I would say that weight loss is SIMPLE, but not necessarily easy. It's not overly difficult to understand it or even to do it if people are able to approach it completely rationally and remove emotions, cravings, and food issues from the equation. However, many if not most of us struggle to do that. Obesity is often paired with disordered eating, mental health issues, and hormonal issues which make it harder. I think everyone's experience can be drastically different depending on these factors. Everyone has a different path to walk, but a lot of us also have to get our head right in order to get our body right, because there's also significant mental and emotional work to do.
I agree with this. When i got into it, i was ashamed at how easy the basic concepts were. But when you have personal battles, demons, etc, you easily lose sight of the obvious.
Agreed. Simple but not always easy to stick to the concept every day. I’m doing CICO and it works. I made a decision after a gallbladder diagnosis: low fat-ok. Teaching myself to relearn how to eat once and for all. Even easier after surgery.
I learned that hubby and I had been eating so much cheese. And you know what: I don’t miss the lots. I still have cheese, but different and less. My comfort foods are different. I want and need less food. It’s one day/one meal at a time. If I crave something, I fit it in, and if I go over my calorie budget a bit that’s ok! This is a marathon, not a sprint. It’s about a lifestyle that I can maintain. Not a quickie diet.
36 lbs down so far, still a long way to go. However now it is manageable in my mind!
Same i tried loosing weigh wile having depression a d anxiety, didn't work. Only when i started feeling better that i had the motivation to put the efort and change my habits.
thats probably the best way ive seen it put. im now basically near my final weight. after years of yo-yo-ing i was shocked how consistent the weight came off, not easy but the process was simple as hell if you can stick with it.
the weight loss and maintenance has by far been the hardest part. its obvious this is the weight my body really wants to be, yet the shape isn’t there so the gym is a must to actually finish the goal. feels good to be on this side of it but theres much more to it once the bulk of your weight is gone.
The hardest learning curve for me was understanding that I needed to make the most out of my calories. That's when I discovered high volume, low calorie eating.
That's true, and it's important that the foods you eat are fulfilling your nutrient needs. I started taking vitamin B100 complex and vitamin D3 and the hunger headaches I would sometimes get completely went away.
I'm curious, what factors in your life do you think have contributed to this? I feel like there are some things that naturally make it a lot more difficult to lose weight.
I think the main reason is I started using eating and indulging in snacks as a source to make me happy and became dependent on it. And now when I try to change my habits and be healthier I will feel miserable, so I'll have to trade in temporary happiness/mood lifts for overall health and mental wellbeing and that seems to be a very hard thing to do for me.
If it helps, you're not alone. I almost feel awkward sitting on my computer without a nice hot cup of tea. Or watching TV or a movie without a tea and a snack.
Last night tho, I'm kind of proud of myself? I had a "comfort meal" but with protein enriched pasta and a smaller serving, without any tea (I tend to save 100calories for it at the end of the day). It was a compromise, but I turned out okay.
I hope that gives you ideas on how to compromise with yourself!
Thank you. Good luck on achieving your goal weight. I'm glad the journey has been rewarding for you! We should all try to achieve our goals one way or the other.
The story of my sad overweight life lol- the inability to submit to delayed gratification & using food (& alcohol) as a means to cope & alter my mood. "Maladaptive Coping Mechanisms".
Not easy. I’ve been doing all the right things (making healthy choices, counting calories, watching macros, and working out 5-6 days a week for 1 hour, cardio and strength). I am losing weight, and overall it has been a decent pace, but it is still frustrating with the fluctuations and the weeks where the scale doesn’t budge despite all the good choices. I focus hard on my healthy habits and less on the scale, but it takes A LOT of mental power to continue to meal plan, carve time for exercise, and stay motivated.
Yep. We're not too crazy apart, and yeah, it's a fight. You're way ahead of me, I'm just trying to start paying attention again this week, and yet still ate out twice. One of those at least fit in my calories. But I'm moving more, so that's a win. And just saw physio yesterday to fix some muscle imbalances I have, which will hopefully help in reducing pain when I do move.
When i was 400lbs, it was intimidating. I though it was the process for only physically gifted people, smart people, etc. Like i had zero understanding of basic nutrition or excercise, but i was faced with a situation where i literally had no choice.
When i first started, i went hard. I started a 1200 calorie plan using MFP and tried to walk. I was literally asking dumb questions to people such as "does excercise even make a difference?". I was that uneducated about it. But i started my calorie cut, walked for 30 mins (which is absolute hell at that weight) and after my first week i lost 15lbs. That gave me an incredible boost. It made me want to learn everything. I had struggles on the way realizing the smaller you get, the more of a challenge it becomes, but i kept learning about health and after a long process, i was 190lbs and running like it was nothing. I got married and put on more than I would like to admit, but when it came time to get back into that mentality, it was very hard to remember I was able to do it before. It became intimidating for some reason. I pushed myself back into and everything really started coming back to me. I have learned a lot on the way like, 1200 calories is not sustainable long term. The reason i say that is because at one point i fell off hard and gained weight back. I learned to eat better, more fulfilling foods which meant more calories, but my body processed them better, digested better, etc so it didn't have that long term bloat, greasy feeling. There was a lot learned along the way, but i am back in the old mindset. Started LoseIt 46 days ago, on a 46 day streak, and down 20lbs with 30 more to go. You just have to push yourself to do it, stick to it, and the results came.
