Weight loss support thread

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Congrats to my fellow Kiwis for making progress on their weight loss journeys, and I pray we all hit our fat loss targets this year as well.

I have a question/perspective that might be helpful for those with long term fat loss goals; has anyone else needed an extended diet break? I started dieting at 210lbs at 5'4 in November of 2024, likely around 45%+ body fat. I needed to lose 70 to 75lbs to hit my goal weight. Once I started dieting I was losing steadily until around August, when I hit 168lbs at approximately 32-34% body fat. I noticed around that time that I started experiencing extreme levels of food noise and cravings that I had never experienced before. Despite my best efforts and a lot of mental energy expended on the task, I just could not tolerate another deficit. I started binging due to the food noise and despite going to the gym began gaining some fat again, reaching 173lbs in October. In the end I decided to give myself the grace of an extended diet break; because fat regain is common after dieting, I wanted to see if I could eat at maintenance intuitively and flexibly without gaining, and I actually suceeded! I weighed myself at 170lbs over Christmas (so I had actually lost), and now that I've locked into my diet again since the New Year have been easily sticking to my 1200-1500 calorie limit with zero food noise. Sometimes my calorie intake for the day is in the triple digits, and I can fast easily again. While I haven't weighed myself so far this year I can tell I've lost weight due to visual changes and other people noticing the differences in my figure.

On a physiological level, my experience does make sense. It's a lot easier to gain fat than to lose it as the body is just primed to hold onto fat even if it's excessive, and the body doesn't want to keep steadily losing fat forever. I read Lyle McDonald's blog bodyrecomposition.com, and he's written about this experience being common due to leptin and ghrelin changes and so on the longer a diet goes on. I think the diet break was good for me on a psychological level as well; I proved to myself that I could successfully eat at maintenance without tracking my calories/macros and gave myself the grace that my fat loss journey will take a little bit longer than I anticipated. I think as of now I'm somewhere in the 160s, and I believe I will be able to lose the last 28 to 33lbs I need to hit my goal weight this year.

One thing I did try to break the plateau late last year was a protein sparing modified fast - it did work, but I couldn't stick due to excessive hunger and food noise. Low carb just doesn't work for me, and I find integrating carbs into my diet keeps me fuller than protein does.

I'd be interested in hearing if any of you guys have had a similar experience to me. If not, hopefully any Kiwis with long term fat loss goals like myself might find this useful.
 
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Been a month since I got back on the weight loss routine and posted here. First week was just getting used to it, the last three were actually a diet. Completed 3 consecutive three day fasts, and several 48 hour ones. Currently on day 3 of my fourth or fifth. As of a day or two ago, I was down 7 pounds. I wanted to weigh today, but I walk to the gym to use their scale wirh physical weight sliders and it is below freezing outside. Probably 8 pounds this month, was hoping for 10.
 
Okay so I bought all of my keto food and I'm doing a 3 week detox off soda. The food isn't a problem because I bought a lot of really good stuff, I'm just worried about crashing when I come off the soda. I've tried to go cold turkey before and it makes me extremely irritable, tired and gives me headaches.
 
Lip Glossary said:
Okay so I bought all of my keto food and I'm doing a 3 week detox off soda. The food isn't a problem because I bought a lot of really good stuff, I'm just worried about crashing when I come off the soda. I've tried to go cold turkey before and it makes me extremely irritable, tired and gives me headaches.
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You've probably been asked this a lot, but have you tried sparkling water or seltzer water? And would coffee help with the tiredness and irritability?
 
Squanto Airi said:
You've probably been asked this a lot, but have you tried sparkling water or seltzer water? And would coffee help with the tiredness and irritability?
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I tried to drink coffee and tea like crazy when I went cold turkey but I think it has something to do with the high fructose corn syrup.
Pretty much this time I'm going to do two cans of soda a day, one in the morning and one at night for 2 weeks, and then take it down to a single can for a week. Hopefully that'll take some of the sting out of the soda crash.
 
@The Crescent King I've had similar experiences. Sustained weight loss over a period of time and then the body seems to say "enough is enough" and starts sending out some serious eating signals. It can be very difficult at that point not to just collapse back and regain more than you lost. Which is one reason crash diets so often fail.

