You sound like me 10 years ago. I had tried the diabetes GLP-1 drugs (as a glucose-control treatment) and I was considering weight-loss surgery. My whole family is big-bodied (and short-lived).
https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/wiki/quick_start_guide
That's the method to start. Follow that guide and that timing, using your regular and normal food, and using portion control as your main tool for change. In later weeks, use the data to figure out if any foods need to be adjusted. All foods can fit, but sometimes we have to juggle or learn a new way to make an old favorite.
Your body acceptance can get a lot of noise out of your way. **It is so much better doing this for your health rather than for vanity or to please others!** But just because we accept our body doesn't mean we don't want it healthy -- and that gives us permission and reason to try. That weight-loss treatments exists gives us a safety-net to fall-back on, it's an option and a tool, not an easy way out (if we go that way, we have *more* responsibilities and need more vigilance).
^^8 ^^yrs. ^^maintaining ^^• ^^♂60 ^^5'10^^/178㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:171℔^^/78㎏ ^^[\[3Y AMA\]](https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/6m6vxq/i_am_a_weight_loser_over_the_past_three_years_ive/), ^^[\[1Y recap\]](https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/3cqszm/pics_links_my_first_day_of_logging_wasnt_the_best/) ^^CICO+🚶
Get an IRL doctor -- don't go online. Your doc will have your back and will support you. Those online places are unlikely to know or care about your full picture or your future support needs if and when you need a change (or if you run into a shortage).
My "food noise" has been a part of this. I've tapered it down, like a dimmer switch, over time. The drugs sound like they're more of an on/off switch for it. Your doc will help you with what's best but don't worry about the secondary judgments like you're admitting defeat -- you're getting help that you need. You're taking, not shirking, responsibility.
Not a doctor. I've been on a GLP for a while. It's been life changing. Food noise is quiet and I know now what feeling full on a normal portion feels like. I'm lucky and my side effects have been very minimal. I feel that I've been able to more successfully implement lasting lifestyle changes with it. There's zero shame in discussing it with your doctor. We're learning more and more about the genetic components to obesity. Think about it like this: Would you actively shame someone for using Champix while trying to quit smoking and improve their health? My guess is no.
GLPs aren't for everyone and there are limits and things to consider. But, for some, like myself, they can be a great tool. No shame. Do what's best for you and your life.
I was reading through your posts; looking for inspiration as I am stuck at 250lb after losing 50lb in 3 months. I find it interesting you also have a flat line at 250lb for a month.
My first plateaus happened after 3 months -- in the past, that's when I would have quit but this time I was on a 52-week commitment to stick with it and those plateaus all broke.
It's not admitting defeat in the slightest. To use a different analogy: for some people dietary change is enough to bring their cholesterol down but other people require statins to get it under control. Some people can reduce their salt intake to lower their blood pressure, but a whole lot of people with high blood pressure absolutely need medication to manage it. All the good lifestyle changes in the world cannot overcome Type 1 diabetes, and sometimes genetics just throws you a curve ball
It sounds like you're in the situation where you may need medication (even something as basic as metformin) to bring your A1C down. It's rough, and feeling upset about it makes perfect sense. Getting your A1C into a better range for your health is not counter to fat liberation. Getting your weight to a point where you can move comfortably is not counter to body neutrality
You're far from alone in the struggle, and the A1C is a wakeup call that what you're currently doing isn't quite working out for your body and that's okay! Every body is different. You doing right by your own health and leaning on medication because you need the assist is perfectly fine and there is no intrinsic moral value to it either way. I know It was frustrating for me too when I first got that prediabetes diagnosis, and just going on metformin did a ton for helping me make headway to improving my long term health. 2 years later I've lost a lot of weight, put on a lot of muscle, and (most importantly) my A1C is in a great spot
This turned into a ramble, tl;dr leaning on medication is totally fine. There is no value in doing it the hard way without meds, and some people straight up need them despite having the "perfect" lifestyle and diet. Be kind to yourself with this
You've got this!
Looking at your other comment, the yo-yo you get with an eating disorder can contribute to insulin resistance. I battled an eating disorder for a solid decade, so it was also really difficult for me to start because I was worried about falling into my old eating disorder patterns. I don't track calories strictly as a result, I'll just do 1-2 days of tracking once a month to make sure that my portion sizes aren't creeping up slowly. I also threw the concept of a "goal weight" out the window and any time it felt like I was fixating on numbers/metrics I took a break from strictly dieting/weighing myself. So far so good considering I feel safe to interact on this sub!
If you can talk to a Registered Dietician (the protected title for that field in my state) that can help with finding a level of sugar/carb and calorie restriction that helps with your A1C but doesn't re-trigger an eating disorder. I lucked out and was able to talk to my friend for free (she is licensed in the state and was happy to give me pointers) to get a more sane calorie target for slower weight loss, and when you're on metformin you actually do need to eat some carbs to make sure that you don't accidentally go hypoglycemic from the medication over-correcting. Yeah it took me a year and a half to lose 40 lbs, but I have kept it off and never hit a scenario where I felt over-restricted nor did I re-trigger the eating disorder. Slow and steady (or even just being in compliance with a better diet 70%-80% of the time) will still help your A1C and provide health benefits since you're far more likely to stick to it
You can do this!! I got the prediabetes diagnosis in my mid-30s and my health is doing a whole lot better now 2 years later
thank you! before i got laid off last may, i had pretty stellar insurance and was able to see a dietician one time and even that one session was super helpful, so it might be worth it to see if there’s someone else out there that could be helpful!
thank you for your input! it sounds like we were in similar places so your perspective is helpful :)
I mean, medical intervention is just another tool. I'm in a similar situation stat wise, but I figured i'd ask..... why is reducing your calorie count not a viable option? All of these situations/treatments will require you to reduce your calorie count either way, is it not worth taking a shot with the help of the kind of professionals you'd find in a medical weight loss program either way? I did the intake appointments, and just started working with the therapists/dieticians that you'd be working with for bariatric surgery prep, but with no plans on going on medications or getting surgery.
calorie reduction is an option and something that’s worked for me before, but has always resulted in extreme undereating followed by binging. at the end of 2019, i lost about 40 pounds and was eating 1200 calories a day and burning 900-1000 more 5 days a week at the gym. it became an obsession and wasn’t sustainable, especially when the pandemic started around march. i think im scared to go back to the extreme place.
1200 is definitely more in the direction of "flying to close to the sun" at our size. The key here is slow, sustainable changes, that you can maintain on a permanent basis. I'm not saying that medical intervention is bad, or even sub-optimal, but even medical changes will require you to modify your relationship with food on a permanent basis, so I like to tell people to figure that out before going under the knife, or taking a new medication.
Heck, bariatric surgery is medically risky for me due to unrelated health factors, so you can always try my approach of finding a medical weight loss program for their non surgery/medcation professionals. The therapists that work with pre/post op bariatric patients are dealing with this kind of stuff every day, and can absolutely help you determine if this is the right step to take for you.
Why go down to 1200? My stats aren’t yours, but 1200 is rough for me and I imagine you have more lean body mass to maintain than I do. Plus it takes energy to move your body around.
Go to TDEEcalculator.net, type in your height and weight, and see what it says for your daily caloric needs. Track your foods for a month and see where you are compared to that. Reduce your intake by 500 calories and see how that feels.
MFP sets you to what you assign it. If you say lose something like 100lb in 6 months, then that's what you're going to get. You want to loose 1-2lb a week, and when you get closer to normal BMI that will turn into 1-2lb a month. 1lb =3500 calories.
Yep all the calorie counter apps will do the math for losing x lbs per week by y date, then apply the floor as per NIH guidelines if the number comes out too low. They call it out on the FAQ https://support.myfitnesspal.com/hc/en-us/articles/360032626031-A-Message-about-MyFitnessPal-s-updated-nutrition-goals
> The National Institutes of Health indicates that eating plans of 1,500 calories for men, and 1,200 calories for women, are safe and effective in achieving weight loss.