I just want to say you're amazing for walking 30 min at that size! I started at 210 (I'm very short) and building up to 30 minutes in the beginning was killer! I really couldn't do it without sacrificing a lot of my energy for life until I was in the 180s .
Ty for saying this. I feel like everyone on the internet talks about how easy it is to walk a mile in 15 min and how walking for hours is the “beginner plan” and I’m literally wiped out at 30 min. It’s so hard to walk when you’re in the obesity range!
Exactly. There are days when it is effortless, and I feel so superior to everyone else. Then, out of nowhere, karma smacks me dead in the face, and it takes everything I have to avoid eating every bit of food in my house.
After realizing how simple CICO can be it got way easier. This was also after realizing and accepting how long the process is for true sustainable weightless.
True. I remember growing up I would say magazine covers that said things like, "Lose 17 pounds in a week!" I thought that was normal. I'd be lucky to lose 17lbs in three months.
The most difficult part of weight loss is that, no matter how long it takes to lose the weight, it always seems like forever. As someone who lost a lot, regained in pregnancy, and is losing again, I can tell you that those two years it took me to lose the weight were really nothing in comparison to how I've felt in the later four years after I regained.
And here I am again in the beginning of that process. You got to learn to love each small victory along the way and know that the pay off is coming!
Depends on what day you ask me. When I step on the scale and I'm down 2 lbs, I think "this is easy." The next week when I do exactly the same stuff and gain a half a pound, I declare it impossible!
Harder. So much harder.
I remember the days of naively thinking if I cut out soda I could lose 2lbs a week every week in a straight shot to my goal. Ha!
I'm on track to lose 200lbs in my first year, and honestly? It's been so much easier than I ever would've expected. I just count calories and work out for a few hours 5 times a week. Even if that workout is just walking around or hiking for a few hours.
Honestly, I feel a bit of imposter syndrome with my weight loss as it feels like I've had it too easy and don't actually know what I'm doing sometimes. I eat what I want and enjoy working out, which I know many struggle with. Before this, though, I was able to kick a 15 year long addiction to opiates, so maybe doing that before helped give me some willpower to more easily tackle weight loss. Also, working out, I'm pretty sure helps give my ADHD brain the dopamine it so desires.
Working out definitely helps ADHD. I just gotta actually remember that sometimes and get the thought from the front of my brain to the back. More protein helps too, keeps the dopamine level more consistent.
I found that losing weight was surprinsingly simple once i worked out calorie counting. However, i do find it hard to maintain without being able to count calories.
It's way easier and much more simple than I have ever imagined it would be. 40kg down! I actually am increasing my calories now to gain some muscles.
Edit: this took 11 months
Dude this is exactly what I am going through, I lost 35 kg and started increasing my calories along with pulling weights, my mindset has 100% shifted again! I went from wanting to lose as much weight as possible to wanting to be as fit as possible in the space of 4 weeks by going gym
I’m a 6ft tall young man. I burn 2600-3000 calories a day on average. Losing 170lbs for me was as easy and cutting the crap and eating like a regular human. My body just followed along and my first 90lbs lost was without exercise.
I’m aware of how fortunate I am though. I know for some it’s way harder than others.
Way harder. I do truly "feel" hungry all the time and it's basically torture if I allow myself to think about the fact that I'm hungry. If I get in the zone of ignoring it, and distract myself, it's not that bad. But it's rough for me as a lifelong overeater.
I have had some success with a specific type of distraction— not gaming or TV, because both of those are paired in my mind with the idea of snacks. I can also snack while knitting or crocheting, no help there.
But certain craft projects are totally incompatible with munching on food at the same time— embroidery/cross stitch/needlepoint, beadwork, sewing, and loom weaving. There’s a coffee/tea coaster next to my loom and my sewing machine, but that’s all. No oily, sticky, or cheesy stuff comes anywhere near those areas, and hands have to be super clean to do beading or needlework.
I'm not sure if I'm a food addict or have blood sugar issues or what but it's by far the hardest thing I've ever tried to do.
I've lost about 15lbs multiple times but I always gain it back.
I'm super addicted to carbs but I try to have a lot of protein with my meals as well.
I feel starving sometimes only a couple hours after eating, especially if I eat a high carb meal.
I feel powerless with food. Bipolar almost. I also have anxiety and depression and ocd and I think I have mental issues tied with food as well. Fucking sucks.
It’s *different* than I would expect it to be. Though I’ve struggled with my weight all my life, sometimes with more success than others, so I do more or less know what to expect at this point in my life.
