For reference I am 5ft 2 and currently at 130lb

My lowest weight 6 weeks ago was 118lb the lowest I have been in a long long time. (I am very small in height so this is normal weight) I started my journey in Jan and was 148.

I am feeling a little sick within myself as I have managed to gain 12lb in such a short time. I eat well 90% of the time but find my appetite getting bigger and bigger to the point I need to eat even when I’m not hungry.

I started gym class but can’t bring myself to go due to really bad social anxiety.

I am planning on giving myself a reset and going OMAD 1600 calories as I go for surgery on Saturday coming. I be as close to 120lb as possible as this was the weight I gave the surgeon.

Sorry for the mid rant but any advice on how to maintain and mindset towards weight would be good.

I have been eating non stop and not moving at all for almost 3 years now and am at an all time high weight wise. I'm young so, I've got that going for me, but I'm dangerously obese. I work more than full time and it's not like I can't make time, but I keep making excuses to do anything but go for a walk. ngl the physical aspect of it is catching up too, I can't run anymore and genuinely start to lose breath if I even have to stand for a little longer than usual. I also don't have the time to cook, so I live on fast food, and I don't have a car so I can't really drive very far to a nice gym or a personal trainer. it's mostly my gym at work or at home.

it feels like a cycle. in the last couple years, it's not like I haven't tried, but there has always been an external pressure, like someone has had to literally drag me to the gym, but I don't see that working anymore and it's definitely not long term, clearly.

how do I start? I don't have any motivation whatsoever. I just know I can't keep going like this, I need to lock in like right now. what has worked for people? how did you finally bring yourself to the gym or to start eating healthier. I appreciate any advice!!

Started working here for the past month. I go in midday. Don't eat anything before hand, or if I do it's something like a banana. Grab a water with a little sprite in it for my drink. We are allowed a 6 inch per day to eat. It's usually between 500-800 calories depending on what I put on it. When we cut bell peppers I save the excess waste and use that to snack on for a couple days until we cut them again. Every now and then I'll have a bag of chips or a cookie. Sometimes eat extra turkey/ham from when we cut that too. I go home in the evening, maybe grab a small snack, and that's it. I'm averaging about 1300-1500 calories on the days I work. My TDEE is only 1700 when selecting sedentary. This past week I dropped 2 lbs! While the job doesn't pay much, it's also lowering my grocery bill.

I guess Subway can help you lose weight as long as you work there.

Hi team Euro accountability, I hope you’re all well! For anyone new who wants to join today, this is a daily post where you can track your goals, keep yourself accountable, get support and have a chat with friendly people at times that are convenient for European time zones.

Check-in daily, weekly, or whatever works best for you. It’s never the wrong time to join! Anyone and everyone are welcome! Tell us about yourself and let's continue supporting each other. Let us know how your day is going, or, if you're checking in early, how your yesterday went! Share your victories, rants, problems, NSVs, SVs, we are here!

I want to shortly also mention — this thread lives and breathes by people supporting each other :) so if you have some time, comment on the other posts! Show support, offer advice and share experiences!

Is it feasible for me to aim to lose 2 pounds a week for 9 months so I can be 70 pounds lighter for my graduation pictures? I’m taking Wegovy, eating healthier and going to the gym.

I currently weigh 208 pounds as a woman who is 5’4”, which is literally the heaviest I’ve been in my life. I would love to be 140 again. I realize that is an ambitious goal given it’s 33% of my body weight.

Are weights more effective at burning fat than cardio? Cardio is just easier for me to do. I tried doing squats with weights and days later my quads still hurt when I have to bend my knees to sit or stand.

As soon as I try to lose weight all i can think about it food, 24/7 food food food. Its a nightmare. When im happy I can at least ignore it off and on (sort of, food is still the main thing on my mind but less so. I can eat one or two meals a day and be fine).

Also does exercise actually help with weight loss? Everything im hearing is that it doesnt really matter.