I think there are a few essential things to try and manage with this (which you seem to have done well). One is to not think "I have failed" and give up. People often take a very absolutist approach to dieting and when they fail to meet their goal completely, just give up. That's not all down to some psychological failing on the dieter's part - it's the effect you talk about that has the body trying to regain what it lost (and more) the moment they "fail". So it does take will and planning to say "I've slipped, I haven't fallen" and stick with things. I think a break from a diet is a natural thing. The key is to be able to break from it partially, not gorge yourself the moment you say "I'm on a break". And the other is to have a plan to get back onto the diet in a definite timespan.

This sort of effect is one reason I always try to talk about steady and well-paced diets rather than some radical "I'm going to lose 7kg this month" stuff. In my experience, a steady and sustained diet still has the effect you talk about happen, but I think it makes the "relapse" a little less severe and also easier to get back on the healthy living.

After all, the goal is to get to a healthy weight and then even out. Not keep losing weight forever. But the body doesn't necessarily know what a healthy weight is. Or agree with you at least. I think once target weight is achieved, the evening out process is going to be quite difficult. I think it probably takes a long time to reset the body's pitch for "normal". I've heard six months from some sources.

I think if you can do blue line rather than red line, it doesn't matter so much that blue line has periods where it is flat:
1769957051366.png

My own weight loss has been something like this:
1769957158985.png

Sustained loss, a period of rising I get under control, then a sustained period of loss, then another blip, then down. If the overall trend is down and I can keep the rising period to be three weeks or less, I consider that a success.
 
EDIT: Apologies for double-post. Replies to different things, slightly different topics. Hope that's okay.

Lip Glossary said:
I tried to drink coffee and tea like crazy when I went cold turkey but I think it has something to do with the high fructose corn syrup.
Pretty much this time I'm going to do two cans of soda a day, one in the morning and one at night for 2 weeks, and then take it down to a single can for a week. Hopefully that'll take some of the sting out of the soda crash.
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I'm going to suggest you try the Cold Turkey. It's up to you and you should listen to your body but the reason you feel absolutely lousy cutting it out completely is that your body is in wild sugar swings. The first first few days of cutting out sugar are tough because unlike later on it's not just a question of mental habit, your body actually IS crashing down without the sugar.

Sugar is like driving a car with wonky steering. You veer to one side of the road, you hurriedly correct and now you're veering to the other side. It doesn't suddenly stop when you stop the sugar because you're still over-correcting all over the place. You need several days without the sugar highs before you're steering more straight again. Until that point your body is screaming for sugar half the time because it's steered too far in one direction and it sees the edge of the road ahead of it. You have to get your body back to the point it's making continuous small turns of the wheel (I've eaten some complex carbs and I'm breaking them down / I've released a little bit of insulin not a huge load of it).

After that you will still feel the urge to get a big hit of sugar but it will be much more of a psychological urge than the very real "my body is sweating and my stomach is a knot" stuff. Still takes effort to fight off but it is easier.

I'm not saying don't cut down in stages if it's an option between that and doing nothing. But I'm trying to lay out how your body will even out after a few days and start to get used to it. The longer you draw out the removal of the heavy sugar hits, the longer it will take before your body starts steering straight.

Cold Turkey will make you very tired and irritable because your body has to even out. But it will pass. 3-4 days should lead to you noticing a different stage is reached.
 
Yeah man the last time I tried it cold turkey I went for over a week and still felt horrible.
Kind of a shame to say it but I'm a person who drinks more than six sodas a day. I've kicked a lot of habits including smoking but soda is the one that just wrecks me.
 
Lip Glossary said:
Yeah man the last time I tried it cold turkey I went for over a week and still felt horrible.
Kind of a shame to say it but I'm a person who drinks more than six sodas a day. I've kicked a lot of habits including smoking but soda is the one that just wrecks me.
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Maybe I’m retarded but what’s the point of doing keto while drinking non-diet soda? Whole point of keto is going low to no carb? Why not replace it with diet soda and then quit?
 
Rocket-fueled Wheelchair said:
Maybe I’m retarded but what’s the point of doing keto while drinking non-diet soda? Whole point of keto is going low to no carb? Why not replace it with diet soda and then quit?
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It's not better to start eating better while I'm getting off the soda?
I work with extremely annoying people as my job. I get yelled at by a large assortment of dumb niggers all day for things that aren't my fault, and then I need to keep them happy so that my CSAT score remains high. I like my job and I don't want to lose it, so if gradually coming off the soda instead of going cold turkey it's going to help me keep my job, what's the harm?
Also maybe I'm retarded but isn't it better to start eating healthy and tapering off of soda than doing nothing at all?
 
