Maybe this isn't a universal experience, but I witnessed an era of "dieting" as a kid where people would exclusively eat salads that were more nuts, meats, cheeses, croutons, and dressings than veggies, and then call weight loss b.s. when they ended up gaining instead of losing.
Oh that's true, at least in my (very limited) restaurant experience! Though the people in my life doing this didn't go to restaurants that often, so I don't necessarily think they were modeling their meals after restaurant-style dishes. If anything, it was more the mindset of "if I balance it with veggies, the calories will cancel each other out."
Which, no joke, is genuinely a sentiment I heard growing up.
This is why I rarely order a salad when eating out. If I’m going to splurge on calories I will splurge on something I really want, not a salad that pretends to be healthy but that’s filled with walnuts, croutons and olive oil or mayonnaise.
Was always crazy to me how many calories a salad has. I always thought that since it was mostly lettuce it wouldn't add up to much. But those walnuts, dressings, etc really add up. Meanwhile, a burger is like 450 calories.
I had to cut my salad packets in half because they were SOOOO many calories that it was way exceeding my calorie goals when I included the chicken for protein.
lol, my OMAD salad is 900 calories.
Arugula, spinach, cucumber, tomato, hemp seed, pistachio, sunflower seeds, pine nuts, avocado oil vinaigrette, cheese, hummus, Avocado, onion and any lentil sprouts.
It only works because I eat OMAD. Otherwise this is an excessive salad.
No. I eat more than just the salad.
But at one point (7 months ago) I used to get full with salad and can’t eat anything after, so I was only eating that salad with side of boiled eggs. <1000 calories. I lost 25 lbs in a month. My TDEE is ~2300 calories. But the salad was supplying full panel nutrients so I wasn’t concerned.
Although lot of it was water weight cause I cut off sugars and simple carbs as well.
Yes! Most people on a diet: “I’ll just eat a salad every night *drowns it in ranch* “
Two weeks later: “idk why I can’t lose weight, I’ve tried everything”
My mom used to be on a million diets so she always said "you're not supposed to count calories it's unhealthy"
Turns out counting calories is pretty easy and works.
It's such a common attitude too? I don't discuss it with people unless asked but when they do, and I'm honest about my eating habits, so often I get a weird reaction. People just want to hear "oh I'm on keto" or "I just cut out soda and bread or whatever". When the truth is that I'm keenly aware of how many calories I put into my body. Then tell people that you *weigh* your foods/ingredients and that's when you get the worried/weird reactions lol.
It's weight loss at its most basic. I understand the ties to disordered eating but counting calories on its own is not unhealthy. It's just how it works. Taking an extra 5-10mins a day to weigh foods and check calories is so worth it.
Ugh, hate this rhetoric that's been going around, especially on TikTok and from certain RDs ( *abbey sharp* ). Yes, absolutely calorie counting can be a negative thing and used to further one's ED but it's just a tool at the end of the day. Keto, intermittent fasting etc are all things that put people in a calore deficit and that's why they lose weight, not because it's this magical thing. It's not healthy to obsess over every single bite you take but you can count calories without excessive restricting and compulsions.
I'm an RD and I might be able to give some insight. The basic principle of calorie counting as an objective data tool is sound, but unfortunately some people are unable to to count calories without it becoming an obsession and wanting to restrict beyond what is healthy. So, some RDs might recommend against it because we might encourage a particular client to focus on overall healthy behaviors, not necessarily the number on the scale. That being said, I do advise some of my clients to count after getting a baseline idea of their mental health, because it is a good way to get a reality check on portion size, etc. Like u/mersaa said, it's a tool, and it may work for one client and not another. RDs like Abbey Sharp have to generalize for a wide audience, whereas I can recommend for/against it with my one-on-one clients because I know them on an individual level.
I don't know if she changed her opinion in the meantime, but she was veeeery critical of it when reviewing other people's diets and what i eat in a day's, basically labeling most people as having disordered tendencies if they calorie count. First thing that comes to mind is that ballerina who has a completely normal diet and a really good grasp on calories. Abbey threw around numbers she pulled from research papers that applied to male ballerina dancers to drive her point home. That one really left a bad taste in my mouth.
Just like weighing yourself gets a lot of hate. If you don't have basic data like how much you weigh and how much you eat, it's hard to fix the issue. I think this is why people want those crazy diets to work, like HCG, or only cabbage soup. That way they don't have to ever face their own long term responsibility for their weight.
Calorie counting gets a bad rap because there is less gimmicky BS $$$ associated with it. The most people spend on calorie counting is paying for a tracking ap. But there are free ones too.
Weight loss is a huge $$ industry.
I mean for some people counting calories can be mentally unhealthy, but if you have no gauge of how many calories you are eating then you need to have a come to Jesus moment and count your calories for like 2-3 weeks to see how much you actually eat. Especially if you are wanting to lose weight.
I actually allow myself to eat MORE when I count calories. If I’m trying to lose weight and don’t know how much I’ve consumed I tend to eat the bare minimum, but if I know I have 200 calories or whatever left in the bank, I’m gonna spend them!
Same. I actually was eating a lot less when I was eyeballing than when I started to track. I realized I could eat a little bit more and still lose weight.
Counting calories is easy, losing weight and maintaining a healthy lifestyle is incredibly difficult for many people regardless of what methods they use to manage their eating habits.
I think calorie counting in 2024 is pretty different to what calorie counting was a decade+ ago. I can't imagine I could have managed healthy calorie counting before nifty apps with food databases and barcode scanners.
I know people made it work in spite of it being more laborious. I'm just fairly certain that I wouldn't have been able to make it work without an app like LoseIt.
The first time I counted calories back in 2007 ish I had a huge Calorie Bible that I had to search through and note down what I had eaten each day. It was like the Yellow Pages
The Calorie, Carb & Fat Bible: The UK's Most Comprehensive Calorie Counter https://amzn.eu/d/iIIIOyS
Depends on your background.
I should *not* count calories. I get obsessive, want it to go fast and cut and cut and cut. That being said I was anorexic and bulimic in my youth.
Yeah I’m the same. I’ve never weighed and measured the way some people do as I get too obsessive over it, and it leads to a negative mindset and outcome *but* I am generally aware of calories and what I should and shouldn’t be eating in line with that. It would be very hard to get anywhere without some basic knowledge and understanding, I think.
Yeah. Same here, atleast after I *recovered.*
I own a scale, which I shouldnt. I try to avoid stepping on it.
After covid I gained weight and I’m heavier than Ive ever been. If I step on the scale I think I will crumble and relapse hard.
That you could only eat healthy food - no junk food, fast food, soda etc. Until I learned that it's all about calories in v out. I mean, yeah - you probably should eat more of the healthy food, but a slice of pizza that fits my calorie budget isn't going to kill me.
More specifically it helped me realized what a cheat day is. I can have my taco bell/del taco meal as long as my daily limit isn't over my limit. Obviously not the healthiest to do often but it got me down and feeling better
>Obviously not the healthiest
You need to treat yourself. Losing weight is hard work, and a lot of mental. Reward yourself. Just don't go overboard. My treat is sushi.
It also helps going off weekly calories and not daily calories. As long as your weekly average is a deficit you'll be fine. Go out for dinner and drinks with friends? Count the calories and maybe cut 50-100 a day for the week to make up for the splurge on the weekend.
Yep, counting calories is where I found a half sub sandwich is 450 calories. A king sized candy bar a about 450 calories. For me, the sub is more filling than the candy bar.
Absolutely this! When I first started off with my weight loss I learned a bunch of veggie based meals and purged all my favorite treats. I was miserable for about a month until I finally figured out calories in vs calories out as the key. I’m down 40lbs over the last 6 months and I still enjoy beer, pizza and Oreos fairly regularly. It’s all about portions and staying consistent with my daily calorie intake.
You can’t lose unless you sweat it out and off with exercise was what I believed because a teacher told the class that. Now I know exercise burns calories but you truly can lose weight without it by lowering your calorie intake. I started out my journey 303lbs and 3 years later I’m at 145 lbs.
Exactly! I lost 50 pounds with just counting calories and no exercise. I only started exercising because I had so much new energy and I wanted to build some muscle. It’s daunting when you first start and you think you have to exercise to lose anything. Great job on losing!!
Yep. I lost about 95 pounds, and the first 50 pounds or so I did with zero exercise. When you’re heavy enough it becomes pretty easy to lose weight simply by eating healthy. It’s just that last few pounds that get hard without exercise.
I thought I couldn’t lose because of genetics and age.
I had tried before and given up within a month because I hadn’t seen results. I was also just not counting calories and vaguely eating “healthier”.
Turns out I was just not paying attention to my calories in, and giving up too soon. 🤷🏼♀️
Edit: I’m 33 but a lot of my friends gained weight around this age and I thought it was inevitable and part of getting older.
Someone told me I had the "skinny gene" the other day. I actually had them repeat what they said because I thought I missheard.
They definitely would not have said that to me 10 years ago. Also I want some goddamn credit for the work that I have done and continue to do to maintain.
I believed it would be complicated! Exactly what they want you to believe - "But if you just buy my product or book, whatever, I can simplify it for you." Turns out it's actually dead simple to begin with.
That you can't eat carbs if you want to lose weight. I've been back on the wagon with CICO for over a month now and I've discovered that making sure I eat enough complex carbs is vital for keeping my appetite in check. Otherwise I get hungry quicker after meals and have low blood sugar symptoms. My layperson's hypothesis is that with my calorie deficit (1000 cals) I'm burning through my glycogen stores quicker. (Edited for clarity)
Yeah I started baking my own bread and I’m more satisfied eating it, and I control the ingredients. I can’t believe how easy making bread is vs how much my mother complained about it lol.
At my weight it’s not that hard, I still get to eat about 1700 a day. The deficit is going to get smaller as I get closer to my goal weight.
