antinomiancelestial Member

I get this. I have lost 2 freaking pounds so far, and I had a friend express concern that I might have an eating disorder because I expressed frustration at being hungry one day. I think that as other posters have said, there's a lot of misinformation in our society about what's healthy and what's not. I'd go with what…

@dinahelmy9 - I'm sorry to hear that! Medication-induced weight gain is really frustrating.

Thanks, all. I probably am being really hard on myself. I had to go off my last round of medications because the psychiatrist I could afford had no experience dealing with multiple diagnoses at once and very little experience helping someone whose depression/anxiety were complicated by C-PTSD. He kept piling labels on me…

@karahm78 - Thanks; I think lowering it to 1/2 pound a week to start might be a really good idea. @aerochic42 - I think you've probably identified the problem. I only logged my diet from "before" once, and I think I might've underestimated how much I was eating prior to dieting. Now, I'm thinking about trying to go for a…

Thanks, @marie9910 . Patience is definitely hard, but hopefully it will pay off.

@lizzyrn - I'm in a similar position myself. What I have found helpful is being open and honest with other people about what I am doing and why I am doing it. The eating disorder involved a lot of secrecy - secret eating, secret calorie restriction, secret exercising, secret trips to pro-ana sites, etc. The more honest I…

I don't know if there are any beauty schools around, but I should look into that! I have heard they give good deals. I haven't found anything at Goodwill lately, and that's the only thrift store around. That said, I am thinking about the hair cut and the skin treatment.

I've been a vegan for several years. In the beginning, I was so worried about getting enough to eat that I built a diet with too many carbs/not enough nutrients. Now that I'm at the low end of obese, I'm trying to cut carbs and increase nutrients so that I can lose some of this weight. Feel free to add if you want. Good…

@Afura - Interesting. It sounds like you draw a distinction between loving ourselves and loving aspects of ourselves that are unhealthy. That's a good way of looking at it, in my opinion. @brittyn3 - Obese children are really sad to see. In addition to the bullying they deal with, obese children are set up for a lifetime…

Thanks, @Rebecca0224 . I'll try eating smaller breakfasts.

I think the fat acceptance movement does have some good points. There is a lot of size-based discrimination in our culture. I've known people who were really sick but who couldn't get medical care because, according to their doctors, it wasn't even worth testing them for medical diseases as long as they were fat. It's…

Thanks, all. I decided to have a cheat day to get back to normal, and eating a higher calorie amount today actually caused me to throw up (not on purpose)! I don't know what my body wants at this point, but it's clear that the medication must be messing with me if a bit too little leaves me starving and a bit too much…

Thanks, everyone. I'm hopeful that this will pass in a day or two then. My period's supposed to start really soon.

Thanks, all. I want to clarify that I don't comfort eat. I'm not talking about craving a snickers bar when I talk about hunger; I'm talking about actually going into the fridge and eating raw produce because I'm so ravenous that I'll eat anything I possibly can. The dieting isn't working out right now because I wake up…

@janejellyroll - I'm not specifically trying to eat low-fat, but it's possible that I am anyway. I should look into that. @phill_143 - I don't exercise much, so there are no exercise calories to eat back. I could definitely be overestimating what I'm eating; that's true. I don't feel strong enough to do cardio right now; I…

@KateTii - Well put. I scarfed down plain, raw snow peas this morning because I was so hungry. I'm not just craving candy bars and junk; I'm seriously hungry. It's confusing to me because I thought eating 1520 calories a week was supposed to be okay at my weight and activity level. @karahm78 - My friend didn't know I had…

@dreawest - That does seem to be what's happening to me. The biggest problem I run into is getting hungry at 4 a.m., and being able to have a large, satisfying dinner would probably make a huge difference in that problem. @lazyprincesss - I'm not doing well enough with water; I've only made it up to about 3 cups a day.…

@Sabine_Stroehm - My body doesn't want treats right now; it wants its normal amount of regular breakfast, lunch, and dinner food. I'm not sure what to do because eating that amount will put me too high. @deannalfisher - Huh. I just calculated, and I was eating about 1,663 on an average day. I realize one of the major…

@Look_Its_Kriss - Thank you for your inspiring story! Are you saying that adding exercise, allowing yourself to eat more, made the hunger less challenging to deal with?

That's interesting. I feel like I've always been told the opposite, that a sedentary lifestyle was the main culprit when people were overweight, but then again I recently heard that soda/unhealthy food companies have sort of pushed that as a dominant cultural message so that people won't stop eating and drinking unhealthy…

@lionessNV - I'm glad to hear you're losing the weight. Thinking about how I will look sounds like a good idea...it's just hard to believe I can really lose the weight.

@fidycixer - Thank you for the suggestions! I can't really afford new clothes right now, even thrifty ones, so I'm planning on waiting a few weeks in the hope that money will loosen up and so will my current fat pants. Dealing with the grooming issues sounds like a good idea too. @youdoyou2016 - I'm glad to hear you lost…

Thanks, all. It's ultimately true that no matter how hard this is, being fat has been harder on my self-esteem and on my body in general than this diet has been. Maybe the low 190s isn't exactly "My 600 Pound Life" or anything, but it has made me feel more sluggish and lethargic, achier, and just a lot less self-confident.

@Afura , that's good to know! The amount of exercise that makes me feel healthy is significantly less than what it would take to lose a pound a week, so I guess my takeaway is that I should focus on food intake rather than exercise at least where weight loss is concerned.

Others on here have told me that diets take some getting used to; your body needs to adjust to eating less than it used to eat. My concern would be that if you're eating nothing one day and 3,000 calories the next day, your body is going to be in a kind of yo-yo situation and won't get used to a stable, consistent number…

That's interesting. I tried losing weight with just exercise before, but even when I felt motivated to go to the gym, the number of calories I burned never amounted to much, and I always ended up hungry.

@Strudders67 Thank you for the info about TDEE. My maintenance calories are 1980, and I went over that on one day when I was ravenous for some reason, but I'm trying to get back up today and not overdo things.

Adding in more exercise is probably going to be the hardest part for me. I have never liked exercising very much, but I know it's really important to this process.

I'm sedentary, yes. I have a gym membership, but my daily life doesn't involve a lot of movement. I'm primarily doing this through dieting, but I have worked some exercise into the mix. I definitely don't think I'm dealing with emotional hunger. I've never really had the huge craving for a specific food to make me feel…

Thanks, all. I think I've decided to make today a maintenance calorie day because I'm ravenous after having eaten almost the whole 1520 to lose 1 pound per week. My current stats are 189.4 lbs and 5 foot 6. I've lost 1 pound so far, in the past 5 days. I think part of why I'm so hungry is that I ate less than 1520 on the…