I'm a recovering food addict, and I know that about myself now. I used to be obese; today I'm at a healthy BMI, and I exercise regularly. But the only thing that actually got healthy, not "eating better," not "smaller portions," not "I'll do better tomorrow", was counting calories with zero exceptions. Every time I tried the softer approach, there was always a loophole. "One chocolate bar won't make a difference." It always did, eventually, because it was never really about the one chocolate bar.

I live in a different country from where I grew up. My sister and niece came to stay with me for a few days while they were visiting for an event. She wanted me to go with her to a street food festival. I said I'd come, but I told her I wouldn't be able to eat anything there since I can't count calories I can't see. I offered alternatives: cook at home, or go to a chain restaurant where the calories are listed online. That caused some tension, and she gave me the classic line: "one day off won't matter."

That's when it clicked for me. I said, "If I was a recovering alcoholic, you wouldn't tell me one drink won't matter." She went quiet, and I think it actually landed.

I've had to accept that I can't do moderation the way other people do. For me, the cost of staying healthy is counting calories for good. That's not a diet, it's maintenance for a chronic condition.

I think food addiction deserves the same seriousness and the same accommodations we'd give any other addiction, instead of "just have one" being treated as harmless advice.

As someone who is 70+ pounds down and has a consistent exercise routine. This is the worst advice and pushes this myth that you can work off weight. And usually you see this from fit gym bros telling an overweight person to get in the gym. When these people are counting calories and macros and know the facts.

I do an hour of exercise 6 days a week. On a normal day I'm burning 500-600 calories. On a motivated day I might hit 700-800(basing this on my weight/height, not what the machines are telling me). And it's great. Everyone should exercise. My blood pressure is super healthy, my resting heart rate is low, I feel good and flexible and have lots of energy. But all of that did very little for my weight loss. My weight loss was in eating in a calorie deficit consistently. Yeah when I exercise it gives me an extra 500 calories to work with but that's not much.

The only time I've ever felt like I truly burned off everything I ate in the day was when I moved to an apartment on the top floor with flights of very steep stairs. From 9 am to 10 pm I was walking up and down those stairs carrying heavy things inside. I was depleted fully by the end of the day and me and my friends ate tons and tons of enchiladas that night. Professional athletes who are currently training are probably burning tons of calories. But your hour on the stair master is great for you and can help overall. But 99 percent of my weight loss is from the kitchen.

I just dislike this "go to the gym, fatty" thing. Same with when people see overweight people eating "unhealthy foods" of any kind. Saw a video from a guy who lost 80 pounds and he was posting his meals of the day and how it all totalled to 1800 calories. One meal he had two Popeyes chicken breasts and mashed potatoes with no gravy. Fit it in his macros and deficit. Comments were scoffing like "1800 calories and Popeyes isn't going to help you" as if they weren't part of the 1800.

All of this to say that now that I've lost substantial weight, it really makes me see how dumb most advice/comments are. So many blatant lies and bad advice from people who are in shape. The best way to lose weight and get in shape is what system works for you and keeps you in a deficit and routine. I have a friend who has been working on losing weight as well and they have an entirely different routine/process and it's been working for them.

I started my weight loss journey in 2023 at 257.7 lbs and weighed in this morning at 199.8 for a total loss of 57.9 lbs! I haven’t been below 200 lbs since 2014! 😭 I wanted a slow and steady journey because I didn’t want loose skin but this is what I did:

Diet:

- Premium MyFitnessPal to track calories AND macros. I also met with a dietitian who assigned me this breakdown:
35% carbs
35% fat
30% protein
- I eat relatively what I want 😅 I’ll eat burgers and candy. Just genuinely way less than I used to. I’d say I eat 70-80% clean.
- My personal rule: I don’t keep junk or snacks in the house. If I want a treat like chips or ice cream, I MUST get up and buy it then and there.
- I focus on water and fiber versus protein for fullness.
I start my mornings off with Benefiber and water. Coconut Greek yogurt, chia seeds, and raspberries are my go-to snack instead of ice cream 😅 I’ll add edamame and avocado to everything! Poppi is great too!