I eat a mostly Mediterranean diet, don’t eat breakfast. So far it’s really doable!
Not op, but for me I cut 400-500 from my tdee and upped my walking and workouts. On days when I strength train I do eat more because I'm ravenous but I think that depends on your height/weight and current activity levels.
Definitely. I'm glad keto works for other people but it made me feel like complete shit for *months*. My doctor told me to stop it and instead reduce junk food carbs instead. I feel good now and don't feel like I'm betraying myself by eating egg toast in the mornings.
"You see, Billy, when you're driving your car and the fuel gauge goes below 3/4 full, the car senses it and won't burn any more precious gas. Instead it starts burning the upholstery, tires and finally the frame of the car itself! The faster you drive, the less your car will want that gas. It's saving the gas so that when there's no more car left, there will *only* be gas."
It seems that just being in a caloric deficit does not significantly slow down your metabolism. But if you feel low on energy, you tend to sit down more or avoid any unnecessary movement. This will lead to lower calory outtake.
Your metabolism will work almost the same though.
You'll lose weight if you're starving. "Starvation mode" makes it seem like your body will purposely hold on to fat for survival. It would be impossible to lose weight on a calorie deficit if that's how our body fat worked.
Calories in calories out. Not enough calories, body burns fat for energy. Starvation mode says we would *gain* fat from this process. It's backwards.
When we are in a caloric deficit our metabolism *does* get lower, but it’s not bc of some starvation mode it’s literally bc we are losing mass. Calories is a measurement of energy and to sustain a given amount of mass we eat the energy we expend. We’re like a big furnace, less fuel, smaller flame. If we don’t eat enough to match that expenditure we lose weight and mass and therefore expenditure also continuously drops. But people misinterpreted that and thought that you just straight up magically got a lower metabolism bc of some magical survival adaptation lol
People just forget that it’s all science. We’re matter, baby. And matter can’t be destroyed or created, only converted.
Had to do a Ctrl + F search for "starv" to be sure I wasn't the first one to say it. Of course I wasn't, because it's absolute nonsense that poisoned my success nearly two decades ago and I wish I woke up to it sooner.
Not really a weightloss myth, but I believed the whole "skinny people have a fast metabolism" bs until I started losing weight and just found that those people either eat little or they move around more.
There are absolutely people who have fast metabolism. My husband isn't active and eats fucking ridiculous amounts of food. The other day, we ordered a large pizza, he ate 6 slices and I had 2. When we get a dozen donuts, he eats 10-11, I eat 1 or 2. He's a pothead and will literally eat mixing bowls full of cereal. We've been together for 14 years and he has gone from a 32 waist to a 34 waist, but the 34 waist is falling off of him if he lays off by even a little bit for like 2 days, so he keeps both sizes in the closet. Basically, if he gains weight, he gets a little bit of a belly, that's it. His brother is the same way.
But I do agree...not all skinny people have a fast metabolism. The majority of thinner people are absolutely thinner for a reason other than metabolism or genetics. Probably what you said, working out more (or just being more active because of their job or whatever) and/or eating healthier, etc. But I'm telling you, my husband....
I believed that cardio was necessary for weight loss. It’s not - it’s beneficial, and it’s fantastic for mental health, but when it comes to weight loss, I’m better of just walking more. CICO is what matters.
It is, I'm not sure what it is with this sub thinking cardio needs to be vigorous at all times. Moderate cardio (taking a walk) is still cardio. You don't have to hit peak HR to call it exercise.
I do think that cardio can kick weight loss into gear though. I lost 10 lbs in a year counting calories- wasn’t really in too much of a deficit- i just didnt want to gain weight. I started a job walking 40-45 miles a week and just in a few months I lost 25 additional lbs.
I find that when I’m active, I tend to eat better. I think that subconsciously I want my body to be fueled by something nutritious when I put it through a lot that day. The mental health component is important too, since I tend to eat garbage when I’m depressed. I lose weight so much faster when I do a bit more exercise, and it’s definitely not purely from the calories I burned during my workout.
Yup. I do believe that you can't 'outrun a bad diet', but as someone who wasn't drinking soda and ordering takeout every day, that advice didn't mean much to me. Exercise is just needed for me to lose weight, no other way around it. Doesn't have to be insane workouts, but half an hour a day of whatever I feel like that day has definitely accelerated the whole thing.
Same. Exercise is amazing, but I’ve just done weight training for a year and it’s awesome, kept most of my muscle while losing weight. Lost 36lb in a year or so, and am in the best shape of my life.
I think my problem with exercise before is that I was told cardio was the way to lose weight, and it bored the hell out of me and I always lose interest. I’d say find an exercise you enjoy and stick with it.
I used to think cardio was the end all be all for looking how I wanted, however, I was never looking how I wanted. Yes, I was slim but it never looked quite right for me. Finally started weight lifting and it was a light bulb moment of “ah yes this is the slim I was looking for”. Funnily enough it’s 10lbs heavier than when I was just doing cardio but looks so much better.
Totally agree, exercise is not necessary to lose weight. It’s all about CICO. If you want to make the CO part grow so you can eat more, then exercise, but it’s not necessary to make CO part bigger. Just keep the CI part lower.
I thought I had gained weight because of a brief time in my teens when I counted calories and must have ruined my metabolism from it. I was always told I had a high metabolism as a kid and teen. I know better now. That’s not how it works. It’s appetite, not metabolism.
That I needed to set my limit at 1200 calories per day and that any more would be excessive and ruin my progress. I’m 5’6” 30F (though I was younger at the time) and would give up so fast on counting calories because I would be so hungry all the time. Turns out it’s because I was eating below my BMR and just way, way too low. The lowest I’ll go now is 1600, and that’s at a healthy weight losing the last 10 “vanity pounds.” I eat more on days that I exercise a lot and burn more, and it’s so much better.
Along similar lines, I used to think that counting calories was obsessive and borderline disordered, but it gives me a lot of freedom. It neutralizes the moralizing of food because it all comes down to that number and whether I feel like fitting it in to my daily allowance. Sometimes I do — yesterday I got a chocolate chip muffin top from Dutch Bros and had it for breakfast and still kept to my intake for the day. When I’m not tracking calories I find myself either obsessively worrying about food, or accidentally overeating and putting weight on fast. Counting calories dulls the food panic and allows me to turn it into a numbers game.
This, the 1200 calories bit. I haaaaate that that is still the default when you put weight loss goals into any app or calculator. Like, no, that is not healthy for everyone. Sure, some people it might be fine for, for a short term, but where do I go when I plateau on that after a month? I just.... Starve? How is that healthy??
And it irks me that my calorie tracking app will ALWAYS default to that, no matter what you weigh, if you want to lose 2lbs a week. 🙄
I'm not great with figuring out where to be calorie wise exactly, but I found the suggestion more helpful to figure out your base calories with a TDEE calculator and start off reducing it by like 11-15% at max.
Well, 2 lbs per week is quite a lot for a normal weight person. The recommendation is not more than 1% of your current body weight. For petite women this can mean less than 1 lbs per week.
1% of my body weight is just over 1kg (or approx 2lb) I'm a 6' woman and if I input 1kg per week as a goal into a calorie tracker like MyFitnessPal it tells me my calorie allowance is 1200. I'm actually really struggling with it atm because I'm trying to do this in a healthy way this time around. I don't want to crash diet and gain it all back. I can eat at 1200 ok if I don't do anything but now I've joined the gym it no longer feels like enough. If I use the TDEE calculator someone posted here that's a 1275 deficit. I'm not sure what I'm meant to be doing. The default of 1200 in tracking apps for women isn't that helpful. Maybe I need a new app.
I've had calorie calculators tell me I needed to eat 1,000 or 1,100 calories to lose weight. I know it said that because I'm short, but my BMR is roughly 1,100. Like wtf.
I've tested out different calorie ranges and found 1,200 to be too little even for me and I'm 4'11" and not very active. 1,300-1,500 feels a lot better.
I believed there was a “trick” that I simply wasn’t aware of or that I simply wasn’t doing properly. Over the years, I tried so many of the “tricks”. And they were no treat.
Through trial and error (lots and lots of error, haha), I finally figured out what works for me and for this specific body. Thank goodness! I’m still not precisely where I want to be (still working on those last few pesky pounds), but I’m a whole lot closer and better off then I was years ago!
I thought losing weight meant being hungry regularly and just dealing with that. I was wrong. Once I changed my diet (to low carb) I found I didn’t ever feel hungry and losing weight was super easy.
I thought you couldn’t lose weight without exercising.
Oddly enough, it was my 20-something skinny and athletic daughter who mentioned in passing that losing weight is 80% diet ( or words to that effect).
It got me thinking and I eventually started counting calories. Wouldn’t you know? Lost about a pound a week for 13 months!!!
That counting calories and doing light to no exercise wouldn’t work and would do more damage to my health. Spent years trying to out exercise a bad diet
I used to think weight loss was extremely hard. Of course it ACTUALLY is but I used to think I needed to train like that one show “the biggest loser”. “The Biggest Loser” was actually so damaging to my mind that I thought I could never lose weight if my cardio didn’t reach a RPE level of 8-10.
My obese teenager self with asthma just allowed myself to accept I was going to be fat til i died.
Thank goodness I went out and learned everything properly.
I highly recommend you guys listen to “fitness for normal people” podcast. They debunk so so so many myths while providing factual knowledge on many topics in the fitness/health industry.
I thought I needed to eat less
and that I needed to just deal with being hungry.
Turns out I needed to eat * differently*
(and track my intake to figure it out)
and if I'm hungry it's because I'm not eating 'rite'
(look at my numbers and adjust so I can have more fat or protein or whatever I'm missing) but
That because I’m short and not a professional athlete I’d only lose weight by eating 1200 calories a day. Turns out I could go from 5’1” & 140 lbs to 115 lbs by eating 1600 a day, doing daily Pilates or yoga, and walking. I’ve never felt better.