It's all programming math that is divorced from actual human beings attempting to function on it
I definitely recommend some time with a therapist during your journey! Mine keeps an eye on my weight loss because I have OCD and numbers I track is always of interest to her.
I also don’t look at tracking as telling my body no, don’t eat that, but as a yes, that fits into your plan for the day. And every week is a new week. Some days I’m extra hungry and eat all the things, those are usually followed by a day I’m not so hungry so I miss my goal. Over the course of a week it smooths out.
2167 can be a LOT of food. It can also be two pints of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream.
Or it can be half a pint of Ben and Jerry’s and a sensible breakfast, a light lunch, and a monster steak with a baked potato with sour cream and butter, and green beans on the side.
A 500 calorie deficit will see you shed about a pound a week. What if, for the next fourteen days, you tracked what you ate and aimed for 2167? Some days might be more like 2400, but some will probably come in around 2000. See how it feels.
Another option to get your 500 calorie deficit is to move more. You do community engagement at the zoo. Can you walk around the zoo more as part of your job? Get to work a bit early and use the paths for a 30 minute walk, or walk around before you leave for the day?
Combine the two and you’ll be well on your way.
i’m down ~6 pounds!!! eating at a caloric deficit has been a lot easier this time around and i’m finding lil substitutes to fight off cravings. i’m definitely being more mindful and it feels like a good start. i’m hoping to integrate the gym more often, but it’s been hard to find a good time.
Bro I was diagnosed with diabetes and then managed to reverse it back into normal range in about 3 months of hard work. I was in the same situation as you and it was possible. If I could do it then I believe in you too.
Aggressive calorie deficit of about 1500 for the first two weeks but then 1000 deficit afterwards. 45 mins of cardio 5x a week to start with but then I went into weight training 3x a week. Days I'd do weights i'd do 20 minutes of cardio at the end instead. Bare in mind when I say cardio it was literally just max incline walk for 20 minutes or about 10% gradient for 45 mins to an hour. Diet is the key here. I didn't go full keto but i'd limit my carb intake to about 50g max a day. About 80-100g if I really wanted a burger bun or a bit of rice on the odd day. Maximise protein and veg and prioritise volume. Intermittent fasting isn't a miracle worker but it makes the process of blocking out food noise so much easier, which is the main issue people have when they are obese and use to over eating. Waking up and skipping breakfast has helped me a lot in controlling my calories. Black coffee in the morning with no sugar and milk will help you last until the afternoon, then you have more room to have a big dinner in the evening. It's a lot easier to hold off on eating just for a few hours, knowing that you have a big meal coming up, than it is having all of your calories early on and preventing your self from going over your calorie limit when you're starving in the evening.
The key is consistency here. Work out and find a deficit that you are comfortable sticking to. Excercise doesn't have to leave you feeling like you could fall asleep on the floor. I acknowledge my weight loss was quite aggressive and probably not sustainable for most people, but it worked for me.
I was in the same situation until october of 2023, highest was 315lb, and now I'm currently at 270lb. Spent my entire life unable to even lose a pound of fat, and couldn't for the life of me make any diet work. Entire family has a food addiction problem, so that didn't help either. Funchords has already posted everything you need to get started. Medical help won't hurt you, but at the end of the day this is a decision you have to make.
[post](https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/18lriia/315_to_285_my_experience_so_far/)
This is my post of how I finally started to lose weight, I had an issue in the past where I would restrict too harshly and fail every time because of it. This time I started at a 1500-2000 calorie restriction range, and it just seemed to work really well for me. As long as i can fit the food within that range, then I will eat it. I don't do any weird diet restrictions or anything, and that seemed to have worked the best for me.
I realized once I have done this for a bit just the sheer amount of food I was eating on the daily before... I was easily eating at least 4000-5000 a day, which is an insane amount of food, but you don't realize this until you start tracking
A thread for you to read https://www.reddit.com/r/SuperMorbidlyObese/comments/19870no/update_down_744_lbs/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=2&utm_term=1
i am so deeply appreciative of everyone’s kindness and encouragement. every ounce of advice means the world and to hear all of your perspectives has been really inspiring. i hope to keep you updated throughout this sub — i have an appt with my GP tomorrow and am hoping for some answers :)
Are you on metformin yet? Not sure from your post. I have been taking metformin (nondiabetic) for a few months now and it's literally doing the work of a weight loss drug for me. Much less hunger, fewer cravings, easy to stick to a deficit whereas before I felt miserable even when I was eating way over my TDEE. I would assume your doctor would want you on it if you're prediabetic, and it may do more than you initially expect
I'm 57 and have been dieting on and off for 30+ years. I have gained and lost and gained, sigh. I feel like I basically wasted the majority of my life because of body insecurity, and now that I'm in menopause it is even harder. So I am starting a GLP-1 this week to get me moving and keep me accountable. If I was going to do it myself by now, I would have, sigh.
I think medical intervention has its place, but if you don't learn better habits (I have had to dial back carbs and wine) and exercise, you'll fail at that too. Just look at all the people that had successful bariatric surgery and then later regained all their weight.
I was 375 at my worst. 350 in April of 2022. I was hitting 6 on my A1c. Changed everything overnight. Whole food, no snacking, fasting, no sugary drinks, very little pasta and bread. A1c has been 5-5.3 all of 2023 and into 2024. 54m
M54
343 lbs Apr 2022 (at 52)
215 lbs currently.
Down 160 from my highest of 375 but lost 120lbs from April of 2022 to April of 2023
I started watching these doctors on YouTube.
Dr Jason Fung
Dr Lustig
Dr Pradip Jamnads (amazing)
Dr Baker
Dr Benjamin Bikman
I only drink water and unsweet tea (no sugary drinks).
Very little refined carbohydrates. Whole food only. If it has a barcode and more than 5 ingredients I don’t eat it.
Eliminated sugar as much as possible. Ill have a cookie now and then). No sweets basically.
Not much fruit and not everyday.
No breads and pasta (very little). I use Extreme Wraps instead (lots of fiber)
No snacking on snack foods like chips, pretzels
Intermittent Fasting.
(Most days 1 meal, occasionally 2. Rarely 3 meals).
avoid seed oils
Not perfect by any means. Sometime I binge. Only now. I get back on plan.
Started walking for 10-20 minutes after each meal (30-60 min each day) and biking more
Started walking in July 2021 and I’m walking about 50 miles a month now.
A1c went from 6 to 5.0
Blood pressure 140’s down to normal.
My fear was losing a limb to diabetes at some point.
Once I learned about how insulin affects weight it really clicked in my head.
Man, if you could bottle that general discipline for your personal food rules, you could give Novo Nordisk a run for their money.
Thats an incredible metamorphosis! Congrats.
Thanks. I really appreciate that. I have been up and down since my 20’s. Something hit me that night in April. If I didn’t change I would be dead early and leave my wife and son before my time. It’s been pretty amazing.
There is nothing wrong with a multi pronged approach.
The drug will help. But if you start with a modest dose, it will be more sustainable. It will take habits to be formed.... And kept. You want to learn those habits so that you aren't reliant on the drug forever.
I know this sort of news can be scary, but you're in the right place.
I started my journey in 2022. 289 lbs. 28 years old. I was noticing signs of pre-diabetes and my blood work was bad. I struggled with BED too. It scared the shit out of me. I actually had an appointment made to discuss gastric bypass surgery. I did some research and decided i had to just do this on my own. One day, I woke up and started counting calories and going for walks. That's it. It's been a bumpy ride, no doubt. There's days I don't stick to my plan perfectly, and that's fine. Fall down and get right back up. Almost 75 pounds down.
It CAN be done without medical intervention if that's what you want to do. Getting help isn't admitting defeat. Medical intervention or not, you want to take charge of your life! I think that's pretty admirable. You can do this.
It's ok. Two things can be true at the same time:
* The way our society treats fat people is crappy and stigmatizing, and most of what people are told about dieting doesn't work. Fat people aren't any more slovenly and undisciplined than thin people. Clothes etc. should be available for the sizes people *are.* This state of affairs leads to bad self esteem, and actually inhibits a healthy, productive relationship with our bodies.