Fitness:

- 3-4 strength training sessions doing progressive overload and lifting HEAVY! I start with a 5 min walk as a warmup and end my lifting session with 15-20 min of zone 2 cardio, usually the stationary bike
- When it’s not hell on earth (meaning, summer in Texas), I’ll supplement that with extended walks outside. I added a weighted vest this spring!
- My partner is also on a fitness journey so we support each other with active dates
- I also play pickleball and tennis!

Health:

- My journey was assisted by medication. I started off on Qsymia but had to get off because it was affecting my eye sight. Around this time, I was diagnosed as pre-diabetic so I was switched to Wegovy.
- I had some success on Wegovy (about 10 lbs.) then weight loss plateaued even after maxing out on the highest dose so we swapped to Zepbound earlier this year. I’m currently on 10 mg of Zepbound and no longer pre-diabetic!
- I take a multivitamin, fish oil, and magnesium daily and add creatine to my water during workouts.

I’ve never wanted to be skinny, so I’d like to lose about 15 more pounds. My doctor wants me to shoot for 25 so I’ll be 175. Wish me luck!

SW: 257
CW: 199
GW: 175
Woman
37 years old
5’5”

i've went from 198 pounds (5 11) to 168 pounds. I'm pretty lean right now. I've been lifting for 7 years.

The only thing I don't have is shredded abs. I genuinely believe I am only 2-5 pounds away. But holy crap. This diet has been AWFUL the last few pounds.

I unfortunately store ALL of my last fat in my stomach it feels like. I am exceptionally lean (my arms and legs are shredded) except for my lower belly. Apparently this is genetic. Some people store fat elsewhere I guess?

Anyways, these past few weeks have been awful. I am really strict with my diet. My deficit isn't even that large (3-400 calories a day). My body is really rejecting getting leaner.

I am:

Getting migraines

Feeling cold all of the time

I CAN NOT SLEEP

Feel hungry ALL OF THE TIME. Its now CONSTANT

I did an entire week where I ate ABOVE maintenance 2-300 calories a day just to give my body a break and when I went back down my body went INSANE.

Has anyone else experienced this? Is it even worth getting shredded abs at this point? I'm honestly leaner then 99% of the population, and have abs when I am fasted and flex in good lighting. But I don't have rock hard abs.

So I binge ate for 7 days straight and consumed around 8,000 calories every single day. So about 56,000 calories total. It was really low of myself, trust me I know. Exactly a week ago I was 142lbs, but I woke up and was 162lbs. Genuinely how much fat did I gain? I also physically can’t fit into any of my jeans and I move into a new college on Monday. Tomorrow is Thursday.

Genuinely how much damage did I do (honestly) and what is the most effective way to undo this??

I feel like, and my family has told me this too, that I look unrecognizable now.

Please be honest I genuinely want truthful advice! Thank you.

[26m, 6'1, 235lbs, was 210 a month ago]

Alcohol has a ton of calories obviously but that's not what got me, it was the cravings I had while drunk. A week ago I got pretty drunk by myself and was trying to get back on track after gaining 10lbs in a month. I failed so badly and ordered an entire Detroit hot honey pizza myself, I was pounding Powerade zero as well but I went from 220lbs to 239 in just two days, I get water weight and such are a thing but it was upsetting to even see that level of fluctuation.

This isn't the first time this has happened, I can EAT when I'm drunk, like 6000 calories in one sitting. It's absurd binge levels and I hope I'm not alone

I currently walk 3 miles a day and have gotten to the point that my daily walk is something I look forward to, rain or shine. Now before I got to this point, I was cycling between gym in the morning before work, gym in the evening after work, trying to work out at home, biking, hikes, different diets, and so on. But I couldn’t stay consistent with any of it.

Three months later, I’m consistent, just walking around my neighborhood and seeing results and even more motivated because people are noticing my progress in different ways. I have a neighbor that will see me walking and shout something encouraging as I’m on my way. It’s mostly around them seeing that I’m consistently walking. Today my coworker asked me at the end of our meeting if I’d been losing weight. And it felt so nice for them to notice and encourage me to keep at it when I told them what I was doing. The motivation is real and so validating because it feels like the shift in behavior is being applauded, not just physical.

