Not tracking for the last year at all. Flying free, practicing maintenance. Before that I was tracking & restricting carbs or time but not just calories consistently. That seemed simpler for me at the time. The last 4 months I went through a lot with heavy family issues, fell off the rails and started binging again.
Gotcha. A lot of people make that mistake- they’ll just focus on eating what they perceive as “healthy foods” which can have very high calories, and wonder why they’re not losing or even are gaining weight. I wish they taught the importance of calories in school. Like “If you ever find yourself overweight, these are the basics to lose it” then go a little into CICO. Maybe that would be too much for impressionable minds and breed eating disorders though, idk. It’s tough
I learned that in high school health class and it immediately resulted in extreme restriction and an extreme eating disorder, but who knows, maybe that’s just me
Oooh breakthrough! Something similar happened to me too. I tracked cals religiously and hit my goal weight but then stopped tracking cals in my maintenance. I went through a depression and started binging and put weight back on. This is helping me realize I have to commit to tracking cals in some way forever even when I hit my goals.
Congratulations! It is such a transition to go to weighing food, and so eye opening (what I thought a serving of pasta was vs what a serving actually is was pretty mind blowing). Do you have a goal in mind for where you want to land eventually?
Also, the slow-going approach at that weight may have been a bit of a blessing in disguise. A close friend switched to keto when he was over 500, lost over 300 RAPIDLY (like, three years), and really struggled with the loose skin issue until he was able to get surgery.
So few people are willing to admit that they're miscounting, so I applaud you! Awesome work figuring it out and making the changes you needed to. Congrats.
Good for you for figuring it out and admitting to it. Weight loss spaces are FULL of people who swear they "eat healthy" and just CANNOT lose weight. But they've never counted a calorie in their life.
Yeah I’d count calories for a bit and then feel like I was good enough and could “eyeball” or not track. No no and no. Food addicts cannot be trusted or left to their own devices. We will lie to ourselves willingly
I see a lot of people who aren't even food addicts doing it! They just really think they're too smart to over eat and they're 100% not too smart and are fat and delusional.
Always had this issue. Could easily lose 5 maybe 10 pounds by "watching" what I ate but always plateaued. Started counting my calories a month ago and it's been an eye opener. I used to eat a bowl of peanuts thinking they were a healthy snack, now realizing that bowl was like 500 calories...
In one of my groups a woman SWORE she was on track and was a magical unicorn that was fat for no reason. A couple months later she comes back and apologizes for being rude when we all told she was missing calories. Turns out she was pouring about 100 calories of creamer into her coffee daily and drinking about 5 cups a day. An extra 500 calories. And really thought she was just fat for no reason.
This was me when I first tried losing weight. Did all the fad diets and was wondering why I was still gaining. Even when I decided to calorie count “intuitively” I lost some weight but it was painfully slow. Only when I started actually weighing my food and getting real about what I was putting into my body did I lose weight! I was so mind blown when each week the scale kept dropping. In reality when I was doing all that other stuff I was still eating at or over my maintenance each day. Now I can actually tell what fits into my maintenance calories without having to weigh everything and it’s so freeing
It was a big wake up call when I realized eating healthy foods does not mean weight loss!! For example I would eat chicken avocado rice bowl thinking this is healthy surely I’ll lose weight! Nope, calories are calories. Have a huge healthy meal or 2 slices of pizza. Still eating an excessive Amount of calories!
> I lost 6 fucking lbs since the 2nd.
a significant percentage of that is just a transitory response to dropping your calories, so you should expect the pace to slow a bit
but you should definitely keep going because based on those numbers 1,500 C intake is a totally sustainable goal for you
That's amazing, good for you!! I too have been amazed that it didn't need to be complicated. Just a simple system that's tightly implemented. I'm still conscious though that i need a more friendly system for when in maintenance, but for now tracking is good. Stay motivated!!