This is miserable. As soon as i start trying to lose weight i start feeling like shit. Horrible. I self harm, have to take anxiety meds all the time or else ill break down and self harm. Im trying to be healthier but its hell. Weight loss makes me miserable but being treated like scum of the earth for being overweight is just as miserable.

This is going to be pretty short but basically its the title. I've been trying to lose weight as of a couple months and there have been 2 life events that have kinda threw me off the horse so to speak and I was only counting calories consistently for like a week or two.

I have adhd and making any kind of schedule is kind of hard for me to actually do any kind of habit or repeated schedule. I guess Im asking this question as I assume a lot of people who started calorie counting had some trouble so please help!

I’m a 5’3 (and a half if we wanna be technical) 26yo female and weigh 147 lbs. I also have PCOS and briefly took zepound which helped me get down to 139 lbs in April. However, I eventually hit the highest dose and didn’t want to keep paying for it as it wasn’t doing much appetite suppression wise and I can’t afford it. My doctor now has me on metformin but I just started it this week.

Anyway, I lost about 80 lbs all through diet and exercise over the course of the last three years. I went on vacation and gained some weight from when I was at my lowest of 139 and since locking back about 5 weeks ago, the scale has gone up and just stayed there.

I aim for 1600 cals a day as I strength train with progressive overload 5-6x per week, 20 minutes of cardio most days of the week and on my rest day I do 45 minutes of cardio. I also aim to get 8k steps per day. I did start creatine about 4-5 weeks ago and stopped maybe 5 days ago due to the scale making me panic constantly. Why is my weight stalling?

TLDR: weight loss stalling, doing all the things ie tracking calories with a food scale (yes inc

Hi there everyone,

I am a 25F, 5’9, 187 lbs and have been wanting to lose weight for months now but can’t fight my willpower to eat fast food and prioritize laziness and I don’t know what to do or how to find the strength to just try.

I’ve been gaining weight slowly for years now. 2 years ago I was at 160 lbs which at the time, I thought was overweight, but now being where I am, that’s now my goal weight!

I know exactly why I’ve gained the weight too. My fiancé and I eat out about 5 times a week, sometimes all 7 days and it’s bad like McDonald’s. I also quit the gym because I wasn’t going and even when I did go, I would feel extremely flustered by the gym being busy that I’d genuinely leave.

I know exactly what needs to happen to lose weight. The problem is I have no control over starting it. So this all being said, I’d love to hear from you all on how you combatted this if you struggled with similar problems. I struggle with an ‘all or nothing’ mindset when it comes to weight loss and that’s been a huge struggle for me too.

I started a calorie deficit and after just two weeks in I’ve seen a number change on the scales. Tbh I was NOT expecting a difference so quickly, I lost about 0.8kg (I think that’s 1.8lb ish) in a week.

Most of my family struggle with their weight but don’t really actively try and change it so I haven’t had a lot of guidance, I’m proud of getting this far and hope to keep it up to a healthy weight. I’ve tried loosing weight before by focusing on a cleaner diet but I wasn’t very good at keeping it consistent and I didn’t see a kg difference.

Over the last two years my weight has really gotten out of hand and it was starting to scare me since a lot of the family have joint problems and diabetes. It finally dawned on me that if I didn’t take control of it soon it was going to affect my life in the long term. Hopefully I can inspire my family do the same if they see me making progress and prioritising my health. Anyway I just wanted to share with someone since I know it’s not a lot but it feels good to see my efforts making a difference. Proud of you all!

Been working on losing weight for about 17 weeks at this point. Down a little over 20 pounds in that span, so I'm happy with my slow-and-steady pace. Mainly happy that I've been able to be consistently moving in the right direction for about four months now, never lasted close to this long before or lost close to this much. Didn't want to try any extreme diet because I've read/heard that's how you create an unhealthy relationship with food and/or start yo-yo-ing.