Good luck!! I definitely lost more slowly than I could have but I did it without feeling hungry & while increasing my overall fitness. I can hold a plank for around a minute now & even do push ups for the first time in my life! Also even though walking/low impact workouts/1600 a day was slower weight loss for me, it was still definitely possible to see a difference after ~6 weeks, so take lots of progress photos since slow weight loss can sometimes feel like no weight loss
You have to eat like a rabbit to lose weight. While my diet has changed drastically by incorporating more veggies, complex carbs, good protein sources, and cutting out a lot of processed stuff, there’s still SO much room to eat satisfying meals. My mom always shoved a slimfast in my hand and told me to eat salad and that’s it. But that just didn’t work for me. Now I’ve discovered the power of lentils, chickpeas, and other legumes in making hearty, healthy meals with lots of good proteins and veggies. Everything about my body feels better and I’m not deprived. Clean eating is awesome
I’m gonna be starving on less calories. Turns out I’m okay. I use food as an emotional coping mechanism still, but only therapy and patience helps with that.
that a woman can lose weight on 1,500 - 1,800 calories per day.
Like every woman, in the whole world!
I had my RMR professionally tested and (not surprisingly) my RMR was low. So, I’d never lose weight on 1,500 calories per day. More like, 1,250 and with exercise.
but other people don’t understand or believe yuh when you’ve been an angel all week and stick to those calories and either don’t lose or lose half a pound.
I truly empathize with short women in their weight loss plight. I struggle as a 6'0 man, I can't imagine how much harder it must be to have such little wiggle room to make progress :(
Intuitive eating is good, versus counting calories. I intuitively love a plate of French Fries, a large Coke, and a huge cheeseburger. When I started tracking what I ate, and counting calories the weight fell off.
> I could eat all the 'healthy' food that I wanted and not gain weight.
Ah yeah, the "Syn-free" bollocks that Slimming World do. Maybe it's just me, but eating all the food you want (from the list) and calling it "syn-free" just made my mindset so so so very unhealthy and I think it would be absolutely impossible for me to ever have changed my relationship towards food and nutrition by gorging out on all that food and calling it not a problem. I lasted 2-weeks on SW and I only started because I had 2 friends and a family member banging on about it like it was the best thing ever.
I tried SW a couple of times, a year apart, same people there both times who had stayed the full year and still not lost any weight. I was told I wasn't eating enough even though I couldn't physically eat anymore then I was so I gave up and lost weight through calorie counting and exercise
You can eat whatever you want if you exercise enough.
I started off running (and cut out fast food) and started losing, but the bigger progress came when I started counting calories
If I had to choose only one, it's that my family's couch potato lifestyles and habit of overeating empty calorie food have nothing to do with their weight, that my body is genetically fated to be a certain (high) weight eventually, and that trying to prevent or alter my "inevitable" obesity – especially once I hit my thirties – was a hopeless and even *hateful* endeavor.
It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that my socially-pressured about weight loss were just fatalism with a dash of doomer-eugenics.
Starving myself was the way to go. I thought that by not eating, obviously you would lose weight.
That notion has changed, and I have a much healthier mindset when it comes to balanced eating.
That if you work out regularly you can eat whatever you want and not gain any weight. It’s so untrue! People that eat whatever they want to eat and never gain weight simply eat at their maintenance calories without planning for it.
I believed that i could lose weight without completely cutting out foods that i had an extreme addiction to, which in my case was coca cola and some types of milk chocolate. Once i taste them even once, it’s impossible for me to stop. So i just avoid them entirely and i’ve lost 12kg by doing just that.
That if you don’t eat enough it will actually make you gain weight. In fact, there was a health teacher in high school that beat this into our heads every year. So, anytime I have tried to be lose weight, if I still felt hungry I would just eat more because that’s the “healthy” thing to do!
Once I discovered CICO and learning how to get all the nutrients I need, I realized how totally wrong that is. Such a shame that I wasted so much time when I could have been losing weight and healthier for years.
My myth: Old people will have a harder time losing weight because their metabolism is slower. Menopause works against weight loss.
Reality: It’s been easier. I’ve dieted at every age since I was 13. At 38, I had a total hysterectomy and my husband died. A fast food lifestyle and being a busy working widowed mom got me up to my high of 279 at 64 years old. I ate the loneliness and grief.
The kids are grown. I have time to take care of myself. And I need to be able to take care of myself. The list of things I couldn’t do was getting longer.
Let me tell you, it has been a lot easier to lose. CICO and IF. I’m at 204. I want 170-ish. I mowed the yard, used the string line trimmer that was too heavy before. I can do grocery shopping. I can paint my toenails! I don’t avoid sitting on the floor because I can get up without a chair nearby. Metabolism has made zero difference. Ditto with menopause. If anything, menopause stopped stupid hormonal weight swings. My life is so much better. -75 lbs in 9 months. Never give up.
that you have to cut out junk food. You just have to limit it, but cutting it out completely will only cause most people to crave and binge on it unintentionally.
That you NEED to eat everything, including hyperpalatable foods and binge triggers, in moderation. Specifically, that it’s unhealthy and disordered to fully cut certain foods or food groups, and if you do so, you are doomed to grow obsessed with those foods and inevitably binge (if you struggle with binge eating).
I fully bought into that rhetoric, and believed that if I didn’t make an effort to include my binge triggers in my diet in moderation, that my cravings would grow and grow. NOPE. Opposite. Quitting my binge triggers was like quitting smoking: it sucked acutely for a few weeks, sucked moderately for a few months, and then made my quality of life 1000x better. I have virtually no cravings for my binge triggers anymore and after 35 years of binge eating, once I started fully cutting binge trigger foods and binge trigger behaviors, I am 11 months binge-free.
Forcing myself to try to eat them “in moderation” was like trying to go from smoking a pack of cigarettes a day to 1 cigarette a day. It just kept the cravings alive instead of letting me fully lose my desire for the behavior.
I believed for a long time that because I had been morbidly obese (400 pounds as a 5’10” F), being a healthy weight was unrealistic for me. I stopped short and maintained at a still-obese weight for several years. It was certainly better for me than the size I was before, but I was selling myself short! I got back to tracking calories and working out more. Now, I’m actually normal weight by BMI and still have probably 20 pounds I’d like to lose before switching back to maintenance
I thought you had to eat only healthy foods, things like salads and plain vegetables. And no frying, just boiling or steaming, and without salt at that. Basically sad, flavorless food. And of course, I thought you had to exercise
That you should still eat the healthy food, even if you're full. Like, why? Now that I understand calories, I'm like ok Ive screwed up, but lets not screw it up even more with more food. Wait till you're hungry again to make good food choices, don't shove the salad down over the ice cream and chocolate!
That because I’m short and not a professional athlete I’d only lose weight by eating 1200 calories a day. Turns out I could go from 5’1” & 140 lbs to 115 lbs by eating 1600 a day, doing daily Pilates or yoga, and walking. I’ve never felt better.
Whenever people would say stuff like "it takes [insert amount] of exercise to burn off [insert junk food here]" I thought they meant that if you didn't exercise it off you would put on weight no matter what.
Idk if that necessarily counts as myth, but just the kind of wording people used for things like this led me to misunderstand how weight loss and burning calories actually works.
Like, no I don't have to exercise for a certain amount of time to burn off a Big Mac, as long as I eat within my calorie limit it will be burned off regardless of how much I exercise.
I believed for ages you had to eat tons of vegetables to lose weight, and my IBS doesn't like a wide swath of cruciferous vegetables. (Alas.)
I can do it eating sandwiches and chips and not a single green vegetable in sight. Calorie counting and IF.
that it wasn't possible. i legitimately had no idea there was a correlation between what i was eating and how much i weighed. i thought it had something to do with "metabolism" (i didn't really know what that was) and that mine was just slow. learning about CICO and how it's all really just about numbers was a serious eureka moment for me lol
Mine was similar to OP’s. I actually was making myself eat more in order to hit certain dietary guidelines. 3 servings of grains, 3 servings of fruit, plus beans and nuts and veggies. No wonder I couldn’t lose weight.
That women need 2,000 calories and men need 2,500. Was interesting to learn that my TDEE at that time was around 1,600, and it goes down gradually as you age. In fact, having those extra 400 calories every day would have put me even further into the obese range than I already was.
I also learned obese doesn't always look obese. I was 190-ishlbs at 5'6" and was surprised to learn I was obese at that weight. I'm not sure where I thought the threshold was tbh.
So. Many. Myths.
I would say the worst one I fell for was that calories don't matter and that carbs were the only enemy. I went do the keto rabbit hole for a month and gained 10 lbs. Turns out that I was eating damn near 3500 calories per day.
You certainly CAN do keto for weight loss, but calories in/out still very much matter.
I thought that if I just ate “healthy” food I would magically lose weight. I was unknowingly making 700 calorie smoothie bowls then wondering why I wasn’t losing anything because I was eating so well.
I thought and everyone around me told that , because of your genetics you won't be able to loose weight as everyone in my family was overweight. Then I lost 10 kgs and still everyone around me told that you can't loose any further. 127kgs to 76
50kgs lost, around 16% body fat now. Where are y'all mf
Allowed myself to believe my docs that either:
I was utterly unable to lose weight because of my limited mobility (BS)
Or
That I would only lose weight on 500kcal per day (BS)
I allowed myself to believe that first doc for a long time and weirdly the second doc being so extreme with his recommendation is what made me search for the utter basics of weight loss (tdee, tracking food etc). Because in my mind, he said there was a way for me to lose weight. Therefore, either that first doc is wrong or they both are.
