A Post For Anyone Who is Just Starting Out.

For anyone who is just starting their weight loss journey, I’d like to share this with you. I wish I would’ve seen this in the beginning of mine. One year ago, I made this post on MyFitnessPal looking for advice:

“Hello everyone!
I just joined my fitness pal today after my other efforts have not been working. However, I am not sure if my other efforts are supposed to work? I have not had very much guidance this far, unfortunately.

About 3 months ago (Feb) I had gained about 15ish lbs because I used to never have to worry about what I eat or anything (I’m 20) until it caught up to me. I went from 125 to 130, then I shot all the way up to 145lbs. That was when I realized it was catching up to me. It’s now may and I was able to successfully bring my weight down to a fluctuating 135-137, but now I am stuck here. I have been for about a month now!!!

My stats and habits are here:
Age: 20
Height: 5’4
I eat 2-3 times a day. I eat a high protein diet and drink lots of water. I eat about 1000-1200 cals a day.

For exercise, I get 15k-20k steps in a day and then I always do some other kind of workout, whether it be running or HIIT. I burn usually about 600-800 cals a day and about once a week or so I really go ham and burn 1,000.

I am just not sure what is healthy. This worked for me for 2 months when I was able to shed off the noticeable added weight. However, now I am loving my body, but want to lose a little more. My goal weight is probably around 128-130.

I am stuck!!! I need some help. I do not know where to go from here. If you guys have any feedback or tips they would be GREATLY appreciated!!! Thank you!”

Now, at the time of that post, I weighed probably around 138lbs. Like I described in the post, I had gained a whole bunch of weight due to not being in sports anymore. However, I wanted to see results by not only burning off every calorie that I ate, but putting myself in such a deficit that my body couldn’t handle it. Every single day, I would burn around 1,000 calories, sometimes even more, and eat around 900-1,000 a day. I thought the bigger the deficit, the fast the results. This is NOT true. Please, do not do that to yourself. Also, please try not to make weight loss your whole life. That is all I did for about 6 months straight. I saw barely any results. I now, today, one year later, weigh 124 lbs and am eating three meals a day, working out normally 3-4 days a week, and genuinely ENJOYING life. I eat with my friends, I hang out with my friends, and there isn’t a little voice in the back of my head every day saying that I need to constantly be moving around to burn off every calorie I possibly can.

I know in the beginning people think it’s better to go in complete overdrive, but you only hurt yourself in the end. Life is too short to eat only one meal a day and exercise your butt off. Once I started to live life the way I wanted and incorporated weight loss strategies into MY life I saw results, instead of make weight loss my whole life and give myself small rewards every once in awhile. If this even helps one person, I’ll be happy. Good luck!