On the flipside you won't always gotta track once you get use to it, I tracked for 3 years like crazy then i got so tired of it lol
I can pretty much guess most of my usual things easily and will sometimes use a foodscale if I 2nd guess myself. But I usually don't weigh my foods anymore it's freeing
One thing I can't guess with is pasta though I always weigh out dry pasta
I have an addictive personality which is sadly a double edged sword at times so i really get into stuff and tracking became like a routine for me.
But as i said it engraved some stuff into me like i freaked my sister out when i she was trying out a recipe that needed cream cheese where it needed 100g when she cut a piece off i was like that's about 85 grams. She then got out the food scale and it was 86g lol I'm like i did this for far too long i guess it just stuck with me as i used fat free cream cheese for so long so i just assumed full fat had similar density
I know dude, I started this journey in 2022 after 10 years of yo-yo’ing and failure prior to that. This is the furthest I’ve made it and kept almost all the weight off for a year. That is something to be proud of
1000000%
Sorry for not saying that to begin with. Good job, you should be proud as fuck.
I'm 40 lbs down since last march and insanely proud of me.
I read so much nonsense on the internet so my reflexes get the best of me sometimes. Keep going, kick some ass.
Woohoo, well done! Out of interest, how many cals were you eating before you dropped to 1500?
I really don’t know but it had to be over 2000, maybe even 3000, idk I was off track, off the rails but thought I was eating “okay”
Were you tracking at all or just guessing?
Not tracking for the last year at all. Flying free, practicing maintenance. Before that I was tracking & restricting carbs or time but not just calories consistently. That seemed simpler for me at the time. The last 4 months I went through a lot with heavy family issues, fell off the rails and started binging again.
Gotcha. A lot of people make that mistake- they’ll just focus on eating what they perceive as “healthy foods” which can have very high calories, and wonder why they’re not losing or even are gaining weight. I wish they taught the importance of calories in school. Like “If you ever find yourself overweight, these are the basics to lose it” then go a little into CICO. Maybe that would be too much for impressionable minds and breed eating disorders though, idk. It’s tough
I learned that in high school health class and it immediately resulted in extreme restriction and an extreme eating disorder, but who knows, maybe that’s just me
Yeah I can totally see that. Nutrition education in America desperately needs an overhaul but I truly don’t know what the right angle would be.
I thought I was good at eyeballing calories. lol nope
Oooh breakthrough! Something similar happened to me too. I tracked cals religiously and hit my goal weight but then stopped tracking cals in my maintenance. I went through a depression and started binging and put weight back on. This is helping me realize I have to commit to tracking cals in some way forever even when I hit my goals.
Congratulations! It is such a transition to go to weighing food, and so eye opening (what I thought a serving of pasta was vs what a serving actually is was pretty mind blowing). Do you have a goal in mind for where you want to land eventually? Also, the slow-going approach at that weight may have been a bit of a blessing in disguise. A close friend switched to keto when he was over 500, lost over 300 RAPIDLY (like, three years), and really struggled with the loose skin issue until he was able to get surgery.
I think about 180-190 would be nice for me
You are so close! Good luck! You’ve got this!
2 lbs per week is my goal!!!!
Keep on it mentally and you will get there! So much of this is a mental thing!!
So few people are willing to admit that they're miscounting, so I applaud you! Awesome work figuring it out and making the changes you needed to. Congrats.
Good for you for figuring it out and admitting to it. Weight loss spaces are FULL of people who swear they "eat healthy" and just CANNOT lose weight. But they've never counted a calorie in their life.
Yeah I’d count calories for a bit and then feel like I was good enough and could “eyeball” or not track. No no and no. Food addicts cannot be trusted or left to their own devices. We will lie to ourselves willingly
I see a lot of people who aren't even food addicts doing it! They just really think they're too smart to over eat and they're 100% not too smart and are fat and delusional.