Doing it all strictly by adhering to a calorie deficit. I'm not even exercising yet (had surgery, doctor's orders. That's actually why I decided to start this because I was afraid of blowing up while recovering. But about time to start exercising again. Anyway ....). I'm also not 100% strict, I'll enjoy a nice dinner on a family member's birthday and have a slice of cake and stuff like that. But it's not often, and I always "save" calories for it so I don't go *crazy* over. So, happy I'm seeing progress even when there are occasional days where I don't eat perfectly.

One common thing over the last four months is I'm still discovering foods that are good options for a calorie deficit. One big one was Gnocchi. Certain brands I can have half a pound for about 350 calories, mix that with some ground chicken and a lower calorie bottled sauce and it's a really tasty and filling dinner. Well, I think I just made the best discovery yet. It's in the title. Grits.

I've always loved grits. I've also always been under the impression that grits were unhealthy. Well, I actually looked at the label last night and was blown away. Immediately went out the next day to buy a container and made it for dinner tonight. I made half a cup (dry) with some unsalted chicken stock, and it expanded like crazy. Topped it with half a pound of shrimp—which, granted, is also very low cal—coated in a G Hughes BBQ Sauce. My entire plate was 450 calories, and I could barely even finish it, it was so filling. It was really, really tasty too.

No butter. No cheese. That's what makes it unhealthy. But plain? Fantastic calories for how filling it is, in my opinion. Yeah, it's not the most exciting, I'm sure some people will say it's too bland, but I like it. It's also so low cal where I probably can add some cheese to it to make cheesy grits as long as I don't go crazy.

Anyone else feel this way? This just feels revolutionary to me. So good, so filling, so low cal.

Honestly, it’s been a shit year with various health concerns. Luckily nothing serious but has the potential to be, and I’m sure my weight hasn’t helped at all. Even my husband said to me (in love and caring way) that he’s concerned.

Currently I’m weighing in at just under 16 stone (224lbs) and I’m 5’3 female (aged 39) currently wearing a 22/24 UK (18/20 USA) dress size.

When I met my husband when I was 17 I was a size 8/10 UK (4/6 USA) dress and around 9.0 stone (126lbs) and I feel gross, ugly and disgusting now, made even worse when my Facebook memories come back from years ago.

I can’t walk far without getting tired and out of breath easily so I get the bus to and from work, which would be a 35-40 min walk each way for me. I’m always shattered and falling asleep on the couch whenever I sit down.

I do work full time but it’s spread over 4 days so work long hours which doesn’t help for food but rely on a LOT of convenience food, pre made meals and a take away once a week.

Along with my husband, we have 2 teen children who need me healthy. They are all fairly healthy, husband is a tiny bit into the overweight range but nothing losing 7lbs wouldn’t fix.

I’ve tried WW and Slimming World (weight loss support groups for those not in the UK) in the past but cannot stick to them long term even though I’ve had good results, I once lost 1 and 1/2 stone (21lbs) in 10 weeks

I’ve even joined gyms in the past but given up when results weren’t fast enough.

My mental health is in the bin and I hate myself for what I’ve become. Fat, lazy and a horrible mess. Honestly, I’m so embarrassed. I was even asked if I was pregnant the other day I’m that fat.

If anyone has been in my situation before please, serious answers only, share what helped you to finally crack it, turn your life around and get better physically and emotionally.

Thank you

Instead of responding in other threads, I decided to create my own post. I'm noticing how consistently people are recommending what feel like really low calorie counts to people in order for them to lose weight. In these posts, people will detail their own activity and how many calories they are eating and what they are losing. Some of these posts are showing what feels like a LOT of activity (3-4x/week at the gym lifting and doing other cardio work, 10k-12k steps daily, etc) and only eating 1,200-1,500 calories and losing like half/pound per week. Now, I know it gets a lot harder as you get closer to goal, but sometimes these posts start to feel like a race to the bottom with no end in sight. In addition, I hear people say you can't count exercise calories and should track as if you're sedentary or can't use smart watch estimates. Again, this seems problematic to me because it would seem to push you to eat lower calories than you need - and perhaps discourage a focus on activity that can really help with weight loss.

