Weight loss support thread

[The Ghost of Rarity]

Well done on ditching the soda and your weight loss so far. The drugs side is up to you but successful weight loss is about long-term and steady reduction and lifestyle improvements. You want to live the way you will become healthy so that the lifestyle sticks. If something is working and sustainable I would be wary of shortcuts. Though I don't want to tell you what to do.

If you're interested in your blood glucose you can get a wearable device which gives you continuous monitoring like the Freestyle Libre. They're expensive to use all the time but wearing one for a couple of weeks might give you a really good insight into how your body is responding to various activities and foods.

Thanks, I appreciate that. Since I made that post I’m down to 178. The Wegovy is something I don’t really plan to take long term (nor is it something I know my insurance will continue to cover lol) so I’m definitely not looking at it as a magic solution to my problems. More like a kind of booster for the time being I guess? I’m combining it with the 1200-1300cal a day diet along with some moderate exercise a couple of days a week.

Something I will say is that it’s shocking to me that there are people that manage to eat their way through the side effects of the medication. I thought eating OMAD would be a good idea and paid the price for it for the next two days even on the smallest dose lol

 

[Overly Serious]

Thanks, I appreciate that. Since I made that post I’m down to 178. The Wegovy is something I don’t really plan to take long term (nor is it something I know my insurance will continue to cover lol) so I’m definitely not looking at it as a magic solution to my problems. More like a kind of booster for the time being I guess? I’m combining it with the 1200-1300cal a day diet along with some moderate exercise a couple of days a week.

Something I will say is that it’s shocking to me that there are people that manage to eat their way through the side effects of the medication. I thought eating OMAD would be a good idea and paid the price for it for the next two days even on the smallest dose lol

Well if it gets you over a bump or kickstarts things for you, I hope it works out. My chief worry (other than messing with the body in general) is that it becomes an obstacle to learning to make the lifestyle changes needed without it. But I only wanted to offer some thoughts on it. You seem to have made great strides already and the key is to simply continue in a sustainable way. So long as it's trending downwards, you're going to get there. And so long as you stay off the refined sugar, your body will learn to adapt and not get the wild hunger pangs that sugar causes. It takes about 3-5 days in my experience without the refined sugar for the body to start righting itself and begin to move from biological wild hunger pangs to more psychological and habit based pangs. And the latter are easier to deal with.

Anyway, well done on your journey so far. It's impressive.

 

[CoolFool]

Has anyone else experienced losing weight when upping their calories? Obviously, you can't do this long term and expect to lose weight, but I swear occasionally this happens to me.

I have not been trying to lose weight but merely maintain for the past 8 months, and I keep it strict. I eat the same foods almost every day and keep it under 1,500 calories, I also exercise daily. But I've been feeling down recently and said "fuck it", so for the past 9 days I haven't been exercising at all, or eating right. I have been eating whatever I wanted, and it's been mostly crap (Very high carbs, deep fried, ultra processed crap). Yet, I noticed I looked slimmer and my clothes felt looser. When I weighed myself, I was surprised to see I lost almost 5 lbs in these past 9 days.

I don't really understand how this is possible, as someone who believes calorie deficit = weight loss. And after doing calculating some of the food I've been eating, I've been eating at least 500 calories over my normal, and that's being conservative. I also have not been exercising so that's even less calories I've been burning.

 

[Overly Serious]

Has anyone else experienced losing weight when upping their calories? Obviously, you can't do this long term and expect to lose weight, but I swear occasionally this happens to me.

I have not been trying to lose weight but merely maintain for the past 8 months, and I keep it strict. I eat the same foods almost every day and keep it under 1,500 calories, I also exercise daily. But I've been feeling down recently and said "fuck it", so for the past 9 days I haven't been exercising at all, or eating right. I have been eating whatever I wanted, and it's been mostly crap (Very high carbs, deep fried, ultra processed crap). Yet, I noticed I looked slimmer and my clothes felt looser. When I weighed myself, I was surprised to see I lost almost 5 lbs in these past 9 days.

I don't really understand how this is possible, as someone who believes calorie deficit = weight loss. And after doing calculating some of the food I've been eating, I've been eating at least 500 calories over my normal, and that's being conservative. I also have not been exercising so that's even less calories I've been burning.

