i wouldn’t say i’m overweight, and i know that the BMI index is not necessarily reliable, but i do feel like over the years i’ve kinda lost the figure i used to have. i mostly stay at home and code now, whereas a couple years back i used to play a competitive sport on a daily basis.
how do you guys lose weight, or stay fit, as adults? i’ve tried the gym, i just don’t really like it there. i feel insecure, and i don’t really utilize many of the machines they have there since i don’t want to bulk or gain muscle. for christmas, i got a yoga mat and some dumbells. do lemmers have resources for creating a low-maintenance workout plan?
there’s also the whole diet thing. how do you count calories, eat well balanced meals, etc? i already struggle with meal prepping, and feel like having to account for calorie intake would make this even harder. or would that make it easier since i would get good at making the same things? idk, it’s stressful but i’m hoping to take better care of myself in 2022.
I am doing it the real fuckin hard way.
When I started (May 7th) I weighed 270lbs. I am 5’5", so that makes me about as round as I was tall. I am in my 30s, so I was just an absolute ticking time bomb, heart on the brink of explosion. I was also having some less emergent but still very irritating physical issues such as not being able to properly clean myself (too fat to reach) and when I would lay back in my recliner I would feel my neck fat choking me. I reached a point where I had to do something right that second and no matter what it was or how “unhealthy” of a method, it’s not worse than dying of a heart attack in my own living room with a tub of ice cream in my lap and a box of oreos on my end table.
So that day I basically cut to 1 very small meal per day. Less than 500 calories. I do that 6 days per week, but on Friday I eat whatever I want, a full 3 meals usually. Some weeks I’ve eaten 5000 calories on Friday, but my deficit is so strong it doesn’t even matter. I also started walking. For the first few days it was no less than 10k steps, but I quickly jumped to 15k. After only about 3 weeks I jumped up to 25k as a goal and I achieved it most days. Eventually, and as of now, 25k is a hard and fast rule and I try to do 30k. I havnt gotten less than 25k since early June.
See the thing is, BMI tells me I need to weigh between 109 and 148. I do think that the top end of that is on the low end of what I actually think I should weigh, given my more muscular build, but regardless, I was twice that.
I only weigh on Fridays (it’s a mental thing) and as of this past Friday I weighed 213.6. I am still on a very hard cut with my immediate goal being to get under 200, which I should reach before the end of August. Once I’m back in to 100s I’ll reevaluate my calorie intake and the speed at which I’m losing.
Currently my estimated TDEE is around 3100 calories and I am losing 4ish pounds per week. If I dial that back to 2.5-3 lbs per week once I get under 200 then I think I can just coast on down to 165 which is what I am currently calling my “goal weight”. I fully understand that when I get there I will likely want to keep going since I am guessing 150 or so is where I will be most pleased with how I look. I have not always been morbidly obese. 15 years or so ago 150 was the sweet spot so I imagine it’s gonna be somewhere in that neighborhood, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.
This is too severe and unhealthy.
Your body is burning not just fat tissue, but lean tissue as well, and likely so fast that it can’t replace it fast enough to keep up. Even with 5000 Fridays, you’re taking in 8000 a week which is less than 1200 a day, less than some old short inactive grandma would use to lose a few extra pounds (not from 270).
Weight loss puts increased demands upon the body. Gallstones, malnutrition, dehydration, and electrolyte imbalances can happen when those demands exceed the body’s capability to cope with them. More minor side-effects include hair and nail problems, irregular female menstrual cycles, constipation, dizziness, fatigue, and headaches.
I just saw your post. Wanted to say hi. I lost from 298 and also lost pretty fast, but didn’t need to go all that severely. I also had a few goal-weight adjustments but I’ve kept it off basically for 8 years now (170s now, at 5’11 male).
Yea I know its not ideal but the problem is that adherence is the most important factor and I cant adhere unless I see very strong results. This is producing that, and I am adhering. I have fallen off the wagon a million times because 1 pound per week is not enough to keep me excited. 4lbs a week is, and its working. Best practice stops being best practice if you stop doing it altogether and human willpower is a massive part of it. In the end, it’s one of those things that Im going to cross my arms like a 5 year old and say “i dont care, this is how im doing it” and no one can tell me different, for better or for worse.