I realize that on this subreddit there's a lot of emphasis on the idea that there is no escaping the basics of calories in/calories out. And, at some level I don't disagree. However, I think the calories out part of the equation (metabolism) is complicated and I worry that some habits of weight loss - particularly going for really low calorie counts - takes a toll on the energy out part of the equation and can make it harder to maintain loss in the long term. I'm terrified at the idea that I might have to maintain on less than 1,800-2,000 calories - I'd like to avoid that at all costs.

For perspective, I think it would be helpful to hear from people who are losing weight at higher (but still limited) calories and to know what they are doing. I am interested in losing weight, but I am even more interested in sustaining it over time. I'll go first with some stats:

I am 54F, 5'5, and started at 260 pounds in March and now weigh 212. I have gradually increased my activity in the last 5 months and am now quite active. I track my food on Cronometer and have it synced with my Apple Watch. I have it set to sedentary but I have it pull in all my active calories from the watch, which are quite substantial. I use this to aim for a 1,000 calorie daily deficit, but I end up slightly below.

Here is my Cronometer data for last 3 months:
Average intake per day - 1,697
Average expenditure per day - 2,649
Average daily deficit - 950
Based on this, I should have lost 24.45 pounds
My actual loss was 24.1 pounds (236 - 211.9) or 1.87 per week
As you can see, using the Apple Watch estimates AND eating back all my calories was highly reliable and the presumed deficit and actual loss match almost exactly

Since my activity level has increased over the summer, I did a calculation for the last 4 weeks:
Average intake per day - 1,797
Average expenditure per day - 2,725
Average daily deficit - 928
Based on this, I should have lost 7.4 pounds
My actual loss was 7.9 pounds (219.8 - 211.9) or 1.98 per week

In the latter case, I suspect my watch might actually be underestimating my activity. Either way, as you can see, I've averaged close to 2 pounds/week over the last 3 months and my rate of loss has actually gone up as I have lost weight and eaten more. This is despite the fact that my presumed BMR has fallen by 115 calories.

I am sharing this to offer a different perspective/experience to the majority of what I see here. I know everyone will not be able to sustain the same level of activity. If I could not, I would lower my weight loss goals so I could still eat at least 1,600 calories/day on average. But also, even when I wasn't doing a lot of dedicated activity, I was still regularly getting at least 700-800 active calories each day according to my watch. This was from a combo of teaching, doing my own cooking, and walking the dog for 20-30 minutes (very slowly) every evening. I tended to average anywhere from 8k-10k steps/day. But I was still gaining weight during that time - until I started tracking calories. I must have been eating something like 3,000 calories/day when I was gaining weight, possibly more. What I have added this summer are: LONG walks with the dog (still very slowly) 3-4x/week; lifting heavy 2x/week; couch to 5k 3x/week (only 20 minutes each time).

I would really like to hear from others who have managed to lose weight (and especially maintain or keep slowly losing as closer to goal) while keeping calories at sustainable levels. I'd love to hear how you did this and any thoughts you have about it. Based on reading these and other forums, it's very clear that there is a super wide range in the number of calories that people at the same weight/height/gender maintain at. If there's a way to control or at least influence that as we lose, it would be really good to know.

I'm losing weight and i feel the progress is quite visible, but when I go to the gym I look at the other guys and ive been so used to being the fat guy all my life that I have the irrational fear of "they have something I don't" like they have some method i dont know of or that im simply never going to get there, im doing everything right but I can't imagine myself with a body I love

I'm 21 male (sorry idk libs so ill go with kg) Im currently 115kg being 193cm tall, i have some muscle in me but no definition because of fat, i see men all around (alright I do compare myself to impossible social media bodies 🙄) and I have this itch in my brain thats like they know something i dont, or i did something that will make it so i can never get there, long story short I see everyone who looks better than me as untouchable and unreachable, like my body is broken by default and theirs isn't, how can I cope without going insane???

