What nobody tells you about losing weight
Replies
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LaetitiaLouise wrote: »Restaurant meals will suddenly seem full of unnecessary fat and carbs and lacking in vegetables (except potatoes). Fruit salad has disappeared from menus - when did that happen?
Really! I remember well when McDonald's was the only place I absolutely refused to eat. Then they added all day oatmeal and I was back to "anywhere you choose is fine with me". Then they put the sugar in the oatmeal instead of in a separate envelope, and I was back to anywhere except McDonald's. Now I'm pretty much limited to Wendy's baked potato or Taco Bell bowl. Some sit down places still have baked potatoes. Even broccoli is covered in "cheese " sauce made from unhealthy oils.
Where is the real FOOD?4 -
I have lost a lot of weight before and sadly gained it back and am at it again...some of these things pass when you keep the weight off for a long time (like I had). The difficulty getting comfy in bed passes, the feeling 'weirded out" by bones jutting - it passes. It just takes time to get comfortable in the new body.6
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Mate, it's 2024 and I'm reading comments in this thread about from people saying that eating less and moving more doesn't cause weight loss.
God bless you my son. I hope those YouTube doctors you listen to bring all your health fantasies to reality.8 -
-friends have negative reactions
-Always being cold
-And in the beginning having body dysmorphia.. scarring youself when you touch a body part, thinking
it somebodyelse (that was weird)
-When looking at clothes, thinking i cant fit in that!!!... and then is even too big.8 -
Big battle with constipation.
I have tried many remedies, kiwi, linseed/flaxseed, magnesium, opti constipation but it seems that it works to start with and then I am back to being constipated. According to my nutritionist, I eat enough vegetables and fibres but still never comfortable and feeling bloated. I suppose if you eat less there is less to pass out.9 -
@ritaknowles1 Try tracking your water intake, then increase it and see if that doesn’t make a difference. Whenever you’re constipated, drink a large glass of water or two.5
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No one told me, I might start liking me again. I know that sounds harsh, but little by little I am proud of me again. I am only down 15 lbs. But for 10 weeks I have done this and for the first time ever, I am not fighting it. (I still miss my Code Red Mt Dew, but I do reward myself!)16
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ladybug998 wrote: »No one told me, I might start liking me again. I know that sounds harsh, but little by little I am proud of me again. I am only down 15 lbs. But for 10 weeks I have done this and for the first time ever, I am not fighting it. (I still miss my Code Red Mt Dew, but I do reward myself!)
Nope. We get it. We are our own worst critics.
Congrats on the success so far. 😘5 -
am down 29 lb. toward goal of 77 lb. loss.. this is great but so far it showing up in places that were "fine".. my legs are getting skinny and gut and groin pack are "hanging" in there.. i have heard that the fat you want to lose the most goes away last... figures.9
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@Dkeith2 I’m also losing from the outside in. My theory is that the fat comes off in the opposite order of how it was gained. So since most of us first get chubby around the midsection (and the extremities don’t accumulate fat until later) that is the last fat to go.8
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They tell you but ... we really do need to keep in contact with our doctors. I was feeling CRAPPY for a couple months & noticed my pulse was really low & I was shaky with restless sleep after a 20 lbs loss. Turns out smaller body means it does not need the same BP medication dosage. My doc is adjusting my dose & so far has eliminated 1 pill & I only take 1/2 of the other. Good but for a sec, I thought I was dying so, yeah ... keep in contact with your doctor!23
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That you need to reconsider your hair style. My hairdresser told me today that I’d lost so much weight off my face that it was being dominated by my haircut. I now have a pixie style cut and I love it.18
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@Julieagain That is an awesome NSV, a pixie cut is so much easier to care for too. I love that your hairdresser wasn't shy about sharing their opinion, that's a keeper!11
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I'm brand new, one week now. In one week the exercises (only stretching at this point) have already become easier. I spend a lot of time on food. I spend a lot of money on food so I can eat healthy food. I'm excited to keep this up and watch the weight come off!13
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WelshPhil1975 wrote: »dawnmcneil10 wrote: »One of my biggest things was learning how to nest my knees for sleeping at night.
Something else that I struggle with is using up the excess energy without irritating others.
Bonus to my friends, since I'm a lightweight I offer to be DD.
So true! I sit at my desk in work and get up just to walk around to burn off some energy, and wereas before I'd find that sitting down for long periods was a pretty brilliant hobby, these days I want to be out and about, just walking my dogs and enjoying the great outdoors.
Me too! I NEED to move around all the time, walk around the kitchen/dining room/ lining room during commercials on TV, get up and walk the halls of my office building etc. instead of just sitting in front of the computer all day.9 -
its a helluva lot harder and going to take twice as look as you think ~ but will be one of your greatest accomplishments on earth, lol6
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reshii_devi wrote: »its a helluva lot harder and going to take twice as look as you think ~ but will be one of your greatest accomplishments on earth, lol
It was faster than I thought tbh. In my head, I thought this would take years. But with application and dedication, it only took “a” year.
