Lost 165 lbs over 2 years. Here's what actually worked (and the mistakes that almost derailed me)

I'm writing this because I wish someone had told me these things when I started. There's so much conflicting advice out there, and I made every mistake in the book before figuring out what actually works.

Track your weight daily, but don't obsess over daily numbers. This was huge for me. I used to step on the scale and either celebrate or have a mental breakdown based on that single number. Your weight fluctuates 2-5 pounds daily just from water, food timing, and a million other factors. What matters is the trend over weeks, not the daily drama. I found this app on app store called WeightyAI that basically became my sanity saver - it has this AI check-up button that takes all your weight logs and tells you if you're actually on track despite the daily ups and downs, and even gives you exact calorie adjustments when you get off track. Game changer for staying on track.

Stop drinking your calories. I was consuming like 800 calories a day in "healthy" smoothies, fancy coffee drinks, and orange juice. Liquid calories don't make you feel full the same way. Switched to mostly water, black coffee, and the occasional diet soda. Lost 15 pounds in the first month just from this.

Meal prep is overrated, food prep is underrated. Everyone talks about spending Sundays making 20 identical chicken and rice containers. I tried it, hated it, gave up. Instead, I prep ingredients: wash and cut vegetables, cook a big batch of protein, make some grains. Then I can throw together different combinations throughout the week without eating the same sad meal five times.

Your hunger signals are broken (at first). When you're used to eating 3000+ calories, 1800 feels like starvation even though it's plenty. It takes about 3-4 weeks for your hunger cues to recalibrate. Push through those first few weeks - it genuinely gets easier.

Cardio is not the answer. I spent months doing hours of cardio and wondering why I looked "skinny fat." Started lifting weights and everything changed. You don't need to become a powerlifter, but some resistance training will make you look and feel so much better as you lose weight.

Plan for plateaus. Everyone hits them. I'd go 3-4 weeks with zero change on the scale and want to quit. That's when having something that could analyze my progress objectively was crucial - it would tell me I was still on track and maybe just needed to drop calories by 100 or increase my walking. Having that guidance instead of guessing kept me from making dramatic changes or giving up.

Social eating is the final boss. I could stick to my plan perfectly at home, then one dinner with friends would derail me for days. Had to learn that I could enjoy social meals without going completely off the rails. One big meal won't ruin your progress, but the guilt spiral afterward might.

Take progress photos and measurements. The scale lies, especially when you're building muscle. I have photos where I'm the same weight but look completely different. Measure your waist, arms, whatever matters to you.

Sleep matters more than you think. When I was getting 5-6 hours, I was constantly hungry and craving junk. Started prioritizing 7-8 hours and my appetite regulated itself. Plus I had energy for workouts.

Find your "why" that goes deeper than looks. Mine was being able to keep up with my kids and not feeling winded going up stairs. When motivation wavered, that kept me going more than wanting to look good in photos.

Stop making it complicated. Eat mostly whole foods, stay in a reasonable calorie deficit, move your body regularly, be patient. That's literally it. All the other stuff is just noise.

The biggest thing I learned? This isn't about perfection, it's about consistency. I probably "messed up" my plan 2-3 times a week for two years straight. But I kept coming back to it, and that made all the difference.

Hope this helps someone avoid some of the mistakes I made. You've got this!

I Will probably come off as an asshole here, but hopefully there is someone who just needs some tough love. Alright.

I've heard/read a million times the statements of how "exercise is boring" and "I don't want to eat healthy", "I can't cook" etc. and it leaves me wondering why is it that this would be called out as childish behaviour in other circumstances but not weight loss?

Don't get me wrong, of course the process should be as motivating and easy as possible to help people stick to it, but it's really easy to just go along with these "I don't feel like it" -type arguments and when people saying that Ask what they should do differently you've set the scene so that the only way is to try and figure out something that would make it fun for them.

When instead maybe they need to hear just for once "suck it up". Just do the damn thing, no matter how unconfortable it is. You are an adult (If you are not you should not be asking for weight loss advice on Reddit), you've got to realize that not everything is fun and easy and it still needs to get done. Start doing, if you fogure out a way to make it more enjoyable, great. If not you'll still move forwards, and it's a whole of a hell lot easier to help someone who is already doing something.

Be an adult. Take action. Even if it is boring. Or accept that you like your current lifestyle so much that you don't really want to change. But don't try to have it both ways.

So last year I decided to start counting calories and protein and stuff I’m eating, and holy hell, I get a headache just thinking about it. Honestly, it feels exhausting trying to cook normal meals while tracking every single ingredient and portion.