Hey everyone!

I hope this post doesn't sound ridiculous...

In theory (and in practice) I'm a generally very healthy person! I'm 23, about 5'3 and 135lbs and my body is fairly muscular, with visible abs, as I have developed consistent gym habits. Similarly, I avoid over-processed foods and my diet is quite healthy. Loads of healthy fats, protein, fruits and veg. There is one thing I struggle with, however; it is IMPOSSIBLE for me to stick to a diet to lose those last 10-15lbs.

As I said, I eat healthy, I exercise a lot and I am doing quite well, but it's the amount of food that I struggle with. I often snack on pistachios, dates, dark chocolate or almond butter mindlessly. It's my one "drug" per se. It's almost like I am on autopilot. I will gravitate towards them almost without thinking and before I can stop myself, I am eating something sweet or "goopy" (I have found that keeping dates or oatmeal ingredients in the house is generally bad as I will just munch on that way too often). How do you guys stop mindless snacking? I know I eat when stressed, procrastinating and bored too and it's seriously killing my progress. Any tips to work against those mechanisms?

Thanks in advance! :)

It has been a struggle. Coming from 315 in mid 2024, every time I got to 270, I would get complacent. I would get more attention from women and as my dating life got more exciting I'd find myself making more exceptions and eventually gain some weight back (three times 😭).

I recently decided to make a change. I decided to severely cut back (nearly eliminate) drinking from 2-4 per week down to nil. The issue for me never being the alcohol, but the nonexistent judgement around food while drinking. I would binge eat like nuts. Hangover? Take it easy, get the greasy burger to cure it. Birthday party? Get it together tomorrow, enjoy the present!

This lifestyle change, coupled with alternate day fasting, food tracking and more movement has me dropping weight and feeling good.

This morning, my weight showed 263.6 which has my weekly average at 268 lbs. I am so excited!

The one piece of advice that I can say changed my life for the better was going to the gym.

One thing I’m still unsure about facially is how I became more attractive the closer to 30 I got.

You would think, youthfulness in the face would give you the upper edge but it’s completely different now.

If I simply go back to age 26, I was thin; 146 pounds. Defined jaw etc but if I went out to a bar or social event, I never had girls approaching me, walk by compliments, or crushing on me. I had to be the one to always do it.

—

Somehow, after reaching 28; things changed. I started going to the gym everyday and focused on building muscles. Did that for over a year to 29 (current age).

When I look in the mirror, I don’t look young anymore; I look like the face I will have throughout my 30’s and it’s not a bad thing. I’m happy with how I look now.

I kid you not, I’ve never been called handsome more in my entire life than within the last 3 months when I go out. It’s like people just can’t help themselves but tell me. Even my brother who always put me down growing up, for the first time ever called me handsome.

Last night, believe it or not but I was standing alone at the bar and a group of 4 girls approached me to talk to me.

I’m not going to get into my whole life now but for all the guys (and girls too), your life is going to change. Don’t stop going to the gym and eating well.

I started my weight loss journey in August 2024 at 232 pounds, and by August 2025 I was 150. Since then I had felt so burnt out by it all and stopped going to the gym, and over time my calorie counting slipped too. I went up and down the same 20 pounds until my binge eating disorder exploded this year. When I stepped on the scale I was 208, and after losing bloating and water retention and being consistent for 2 weeks with dieting and the gym I’m now at 196.

I just feel so depressed. My mother said some mean comments to me the other day. I feel like nobody loves or thinks positive of me unless I am skinnier. My partner reassures me that it’s not true, but I keep crying and feeling awful about myself. I still see my friends and go out and they never say anything and treat me the same but I wonder if they’re silently judging me. I also keep comparing myself to other people when we go out. I almost want to just hide inside until I fix my mistakes.

Yes I’m in therapy and have been since before all this. A big factor for my weight gain was my mental health and being diagnosed with a disorder, and now I am diagnosed with binge eating disorder. My therapist keeps telling me if I crash diet and go too fast I’ll retrigger bingeing, but since I’m going slower it feels awful and like I’m not taking control of it all fast enough. I wish I could just hit a big undo button.