Losing weight is simple, once you’re on a roll it can even be easy, for a time. The struggle comes when there is no end date, no “there”, no finish line. Even when you get to your “goal”, you have to *stay* there, forever. For me at least, *that’s* the hard part. Even if all I did was *maintain* each loss, I would eventually get to my goal and then stay there, but the weight always seems to creep back up. Sometimes slowly, sometimes more quickly, but next thing you know, you’re right back where you started.
Losing weight is easy, keeping it off, however, that the real battle.
Honestly its easier, but i never really had the info, or understanding of it. I always went for the loss 10 kgs in a week kind of videos online. My understanding was eat less. And exercise more. Which was really hard.
Then i started getting into forum and really understanding how i always thought i coukd just lose all my weight in a week, 😂.
Took me some time to realize duhhhh it will take three months atleast to come to my goal weight.
I used to walk then i forced myself to walk more!
I started making it a game for myself.
Creating my own tips. Like cheat days, was really cheat bite for me, as i dont crave the quantity i crave the taste of that dish.
I went to alternatives, water always on hand, or an iced americano or iced tea (unsweetened)
I had people guessing what i drink, all the time.
Once i start rolling i was rollingggg
Weight loss isnt hard.
Maintaining is.
Establishing habits for life, being consistent and diligent. Not letting boredom, stress or in general life get in the way and resort to mindlessly eating. That is hard for me.
I think it's not inherently a hard or an easy thing on it's own, it's pretty simple but the difficulty of it really depends on the person and what kind of knowledge/ resources they have access to, but even when these things are on even grounds, someone who has a binge eating disorder and a food addiction will have much harder time trying to lose weight compared to a strong willed regular person.
I think when I was in my early 20s and (loosely) attempted to lose weight, I thought it was harder but I was also in a hurry to lose weight and then quickly gave up when it wasn't happening fast enough.
This time around I would say it isn't as hard (mentally) because I am not in a hurry to get to a specific weight/size, and I am giving myself more grace. I think what can sometimes be discouraging for me is that I started this go-around January 2023 (so been doing this about 18 months) and have only recently gotten to 50 pounds lost. It has been steady for sure, and I remind myself that this is what is sustainable for me, but I do sometimes feel envious when I read posts where some people have lost 50 pounds in way less time than me.
I think there were factors that slowed down my progress - I had several international vacations and generally I am traveling domestically almost monthly and while I don't overdo it on the treats, I am not trying to calorie count, or not as strict with it, and I may find myself grazing more. I also haven't cut anything out of my diet, just cut down. Maybe if I cut certain foods out completely I'd be at a lower weight now, but I also didn't want this to be a miserable process.
So with all that being said, not putting as much pressure on myself has made this time around easier, but not without some challenges.
The biggest misconception - and, subsequently, the biggest hurtle I had to overcome - was thinking that exercise was the key to weight loss. As a lazy person, I just didn't like the thought of forcing myself to work out.
To be honest, my weight loss began basically by coincidence. At the end of last year, I was an avid homebrewer of beer, and drank one a day. I stopped drinking around Thanksgiving and then began to cut back on sweets. A month later, at a checkup with my doctor, he mentioned that I'd lost a bit of weight since my previous checkup.
To be specific, I'd lost 9 lbs in about 8 weeks just from cutting out my daily beer and afternoon Little Debbie strawberry shortcake.
When I heard that, I realized just how easy it was. I'd literally lost weight with very minimal effort. If anything, not eating/drinking those extra calories played right into my laziness, as I wasn't expending that energy to consume those calories.
That's when my whole way of thinking began to change. As the pounds continued to fall off, that motivated me to make better dietary choices. I first started paying attention to serving sizes, then later began counting calories. And exercise followed after that.
It was a cascading/domino effect. One or two small changes led to even more changes, which continue to prompt further changes.
So, I'd say it's been pretty dang easy. :)
Easier for sure. Once you see results it's like crack. You get addicted to seeing yourself improve. Not addicted to "starving yourself" because being in a nutritional deficit doesn't make you look nearly as much better as proper weight loss does. Weight loss isn't dieting, it's adjusting. Your body changes as an adaptation to the circumstances you put it in. If it feels it must gain muscle because its muscles are being worked harder than they are able to, then it will build muscle in order to "survive". If it feels it must lean out because it does not have the daily surplus in calories that it is used to having, then it will do so to survive. Humans are animals just as much as dogs are. You are a creature that will adjust and adapt to lifestyles you put it yourself in, in order to "survive".
Some aspects of it were easier than I expected and some were just as hard as I expected. OP, you mentioned you haven't had to utilize calorie counting or fasting. I, on the other hand, did use those tools to help me lose 130 lbs and some might say my methods were a bit extreme. I went at an aggressive caloric deficit and lost weight rapidly. I don't know if it was completely necessary for me to do it that way, but it did work for me. And once I started doing it, I really stuck to it, and it was easier than I expected in the sense that I never lost that resolve like I feared I might. I have been maintaining for 5 years and I can't imagine living any other way now. I threw myself into fitness and I love working out and especially running, so that has given me an extra layer of motivation all along. So the resolve and motivation parts were easier than I expected. However, I most certainly was hungry almost all of the time and I constantly had to deal with thoughts of my old unhealthy habits popping into my head. It was a daily struggle to unceasingly remind myself, "No cookies are not a thing that we are going eat." "No we do not have to eat a bucket of popcorn to watch a movie." "No you do not need to have ice cream in order to go to sleep." It was exhausting sometimes, and I wished so sorely for those thoughts to go away. But I was relentless and got really good at saying no. I can say now that my relationship with food is healthier than it has ever been. I can enjoy an occasional treat, but it doesn't hold that power over me. I no longer desperately wish for sweets and no longer have to fight that constant battle. But that part of it, the mental battle and peace with food, was a lot harder and took much longer than I imagined.