It sounds odd. Over a shorter time span it's easy for counter-intuitive things to happen. Food can take a few days to pass fully through you so one can easily find yourself not fully connecting what you've eaten to your weight. "But these past two days I've eaten ______". But over 9 days seems strange.

Water loss can be a big part of weight loss. If it's been hot and you're dehydrated that can make a surprising amount of difference. Estimates can be surprisingly off. Sometimes I've eaten more sugary food and been surprised to find I was consuming fewer calories than before simply because the sugary food was more satisfying and I ate less. (But the body adapts to this very quickly and soon you're eating much more than before). But if you're confident in your statements about how much you ate, maybe just not absorbing the calories well. If your diet suddenly includes a lot less fibre (crisps etc. wont have much) then maybe it's shooting right through you. If female, your periods might be a factor throwing it off.

Without meaning to be patronising I would say double-check your food calculations but these are just some thoughts. The body does strange things. I wouldn't gamble on you being the one person on the planet for whom carb-binging helps you lose weight, though!

 

[CoolFool]

Without meaning to be patronising I would say double-check your food calculations but these are just some thoughts.

I calculated them and my calculations were being very conservative, I definitely ate way more, plus factoring in not exercising, there's no way I'm burning more calories than I'm consuming. I also considered waterloss but I'm always well hydrated (I have a big water bottle I drink and refill 3-4 times a day). I dunno, I know it doesn't make any sense.

 

[KillaSmoke]

Has anyone else experienced losing weight when upping their calories? Obviously, you can't do this long term and expect to lose weight, but I swear occasionally this happens to me.

I have not been trying to lose weight but merely maintain for the past 8 months, and I keep it strict. I eat the same foods almost every day and keep it under 1,500 calories, I also exercise daily. But I've been feeling down recently and said "fuck it", so for the past 9 days I haven't been exercising at all, or eating right. I have been eating whatever I wanted, and it's been mostly crap (Very high carbs, deep fried, ultra processed crap). Yet, I noticed I looked slimmer and my clothes felt looser. When I weighed myself, I was surprised to see I lost almost 5 lbs in these past 9 days.

I don't really understand how this is possible, as someone who believes calorie deficit = weight loss. And after doing calculating some of the food I've been eating, I've been eating at least 500 calories over my normal, and that's being conservative. I also have not been exercising so that's even less calories I've been burning.

Famine edema. Yours was probably on the minor side, but in severe cases, its very visually apparent. Legs like balloons, pitting edema, etc...

Basically, the long term stress of caloric deprivation causes the body to start retaining water. Its not an electrolyte/hydration issue, or heart failure, or any of the things that normally lead to edema. I don't fully understand it, but it is known to occur

Bringing calories back up for around a week makes you piss off that water, and appear to rapidly lose weight at maintenance/surplus. Really, you're just seeing the weight that you already are... Or slightly above it, if you're in a surplus.

There are also some people for whom raising calories just causes them to burn more energy. Some of it is them moving around more, but there's also physiological things, like how long it takes to start shivering, that they have zero control over. Typically, though, if you're overweight, the odds you fall into that category are pretty low

As another poster said, if you're a woman, menstrual cycles can have a pretty big impact. In some women, its big enough that the only way to reliably track rate of weight loss is by comparing against her weight, a month earlier in the same part of her cycle

Also, if you're not controlling for electrolytes, that can have a really big impact. I usually Lee my electrolytes controlled within a pretty tight range, but once in a while, things go out of whack, and I can easily see 2-3 kg shifts either direction after a single day

 

[CoolFool]

Famine edema. Yours was probably on the minor side, but in severe cases, its very visually apparent. Legs like balloons, pitting edema, etc...

I don't think this is edema, I did not have any swelling or pitting skin like I've seen with edema, not even on the minor side.

There are also some people for whom raising calories just causes them to burn more energy. Some of it is them moving around more, but there's also physiological things, like how long it takes to start shivering, that they have zero control over. Typically, though, if you're overweight, the odds you fall into that category are pretty low

I'm not overweight, I've been eating at maintenance at a 20-21 BMI for almost a year. I've been strict with the amount of calories I eat and exercising daily.

As another poster said, if you're a woman, menstrual cycles can have a pretty big impact. In some women, its big enough that the only way to reliably track rate of weight loss is by comparing against her weight, a month earlier in the same part of her cycle

Mine has stayed consistent, I do get a little bloated a week before my period but that's the opposite of what happened here, and it's not the right time of the month for me to see any weight changes anyway.