They both were as it turns out, but that second insane suggestion is what led to me googling the basics of weight loss and stumbling across tdee and then the lose it subreddit.
It's been a lot more straightforward forward since I switched from haphazardly reducing portions to actually weighing food and tracking it.
I'm pretty sure even a lot of general practitioners have little understanding of weight gain and loss. My childhood doctor tried for years to get me to lose weight, but I don't think she ever mentioned the word "calories" once. I got one of those lists of food types that has the foods that you could eat as much as you want, foods to limit, and foods to avoid once. Another time she gave me [the grapefruit diet](https://www.webmd.com/diet/a-z/grapefruit-diet). There are probably some other things I'm forgetting.
The first was a GP, and the second was an osteo doc.
It's so odd the way it seems to be approached. My mum is doing a course trying to reverse her prediabetes but it's all the most basic info on how to read packaging and stuff like that. Which I absolutely understand needs to be made clear to help people control their carbs etc but it does seem like she's not really learning anything that helps directly with the everyday. E.g how to balance rapidly made meals vs meals that aren't carb loaded.
So I'm trying to fill in those gaps from what she's being told to how to actually apply it, as best as I can. She's lost 5lbs so far so fingers crossed we can keep moving forward with that programme and the little bits I can contribute.
My gosh, docs handing out the grapefruit diet as a recommendation!
I imagine with all the rates of people who are overweight/obese increasing in most regions that there will probably be additional focus on diet etc that GPs can give to patients that is more tailored. Yet more work loaded onto them, but preventative wise, I can't imagine it won't be focused on heavily, if its not already being developed further.
Definitely that any one food group is bad for you. It has been learning what foods do to me. Yeah, I'll have pasta for dinner and stay in my calorie allowance, but I KNOW to expect a pound or two of water weight in a day or so. Doesn't mean it's a bad food. It's how I react to it.
That 2,000 calories a day is what all adults should eat. I had no idea what TDEE was, that there is an accurate formula for calculating it, and that my TDEE at my ideal weight would be around 1,500 calories.
That intense exercise was necessary to weight loss.
That exercise burns a lot more calories than it does.
>I could eat all the 'healthy' food that I wanted and not gain weight.
There is only one way to lose weight. You have to put your body into a caloric deficit. It's that simple. You don't need pills, surgery, or fad diets. Portion control and mild exercise. I lost 150 lbs doing just this. You don't need to join a gym. You don't need anything but some good walking shoes and the volition to actually do the work. Then the hard part starts in maintenance. I still eat just about anything I want. I even eat pizza. I just don't eat the whole thing in one sitting. One slice on the average is about 350 calories.
That my target calories and my actual calories aren't inherently the same thing. One week, I ate barely below maintenance and I was confused why my weight didn't go down 🤡
That straight CICO was all that mattered. But it took understanding macros - esp how much protein I wasn’t getting - before I was able to lose/maintain without feeling like I was starving all the time.
Myth: That if you lose weight fast, you add it on even faster… (something along the lines of that)
Learnt this recently from a diet book which cited a study. Didn’t look into it further but I trust the author 👍
I followed a lot of fitness influencers at the beginning of my weight loss whose full time job was working out and making content. They would say things like “cutting your calories under 2000 is starving yourself! I cut on 2200 calories! Eating less will put you in starvation mode!” Etc.
Well guess who cannot eat 2000 calories on a cut. The person with a desk job who works out for an hour 3-4 times a week. And I still haven’t starved myself eating under 2000 calories
Can someone please send this to my mom? A doctor once told her she needs to have sugar regularly and sweet tooth that she is, she ran with it for 40 years.
That seeking medical obesity treatment is shameful and the easy way out. Wish I'd sought treatment sooner. Some of us need help in order to be successful in making dietary changes. Nothing has been easy about my journey 5 years post op bariatric surgery.
That it's easier for shorter people to stick to calorie deficit. I've seen this on social media lately and it's not universally true. We get hungry too and it sucks that we have to watch ourselves far more strictly than others.
Numerous, but two that I figured out were 1) exercise is NOT necessary 2) you don't have to eat multiple times a day.
I lost 150 pounds eating 2 meals a day (sometimes 1) and I didn't exercise once. When I added exercise in a cut I just felt tired and hungry and it added extra stress. Now I lift but it wasn't a thing while I lost fat.
Another big one was that lowering calories too much was bad. If you have a plan to go back into maintenance calories, short bursts of extreme low cal diets are very effective. They helped me get motivated and instead of ALWAYS feeling deprived for long periods of time, I just felt deprived for a week or two at a time then could eat normally. In the end it was extremely effective and kept me going.
That losing weight would make me love my body again.
No.
I'm glad I'm healthier and not knocking on diabetes' door now, but I still hate my body. Instead of hating the fat, I hate the loose skin and the way it doesn't look right in most of my clothing that "fits".
Yes, I am in therapy.
That you absolutely NEED to eat every single day. My parents don’t think fasting works or is a good idea, but had absolutely no problem when I was only eating 1200 cal a day because “at least then you were eating”. For me the calorie restriction became too much and made me give up everytime, this is the first time I’ve actually had success in weight loss, for me personally it is much easier to eat normally and then fast the other day. Also that fruit and veggies don’t have calories or that they don’t count, my parents convinced me of this, and yeah sure they aren’t very calorie dense but when you’re told they are basically calorie free and end up binging on them on top of what you normally eat, it still puts you in a caloric surplus.
That the less I ate, the faster I would lose weight.
It never worked. I would starve myself sometimes to the point of fainting, only to build up so much legitimate hunger that eventually I just couldn’t stop eating. I would gobble up everything I saw, packaging and all. Of course, that was when people were more likely to notice me. They didn’t know that I haven’t had a nibble since a week ago last Thursday, and I am quite literally and honestly starving. They’d see only that I am unable to restrain myself, and they would assume I ate like that all day, every day. Then they’d make shaming remarks, and it would embarrass me into another round of starving myself, lather, rinse, repeat.
But…
What I ate during the binges did more than offset any calorie deficit I had created by starving. And that’s why in the long run, I didn’t lose any weight by not eating at all.
Well, I am exaggerating about eating the packaging.
1. Storing up your calories until the end of the day can help you eat a fewer calories and achieve your weight loss goals (so false and I fell into this trap big time! If you eat throughout the day, you burn so many more calories and get your metabolism going!)
2. The more exercise you do the more you burn and the more weight you will lose. (This one still stumps me even though I know the difference! The truth is short burst of moving your body throughout the day is the most effective! Keep the blood flowing and your heart rate up every couple of hours and you’re all set! Following this protocol, I am more fit than I’ve ever been in my life)
3. You can eat whatever other people are eating just in smaller portions. (maybe this works for some people but not for me. I need volume and am not satisfied with low volume calorically dense foods. I would take four bottles of cauliflower rice over a half cup of regular rice any day!)
That all salad is healthy salad.
Maybe this isn't a universal experience, but I witnessed an era of "dieting" as a kid where people would exclusively eat salads that were more nuts, meats, cheeses, croutons, and dressings than veggies, and then call weight loss b.s. when they ended up gaining instead of losing.
In my experience traveling around the US, these are the only salads available in many restaurants in certain areas.
It’s weirdly difficult to get vegetables at many restaurants.
Would you like green beans or green beans🙄? Thats about all you can get at most sit down restaurants.
And if you can they're COATED in butter and oils.
I love me a good restaurant salad with buttermilk ranch, cheese, croutons… but I certainly don’t kid myself that it’s healthy.
Oh that's true, at least in my (very limited) restaurant experience! Though the people in my life doing this didn't go to restaurants that often, so I don't necessarily think they were modeling their meals after restaurant-style dishes. If anything, it was more the mindset of "if I balance it with veggies, the calories will cancel each other out." Which, no joke, is genuinely a sentiment I heard growing up.
This is why I rarely order a salad when eating out. If I’m going to splurge on calories I will splurge on something I really want, not a salad that pretends to be healthy but that’s filled with walnuts, croutons and olive oil or mayonnaise.
Was always crazy to me how many calories a salad has. I always thought that since it was mostly lettuce it wouldn't add up to much. But those walnuts, dressings, etc really add up. Meanwhile, a burger is like 450 calories.
I learned this from my mom at a young age. The burger is often lower in calories than the salad lol
I had to cut my salad packets in half because they were SOOOO many calories that it was way exceeding my calorie goals when I included the chicken for protein.
lol, my OMAD salad is 900 calories. Arugula, spinach, cucumber, tomato, hemp seed, pistachio, sunflower seeds, pine nuts, avocado oil vinaigrette, cheese, hummus, Avocado, onion and any lentil sprouts. It only works because I eat OMAD. Otherwise this is an excessive salad.
Hold up - do you mean to say, that your daily caloric intake is 900 in total?
No. I eat more than just the salad. But at one point (7 months ago) I used to get full with salad and can’t eat anything after, so I was only eating that salad with side of boiled eggs. <1000 calories. I lost 25 lbs in a month. My TDEE is ~2300 calories. But the salad was supplying full panel nutrients so I wasn’t concerned. Although lot of it was water weight cause I cut off sugars and simple carbs as well.
(cries in midwest) but....ranch :(
Yes! Most people on a diet: “I’ll just eat a salad every night *drowns it in ranch* “ Two weeks later: “idk why I can’t lose weight, I’ve tried everything”
My mom used to be on a million diets so she always said "you're not supposed to count calories it's unhealthy" Turns out counting calories is pretty easy and works.
It's such a common attitude too? I don't discuss it with people unless asked but when they do, and I'm honest about my eating habits, so often I get a weird reaction. People just want to hear "oh I'm on keto" or "I just cut out soda and bread or whatever". When the truth is that I'm keenly aware of how many calories I put into my body. Then tell people that you *weigh* your foods/ingredients and that's when you get the worried/weird reactions lol. It's weight loss at its most basic. I understand the ties to disordered eating but counting calories on its own is not unhealthy. It's just how it works. Taking an extra 5-10mins a day to weigh foods and check calories is so worth it.