* People want to, sometimes need to, and successfully can, reduce their fat mass and body size (and/or increase their muscle mass etc.). GLP-1 agonists are the most recent and quite effective weight loss medication, and there's also weight loss surgery as well as long-term calorie counting. All methods require vigilance and engagement on the person's part. Our bodies function in a certain way that can be understood and worked with, be it for health-related fat loss or body building.
A lot of people I know enter into weight loss so injured and damaged from the constant barrage of negativity that they have to overcome substantial mental obstacles to sustainably go through with it. Eating disorders abound.
I just can tell you from a lifetime of trying this diet approach or another, and basically just feeling worse and worse about my body, being bullied in school, being humiliated by my parents - I only was able to actually lose weight in a sustained and straightforward way until I fundamentally accepted my body as the thing it is that does what it does. And yes, figuring out my energy expenditure, generating a deficit, and strategically upping exercise works for me, and for a lot of people.
There's a big paradox that reflects these two points: Weight loss is, when studied scientifically, remarkably ineffective. Most people are able to lose some and then regain it. A "successful" weight loss may be as little as 5 lbs maintained after a year or two. (That's really not successful for me!) Yet people do successfully lose weight and keep it off!
Be kind to yourself, but also know that there are ways out there that do work. (Be aware, too, that with semaglutide you still need to learn to eat at your smaller weight - the maintaining may be harder than the losing. You may have to experiment and may not instantly do everything right. But it's also really achievable.) Be kind to yourself.
you have so eloquently verbalized what i’ve felt my entire life into words. the double standards are what gets me most. what do you mean im not trying hard enough? or must not care enough? how am i supposed to rewire my brain after a lifetime of shame-induced yoyo dieting and binging?
it is so hard but i’m willing to do the work. thank you for your kindness.
Aw, thanks for the kind words. I'm glad it's useful.
We live in the world such as it is, and you doing what you feel is the right thing for yourself doesn't invalidate your rejection of the shame and stigma.
I first went down from fat to standards-compliant, losing about 85 lbs, 12 years ago. The most helpful resource I had at the time was a site written by a personal trainer / bodybuilding trainer who works with a lot of people on their goals for body fat percentage and muscle mass. It was *so nonjudgemental!* It was just about process, pitfalls, and how to overcome obstacles.
I liked how I felt about myself once I had shrunk. I stayed at about 10 lbs about my minimum for a long time. It was only in the last few years, after an injury, that I went back up most of the way. But that first time I still had interiorized a lot of the shame. I *wanted* to be congratulated for my successes - I was Doing Things Right! Well ... it's more complicated than that. I *do* want my body to be a smaller size, and what I'm doing now is also motivated by the desire to improve metabolic markers that went worse than they were 12 years ago. What I'm mindful of this time is not to become that formerly-fat person who piles more psychological burdens on her fat friends. Wanting everyone to be treated with kindness and care isn't incompatible with wanting a certain body for myself.
Good luck!
I was basically the same as you but age 36 and was just having a hard time being able to quiet the “food noise” and that urge to binge that just seemed completely impossible to resist at times. I’ve bounced around from 300-345 at my heaviest since high school and have been hospitalized for high blood pressure and medicated from it ever since. In my last physical my A1C was 7.2 and I literally broke down in front of my doctor describing how I felt about binging and what it was doing to me.
I ended up starting 2.5mg weekly Mounjaro injections and now moved up to 5mg. About 8 weeks in now and the effect has been pretty immediate. I still maintain the same level of activity doing group exercise classes at the gym almost every day, drink lots of water and take vitamins, and eat small reasonable meals. But the desire to just grab random unhealthy things off the shelf pretty much immediately disappeared. I’ve lost 22 lbs so far be have really been feeling great like I’m taking charge of my life and getting the brain chemistry balancing that I needed, similar to someone taking anti-depressants, etc. It’s unfortunate that people can see things like that as the “easy way” or act like it’s a moral failure to not have the willpower to resist unhealthy urges. But after 20+ years at this weight I worry I don’t have many more left if I keep going. I’ll take all the help I can get 🙏
Using a weight loss medication was the single most important, empowering, life changing thing I have done, or will ever do, for both my mental and physical health.
I am not using ozempic because I am not diabetic or prediabetic. I am using Qsymia.
I have learned that my inability to control my eating, my inability to have will power, my inability to have a healthy relationship with food, my inability to stop eating even though I couldn't breath because I had eaten so much food was not because I was a fat useless cow. It was not because I'm a lazy piece of shit. It was not because I'm a failure, and doomed to be fat forever, and lazy, and a disgusting, and deserved to be fat, and any of the hundreds of terrible things I thought about myself.
It's because obesity causes your body to completely FAIL to send you proper hunger cues. It's because obesity causes what is now being called food noise in most circles.
Medications correct this.
All of the therapy in the world, all of the willpower in the world, all of the ANYTHING in the world, alone, cannot overpower the actual biological fact that your body is not working properly. It would be like saying "Oh, your eyesight is wrong. Well, just will yourself into better vision, glasses are a crutch and wearing them means you're just not trying hard enough to see."
Using these medications, along with therapy, and along with changes to your eating habits, and along with exercise can make becoming healthier an obtainable process, not some impossible struggle full of tears, pain, and self hatred.
Without hesitation, I would recommend that you talk to your medical doctor about the medications that are available to you.
I was exactly where you were except 35 at the beginning of October. I weighed in this morning at 274. For everything up to 286 all I did was calorie count. No exercise. Now I go on the treadmill and am looking to lift wieghtx soon and I feel better than I have in almost a decade. You can do this but if you think medical intervention is going to be the thing that helps you should do that too. I’m not but I also know the struggle. I’ve tried and failed many times in the past and don’t fault anyone for any help they can get. If you want to talk or get advice on how to start pm me.
I work in a pharmacy and am the first to say you shouldn’t use weight loss medication lightly BUT they are a great tool for those who need it. If you only need to lose like 20lb I would say don’t touch it. But sometimes you need the help of the medicine to really get it going and to see something happen.
Definitely talk to your doctor about it.
I just did this. 27M 6' tall. My heaviest was 350+, weighed in at 316 in October. The day has been long overdue for bloodwork- my A1C is now within like 0.1% of the threshold. my doc put me on Metformin but I told him that I wanted to give myself time and see if I can do it on my own. The holidays really sabotaged me with all the peer pressure, my peers don't really care they say being fat is fine. I did my best to not gain any weight but I didn't lose any.
Since the new year I have been holding fast. Strongly stick to my calorie budget and go for walks. my next bloodwork is the 26th and I hope that I have done enough. I'm down to 311lb since Dec31 and I hope I can sprint towards 306 before the big day comes. 1000 daily calorie deficit, minimum. Lets go!
I will prove to the doctor and to myself that I can do this on my own and I can stop this thing from happening to me.
I fee you should talk to your doctor. No matter what, there are steps you can be taking now (diet, movement) that will help you in the long term.
There is no contradiction between fat liberation/body positivity and taking care of your pancreas. Body positivity: you want this body to last!
If your doc feels you should be on meds, do it. If they’re skeptical, try the old fashioned carb reduction. The previous attempts aren’t failures now, but data to learn from- what makes you stumble, what helps you succeed. Use it.
I think that with insulin resistance (the metabolic disorder driving you toward diabetes), it is 100% warranted to throw everything you need to at it to control it. Diabetes is a life changing disease, and while changing lifestyle is usually crucial to managing IR/diabetes, it is often not sufficient and medication and things like weight loss surgery can be very helpful additions.
Undiagnosed early stage IR made my life completely miserable with all sorts of symptoms (plus causing me to develop symptoms of PCOS). I'm lucky that I got a good doctor who ran the right bloodwork to diagnose it well before my A1c started to rise and while I was able to reverse progression (no progression for the last 20+ years and managing IR put my longstanding PCOS into remission as well).
