thoughts on weight loss

Posted on:September 12, 2024
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target audience

People looking to lose weight.

preface

Losing weight is hard. It is not EASY.

My hope is that this post brings some sort of clarity for those who are self-aware of their weight.

I’ve talked to several different people about their weight loss journey. One thing I realized is that everyone’s weight loss journey is UNIQUE. One person’s formula to weight loss may not be YOUR formula.

Do I have it all figured out? No. The fear of becoming unhealthily overweight sits in the back of my mind. Always. Because oftentimes, you don’t realize you’re overweight until you are.

what it takes to lose weight

Calories in. Calories out. That’s it. Really.

All weight loss is consuming fewer calories than the calories you burn. If it was that simple, then what makes weight loss so difficult?

It isn’t simple. Unfortunately, losing weight is a very tough but rewarding mental endeavor. It is a battle between you and yourself. And what that means is, in addition to calories in, calories out — YOU need to seriously do some reflecting. Be HONEST with yourself.

How did you really get fat in the first place?

mental barriers

The following are a list of common mental barriers that people face during their journey and my thoughts on them.

Sometimes you will inevitably fail. But it’s part of the process.

exercising the calories away

While it is possible to burn calories as a form of weight loss, please don’t do this. Exercise as a way to attain fitness, not to lose weight. Kurzgesagt has a good video on this.

Outrunning calories is very difficult.

The rule of thumb is that you burn 100 calories for every 1 mile.

Let’s say you can run a 10-minute mile. To burn off a McChicken, you would need to run for 40 minutes (400 cals). Would you rather run for 40 minutes or eat one less McChicken?

But exercising will increase my metabolism

Maybe it will, but the impact of what you put in your mouth matters a lot more.

i’m genetically predisposed to obesity

…And? That sucks, but are you just going to let that stop you and give up?

But seriously, this was an excuse I made to myself all the time. It’s hard to disprove, comforting, and shifts the blame away from yourself. Everyone is dealt different cards. Calories are calories and the laws of thermodynamics are not going anywhere.

When you say fuck you to life and you lose weight despite the hand you are dealt — doesn’t that make victory so much sweeter?

i’m going to completely stop eating X

You only live once. Completely removing a food that you liked will make staying motivated very difficult.

Instead, try to create a healthier relationship with food X.

For me, Takis and snacks were my kryptonite. I decided for myself that I would never buy it for myself. You can’t be tempted by what you don’t have.

But if I ever went to a party or there were snacks at a party or gathering — I would happily indulge myself as much as I wanted.

For you, it could look like just eating less of X every time you eat X.

Or, it could look like portioning X into healthier and manageable portion sizes.

Whatever it is, you need to figure out what triggers your eating habits and do something about it.

doing too much too fast

It’s great that you feel super motivated regarding your own health. Recognizing and being aware of your issues is already a huge step.

Cutting too many calories too early will break you down mentally. Trust the science.

guilt tripping yourself and not recognizing that life gets in the way sometimes

The bad news is weight loss doesn’t happen overnight, but the good news is that weight gain doesn’t happen overnight either.

Physiological changes are a result of consistent habits over a long period of time.

You might have:

Whatever you did, it happened. Put it behind you and get back on track.

not measuring

What gets measured gets managed.

Measuring what you do gives yourself a frame of reference on what habits work or don’t work.

Pushing calories in, calories out implies knowing what these numbers are.

Calculate your calories out (TDEE calculator). The moment you put something in your mouth, track the calories — on your phone, on a notebook, it doesn’t matter. If you don’t know how many calories it has, then look. it. up. It doesn’t matter if the information online is not exactly accurate; it is better than nothing.

Weigh yourself every day. I will tell you this now — your weight will fluctuate from day to day. Water retention and other factors will affect your daily weight.

However, if you objectively ate fewer calories than you burned, then you have nothing to worry about. Be honest with yourself.

focusing on the wrong things

Remember that all weight loss is calories in and calories out.

There are a million things out in the world that will distract you from that fact: workout plans, diet plans, medical pills…

It’s easy to lose focus on what’s important.

…???

This is where your journey will differ from others. You need to sit down with yourself and reflect often. What mental/physical barriers are in your life that led to your current relationship with food?

Let’s say you grew up eating at buffets to save on money, but that caused you to eat everything in front of you. So now, you have to intentionally portion your food, and you can’t rely on your sense of hunger.

Or say where you live is a food desert, and it makes it difficult to get access to healthy food. So now, when you go shopping, you have to feel hungry even when you are at your caloric limits.

That’s okay. That’s baggage that you end up carrying with you through life, and you need to learn that that sucks. But only by facing it honestly and earnestly can you avoid letting it take over your life.

What works for others may not always work for you.

strategies

This list is not exhaustive, and how YOU go about losing weight will inevitably look different than others.

These are just strategies that helped ME.

Personally, for ME, I aimed to eat 400-500 calories LESS than my TDEE.

one meal a day (OMAD)

Every day, you limit yourself to one meal.

Pros:

Cons:

One thing that makes OMAD easier is by keeping yourself busy.

calorie density

Be mindful of how dense the food you are eating actually is. Pastries are criminally dense in calories. Just look up the ingredients for an egg tart — it has a ton of butter.

Get into the habit of glancing at the nutrition facts of whatever you eat.

calorie counting

In the beginning of my weight loss journey, I used to count the calories of everything I ate. Counting your calories grounds you to reality and not your mental model of what dieting looks like.

Nowadays, I don’t focus on it, but I do keep a mental note of what I’m eating.

ordering the smaller size

As a kid growing up, getting the best value was always drilled in my head.

Costco mentality.

The biggest size always had the best unit price! What I discovered was that the enjoyment of whatever it is quickly diminishes, and that only the first few sips/bites actually matter.

Next time you get a latte or a smoothie, consider getting a small or a medium — even if it isn’t “worth it.” I’d argue that it actually is — you’re paying less money at the end of the day!

budgeting your calories

One thing that helped was thinking of your caloric limit as a budget. Any time that you go over your budget you are taking a loan against yourself.

But each calorie you don’t eat you get to save up! It is important to keep it at a healthy boundary though.

lessons learned

thanks

thanks to:

for their thoughts on weight loss.

病從口入

~ max