By quitting drinking alcohol
Literally the only thing I changed about my life at that time and I went from 185 lbs to 165 lbs in 3 months
I was drinking a fifth per night of alcohol that was at least 100 proof, so I was a bit of an alcoholic at the time
I quit cold turkey and within just a few weeks I started feeling a lot better overall and by about 4 months after I quit the cravings stopped every time I smelt alcohol
I’ve been sober now for about 5 and a half years and the weight has stayed off the whole time. I’ve basically been 160±5 lbs since
That’s amazing! Congrats on sobriety.
Thank you
It wasn’t my first attempt but my 4th to get sober. Getting sober wasn’t easy, and I think is a topic more people should talk about. You never seem to here people talking about how many attempts it took to achieve something like that, you only ever here that they did it.
And honestly this is the longest I’ve been sober since I was 12 years old
I wouldn’t give it up for the world, the quality of life improvements have been amazing and not just my physical health but my mental health as well. It’s amazing how much easier PTSD is to deal with while sober vs not.
Congratulations that’s awesome, I’m sober myself (just over 18 months) and it took me a lot of tries and many years to stop drinking so I can relate to that.
The one thing I would really caution people about is quitting cold turkey - alcohol withdrawal can be fatal. It’s also miserable even when done with medical help, I’ve done medical detox in the hospital and at rehab more times than I care to remember and each time serves as a huge reminder of what awaits me if I start drinking again. So please if anyone is considering stopping drinking and is drinking a lot, talk to a doctor about it and be honest. Seizures and strokes and DTs are not fun and can kill you.
That all said I also struggle with weight, and a few times after I stopped drinking I ate more and gained weight and it contributed to going back to drinking. This time I’ve been very conscious about calories in vs calories out because that has been something that works for me. Food scale and honesty tracking everything I eat and all my exercise.
And again, awesome job on 5 years, I love coming across sobriety out in the wild.
- Water. No drinks other than water or black coffee/ tea.
- Understanding nutritional value better and counting calories (for a while). Intuitive eating has been sven better for me after that.
- OMAD. One meal a day. Suited my hunger pattern for a long time and allowed me to feel full after a meal which I like while feeling light most of the day which I also like.
- Home cooked meals 99% of the time. Literally. Maybe eat out once a month most months.
- Enjoying feeling healthy, so liking eating the things I ate and working out etc.
Things I didnt need but do recommend:
- Improved fiber intake.
- Cutting all caloric drinks.
- Know how much fat youre adding to your food, that tsp you just added are actually 2 tbsps.
- Choose better carbs. Thats mostly about fiber content again. So whole wheat instead of white.
- Dont mean to sound like that guy but good for gut foods. Yogurt, pickles and other fermented products.
- The mental side. Know that a bad meal, day, week doesnt ruin anything. You don’t need to be perfect, just improve in the long term.
I could go on forever but I’ll stop here.
I see a lot of exercise reccomended ITT, but just remember that it takes an hour to “burn” 300 calories walking, but under a minute to eat a donut. Dieting is your battle. Also, doing a little exercise (5 min walk) everyday that you can keep yourself doing consistently is WAYY more important than the 2 hour gym sesh you hit twice then get demotivated and never do again
(This is coming from someone with no experience losing weight, so take it with a grain of salt)
I go road cycling a lot. That burns more than 600 calories an hour. Just one 3 hour ride per week offsets almost as much calories as eating in one day does.
No magic tricks or diet fads.
Eat less, move more.
Eat more vegetables and salad, cut down bread and meat.
Stop drinking sodas and juices with extra sugar in them and learn to quench your thirst with water.
Limit eating candy or cookies to one day per a week, if you can’t let them go entirely.
Eliminating certain kinds of food entirely
Some foods tended to be things I quite simply ate too much of, and eliminating them entirely was the simpler option. Snacks are obvious in this category, but less obvious for me was bread and sandwiches.
Walking, a whole lot of it
Running can often be the exercise that comes to mind when wanting to lose weight, which is natural on account of its cultural prevalence and high energy requirement. The problem is that you can’t really do a whole lot of it without getting tired, and if you’re overweight it probably hurts like hell to do it.
Walking, on the other hand, can be done essentially in unlimited quantities. I took every opportunity to go for long walks at a brisk pace, listening primarily to podcasts but also audiobooks to keep me entertained. It was also a good opportunity to catch up with family by giving them a call.
Caloric restriction
At the end of the day, no matter what kinds of food I ate, my appetite still pushed me to put more energy into my body than I was able to spend. As such, I had to implement some form of caloric restriction to keep the number going down.
These things worked for me but may not be appropriate for you. Losing weight is very hard, some trial and error is probably a good idea. Good luck!
Use a calorie counting app like lose it. Log everything you eat. It’s very tedious at first but pretty soon you get really good at judging how many calories are in things. Don’t stop logging! Track your weight. When you hit plateaus zoom out on the time scale and look at your trend line going down and feel good about yourself.
The trick is being honest with yourself. There are no free calories. Those 2-3 little cookies you had at work? They count. The extra scoop of rice? That counts. Most people have no concept of how many excess calories they’re really taking in.