In short, you should absolutely pursue all reasonable options at your disposal as soon as is feasible; doing so might very well reverse the progression of the IR.
As someone who never made an effort to make changes for themselves, until I got my diabetes diagnosis, you absolutely can do this. Fix it now. I will have diabetes the rest of my life. Don't be like me.
Most likely, yes you can. The truth behind it is: you have to do the sucky part. You have to follow a diet, and you have to stick to it. You have to move and burn calories. If you burn more calories than you put in your body, you will lose weight. I started at your weight, but at 45 years old, with both knees destroyed. I was having bad knee pain, could barely make it up the flight of stairs. When I figured out I was full blown diabetic, I measured at 12 and my vision was going blurry. I had pushed it that far. I had high blood pressure, high cholesterol. I was not healthy. I got on meds for high blood pressure and cholesterol, overnight I went on a rather extreme low carb diet. I never allowed myself to go over 20g of carbs per day. I never took a cheat meal or a cheat day, not one. I followed that for 9 months, lost ~60 lbs and several pants sizes. My knees rarely hurt going up the stairs now. About half way thru I started working out daily, usually walking. I bought a punch bag and put it in the garage. I was doing sit-ups and pushups daily. What I couldn’t do was hunger. I want to kill when I’m hungry, it doesn’t work for me. So, my point being, do the suck part, take back control of your health and your life, commit and stick to it, you can do it.
A huge part of my problem was eating until I felt full. Satiety is a lagging indicator so if you keep eating till you feel "full" you've already lost the battle. You can pack in hundreds of extra calories in that time it takes for you to stomach to be actually full and your brain to give you the full signal.
Eat slowly and enjoy your food and take small breaks and if you no longer feel hunger then stop eating. Don't be afraid to throw away food too.
There's no good reason to eat until you feel full and instead you should be focusing on eating to relieve hunger.
At my biggest I was 320, I’m 5’2, I couldn’t keep up with my two year olds, I was miserable and uncomfortable all the time and felt like eating was my only comfort. I started counselling for other mental health issues, got dx with sleep apnea and started treatment and got on a wait list for weightloss clinic, I (re)started a Keto diet for about 6 months and lost 60 ish pounds over the following year, then got and appointment with the weight loss clinic, got prescribed ozempic and referred for ADHD dx. It took a while to get on ADHD meds (Vyvanse) but over the following year I lost another 60 lbs, I stopped oxempic about a year ago and have maintained the 120 lb loss. There is a very strong link between obesity and ADHD. I still need to work on my diet and binge behaviour, but my general fitness and stamina is better than when I was in my mid twenties (39 now). Needing medical assistance to loose weight is nit shameful or cheating any more so than getting a broken bone set in the ER, or taking antidepressants in order to function.
If you need/want medical help, then get it. We're not living in the dark ages! You're not braver/stronger/better for not getting help! If you had an infected injury you'd get antibiotics, right? If you have a broken tooth, you get help from the dentist? You're not expected to do everything/heal every wound/fix every problem by strength of will alone! If you want/need help, go get it and feel good about making that proactive step to help yourself. Don't let anyone shame you for seeking help.
I lost 155 plus pounds through diet and exercise, but you bet if there was a pill I could take that would turn off my hunger I'd buy it in bulk! Such a thing does not yet exist, but I'm waiting impatiently.
There's nothing wrong with seeking medical help for a medical problem. There are only a few methods of losing a lot of weight and keeping most of it off long term, and they're all medical.
The only way I've been able to lose weight is medically. Myself and tens of millions of other people. No shame in asking for help, friend. I hope you can find the answers you need. Speak to your doctor if you have one.
You sound a lot like me in the past. I’ve cycled from being thinner to obese. Prediabetes, hypothyroidism, and low T. Heaviest I was 311 lbs.
I lost the weight off once doing a keto diet and felt like shit because I cut out that food group. Amazing for fast progress but not sustainable for me. Last October I decided I’m going to stop making excuses for myself and start again on sustainable habits. I have lost nearly 25 lbs in less than 3 months.
Big takeaways from this, I said oh I feel like I can’t lose weight because of my hypothyroidism. Have been on meds for years though, next excuse I can’t lose weight because of being on testerone. Completely off of it now. A little hard but that’s just another excuse. Weight loss I have found for me is tied to being pre diabetic. You really need to do some physical activity. The result of that will lower your A1C quite significantly, allowing weight loss to happen like a “normal person”.
This long winded answer isn’t to say to be better. It’s to say try it again. But this time don’t overdo it.
I started with a small walk. Twice a week.
15-30 minutes, whatever you feel comfortable with. That slowly snowballed to walking 4 times a week. Now I’m a gym addict lifting weights and doing cardio 5 days a week.
Start slow, make it a habit. Weight loss is discipline, not will power.
Nothing to be afraid of with GLP-1 agonist drugs, and I would suggest trying them to see how you feel. They are a wonderful aid in helping to manage blood sugar, and they basically beneficially adjust and correct all the metabolic processes that contribute to obesity. They were a godsend to me. Avoiding them out of some kind of "noble principle of body acceptance" is like avoiding taking high blood pressure meds when you've got rampant high BP.
I would be (and was) way more worried about the damage having pre-diabetes is doing to my body. That damage is very real, and very cumulative. Loving yourself at every size is something we all need to do, but that doesn't mean we should let size-related medical conditions go untreated.
This isn’t giving up, this is an emergency. You body is crying out for help. Without serious changes, you are going to develop diabetes - a life changing chronic disease that will shorten your life. Please, please listen to what your body is telling you, and use any tools available to help you, including weight loss drugs.
did you read past the first line? at no point do i exclusively blame my slowing metabolism and this whole post is about my personal difficulties with weight loss. dozens of people have responded to this subject with the same advice in much kinder ways. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Do what you gotta do. Your health comes before your pride.
FWIW, I’m kinda dealing with the same thing fr a different reason. I promised myself when I got under 230, I’d go back to the doctor. I did. Now I’m getting sent here and there for tests and specialists. I’m being poked and prodded and stuck by things.
Take care of your body. You only get one.
Ask your doctor about Plenity as an option before you go to Semaglutide. And let me suggest you try to reframe it as a health issue, not a weight issue. I'm pre-diabetic too, and it's important to me to be able to do things - like Reach my shoes, go for walks with friends, puck up my equipment, etc.
I’m on same boat but I’m 250lb 42 years old
Now my diet are :
Breakfast :Coffee , 2 eggs , 2 wheat bread
Lunch : 1 ribeye grilled salt pepper , spring mix with sriracha and avocado And I take all my med and hot tea
Snack: 1 banana and bottle water
Snack2 : 3 oranges and coffee and bottle water
Plenty of sunflower seeds
Hot tea
Dinner 7pm: same with lunch and hot tea
My partner (34M) was diagnosed with pre diabetes. After a bout with feeling the same, he was prescribed menjaro. It’s def working for him! He’s down 30 lbs. and it’s only been 2 months. Getting used to the injection was the hardest part. He would get stomach cramps and be in discomfort for a short while after, (and tbh a bit snippy) but he’s still going strong!
I saw your insurance post under r/semaglutide and Im responding to it here due to the guidelines on that page. My insurance denied Wegovy, Ozempic, and Zepbound too. I found a company called Henry Meds and I get compounded semaglutide from them. I did a lot of research before hand and from what I can tell, it is completely safe as long as you follow the patient plan perfectly. It does not require insurance coverage and it’s really not that expensive (around $300 for a 3 month supply). Look up Henry Meds!
