Inspo plz/help 🥺

liliru_96

Hi everyone!!

I’m coming in here for inspiration. I saw pics of a year ago and I wasn’t at my goal weight but I was confident! Here I am a year later and feel defeated I let myself go.
I gained 20 pounds but I had a recent realization that I don’t put effort into my health. I’m weighing around 180 and I’m 5’5. I have tracking calories and have been exercising about 3-4x a week. I’ve lost 2lbs but I’m honestly not trying to look at the scale.

Here is my concern: is counting calories worth all this effort I’ve been putting? Is this something I should do long term? My recommended calorie deficit is around 1600, is that enough or too much?

I want to feel confident again in my own skin and I need to know all this effort is going to be worth it.

I want this lifestyle change to be forever.

AnnPT77

Whether it's worth the effort is going to be an individual judgement, always. Reaching a healthy weight is generically a good thing IMO, but the best route to get there can differ from one person to the next. Calorie counting is one way, but not the only way. Even beyond that, some people will choose - for a variety of reasons - to stay overweight.

I can't tell you what your preferences should be: It's your life you're trying to make better and happier, and that has to be defined and decided within your individual value system.

I'll say this: I'm about your height, 5'5". I started losing weight at about your current weight: I was at 183. I started just rough-estimating calories, then a ways in decided I needed to get more accurate, so joined MFP. I had decided I wasn't going to do anything to lose weight I wasn't willing to continue forever in order to stay at a healthy weight, except for a sensibly moderate calorie deficit until I reached a good weight.

I wanted to find sustainable habits that could continue almost on autopilot without needing much "motivation", "willpower", "discipline", etc. (I can't keep those things up forever, realistically.) That put an emphasis on finding fun activity (exercise or otherwise) and finding ways to eat that I personally thought were tasty, filling, nutritious, practical, affordable, convenient, etc.

In that context, it honestly didn't feel like a huge onerous effort, to me. It was more like a fun science fair experiment for grown-ups. Sure, learning and change have some challenging moments. It wasn't psychologically easy every second. But it definitely wasn't some huge burden all the time, either . . . not even close.

I've been at a healthy weight for 7+ years ever since that loss. For me, the quality of life improvement has been huge. My health is better, I feel subjectively better, I can do things easily that used to be effortful, and more. I still calorie count most days, and it typically doesn't take me as much as 10 minutes per day. For me, that's an absurdly tiny effort for the benefits I get from it.

YMMV.