ChickenKillerPuppy Member

Thanks so much, everyone!

Fantastic! I'm guessing your "habitual, predictable, and constant" eating habits that allow you to maintain at 2200-2300 are not made up of protein shakes and green drinks, but actual real food that you enjoy and allows you to live a normal life. Why not just cut your calories based on habits that are already "habitual,…

As to your first point - totally agree that successful weight loss and maintenance will involve experimentation that will find what works for you and your body. May I suggest, however, that experimenting in how fast you can lose weight, or how much you can push your body, isn't really giving you the data you need. Have you…

That is a noble goal! And one shared by many of us. If this is the case, what is your rush to get this done as fast as possible? Aside from making a "game" of it? I ask, because if you really want this to be "for the rest of [your] life," what plans have you made or thought have you given to how you will keep the weight…

I second Half Size Me - it took me a little while to come around but I love it and it has made a real difference in my life. Also We Only Look Thin. Both promote small, sustainable habit changes so you can balance your health and fitness goals with enjoying your life so that you can learn to maintain weight loss once you…

@Retroguy2000 - not too late! In fact, your story is a great case in point - a few days off so easily turns into a week off. I am so impressed you are back on track in losing mode. But if that gets tough - just know the option for maintaining is there. Instead of having a “deload week” as you described, remember that…

It is near impossible to lose weight in any sort of maintainable way while you are struggling with an eating disorder. My two cents would be to work with a professional or coach to get your eating disorder and relationship with food under control, and then you can work on losing weight. Because even if you lose the weight,…

You are answering your own question - you need to find a way of eating that INCLUDES candy and chocolate! The beauty of CICO (assuming you are counting calories) is that there are no “good” and “bad” foods - just staying within your calorie range. To lose weight you need to slowly change your habits to eat in a way that is…

I recommend the free podcast Half Size Me. While most of the people who call in do count calories, there are several episodes where Heather coaches people who are triggered by calorie counting. She gives a lot creative alternative suggestions.

Thinking of you and wishing you a speedy recovery!

CICO is math (with regular life wiggle room). So when you insist that for you, 2+3=17, and then ask us to show you why 2+3 does not equal 5, we cannot figure out why that is the case if you are insisting the 2 is accurate and the 3 is accurate. It doesn't make sense, so folks here are saying something isn't adding up (no…

I would suggest first just trying to stop the damage by trying to maintain your weight. I’m sure because you gained you want to immediately start losing again, but if you really want to turn things around, a smaller change to just get you to stop gaining and start eating in your maintenance calorie range may help more than…

Just wanted to echo the idea that calories are most important for weight loss. So if you are new to this, I wouldn’t worry too much about your macro distribution because that’s a lot to focus on at once. After a few months when you get used to counting calories, then maybe start looking at macros. You are much more likely…

You absolutely have the freedom to track, not track at all, eat in a deficit, eat at maintenance, or eat whatever you’d like. You can live your life however you chose. But as another poster said, your body will gain weight if you eat more than your burn whatever your mindset is. If what you are saying (and you may not be…

@Ann__777 , To be fair, i got to my goal range about 12 years ago, but for several of those years I would still gain back about 10-20 of the 50 pounds I had lost every few years or so, and then get back down to goal. It was only when i truly embraced the mindset above over the past 3 years that I have not only stopped…

I also noticed that what you mentioned in your post that felt overwhelming right now was tracking, but then you concluded that it would be really difficult to stay in a calorie deficit. Those are different things (although most of us here do use tracking to know if we are in a calorie deficit). If you can establish…

I think WW is best if you have a lot of weight to lose and need to learn to pivot towards "healthier" foods. But the points formulas are not geared towards accurately reflecting calories, because they artificially inflate carbs and sugar and they artificially deflate fruits, veggies, and lean proteins. This is great if you…

Also - here is a link that explains what your Cholesterol levels mean. You can google and find others if you prefer: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/11920-cholesterol-numbers-what-do-they-mean

I am so glad you asked this question! I was diagnosed with high cholesterol even though I was at goal and a healthy BMI. My LDL was 111 which is higher than yours was. The healthy range for LDL is between 0-99. My doctor wanted me to go on medication but I wanted to lower it naturally, and by changing my diet I was able to…

I am 50 years old and also 5’4”. I also work out 5-6 days a week. I have been in my goal range for years but I weigh 120 pounds, and I lose at 1800 calories/day and maintain at 2100 calorie/day. I’m fairly active but still - I would be starving and end up binging if I tried to restrict my calories to 1200 a day. I would,…

This is just a suggestion, but if you were maintaining your weight (not losing) at whatever you were eating at 220 pounds and not counting calories, but assuming you were feeling satisfied and not hungry all the time, you can use your actual data to figure out your calories, which is much better than a calculator designed…

I second @AnnPT77 said, and hope you find what you are looking for.

Just wanted to second @AnnPT77 comments that my intentions were also to go deeper to the real issues here, and in no way meant to trivialize how much work this is for ALL of us. You say if you could just eat blueberries instead of potato chips you would, but what I am saying is no one here can just do that. That would be a…

Shel, I think virtually everyone here has struggled and nothing about getting to goal (and more importantly maintaining our weight loss for years) was easy or quick. For me, breaking old habits and patterns was a tremendous amount of work, as it is for everyone, but I did it, not by trying to change my life overnight by…

What happens when you get to your goal weight? As another one of those people who has lost weight (50 pounds) and kept it off for several years, I hate to break it to you but there is no finish line. Maintaining weight loss requires very much the same lifestyle as losing weight, with a little more flexibility in your…

First of all, bravo for deciding to focus on small, sustainable habit changes. That is definitely the way I have changed my life and kept off the 60 pounds I lost for about 10 years now (after only knowing how to lose or gain my whole life). Two resources that I would recommend that really helped me (and still help me) are…

I will say I always trended towards cardio for weight loss because I wanted those burned calories to count! But I listened to a podcast with a professor from Harvard school of health who said the number one thing he would recommend for weight loss is strength training, because if you build your muscles they will take more…

YES!! Driving me crazy. Still wasn’t fixed when I checked today

You are getting such excellent advice here! If you’ve yo-yo dieted your whole life and you are back up on the scale, what you have done in the past didn’t work. Successful weight loss also means keeping the weight off, which means finding a lifestyle you can maintain forever. There is no finish line. Start small as others…

I think it's great that you want to take this opportunity to figure out why you have not succeeded in keeping weight off in the past, and thinking about how you can do things differently this time around. I would say don't make radical changes, make small changes slowly so that you can sustain them. Don't try to go from…