I have a milk problem

Counting calories with a food scale is eye opening. That bit of milk in coffee was actually about 80ml on average and I guess on certain days I might have drank about 300ml in milk. I guess I will switch to drinking my coffee black now.

Overall I think I am someone who is drawn to milk, some people may have sugar cravings, for me it’s hard to resist milk. (Fermented dairy like yogurt or quark is totally different for me, it doesn’t trigger the same reactions).

TLDR; I have struggled with my body all my life, this podcast has opened my eyes on fat phobia, and the role and responsibilities of society in my mental wellbeing regarding my own body.

I've not always been fat, but for as long as I can remember I have always felt fat and been told to watch my weight.

Looking back at photos of me in highschool and even middle school, I think I looked skinny. I do not understand now how people, family, friends, strangers... Could have felt the need to tell me to watch what I eat. And yet, it happened. A lot.

I have tried many diets, some outright dangerous, and not been able to keep the weight off. I have worked out, sometimes to the point of vomiting, and not lost significant weight. I have long felt it was my fault, and that I don't have enough self control or character to just lose weight and keep it off.

The podcast "Maintenance phase" has helped me realize I may not be the (only) responsible party of my fatness. At first I was doubious of its hosts - a very entertaining duo of a self proclaimed "fat lady" and "skinny gay dude" - and I thought they were just glorifying obesity and excusing fat people by accusing the establishment, the corporations and society of bullying and fat shaming. But their pieces are actually very well researched and beautifully articulated. They don't excuse fatness, they don't glorify obesity. What they are saying, is: "stop treating fat people like second class citizens".

I am slowly starting to realize I have been mistreated for my weight and accepted this as deserved and normal. I have often thought "it's my fault" and felt ashamed when people gave me unsolicited advice about losing weight, or said mean things about my body. This is not right. I should not feel shame for being mistreated by others, and the podcast "Maintenance phase" has helped me realize that.

I am sharing the podcast here, with you, my fellow fat people, because I believe it is important for you to accept yourself and realize when society is trying to make you feel inadequate. I am not telling you not to lose weight, that is entirely up to you. I am asking you to take a long hard look at how society is treating you, so you can leave the negativity behind and work on healing yourself mentally before taking on the immense challenge that is changing your body size (if that is still a thing you feel you need to do).

I hope this helps at least one person here to feel less hopeless and shitty about themselves.

Much love!

Spotify link: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5JOZkVLc0Yceq3dy5RshPz

YouTube link: https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=cRz-d9rt94g&si=Um2XWSrAuTk6n_n5

-- Edit: I want to note that I am guilty of anti-fat bias as wel... Whilst being fat. So I need to work on my issues with other fat people as much as any skinny person does.

I just recently occured to me that could use the formula used to calculate one's TDEE backwards. here me out.

Current TDEE is estimated at 2320 using this formula:

tdee = tdee_factor * (66 + 13.7 * weight_kg + 5 * height_cm - 6.8 * age_years)

If I would eat 2000 consistently, what weight could I expect to have? solving the above equation for weight_kg and using my data, I arrive at 92 kg.

If I would eat 1800 consistently, what weight could I expect to have? solving the above equation for weight_kg and using my data, I arrive at 80 kg.

My takeaway here is: today's deficit can be tomorrow's maintenance weight.

And me being overweight currently is actually me eating way more than what my body needs consistently for years.

I made a new year's resolution this year to lose weight. I started at 265 at the beginning of the year. I have been making a lot of changes to my lifestyle, and I've been working really hard and very slowly losing weight. I am at 246 today, and I feel like my progress isn't good enough. I spent 10 months really trying, and for what? Not even twenty pounds? I don't really feel or look a lot different. I put in so much work and I feel really discouraged from continuing. How do you keep going? I feel like I'll never get to a healthy weight.

So i ordered jeans with width 36 to see if I can go a size lower. Turns out W36 fits a bit tight but it fits and then I realize I am currently wearing W40 jeans, since they come in increments of two I am just two sizes down.

Wohoo

This is my first time posting here, so I'll give a bit of background,

Start Weight: 303 lbs/137kg Goal Weight: 220 lbs/100kg

Height: 6'4"/193cm

My whole family decided more or less together to get our shit together and start being healthy, my brother was the first, and he's almost 40lbs down now, then my parents joined him, then my wife, and finally I got off my butt and joined them

My routine has changed a lot from the start, but where it sits now is this

Workout Sun-Thurs - alternating gym days and running 5km - at the gym I do 35 mins on the stair stepper doing interval training, basically just doing the highest level I can manage without cheating, currently at 100 stories in those 35mins, then weight training afterwards. My 5k times are currently clocking in around 40mins, I'll be running an actual 5k next month and my hope is to get down to 35mins by then, but we'll see!

Nutrition - On a typical day I aim for around 2k calories with a macro ratio of 40% protein and 30% carbs and fat. I often miss my protein goals, but I do my best - my main concern at this stage is weight loss, so I pay more attention to the calories than the macros. On my rest days I bump up to 3k calories, which is just a bit below my TDEE. To help manage my calorie intake, I've been using Huel's Hot & Ready meals pretty much every day for lunch, mixing in Costco rotisserie chicken breasts for extra protein/flavor. It helps to have my lunch be low calorie and consistent because I enjoy having a big dinner. I also have two scoops of Whey after every workout with 2 scoops of creatine for muscle growth.

The first 15 pounds shed off really quickly, in the first few weeks, but from there I hit a bit of a plateau hovering between 15-20lbs, I was finally able to break the plateau by introducing refeed days - which I originally left out because I figured CICO was all that matters and that refeed days were just working against myself, but it turns out they help a lot as long as your long term calorie intake is still a deficit.

Right now my main focus is to drop pounds until I get to around 220, then I plan to focus mainly on building muscle and lowering my body fat % while more-or-less maintaining weight

Still a long ways to go, but I'm further along than I dared hope I would be at this stage!

Starting from June 6th I have now lost 7 kg on the scale.

I had a week-long staycation while relatives visited recently, and weate out several times. I gained a couple of pounds. As of this morning, I have officially lost it all and am down to 152lbs.

Starting from June 6th I have now lost 5kg on the scale. And this after a 3 week vacation where I wasn’t able to weigh most foods and instead tried to moderate consumptions.

My strategy was to opt for salads when eating out, we had a rental apartment with a mini kitchen and there I prepared instant soup in e evening and broccoli’s cauliflower every other day.

I also indulged into cheese (directly from the cheese dairy three houses up the street), had some ice cream (not every day), and occasionally an Aperol Spritz.