who keep losing and comparing yourself to that. We all have different starting points. Some of us have more to lose and end goal weights. You will lose around 1-2 pounds and that's fine. I admire the people who had more to lose especially. Whenever I thought I was kinda done in the 130s or 120s I looked to their posts for guidance.

That's about it. I might lose a little more in the future but 118 was my goal so I'm good here for now. Thank you for reading this long post. Hope everyone losing makes it to their goal!

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