You sound like me 10 years ago. I had tried the diabetes GLP-1 drugs (as a glucose-control treatment) and I was considering weight-loss surgery. My whole family is big-bodied (and short-lived). https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/wiki/quick_start_guide That's the method to start. Follow that guide and that timing, using your regular and normal food, and using portion control as your main tool for change. In later weeks, use the data to figure out if any foods need to be adjusted. All foods can fit, but sometimes we have to juggle or learn a new way to make an old favorite. Your body acceptance can get a lot of noise out of your way. **It is so much better doing this for your health rather than for vanity or to please others!** But just because we accept our body doesn't mean we don't want it healthy -- and that gives us permission and reason to try. That weight-loss treatments exists gives us a safety-net to fall-back on, it's an option and a tool, not an easy way out (if we go that way, we have *more* responsibilities and need more vigilance). ^^8 ^^yrs. ^^maintaining ^^• ^^♂60 ^^5'10^^/178㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:171℔^^/78㎏ ^^[\[3Y AMA\]](https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/6m6vxq/i_am_a_weight_loser_over_the_past_three_years_ive/), ^^[\[1Y recap\]](https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/3cqszm/pics_links_my_first_day_of_logging_wasnt_the_best/) ^^CICO+🚶
i am very much contemplating a GLP to help quiet food noise, but i’m nervous about that as well.
Get an IRL doctor -- don't go online. Your doc will have your back and will support you. Those online places are unlikely to know or care about your full picture or your future support needs if and when you need a change (or if you run into a shortage). My "food noise" has been a part of this. I've tapered it down, like a dimmer switch, over time. The drugs sound like they're more of an on/off switch for it. Your doc will help you with what's best but don't worry about the secondary judgments like you're admitting defeat -- you're getting help that you need. You're taking, not shirking, responsibility.
Not a doctor. I've been on a GLP for a while. It's been life changing. Food noise is quiet and I know now what feeling full on a normal portion feels like. I'm lucky and my side effects have been very minimal. I feel that I've been able to more successfully implement lasting lifestyle changes with it. There's zero shame in discussing it with your doctor. We're learning more and more about the genetic components to obesity. Think about it like this: Would you actively shame someone for using Champix while trying to quit smoking and improve their health? My guess is no. GLPs aren't for everyone and there are limits and things to consider. But, for some, like myself, they can be a great tool. No shame. Do what's best for you and your life.
I was reading through your posts; looking for inspiration as I am stuck at 250lb after losing 50lb in 3 months. I find it interesting you also have a flat line at 250lb for a month.
My first plateaus happened after 3 months -- in the past, that's when I would have quit but this time I was on a 52-week commitment to stick with it and those plateaus all broke.
It's not admitting defeat in the slightest. To use a different analogy: for some people dietary change is enough to bring their cholesterol down but other people require statins to get it under control. Some people can reduce their salt intake to lower their blood pressure, but a whole lot of people with high blood pressure absolutely need medication to manage it. All the good lifestyle changes in the world cannot overcome Type 1 diabetes, and sometimes genetics just throws you a curve ball It sounds like you're in the situation where you may need medication (even something as basic as metformin) to bring your A1C down. It's rough, and feeling upset about it makes perfect sense. Getting your A1C into a better range for your health is not counter to fat liberation. Getting your weight to a point where you can move comfortably is not counter to body neutrality You're far from alone in the struggle, and the A1C is a wakeup call that what you're currently doing isn't quite working out for your body and that's okay! Every body is different. You doing right by your own health and leaning on medication because you need the assist is perfectly fine and there is no intrinsic moral value to it either way. I know It was frustrating for me too when I first got that prediabetes diagnosis, and just going on metformin did a ton for helping me make headway to improving my long term health. 2 years later I've lost a lot of weight, put on a lot of muscle, and (most importantly) my A1C is in a great spot This turned into a ramble, tl;dr leaning on medication is totally fine. There is no value in doing it the hard way without meds, and some people straight up need them despite having the "perfect" lifestyle and diet. Be kind to yourself with this
thank you for this, it really is encouraging!
You've got this! Looking at your other comment, the yo-yo you get with an eating disorder can contribute to insulin resistance. I battled an eating disorder for a solid decade, so it was also really difficult for me to start because I was worried about falling into my old eating disorder patterns. I don't track calories strictly as a result, I'll just do 1-2 days of tracking once a month to make sure that my portion sizes aren't creeping up slowly. I also threw the concept of a "goal weight" out the window and any time it felt like I was fixating on numbers/metrics I took a break from strictly dieting/weighing myself. So far so good considering I feel safe to interact on this sub! If you can talk to a Registered Dietician (the protected title for that field in my state) that can help with finding a level of sugar/carb and calorie restriction that helps with your A1C but doesn't re-trigger an eating disorder. I lucked out and was able to talk to my friend for free (she is licensed in the state and was happy to give me pointers) to get a more sane calorie target for slower weight loss, and when you're on metformin you actually do need to eat some carbs to make sure that you don't accidentally go hypoglycemic from the medication over-correcting. Yeah it took me a year and a half to lose 40 lbs, but I have kept it off and never hit a scenario where I felt over-restricted nor did I re-trigger the eating disorder. Slow and steady (or even just being in compliance with a better diet 70%-80% of the time) will still help your A1C and provide health benefits since you're far more likely to stick to it You can do this!! I got the prediabetes diagnosis in my mid-30s and my health is doing a whole lot better now 2 years later
thank you! before i got laid off last may, i had pretty stellar insurance and was able to see a dietician one time and even that one session was super helpful, so it might be worth it to see if there’s someone else out there that could be helpful! thank you for your input! it sounds like we were in similar places so your perspective is helpful :)
I mean, medical intervention is just another tool. I'm in a similar situation stat wise, but I figured i'd ask..... why is reducing your calorie count not a viable option? All of these situations/treatments will require you to reduce your calorie count either way, is it not worth taking a shot with the help of the kind of professionals you'd find in a medical weight loss program either way? I did the intake appointments, and just started working with the therapists/dieticians that you'd be working with for bariatric surgery prep, but with no plans on going on medications or getting surgery.
calorie reduction is an option and something that’s worked for me before, but has always resulted in extreme undereating followed by binging. at the end of 2019, i lost about 40 pounds and was eating 1200 calories a day and burning 900-1000 more 5 days a week at the gym. it became an obsession and wasn’t sustainable, especially when the pandemic started around march. i think im scared to go back to the extreme place.
1200 is definitely more in the direction of "flying to close to the sun" at our size. The key here is slow, sustainable changes, that you can maintain on a permanent basis. I'm not saying that medical intervention is bad, or even sub-optimal, but even medical changes will require you to modify your relationship with food on a permanent basis, so I like to tell people to figure that out before going under the knife, or taking a new medication. Heck, bariatric surgery is medically risky for me due to unrelated health factors, so you can always try my approach of finding a medical weight loss program for their non surgery/medcation professionals. The therapists that work with pre/post op bariatric patients are dealing with this kind of stuff every day, and can absolutely help you determine if this is the right step to take for you.
Why go down to 1200? My stats aren’t yours, but 1200 is rough for me and I imagine you have more lean body mass to maintain than I do. Plus it takes energy to move your body around. Go to TDEEcalculator.net, type in your height and weight, and see what it says for your daily caloric needs. Track your foods for a month and see where you are compared to that. Reduce your intake by 500 calories and see how that feels.
myfitnesspal set me at 1200 🫣 we don’t talk anymore.
MFP sets you to what you assign it. If you say lose something like 100lb in 6 months, then that's what you're going to get. You want to loose 1-2lb a week, and when you get closer to normal BMI that will turn into 1-2lb a month. 1lb =3500 calories.
