Hello everyone!
First time poster here. I'd like to share my story with you, since I found so much inspiration on r/loseit and wanted to hold myself accountable.
The text got quite long, you can find a TLDR and pictures at the bottom!
Background
I've always been a sweet tooth, and made it a bad habbit to eat a lot of sweets whenever they were available. I would never do so in front of my parents or my boyfriend (my now husband), but whenever I was alone I would eat unhealthy amounts of sweets. Coming home and feeling hungry? Have a box of chocolate chip cookies. Home alone on the weekend? Perfect, now every meal would consist of candy. Feeling full after a large dinner? There's always room for dessert and some more treats... You can see the pattern.
During puberty and adolescence I've been quite chubby (never weighed myself, though), during my adult years for most of the time my weight would vary between 135lbs and 155lbs, and whenever I was in the upper weight range I would restrict myself and start dieting (i.e. cutting out sweets, drinking a lot of water, doing sit-ups). Cutting out sweets alone was always sufficient to reduce my weight by 10-15lbs, but sooner or later I would fall back into old habbits and start gaining again.
By the end of 2017 work became very stressful, and I would eat more sweets again. I felt how I gained weight by the fit of my clothes, but always told myself that it was no big deal. By the end of August 2018 my workwear wouldn't fit anymore, so I went to work with unbuttoned trousers and a big sweater covering it. I felt very uncomfortable with my body at this point, I hated looking in the mirror and being naked around my husband. During all this time I intended to lose weight, but my indolence kept winning.
The Change
And then came the point it clicked in my mind. It wasn't anything in particular, but one Saturday evening I decided to put an end to my eating habbits and to lose that weight.
I spent the evening looking up suitable weight-loss-methods. I knew I wanted to do basically CICO, but then I learned about Keto, and Paleo, and IF, and OMAD, and Low-Carb, and I felt overwhelmed and discouraged because I knew that would be too much effort for me to maintain. Counting calories is one thing, but keeping track of how much carbs/protein/fat every meal has, and to make that work with 2-3 meals a day seemed insane.
So I took a step backwards and decided to focus on CICO alone. After all it wouldn't matter what I ate, as long as I stayed within my limits!
So when I stepped on the scale on Sunday morning I found myself at 164,2 lbs (74,5 kg), but was determined as never before to not only lose this weight, but to make a permanent change in my eating habbits that I can live with for the rest of my life (and not switching back after having reached my goal!)
Method
As I said, I went with CICO and installed MyFitnessPal on my phone to keep track of the calories I was allowed to eat. MFP gave me a limit of 1200 kcal a day. In addition I try to drink 2,5 – 3 litres of water daily. I weigh myself every morning before having breakfast.
Logging alone was quite an eye-opener to me concerning meal-sizes. I.e. my breakfast has always been quite healthy (oats with apple, banana and milk or joghurt), but it was quite shocking to see how little oats I was allowed to add to my bowl to keep inside my limit!
Food
In the past I never used to cook, I even hated it and was glad that my husband did it (and boy his meals were quite rich in calories). But with me wanting to count calories I started to cook for us, and although I still can't say that I love it, I don't hate it anymore. It's good to know what's on our plates and that we have healthy meals!
In the first weeks I would often cook a lot of Quinoa or Couscous with vegetables and no to very little meat, but that's not a thing my husband wants to eat every day of the week, so I added rice into our eating plan (also stretched with a lot of vegetables & fish or poultry), swapped normal cream for fat-reduced versions or sour cream, banned oil from our pans (they've got an anti-stick-coating after all).
On 1 or 2 days a week I cook "normal" meals like we used to have before I started watching my calories (still swapping cream for better alternatives), but would only eat a small portion so that it would fit into my calorie goal. Which means we still have Spaghetti, or wraps, or even a Döner now and then. :-)
Improvements
First of all it was great to feel something like hunger again – in the past I would have eaten so much during the day that this didn't occur anymore, now when dinner draws near there's a pleasant appetite. I also feel a lot less bloated – no more flatulences or stomach aches.
The most noticable difference is of course my outer appearance. Clothes fitted a lot better after a short while (3-4 weeks into the start of my journey), now I can't even wear my old workwear trousers anymore because they won't stay where they belong!
I myself can see the difference when it comes to my body from the neck down, I still fail to see a difference in my face when looking in a mirror (although it's clear for me to see in pictures, I guess my mind needs some time).
Struggles
Since I want to make everything right this time and want my weight-loss to be sustainable, I'm terribly afraid of setbacks and situations where I'm not in control, like eating out with friends, social gatherings, and so on. For example I celebrated my birthday last week, and I knew that I would eat a piece of cake and that my parents would take my husband and me out to dinner, so I had only a small breakfast, and made healthy choices at the restaurant, but also had a dessert, and it stresses me out that I can't log all of that accurately.
As of now it's impossible for me to enjoy meals like I used to... my mind always circles around what I'm allowed and what is too much. I really miss stuffing myself with sweets and normal food and not waste a thought about it (that sounds absurd, but that's how it is)
Unsupportive people who don't understand that I'm not dieting, but having changed how I eat. My mother keeps asking how long I will "do that diet", and I always tell her "for the rest of my life if everything goes according to plan". Or people who don't accept a "no" when offering alcohol, desserts, snacks.
Goals
My goal weight is within my grasp (I'm aiming for 132 lbs (60kg)). I hope to reach a stage where I can maintain my weight and maybe only weigh myself once a week. It would be great to develope a feeling for portion sizes so that daily calorie counting isn't a must – but I'm aware that it will accompany me for the rest of my life.
Any tipps & tricks from you folks are more than welcome!
TLDR (Too long, didn't read)
Gained a lot of weight over the last year, couldn't button up my trousers any more, finally decided to lose it using pure CICO (1200 kcal/day) and MFP, no exercise so far. After 3 months I'm only 5 lbs away from my goal weight.
Height: 5'7''
Starting weight: 164,2 lbs (74,5 kg)
Current weight: 136,4 lbs (61,9 kg)
Lost: 27,7 lbs (12,6 kg)
Pictures
Before & After (NSFW)
Bonus: Some meals I was proud of 1 2
Edit: Formatting & reuploaded pictures
-> Learn the easy way to loose fat
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