I guess it depends on your expectations. I was obese so many years, I kinda assumed it would take as long to reverse the process.
Maintenance, otoh, nobody tells you the application (of all the new habits you hopefully learned) and dedication are a permanent thing.
The minute I let up, scale goes up, and I’m not going back there.14 -
This perspective is from someone who still has 100 pounds to lose. few years back lost 75, then gained 20 of it back, have been maintaining at 248-249 for two years. It seemed waaay easier the first round but..moving forward.
1. that it is slow for some and fast for others at least it seems that way. comparison really is the thief of joy.
2. consistency over perfection, you will make mistakes, you will have off days, keep going
3. not everyone will be supportive
4. you will have to learn and re-learn new habits
5. it can be lonely at times
6. saying no to yourself and others becomes easier over time
7. if you struggle with sugar cravings they will lessen in time and you might even find old favorites to be
disgusting.
8. it feels really good to complete a routine, especially when you progress from 10 min- 20 min- 30- and then before you know it 1 hr.
9. you might be grumpy skipping your exercise/gym15 -
springlering62 wrote: »reshii_devi wrote: »its a helluva lot harder and going to take twice as look as you think ~ but will be one of your greatest accomplishments on earth, lol
It was faster than I thought tbh. In my head, I thought this would take years. But with application and dedication, it only took “a” year.
I guess it depends on your expectations. I was obese so many years, I kinda assumed it would take as long to reverse the process.
Maintenance, otoh, nobody tells you the application (of all the new habits you hopefully learned) and dedication are a permanent thing.
The minute I let up, scale goes up, and I’m not going back there.
Age, health, lifestyle and diet are all obviously contributing factors -- someone could easily lose 100lbs in a year while someone else struggles to lose 50 working just as hard. Every body, every journey is as unique as our fingerprints and comparisons are pointless. IMO from the day you start until the day you die, the 80/20 or 90/10 success rule applied to a Commitment to healthy living and Vigilance against backsliding works for everyone, while giving you breathing room to enjoy this wonderful thing called life.6 -
ritaknowles1 wrote: »Big battle with constipation.
I have tried many remedies, kiwi, linseed/flaxseed, magnesium, opti constipation but it seems that it works to start with and then I am back to being constipated. According to my nutritionist, I eat enough vegetables and fibres but still never comfortable and feeling bloated. I suppose if you eat less there is less to pass out.3 -
I recommend you read "The Obesity Code" by Dr Jason Fung. He reviews all the various things we have been told our entire lives, including being made to feel inadequate, no self-control, etc, and destroys them by reviewing long-term scientific studies.
Popular press books aren't necessarily good science, even when they point out studies. Individual studies are fairly meaningless, until replicated and confirmed. Further, most readers of the book don't read the studies. That's understandable, but it leaves readers vulnerable to cherry-picked content, and sometimes the studies don't even say what a book claims!
W =hen I'm swayed to some theory, I consider it important to read its critics, and I try to do so fairly. Fung is not well regarded by peers in the field. He's had success in treating certain conditions, but that speaks more to his clinical acumen than his theories about why it works.
In the larger world of the relevant science, it's an accepted fundamental truth that moving more and eating less (i.e., calorie balance) is at the foundation of body weight management. The problem is that even though calories are the foundation, there's much more to accomplishing weight loss at a practical and even scientific level than getting a calorie estimate from a so-called "calculator" then counting calories.
At the scientific level, other fundamental truths are that human bodies are dynamic with respect to calorie balance, that results vary between individuals, and that other characteristics of food (besides calories) matter in a practical and (to some extent) theoretical sense. (<== Very few sources ever tell us these things - with specifics - about weight loss, so I'm gonna say this post is on topic. Long, though, because I'm going to be more specific )
Human bodies are dynamic in that calories in affect calories out. Oversimplifying: Eat more calories, there's a tendency to be more active, so burn more calories. Eat fewer calories, there's a tendency to fatigue, bleeding calorie burn out of one's day. Do major calorie-burning workouts, and fatigue may also make a person drag through the day, so net calorie burn is lower than expected. Or, if someone becomes more fit (gradually!), there's a tendency to move more in daily life, maybe do more exercise, maybe add muscle and bump up resting calorie burn (RMR) a tiny bit. This doesn't mean the calorie balance concept is incorrect, it means that it's more nuanced. It still comes down to eating less (than we burn) and moving more (than we eat), but the target number can shift.
Increasingly, it seems like the weight of research is demonstrating that people vary in ways that affect weight management results, and for varied reasons. Some people seem more sensitive to those "tendencies" in my previous paragraph. Gut microbiome and individual genetics can affect how each person responds to particular foods, calorie levels, activity types/levels, etc., in ways that can strongly affect practical weight management. Again this doesn't mean that the calorie balance equation is incorrect, it means that people vary in the fraction of calories they absorb from their food, how their calorie intake (plus timing and food choice) affects energy level and even attitudes, how sated they feel, etc.