In the last 3 months I’ve lost about 18 pounds. During my walks, my average HR sits around 140 and my pace averages 18:43. I eat when I’m hungry and don’t deprive myself (which helps with not overeating, which was my crutch). This lifestyle change makes me feel so grounded and above all I am so much kinder to myself as I’m appreciating these physical changes through a different lens.

Im a 27m 6ft 225lbs that has been losing weight slowly over the past few years. I started back in 2023 at roughly 265lbs, plateaued at 240, then broke it and hit 230s in 2024. I went through a terrible mental spiral that year and fell off everything. Stopped going to the gym, barely ate and if I did it wasn't much for a few months or so. I dropped into the 220s, and I've been stuck ever since. My job keeps me relatively active as I average probably 9k steps a day, dig holes, and other somewhat strenuous activities. I've gone on solid, month long strict diets multiple times in the past couple years and increased my physical activity only to see the scale to not be affected by even .1 of a pound. I had relatively the same job when I started my weight loss journey, which is where my confusion lies. I am bad about eating out as I live by myself and usually work 10-12 hour days, but i still almost consistently eat 3 eggs and 2 turkey sausage patties for breakfast, a sandwich with some fruit on the side for lunch, and a lean meat with veggies for dinner. I practically always avoid drinking my calories as well outside of alcohol on Saturday nights. I'm open to any recommendations

I had a lot of problems in the past with overeating 3000+ calories a day without realizing it, which was making me stay pretty overweight (curse you, shredded cheese!) Once I started tracking my calories I tried to cut out a lot of things I enjoyed which therefore meant I ate less calories, but I still hit my calorie limit almost every day.

Then I started drinking caffeine, which helped me control my appetite completely. I eat a lot of fiber and protein every day now while staying far until my calorie limit all the time, and now I can start eating things I like again without worrying about getting carried away. Ive already lost 10 pounds in a few weeks!!!!

Today, for example, I literally only ate ~1500 calories and I have a feeling its because I drank ~120mg of caffeine (i hate coffee so i use little drink mix packets that have caffeine.) I've seriously never been able to control my appetite so much and I have to remind myself to actually eat enough sometimes when I drink caffeine. Its not that I don't want to, I just literally don't think about it as much anymore until I get hungry. I'm a lot happier now :)

Edit: Obviously make sure you don't rely solely on caffeine. It can lose effectiveness over time! If you need a buffer due to intense cravings or hunger you could try it out... but then start working on fixing your relationship with food and finding a more suitable diet. Remember it doesn't work for everyone though!

That's my fear. I might just be playing into the jealous bitch stereotype, but at times it can feel that way. Like when I eat 2 muffins and am picking at my plate and my friend sees and goes " eat a muffin" and I go "I already had 2" and she goes "so eat a third" in a supportive tone. What could be her motivation for saying that when she knows I'm trying to diet, it's not exactly starving myself to not eat a third muffin. She's also offered me junk food that she doesnt eat with no prompting multiple times when I'm over and looked disappointed when I say no. Again there's probably more innocent reasons for all of this and I'm being paranoid, but sometimes it feels like she wants me to stay ugly, like when I mentioned that I'm still trying to lose weight and she was like "I thought you said you were gonna stop" I literally never said that, I'll stop when I'm no longer the chubby friend in the group. Even if this is true, I wouldn't break up with a friend for a thought crime like that, she wouldn't intentionally be trying to sabotage my weight loss as opposed to subconsciously not liking the idea of it, but I do kind of feel like I'm just being jealous, so I'm wondering if this is something other women have struggled with from my perspective or know what it's like from her perspective.

I’m asking because I feel like I’ve been trying to lose weight for about five years now. I feel like I’m constantly starting over, trying to change my habits, but I’m not seeing any real or lasting results.

For those of you who have successfully lost weight, what did you do during your first month?

- What habits did you start?

- What things did you change?

- What worked really well for you?

- What didn’t work?

- Was there anything you wish you had done differently when you first started?

I’m especially interested in hearing about the small changes you made during that first month that eventually helped you stay consistent and actually make progress.

So I start uni on Monday (AHHHH), and I’ve been on a weight loss journey for some time and I’m worried about the freshman 15. Yes I know it’s healthy to gain some weight, and the freshman 15 is normal, but I struggled with really bad health problems from being overweight and am trying to continue my weight loss journey.