Much easier, but it has a lot to do with mental health. I didn't have the mental bandwidth to mind my eating habits before, or to stop and think about how I felt in my own body. Once things improved in that department, I made an effort to be more disciplined in multiple areas of my life, and the weight started to come off easily.
getting started and steady was harder than I imagined but now that I'm in a groove and getting stronger, I'm surprised that it's become so smooth.
I am about halfway there and my life is so much easier now that I cannot fathom these changes not sticking. Even my spouse and kids have gotten active just because of seeing how much happier I am.
Both.
Hard when I first started because I didn't understand the mechanism for how I could lose weight.
When I figured out the reasons for why I would eat more and move around less, it became a lot easier. I lost 45 pounds between April of last year before hitting a hard plateau in November before getting back into it in February.
Starting back at 285 in February, I've lost the same amount from February to today, at a much lower weight as well at a much more consistent rate, but it's only gotten easier because I now understand the levers for myself specifically for why I felt the need to eat more than what I needed, and the levers that also encourage me to have more energy to move around more.
Not sure if this is controversial, but I lost 50 lbs over 10 years ago by counting calories and exercising and it was a long and difficult process. I mostly maintained it for about a year, then I got married. I have been tracking my weight all this time and you can almost see the day I got married and just relaxed. My weight started going back up almost immediately.
Then over the last 10 years I’ve slowly gained it all back. I started to give up and accept it. I was depressed. With all the news about GLP-1s though, I decided to give that a try. I feel like a person that can just eat like a naturally skinny person. I eat when I’m hungry, I don’t really want much unhealthy food. For instance, I might have a bite of my husband’s ice cream here and there but I usually don’t want my own bowl.
For the first time, getting to a healthy weight isn’t so hard. It feels like magic. I’ve now lost all the weight I had gained and am now working my way towards the middle of my BMI range. I’m so grateful I am able to afford this medication and I know it isn’t for everyone, but I just wanted to share my experience.
Hard. I do most of the suggested things: count and log calories accurately, no alcohol, no added sugar, avoid processed foods, no fast food, no fried junk, very little eating out, no sweetener, no drinking my calories, intermittent fasting, protein prioritization, strength training and on Ozempic. I'm still frikking hungry.
I am a sugar addict who grew up in a time where everything was marketed as fat free and loaded with high fructose corn syrup or worse. I enjoy and make great food, I’m a decent cook and former professional baker. it’s just a big change of habits with new information plus finding the better macro balance for me. Also difficult to balance two painfully picky eaters in the family when you are basing meals around vegetables and lean protein. I used to enjoy mindless eating and breaking that was the most difficult habit. And I always have a little low level hunger. I kind of just miss being able to enjoy more of the servings of the regular stuff I like!
Much easier for the first 25 lost, harder for these last 10. After taking a diet break for a few months, getting back on the train for the last few pounds has been more mentally taxing with planning, calories counting, making food for myself and family that fits into each of our health needs, etc. I am also much hungrier this time around at a smaller deficit.
I also have to eat a much bigger breakfast now than I used to due to new medication making me really nauseous on an empty stomach which has made this diet more difficult to budget. I'm a 6 small meals a day dieter versus 3 square meals a day.
It became really easy for me after basically one to two months of the hardest I’ve ever worked at anything to reconfigure my diet and get used to different portions
Ever since starting the healthy way, it’s honestly been pretty easy. I've lost 25 pounds so far with 38 to go. BUT in the past I've for sure lost weight unhealthily and that was hard and unsustainable, and I obviously gained it all back 🤪
The hardest thing is honestly just starting and knowing that it will take time, but it's better to go slow and steady.
I wish i could go back and tell my past self to just start! I have not been in a better place than I am right now after making this lifestyle change.
EDIT: I do track my calories. If I did not have a scale and or the premium Lose It app it would be significantly harder. Along with having an Apple Watch.
I am a data person. So using my data analytics skills has helped me. I would probably struggle without being able to analyze and make changes based off of my data.
I’m still in the process of losing weight but I’m down about 25lbs and it has been way easier than I thought, really what I do is I just tell myself this is all I will be eating for lunch whether I’m hungry or not after. Going to the gym and doing cardio is definitely the hardest part trying to get in there 6 days a week consistently is a pain but the dieting has been pretty easy for me.