Also, if you're not controlling for electrolytes, that can have a really big impact. I usually Lee my electrolytes controlled within a pretty tight range, but once in a while, things go out of whack, and I can easily see 2-3 kg shifts either direction after a single day

I don't think mine are bad? I guess they could be, not sure how I could check this, but I stay hydrated and mix potassium powder in my daily workout drink. I stopped taking it though these last 9 days.

 

[666NASTYFUCKINGFREAK666]

Daddy wants ice cream. D:

The cool thing about this though is that my TDEE is about 2600 calories, and even if I go past my 1900 calorie limit, even to a retarded ass amount I'm still for the most part either losing only a little bit of weight or maintaining, so I can't really fail (unless im a gluttonous fucking freak)

 

[Redoniblueoni]

Has anyone else experienced losing weight when upping their calories? Obviously, you can't do this long term and expect to lose weight, but I swear occasionally this happens to me.

I don't really understand how this is possible, as someone who believes calorie deficit = weight loss. And after doing calculating some of the food I've been eating, I've been eating at least 500 calories over my normal, and that's being conservative. I also have not been exercising so that's even less calories I've been burning.

Your metabolism might be working better, or you've lost a ton of muscles (which I doubt). Muscles, carbs, coffee, supplements, sunlight, there are so many ways to help it. A calorie deficit and fasting can hinder it.

For the future, you can still have treats but always pair a carb with protein. Don't just have a carb on its own. Also try for better carbs obviously, so you can still treat yourself but not hinder your thyroid.

If you're curious about how your metabolism is doing, take your waking temp in the am, as soon as you wake up, without getting out of bed if possible. The higher, the better. Closer to 98 if possible. The warmer your resting body is, the more calories it's burning to keep you that warm.

Also it could be less stress, cortisol is bad for weight maintenance as well as most other things.

Whatever it is, congrats!

Edit: I guess there's an alternative that means you have some grave illness but if you feel fine then I doubt it's that haha. But if you're concerned you can always see a doctor.

 

[cactus]

Your metabolism might be working better, or you've lost a ton of muscles (which I doubt). Muscles, carbs, coffee, supplements, sunlight, there are so many ways to help it. A calorie deficit and fasting can hinder it.

Metabolism slows down when you lose weight because there's less mass to fuel. Calorie deficits and fasting have been shown to work. Where are you getting your information from?

 

[CoolFool]

Your metabolism might be working better,

I did some reading on this and there is a controversial theory called "Reverse Dieting" where it's thought that upping calories can jump start your metabolism temporarily, which leads to rapid weight loss. Not everyone agrees on this though and it's mostly anecdotal reports of people experiencing the same thing, upping their calories and losing weight. What I've gathered is that even if this theory is true, it only works under certain conditions (Eating at a deficit and plateauing in weight for a while) and it will not last, after a while you will go back to gaining weight.

(It also seems to be a "thing" in eating disorder forums, they create diets that have a long window of strict calorie restriction and then a few days of a calorie surplus to break plateaus. )

Whatever the cause, I know can't continue to eat garbage and not exercise. I need to get my shit together and get back on track.

 

[Redoniblueoni]

Metabolism slows down when you lose weight because there's less mass to fuel. Calorie deficits and fasting have been shown to work. Where are you getting your information from?

I am still not accepting criticism on this from people who's BMI is over 25 or waking temp is below 96.

Obviously if you starve yourself you will lose weight. If you expect your body to not react to that though, you are sadly mistaken.

You can easily Google much of what I say. Waking temp

I did some reading on this and there is a controversial theory called "Reverse Dieting" where it's thought that upping calories can jump start your metabolism temporarily, which leads to rapid weight loss. Not everyone agrees on this though and it's mostly anecdotal reports of people experiencing the same thing, upping their calories and losing weight. What I've gathered is that even if this theory is true, it only works under certain conditions (Eating at a deficit and plateauing in weight for a while) and it will not last, after a while you will go back to gaining weight.

(It also seems to be a "thing" in eating disorder forums, they create diets that have a long window of strict calorie restriction and then a few days of a calorie surplus to break plateaus. )

Whatever the cause, I know can't continue to eat garbage and not exercise. I need to get my shit together and get back on track.