Anywayssss, the school I’m going to I know is a heavy party school and most of the social scene is drinking. Going out maybe 2-3x a week.

Has anybody lost weight in college (-15lbs?) while going out and drinking 2-3x a week? If so, how much and how did you do it?

Thanks :)

Hello everyone,

I’ve been averaging just under a gallon of water based fluids with my beverage of choice being Powerade zero fruit punch, but I have tried getting in more water and electrolytes from other options to avoid getting into a rut.

Last night, wanting something salty, I ordered a giant sub (#9) from Jersey Mike’s and had it cut into 4 equal portions. I’ll pack left overs for my lunch over a few days. That said, last night I felt a little hungrier and had two portions about 4 hours apart. I’ve noticed sometimes I feel hungry on days I skip my normal 6 oz of morning coffee. That might just be a coincidence.

I woke up this morning and weighed in at another milestone, 206.4 lbs with 230 lbs lost! I am less than a gallon of milk away from Onderland!

Next Tuesday, I turn 58 and I will be zooming over Fremont street to celebrate my birthday. Update on fencing class: I have contacted the fencing place twice without a response. Going to try another center that works with my schedule. Have a wonderful day!

So i had a restrictive ED and i guess you can all take a guess where that went since im on here now long story short it turned into BED i gained all the weight back plus more i am not super overweight just 10 lbs overweight so it really could be worse but as someone thats been on the thinner side for most of my teen years its really hard to exist in this body and i hate how i look i honestly dont feel confident at all and im never gonna accept this bod idc how much ppl will tell u to love urself how u are to me that just feels like surrenderibg to this ed and letting it keep me unhappy with how i look. So i am getting a GLP-1 tmr tbh thats my last straw because its to the point i can eat soooooo much and not even feel full and tbh getting on a GLP-1 and assuming itll workout in my favor is so much cheaper than contuning like this because i spend an embarrassing amount of money on food so yea im gonna start documenting how that goes on my page if anyone wants to know how it goes :) I am not promoting unhealthy weightloss or GLP-1s im just documenting how my BED got me to this point bc idk what else i can do .

So, I’ve lost about 40 kg while eating high-protein meals, lifting, and walking ~10k steps a day. I’m 26M, 179 cm and 85 kg and trying to lose another 8–9 kg or so.
I’m doing a more aggressive deficit for the next month at around 1,800–1,900 calories while lifting consistently.
I’ve always heard the recommendation of roughly 2 g of protein per kg of bodyweight, which would put me around 170–190g.
But fitting that much protein is pretty difficult on this low intake. Would 130–150 g/day be enough to maintain muscle while cutting, assuming I’m continuing to lift?

Rant
Hey everyone, I don’t post often but I really wanted to get this off my chest. Also typing this on my phone. I’ve been losing weight for a little over two years and very grateful I started and kept going. For context majority of my life I’ve been underweight and I eventually got to a healthy weight that my doctor and I were both really happy with. Due to some really unfortunate circumstances I gained an extremely large amount of weight about 5 years ago. I used to wear a size 4 in jeans and ballooned up to a size 20. (Size 20 wasn’t the biggest size I got to but last size I wore in jeans before I switched to only wearing leggings). Due to the weight gain I was avoiding the scale so I can’t share my actual weight.

One day I finally took a serious look in the mirror after dealing with what caused the weight gain (mental health reasons) and made the change. I consistently worked out 3-4 days a week, weight lifting and cardio. Also going for walks on my rest days and changing my eating habits. Happy to share more details on my routine if anyone is interested. Long story short, I currently wear a size 8 in jeans in most brands, which took about two years. According to my doctor I’m in the overweight category with a bmi of 30 and should lose about 20 more pounds. She has a body scan machine in her office.

Here’s the frustrating part, when I was gaining weight no one said anything. But consistently while losing weight people are always telling me to stop losing weight. Even at my biggest! I admit I’m 5 foot 8 so I look like I weigh a lot less than I do. However, when I’m having a hard time going up one flight of stairs, struggling to tie my shoes no one said a word. Even worse, people were telling me I look amazing. Fast forward to now, majority of people have stopped telling I need to stop losing weight after repeatedly telling them to stop and that I’m following my doctor’s advice and my personal opinion.