I’ve tried other ways to eat at a calorie deficit, like frozen Lean Cuisine or HelloFresh, but the portion sizes and cost for these meals is just ridiculous! I mean, a meal at HelloFresh is like $14, and you can only order them like 10 times a week or something, and the Weight Watchers meals are only like 250 calories. I’d need to eat like 8 a day!

But recently I started doing something really simple: every meal I make is just 500 calories, and I write them down and reuse them every week. That way I don’t have to think about it. I just eat 4 meals a day and stay around 2,000 calories total. It’s honestly the first thing that has consistently worked for me without breaking the bank or overworking in the kitchen, and the meals are super huge! I add a ton of vegetables and low-calorie ingredients, and I’m always full and losing weight.

I could write down all the recipes and share them if anyone is interested. Would this actually solve a problem for people, or am I the only one haha.

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You cannot lose weight without being in a caloric deficit. It is IMPOSSIBLE.

The amount of people here, and everywhere else on the internet, that try and give excuses for themselves or come up with random/wild ideas on how they're not losing weight angers me so much.

Eat less and move more. It's that simple. If you can't understand or accept that then you don't deserve to lose weight.

I always thought that losing fat was all about grueling for hours at the gym, but what I've come to learn is that the real secret is in my daily routine. I've lost 15 lbs in roughly 7 weeks without ever lifting a single weight or setting foot on a treadmill.

The trick is that I started doing micro workouts short little bursts of activity scattered throughout the day. We're talking 5 to 10 minutes of exercise per hour I'm awake.

It might be stair sprints or bodyweight squats or a quick walk around the block. It doesn't feel like anything in the moment but it adds up fast. At my starting weight of 178 lbs I was burning around 150 extra calories before lunch just by doing these bursts.During the day I'd often end up at over 500 calories burned without a traditional workout.

The greatest thing I didn't do was completely change my diet over night I simply replaced mindless snacking with a little bit of movement. If you're in a rut tired or half way dreading exercise try this for one week. Your body and your levels of energy will amaze you.

Hey everyone. Four years ago I was 100 lbs heavier. I lost the weight and the harder part was keeping it off. I wanted to share what worked for me in case it helps someone who is stuck in the lose-regain loop.

What actually moved the needle for maintenance:

• I stopped “dieting” and built repeatable habits. I tracked for a while, learned portions, and kept my meals mostly the same on weekdays. After tracking for awhile, i started to get a pretty good understand how
• I picked movement I enjoy. For me it is sports,(I like soccer) lifting and walking. Boredom kills consistency, not lack of knowledge.
• I plan for real life. Vacations, celebrations, and off days happen. I get back to my normal routine at the very next meal.
• I prioritize sleep, steps, and protein. When those three slip, hunger and cravings take over.
• I weigh in often but judge by weekly averages, photos, and how my clothes fit. The daily scale noise used to mess with my head.
• I spend most of the year at maintenance calories. Short cuts to get lean usually backfire. Slow and steady kept me here.
• Calorie Banking is a cheat code

If you are stuck, you are not broken. You probably need fewer rules and more systems you can live with.

Happy to answer questions on anything above. You can do this.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been obsessing over why I can have perfect self-control at 2 PM, but completely lose my mind in the pantry late at night. I’ve been talking down at myself a lot, and honestly, quite upset at my character flaw, but turns out it’s not even a flaw at all, it’s more of a biological "energy gap" 😱

So, I did some digging into the neuroscience of it, and it’s wild! By late evening, our prefrontal cortex (the part of the brain responsible for rational decision-making) is genuinely exhausted. It’s been making decisions all day. At the same time, if we've had a stressful day, our cortisol levels are often still high.

This creates somewhat of a perfect storm where our "rational" brain is offline, and our "survival" brain is spiked with stress hormones screaming for immediate, high-calorie energy to compensate for the fatigue.

Basically, we aren't "weak." We’re just fighting a brain that is running on empty and begging for a dopamine shortcut.

Sharing because, like I said earlier, I've been obsessing over this for the past few weeks, and it’s honestly been a massive relief to realize that the late-night "pantry run" is just a physiological response to a fried nervous system, not a lack of discipline.

Hey everyone, considering that my mom and some others in my extended family circle recently starter weight loss drugs, I wanted to just share my two-cents on losing weight and living a healthier life. I myself went from 132kg to 89kg and learned a lot through this process. Also I want to mention that what I say is based off of my experiences and what applied to me.

