What nobody tells you about losing weight

That when you hit maintenance it can take some discipline to stop losing weight. Trying to maintain is scary because if you are like many (most?) of us, you have lost weight before and failed to keep it off. But you have been successful at losing weight so it is tempting to keep losing. It's one thing if you can justify it; will still be at a very healthy weight and have some noticeable pockets of fat to lose. But at some point you have to stop and maintain it. You think making goal will be a great celebration until you get there. You do celebrate, but if you want to keep it off, it's not over.

That I’d start running, and enjoy it. C25K is brilliant, I’ve recently completed week 9 and I’ve kept up with the running. I love it.

That some people love it when you hit a plateau.

That my brain hasn’t quite caught up with my weight loss (-77lb). When clothes shopping I still automatically go for the bigger sizes.

Things they don’t tell you about weight loss:

• It’s expensive.
o I’m buying smaller, more expensive clothes because I now like the way I look in tailored clothing.
o Healthy food is more expensive than junk food.
• It’s time consuming.
o I spend more time planning, preparing, and logging my food.
 I research healthy recipes and use the Recipe Importer to see nutritional information. Then I alter the recipe to make it healthier.
 Meal prep takes longer than grabbing fast food or a sandwich & chips.
• Mirrors and photos are no longer a threat
o I used to avoid looking in the mirror and refused to have my picture taken

ClaudiaDawn2 wrote: »

Things they don’t tell you about weight loss:
o Healthy food is more expensive than junk food.

This is one reason why many poor people are overweight.

I went down in both cup and band. Went from 36DD to 34C currently. I’m happy with it, I look trimmer in clothes and more proportional.

That you'll fit between cars in the parking lot.

Idk, I might have said this before, but I re-experienced it yesterday as I was leaving work. I park p. faraway so that I have to walk (given how sedentary my job is, I try to find lots of ways to increase my activity). So I'm walking, thinking about random things when I come upon two cars parked side by side. Not an unusual event to find in a parking lot, but I stopped and stared at their mirrors.

I was flummoxed. "Will I fit?" I considered, thoughtfully. "Nah, I won't fit." But then, the idea of walking around the cars was less inviting. Plus, it wasn't like I was staring at the last two cars in the parking garage. These traps lay everywhere! As if people actually just parked in spots and didn't think about someone spending an entire internal monologue of the pros and cons of trying to squeeze through.

I hemmed. I hawed. I thought of all the twists and turns I could make to make myself smaller.

I was like. "Okay, self. Think thin." The car mirrors were like bear traps waiting to get me. There was room between them, but surely not for me. Surely I'd have to turn sideways, suck in the rubber ducky and pray that I didn't make a colossal mistake.

But then, right when I should have turned, I said, "THROW CAUTION TO THE WIND SELF, BLAZE THROUGH. SEE WHAT HAPPENS. THE WORST IS EMBARRASSMENT. THEY WON'T BITE YOU." Maybe, I muttered. Maybe, but I did it anyway.

Lo and behold, I'm going through this trap that promises self-recrimination later and I'm like "YES!" I FEEL AWESOME.

And then...

And then, I get stuck. My first thought was "HOW EMBARRASSING, I CAN'T FIT THROUGH WHAT DID I THINK OMG, IS ANYONE LOOKING."

Until I noticed that my body was through the mirrors, but... but it was... my backpack didn't fit. My backpack was the problem here.

There I was, proverbially flapping in the breeze because what downed me was my backpack. I backed up, shrugged off the backpack, and skipped my way through the mirrors and onwards towards my car.

It was then that I connected the dots and realized that my backpack was now, officially, wider than me.

So yeah, no one told me I'd have a lengthy and ponderous internal discussion on the merits of trying to squeeze through two parked cars. But hey! I did it!

...that half of your friends will treat you like you have an eating disorder. The ‘caring advice’ is going to make me bite someone.

I reached a BMI under 25 recently (let there just be a short pause here for bells, streamers, ticker-tape parades etc) and am moving into maintenance. I decided to underestimate slightly on my maintenance calories because a) I don’t track my tea and coffee (CAFFEINE IS LIFE so I never want to be in a position of having to decide I can’t afford the calories!) and b) I’d rather lose a little more and not be rammed against the top of the ‘normal’ category than gain a little and become overweight again.

I made the mistake of a quickie post on FB (mostly about eating an iced bun) and suddenly everyone is telling me that my base calorie amount isn’t enough and I need to fuel my exercise (guys, I add my exercise on top, that is why I call this my ‘base’ amount), that my arithmetic ‘sucks’ and I’m undereating (and yet being strangely unable to pinpoint how my arithmetic sucks), repeating the point about exercise even after I’ve clarified about eating back, and then after I’ve demonstrated how all their concerns are unfounded still telling me I shouldn’t be using a calorie underestimate and giving me concerned and patronising advice about losing muscle mass etc...

WHAT EVEN IS THIS, GUYS?! I’ve lost 16 stone and gained some muscle without any health issues; I clearly know how this works! Are you really concerned that I might have an eating disorder? Or is this really about your own insecurities?

@ceiswyn I agree. I think people freak out when they think someone else making changes means they will have to make changes as well.
Their protests are about them, not you.

That said- social media is a tough one for people who are used to be open. There will be naysayers everywhere but they seem to flock to Facebook... or anywhere else they can leave comments.

mamasara2 wrote: »

@ceiswyn I agree. I think people freak out when they think someone else making changes means they will have to make changes as well.
Their protests are about them, not you.

That's my conclusion as well. While I know that my friends are genuinely happy for me, I also think some of them are having real difficulty adjusting to 'the fat one' now being smaller than them. I guess that assuming I'm bordering on eating disorder territory is a way of avoiding that feeling as if they need to make changes. And friendly concern is a good look

I do respect the friend who approached me with her worries a year ago, directly, and has not done so since or attempted to give me advice although I can tell that she is still concerned. I am happy to reassure her because her actions are telling me that her care for me is genuine and also that she respects my judgement. Everyone who only became concerned when I started to dip below their weight, and gives me 'helpful' advice that assumes I don't understand basic CICO or arithmetic, can get in the sea.

(I mean, only temporarily, because they're my friends and this is just one thing. But still. The sea )