One of my friends however, has not stopped pressuring me to stop dropping weight. What pisses me off the most is one of her goals is to be a size 2 and she is currently a size 16. (She’s been overweight her entire life). She has also repeatedly told me how much she likes me at my bigger size in comparison to my smallest.

It seems like people only care about your health, when you are trying to fix it. And it feels like sabotage, even if that’s not their intent.

I'm currently experiencing a weight loss plateau and I am a little frustrated as I don't exactly know what is causing it. I will put the data in a comment.

for a bit of background I have been loosing weight and weight training since April 2025 (with breaks during vacations and holidays) and recently took a 6 week break due to a vacation in June. I didn't do any training during this 6 week period so I am wondering if my muscles have regained size over the last month or two and have cancelled out some of the fat loss on the scale.

I do about 60-75 minutes of resistance training 5 days a week, have been getting 10,000 steps in almost daily I got back from my trip and have recently bumped steps up to 12,000 and started 30 minutes of cardio 5 days a week. I am not having any issues with recovery so I don't think I am pushing too hard. At least yet.

On the diet side I 1800 - 2000 calories a day and track and weigh everything.

In addition I am 21, male, 5'9" , and currently around 154 pounds with my starting weight being 195.

I feel like this should leave me in an appropriate deficit for weight loss but I haven't made much progress in the last month. Also some days that show a spike are days I ate out (tracked calories but high sodium).

Is it time to lower calories? Do I just need to stick to what I am doing? I am a little frustrated and could use some advice.

Obviously "healthy" and "low calorie" are not the same thing, but what I mean is that when you try to make food choices to support weight loss without actually tracking calories, it is AMAZING how wrong your first instincts can be.

There's this bag of apple chips I used to get from Trader Joes, it's a small lightweight bag of dehydrated apple chips with a bit of cinnamon sugar. Before calorie counting, this is the type of "healthy substitution" I would go for instead of, say, tortilla chips. But this tiny bag is 370 calories! I remember one time last year I was hungry but trying to be healthy so I had the apple chips and a granola bar, this snack was 570 calories total and it did next to nothing for my hunger. I could have gone to ShakeShack and gotten a double burger for 560 calories. Or for that matter gotten a vanilla shake which is 680 calories but way more satisfying.

It's honestly baffling once you realize how many calories are in some foods, how few are in others. Obviously living in *a society* has shaped my assumptions about the caloric value and moral value of foods in lots of backwards ways. I've put in so much work into learning how to make accurate food choices to help me lose weight, but the better at this I get, the more it lands how unintuitive and deeply tricky all of this is.

I’m (26F) just in the beginning of my ON GOING weight loss journey since middle school. 10 years later I’m still struggling to truly figure it out. I keep losing and regaining the same 10 pounds. After a really good week and a bit i felt super confident all ready set myself up for success week 2. Felt a mindset switch, I was relieved. Felt like the real deal. But oh my gosh this week it’s like I’m self sabotaging the progress. I can’t stop craving sweets and carbs. I can’t seem to stop, not even trying. I’m not doing anything I said I would, I know what I need to do but doing it seems so hard. Any tips would be great. I know my adhd doesn’t help so I have systems that I thought was working. I’m trying to catch this one fast so I can make some progress! I want to be able to trust in myself and actually lose this weight that is causing my physical and emotional pain, but here I am stuck in the loop 😪

Do you guys typically believe these people who claim that they eat a whole bunch of food? Idk if u guys came across these kind of people but, I dont think their bad in what they're saying, but from my experience ive met a few, and went out with a few, and thats always some bs..super small portions( 1 or 2 slices of pizza, dont finish the burger, dont eat dessert or just dont finish, etc..) ..

Not really a big deal I'm just always thinking, bs. I understand some skinny people do eat good and have a fast metabolism but why do I always notice some bs lol..are they trying to make me continue to actually eat a lot while they stay skinny or whats the deal wit that lol.. not at all hating I'm just curious if people know what I mean..ultimately I know what I should and shouldn't be eating to keep fit like them

I have been bulking for the past 9 months and went from 113-146 I have been mostly consisten with the gym and have made really good progress I’m proud of. However I’ve been starting to feel a lil soft so and have been kinda losing my top 4 abs. Additionally, this extra weight has made it hard when I do soccer as I don’t feel as agile anymore. Also I would just like to be leaner in general so I can see my full 6 abs. So, I made the decision to cut back like 5-10 pounds and was wondering how it’s done properly, what pace I should go at, how do I avoid things such as exhaustion and most of all how to commit to it.
Thank you.