Lip Glossary said:
It's not better to start eating better while I'm getting off the soda?
I work with extremely annoying people as my job. I get yelled at by a large assortment of dumb niggers all day for things that aren't my fault, and then I need to keep them happy so that my CSAT score remains high. I like my job and I don't want to lose it, so if gradually coming off the soda instead of going cold turkey it's going to help me keep my job, what's the harm?
Also maybe I'm retarded but isn't it better to start eating healthy and tapering off of soda than doing nothing at all?
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The point of keto is getting your body to use fat as a primary energy source instead of carbs. You do this by eliminating carbs from your diet and going into ketosis, where the name of the diet comes from. If you drink soda with sugar in it you will spike your blood sugar and completely defeat the purpose of the diet.

Any healthy change to your diet is good, like eliminating unhealthy snacks or deserts, but you might as well add some fruits and veggies that keto doesn’t allow if you’re not going to be in ketosis anyways.
 
Rocket-fueled Wheelchair said:
Any healthy change to your diet is good
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Okay so then stop trying to kick me while I'm down and making me feel like shit, please.
I'm addicted to soda and I have a plan to stop in 2 weeks. You don't need to have to keep harping on me and making me feel dumb because I'm not some kind of übermensch who can stop drinking soda with sheer willpower after being addicted to it for 37 years.
Yes I know that I'm "doing it wrong", I understand that starting the diet while coming off of soda isn't optimal. But isn't it better to get my body acclimated to eating these healthy foods and start getting into these habits while I finally beat my last addiction which is soda?
 
Kiwifrens, I started tirzepatide one year ago and today I'm down roughly 60 lbs and have reached my goal - more or less. I'm not dismayed if I have to take it for the rest of my life as I already need other meds for other conditions plus I'm old, so who knows how long I may last. It wasn't always easy; I was plagued with headaches and complete loss of appetite for weeks early on. I didn't see dramatic losses, only about a pound a week every week. It took to 30 lbs down for me to see the loss and now at this weight (123) I'm constantly amazed at the size of my wrist, my thighs, my fingers!

Any questions? I don't want to sperg out and the pizza is here anyway.
 
Lip Glossary said:
Okay so then stop trying to kick me while I'm down and making me feel like shit, please.
I'm addicted to soda and I have a plan to stop in 2 weeks. You don't need to have to keep harping on me and making me feel dumb because I'm not some kind of übermensch who can stop drinking soda with sheer willpower after being addicted to it for 37 years.
Yes I know that I'm "doing it wrong", I understand that starting the diet while coming off of soda isn't optimal. But isn't it better to get my body acclimated to eating these healthy foods and start getting into these habits while I finally beat my last addiction which is soda?
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Not trying to discourage you at all. It would just suck to put all the hard work into starting a specific diet and not get the result you want by unknowingly sabotaging it.

Quitting any addiction is hard and making two massive diet changes at once will be difficult. Why not try switching to diet soda while you get used to the new diet, and then quit the diet soda?
 
Rocket-fueled Wheelchair said:
Not trying to discourage you at all. It would just suck to put all the hard work into starting a specific diet and not get the result you want by unknowingly sabotaging it.
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Sorry man I went from like six cans a day to two so if I'm testy that's why. I apologize I don't mean to take it out on you.
Rocket-fueled Wheelchair said:
Quitting any addiction is hard and making two massive diet changes at once will be difficult. Why not try switching to diet soda while you get used to the new diet, and then quit the diet soda?
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To be honest the new diet isn't that hard because it's already food that I want to eat anyway. Egg white omelettes and steak and chicken is already right up my alley.
I've already been supplementing those four sodas with glasses of water and some tea and my joints already feel better.
The only thing that sucks about this diet so far that I miss is that you can't have milk. I really like milk.
 
Lip Glossary said:
Sorry man I went from like six cans a day to two so if I'm testy that's why. I apologize I don't mean to take it out on you.

To be honest the new diet isn't that hard because it's already food that I want to eat anyway. Egg white omelettes and steak and chicken is already right up my alley.
I've already been supplementing those four sodas with glasses of water and some tea and my joints already feel better.
The only thing that sucks about this diet so far that I miss is that you can't have milk. I really like milk.
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No worries, we’ve all been there at one point or another 😅

It’s great you’re already feeling better from your changes. I think a little milk in your coffee should be fine, just don’t overdo it, especially if you’re like me and drink milk with a little coffee in it lol. Also, don’t forget veggies,
the keto constipation is brutal.
 
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