This may hit wrong and thats fine but I think a lot of people struggle with the most important part of losing weight and that is their own personal accountability. They do not own how they got there and they are not honest about it to themselves. I can say that because I struggle at times with weight and quite frankly its always my own fault that I got to where it became an issue. Everyone wants a magic drug, a hack or a shortcut. Reality is there is not one. Losing weight and keeping is a battle and its something that you don't half ass do and it works.
I don't care what your physical condition may be there is something you can do to get a bit more active. So many make excuses about bad knees, bad back etc but there literally is something everyone can find to do that allows them to simply move and not be stationary.
The other excuse is lack of time etc. Well if someone has time to post here or an FB then they have the time to get in some work that day. There are so many little things you can do like park further away from an entrance when you are out going to different places, lift some lighter weights while watching TV or do a certain amount of exercises every time you get up to go to the bathroom etc.
People say it costs more to eat healthy, they don't have the time to meal prep or they can't shake hunger pains but again I say BS. Make the time. You can spend 15 minutes and get 3 days worth of food prepped and easier to grab and go. Fruit and vegetables are often way cheaper than processed foods. Same with clean proteins. Its not all that hard to do. First be honest with your input and find a BMR calculator on the internet. Be honest about the questions you answer. Start there then start shaving off a couple of hundred calories a day through better eating and exercise. Start simple, slowly cut out the bad stuff from your diet over time. Replace it with better stuff. Eat smaller portions, eat less often and drink a lot of water. Quit rewarding yourself for doing the right thing. I personally do not believe in cheat days or cheat meals. It takes roughly 3500 calories to equal a pound. You have to create a caloric deficit to lose weight. You start busting your ass to lose 500 calories a day then come the weekend you decide to have a cheat meal or day. You wolf down half a pizza and a couple of beers followed by a bowl of ice cream or a piece of cake. You literally just zapped about half or more of that deficit you worked all week to create. So what happens is that slows your progress which over times makes people feel like they are not seeing results as they should be and they quit trying. All because you thought you "earned" a cheat meal by doing the right thing. Playing the reward game with food is a dangerous game. Its gonna cause way more issues than it helps.
Find a way to eat that is sustainable for the long term. The first time I realized I ate myself to fatness was 2011. I was well over 300lbs and felt like hell. I was drinking soft drinks by the gallon a day. I made excuses as to why I did not have time to work out or eat right. It was always someone else's fault. Finally I got fed up and I started working out like a madman and somewhat modified my eating habits. I quit soft drinks cold turj]key and have not had one since. I lost over 100lbs in 6 months. It stayed off for about a year or so then it crept right back up. What I had done to lose it was not sustainable. I also neglected to learn to eat better. I got satisfied and complacent with how far I had come. I took it for granted. I had totally gotten lazy and did it to myself. I did not continue to put in the work.
By 2015 I needed to lose it again so this time I looked at how to eat better. I started on a Paleo based way of eating which was pretty easy to maintain. I did the same with my workouts. Nothing too extreme. Just consistency. I took all of the issues that come with being fat and used them as motivation to lose weight. The weight melted off and again I lost over 100lbs pretty quickly. It stayed off very well because I understood a lot more that food was fuel and to eat better and to stay active regardless of whether I needed to lose weight or not. I was still doing the work. Then COVID hit and I was working a ton, the gyms closed and I was getting lax. As COVID settled down I started noticing that my hands would swell after a workout. I had a lot of headaches and felt like I had no energy. I was eating right but my weight started creeping back up. I would work out even harder then get even more rigid about how I ate. The weight just kept coming up. I had went and obtained a personal trainer certification just prior to COVID so I felt like I was doing the right things based on what I had learned. Still I was gaining weight. Finally I was able to get to some specialists and labs were drawn several times. It was found that I had a pretty severe case of Hashimoto's Disease which is rare in men to begin with, its even more rare for a male to have such a late in life onset. When I went to a specialist and they scanned my thyroid I was told it was the most inflamed they had ever seen. Didn't know if that was a compliment or not....
...it did however help to pinpoint why I was swelling up so bad, putting on extra weight and fighting with headaches. They started me out on some medication. Initially it worked well then kind of stalled out. I started another medication and the same results. By this time I was pissed off and kinda down on it all as I had always been able to push through anything and make my body respond. In a nutshell I gave up and kept making excuses. I began to eat whatever I wanted in whatever quantities I wanted. I ate myself to a place I did not want to be at again till I finally said enough is enough.
I was getting dressed after a shower and caught a glimpse of my stomach. I was sickened, embarrassed but most of all I was mad. I needed to be pissed as its fuel for me. I decided then and there that I would get back to my target weight and get healthier or I would break my body in the process. I decided to quit feeling sorry for myself and making excuses. I got back to eating right. Just for the heck of it I did not eat any bread at all for 30 days. The swelling after workouts stopped, I felt better. No more headaches. My energy levels got back to normal. I also had dabbled a bit with intermittent fasting here and there but never for an extended amount of time. I started 2 months ago just eating within a 12 hour window. I eat pretty clean but I shutdown anything other than water intake at 7:00PM. If it gets that late and I have not eaten I wait until the next day. No exceptions I usually don't start eating until around 8-9:00AM so it works perfectly for me. Its been a true life changer. Its not hard at all. I feel 100% better. It also has reset my taste buds. Everything has more flavor. Something like a piece of cake or candy would be inedible to me now as the sweetness would be too much to handle. I feel more clear headed and more focused. I have lost right at 50lbs in two months and feel great again. I am more than halfway to my target weight but I am not in a race to get there. Just going with steady progress and sustainability. Small hunger pains are a reminder that you are doing something right.
The thing that drives me is the dislike of myself being fat. I don't say I am overweight, I say I am fat. I own it. I don't allow myself excuses. I just try and be consistent. Fact is no one really cares that you are overweight, no one is gonna hold your hand and get you to your goal, no one else is gonna do the work for you. You are gonna have to work, sweat and learn to deal with being uncomfortable for extended periods of time. If you are a special flower that needs someone to build in excuses for you then my approach will not work for you. You gotta despise where you are today if you want to get there. You are the only one that can truly hold yourself accountable. You gotta get up and start moving, start eating better and go all in. Don't waste your time with an half ass attempt. It will just come back and you will gain even more. You gotta do the work no matter what. You are in a life long battle. Because you hit your target weight does not mean the fight is over. Stop making excuses and go do the work. Don't allow yourself cheat meals or cheat days. Don't skip workouts. Make time for them even if you are tired. Be consistent. Quitting will become a pattern if you let it. You are gonna have to recalibrate your want to. At least that is my approach.
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Originally Posted by Mark Perry
. How about just eat properly and exercise? I know, to much work and not quick enough results for lazy people. You can still eat amazing, delicious meals. Proper intake and exercise is a life long endeavor, not a quick fix. People need to change their bad habits into good ones. Simple enough. So many want the short cut with no effort, that’s not how it works. Eat whole foods, build necessary muscle, doing that also builds dense bones. All things the body needs as it ages.