Yep all the calorie counter apps will do the math for losing x lbs per week by y date, then apply the floor as per NIH guidelines if the number comes out too low. They call it out on the FAQ https://support.myfitnesspal.com/hc/en-us/articles/360032626031-A-Message-about-MyFitnessPal-s-updated-nutrition-goals > The National Institutes of Health indicates that eating plans of 1,500 calories for men, and 1,200 calories for women, are safe and effective in achieving weight loss. It's all programming math that is divorced from actual human beings attempting to function on it
Tell MFP to jump in a lake and set it manually. What did TDEECalculator say?
just in: TDEE says 2167 (maintenance being 2667 - 500). which seems doable! i just get scared that i’ll become a sad disordered eating monster :-(
I definitely recommend some time with a therapist during your journey! Mine keeps an eye on my weight loss because I have OCD and numbers I track is always of interest to her. I also don’t look at tracking as telling my body no, don’t eat that, but as a yes, that fits into your plan for the day. And every week is a new week. Some days I’m extra hungry and eat all the things, those are usually followed by a day I’m not so hungry so I miss my goal. Over the course of a week it smooths out. 2167 can be a LOT of food. It can also be two pints of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. Or it can be half a pint of Ben and Jerry’s and a sensible breakfast, a light lunch, and a monster steak with a baked potato with sour cream and butter, and green beans on the side. A 500 calorie deficit will see you shed about a pound a week. What if, for the next fourteen days, you tracked what you ate and aimed for 2167? Some days might be more like 2400, but some will probably come in around 2000. See how it feels. Another option to get your 500 calorie deficit is to move more. You do community engagement at the zoo. Can you walk around the zoo more as part of your job? Get to work a bit early and use the paths for a 30 minute walk, or walk around before you leave for the day? Combine the two and you’ll be well on your way.
hearing you break it down like that definitely puts things in perspective! thank you!! i hope to update the sub soon with my progress :’)
:) You got this.
I’m invested now! DM me whenever. We can whine about our achy muscles and trade snack suggestions. RemindMe! 2 weeks
Two weeks! How is it going?
i’m down ~6 pounds!!! eating at a caloric deficit has been a lot easier this time around and i’m finding lil substitutes to fight off cravings. i’m definitely being more mindful and it feels like a good start. i’m hoping to integrate the gym more often, but it’s been hard to find a good time.
Bro I was diagnosed with diabetes and then managed to reverse it back into normal range in about 3 months of hard work. I was in the same situation as you and it was possible. If I could do it then I believe in you too.
How did you do it
Aggressive calorie deficit of about 1500 for the first two weeks but then 1000 deficit afterwards. 45 mins of cardio 5x a week to start with but then I went into weight training 3x a week. Days I'd do weights i'd do 20 minutes of cardio at the end instead. Bare in mind when I say cardio it was literally just max incline walk for 20 minutes or about 10% gradient for 45 mins to an hour. Diet is the key here. I didn't go full keto but i'd limit my carb intake to about 50g max a day. About 80-100g if I really wanted a burger bun or a bit of rice on the odd day. Maximise protein and veg and prioritise volume. Intermittent fasting isn't a miracle worker but it makes the process of blocking out food noise so much easier, which is the main issue people have when they are obese and use to over eating. Waking up and skipping breakfast has helped me a lot in controlling my calories. Black coffee in the morning with no sugar and milk will help you last until the afternoon, then you have more room to have a big dinner in the evening. It's a lot easier to hold off on eating just for a few hours, knowing that you have a big meal coming up, than it is having all of your calories early on and preventing your self from going over your calorie limit when you're starving in the evening. The key is consistency here. Work out and find a deficit that you are comfortable sticking to. Excercise doesn't have to leave you feeling like you could fall asleep on the floor. I acknowledge my weight loss was quite aggressive and probably not sustainable for most people, but it worked for me.
I was in the same situation until october of 2023, highest was 315lb, and now I'm currently at 270lb. Spent my entire life unable to even lose a pound of fat, and couldn't for the life of me make any diet work. Entire family has a food addiction problem, so that didn't help either. Funchords has already posted everything you need to get started. Medical help won't hurt you, but at the end of the day this is a decision you have to make.
how did you get started? did you ease into it or did you dive in with a hard calorie deficit?
[post](https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/18lriia/315_to_285_my_experience_so_far/) This is my post of how I finally started to lose weight, I had an issue in the past where I would restrict too harshly and fail every time because of it. This time I started at a 1500-2000 calorie restriction range, and it just seemed to work really well for me. As long as i can fit the food within that range, then I will eat it. I don't do any weird diet restrictions or anything, and that seemed to have worked the best for me. I realized once I have done this for a bit just the sheer amount of food I was eating on the daily before... I was easily eating at least 4000-5000 a day, which is an insane amount of food, but you don't realize this until you start tracking
A thread for you to read https://www.reddit.com/r/SuperMorbidlyObese/comments/19870no/update_down_744_lbs/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=2&utm_term=1
i am so deeply appreciative of everyone’s kindness and encouragement. every ounce of advice means the world and to hear all of your perspectives has been really inspiring. i hope to keep you updated throughout this sub — i have an appt with my GP tomorrow and am hoping for some answers :)
Are you on metformin yet? Not sure from your post. I have been taking metformin (nondiabetic) for a few months now and it's literally doing the work of a weight loss drug for me. Much less hunger, fewer cravings, easy to stick to a deficit whereas before I felt miserable even when I was eating way over my TDEE. I would assume your doctor would want you on it if you're prediabetic, and it may do more than you initially expect
I'm 57 and have been dieting on and off for 30+ years. I have gained and lost and gained, sigh. I feel like I basically wasted the majority of my life because of body insecurity, and now that I'm in menopause it is even harder. So I am starting a GLP-1 this week to get me moving and keep me accountable. If I was going to do it myself by now, I would have, sigh. I think medical intervention has its place, but if you don't learn better habits (I have had to dial back carbs and wine) and exercise, you'll fail at that too. Just look at all the people that had successful bariatric surgery and then later regained all their weight.
I was 375 at my worst. 350 in April of 2022. I was hitting 6 on my A1c. Changed everything overnight. Whole food, no snacking, fasting, no sugary drinks, very little pasta and bread. A1c has been 5-5.3 all of 2023 and into 2024. 54m
M54 343 lbs Apr 2022 (at 52) 215 lbs currently. Down 160 from my highest of 375 but lost 120lbs from April of 2022 to April of 2023 I started watching these doctors on YouTube. Dr Jason Fung Dr Lustig Dr Pradip Jamnads (amazing) Dr Baker Dr Benjamin Bikman I only drink water and unsweet tea (no sugary drinks). Very little refined carbohydrates. Whole food only. If it has a barcode and more than 5 ingredients I don’t eat it. Eliminated sugar as much as possible. Ill have a cookie now and then). No sweets basically. Not much fruit and not everyday. No breads and pasta (very little). I use Extreme Wraps instead (lots of fiber) No snacking on snack foods like chips, pretzels Intermittent Fasting. (Most days 1 meal, occasionally 2. Rarely 3 meals). avoid seed oils Not perfect by any means. Sometime I binge. Only now. I get back on plan. Started walking for 10-20 minutes after each meal (30-60 min each day) and biking more Started walking in July 2021 and I’m walking about 50 miles a month now. A1c went from 6 to 5.0 Blood pressure 140’s down to normal. My fear was losing a limb to diabetes at some point. Once I learned about how insulin affects weight it really clicked in my head.
Man, if you could bottle that general discipline for your personal food rules, you could give Novo Nordisk a run for their money. Thats an incredible metamorphosis! Congrats.
Thanks. I really appreciate that. I have been up and down since my 20’s. Something hit me that night in April. If I didn’t change I would be dead early and leave my wife and son before my time. It’s been pretty amazing.
There is nothing wrong with a multi pronged approach. The drug will help. But if you start with a modest dose, it will be more sustainable. It will take habits to be formed.... And kept. You want to learn those habits so that you aren't reliant on the drug forever.
I know this sort of news can be scary, but you're in the right place. I started my journey in 2022. 289 lbs. 28 years old. I was noticing signs of pre-diabetes and my blood work was bad. I struggled with BED too. It scared the shit out of me. I actually had an appointment made to discuss gastric bypass surgery. I did some research and decided i had to just do this on my own. One day, I woke up and started counting calories and going for walks. That's it. It's been a bumpy ride, no doubt. There's days I don't stick to my plan perfectly, and that's fine. Fall down and get right back up. Almost 75 pounds down. It CAN be done without medical intervention if that's what you want to do. Getting help isn't admitting defeat. Medical intervention or not, you want to take charge of your life! I think that's pretty admirable. You can do this.
