It still amazes me!

Freyhb

Hey guys, so I'm 75 days into the journey and I'm literally amazed every single day that I can eat my favourite food and still loose weight. I have been an overweight person since I was a child which slowly turned into morbid obesity. I remember feeling so helpless all the time because even though I wanted to lose all this weight, everytime I would try to do so I would have to go on a very strict diet like eating chicken and fish with an orange every SINGLE DAY or doing a High protein, low fat, low carb, low sodium diet (my doctor put me on it though I had no medical complications). Funnily enough, I never knew about CICO and so even though I downloaded MFP a couple of years ago, I didn't know how to use it since I didn't know that the Community section existed. This time around, not only am I in the right frame of mind but I feel like I have discovered the 'magic trick' of weight loss. I have slowly educated myself with how weight loss works. Before, I thought that the only way I could lose weight was by exercising insanely and eating only veggies and boiled meat. But now, I know that I can enjoy food the way I want to and still make my life better. Case in point: last week all I ate was homemade burger and oven baked fries with good quality ice cream and my favourite veggies and still lost pounds.

So anyhooo, this is a shout out to all those people who comment on different posts and post their experiences, all of your insight helps me in making a better decision every single day. You guys rock!

MegaMooseEsq

I absolutely feel you on this. I spent much of last year in this state of mild astonishment that losing weight was so *simple.* Maybe not always easy, but honestly, a lot easier than I’d expected. It’s a great feeling, not only understanding what’s happening to your body, but also knowing that you have a lot more control over it than you ever thought. High five!

Kingsfan760

I'm with you too. I started Jan. 16, 2018 and MFP has helped me so much. I hit the gym 5 days a week and even eat somewhat clean along with MFP. Nearing a 20 lbs. loss in weight and body transformation. This motivates me even more. Great job to all who stick with it.

kommodevaran

MFP was a gamechanger for me too. Even though I knew about calories, I also believed I had to eat in a certain way, and exercise for a certain duration, which I couldn't do for very long at a time, so each time I reverted to an even more exaggerated way of living than what I believed I had "stopped". Eating what I want makes me not want to eat too much, and not having to exercise makes me less lazy. Maintaing a healthy weight for three years after at least twenty of real or imagined or looming overweight, and feeling good, relaxed, happy.

CarvedTones

I lost weight on various diets before and gained it back when I switched to "normal" again. Adjusting normal makes so much more sense. I just recently (~3 weeks ago) hit goal after losing 60+ pounds. What's different this time versus the failures is that I know what to do. I had been tweaking the daily calorie goal to come in slowly so now maintenance is just another tweak. I am continuing to track and probably will continue tracking for the foreseeable future; Maybe at some point I will just do some days and mostly use the scale, but I failed at being a natural eater before. It obviously has not been long enough to be sure I won't gain it back this time either, but I have never felt more confident about it or at least not had so much to back up the confidence with. Before I stopped what I was doing when I lost the weight; this time I have not and have no plans to.

Dani9585

I've tried so many "diets," and while I had successes in the moment, I quickly gained weight back (and sometimes more!) after failing to sustain that new "diet" lifestyle (such as low carb, low fat, ACV cleanse, excessive restriction, etc.) I'm only a few weeks in on my CICO journey, I feel that this is a lifestyle that is sustainable.

MegaMooseEsq

CarvedTones wrote: »

I lost weight on various diets before and gained it back when I switched to "normal" again. Adjusting normal makes so much more sense. I just recently (~3 weeks ago) hit goal after losing 60+ pounds. What's different this time versus the failures is that I know what to do. I had been tweaking the daily calorie goal to come in slowly so now maintenance is just another tweak. I am continuing to track and probably will continue tracking for the foreseeable future; Maybe at some point I will just do some days and mostly use the scale, but I failed at being a natural eater before. It obviously has not been long enough to be sure I won't gain it back this time either, but I have never felt more confident about it or at least not had so much to back up the confidence with. Before I stopped what I was doing when I lost the weight; this time I have not and have no plans to.

I have never lost weight before so never had to deal with regain, but I love this comment about knowing that your confidence is backed up. I'm sure that most people who lose weight are determined not to regain, but there's a difference between determination and determination backed by tools and knowledge and a strategy.

CarvedTones

The "strategy" I had before was just to shorten the string on the yoyo. If I lost 50 pounds, then I would try to keep an eye on weight and if I gained back 5 or 10, then I would do the full on diet again to lose it again. the problem was that I had just used it to lose 50, so it wasn't a big deal if I let it slip more than 10... It's like I kept forgetting how hard it was to start losing. I had a really hard time starting this last one. At one point, I got 25 pounds down and then took a break, intending to stay within 5 pounds or so and put it all back on. It was like a switch - off or on - that I was either starving myself or stuffing myself.