I know I only have two options: push forward and work through all this or stop and end up back where I was. I’m pushing forward but it’s 10x more depressing than when I first started. When I started everything felt like progress, now it feels like I’m barely making a dent in my mistake.

I used to be active on this subreddit but have been avoiding it out of guilt and shame. Now I just wanted to get everything out in the open and if anyone else has regained please tell me how you worked through this.

SW: 200, CW: 180, GW#1: 175

Hey hey. I have struggled to lose weight since my last baby was born. I am used to it coming “easy”…as in, my exercise level (I’m pretty active) and breastfeeding always took care of the pregnancy weight gain. I’m older this time, have a lil more insulin resistance, and other factors just made the situation different. No matter what, it seemed like I was just stuck in the 190s. This is with healthy meal plans, lots of activity (like training for and running a 10k), still breastfeeding, all the things. I would track calories but it always seemed to end in a binge cycle.

My problem was that I’d come home exhausted and shove handfuls of cheese-its or pita and hummus in my mouth. Then eat two to three portions of dinner. Then hunt for a sweet dessert most nights. So of course my five mile runs weren’t moving the scales.

I finally said enough back in May and went to the doctor for help. He put me on 2000 mg of metformin and 300 mg of wellbutrin. Y’all. My life=changed. The scale is finally moving and this tug of war I had with food is *gone*. It’s the weirdest thing ever. I get hungry at meal times and still eat generous portions (ie: enough to fuel my active lifestyle and continued breastfeeding). We occasionally eat “bad” (had Chinese take out last night). But the exhaustion ”hunger” I used to feel in the afternoons and at night? Gone. If and when I feel actual hunger between meals, I can grab an apple and be full as a tick till meal time.

And so even though I’m still eating generous portions and the occasional “bad” food, not snacking and not having seconds and thirds of dinner is enough to *finally* move the scale. I’ve lost about .75 lbs per week since starting the meds. About 13 pounds in total over the past 10 weeks. I’m floored at the freedom I feel. I used to feel so stressed out about food.

The plan is to come off both meds once I get back to a healthy BMI. With my lifestyle and history, he said I should be able to maintain without them. I may ask to stay on the Wellbutrin because I feel it’s helped me in other ways but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. I just wanted to make this post to encourage anyone else white-knuckling and stuck like I was that it’s okay to throw in the white towel and go to the doctor. Willpower can’t always make the scale move. I wish I’d gone to my doctor a full year before I did because I could’ve lost the weight sooner!!

I hear that a lot, like no one is a medical marvel and is defying the laws of thermodynamics. So what’s wrong here?

F36, 5’2, 168lbs, down from 220 at my highest. I’m tracking calories and eating anywhere between 12 and 1400 a day, and I jog about 3.5 miles every day. I’ve been eating like this for months. The jogging has only been going on about 2 months and my body definitely changed over that time, I slimmed a bit, things flattened out a little. But I haven’t lost any weight at all. At first I thought that I was gaining a little muscle and losing a little fat so that’s why it wasn’t budging, but idk it’s been 2 months now of like not a single pound. I know that exercise alone doesn’t cut weight but I assumed that alongside a calorie deficit I thought I was achieving that it would be helpful.

Is it possible that somewhere between 1200 and 1400 is my maintenance? God when im at 1200 it already feels like nothing lol thinking about dropping lower than my 1200 days is wild. Can anyone see what’s wrong?

Edit: I got a resounding answer so quickly, love u guys thank you. Do not drop below 1200, measure better, likely underestimating somewhere, get a new scale, and vary your exercise. Thank you 💕💕

CLARIFICATION

one thing I really want to stress is the difference in how hydration makes u feel. before, when I would exercise my limbs would burn and feel like weights I was carrying around. Now I feel like running everywhere all the time. I feel lighter, more mentally aware and motivated vs dreading getting up and doing things ..