Right. It's not good for a metabolism to fast/calorie deficit for a long time. This is why people who are Ana have to eat less and less calories, but always feel sleepy/low energy despite requiring low calories. Metabolism/thyroid has alot of influence on energy levels.

Starving yourself and hypothyroidism

Anorexia/thyroid issues/ thyroid problems resolving upon reintroduction of carbs

Carbs help t3, complete lack of carbs hinder it

 

[Imp]

I don't know my weight because I make my husband keep track of the numbers. However I asked him today if I was below the obese weight for my height and I am! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! No longer an obeast, just a small fat. hahaha. Gimme another 20 ell bees gone for normal weight and then another 20 to ideal.

Drawback: my bras are too big and I don't know what size to get for the interregnum (sic) period.

 

[cactus]

I am still not accepting criticism on this from people who's BMI is over 25 or waking temp is below 96.

Obviously if you starve yourself you will lose weight. If you expect your body to not react to that though, you are sadly mistaken.

You can easily Google much of what I say. Waking temp

You don't have to be a chef to know when the food tastes bad.

A 500 calorie a day deficit isn't "starving yourself," especially when you are in the obese and morbidly obese weight ranges.

I don't care about the waking temperature thing, I care about you spreading misinformation as if people who have lost weight doing a calorie deficit or occasional fasts somehow have fucked up metabolisms because it took them 2 or 3 years to lose weight. I have never heard of that happening.

 

[Redoniblueoni]

You don't have to be a chef to know when the food tastes bad.

Would you listen to a poor man for financial advice?

A 500 calorie a day deficit isn't "starving yourself," especially when you are in the obese and morbidly obese weight ranges.

I don't care about the waking temperature thing, I care about you spreading misinformation as if people who have lost weight doing a calorie deficit or occasional fasts somehow have fucked up metabolisms because it took them 2 or 3 years to lose weight. I have never heard of that happening.

I've linked you sources, I've told you to Google it. It's not my fault you can't read and don't understand even basic thyroid/metabolism knowledge.

Don't pretend to be ignorant. You know plateaus exist. You know metabolism can be varying levels of capable. Unless you believe nutrition has 0 ability to effect your organs, it follows that your thyroid/metabolism can be effected to.

 

[KillaSmoke]

You don't have to be a chef to know when the food tastes bad.

A 500 calorie a day deficit isn't "starving yourself," especially when you are in the obese and morbidly obese weight ranges.

I don't care about the waking temperature thing, I care about you spreading misinformation as if people who have lost weight doing a calorie deficit or occasional fasts somehow have fucked up metabolisms because it took them 2 or 3 years to lose weight. I have never heard of that happening.

He's not saying that a 500 calorie deficit is starving yourself. He's saying that extreme or very prolonged deficits will, at some point, cause decreases in BMR. And well before that point, they'll start causing reductions in NEAT, unless you're consciously compensating for that.

The more overweight you are, the less of a problem this is. If you're 45℅ bodyfat, you've got a pretty serious buffer of easily utilized energy stores, before significant metabolic adaptation occurs.

Also, the more physically active you are, the less of an issue it. Is. If your TDEE is 3500, and BMR drops by 200 calories, you can still eat 2500/day and lose weight at a respectable weight.

If you're already smaller, and largely sedentary, your maintainence calories might be as low as 1800. Let's say your aiming for a 500 calorie defict. That leaves you with 1300 calories to work with. Especially if you're relatively lean, say 10-15℅ for a man, a 200 calorie drop in BMR isn't unusual. A 200 calorie drop in BMR is a 15℅ reduction in the amount of food you can eat to meet your goal deficit. And at 1100 calories/day, its going to be pretty difficult to get anything resembling decent nutrition, and you're likely at risk of developing additional health issues. Even if they remain subclinical, feeling like shit because you're borderline anemic, and about a week away from scurvy tends to make it pretty hard to stick to a diet.

All of this is pretty well understood scientifically. Its not at all controversial. Sure, there are fat people, who want to avoid personal responsibility and will intentionally misinterpret all of this to say that weight loss is physically impossible. Of course those people are wrong, and should be pushed back against.

