Does a Higher Calorie Allowance Make Managing Weight Loss Easier or Harder?

ddsb1111

@robertw486 Just circling back to this thread and saw your response, along with your question about whether I ever started a business thread. Honestly… I’m not sure! But now I’m curious too. If I didn’t, I’d love to see it myself.

And yep, that was definitely me!

ddsb1111

It was really fun to re-read this thread. Over the past month, I’ve been focused on building habits that truly align with my goals and the way I want to live. That’s meant making some trade offs like less income or slower business growth, but the emotional benefits have been undeniable.

I’ve been more active, spending more time with my family, sleeping better, and overall just feeling happier. I didn’t even tell my husband I was doing this, and he’s commented several times, saying things like, “You seem different, what’s changed?

It’s clear he’s noticing a more relaxed, carefree version of me. And honestly, I’m noticing it too. This experience has been a complete game changer.

How does this tie into the post? Well, a big part of feeling better for me was tackling the constant “food noise.” Yes, I’m one of those people, it was taking up way too much mental space. So, as part of this reset (typically don’t love that word, but I digress), I decided to talk to someone about it and was prescribed a low dose of semaglutide.

Even though the dose is small and hasn’t caused major weight loss, the real win has been feeling normal. That mental quiet has been one of the biggest reliefs.

I’m not sure how long I’ll use it, maybe just occasionally when it starts to feel overwhelming again. We’ll see. And yes, I know this might be a hot take, especially since I’m within 10 pounds of my goal weight. But for me, it was never really about the number. It was about getting some peace from the constant thinking. And for the first time in a while, I feel like I can enjoy things I used to say no to because now I can fit them in without stress or guilt. It might seem small, but it’s those little shifts that have made the biggest difference for me. Do I wish this were the case? No. But am I having the first “break” from the feeling of dieting since I was 9 years old? Yes. And that’s been really nice.

Feel free to ask questions, disagree, or share your own experience. I’m open to all of it.

AnnPT77

I feel like an often underappreciated part of all of this - weight, nutrition, health, fitness plus things in totally other realms - is good overall life balance, both as a cause of problems, and a piece of the solution.

Don't get me wrong: I completely understand that for some people, balance is very, very far out of reach no matter what they personally can do, whether because of poverty, illness/injury/disability (self, family or interdependent others), or something else. That is seriously unfortunate, and my heart goes out to them.

But to the extent the luckier among us do have control or at least influence over our life balance, I think recognizing an out-of-balance situation and trying to improve that is a good intervention. It can foster better probability of goal accomplishment even in not-obviously-related areas.

I feel like that might be related to what you're describing in your most recent post, @ddsb1111. Not sure. And yeah, sometimes medications or similar interventions are part of the most viable, productive path.

Another "don't get me wrong": I'm no paragon or model in this respect. I've given waaaay too much to my job in the past, and to other things in my life; done stupid things that alienated good people from me,; abused my health; and more. I'm wrangling with some stuff still, even though - objectively viewed - I have most of the advantages and privileges I'd need in order to do better.