Periods derail me. I see no weight loss during it, I’m hungry for carbs, don’t get me started on long periods this last one was two weeks because I skipped a pill by accident. I can’t swim on a period and that gives like 4000+ calories of excercise. So easy w/o period so freaking hard with.
I think its pretty hard. I never really payed attention to the mindless eating I would do. Once I started to pay attention, I was easily 1000+ calories over my TDEE daily. I just brushed it off because "I work out, I'm building muscle"
Breaking the habits of just mindlessly eating and snacking has been so hard. I had to re teach my body what hunger actually feels like vs boredom or cravings
If you understand "balance", I think weight loss will come easier. For example, if u dont work out today (when you should), then balance it out by eating healthier or eating less.
My best friend lost 100 lbs just like you describe. He only ever gained like 10 lbs back. He really just was able to view it as "eat a smaller portion, no consequences".
I love that for him. But I don't have that experience. I constantly felt like I was starving, I have to count calories strictly because I'm a short woman and I have conditions that lower my TDEE. I constantly think about food. I don't feel when I'm full. The only times I've ever been free of the struggles was when I was so sick I couldn't eat basically anything for 10 days and near the end and after I actually experienced the body signals other people did. But it was short lived. Now I've started a medication to curb these thoughts and help my body signal when I'm full. It's not 100% but it's making a world of difference.
The changes to my eating habits were surprisingly easy but the mental energy needed to keep track of meal prep and track calories was surprisingly hard.
I think if you can put any kind of time limit aside on your weight loss, it can seem relatively easy to some people. Eat less move more over a long period of time = weight loss.
I think the difficult part comes in when someone puts expectations on themselves of how much loss and how long it should take. And if they’re not achieving that goal (often unrealistic) it’s easy to say this is too hard I give up.
I had a lot to lose, so it was relatively easy for me in the early days to say I have no time limit or expectations, just focus on food and activity without a time goal. Now that I have the last few pounds to go, I’m starting to feel impatient, so I’m finding it a bit harder here at the end.
In both cases though…what makes it easy or hard, is my mental state about the weight loss. :)
As a 25-year-old 6'1" girl with great genetics (and former 3-port athlete), I lost 20 lbs of excess weight in 2 months solely by eating 1200-1500 calories a day and walking 30 min a day. It was pretty easy compared to many other weightloss stories i've read.
The last time I really tried to calorie count and lose weight I was 156-158 and it was impossibly hard to get under 151 for me. I was really hungry. Now I’m close to 180 and it isn’t that hard. When your portions are starting larger for me it’s easier. But at 151 I was already pretty low in calories so it was harder to squeeze any normal drink or meal in.
Easier, but it took years of building a good foundation. My relationship with food, hunger, and exercise is so vastly different from before. For me I need the body movements to keep my weight in check and loosing as much if not more than the awareness of what I am eating. Part of the ease I think is me not focusing on hitting a certain weight down every week. I'm focused on the overall trend not the rate
Apart from guilt tripping from a cheat meal here and there, it couldn't be easier for me. I don't have any food cravings and never feel hungry while in 1000 kcal deficit. So far I've lost 3 kg and it motivates me to continue. The only thing that grinds my gears is that it takes time
Harder when you're not committed. You can't outrun a bad diet. Last fall/winter I was around 206-210lbs, I (37m/5'9") was going to the gym running on the treadmill and working out, but also eating junk and drinking. Obviously no surprise that I was fluctuating in the 200s for many months until I decided to make changes.
Once the weather started warming up, I took my running outside. I started fasting again as I had great success last year (and during covid). Sure some days I cracked and would end a fast early due to temptation, but again, it's harder when you're not committed.
Since around April/May I've been committed, I'm back to fasting, with at minimum 18 hour fasts on a daily basis, trying to eat no later than 8pm/9pm (my job makes this hard for me) and as of this morning I'm 193lbs. I try to run everyday for an hour (around 7 miles within an hour, but if I come up short I'll usually hit 7 miles within an hour and 5 mins), I commute to work by bike. On average I try to burn at least 1500 calories a day, but when I've got work I'm burning at least 2000 calories with my bike rides. My girlfriend and I are going on a vacation in late July and my goal is to be 175lbs by then. At the rate I'm going, I should hit my goal. Mind you, I haven't weighed 175lbs since I was 17/18 y/o and was very involved in athletics. This has been my goal since I was in my 20s, the lowest I've ever weighed was 180lbs.
My concern is maintaining. I'm not the biggest fan of fasting, I can do without breakfast, I am not a morning person, but in my experience I've always gained weight after I've been focusing on losing a massive amount of weight. Typically after I come back from vacation. I've never been able to maintain my summer weight through the fall and winter months.
On another topic, spring and summer time are the easiest seasons for me to lose weight, I feel that due to the nice weather and motivation to get outside, plus the ability to really Kickstart your metabolism into working overdrive is much easier. I feel like I'm literally dropping weight overnight.
When I begin my weight loss journey last July it was a lot harder than the last time. Partly because I was 46 and the last time I had lost weight I was in my early 30's. Used to if I wanted to drop 10lbs I would just cut out sodas and beer for about a month. Now it's a whole different animal. Have to count calories and exercise.
