I don’t know how much of this will be relevant to anyone else but I have hit a personal milestone and wanted to share what I have learnt, even if just one person takes something from my story!
For the first time in my adult life, I am in the healthy weight range for my height according to the NHS BMI Website. I am 22 years old, male, 184cm (6 feet 0.5 inches) and weigh 85.1kg (187lbs). Over the last six years I have had an up and down weight journey, during which time I have gone through phases of following CICO, phases of doing exercise, a three month period of eating vegan, and also weeks where I have eaten out or binged on fast food five or six times in the week, knowing what would happen but not caring. I peaked at 102kg (224lbs) on New Year's Day 2018. These tips and findings come from my most recent weight loss attempt from New year's Day 2018 to now.
My initial strategy for losing weight was strictly following CICO, and doing no exercise, which I found worked brilliantly, and allowed me to shed the first 10kg (22lbs), over the course of around four months. After four months I felt like I had a good understanding of how many calories were in the foods I was eating regularly, so I continued to weigh all my food but stopped tracking it on MFP. This caused my progress to slow down dramatically! Another thing I should mention is that during these four months of CICO, I was eating out around once a week and going to the pub every Friday night for around eight pints. This leads me to the first major thing I have learnt so far, which is to listen to my body, and only eat if I am hungry. This includes stopping eating if I feel full, especially in a restaurant which is something I would NEVER have done up until now (waste not want not). If I knew I was going out for lunch with friends, then I would reduce the size of my breakfast or skip it altogether. Similarly, if I had had a big lunch out and still felt satisfied when “dinner time” came around I would just skip dinner. Letting go of the traditional three meal day which I grew up with is something that I think I have finally accomplished and has allowed me to make more progress, and why I think I will be able to keep the weight off this time, because by listening to my own stomach and being a bit more sensible, I can fit eating out and drinking some alcohol into my life while still gradually losing weight.
After the aforementioned little break from tracking my food on MFP, I resumed my previous good habits for another three weeks before I started to get extremely bored with what I was eating, and this prompted me to take up some form of exercise, running in my case. This has been an absolute game changer for me, and another factor in assuring me that I will keep the weight off this time. I now run around three or four times a week which naturally allows me to eat more calories each day, and believe me I eat those extra calories! As I became more regular with my running, I realised how much more forgiving I could be with my diet and still lose weight at the end of the week. This had ultimately led me to the conclusion that, after the last eight or so months of weight loss I have a decent enough idea of the portion sizes I should be eating, and as long as I eat the “right” stuff and in normal portions then the calories will take care of themselves, so I have stopped calorie counting. As above, this has slowed my progress but the overall trend each week is still in the downward direction, and I am enjoying being able to eat slightly more frivolously, and I am finally enjoying exercise. I think I have found a lifestyle that I will hopefully be able to sustain pretty much indefinitely.
So to summarise:
- CICO worked for me initially without any exercise, and a sedentary job.
- As soon as I stopped counting and tracking calories, thinking I knew better, my progress drastically slowed down.
- I learnt to listen to my stomach, eat normal portions and stop eating when I was full!
- I let go of the traditional three meals a day that I was brought up with.
- I have taken up regular running, and am therefore more relaxed about my calories now, whilst still losing weight gradually each week.
- I believe CICO got me 70% of the way to my goal, then exercise got me over the finish line, as it were.
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