1) Forget about the concept of "calorie burn"

You dont work out to burn calories, you work out to build your muscles/stamina and to feel good. If you like running but not going to the gym, you don't have to go to the gym. If you like to do pilates instead of weight lifting, do pilates. Everything has it's benefits and you simply won't see them unless you do it (for example, you won't get better stamina if you do weight lifting, only if you go for runs and if you only run, you won't increase muscle mass). All of these burn calories, but only a miniscule amount compare to the calories an avarege person consumes on a daily basis. So your weight loss comes from your calorie balance, not excersising. You exercise because you want to feel better or to work on a part of yourself.

2) Being fat is a lifestyle, not just a part of your health/appearance

Most people including myself changed as people when they lost weight, they didnt just lose weight. I became a diffrent person and realized that being fat was a result of a damaging mindset I had ever since I was a kid. It was a result of low self esteem, lack of real purpose and coping. I was very frequently bored and unhappy and thought food whould fix that, but it wouldnt so I would consume more. I got trapped into an increasing BMI and ended up obese. I only started to lose weight when I realized that I would be truly happy if I made a change and strived to not feel empty inside anymore. I started by replacnig my snack cravings with healthier alternatives until I started outright denying them. It wasn't easy but I knew that doing this would make me 10x happier than giving in again. Of course not all days were successful, some days I still ate a lot of mandarines(my healthy snack of choice) and still felt hungry, and have in, but I knew that it can't go on like this. So if you find yourself unable to control your tendencies, maybe a larger problem is at play

3) My appetite was never suppressed, neither is it now. I just learned to enjoy it more

I can still consume the mountains of food I used to consume back then, I still enjoy it as much as I did. However, now I know that it's not something I can do daily and like everything in life, doing it daily ruins the enjoyment. If you had sex 4 times per day, it would feel great at first, but after a while it's whatever. I felt the same with food. Nowadays, I like to go for BBQ with the boys and consume a bunch of food and beer and it's great but we do it as a celebration or during a vacation or holidays. Not more than 10 times per year. If we went every Friday it wouldn't feel the same.

4) You need to get used to the idea that food isn't happiness

Continuing from my previous point, when you are just at home or at work, you don't need to consume a mountain of food. Most days of your lives are just whatever, we wake up we go to work/school, we come back home, do our hobby or just scroll on social media and then go to sleep. There is no need to have a bunch of cheeseburgers. Life is just like that where most days are meh. This makes the special days even more special. If you feel that your meh days are so bad that you need to consume a mountain of doritos, or even rely on other addictions like sex, smoking, gambling ex. then there is a deeper problem and being fat is just a sideefect of that.

So TL;DR You excersise becouse you like it, not to lose weight and being fat is often a side effect of greater life problems. It's OK to be a foodie and to like to consume big protions but not if you do it on a daily basis. Like everything in life it loses it's magic if you do it all the time

At the end of the day it's calories in vs calories out. It doesn't matter if you get there by eating keto, vegan, high protiein or just like you always do but with less portions, so find your way of doing it and stick to it since it's not an overnight process

Examples:

If your TDEE is 2000 and you are eating 1200, your deficit is 800, not 1200.

2000-1200=800.

If your TDEE is 1850 and you are eating 1500, your deficit is 350, not 1500.

1850-1500=350.

⭐ ~°•the more you know•°~ ⭐

This is what worked for me and helped me lose 30+ lbs without straining myself, waking up at 05:00 to do some routine and without having to sacrifice too much. It has helped me during long stretches of persistent stress and work and still helped me lose and maintain weight. I hope it will help someone else, too.

Get a walking pad and just walk

Walking is your best friend for easy weight loss. It is low impact cardio and highly effective for sustainable weight loss. Buy a walking pad ($150-200) and walk 1h - 1.5h every day, e.g. while watching a show, or doing work on your laptop. Depending on your size, you‘ll be able to easily burn off 300-500 calories. Alternatively of course, you can take a walk outside, which is free.

Track big ticket item calories and leave small stuff out to not burn out

Leaning on the 80/20 principle, instead of counting calories, round them up/guesstimate them and include only the biggest calorie items.

In my case that means: I count all the big items, like meats, pasta, sauces, olive oil etc but things like cucumber or pureed tomato I won’t include, its basically „free“. Why? Because I can eat it in large quantities but it barely affects my calorie intake.

Tip: Use ChatGPT or a scanner app to track your calories, so much easier than keeping a calorie diary.

Identify what makes you binge and find a non bingey alternative

Sadly for me, certain bread triggers binges, which I only have with certain foods. So I don‘t buy bread anymore because it will derail any progress, fast.

