F28 SW:205 CW: 184 GW: 150
First of all, I want to say thank you to this great community. I’ve learned so much from everyone’s posts! I love reading about people's successes and hope that I can give back in some way by sharing what I've learned.
I’ve been heavy since I was in high school. My parents’ idea of healthy eating was a low fat diet and telling me not to eat french fries. (Both of my parents are overweight, and my father has recently been diagnosed with diabetes). When I went off to college, I thought I would be in better shape. I walked everywhere and I started jogging my junior year. But I never addressed my diet, so I remained heavy. (My newest mantra, thanks to this sub is: “Exercise is for fitness. Diet is for fatness.”)
At 22, the scale had crept up to 200 lb. Something snapped. That was my line in the sand. I had promised myself I would never weigh over 200, and here I was. I started working out more seriously and set a goal of running a half marathon. I stuck to my workout plan and cut back on sweets and snacks. I lost 20 lbs! At that point, I wanted to start tracking calories, so I downloaded MFP. I was a patchy tracker (skipped most weekends and anytime I felt I had “cheated”), but it helped. I lost another 20 lbs over the course of a year. I was down 4 pants sizes. I ran several half marathons and started training for a full marathon (didn’t get to complete it due to an injury, unfortunately). I biked to work. I was finally thin!
I maintained at about 160-165 for only a year. I started dating a wonderful man (now my fiancé) and got a bit lazy. Got up to 170-175. Had some health issues and battled depression. Gained right back up to 205 lb last May. That was it! I was over 200 lbs again, and something had to change. I found this sub and got my act together. I found I could actually be satisfied with 1500 calories. I lost 20 lbs over about three months and felt great. And then… I stopped tracking. At 20 lbs down I could not see a difference in myself. I had not gone down a size, despite having lost a few inches. My clothes only fit marginally better. I was discouraged. The holidays were coming up and I “didn’t want to miss out”. I stopped weighing myself. I got lazy. I let myself slip back to some of my old habits. I stepped on the scale only periodically. I took a “maintenance break” that lasted a year and could have ended with me gaining some of those hard fought pounds back. I was always planning to start again at the next convenient moment (which never came and remained always in the future). Luckily, some of my habits stuck with me and I only gained about 4 lbs and a half inch on my waist, which I consider to be negligible and within maintenance. I’m back now and dedicated to losing the weight for good this time.
Some things that have helped me:
- Weigh in every day. I use the app Libra. In the spring, just by weighing myself daily I lost about 3-4 lbs over the course of 6 weeks without tracking anything. Just being mindful of what my weight is helps hold me accountable.
- Track measurements. Cloth measuring tapes aren’t that expensive and it feels so good to have another metric for progress.
- Eat more fat! This one took me a while to wrap my brain around since I was raised on a low fat diet. At one point, I tried to do a macro breakdown of 30% protein/60% carb/10% fat. (I was convinced I needed that many carbs because I was a runner). I went to a nutritionist and she (very kindly) told me I needed at least 20% of my calories from fat to feel full. Now I aim for 25% protein/45% carb/30% fat. Reducing the amount of carbs I eat helps me feel full on fewer calories. I'm not crazy about it and still eat bread, pasta, and rice, just in moderation.
- Don't eat after 9 PM. It's kind of an arbitrary time, but it definitely helps me check my dessert cravings.
- Track calories! I basically eat whatever I want within my limit. If I’m hungry, I eat over my limit and try to assess why I am not feeling satisfied. Did I do a more strenuous workout than normal? Did I undereat yesterday? I try to remove the guilt factor and aim for an average number of calories for the week rather than staying under every single day.
- Don’t eat due to boredom. This is a big one for me, and it led me to gain 10 lbs every summer of high school. I try to assess whether I am really hungry. I tend to drink some water first and then ask if I would eat an apple in the moment (regardless of whether or not an apple is readily available). If I would, then I’m actually hungry and can go get a snack. If not, I’m probably just craving a candy or whatever and it will pass.
- This TDEE calculator (r/https://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/comments/4mhvpn/adaptive_tdee_tracking_spreadsheet_v3_rescue/). I love data, and I love how this form tells me what my actual TDEE is, based on how many calories I have eaten and how much I currently weigh. As an added bonus, it motivates me to track every day so that the calculations are more accurate.
- Snacks and healthy swaps! I have just discovered skinny dipped chocolate almonds, and they are great! They aren’t too terribly more caloric than regular almonds AND I get my chocolate fix. For those of you with Kroger, the Dr. Pepper flavored sparkling water is amazing! My sister introduced me, but unfortunately there are no Krogers where I live. One of my favorite snacks is a piece of fruit and a cheese stick. Easy to prep, easy to have on hand, super yummy and filling.
And now, a question for you lovely folks! Fellow brides of r/loseit, what did you do about the dress? I am getting married next March and have yet to buy a wedding dress. Yes, the wedding is a big motivator for losing weight. I am worried about buying a dress and not having enough time to get it tailored to fit perfectly. I’ve been told that I should get the first fitting in December, but that will leave me almost four months until the actual wedding, and I hope to continue to lose weight in that time (at my current rate of loss, I will hit my goal weight in mid-February). Thanks!
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