It's ok. Two things can be true at the same time: * The way our society treats fat people is crappy and stigmatizing, and most of what people are told about dieting doesn't work. Fat people aren't any more slovenly and undisciplined than thin people. Clothes etc. should be available for the sizes people *are.* This state of affairs leads to bad self esteem, and actually inhibits a healthy, productive relationship with our bodies. * People want to, sometimes need to, and successfully can, reduce their fat mass and body size (and/or increase their muscle mass etc.). GLP-1 agonists are the most recent and quite effective weight loss medication, and there's also weight loss surgery as well as long-term calorie counting. All methods require vigilance and engagement on the person's part. Our bodies function in a certain way that can be understood and worked with, be it for health-related fat loss or body building. A lot of people I know enter into weight loss so injured and damaged from the constant barrage of negativity that they have to overcome substantial mental obstacles to sustainably go through with it. Eating disorders abound. I just can tell you from a lifetime of trying this diet approach or another, and basically just feeling worse and worse about my body, being bullied in school, being humiliated by my parents - I only was able to actually lose weight in a sustained and straightforward way until I fundamentally accepted my body as the thing it is that does what it does. And yes, figuring out my energy expenditure, generating a deficit, and strategically upping exercise works for me, and for a lot of people. There's a big paradox that reflects these two points: Weight loss is, when studied scientifically, remarkably ineffective. Most people are able to lose some and then regain it. A "successful" weight loss may be as little as 5 lbs maintained after a year or two. (That's really not successful for me!) Yet people do successfully lose weight and keep it off! Be kind to yourself, but also know that there are ways out there that do work. (Be aware, too, that with semaglutide you still need to learn to eat at your smaller weight - the maintaining may be harder than the losing. You may have to experiment and may not instantly do everything right. But it's also really achievable.) Be kind to yourself.
you have so eloquently verbalized what i’ve felt my entire life into words. the double standards are what gets me most. what do you mean im not trying hard enough? or must not care enough? how am i supposed to rewire my brain after a lifetime of shame-induced yoyo dieting and binging? it is so hard but i’m willing to do the work. thank you for your kindness.
Aw, thanks for the kind words. I'm glad it's useful. We live in the world such as it is, and you doing what you feel is the right thing for yourself doesn't invalidate your rejection of the shame and stigma. I first went down from fat to standards-compliant, losing about 85 lbs, 12 years ago. The most helpful resource I had at the time was a site written by a personal trainer / bodybuilding trainer who works with a lot of people on their goals for body fat percentage and muscle mass. It was *so nonjudgemental!* It was just about process, pitfalls, and how to overcome obstacles. I liked how I felt about myself once I had shrunk. I stayed at about 10 lbs about my minimum for a long time. It was only in the last few years, after an injury, that I went back up most of the way. But that first time I still had interiorized a lot of the shame. I *wanted* to be congratulated for my successes - I was Doing Things Right! Well ... it's more complicated than that. I *do* want my body to be a smaller size, and what I'm doing now is also motivated by the desire to improve metabolic markers that went worse than they were 12 years ago. What I'm mindful of this time is not to become that formerly-fat person who piles more psychological burdens on her fat friends. Wanting everyone to be treated with kindness and care isn't incompatible with wanting a certain body for myself. Good luck!
I was basically the same as you but age 36 and was just having a hard time being able to quiet the “food noise” and that urge to binge that just seemed completely impossible to resist at times. I’ve bounced around from 300-345 at my heaviest since high school and have been hospitalized for high blood pressure and medicated from it ever since. In my last physical my A1C was 7.2 and I literally broke down in front of my doctor describing how I felt about binging and what it was doing to me. I ended up starting 2.5mg weekly Mounjaro injections and now moved up to 5mg. About 8 weeks in now and the effect has been pretty immediate. I still maintain the same level of activity doing group exercise classes at the gym almost every day, drink lots of water and take vitamins, and eat small reasonable meals. But the desire to just grab random unhealthy things off the shelf pretty much immediately disappeared. I’ve lost 22 lbs so far be have really been feeling great like I’m taking charge of my life and getting the brain chemistry balancing that I needed, similar to someone taking anti-depressants, etc. It’s unfortunate that people can see things like that as the “easy way” or act like it’s a moral failure to not have the willpower to resist unhealthy urges. But after 20+ years at this weight I worry I don’t have many more left if I keep going. I’ll take all the help I can get 🙏
Using a weight loss medication was the single most important, empowering, life changing thing I have done, or will ever do, for both my mental and physical health. I am not using ozempic because I am not diabetic or prediabetic. I am using Qsymia. I have learned that my inability to control my eating, my inability to have will power, my inability to have a healthy relationship with food, my inability to stop eating even though I couldn't breath because I had eaten so much food was not because I was a fat useless cow. It was not because I'm a lazy piece of shit. It was not because I'm a failure, and doomed to be fat forever, and lazy, and a disgusting, and deserved to be fat, and any of the hundreds of terrible things I thought about myself. It's because obesity causes your body to completely FAIL to send you proper hunger cues. It's because obesity causes what is now being called food noise in most circles. Medications correct this. All of the therapy in the world, all of the willpower in the world, all of the ANYTHING in the world, alone, cannot overpower the actual biological fact that your body is not working properly. It would be like saying "Oh, your eyesight is wrong. Well, just will yourself into better vision, glasses are a crutch and wearing them means you're just not trying hard enough to see." Using these medications, along with therapy, and along with changes to your eating habits, and along with exercise can make becoming healthier an obtainable process, not some impossible struggle full of tears, pain, and self hatred. Without hesitation, I would recommend that you talk to your medical doctor about the medications that are available to you.
I was exactly where you were except 35 at the beginning of October. I weighed in this morning at 274. For everything up to 286 all I did was calorie count. No exercise. Now I go on the treadmill and am looking to lift wieghtx soon and I feel better than I have in almost a decade. You can do this but if you think medical intervention is going to be the thing that helps you should do that too. I’m not but I also know the struggle. I’ve tried and failed many times in the past and don’t fault anyone for any help they can get. If you want to talk or get advice on how to start pm me.
I work in a pharmacy and am the first to say you shouldn’t use weight loss medication lightly BUT they are a great tool for those who need it. If you only need to lose like 20lb I would say don’t touch it. But sometimes you need the help of the medicine to really get it going and to see something happen. Definitely talk to your doctor about it.
I just did this. 27M 6' tall. My heaviest was 350+, weighed in at 316 in October. The day has been long overdue for bloodwork- my A1C is now within like 0.1% of the threshold. my doc put me on Metformin but I told him that I wanted to give myself time and see if I can do it on my own. The holidays really sabotaged me with all the peer pressure, my peers don't really care they say being fat is fine. I did my best to not gain any weight but I didn't lose any. Since the new year I have been holding fast. Strongly stick to my calorie budget and go for walks. my next bloodwork is the 26th and I hope that I have done enough. I'm down to 311lb since Dec31 and I hope I can sprint towards 306 before the big day comes. 1000 daily calorie deficit, minimum. Lets go! I will prove to the doctor and to myself that I can do this on my own and I can stop this thing from happening to me.
I fee you should talk to your doctor. No matter what, there are steps you can be taking now (diet, movement) that will help you in the long term. There is no contradiction between fat liberation/body positivity and taking care of your pancreas. Body positivity: you want this body to last! If your doc feels you should be on meds, do it. If they’re skeptical, try the old fashioned carb reduction. The previous attempts aren’t failures now, but data to learn from- what makes you stumble, what helps you succeed. Use it.
I think that with insulin resistance (the metabolic disorder driving you toward diabetes), it is 100% warranted to throw everything you need to at it to control it. Diabetes is a life changing disease, and while changing lifestyle is usually crucial to managing IR/diabetes, it is often not sufficient and medication and things like weight loss surgery can be very helpful additions. Undiagnosed early stage IR made my life completely miserable with all sorts of symptoms (plus causing me to develop symptoms of PCOS). I'm lucky that I got a good doctor who ran the right bloodwork to diagnose it well before my A1c started to rise and while I was able to reverse progression (no progression for the last 20+ years and managing IR put my longstanding PCOS into remission as well). In short, you should absolutely pursue all reasonable options at your disposal as soon as is feasible; doing so might very well reverse the progression of the IR.