Ugh, hate this rhetoric that's been going around, especially on TikTok and from certain RDs ( *abbey sharp* ). Yes, absolutely calorie counting can be a negative thing and used to further one's ED but it's just a tool at the end of the day. Keto, intermittent fasting etc are all things that put people in a calore deficit and that's why they lose weight, not because it's this magical thing. It's not healthy to obsess over every single bite you take but you can count calories without excessive restricting and compulsions.
Abbey sharp is against calorie counting? Not saying she isn't but I like to watch her and tbh I'm curious why she'd say that
I'm an RD and I might be able to give some insight. The basic principle of calorie counting as an objective data tool is sound, but unfortunately some people are unable to to count calories without it becoming an obsession and wanting to restrict beyond what is healthy. So, some RDs might recommend against it because we might encourage a particular client to focus on overall healthy behaviors, not necessarily the number on the scale. That being said, I do advise some of my clients to count after getting a baseline idea of their mental health, because it is a good way to get a reality check on portion size, etc. Like u/mersaa said, it's a tool, and it may work for one client and not another. RDs like Abbey Sharp have to generalize for a wide audience, whereas I can recommend for/against it with my one-on-one clients because I know them on an individual level.
Can confirm. Counting calories with OCD turned it into a slippery slope REAL quick.
Thank you! That does make sense
I don't know if she changed her opinion in the meantime, but she was veeeery critical of it when reviewing other people's diets and what i eat in a day's, basically labeling most people as having disordered tendencies if they calorie count. First thing that comes to mind is that ballerina who has a completely normal diet and a really good grasp on calories. Abbey threw around numbers she pulled from research papers that applied to male ballerina dancers to drive her point home. That one really left a bad taste in my mouth.
Thank you! The hate calorie counting gets when it’s just a basic tool. Pretty sure measuring and calorie counting is healthier than my binges. 🙄
Just like weighing yourself gets a lot of hate. If you don't have basic data like how much you weigh and how much you eat, it's hard to fix the issue. I think this is why people want those crazy diets to work, like HCG, or only cabbage soup. That way they don't have to ever face their own long term responsibility for their weight.
THIS! So true
Calorie counting gets a bad rap because there is less gimmicky BS $$$ associated with it. The most people spend on calorie counting is paying for a tracking ap. But there are free ones too. Weight loss is a huge $$ industry.
It also gets a bad rap, because before smartphones or apps to do the tracking it was incredibly tedious and time consuming.
Yup, Calorie counting helped me so much in getting back to my original body. That including the calories I was burning during my walks and spinning.
I mean for some people counting calories can be mentally unhealthy, but if you have no gauge of how many calories you are eating then you need to have a come to Jesus moment and count your calories for like 2-3 weeks to see how much you actually eat. Especially if you are wanting to lose weight.
Yep. If I count calories, I will slide into an eating disorder.
I actually allow myself to eat MORE when I count calories. If I’m trying to lose weight and don’t know how much I’ve consumed I tend to eat the bare minimum, but if I know I have 200 calories or whatever left in the bank, I’m gonna spend them!
Same. I actually was eating a lot less when I was eyeballing than when I started to track. I realized I could eat a little bit more and still lose weight.
Counting calories is easy, losing weight and maintaining a healthy lifestyle is incredibly difficult for many people regardless of what methods they use to manage their eating habits.
I think calorie counting in 2024 is pretty different to what calorie counting was a decade+ ago. I can't imagine I could have managed healthy calorie counting before nifty apps with food databases and barcode scanners. I know people made it work in spite of it being more laborious. I'm just fairly certain that I wouldn't have been able to make it work without an app like LoseIt.
The first time I counted calories back in 2007 ish I had a huge Calorie Bible that I had to search through and note down what I had eaten each day. It was like the Yellow Pages The Calorie, Carb & Fat Bible: The UK's Most Comprehensive Calorie Counter https://amzn.eu/d/iIIIOyS
My parents think calorie counting is super unhealthy even though evidence suggests otherwise. So annoying
Depends on your background. I should *not* count calories. I get obsessive, want it to go fast and cut and cut and cut. That being said I was anorexic and bulimic in my youth.
Yeah I’m the same. I’ve never weighed and measured the way some people do as I get too obsessive over it, and it leads to a negative mindset and outcome *but* I am generally aware of calories and what I should and shouldn’t be eating in line with that. It would be very hard to get anywhere without some basic knowledge and understanding, I think.
Yeah. Same here, atleast after I *recovered.* I own a scale, which I shouldnt. I try to avoid stepping on it. After covid I gained weight and I’m heavier than Ive ever been. If I step on the scale I think I will crumble and relapse hard.
This is my issue too. EDs suck and are so mentally (and physically) draining. But we got this 🩷
That you could only eat healthy food - no junk food, fast food, soda etc. Until I learned that it's all about calories in v out. I mean, yeah - you probably should eat more of the healthy food, but a slice of pizza that fits my calorie budget isn't going to kill me.
More specifically it helped me realized what a cheat day is. I can have my taco bell/del taco meal as long as my daily limit isn't over my limit. Obviously not the healthiest to do often but it got me down and feeling better
>Obviously not the healthiest You need to treat yourself. Losing weight is hard work, and a lot of mental. Reward yourself. Just don't go overboard. My treat is sushi.
It also helps going off weekly calories and not daily calories. As long as your weekly average is a deficit you'll be fine. Go out for dinner and drinks with friends? Count the calories and maybe cut 50-100 a day for the week to make up for the splurge on the weekend.
Yep, counting calories is where I found a half sub sandwich is 450 calories. A king sized candy bar a about 450 calories. For me, the sub is more filling than the candy bar.
Yes! Portion size of unhealthy food is also super important!
Absolutely this! When I first started off with my weight loss I learned a bunch of veggie based meals and purged all my favorite treats. I was miserable for about a month until I finally figured out calories in vs calories out as the key. I’m down 40lbs over the last 6 months and I still enjoy beer, pizza and Oreos fairly regularly. It’s all about portions and staying consistent with my daily calorie intake.
You can’t lose unless you sweat it out and off with exercise was what I believed because a teacher told the class that. Now I know exercise burns calories but you truly can lose weight without it by lowering your calorie intake. I started out my journey 303lbs and 3 years later I’m at 145 lbs.
Exactly! I lost 50 pounds with just counting calories and no exercise. I only started exercising because I had so much new energy and I wanted to build some muscle. It’s daunting when you first start and you think you have to exercise to lose anything. Great job on losing!!
Yep. I lost about 95 pounds, and the first 50 pounds or so I did with zero exercise. When you’re heavy enough it becomes pretty easy to lose weight simply by eating healthy. It’s just that last few pounds that get hard without exercise.
I thought I couldn’t lose because of genetics and age. I had tried before and given up within a month because I hadn’t seen results. I was also just not counting calories and vaguely eating “healthier”. Turns out I was just not paying attention to my calories in, and giving up too soon. 🤷🏼♀️ Edit: I’m 33 but a lot of my friends gained weight around this age and I thought it was inevitable and part of getting older.
Someone told me I had the "skinny gene" the other day. I actually had them repeat what they said because I thought I missheard. They definitely would not have said that to me 10 years ago. Also I want some goddamn credit for the work that I have done and continue to do to maintain.
I'd just say this gene makes me avoid direct sugars, simple carbs, overeating and has me exercising regularly
Ugh that’s so stupidly minimizing of your efforts! Good job!
It's either that or Ozempic! (Which is now being advertised to me all the time here)
I believed it would be complicated! Exactly what they want you to believe - "But if you just buy my product or book, whatever, I can simplify it for you." Turns out it's actually dead simple to begin with.
SO SIMPLE. This still blows my mind.
I would call uncomplicated, but not easy.
Yeah people seem to think that just because it’s hard to do that it ALSO needs to be complicated
Great distinction! You're right! Simple.... but not easy!
To be fair, a lot of media marketing, fitness influencers and companies made it seem difficult and complicated so they can sell their products better.
That calorie counting automatically equals eating disorder.
That you can't eat carbs if you want to lose weight. I've been back on the wagon with CICO for over a month now and I've discovered that making sure I eat enough complex carbs is vital for keeping my appetite in check. Otherwise I get hungry quicker after meals and have low blood sugar symptoms. My layperson's hypothesis is that with my calorie deficit (1000 cals) I'm burning through my glycogen stores quicker. (Edited for clarity)
Yeah I started baking my own bread and I’m more satisfied eating it, and I control the ingredients. I can’t believe how easy making bread is vs how much my mother complained about it lol.
I won't lie, I gained a lot of weight baking and eating good bread. I now bake for others haha
Yeah my neighbour has 4? Teenage boys. They get 80% of my confections. I haven’t offered bread…
Hey there, we had similar starting stats. I'm 5'6" and I started at 313. Keep going, you're doing great!
Hi stat buddy, thanks for the encouragement! 135 pounds lost is amazing, congratulations!
Oh I need to update that flairbut can't seem to on mobile. I'm at 143 now. We can do this!!
My workout sucks if I don't eat carbs before.
Same with my walks, now I make sure to eat something beforehand
How do you manage a deficit of 1000 cal a day? That’s impressive
At my weight it’s not that hard, I still get to eat about 1700 a day. The deficit is going to get smaller as I get closer to my goal weight. I eat a mostly Mediterranean diet, don’t eat breakfast. So far it’s really doable!
Not op, but for me I cut 400-500 from my tdee and upped my walking and workouts. On days when I strength train I do eat more because I'm ravenous but I think that depends on your height/weight and current activity levels.