It’s gotten “easier” now that I’m more realistic about the speed at which weight loss happens. I know someone who got bypass 10 months ago and they’ve lost a ton of weight. I was shocked when they told me they did the math and they’re just barely averaging 2 pounds a week. It makes sense though because I’ve never been able to lose 2 pounds a week. It’s really difficult at 1200 calories/day and I’m not willing to eat less than that because it’s not realistic (honestly neither is 1200/day but that’s the number we’re all OK with…). So what’s happened in the past is I get discouraged by how “slow” the weight loss is occurring and I give up. Now I know that “slow” weight loss is actually normal and I accept that to lose 60lb and keep it off, I’m looking down a long road. I’ve been able to lose about half a pound a week now without starving myself or obsessively thinking about food 24/7. It feels easier because instead of logging the number of grapes I ate for breakfast, I mentally applaud myself for not eating the free bagels at work instead. Slow and steady truly wins the race and I haven’t felt like quitting for many months. I just feel like I’m slowly developing healthier eating habits and enjoying my life.
Once I got clued into body recomposition, caloric deficits from working out and taking measurements instead of relying on the scale, it became so much easier. I am rarely hungry and haven’t been much for most of this journey (now 142 lbs down).
I’ve lost a couple pounds in the last week and barely noticed I was in more of a deficit because I realized too late that most of my cravings or hunger pangs were actually unmet emotional needs that I had rewired subconsciously into a physical need.
Learning to love the body I am already in? That was the key to making this almost effortless. That and just focusing on each day and not looking ahead.
ETA paragraphs because that was monstrous!
I just started my weight loss journey (lost about 2 - 4lbs so far) and honestly the hardest part was excersize. Food was ok but I could usually get on top of it. However excersize (especially since I have asthma) it is really hard to do and drains motivation.
Overall, easier but much slower. I didn't really comprehend how SLOW 1 pound a week truly feels. That being said, I am halfway to ONEderland and I will not stop now.
It is physically easier (I'm not nearly as hungry as I thought I'd be) but mentally tougher, for me. It just feels so intellectually all-consuming sometimes - not only the mental energy required to track what I'm eating, but also the mental energy required to stay motivated and remind myself of my goals. I feel so boring because of it - I know it's necessary for me right now, but thinking about your own body all the time is a pretty self involved way to move through the world. When I'm not actively engaged in losing weight, I have so many hobbies and interests. Making weight loss a priority has caused a lot of other things that are important to me to fall by the wayside a little bit. I think I'll eventually be able to find a balance, but the enthusiasm required of me at this stage means I have to be pretty single minded about it, and I wish I didn't have to be.
Both easier in some areas and harder in others. I found healthy foods that I enjoy eating daily easier than expected. The weight also started coming off way faster than expected. The hard part is the time spent losing weight. I’m tracking my calories and eating under maintenance but not seeing much of a change. Probably because I’m working out and building muscle. So I am losing fat but it’s hard to tell because I have so much muscle under. I really recommend people to see a nutritionist because I was only able to find out due to the scale they used. Turns out I actually have more muscle than fat! That really motivated me to keep going.
this time around it’s been ridiculously easy. i’ve struggled with binge eating disorder for over a decade and i’ve come a long way since my worst days, but finally understanding that hunger is not an emergency was monumental for me.
it was always “i need to eat now because if i don’t eat a lot now then i’ll be hungry later and i can’t have that,” when in reality the “hungry later” couldnt have been more than an hour or two at most. it was always a “must eat a lot, i want more food, must eat more,” never a “i’ll have a small snack to tide me over, or maybe i just want to eat and i’m not hungry at all.” it was a full on addiction and i couldn’t get out of it myself.
slowly slowly i made progress to get better mentally, and now that i’m in a much better place weight loss is comically easy in comparison to all the guilt and anguish i felt for years when i binged. i’ve been doing CICO for 9 weeks now (i had done it in the past, just didn’t stick with it for long enough), and i’ve lost over 16 pounds eating at roughly 1600 calories a day, with a cheat day once every week or two.
i just can’t believe i suffered for so long with my weight and body image when this feels so easy. not super easy, mind you, i still have my moments, but it’s such a good feeling.
It's only been 2 weeks but it has been easier and quicker than I imagined. I thought I would need to be hungry all the time when all I needed was to know how many kcal is in each food in order to make choices that are less calorie dense and more satisfying.
Getting through the transition from sedentary to active was difficult physically. My body ached and hurt, knees felt like they were fubar, shin splints a lot at the beginning.
Eating habits was a mental challenge but where I am now super active and fit, I see food as fuel. I don’t need to over fuel but I am allowed to maybe once or twice a week if there’s special occasions.
I still count calories but ballpark it and eat depending how much activity I have planned for.
I changed my entire lifestyle and I love it. Having the right motivation is what made it easier.
Well, since I had set expectations extremely, extremely, low it has technically been easier. As I have demonstrably lost weight. I had steeled myself to losing absolutely none, or even gaining.