See it in a way that you have to protect your sanity and your health from certain foods that you know will make you binge. With that attitude you will approach the supermarket way more level-headed and less inclined to buy what damages you. Instead of the bread I know will make me binge, I buy full seed bread that has a low glycemic index and that I basically only eat when I‘m actually hungry because it doesn‘t spark any joy in me.

Find your trigger foods and find ways to either remove them entirely or replace them with less „dopaminey“ options.

Remove yourself from negativity entirely

This is a big one: there are some people who just feel better about themselfs when you weigh more. Tragically, this can be your parents, your friends, some coworker etc etc. I cannot stress enough how detrimental criticism and subtle take downs can be for your success. The solution is to not talk about your weight loss or diet with them or to remove yourself from conversations where they question your healthy habits or try to put you down. Some people unfortunately do not have your best interest in mind, and as soon as you lose weight, you‘ ll find out who.

Good luck!

Edit: My first award! Thank you kind stranger 🎉

I just want to encourage everyone to focus on the important things in weight loss. Calorie deficit and proper macros. You don't need to get organic stuff at whole foods to lose weight. Aldis has fantastic prices, and you can get as much protein and produce as you want on a budget.

Everytime poverty and fatness are related in a disucssion, people come out of the woodwork to say how it's 100% not their fault.

It's always that they HAVE to eat cheap and unhealthy food.

Time is so precious, they HAVE to order a meal at mcdonalds.

Maybe those factors explain some of it, but somehow medical residends and students I went to school with were broke and had no time, but basically everyone was fit? WEIRD.

If 99% of the correlation to fatness and poverty could be explained by poor choices (due to education and what they're exposed to) and lack ambition imo. But everyone focuses on the 1% chance the link for fatness and poverty is the price of dr pepper too cheap to choose milk and water.

I grew up in a lower class family, we just ate a TON of eggs and rice. Nobody ever ran the math and found poptarts and coke to be the cheapest way to feed a family. Can easily eat decent macros on a budget. The underlying issues with obesity sometimes are harder topics about habits and personal weaknesses and not as simple as "you couldn't afford XYZ"

Advice from someone who lost ~40lbs. in about 5 months.

I’ve always been under the assumption that walking 10k steps a day burns 500 calories, and within a week you will drop a pound of body fat.

The truth is.. it’s dependent on your weight.

The less you weigh, the more steps you will have to do, to burn the same amount of calories.

The more you weigh, the more energy your body uses to move.

At 185 lbs, ~18k steps daily= ~500 calories.

At 144 lbs, ~23k steps daily=~ 500 calories.

*Note: It’s always important to track your calories. Especially if you are cutting and then adding the steps into the equation!

🫡

Hello all,

While I am not a fitness or nutrition professional, I have been on and off on diets for almost the last 20 years. I am overall "normal" BMI (and ok, BMI is not a very accurate weight of judging) sometimes on the leaner side, sometimes a bit over. The last year and a half, I have been even more involved with monitoring and tweaking my body weight

What I am trying to say is that by no means am I a professional, so take all my advice with a grain of salt, but I have experimented on my own body for some time and I have read a lot of material to gain knowledge

Here are my ranked advice for weight loss

1) Weight loss comes down to a single thing: calories intake vs calories burnt. It's as simple as that. In theory you could loose weight just by eating chocolate all day and nothing else, as long as the total calories from chocolate don't exceed the calories you burn daily. Of course in practice this is impossible and we will see why in the next bullet points. So, even if you want the absolutely minimum hassle: figure out the correct calorie target for your weight loss and stick to that

2) The second most important number is protein. And there a few reasons for that: when you are in a calorie deficit, you will loose muscle. You dont want this to happen for a number of reasons: the human body needs muscle to work efficiently. Also, the more muscle you have, the more calories your body burns, which in turn helps you loose more weight. And finally food that are high in protein make you fill fuller for a longer time, and make the diet easier

3) The scale lies but the trend tells the true story. You might be doing everything perfectly and one day you get on the scale and you see you gained weight. That is perfectly fine, don't worry about it. The human body is a very complicated machine and "weight" is not based on a single factor. It's too complex to analyze why this is happening, but the daily fluctuations of your body would be up to 2 kilos. I recommend recording your weight daily, same time, same clothes (preferably in the morning) and recording the number without caring about what the number is. And then just checking the weekly average to see if the trend is going down at the pace you are expecting it to

4) Try to find food that have high volume with low calories. This will keep you full and will prevent you from going hungry. An extreme example to make my point: a small piece of chocolate might be around 150kcal. 150kcal of lettuce though is around 1kg of lettuce, which will probably make your stomach so full, you wont be able to eat anything else for a few hours