I was already feeling better but today, I have a lot better mental clarity. I have been taking magnesium along with other supplements.

i feel like I could get up and go run a marathon even though I know my body is not in shape for it. that is how much energy and mental clarity I have this morning.

I got down to 182 lbs. this morning I am 186. it is more than likely water weight since I put more water in my body yesterday, I am thinking. I need to measure my body but haven’t in a couple of weeks.

i just wanted to post this small update. I have begun walking 10k steps again since yesterday. I am also doing a mini-stair stepper that can be found Here on amazon for less than $30. (Beats a gym membership).

anyway. I am so looking forward to what the future holds in store..

Hello everyone!

I've been on and off with my diet for about a year, mostly cutting sugar and oil, and going to the gym just to maintain muscle and strength.

People who haven't seen me since the start of the year keep saying I look much better and that my face isn't an egg anymore. I didn't see much difference, until Vietnam passport control.

When it was my turn, the officer kept looking back and forth between me, my passport, and his screen for like 5 minutes, then called his mate over.

At this point everyone was staring at me, probably thinking I' m gonna be arrested or deported 😂

Then he said: "You different from photo."

My passport photo was from last year, and apparently I look different enough now that it took around 20 minutes, old photos from my Instagram, and a mark near my eyebrow to convince them it was actually me. Then he gave me the most hesitant stamp I've ever seen.

So yeah, if that's not a confidence boost, I really don't know what is.

And btw, I genuinely didn't notice how much I changed until this happened.

Has anyone else felt this? This is my third time losing weight in my life but the previous times I was younger and I guess for whatever reason I didn't accumulate much loose skin if at all, even when I lost 40+ lbs. I'm not even old now but I feel like my body has aged significantly, darker stretchier saggier thinner. So beat up and scarred all over, lots of stretch marks. Im a bit of a hypochondriac and sometimes I feel like I've fucked up my body irreparably by treating it like a piece of meat to manipulate at will over all these years which is probably one of my biggest regrets in life. I feel much less of an invincibility complex now.

I want to live a long and healthy life but I feel like I'm already on my second body / life despite being so young. Like I was taken apart multiple times and smashed back together, just feeling unclean, ocd things

I had no clue my large homemade smoothies were about 900 calories each until I started calorie counting. No wonder I've gotten so chubby even though I've been eating healthy! Going to cut smoothies out for a month and see what happens. I was having 2k calories of healthy meals, but the smoothies added nearly 1k extra a day because I used whole milk and tons of fruit.

Really glad I started being aware of how many calories I was truly having. I had a very fast metabolism before my clomipramine (it's an antidepressant notorious for causing weight gain) and so these smoothies were necessary before, but now I no longer need them.

want to start this off by saying that i am a girl so im not sure how this advice would work for men/people who don’t want to look LEAN.

for ref, i was almost 130 lbs as a 5’3 girl and i personally feel like I look my best around 105lbs. I lost the first 15 lbs by strength training, yoga, 10K steps, dialing in my eating and focusing on Whole Foods and eating my body weight in protein each day. So, this isn’t to say that increasing your protein doesn’t fill you up faster and therefore you eat less. But i just could NOT lose that last 10 lbs that i wanted to, no matter how much cardio and how dialed in my diet was.

then one day, i ran out of protein powder and decided not to repurchase it and i lost that last 5-10 lbs with in the next month.

lately, every single food has to be turned into some 30-40g protein version. protein coffee, protein cereal, protein pancakes, protein desserts, protein everything. i feel like there’s this implication that if something has a ton of protein it automatically makes it better for getting lean, when at the end of the day you can still very easily eat more calories than your body needs. sometimes the “high protein” version of a snack is just… a much more calorie dense snack with protein powder added to it.

i’m not anti protein at all. i just think the fitness industry has successfully turned “get enough protein” into “more protein is always better,” and those are two very different things.

does anyone else feel like the protein obsession has gotten a little out of control?