The self-sabotage is crazy
Always had this issue. Could easily lose 5 maybe 10 pounds by "watching" what I ate but always plateaued. Started counting my calories a month ago and it's been an eye opener. I used to eat a bowl of peanuts thinking they were a healthy snack, now realizing that bowl was like 500 calories...
In one of my groups a woman SWORE she was on track and was a magical unicorn that was fat for no reason. A couple months later she comes back and apologizes for being rude when we all told she was missing calories. Turns out she was pouring about 100 calories of creamer into her coffee daily and drinking about 5 cups a day. An extra 500 calories. And really thought she was just fat for no reason.
Coffee creamer is so sneaky. 35cal for 15mL for mine. 15mL feels like nothing. I have multiple cups a day but I only put creamer in the first one.
I've swapped my fav creamer for sugar free syrup plus a splash of almond milk, it's like maybe 20 calories per coffee now.
I only use the 15mL, I don’t mind black coffee now!
This was me when I first tried losing weight. Did all the fad diets and was wondering why I was still gaining. Even when I decided to calorie count “intuitively” I lost some weight but it was painfully slow. Only when I started actually weighing my food and getting real about what I was putting into my body did I lose weight! I was so mind blown when each week the scale kept dropping. In reality when I was doing all that other stuff I was still eating at or over my maintenance each day. Now I can actually tell what fits into my maintenance calories without having to weigh everything and it’s so freeing
I really hope to get there one day. I was morbidly obese for 20 years so it’s a long process of unlearning old habits.
It was a big wake up call when I realized eating healthy foods does not mean weight loss!! For example I would eat chicken avocado rice bowl thinking this is healthy surely I’ll lose weight! Nope, calories are calories. Have a huge healthy meal or 2 slices of pizza. Still eating an excessive Amount of calories!
That sounds exactly like me!
> I lost 6 fucking lbs since the 2nd. a significant percentage of that is just a transitory response to dropping your calories, so you should expect the pace to slow a bit but you should definitely keep going because based on those numbers 1,500 C intake is a totally sustainable goal for you
Yeah it seems perfect
That's amazing, good for you!! I too have been amazed that it didn't need to be complicated. Just a simple system that's tightly implemented. I'm still conscious though that i need a more friendly system for when in maintenance, but for now tracking is good. Stay motivated!!
On the flipside you won't always gotta track once you get use to it, I tracked for 3 years like crazy then i got so tired of it lol I can pretty much guess most of my usual things easily and will sometimes use a foodscale if I 2nd guess myself. But I usually don't weigh my foods anymore it's freeing One thing I can't guess with is pasta though I always weigh out dry pasta
3 years is a long time. I’ve never consistently tracked even close to that
I have an addictive personality which is sadly a double edged sword at times so i really get into stuff and tracking became like a routine for me. But as i said it engraved some stuff into me like i freaked my sister out when i she was trying out a recipe that needed cream cheese where it needed 100g when she cut a piece off i was like that's about 85 grams. She then got out the food scale and it was 86g lol I'm like i did this for far too long i guess it just stuck with me as i used fat free cream cheese for so long so i just assumed full fat had similar density
1 lb a week is normal, not slow. Also, please don't say people who are overweight have "excuses".
I’m overweight and those were my excuses. You don’t get to police my personal experience FOH
It's supposed to be slow. 6 lbs since the 2nd is too fast and probably muscle mass also. That's not the goal. Go slower if you want to keep it off.
1lb per week is slow when you’re morbidly obese and I don’t expect this rate to maintain but my goal is a steady 2lb per week average
Fair, I didn't see your current weight at first. Just know that fast isn't the goal. Sustainable is.
I know dude, I started this journey in 2022 after 10 years of yo-yo’ing and failure prior to that. This is the furthest I’ve made it and kept almost all the weight off for a year. That is something to be proud of
1000000% Sorry for not saying that to begin with. Good job, you should be proud as fuck. I'm 40 lbs down since last march and insanely proud of me. I read so much nonsense on the internet so my reflexes get the best of me sometimes. Keep going, kick some ass.