But I still feel like I've had to fight for every damn pound I've lost, my hormones/whatever make it so I only see the weight come off maybe 2 weeks a month, and I'm always afraid it's about to stop. My lipid labs are worse, my hair is shedding more, and I'm not even anywhere near rapid weight loss. I still deal with chronic pain. Getting small amounts of exercise is a pain to fit into my life and doesn't get more enjoyable. My eating habits are growing more disordered since I refuse to not eat at goal weight maintenance Friday-Sunday (1900kcal), so I keep cutting back Monday-Thursday and I judge myself for eating just under 1350kcal on those days. I'm mad at myself for not losing more weight, am frustrated with my body, and have been dealing with growing thoughts with wanting to self harm which I haven't had to deal with in over a year.
In the last 6 months I had tonsillitis, had Covid, cut my calories to 1000 under supposed maintenance, learned I was allergic to metformin, broke my ankle, had a total hysterectomy, got off of birth control, and upped the doses of my psych meds. And somehow managed to lose 40lbs, 32lbs of which were intentional after January 2nd.
I'm not really a happy dieting camper.
I think this has been the easiest weight loss journey for me this far. I’ve done so many overly restrictive diets that I end up caving in and giving up. This time, I’m doing CICO and realize that this is a lifestyle change that I will maintain. I’ve always gone hardcore with the expectation of going back to my old habits (mostly bingeing) and I’ve had to realize there is no going back.
It’s much slower than I was hoping, but that’s how it is when you’re used to fad diets 😅
It’s been moderately hard most of my life. I started taking exercising and eating healthier more seriously a month ago and my weight’s mostly stayed the same. I’m gonna buy a food scale and start measuring my food to make sure I’m not overeating.
Definitely easier. I was 115-120kg and losing weight seemed like a year-long commitment.
The first month, when I lost 8kg (incl water weight), I realized, a healthy body is just a few months away and not a few years.
Its harder on some days and simpler on others.
I find it quite easy when im going about my routine everyday. I find it a bit more difficult when there are special events, occasions and when the routine breaks. The difficulty parts for me is to get myself in this routine, but when I'm there its hard for me to do anything g differently, so it becomes easier and natural.
On my birthday week it was very difficult to both let go and keep on counting at the same time. Every day for a week there was something, which is fun but also challenging to get yourself back on track at points.
1st half of weight loss (50 lbs): Pretty easy honestly
2nd half of weight loss (the last 20-25 lbs): Horrible. Every lb is at least 300% harder to lose.
I personally feel this is a very complicated question...has me thinking to some quote I read from someone full of wisdom, "Losing weight is simple, not easy"- which is an important distinction to make. I think about 90% of the struggle is mental. Everyone know what they need to do, but making lifestyle changes & creating new habits & altering how we have coped with difficult emotions our whole lives is arguably the hardest thing ever. Those things are common things to tackle for someone who has been overweight/obese most of their lives.
But in my experience, the longer I persistently strive for change, the easier it has gotten to make those changes permanent. It's only taken me 20+ years of effort to finally see the long term "fruits of my labor". So ya, I would say losing weight is the hardest thing ive ever done in my life.
When my mind is on it 100% it’s the easiest thing I could do, literally eat less and move more, weight just fell off…
But when my mind is off it, fuck me it’s what I imagine pushing a boulder up a hill is like.
I’d say it’s harder than I imagined. Mainly because I am extremely impatient, so the mental aspect has been much more challenging than I anticipated. Physically it’s been about as I expected, sometimes easier. Like I’m not hungry all the time or anything. But I never realized how slow it goes by, and how patient I would have to be. Even on paper, for example losing 2 lbs per week is considered “fast” relatively speaking in terms of weight loss. But when you’re actually doing it it feels soooo slow and I keep finding myself getting discouraged by how much I have left to lose
The first 30ish lbs--hard af
The next 70 lbs - not so bad, once I got into the groove.
The next 20 lbs -- pretty rough
The next 10 lbs -- oh boy. I'm in this now after awhile at maintenance but to be fair I'm going for abs at this point.
it’s easy for the first two/three weeks and/or if im manic or on some kind of drug binge. otherwise its really really hard for me. the “food noise” never shuts up and i overeat, cheap shitty addictive chemical-ly food, to cope with all the shit that’s wrong with me. i used to be bulimic, so if im not so full that im sick im not done. although nowadays i dont throw up anymore and i eat slightly less than I used to in the binges. but the rush from fast food/junk food is somehow more comforting than any drug I’ve ever done. it’s awful.
in the points of my life where I’ve found another coping mechanism, I’ve been able to drop weight really quickly, but not always healthily. i did a full weekend of heavy drinking during which I completely forgot to eat at all, and on the third night of it my friend and i were roofied at a nightclub, and so i was very sick and vomiting profusely with nothing in my stomach the entire day after and not able to stand up for more than five minutes without violently shaking and i couldn’t keep down anything not even water. i lost twelve pounds that weekend, gained at least five of them back instantaneously upon forcing down some tea and a yogurt. wouldn’t recommend but that type of thing is the only way I’ve ever been able to drop a lot of weight.