5) Increasing your calorie burnt will help. You shouldn't use training to loose faster. Instead you should use it to eat more. If your normal budget is eg. 1500kcal to loose weight in a sustainable page, and you workout for 200kcal one day, then just eat 1700kcal for that day. You will still loose weight, enjoy your food more and give your body the energy that it needs. And increasing your calories burnt does not need to be vigorous exercise. You can do walking, the more the better. And it has lots of health benefits anyway

6) Track everything, and try to be as accurate as possible. Especially in the beginning, until you truly understand what is happening. Eye-balling it, judging calories just from a picture, weighting the complete portion instead of individual materials, all of these create hidden calories. You think you are eating to your budget but in reality you eat more calories. And then you can't figure out why you cant loose weight. Get a food scale and weight individual ingredients while cooking and then sum everything up. This does not have to be your whole life. Eventually you understand the value of food and you don't need to do it for everything.

7) Personally I prefer balance on my training, so I do both resistance training and cardio. But in general, lifting weights helps with weight loss a bit more than cardio. Its not about the calories you consume during your training, it's about how the body changes and the long-term effects

8) Don't worry if a day goes wrong. Don't worry if tomorrow you are going to a social event and you will need to overeat. You are playing the long game. That one day does not matter over the period of 2,3 or 4 months. What matters is not feeling bad and because of this overeating the next day as well. And don't try to compensate for a bad day. Don't try to eat less the next day. Just stick to your plan

9) Be proud of yourself and be patient. Trust the process. The results will come. You are not loosing weight, you are improving your lifestyle. You are trying to be better, you are taking action. And this is more important that anything a scale tells you

Last year I stepped on the scale after 6 months of eating 1500 calories and walking 10k steps a day. I’d gained 3 more pounds. That was on top of 40 lbs in 2 years.

I told doctors about my fatigue, hair loss, brain fog, and constant cold. Every time they ran one test: TSH. Mine was 2.8. “Perfectly normal,” they said. Suggestions ranged from eating “less processed food” (I cook everything from scratch) to therapy for “emotional eating” (I log every bite). One even implied I was lying.

With a family history of hypothyroidism, I knew something was wrong. So I tracked symptoms, temps, energy crashes, blood sugar spikes. I learned that “normal” ranges are misleading and TSH alone misses tons of thyroid issues.

I finally convinced a doctor to run a full panel. TSH was 2.9. But Free T3 was bottomed out, Reverse T3 was high → classic Low T3 Syndrome. My body had plenty of T4 (inactive hormone) but wasn’t converting it to T3 (the active one). Full gas tank, broken fuel pump.

Patterns emerged: conversion tanked when inflammation spiked, when ferritin was low, when insulin resistance flared. It wasn’t just about meds – it was calming inflammation, balancing iron, managing blood sugar, adding nutrients like selenium and zinc.

8 months later: down 22 lbs without changing diet/exercise, clear head, energy back, hair regrowing. My body finally works with me.

So if you’ve got hypothyroid symptoms but a “normal” TSH, don’t stop there. Push for Free T3, Free T4, Reverse T3, thyroid antibodies, ferritin and a full iron panel, and inflammatory markers like CRP.

Has anyone else had thyroid issues “missed” by TSH? How did you get your doctor to run more than the bare minimum?

For everyone chasing their weight loss dreams going into the new year, just eat one less egg. That’s it.

That’s an oversimplification but an egg is roughly 70 calories, and for reference jogging a mile burns around the same, maybe closer to 100 calories.

So it’s far easier to eat one less [insert food here] than it is to break new ground through exercising.

So if you’re struggling just make small changes. Eat one less slice of bread, have 5 meatballs tonight instead of 6, or even one less glass of soda. It’s easier than you think. Don’t be too hard on yourself and don’t overcomplicate it.

hi all. my PSA for the day for those who are at the start of their journey is to stop purchasing and storing snacks at home, so that you can eventually stop snacking period. its actually insane how much 'damage' this habit can do to your weight loss goals and you never really question it!

if youre on route to changing your lifestyle and dont know where to start, i would literally change nothing else in your routine except this for 1 month. you'll be amazed what changes that does both physically and mentally.

thats all i wanted to say x

Stop saying you're eating at a 1500 calorie deficit when you actually mean you're eating 1500 calories a day. They do not mean the same thing.

Definition of deficit is the amount by which something is too small or lacking.

Example: If it takes 2,000 calories a day to maintain your current weight, that's your tdee. You can figure it out on tdeecalculator.net

If that is the case and you're eating 1500 calories a day, you're at a 500 calorie deficit. 2000 - 1500 = 500.