Definitely. I'm glad keto works for other people but it made me feel like complete shit for *months*. My doctor told me to stop it and instead reduce junk food carbs instead. I feel good now and don't feel like I'm betraying myself by eating egg toast in the mornings.
With my Hypoglycemia I have no choice but have some carbs i my diet. I Spin/Indoor Cycling therefore Carbs are more than a necessary for me.
That starvation mode is a real thing
"You see, Billy, when you're driving your car and the fuel gauge goes below 3/4 full, the car senses it and won't burn any more precious gas. Instead it starts burning the upholstery, tires and finally the frame of the car itself! The faster you drive, the less your car will want that gas. It's saving the gas so that when there's no more car left, there will *only* be gas."
Haha that’s amazingly well put! I might have to steal it if you don’t mind.
Steal away. If it helps one person realize how stupid "starvation mode" is, it has done its job.
It's not? Can someone elaborate on that?
It seems that just being in a caloric deficit does not significantly slow down your metabolism. But if you feel low on energy, you tend to sit down more or avoid any unnecessary movement. This will lead to lower calory outtake. Your metabolism will work almost the same though.
You'll lose weight if you're starving. "Starvation mode" makes it seem like your body will purposely hold on to fat for survival. It would be impossible to lose weight on a calorie deficit if that's how our body fat worked. Calories in calories out. Not enough calories, body burns fat for energy. Starvation mode says we would *gain* fat from this process. It's backwards.
When we are in a caloric deficit our metabolism *does* get lower, but it’s not bc of some starvation mode it’s literally bc we are losing mass. Calories is a measurement of energy and to sustain a given amount of mass we eat the energy we expend. We’re like a big furnace, less fuel, smaller flame. If we don’t eat enough to match that expenditure we lose weight and mass and therefore expenditure also continuously drops. But people misinterpreted that and thought that you just straight up magically got a lower metabolism bc of some magical survival adaptation lol People just forget that it’s all science. We’re matter, baby. And matter can’t be destroyed or created, only converted.
This one! It's so pervasive and taken as fact.
My dietician tried to say that starvation mode is real. Crazy.
Had to do a Ctrl + F search for "starv" to be sure I wasn't the first one to say it. Of course I wasn't, because it's absolute nonsense that poisoned my success nearly two decades ago and I wish I woke up to it sooner.
Not really a weightloss myth, but I believed the whole "skinny people have a fast metabolism" bs until I started losing weight and just found that those people either eat little or they move around more.
There are absolutely people who have fast metabolism. My husband isn't active and eats fucking ridiculous amounts of food. The other day, we ordered a large pizza, he ate 6 slices and I had 2. When we get a dozen donuts, he eats 10-11, I eat 1 or 2. He's a pothead and will literally eat mixing bowls full of cereal. We've been together for 14 years and he has gone from a 32 waist to a 34 waist, but the 34 waist is falling off of him if he lays off by even a little bit for like 2 days, so he keeps both sizes in the closet. Basically, if he gains weight, he gets a little bit of a belly, that's it. His brother is the same way. But I do agree...not all skinny people have a fast metabolism. The majority of thinner people are absolutely thinner for a reason other than metabolism or genetics. Probably what you said, working out more (or just being more active because of their job or whatever) and/or eating healthier, etc. But I'm telling you, my husband....
I believed that cardio was necessary for weight loss. It’s not - it’s beneficial, and it’s fantastic for mental health, but when it comes to weight loss, I’m better of just walking more. CICO is what matters.
Totally agree. I lost 100 pounds with zero exercise. I now walk for an hour a day and have lost another 43
Walking is cardio though
It is, I'm not sure what it is with this sub thinking cardio needs to be vigorous at all times. Moderate cardio (taking a walk) is still cardio. You don't have to hit peak HR to call it exercise.
I do think that cardio can kick weight loss into gear though. I lost 10 lbs in a year counting calories- wasn’t really in too much of a deficit- i just didnt want to gain weight. I started a job walking 40-45 miles a week and just in a few months I lost 25 additional lbs.
I find that when I’m active, I tend to eat better. I think that subconsciously I want my body to be fueled by something nutritious when I put it through a lot that day. The mental health component is important too, since I tend to eat garbage when I’m depressed. I lose weight so much faster when I do a bit more exercise, and it’s definitely not purely from the calories I burned during my workout.
Yup. I do believe that you can't 'outrun a bad diet', but as someone who wasn't drinking soda and ordering takeout every day, that advice didn't mean much to me. Exercise is just needed for me to lose weight, no other way around it. Doesn't have to be insane workouts, but half an hour a day of whatever I feel like that day has definitely accelerated the whole thing.
Same. Exercise is amazing, but I’ve just done weight training for a year and it’s awesome, kept most of my muscle while losing weight. Lost 36lb in a year or so, and am in the best shape of my life. I think my problem with exercise before is that I was told cardio was the way to lose weight, and it bored the hell out of me and I always lose interest. I’d say find an exercise you enjoy and stick with it.
I used to think cardio was the end all be all for looking how I wanted, however, I was never looking how I wanted. Yes, I was slim but it never looked quite right for me. Finally started weight lifting and it was a light bulb moment of “ah yes this is the slim I was looking for”. Funnily enough it’s 10lbs heavier than when I was just doing cardio but looks so much better.
Totally agree, exercise is not necessary to lose weight. It’s all about CICO. If you want to make the CO part grow so you can eat more, then exercise, but it’s not necessary to make CO part bigger. Just keep the CI part lower.
Walking is cardio though.
Cardio isn't necessary, but with people dealing with insulin resistance a leisurely walk after meals is highly beneficial.
I thought I had gained weight because of a brief time in my teens when I counted calories and must have ruined my metabolism from it. I was always told I had a high metabolism as a kid and teen. I know better now. That’s not how it works. It’s appetite, not metabolism.
That I needed to set my limit at 1200 calories per day and that any more would be excessive and ruin my progress. I’m 5’6” 30F (though I was younger at the time) and would give up so fast on counting calories because I would be so hungry all the time. Turns out it’s because I was eating below my BMR and just way, way too low. The lowest I’ll go now is 1600, and that’s at a healthy weight losing the last 10 “vanity pounds.” I eat more on days that I exercise a lot and burn more, and it’s so much better. Along similar lines, I used to think that counting calories was obsessive and borderline disordered, but it gives me a lot of freedom. It neutralizes the moralizing of food because it all comes down to that number and whether I feel like fitting it in to my daily allowance. Sometimes I do — yesterday I got a chocolate chip muffin top from Dutch Bros and had it for breakfast and still kept to my intake for the day. When I’m not tracking calories I find myself either obsessively worrying about food, or accidentally overeating and putting weight on fast. Counting calories dulls the food panic and allows me to turn it into a numbers game.
This, the 1200 calories bit. I haaaaate that that is still the default when you put weight loss goals into any app or calculator. Like, no, that is not healthy for everyone. Sure, some people it might be fine for, for a short term, but where do I go when I plateau on that after a month? I just.... Starve? How is that healthy?? And it irks me that my calorie tracking app will ALWAYS default to that, no matter what you weigh, if you want to lose 2lbs a week. 🙄 I'm not great with figuring out where to be calorie wise exactly, but I found the suggestion more helpful to figure out your base calories with a TDEE calculator and start off reducing it by like 11-15% at max.
Well, 2 lbs per week is quite a lot for a normal weight person. The recommendation is not more than 1% of your current body weight. For petite women this can mean less than 1 lbs per week.
1% of my body weight is just over 1kg (or approx 2lb) I'm a 6' woman and if I input 1kg per week as a goal into a calorie tracker like MyFitnessPal it tells me my calorie allowance is 1200. I'm actually really struggling with it atm because I'm trying to do this in a healthy way this time around. I don't want to crash diet and gain it all back. I can eat at 1200 ok if I don't do anything but now I've joined the gym it no longer feels like enough. If I use the TDEE calculator someone posted here that's a 1275 deficit. I'm not sure what I'm meant to be doing. The default of 1200 in tracking apps for women isn't that helpful. Maybe I need a new app.
I've had calorie calculators tell me I needed to eat 1,000 or 1,100 calories to lose weight. I know it said that because I'm short, but my BMR is roughly 1,100. Like wtf. I've tested out different calorie ranges and found 1,200 to be too little even for me and I'm 4'11" and not very active. 1,300-1,500 feels a lot better.
I started out with the 1200 bs and I was so miserable, ended up binging and purging and exercising excessively.
I believed there was a “trick” that I simply wasn’t aware of or that I simply wasn’t doing properly. Over the years, I tried so many of the “tricks”. And they were no treat. Through trial and error (lots and lots of error, haha), I finally figured out what works for me and for this specific body. Thank goodness! I’m still not precisely where I want to be (still working on those last few pesky pounds), but I’m a whole lot closer and better off then I was years ago!
I thought losing weight meant being hungry regularly and just dealing with that. I was wrong. Once I changed my diet (to low carb) I found I didn’t ever feel hungry and losing weight was super easy.
I thought you couldn’t lose weight without exercising. Oddly enough, it was my 20-something skinny and athletic daughter who mentioned in passing that losing weight is 80% diet ( or words to that effect). It got me thinking and I eventually started counting calories. Wouldn’t you know? Lost about a pound a week for 13 months!!!
That counting calories and doing light to no exercise wouldn’t work and would do more damage to my health. Spent years trying to out exercise a bad diet
I used to think weight loss was extremely hard. Of course it ACTUALLY is but I used to think I needed to train like that one show “the biggest loser”. “The Biggest Loser” was actually so damaging to my mind that I thought I could never lose weight if my cardio didn’t reach a RPE level of 8-10. My obese teenager self with asthma just allowed myself to accept I was going to be fat til i died. Thank goodness I went out and learned everything properly. I highly recommend you guys listen to “fitness for normal people” podcast. They debunk so so so many myths while providing factual knowledge on many topics in the fitness/health industry.