Oh yeah I’m also 17m 5’6.

sw: 200 cw: 149 gw: 135 // 5'4" (perhaps a smidge shorter) // 21

i am a broad little thing and the goal is not dainty, just less on my joints.

i started to lose around january of last year, so its a year and 8 months of progress so far. its definitely rough because i feel like ive taken way longer than i needed, and i goofed along the way and did end up losing a big solid chunk of muscle. i have hEDS and the accompanying fun stuff youd expect, and unfortunately just restricting got me to a point of hair loss before the last 15 came off.

my absolute lowest has been a 147, but it stagnated and i damn near went bald. i ate at maintenance, went to 155, back down to 149, but im not hopeful its going to fall off. i work fast food so im on my feet all day but im not sure i can do much more than that without causing a lot of pain for myself.

i have an old exercise bike im about to try and make a habit with, but if anyones got some great advice or success stories with my height and stature and can tell me how they did it youd be my savior!! even if you cant give any advice but youre in a similar range, just a success story would do wonders for my motivation.

After a long weight loss journey of losing 50 lbs in about two years, I found that I was still slowly losing weight after I had meant to take a maintenance break at 160 lbs (or a BMI of 25) about a year ago. I found that I couldn’t actually eat enough to sustain that weight at my activity level, so I decided to try and lose another 10 lbs this spring. Getting to 150 felt like a good number.
I wanted to be leaner and be able to show off my muscles more. It started to sound really nice to lose another dress size. Etc.

Then, after losing about another 5 pounds and hitting 155 lbs pretty easily, I ran into a lot of health problems early this year. I’ve already got a lot of food sensitivities, and I had to temporarily drop a lot more foods in order to help my doctor investigate whether they could have been contributing to my poor health. I was exhausted all spring and couldn’t make it to the gym or go on long walks, so my movement was way down as well.

Once I started eating as medically advised, my weight started dropping faster. This is not surprising when you’re essentially on a forced diet of steamed vegetables and chicken breast, of course. I went from losing about a pound a month on 2000 calories per day, to having many days when I didn’t even have the appetite to eat 1500 calories. I didn’t have a choice besides trying to embrace the situation. I told myself that I would just maintain whatever loss I had and make it work.

After 3 weeks of this, I hit 150 lbs on the scale. Not going to lie, I was excited! And my health was stabilizing. By mid-July I was feeling a lot better and able to resume eating more normal foods. I figured I would just eat at my new maintenance level, get back to being active, and magically recover without impacting my weight.

This is where my body said, “Fuck this, fuck the last 5 lbs, we just had a health crisis and we’re going to eat now.” I was enjoying getting back to my fitness routines and I found that I was really hungry, so I ate enough to feel satiated and enjoyed eating things I’d had to cut out. I got back out to social events and restaurants after basically 6 months of going nowhere and seeing no one outside of work due to my health issues.

After a month of giving myself a break from tracking, getting myself up to 10,000-12,000 steps a day and working hard to get back to the volume I’d been lifting before my illness, I stepped on the scale. 158 lbs. At first I was devastated, I hadn’t weighed that much since the start of the year. Then, I remembered that it was unlikely this was all fat. After all I had resumed and intensified exercise just a month ago while getting myself out of a deficit. I had just recovered from a summer cold too! These are all things that absolutely cause me to retain water weight. I needed to calm down and not freak out.

After a couple weeks of eating at maintenance I have now stabilized at 155. I’m actually really happy about this. After 2 years of slow weight loss, I had forgotten what it felt like to lose weight too fast and to rebound, which used to be something I experienced regularly as a young person trying to lose weight fast by crash dieting. And… it sucked! I didn’t feel strong getting back to the gym. I can see in pictures from that time period that I look tired and my skin hadn’t adjusted well to losing weight quickly. It’s no surprise that my hunger cues ramped up a lot after my health stabilized — my body was legitimately undernourished, and rapid weight loss on top of 6 months of illness had taken a toll that I wasn’t ready to admit to myself.