Food characteristics also cause variation that can affect calorie counting. Some foods require materially more calories to digest than others, for example. The effect of that in a typical mixed diet is small, but it's a thing. Some people will find some foods more mood-enhancing, energy-increasing, filling, and the like. Again, that's not an invalidation of "calories in, calories out" as a foundation issue, but rather that calculating the actual detailed ins and outs is more complicated, and food choice also affects the practical ability to accomplish a weight loss goal. (It's a good thing that we don't need to be totally accurate to use calorie counting successfully. All we need is workable estimates.)
From observing my friends, some people seem to have a bent to believe iconoclasts, perhaps because of a conviction that the mainstream view is inherently corrupt due to money following the mainstream, and because of intellectual inertia in that mainstream. (The iconoclasts are usually happy to encourage those views.) Historically, it turns out that some iconoclasts are right, sometimes in ways that radically transform a field. In practice, that doesn't happen very often. Most iconoclasts turn out to be completely wrong.
My opinion: Some of the strategies Fung advocates will help some people. His theoretical foundations are shaky, and some of his pronouncements are not well-supported by science.
P.S. I agree with @Ariadne__ that "being made to feel" thing is not in accord with my personal philosophy. To me, that's self-disempowerment. It can lead toward simmering resentment, besides (because of perceiving that others block our success via our feelings). I prefer to focus on what I personally can control or at least influence, and when it comes to eating and moving I have nearly total control, in the fortunate comfortably middle-class, developed world situation in which I find myself. YMMV.
In my social set, which is a biased sample of humanity (not speaking of the big wide world), I've noticed that people who tend to be repeatedly attracted to iconoclasts also tend to feel they've been victimized in some way by mainstream ideas, to the extent of becoming suspicious of the mainstream. That's understandable, but can be problematic.
Thank you for such an excellent response!3 -
LilithReigns wrote: ».,,that it is slow for some and fast for others at least it seems that way. comparison really is the thief of joy.
IMHO, I think that it’s all relative, as in, “damn! She had that baby fast!”, while I felt pregnant for years.
When you’re in the middle of it yourself, it feels slooooooooow, while to others, you’re melting before their eyes.
Time continuum for me versus you can be equally a thief of joy. Patience is its master.6 -
I think I have tried (and failed) at most commercial diets. I joined a Diabetes Prevention Program and learned more about what a body needs to run smoothly (protein, fiber, sodium, fat, carbs). I learned that I was about 1,000 miles off on what I had been eating. Not to mention that I was bored on a "leafy green" diet. So, I've been looking for more balance. I think the best lesson I learned is that what works for one doesn't necessarily work for all. Finding what works for me was the challenge but I'm just about there. I also found that as I lose weight I need to adjust my plan. Seasonal foods mean that I adjust my menus constantly. It all sounds so complicated but when you see progress it's really worth it.11
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That gut inflammation can keep you from losing even when in a calorie deficit. For years I ate at a calorie deficit and the scale barely budged. When I switched to an anti-inflammatory diet I started losing weight steadily over time. Every time I go off that diet to have "treats" my weight shoots up a few pounds even though I didn't consume enough calories to truly gain 3-4 pounds. Once I take a few days to get the inflammatory foods out of my system, my weight returns to where it was before.10
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That all of a sudden at the end of your thirties/beginning of your fourties the weight doesn't go off even if you go all out in the gym. The things that used to work, won't work anymore.5
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No one told me that I would start to taste things properly again. I've just eaten a salad with rocket, red pepper, cherry tomatoes and radishes in, and it was utterly delicious. Everything in it had such a strong, distinctive flavour.11
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Corina1143 wrote: »LaetitiaLouise wrote: »Restaurant meals will suddenly seem full of unnecessary fat and carbs and lacking in vegetables (except potatoes). Fruit salad has disappeared from menus - when did that happen?
Really! I remember well when McDonald's was the only place I absolutely refused to eat. Then they added all day oatmeal and I was back to "anywhere you choose is fine with me". Then they put the sugar in the oatmeal instead of in a separate envelope, and I was back to anywhere except McDonald's. Now I'm pretty much limited to Wendy's baked potato or Taco Bell bowl. Some sit down places still have baked potatoes. Even broccoli is covered in "cheese " sauce made from unhealthy oils.
Where is the real FOOD?
At home.8 -
LilithReigns wrote: »This perspective is from someone who still has 100 pounds to lose. few years back lost 75, then gained 20 of it back, have been maintaining at 248-249 for two years. It seemed waaay easier the first round but..moving forward.
1. that it is slow for some and fast for others at least it seems that way. comparison really is the thief of joy.
2. consistency over perfection, you will make mistakes, you will have off days, keep going
3. not everyone will be supportive
4. you will have to learn and re-learn new habits
5. it can be lonely at times
6. saying no to yourself and others becomes easier over time
7. if you struggle with sugar cravings they will lessen in time and you might even find old favorites to be
disgusting.
8. it feels really good to complete a routine, especially when you progress from 10 min- 20 min- 30- and then before you know it 1 hr.
9. you might be grumpy skipping your exercise/gym
"Comparison really is the thief of joy" I love that! I need to tell myself that every day.6 -
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