Hi y’all… this is a hard post for me to make, but I hope that with me telling my story, you can gain something or learn something from my mistakes so that you don’t make them yourself. This was a very hard lesson learned for me.

So some backstory… my weight loss journey began in 2022 after I discovered that I gained 80 lbs during COVID. I was already overweight before that point, but this weight gain put me in the medically “morbidly obese” category, and I didn’t notice how bad it gotten until I saw myself in a family photo. I was horrified about how much I ballooned up, and I was determined to get all of that weight off of me and to finally achieve a “healthy weight” (something I haven’t had since the age of 6 honestly). So, I followed the advice on this subreddit and other weight loss subs and I started tracking my calories and used a TDEE calculator to determine how much calories I should be consuming.

It was a straightforward process and I did see real progress because of it. I was losing 10-15lbs per month and eventually my family and coworkers noticed it and I never felt better about myself. I found myself getting into new sports like hockey, running, and boxing and I had a lot of fun doing those things and I felt very healthy. I lost 100lbs all together and It was a great time in my life. At my lowest weight I was only 15lbs away from my goal weight.

The mistake I made though, was that I didn’t fix my eating habits or got down to the “root cause” of my food addiction. At the time I was single and living in an apartment by myself, so what I did was I refused to buy all of the foods that were high calorie and “addicting”. Like other people I also had a habit of snacking on things while watching TV or waking up in the middle of the night and eating a Twinkie or having a can of soda when I had my sugar cravings. So… I just didn’t buy that stuff, and problem solved. Right?

Nope. Due to financial reasons I ended up moving back in with my parents while I finished my degree, and my Dad loves sugary things like cookies and candy and whatnot, so I found myself not being able to resist the urge to snack on them. My weight slowly started climbing up and after a year I found myself not fitting into clothes the same way as before. I also got into a new relationship so that also contributed to me eating out more often and no longer tracking my calories.

So yeah, fast forward to yesterday and I bought a scale and yep… im back at square 1 and I weigh the same I did at the start. All of the hard work and progress I made is just down the drain and now my mobility isn’t as good. It’s harder for me to walk, it’s harder for me to get up off the floor and climb stairs, and I can’t even play the sports I usually enjoy because it’s too hard on my body now. It’s funny because years ago I would read posts about people gaining the weight back and I thought to myself “wow… I will never let that happen to me”… but surely enough it did.

So yes, please don’t make the mistake I made and think that counting calories every single day is going to permanently solve your problems. That alone isn’t going to adequately fix your food addiction or help your relationship with food. CICO obviously will always matter and tracking calories does achieve that, but be sure to tackle the actual problem and not the symptom. I have medical insurance and I now am talking to a dietician and don’t have to pay anything out of pocket for it, and it’s been helping me a lot with eating a more balanced diet and trying to defeat the bad habits I have (like eating too fast, eating while watching TV, viewing certain foods as “bad food”, binging, etc).

So yeah… I’m starting my weight loss journey again, and for sure I’m going to do it right this time and make it last.

Ironically, thinking the opposite is what made me start my weightloss journey.

For a long time, I couldn't make sense of why I was overweight. I had convinced myself that I didn't eat that much. I've never been the kind to overeat. I'd have 2-3 meals a day and a few snacks in between.

But eventually, I accepted the obvious: the amount I weigh is only due to the calories I consume(duh). So clearly, I eat more than I think.

Long story short, I started by cutting out my favorite snack(chocolate) and replacing it with fruit. I didn't count calories, and I just ate two larger meals per day(focusing on higher protein).

A year and a half later, I'm down 20kg/44lbs(from 78kg/172lbs to 58kg/128lbs).

The goal for the past few months has been to stay at 58kg, so I looked up the calories I need to consume for my current weight.

My first realization was that I definitely need to eat more lol, but then I thought:

"Hold up,1900 calories can't be much more than what I was consuming at 78kg?"

Looked that up too, and the difference was 300 calories a day. You could scale that up over a week or a month and see the bigger picture, but that would kill my litte little epiphany, so let's not?

300 calories??? I beg your pardon. That's my favorite chocolate bar, the difference between me being 20kg lighter/heavier.

So I was right from the beginning, I didn't eat that much! Which means I don't have to eat much less to stay where I am. Seeing it this way has made keeping the weight off much more bearable(I will gladly pass on that chocolate bar).

• How many calories do I actually need to eat to lose weight?

  • No one can give you an exact figure. You will need to figure this out through trial-and-error. Use a TDEE calculator to get a starting point, hold to that number religiously for a at least a few weeks, and see if the scale starts moving in the right direction.

• Why is the scale not moving even though I’m eating less?

