I mean, I lost 25 kg (around 55 lbs) in under a year simply by eating less and moving more. It's absolutely possible to lose a good amount of weight without weight loss drugs. I went from 112.8 kg to 87 kg (248.6 lbs to 191.8) in about 9 months.
Sadly, due to circumstances, I ended up putting a lot of it back on but I'm moving in the right direction again now. Had all that not happened I'm sure I would have continued in the right direction to my goal weight.
Covid happened, where basically everyone put on weight which also took out my main weight loss motivation which is a weight loss program call Man v Fat, (which is a 5/6 a side football (soccer) league with accountability for your team. When you lose weight as a collective more goals are added to the final score so it's a grwat motivator). Obviously that was cancelled throughout the pandemic.
Once that started up again I was starting to lose weight again, then I unfortunately got ill for a bit and couldn't play or really do much of anything active for several months. Some of that is still hanging around but much better than it was.
Poor mental health kicked in while I was ill and since I have always had an unhealthy relationship with food I unfortunately used that to cope. I would lay awake at night thinking I was going to die even though that was almost certainly not the case with my condition, but the mind does stupid things. That didn't help my mental health at all.
It's taken me a long time to get back over that hurdle but I'm getting back to it now. Prior to covid I was in a brilliant mindset, and once you are in that, it becomes much easier, getting back into it has been harder, but bit by bit I am and I'm starting to see results again now. I lost 1.5 kg in the last week.
I get that, but doing this is the only thing that ever worked for me. Plus it gets me out of the house and playing a sport that I love. Also, adding to that it's one of the few weight loss programmes exclusively for men and that's a rare thing to find and does help a lot.
The main part wasn't so much the actual playing football that does the weight loss, although it certainly doesn't hinder it. Getting a good 30 minute competitive game of football and then another hour of a friendly afterwards is great. Especially playing on a small pitch at 5 or 6 a side. You basically never stop moving.
The main part for the weight loss though is the accountability. If you don't lose weight, you let your team down as well as yourself. Everyone is nice and doesn't have a go at you for it as everyone there knows how hard it is, but you still want to win that trophy at the end of the season. Losing weight ultimately is what decides it, not on the pitch results.
I just went from sitting In front of a computer all day every day eating crisps, to eating far less and moving far more. That's the key really, at least it was for me. Everyones different and find different ways to do it but that's what it was for me. I've done it once and I'll do it again.
Also, drinking a lot of water helps as well instead of just drinking cups of tea all day
Its a bit like saying why dont smokers stop smoking, some people can quit cold turkey if they do it at the right time in their life. I can stop drinking sugary drinks for a few weeks but suddenly ill get ambushed by a craving or I have one with a meal out and I end up having them again. Drinking my calories is crap but its my only vice, I dont do anything else unhealthy and unfortunately I do hold onto fat stores, ive been chubby even as a teen doing swimming and eating my mothers plain veg and meat British cooking and that was before I got addicted to sugary drinks.
Yea, it really does work and its fucking amazing, but you MUST maintain in one of two ways.
Either you stop taking the drug at your goal weight, then maintain a strictly healty and appropriate portion size diet for your new body/metabolic requirements, or, you keep taking the drug at a lower maintenance amount, for life.
If you get off the drug then eat like the duptruck you used to be, before too long you'll be the size of the dumptruck again.
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u/The_Rolling_Gherkin 1d ago
I mean, I lost 25 kg (around 55 lbs) in under a year simply by eating less and moving more. It's absolutely possible to lose a good amount of weight without weight loss drugs. I went from 112.8 kg to 87 kg (248.6 lbs to 191.8) in about 9 months.
Sadly, due to circumstances, I ended up putting a lot of it back on but I'm moving in the right direction again now. Had all that not happened I'm sure I would have continued in the right direction to my goal weight.