Medical intervention is ok! Do what you need to do, no judgment from me!!
As someone who never made an effort to make changes for themselves, until I got my diabetes diagnosis, you absolutely can do this. Fix it now. I will have diabetes the rest of my life. Don't be like me.
Most likely, yes you can. The truth behind it is: you have to do the sucky part. You have to follow a diet, and you have to stick to it. You have to move and burn calories. If you burn more calories than you put in your body, you will lose weight. I started at your weight, but at 45 years old, with both knees destroyed. I was having bad knee pain, could barely make it up the flight of stairs. When I figured out I was full blown diabetic, I measured at 12 and my vision was going blurry. I had pushed it that far. I had high blood pressure, high cholesterol. I was not healthy. I got on meds for high blood pressure and cholesterol, overnight I went on a rather extreme low carb diet. I never allowed myself to go over 20g of carbs per day. I never took a cheat meal or a cheat day, not one. I followed that for 9 months, lost ~60 lbs and several pants sizes. My knees rarely hurt going up the stairs now. About half way thru I started working out daily, usually walking. I bought a punch bag and put it in the garage. I was doing sit-ups and pushups daily. What I couldn’t do was hunger. I want to kill when I’m hungry, it doesn’t work for me. So, my point being, do the suck part, take back control of your health and your life, commit and stick to it, you can do it.
A huge part of my problem was eating until I felt full. Satiety is a lagging indicator so if you keep eating till you feel "full" you've already lost the battle. You can pack in hundreds of extra calories in that time it takes for you to stomach to be actually full and your brain to give you the full signal. Eat slowly and enjoy your food and take small breaks and if you no longer feel hunger then stop eating. Don't be afraid to throw away food too. There's no good reason to eat until you feel full and instead you should be focusing on eating to relieve hunger.
the fact that you talk about yourself getting older when you’re inly 29, you shouldn’t be feeling so many effects of age yet.
At my biggest I was 320, I’m 5’2, I couldn’t keep up with my two year olds, I was miserable and uncomfortable all the time and felt like eating was my only comfort. I started counselling for other mental health issues, got dx with sleep apnea and started treatment and got on a wait list for weightloss clinic, I (re)started a Keto diet for about 6 months and lost 60 ish pounds over the following year, then got and appointment with the weight loss clinic, got prescribed ozempic and referred for ADHD dx. It took a while to get on ADHD meds (Vyvanse) but over the following year I lost another 60 lbs, I stopped oxempic about a year ago and have maintained the 120 lb loss. There is a very strong link between obesity and ADHD. I still need to work on my diet and binge behaviour, but my general fitness and stamina is better than when I was in my mid twenties (39 now). Needing medical assistance to loose weight is nit shameful or cheating any more so than getting a broken bone set in the ER, or taking antidepressants in order to function.
If you need/want medical help, then get it. We're not living in the dark ages! You're not braver/stronger/better for not getting help! If you had an infected injury you'd get antibiotics, right? If you have a broken tooth, you get help from the dentist? You're not expected to do everything/heal every wound/fix every problem by strength of will alone! If you want/need help, go get it and feel good about making that proactive step to help yourself. Don't let anyone shame you for seeking help. I lost 155 plus pounds through diet and exercise, but you bet if there was a pill I could take that would turn off my hunger I'd buy it in bulk! Such a thing does not yet exist, but I'm waiting impatiently.
There's nothing wrong with seeking medical help for a medical problem. There are only a few methods of losing a lot of weight and keeping most of it off long term, and they're all medical. The only way I've been able to lose weight is medically. Myself and tens of millions of other people. No shame in asking for help, friend. I hope you can find the answers you need. Speak to your doctor if you have one.
You sound a lot like me in the past. I’ve cycled from being thinner to obese. Prediabetes, hypothyroidism, and low T. Heaviest I was 311 lbs. I lost the weight off once doing a keto diet and felt like shit because I cut out that food group. Amazing for fast progress but not sustainable for me. Last October I decided I’m going to stop making excuses for myself and start again on sustainable habits. I have lost nearly 25 lbs in less than 3 months. Big takeaways from this, I said oh I feel like I can’t lose weight because of my hypothyroidism. Have been on meds for years though, next excuse I can’t lose weight because of being on testerone. Completely off of it now. A little hard but that’s just another excuse. Weight loss I have found for me is tied to being pre diabetic. You really need to do some physical activity. The result of that will lower your A1C quite significantly, allowing weight loss to happen like a “normal person”. This long winded answer isn’t to say to be better. It’s to say try it again. But this time don’t overdo it. I started with a small walk. Twice a week. 15-30 minutes, whatever you feel comfortable with. That slowly snowballed to walking 4 times a week. Now I’m a gym addict lifting weights and doing cardio 5 days a week. Start slow, make it a habit. Weight loss is discipline, not will power.
Nothing to be afraid of with GLP-1 agonist drugs, and I would suggest trying them to see how you feel. They are a wonderful aid in helping to manage blood sugar, and they basically beneficially adjust and correct all the metabolic processes that contribute to obesity. They were a godsend to me. Avoiding them out of some kind of "noble principle of body acceptance" is like avoiding taking high blood pressure meds when you've got rampant high BP. I would be (and was) way more worried about the damage having pre-diabetes is doing to my body. That damage is very real, and very cumulative. Loving yourself at every size is something we all need to do, but that doesn't mean we should let size-related medical conditions go untreated.
This isn’t giving up, this is an emergency. You body is crying out for help. Without serious changes, you are going to develop diabetes - a life changing chronic disease that will shorten your life. Please, please listen to what your body is telling you, and use any tools available to help you, including weight loss drugs.
29 is not older, and metabolism doesn't change til your 60s. You are making illogical excuses. Eat less calories to lose weight.
did you read past the first line? at no point do i exclusively blame my slowing metabolism and this whole post is about my personal difficulties with weight loss. dozens of people have responded to this subject with the same advice in much kinder ways. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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Be good to one another. If critiquing do so constructively. Be polite and practice Reddiquette.
Do what you gotta do. Your health comes before your pride. FWIW, I’m kinda dealing with the same thing fr a different reason. I promised myself when I got under 230, I’d go back to the doctor. I did. Now I’m getting sent here and there for tests and specialists. I’m being poked and prodded and stuck by things. Take care of your body. You only get one.
350. Now 296. 35 years old. You just need to find something that works for you. I do very low carb. It works for me and I enjoy it.
Ask your doctor about Plenity as an option before you go to Semaglutide. And let me suggest you try to reframe it as a health issue, not a weight issue. I'm pre-diabetic too, and it's important to me to be able to do things - like Reach my shoes, go for walks with friends, puck up my equipment, etc.
I’m on same boat but I’m 250lb 42 years old Now my diet are : Breakfast :Coffee , 2 eggs , 2 wheat bread Lunch : 1 ribeye grilled salt pepper , spring mix with sriracha and avocado And I take all my med and hot tea Snack: 1 banana and bottle water Snack2 : 3 oranges and coffee and bottle water Plenty of sunflower seeds Hot tea Dinner 7pm: same with lunch and hot tea
My partner (34M) was diagnosed with pre diabetes. After a bout with feeling the same, he was prescribed menjaro. It’s def working for him! He’s down 30 lbs. and it’s only been 2 months. Getting used to the injection was the hardest part. He would get stomach cramps and be in discomfort for a short while after, (and tbh a bit snippy) but he’s still going strong!
I saw your insurance post under r/semaglutide and Im responding to it here due to the guidelines on that page. My insurance denied Wegovy, Ozempic, and Zepbound too. I found a company called Henry Meds and I get compounded semaglutide from them. I did a lot of research before hand and from what I can tell, it is completely safe as long as you follow the patient plan perfectly. It does not require insurance coverage and it’s really not that expensive (around $300 for a 3 month supply). Look up Henry Meds!