One Month In. Holy *kitten*

ivanggarcia95

HellYeahItsKriss wrote: »

It took me a long time to realize that it was not a lack of discipline for me. It's easy to blame ourselves then it is to maybe think that something we struggle with our entire lives just might be something out of our complete control.

When you go off the drug in february, if you find those same struggles return, you should seek me out again.

Yeah that sounds good! I'll send the request

kommodevaran

ivanggarcia95 wrote: »

kommodevaran wrote: »

ivanggarcia95 wrote: »

kommodevaran wrote: »

Is your calorie intake 1000, or is your calorie deficit 1000? A 1000 calorie deficit isn't much at your weight, but eating 1000 calories a day is way too little. Your weight loss seems to indicate the latter. Undereating isn't good. If that's what you're doing, no wonder you're hungry - no pills can solve that.

You won't have discipline to not overeat when you don't have discipline to eat enough.

Set yourself up to win. Follow MFP's suggested calorie target, drop the pills. Don't cheat. Learn how to eat both enjoyably and responsibly.

No, my calorie deficit is 1000 from MFPs recommendation. My current calorie intake varies from 1200-1700.

Do you mean that you're eating 1000 below MFP's recommendation? That makes no sense. The necessary (and optimal) deficit is built into the number MFP gave you.

In terms of the pills, I've already put a 3 month down payment on them. I plan to keep taking them while having the dosage stay at 30 mg.

If you can't get your money back, I would just see that as a sunk cost.

I've seen quite a bit of stories where people have their weight rebound back after getting off phentermine.

People regain weight by going back to old eating habits.

My main goal with phentermine was to instill a consistent regime of calorie counting and choice of healthier options for food, as well as weight loss. My cousin had the same approach as well, and after 10 years of dropping the pill, she's still in great shape. Usually the wrong approach that my sister's took with phentermine was that they would eat one meal a day with the 37mg dose, which I calculated would be anywhere around 300-700 calories. That would be their calorie intake. FOR THE WHOLE DAY! Of course once they're off the pill, the hunger strikes back with a vengeance. I'm expecting that to happen to me too.

The pill doesn't teach you how to make better food choices, it just suppresses hunger. Undereating can never be healthy. And if you eat healthily, you shouldn't be bothered by hunger - not now, and not later. So there's really no need for the pill. When you eat at a calorie deficit, you lose weight, if you do it for long enough. You can't speed up the process, you can only choose to make it comfortable, acceptable, or horrible. The less horrible, the longer you'll be able to continue. No medals are given for unnecessary suffering.

While a 1200-1700 calorie intake may be extreme for me (males need at least 1500 calories per day), I'm doing this more so just so I know what hunger feels like, and be comfortable with it for the time being.

This makes absolutely no sense to me.

I plan to stick on a 1900-2000 calorie diet once I drop phentermine, and continue following CICO.

Not going to happen. That's when rebound eating starts.

I plan to follow my regime of 6 strict days of diet, and one cheat day where I only go above 500 calories of my diet calorie intake.

500 calories isn't much. Do you intend to log on those cheat days?

I know I will have times where I plateau or gain weight,

Plateaus aren't really a thing; water weight fluctuates, and sometimes more from day to day than you can lose in fat in a week. You only gain weight if you consistently eat above maintenance.

but I feel really confident that I will ultimately reach my goal of 170 pounds and maintain from there on.

I don't think that is possible with your current approach. But it's very possible with a more sensible approach.

I see your criticisms and see your perspective on this and I appreciate and understand them. But I have struggled with weight and hunger throughout my life. And it was a lack of discipline that led to my current obesity. Of course, undereating won't be the permanent or long term solution to losing weight. I see phentermine as a tool to help build discipline. All my past weight loss attempts failed because I would give in to poor eating choices. CICO and Phentermine allows me to build discipline for now. In terms of the undereating, I hear you. And I'll address that

But it's impossible to build discipline when you undereat, it doesn't matter if you don't feel the effect of the undereating yet. You have to build long term eating habits, and you're just wasting time now. Anyway, I can't make you do or not do anything, just make you aware of alternative options and possible dangers.