But if you're not retarded, and can handle a tiny bit of nuance, its absolutely worth understanding this, figuring out what may or may not be applicable to you, and incorporating into a well thought out, structured weight loss plan. And if you're 45% body fat, and none of this really matters all that much for you, cool, don't worry about it too much, maybe keep it in the back of your head, as something that may start coming into play after you've already made some great progress

Or you could just keep screeching autistically

 

[cactus]

Don't pretend to be ignorant. You know plateaus exist. You know metabolism can be varying levels of capable. Unless you believe nutrition has 0 ability to effect your organs, it follows that your thyroid/metabolism can be effected to.

Plateaus are absolute bullshit and happen when you don't keep recalculating your TDEE as you lose weight, because at some point that deficit becomes your maintenance. Your TDEE constantly goes down as your weight goes down. Nutrition does not necessarily play into losing weight (and I said losing weight, I'm not arguing about health right now) you can eat nothing but McDonald's and lose weight as long as you eat less calories.

I did not mention anything about the thyroid and was not arguing that part. I even said I did not care about that and yet you insist I'm arguing against that. And telling me to Google it? You said it, you provide the proof, it's not my job to back your arguments up.

Would you listen to a poor man for financial advice?

Some people know how to do a thing and have trouble applying it to themselves. And you obviously didn't read my first post in this thread because I did lose weight before by counting calories and gave up after losing 50 fucking lbs. And yeah, if that poor man obviously knew what he was talking about, why would I discount what he has to say?


@KillaSmoke No fucking shit? You're telling someone who already lost weight before things they already know? Did you not read my introductory post in this thread? Nuance? There was no nuance to what they said. They said a prolonged deficit is bad for your metabolism, we're in a weight loss thread, no one here is arguing on behalf of anorexia and I've seen no proof of what they said Yes, I will artistically screech when I know what I'm talking about, and you're one to talk when you wrote a whole tl;dr about stuff that anyone who's done basic research would know.

 

[Redoniblueoni]

@cactus Cranky because your thyroid is working suboptimally, huh?

Wait, you gained it back? But I thought you knew everything possible about nutrition and weight loss, how is this possible? Almost like it becomes easier to put on weight after dieting for an extended period or something... No. This is impossible, obviously.

I already have provided proof you just didn't read them. It is very, very simple knowledge that bodies adapt to what we provide them. If you are providing little calories, your body (thyroid) will adapt and attempt to use those as best it can. Your metabolism slows down. Read the links. This is well documented, and extremely common knowledge. Here, I made it easy for you and added things to keep your attention.



Dozens of people in this thread have mentioned it but no, a calorie is not just a calorie. Go ahead and try to eat 1200 calories of mcdonalds French fries a day vs 1200 calories of vegetables, rice and chicken and tell me what's better for your weight loss.

Also increased cortisol is bad. Calm tf down anime avatard.

 

[KillaSmoke]

@cactus
Nigger, when the fuck did I say anything about anorexia?

You're saying that metabolic adaptation to prolonged deficit is "stuff that anyone who's done any research would know". I agree 100℅, which is why I'm so confused by how hostile you are to that being said, and claims to have seen no proof of it. You say that you're "not arguing" the thyroid part, which just shows how little you actually understand this. The thyroid is the global governor of basal metabolism. The thyroid part is the foundational cornerstone of what he's saying, although factors like reduced production of catecholamines and sex hormones, and increased mitochondrial efficiency are factors as well.

And personally, I wouldn't even say that these metabolic adaptions are "bad". They just exist. Again, if someone is fat enough that they're not meaningful, cool. But if you're trying to get lean lean, you're going to start running into them at some point. There are different strategies to deal with them. You could just keep doing what you're doing. You could lower calories further. You could increase output. You could spend some block of time at maintenance, to undo some of those adaptations, and give yourself a bit more of a runway. You could introduce replacement doses of thyroid hormones, or use other drugs to offset the adaptations. All are valid strategies, depending on the context, some make more or less sense

Blocks at maintenance do have some additional benefits, though. They can reduce the psychological burden, and make compliance with steep deficits much easier. If you're training, there are performance and recovery benefits. They can have cosmetic benefits, if you're reasonably lean.

I like them, I think they're a really useful tool. They may not be the tool for you, or the tool for you at this time. That's cool.

 

[Wilson The Ball]

It's hard, fellow fatties. I'm in the gym, doing the work. My relationship with food is still fucked though. That's the one barrier I can't break and makes this an almost futile effort. Any tips on overcoming food addiction?