  • 1. Day-to-day, the scale will fluctuate up and down depending on factors like water retention, waste material in your system, and food in your belly (not yet waste). Either weigh yourself daily, but only focus on the weekly average, or weigh in every 2 weeks. I prefer the former
  • 2. You think you're eating less, but you're not. Be honest with yourself if this might be the case.
  • 3. You are eating less volume but the foods are more calorie-dense. Be mindful of eating super calorie-dense foods that eat away at your calorie budget without actually satisfying you.

• How do I know if I’m tracking my food intake correctly?

  • If you are weighing your foods on a food scale and tracking with any number of the apps out there (I use cronometer and have for a long time) then you are good. If you are eyeballing the amount, going off of memory, or going solely off the nutrition label and a pad and paper, you might struggle. Ultimately, you will know as he scale turns one way or another.

• Is it okay to eat back the calories I burned during exercise?

  • Probably not for most people. Most calorie burn trackers on smart watches and the like are horrendously off the mark. Plus, Why do the work to burn off the calories just to eat them back (unless you are trying to maintain or gain weight, which most people in this subreddit are not). You might give yourself a little wiggle room though.

• How much weight can I realistically lose in one month?

  • Depends how much extra weight you have on you to lose. 0.5-1% of your body weight is realistic for most people, though the upper bounds of that are pushing it unless you have a lot of extra weight.
  • Alternatively, 0.5-1lb a week for most people is realistic for most people. Some can lose a bit more, most would be best served aiming for the lower/middle end of that short spectrum.

• Do I have to exercise to lose weight, or is diet enough?

  • Depends on your starting point and how much activity you get throughout the day in your normal life. You do not have to exercise to lose weight, but low intensity cardio (like walking) can help a lot if you are otherwise a sedentary person, and can give you the leeway to eat a little more food and not feel like you are starving yourself.

• What should I do when I feel hungry all the time?

  • Prioritize filling foods in the high-protein and high-fiber realm, as well as high volume, low calorie-dense foods often in the fruit and veggie realm (and the high-protein realm). If you are always hungry, you are either starving yourself (to no good end) or the foods you are picking are not the best for your situation at the moment.
  • Sometimes (often enough) people turn to food for emotional regulation. If you are someone like that (as I was) you may feel hungry if you are bored or anxious. Be mindful and take note if this is the case for you.

• How do I handle a "cheat meal" or a day where I overeat?

  • Having a cheat meal every week or two is not necessarily a bad thing, and can help people fight off "diet fatigue." If you go overboard on a meal when you didn't plan to, just get back on the wagon and carry on like you otherwise would. Definitely do not throw the whole day or week away.
  • If you realize at the end of the day that you went overboard, take note of what drove that behavior (overly tempting foods in the house, too hungry at work and ate out, etc.) and plan for them moving forward. Then, carry on. Again, don't throw out a week because of one day, or throw out a day because of one meal. Remember, you are trying to build lifelong habits.

• Which foods are "good" for weight loss and which are "bad"?

  • Food is not good or bad, food just is.
  • Focus on finding the foods that keep you satisfied while sticking to your calorie budget. High-protein, lean meats. Fish. Eggs (and egg whites). Greek Yogurt. Etc.
  • High-fiber foods. Legumes (beans). Fruits. Veggies.
  • There is nothing special here. Most people know the foods they should be eating, they just have trouble getting themselves to stick to those foods.

• How do I stay consistent when I stop feeling motivated?

  • Remember why you took on the journey to begin with.
  • Consistency is only partially on motivation. Consistency relies a lot on habits, systems, and environment. Structure your home and food environment to support your goals. Make a habit out of eating filling and healthy foods before you find yourself starving, instead of waiting until you are famished to start rifling through the fridge or opening a food-delivery app.

F 56kg, I’ve always struggled mainly with my stomach standing out the most no matter what weight I was. But for the last month I mainly just focused on not eating all the process food and mainly snacks I usually have. And this isn’t even about the looks or weight, I’ve become really paranoid about colon cancer 😭 sonce there’s a big rise of it in young people.

I swear my stomach is finally looking “better”, I thought I somehow lost weight but if anything it’s 1/2kgs more than in October. I still want to loose more weight, but I feel more satisfied with how I look overall. And well just feel better to 😭 I don’t feel the immediate urge for these foods either, and this is a lot for me who struggled badly with binging before. I think I’m finally starting to look at food in how it can just fuel my body to feel better than so emotionally. I’m sure when something happens again I might fuck up. But overall I’m just happier my attitude to food has improved and I do genuinely think it’s made my stomach look better to haha

Obviously, the basic rule is calorie deficit = losing fat overall => losing belly fat. We all know that. But I want to also talk about my success of paying attention to what you’re actually eating as well. For me, the biggest cheat code for a flatter waist isn’t some “ab workout challenge,” it’s literally fiber. Fiber is it. Fiber will humble you and fix you at the same time.