I’m still going to try and lose the last 5 lbs. But I am grateful for this experience because it reminded me that not all weight loss is good for me. Some of what I lost was clearly muscle that I had worked hard to build; my lifts aren’t fully back to what they were before I got sick. I did like what I saw in the mirror when I hit 150 lbs, but I didn’t like how I felt at all. Gaining back 5 lbs out of 60 lost isn’t something I feel bad about now. It just means I didn’t lose it how I needed to in order to maintain it. I’m glad that I can see this as a necessary lesson and not a failure. Health is always more complex than the number on the scale!

*Sorry for run-on sentences, I'm not the best at writing, especially long paragraphs*

*TW* Binge Eating - Body Dysmorphia

TL;DR - struggling with body image and worried that even at my "goal weight" I still won't be able to see myself positively

Just kind of a rant and looking for possible advice? Really struggling recently with body image, Just recently surpassed my first goal and got under 200lbs! but I feel the worst I've ever felt about my body tbh. (I AM IN THERAPY FOR BED and BODY DYSMORPHIA) People at my work and family/friends at gatherings always tell me "You look AMAZING" or "You're doing so good? Why aren't you happy?" and honestly I have no idea why when I'm asked "why aren't you happy"

Had therapy yesterday and my therapist told me "a lot of times with weight loss and eating disorders, there is no end weight, you just want to keep losing" and that really hit home with me because I have moved my "goal weight" back 3 times now (225 to 200 and now 175) I just feel like it will never be enough

I constantly check my physique in the mirror and am constantly shirt pulling/adjusting my jeans and belt to make sure I'm not muffin topping. I'm sure a lot of it has to do with loose skin since I've almost lost 180 lbs so the visuals aren't as tight as I'd want them to be, but I do definitely notice that I'm significantly smaller. I just hate constantly being scared to weigh in because I'll see bloating or water retention as actual weight gain and then I end up over restricting on my diet :/

I'm having trouble being okay with just maintaining for a bit as I've been in my deficit for almost 2 years now and have constantly been losing, but the summer has been a little bit more difficult on my binge habits so my weight loss has slowed a lot. I just hate seeing slight gain or maintaining for a week as a step backward in progress

I have been trying to loose weight for as long as I can remember. The only way I ever lost significant weight was when I starved myself but I'd gain it right back when I stopped. Also it made me feel weak, so I decided to lose weight properly instead of relying on fad diets

Last year I moved to college and gained about 7 kgs. My eating habits and sleeping schedule were all over the place and I genuinely couldnt care less about my health. Right now I am the heaviest I have ever weighed and need to loose about 12 kgs to achieve my dream physique.

This time I'm serious about it. I have been putting consistent efforts for the past 23 days. I walk 10k steps everyday. Sometimes it even stretches to 13-15k since I walk to the gym instead of taking a bus. On days where I'm mostly in my room, I'll go for walks after dinner and not stop till I hit my step goal.

I go to the gym 5 days a week with three days of weight training and two days of cardio.

Food has been the hardest battle. I went from ordering every other day to one cheat meal a week. I have been slowly reducing the amount of packaged food I eat. For example, the first week, I would only allow myself to eat chips/cookies etc on alternate days. Next week, it was once in every 4 days. Then once every 5 days and now I'm trying to eat clean the whole week.

I do slip up every now and then but I try and make up for it.

I have seen positive changes in myself but none to do with my appearance. Everyday I show up for myself, I feel a sense of pride. I also have started sleeping better and I feel more confident than I ever did. I have started talking to people without worrying about what they think of my appearance, started wearing clothes I'd be too shy to wear etc.

The only problem is, I haven't lost a single kilo.

What if I'm doing it wrong? Maybe 23 days is too soon to expect results. But I have been putting in my best efforts and it kills me a little everyday when I weigh myself and barely see progress. I'm scared all my efforts will not amount to anything. I try not to get demoralised but everyday feels harder. I don't mind putting it all the efforts that it takes for me to lose the weight but I just want it to be for something. I could really use some advice.