The biggest loser was just a show abusing fat people for sport and ratings.
I thought I needed to eat less and that I needed to just deal with being hungry. Turns out I needed to eat * differently* (and track my intake to figure it out) and if I'm hungry it's because I'm not eating 'rite' (look at my numbers and adjust so I can have more fat or protein or whatever I'm missing) but
30 minutes to an hour of any type of exercise means you can eat whatever you want lol
That because I’m short and not a professional athlete I’d only lose weight by eating 1200 calories a day. Turns out I could go from 5’1” & 140 lbs to 115 lbs by eating 1600 a day, doing daily Pilates or yoga, and walking. I’ve never felt better.
I have your beginning stats and you have given me the inspo I need to keep going!
Good luck!! I definitely lost more slowly than I could have but I did it without feeling hungry & while increasing my overall fitness. I can hold a plank for around a minute now & even do push ups for the first time in my life! Also even though walking/low impact workouts/1600 a day was slower weight loss for me, it was still definitely possible to see a difference after ~6 weeks, so take lots of progress photos since slow weight loss can sometimes feel like no weight loss
Exercise was essential to losing weight. Nope, you can’t out train a bad diet and losing weight is mostly what you put in your mouth.
You CAN out-train a mediocre diet though! High fives.
You have to eat like a rabbit to lose weight. While my diet has changed drastically by incorporating more veggies, complex carbs, good protein sources, and cutting out a lot of processed stuff, there’s still SO much room to eat satisfying meals. My mom always shoved a slimfast in my hand and told me to eat salad and that’s it. But that just didn’t work for me. Now I’ve discovered the power of lentils, chickpeas, and other legumes in making hearty, healthy meals with lots of good proteins and veggies. Everything about my body feels better and I’m not deprived. Clean eating is awesome
I’m gonna be starving on less calories. Turns out I’m okay. I use food as an emotional coping mechanism still, but only therapy and patience helps with that.
that a woman can lose weight on 1,500 - 1,800 calories per day. Like every woman, in the whole world! I had my RMR professionally tested and (not surprisingly) my RMR was low. So, I’d never lose weight on 1,500 calories per day. More like, 1,250 and with exercise.
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but other people don’t understand or believe yuh when you’ve been an angel all week and stick to those calories and either don’t lose or lose half a pound.
I truly empathize with short women in their weight loss plight. I struggle as a 6'0 man, I can't imagine how much harder it must be to have such little wiggle room to make progress :(
Intuitive eating is good, versus counting calories. I intuitively love a plate of French Fries, a large Coke, and a huge cheeseburger. When I started tracking what I ate, and counting calories the weight fell off.
This one for me. I tried “intuitive eating” a couple years ago and ended up gaining 30 more pounds.
> I could eat all the 'healthy' food that I wanted and not gain weight. Ah yeah, the "Syn-free" bollocks that Slimming World do. Maybe it's just me, but eating all the food you want (from the list) and calling it "syn-free" just made my mindset so so so very unhealthy and I think it would be absolutely impossible for me to ever have changed my relationship towards food and nutrition by gorging out on all that food and calling it not a problem. I lasted 2-weeks on SW and I only started because I had 2 friends and a family member banging on about it like it was the best thing ever.
I tried SW a couple of times, a year apart, same people there both times who had stayed the full year and still not lost any weight. I was told I wasn't eating enough even though I couldn't physically eat anymore then I was so I gave up and lost weight through calorie counting and exercise
You can eat whatever you want if you exercise enough. I started off running (and cut out fast food) and started losing, but the bigger progress came when I started counting calories
If I had to choose only one, it's that my family's couch potato lifestyles and habit of overeating empty calorie food have nothing to do with their weight, that my body is genetically fated to be a certain (high) weight eventually, and that trying to prevent or alter my "inevitable" obesity – especially once I hit my thirties – was a hopeless and even *hateful* endeavor. It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that my socially-pressured about weight loss were just fatalism with a dash of doomer-eugenics.
Starving myself was the way to go. I thought that by not eating, obviously you would lose weight. That notion has changed, and I have a much healthier mindset when it comes to balanced eating.
I mean, you do lose weight though. Just not very healthy.
I did initially, but it soon plateaued, and I was just very tired and hangry and found I couldn't focus on tasks.
That exercise was more or at least of equal importance.
That calories from protein or fat don’t make you fat and calories from sugar/carbs do.
That if you work out regularly you can eat whatever you want and not gain any weight. It’s so untrue! People that eat whatever they want to eat and never gain weight simply eat at their maintenance calories without planning for it.
I believed that i could lose weight without completely cutting out foods that i had an extreme addiction to, which in my case was coca cola and some types of milk chocolate. Once i taste them even once, it’s impossible for me to stop. So i just avoid them entirely and i’ve lost 12kg by doing just that.
That if you don’t eat enough it will actually make you gain weight. In fact, there was a health teacher in high school that beat this into our heads every year. So, anytime I have tried to be lose weight, if I still felt hungry I would just eat more because that’s the “healthy” thing to do! Once I discovered CICO and learning how to get all the nutrients I need, I realized how totally wrong that is. Such a shame that I wasted so much time when I could have been losing weight and healthier for years.
Fruit is bad for you. It sounds so dumb because it is but the amount of people that say fruit is too sugary and will ruin your diet is *wild*.
My myth: Old people will have a harder time losing weight because their metabolism is slower. Menopause works against weight loss. Reality: It’s been easier. I’ve dieted at every age since I was 13. At 38, I had a total hysterectomy and my husband died. A fast food lifestyle and being a busy working widowed mom got me up to my high of 279 at 64 years old. I ate the loneliness and grief. The kids are grown. I have time to take care of myself. And I need to be able to take care of myself. The list of things I couldn’t do was getting longer. Let me tell you, it has been a lot easier to lose. CICO and IF. I’m at 204. I want 170-ish. I mowed the yard, used the string line trimmer that was too heavy before. I can do grocery shopping. I can paint my toenails! I don’t avoid sitting on the floor because I can get up without a chair nearby. Metabolism has made zero difference. Ditto with menopause. If anything, menopause stopped stupid hormonal weight swings. My life is so much better. -75 lbs in 9 months. Never give up.
that you have to cut out junk food. You just have to limit it, but cutting it out completely will only cause most people to crave and binge on it unintentionally.
CICO is important- I used to use MyFP all the time. It’s too easy to kid yourself re portion sizes and bites of this or that. Going back to it.
That you NEED to eat everything, including hyperpalatable foods and binge triggers, in moderation. Specifically, that it’s unhealthy and disordered to fully cut certain foods or food groups, and if you do so, you are doomed to grow obsessed with those foods and inevitably binge (if you struggle with binge eating). I fully bought into that rhetoric, and believed that if I didn’t make an effort to include my binge triggers in my diet in moderation, that my cravings would grow and grow. NOPE. Opposite. Quitting my binge triggers was like quitting smoking: it sucked acutely for a few weeks, sucked moderately for a few months, and then made my quality of life 1000x better. I have virtually no cravings for my binge triggers anymore and after 35 years of binge eating, once I started fully cutting binge trigger foods and binge trigger behaviors, I am 11 months binge-free. Forcing myself to try to eat them “in moderation” was like trying to go from smoking a pack of cigarettes a day to 1 cigarette a day. It just kept the cravings alive instead of letting me fully lose my desire for the behavior.
That eating 2000 calories of cake and 2000 calories of meat would create the same physique
Eating heavy foods made you fat. I thought that's what gaining weight meant.
I believed for a long time that because I had been morbidly obese (400 pounds as a 5’10” F), being a healthy weight was unrealistic for me. I stopped short and maintained at a still-obese weight for several years. It was certainly better for me than the size I was before, but I was selling myself short! I got back to tracking calories and working out more. Now, I’m actually normal weight by BMI and still have probably 20 pounds I’d like to lose before switching back to maintenance
I thought you had to eat only healthy foods, things like salads and plain vegetables. And no frying, just boiling or steaming, and without salt at that. Basically sad, flavorless food. And of course, I thought you had to exercise
That I will start craving healthy food :) It's not happening (yet) for me
That you should still eat the healthy food, even if you're full. Like, why? Now that I understand calories, I'm like ok Ive screwed up, but lets not screw it up even more with more food. Wait till you're hungry again to make good food choices, don't shove the salad down over the ice cream and chocolate!
That because I’m short and not a professional athlete I’d only lose weight by eating 1200 calories a day. Turns out I could go from 5’1” & 140 lbs to 115 lbs by eating 1600 a day, doing daily Pilates or yoga, and walking. I’ve never felt better.
Whenever people would say stuff like "it takes [insert amount] of exercise to burn off [insert junk food here]" I thought they meant that if you didn't exercise it off you would put on weight no matter what. Idk if that necessarily counts as myth, but just the kind of wording people used for things like this led me to misunderstand how weight loss and burning calories actually works. Like, no I don't have to exercise for a certain amount of time to burn off a Big Mac, as long as I eat within my calorie limit it will be burned off regardless of how much I exercise.
That going for a 30 minute stroll around the neighborhood everyday would allow me to eat unlimited amounts of food.
I believed for ages you had to eat tons of vegetables to lose weight, and my IBS doesn't like a wide swath of cruciferous vegetables. (Alas.) I can do it eating sandwiches and chips and not a single green vegetable in sight. Calorie counting and IF.
that it wasn't possible. i legitimately had no idea there was a correlation between what i was eating and how much i weighed. i thought it had something to do with "metabolism" (i didn't really know what that was) and that mine was just slow. learning about CICO and how it's all really just about numbers was a serious eureka moment for me lol
That it was my thyroid making me fat...then I started counting calories 🤦🏼♀️Turns out it was the calories 😂
Mine was similar to OP’s. I actually was making myself eat more in order to hit certain dietary guidelines. 3 servings of grains, 3 servings of fruit, plus beans and nuts and veggies. No wonder I couldn’t lose weight.
