Would you say more about your wl w/ a thyroid condition? I've been struggling so hard and would love to learn about your process. I've tried cico, moving more, restrive diets etc but am not really in a healthy place rn. I'm willing to dm if that's something you'd rather share in private!
weight loss /// calorie counting /// diet ///
hey! I'm sorry to hear you're not in the best place right now. it can be a really frustrating process and it does get you down, but I hope you have the support you need.
I don't mind talking about it at all bc I'm proud of my weight loss and therefore INSUFFERABLE lmao but I should preface this by saying all the usual disclaimers about how I have no medical authority lmao, everyone's body is different, blah blah blah, what works for me might not work for you, blah blah blah, like I am truly not giving any advice here - I don't take that as what you're asking for, just an honest account of what I did to lose weight (and what I'm doing, as I'm still going through this process)?
the main thing for me was what I'd call "gentle" calorie tracking; the usual advice is to like, plug your stats into an online calculator and eat in a deficit amounting to missing one meal's worth of calories per day, but those generic calculations were so off because of my thyroid condition (i.e. my average daily maintenance calories were actually well above what the calculators told me I needed to gain weight) plus they're just...generic? lmao, like, they work on averages, they do not account for everyone's weird shit. so I came up with my own system:
- meticulously track everything I eat for about a month, trying as hard as I can to act normally and not change any habits when confronted with them. just be 100% honest. a few weeks/a month worked well for me because it generally covered all my usual appetite fluctuations and everyday circumstances - my period, dinners out with friends, the sort of food I'd grab on days when everything went smoothly vs what I eat when all the trains to work are cancelled and I get home shattered and want a takeaway, etc.
- work out what my average daily calorie intake actually is from those numbers.
- reduce by small increments of about 100-200 calories every few weeks. if I find even this hard - which I fucking did at first - then I am not allowed to further decrease until I figure out how to comfortably make this slightly lower number my new normal, bc clearly something isn't working. sometimes I'd easily drop 100-200 calories because my appetite had just adjusted appropriately, other times I'd spend over a month aiming for the same deficit because I was just fucking hungry lol. the important thing is that I did not aim to eat in a deficit of more than 100-200 calories than my previous comfortable plateau, I was always eating a healthy number of calories for my body, and if I couldn't hack the deficit I'd just continue eating at the relatively new maintenance number without beating myself up over it. in this way, my average caloric intake dropped by about 800-1,000 over a year, but I did this slowly, incrementally, and with a lot of compassion towards myself.
- to actually achieve the small caloric decreases which eventually compounded, I did a lot of trial and error with all the usual advice, and figured out how to make it work for me. these were the main things I did very slowly lol: increasing my protein intake to eventually include a protein-rich food in most of my meals and snacks; increasing my physical activity by finding opportunities to go on walks through the day; focusing on satiety and pairing less filling snacks with more satiating protein and fibre rich foods (i.e. having a packet of crisps with a bit of cheese and some cucumber, instead of just the crisps, which may be more calories in the moment, but less in the long term because I'm less inclined to binge later as I'm actually satisfied).
- noticing habits and having a general awareness of my tripping points also really helps. in the beginning, I'd always have this early evening borderline binge and I couldn't figure out why until I realised it was because I was just...hungry lmao. I wasn't purposefully restricting; I felt fine leaving work but didn't factor in how hungry I'd get over my commute, and when I started having a lil snack before I left work, the intense hunger when I got home from work subsided. it was about rethinking and more mindfully distributing my meals throughout the day to work with my patterns and realistic hunger levels.
there's honestly so much more - months and months and years' worth of habits and specific processes, but I feel that's the most practical overview. I do wanna stress though: I did not cut out a single food I enjoyed. I still eat and have always eaten chocolate and crisps and burgers and whatever, I just began pairing them with nutritious foods. over time, my tastes and appetite changed, but my approach has been specifically to avoid forcing myself there, adding new foods and habits rather than expressly taking away the things I enjoy, and letting my body and its inclinations slowly develop a hankering for a new, healthier lifestyle.
I did not go from eating fast food every lunch time to craving salads overnight; that is some bullshit lmao. I went from eating a large burger and fries regularly for lunch, to getting a large burger and medium fries with some watermelon after, to getting a medium burger and medium fries with a bigger portion of fruit, to a medium burger and small fries and fruit, to eventually eating more hearty salads with other protein sources and delicious fats because I'd gently trained myself to just genuinely enjoy it. and it takes a long time! if I didn't feel like it, I'd eat what I wanted and try not to sweat it, and just give it another go next time - one meal, one bite at a time. it was really fucking hard at first and I did not see significant weight loss for months, but it was a real trust the process thing.
for what it's worth, I've never tracked my calories out either, because I have not found or been arsed to find anything I trust that reliably gives me this information. I don't believe typical devices (my phone, fitness watches, those screens on exercise machines at the gym) are accurate enough to be worthwhile and I want to focus on exercise for reasons other than weight loss, plus the vast majority of caloric deficits come from reducing intake rather than increasing expenditure, so I just focus on my diet and that's it. it also helps to find motivation for those new habits other than weight loss; eating more protein and vegetables helps in a roundabout way, sure, but I'm more inclined to make an effort because protein helps combat some of my hair thinning from my conditioning, and eating a good amount of diverse veg helps with my IBS symptoms.
it really is just one day at a time, and I hope you're well and know you're not alone in finding it really hard. I just didn't want to make it any harder on myself than it already was, and had to be. x