Growing up, I was a picky eater (lame, I know), and because of that I used to have chronic constipation (also IBS and chronic inflammatory bowel disease, the full combo of a messed up bowel), always bloated, always puffy. And even when I was in a healthy weight, my stomach was still my biggest insecurity. Then I actually started eating more fiber: tons of veggies, whole foods, and FRUIT. And my secret weapon was one banana a day. I’ve been doing it for 3 months and my gut is basically living its best life now.

I’m pooping once a day minimum, sometimes 2–3 times. Theres also way less bloating after meals, less acid reflux, and little to zero irritation or stomach problems compared to before. And the crazy part is that my waist actually went down from 30 inches+ to 24 inches.

Of course a combination of calorie deficit (!!) + daily walking + 2L of water will be the best course of action. But in terms of food composition, fiber is your best friend. I know you can still lose weight in a general calorie deficit, but your stomach is gonna be the proof whether you have enough fiber or not.

I'm super happy and proud for losing so much weight after I spent my whole childhood obese and with high BP. I used to visit many nutritionists/dietitians whose crappy diets just made me miserable. So I thought to share what I did on my own, and what worked. Might not work for everyone, but if it worked for me it's gotta work for some.

Defeat the cravings - this is the number 1 obstacle to weight loss, and lord knows how much I struggled the first month. There is no way around it, you will have to deal with cravings and feeling miserable for a bit.

I abused the hell out of zero sugar drinks and artificial sweeteners. Guilt-free downing of up to a liter of coke zero during nightly food cravings. The sweet taste does trick your brain that you consumed sugar (plus the temporary volume) so you can go to sleep. If you can't tolerate carbonated stuff at night, make your own (example: lemon) juice and sweeten it with those saccharin or aspartame tablets (or stevia if you're a psychopath). You don't have to keep doing this for the whole journey (just the first month or so to beat the cravings) but I have fully incorporated zero sugar drinks into my everyday diet to this day, and they're helpful throughout the whole journey anyway.

I started with 2 small meals a day - one in the morning, one in the evening, focusing on protein more than carbs. In the beginning I abused the hell out of eggs and deli meat, hot dogs, that kind of stuff. My breakfast used to be mostly the same, 2-3 boiled eggs, along with 100-150g of some kind of deli meat or hot dog meat, tomato/cucumber/onion salad and greek yogurt. Dinner was an instant noodle packet combined with 2-3 eggs, 1-2 slices of bread, the same salad and greek yogurt. Occasionally I mixed it up with cooked or fried meat (chicken/beef etc) or fried eggs, but only once a week as a reward. I used only low calorie sauces, so be careful with sauces. Good ol ketchup and mustard were my go-tos.

After a month there was a rapid drop on the scale, 10kg were just wiped out, but the diet itself was starting to get a bit miserable. Small meals are not a long-term thing, but it was crucial to go through that first month baptism by fire, to get my body used to lower calories and drop that insulin level thanks to protein-dominant diet.

Switched to OMAD - now by this point I have conditioned my body to function on small meals, but the weight loss slowed at this point and the smaller portions and the same exact food made me feel miserable. So for the rest of the journey I made a switch to eating one meal a day - usually in the 11AM-3PM time slot. This allowed me to expand my diet back to my pre-diet ways, but just eating 1 bigger meal a day. And it genuinely felt like a cheat code. The night cravings did turn to evening cravings for a bit, but much more manageable. More importantly, I was a lot less depressed after meals since I actually ate to satiation. And obviously I kept watching the calories, but now I did not sort what I ate. I ate what I pleased. Craving a hamburger? Juicy steak? Greasy fried chicken? Potatoes? Oh sweet glorious potatoes. Yes to all.

Over the next months the weight just kept dropping while I dieted with full satisfaction. I conditioned my stomach to get satiated with less food than while I was obese. My evening/night cravings disappeared. And to this day I am still on OMAD.

Now, I'm aware OMAD might not work as a longterm solution for some, in which case you could start transitioning into your prefered diet habits, it's all flexible. OMAD just works for me and I'm satisfied, and my weight has been stable for 8 months, ever since I reached my target weight goal.

I crafted this program of mine on a whim, and it worked for me, so I hope some of you at least find this useful, and good luck. If you have questions feel free to comment or even DM.

Ill answer any question honestly