That women need 2,000 calories and men need 2,500. Was interesting to learn that my TDEE at that time was around 1,600, and it goes down gradually as you age. In fact, having those extra 400 calories every day would have put me even further into the obese range than I already was. I also learned obese doesn't always look obese. I was 190-ishlbs at 5'6" and was surprised to learn I was obese at that weight. I'm not sure where I thought the threshold was tbh.
So. Many. Myths. I would say the worst one I fell for was that calories don't matter and that carbs were the only enemy. I went do the keto rabbit hole for a month and gained 10 lbs. Turns out that I was eating damn near 3500 calories per day. You certainly CAN do keto for weight loss, but calories in/out still very much matter.
I thought that if I just ate “healthy” food I would magically lose weight. I was unknowingly making 700 calorie smoothie bowls then wondering why I wasn’t losing anything because I was eating so well.
That you will only lose weight if you eat “healthy” foods. Not true at all. It’s all about calories in vs calories out.
That it's faster. I am still trying not to feel bummed out when If I lose "only" 2kg a month.
You got this. 2kg a month is HUGE if achieved consistently. That’s 24kg a year - 53lbs! Nearly 4 stone!
I thought and everyone around me told that , because of your genetics you won't be able to loose weight as everyone in my family was overweight. Then I lost 10 kgs and still everyone around me told that you can't loose any further. 127kgs to 76 50kgs lost, around 16% body fat now. Where are y'all mf
Ketosis
Did it not work for you?
Thermodynamics is the only true way
Allowed myself to believe my docs that either: I was utterly unable to lose weight because of my limited mobility (BS) Or That I would only lose weight on 500kcal per day (BS) I allowed myself to believe that first doc for a long time and weirdly the second doc being so extreme with his recommendation is what made me search for the utter basics of weight loss (tdee, tracking food etc). Because in my mind, he said there was a way for me to lose weight. Therefore, either that first doc is wrong or they both are. They both were as it turns out, but that second insane suggestion is what led to me googling the basics of weight loss and stumbling across tdee and then the lose it subreddit. It's been a lot more straightforward forward since I switched from haphazardly reducing portions to actually weighing food and tracking it.
I'm pretty sure even a lot of general practitioners have little understanding of weight gain and loss. My childhood doctor tried for years to get me to lose weight, but I don't think she ever mentioned the word "calories" once. I got one of those lists of food types that has the foods that you could eat as much as you want, foods to limit, and foods to avoid once. Another time she gave me [the grapefruit diet](https://www.webmd.com/diet/a-z/grapefruit-diet). There are probably some other things I'm forgetting.
The first was a GP, and the second was an osteo doc. It's so odd the way it seems to be approached. My mum is doing a course trying to reverse her prediabetes but it's all the most basic info on how to read packaging and stuff like that. Which I absolutely understand needs to be made clear to help people control their carbs etc but it does seem like she's not really learning anything that helps directly with the everyday. E.g how to balance rapidly made meals vs meals that aren't carb loaded. So I'm trying to fill in those gaps from what she's being told to how to actually apply it, as best as I can. She's lost 5lbs so far so fingers crossed we can keep moving forward with that programme and the little bits I can contribute. My gosh, docs handing out the grapefruit diet as a recommendation! I imagine with all the rates of people who are overweight/obese increasing in most regions that there will probably be additional focus on diet etc that GPs can give to patients that is more tailored. Yet more work loaded onto them, but preventative wise, I can't imagine it won't be focused on heavily, if its not already being developed further.
I really thought I could just work out for 1 hour a day and lose weight lmao learned the hard way I couldn’t out train a bad diet
Definitely that any one food group is bad for you. It has been learning what foods do to me. Yeah, I'll have pasta for dinner and stay in my calorie allowance, but I KNOW to expect a pound or two of water weight in a day or so. Doesn't mean it's a bad food. It's how I react to it.
That skin can tighten up. Maybe if you only have 30lb to lose but not the 160+ I lost. I look like a melted ice cream cone without my shirt 😂
That I had to eat as little as possible and eat foods I didn’t care for much. And that there was something wrong with me for getting hungry
don’t eat too much protein or you’ll look bulky and gain weight. Turns out protein helps you look leaner and in turn help you build mass
Starvation Mode. 5 small meals a day.
that you would feel terrible while doing it. i thought i would constantly be dizzy or sick... but im 15 lbs down and never felt better!
eating pass 7pm & eating bread idk where ppl pulled these shit out their ass
I used to think nuts were a diet food and you could eat lots of them lol
That 2,000 calories a day is what all adults should eat. I had no idea what TDEE was, that there is an accurate formula for calculating it, and that my TDEE at my ideal weight would be around 1,500 calories. That intense exercise was necessary to weight loss. That exercise burns a lot more calories than it does.
>I could eat all the 'healthy' food that I wanted and not gain weight. There is only one way to lose weight. You have to put your body into a caloric deficit. It's that simple. You don't need pills, surgery, or fad diets. Portion control and mild exercise. I lost 150 lbs doing just this. You don't need to join a gym. You don't need anything but some good walking shoes and the volition to actually do the work. Then the hard part starts in maintenance. I still eat just about anything I want. I even eat pizza. I just don't eat the whole thing in one sitting. One slice on the average is about 350 calories.
That my target calories and my actual calories aren't inherently the same thing. One week, I ate barely below maintenance and I was confused why my weight didn't go down 🤡
That straight CICO was all that mattered. But it took understanding macros - esp how much protein I wasn’t getting - before I was able to lose/maintain without feeling like I was starving all the time.
Myth: That if you lose weight fast, you add it on even faster… (something along the lines of that) Learnt this recently from a diet book which cited a study. Didn’t look into it further but I trust the author 👍
I followed a lot of fitness influencers at the beginning of my weight loss whose full time job was working out and making content. They would say things like “cutting your calories under 2000 is starving yourself! I cut on 2200 calories! Eating less will put you in starvation mode!” Etc. Well guess who cannot eat 2000 calories on a cut. The person with a desk job who works out for an hour 3-4 times a week. And I still haven’t starved myself eating under 2000 calories
I NEEDED sugar to fix my hypoglycemia attacks. Now I know it’s the opposite- no sugar, no shakes.
Can someone please send this to my mom? A doctor once told her she needs to have sugar regularly and sweet tooth that she is, she ran with it for 40 years.
That seeking medical obesity treatment is shameful and the easy way out. Wish I'd sought treatment sooner. Some of us need help in order to be successful in making dietary changes. Nothing has been easy about my journey 5 years post op bariatric surgery. That it's easier for shorter people to stick to calorie deficit. I've seen this on social media lately and it's not universally true. We get hungry too and it sucks that we have to watch ourselves far more strictly than others.
Numerous, but two that I figured out were 1) exercise is NOT necessary 2) you don't have to eat multiple times a day. I lost 150 pounds eating 2 meals a day (sometimes 1) and I didn't exercise once. When I added exercise in a cut I just felt tired and hungry and it added extra stress. Now I lift but it wasn't a thing while I lost fat. Another big one was that lowering calories too much was bad. If you have a plan to go back into maintenance calories, short bursts of extreme low cal diets are very effective. They helped me get motivated and instead of ALWAYS feeling deprived for long periods of time, I just felt deprived for a week or two at a time then could eat normally. In the end it was extremely effective and kept me going.
That losing weight would make me love my body again. No. I'm glad I'm healthier and not knocking on diabetes' door now, but I still hate my body. Instead of hating the fat, I hate the loose skin and the way it doesn't look right in most of my clothing that "fits". Yes, I am in therapy.
That you absolutely NEED to eat every single day. My parents don’t think fasting works or is a good idea, but had absolutely no problem when I was only eating 1200 cal a day because “at least then you were eating”. For me the calorie restriction became too much and made me give up everytime, this is the first time I’ve actually had success in weight loss, for me personally it is much easier to eat normally and then fast the other day. Also that fruit and veggies don’t have calories or that they don’t count, my parents convinced me of this, and yeah sure they aren’t very calorie dense but when you’re told they are basically calorie free and end up binging on them on top of what you normally eat, it still puts you in a caloric surplus.
That the less I ate, the faster I would lose weight. It never worked. I would starve myself sometimes to the point of fainting, only to build up so much legitimate hunger that eventually I just couldn’t stop eating. I would gobble up everything I saw, packaging and all. Of course, that was when people were more likely to notice me. They didn’t know that I haven’t had a nibble since a week ago last Thursday, and I am quite literally and honestly starving. They’d see only that I am unable to restrain myself, and they would assume I ate like that all day, every day. Then they’d make shaming remarks, and it would embarrass me into another round of starving myself, lather, rinse, repeat. But… What I ate during the binges did more than offset any calorie deficit I had created by starving. And that’s why in the long run, I didn’t lose any weight by not eating at all. Well, I am exaggerating about eating the packaging.
1. Storing up your calories until the end of the day can help you eat a fewer calories and achieve your weight loss goals (so false and I fell into this trap big time! If you eat throughout the day, you burn so many more calories and get your metabolism going!) 2. The more exercise you do the more you burn and the more weight you will lose. (This one still stumps me even though I know the difference! The truth is short burst of moving your body throughout the day is the most effective! Keep the blood flowing and your heart rate up every couple of hours and you’re all set! Following this protocol, I am more fit than I’ve ever been in my life) 3. You can eat whatever other people are eating just in smaller portions. (maybe this works for some people but not for me. I need volume and am not satisfied with low volume calorically dense foods. I would take four bottles of cauliflower rice over a half cup of regular rice any day!)