Over COVID lockdown my wife and I both gained 10-15 pounds and I was already a good 20 pounds over where I wanted to be. We both started this and never stopped. I lost 40 pounds in about 9 months (230 to 185) , she lost 20, 155 to 134, and we’ve both kept it off for the last three years. We log all our meals and we exercise. Exercise becomes rewarding because burning extra means you can cheat! Did you bike twenty miles today? HAVE YOU A FUCKIN DONUT THEN!
pretty soon you get really good at judging how many calories are in things.
This was the key for me. Understanding the cost of the food I enjoy let me cut back on rice and replace it with ice cream, for example.
Also when I’m logging food, it adds a bit of friction, especially for new foods, so I eat less just because of that. Usually that’s when I realise that I’m not eating because of hunger.
I ate less
I started eating less and being more active. I went down to two meals a day and little to no snacking. One smaller meal in the late morning and one bigger in the late afternoon. Also started to commute by bike at least twice a week and go out hiking more often.
Weight goes down not too fast but at a steady pace.
ADHD meds 🫤
I fucking love the local burger joint. Every full pound I lost, I allowed myself a burger and onion rings. 40 pounds to lose, 40 burgers to eat.
Eating less. When making dinner I wold make half of what I usually made, for lunch I would only have small things like a salad or soup, I stopped supplementing during/after training with gels and recovery drinks, cut out desserts. Went from 68kg to 63kg in couple of months.
Stress and Insomnia 😇
Wanna trade for a bit? Both make me eat more
There are many methods that are ultimately a combination of psychological tricks, and finding food and meal times that you work well with.
The one thing they all have in common is calories in being less than calories out.
One of the easiest and most effective ways to get started is simply establishing a baseline. Don’t try to change anything, just count everything. And yes that means everything. After that, look for things you know don’t make you feel good. Maybe limit or drop soda, cut a snack in half, limit dessert, reduce alcohol, etc.
Radical diet changes aren’t required, just consistent.
When you start to run into problems with something that feels like self control (snacking, meal size, alcohol, sugar, etc), then look into ways to work through that. Often it’s just learning new habits (never eat from the bag, seconds are ok but start small and wait, etc). Those habits really depend on the individual and where you’re currently at though.
Some people do great with keto, some with fasting 20 hours a day, some with only snacks instead of meals, or only meals and zero snacks. Just trying those at random without understanding where you’re currently at first can lead to feeling failure and giving up unless you happen to get lucky with what you try first.
And, always be kind to yourself.
I started slow jogging every other day, using an app called Just Run that has you alternate walking/running until you’re built up to running a full 3k. It goes for 9 weeks and I just completed week 6. There’s a 10k version I’ll be moving on to after.
On the days I don’t run, I use Chloe Ting weight-training videos on YouTube to target areas I need strength support in, like my lower back and shoulders. I also use her cool down routine every day, it’s the best stretching video I’ve found.
I’ve also been fasting every Monday. Just nothing but coffee (which I do put some sweetener and milk in in the morning) and water.
I only weigh myself once my period has come and gone, since I tend to fluctuate about 10 lbs during. I weighed myself about 3 weeks ago and I’ve lost 13 lbs. I’ve just now started seeing and feeling a change.
The fasting is the part that actually affects your weight.
I found exercise that I actually wanted to do. For me, this started out as cycling. I enjoyed being able to go places and see things. I used to just cycle casually with my family but when the COVID lock downs happened, I would go on 30+ mile bike rides. It was nice to get out, see things and the roads were pretty empty around me so I could go just about anywhere.
The biggest problem with that around here is that it gets really cold during the winter so I started doing a combination of cardio, hand weights and basic exercises like pushups, etc to just get my heart rate going and sweat a bit. I do have an indoor bike trainer but I don’t enjoy that quite as much because it’s just sort of boring compared to being out and seeing scenery.
I was sort of stuck at this weight of around 190, which by the BMI charts is a few pounds overweight for my height. This last fall, I was challenged by my sister in law, along with her other siblings, to run a half marathon. I used to play soccer and I used to run for a good while in my 30s - it’s how I stayed in shape back then and was able to lose a good bit of weight. So I started running and I found it to be really easy, probably because I didn’t have to fight through the getting winded - it was mostly my leg muscles getting used to running. Now I run around 30 miles a week, even in the cold. The only thing I struggle with now is taking care of my knees and leg muscles as that’s the biggest issue I run into that could prevent me from keeping it up. I’ve been running since November and am down to 180 and I feel great.
Now food wise, I mostly just try to be generally aware of going in excess for anything that is just sugar or a food that calorie dense but not providing nutrients. I try to keep fruit around the house. if I think I am hungry, I ask if I am hungry enough to eat and apple or a plum - something like that and will do so if I am. I still snack on stuff like pretzels, crackers, etc. I eat things that aren’t healthy for me but I try hard to not go overboard on anything.
My weight loss started in a thread exactly like this. I read about someone using My Fitness Pal to track their food intake and consuming less than they were burning. I tried the same thing and within days I was losing weight and feeling better.
I lost 80 pounds over the following year, took up running using the Couch 2 5K program and have been maintaining that since 2018.
Finished my first triathlon last summer.