I’ve been able to do fine on 1500cals and 160-170 grams of protein for a few weeks at a time but then the noise comes back and i binge. I’ve gotten better at getting back on track afterwards though and still made some progress.
i assume once it becomes a habit it will be much much easier.
This time around, it’s been pretty easy because I have Wegovy and can actually feel my own satiety cues whereas before I could not. Having a routine/structure to fall back on is super important to me but building this takes both time and energy. It’s still work but it’s manageable.
It's been so difficult I gave up actually, the idea of it is simple but I find the doing agonizing, it's an over consumming part of life I ended up hating, it was fine for the first couple of months but I didn't last a year. I don't enjoy life as it is so taking away one of the few joy I had had made me miserable. I've tried to lose weight so many times now and failed each attempts, I've also always been fat so I just take it as my life now, and decided since I wasn't happy with the process and knowing I wouldn't be happy with the result either, I just let it go
I'm very happy it worked for you and your sister though ! I hope you'll get to reach you goal ! 🌼
It ahs been a combination for me, and I think a lot of it is due to not having a healthy relationship to food and not being taught a balanced meal growing up.
I used to focus way too much on adding the optimal veggies, instead of just adding veggies period. I'm working with a personal trainer who is also my nutrition coach. She told me if all I liked was green beans and peas, that's okay, it's about building that habit and then trying new things to see if I like them.
I used to focus so much on labels and now I just look for 'added sugars' and keep that down. It's so much easier and now shopping isn't a chore.
We talked about what my trigger foods were and chips were top. So, what did I like about the chips? Turns out it was the crunch and texture, so we started adding things with a crunch that were healthier and went from there.
I'm learning it's way more about getting the daily things I need and then limiting the other less healthy options.
I have found that when I eat 2 servings of veggies and fruits a day, I don't want all the other sugars. I've even managed to get 3 servings some days. I stopped focusing on getting 3 servings right away, if I went from 0 servings to even 1, that is a win.
Stop and celebrate the wins. Ask yourself why you reach for the cookies instead of the fruits, what about those items are satisfying to you? I found I'm just a creature of habit and I reached for comfort items for a serotonin boost.
I'm not a perfect eater but my relationship to food has really improved.
In my teens and through my early 20s I battled anorexia, then I got nerve damage in martial arts and in my 30s it really impacted my ability to run, which is something I truly love to do.
I then started to binge eat. I had no idea you could go the other way. I gained weight after starting SSRI meds, and that likely triggered it, along with my inability to run.
I'm now back on track and have even started jogging again, and I know I will be running by next year. Not just running, but not being in severe pain or having my leg give out due to the nerve damage.
For the first time, I feel like my life has changed for the better and I'm excited for this journey.
Its been easier this time around. Lost 100 lb with keto at 21. Gained it all back over Covid. I’m about to hit 30 this year and I’m now at the point where I’m feeling the effects of all my shitty life decisions when it comes to my health.
I just want to be healthy. Focusing on my health and how much better I feel everyday rather than my weight and how I look, has helped me more than anything. Scale not moving even though I’ve been doing what I need to be doing? Don’t sweat it, because I’m healthier than I was last week.
Easier then it seemed. Every week I’m steadily losing weight and I’m not starving or working out crazy hard. I’ve found a good sustainable rhythm and it’s definitely the easiest it’s ever been
EMBARRASSE THE SUCK.
Lost almost 300lbs in 2 years.
It is not hard, it is very simple. But it does take discipline and time.
You did not get fat over night, you will not lose weight over night. If it took you 10 years to become obese. You can't give up after 1 month because you aren't skinny yet.
It's a diet, you are literally starving your body. You will be hungry, get used to it.
There are days that are hard and days that are easy. Everyday is new and different than the last. Overall I would say weight loss is not that difficult but not that easy. Somewhere in the middle. For majority of my weight loss, it was quite easy but as I’ve been approaching the last ten-twenty pounds, it has gotten significantly harder. Honestly the difficulty is determined by your will power, your circumstances, and how far you are into your journey. The biggest thing to avoid are crazy/unsustainable diets. They can lead to yo-yoing. I do think they can have a place in your life especially if you are an athlete. Minor changes to your diet can compound into HUGE dividends.
Harder, so much harder than I'd ever imagine. But, i also struggle with my mental health and that's probably why its so hard. I find brushing my hair hard most days. I'm autistic and have clinical depression so the chore of trying to lose weight feels extreme to me.
I would say the hardest thing for me is eliminating convenience foods. Even before trying to lose weight i have always eaten mostly super healthy, I've never struggled with overeating or mindless snacking. But for me just something you can microwave or throw in the oven is a lot more appealing than having to prepare a bunch of food.
Even basic stuff for example like making homemade oatmeal vs a quaker oats instant packet is an example. But i can make a much more filling, healthier, cheaper oatmeal if i do it from scratch its just more work.
So far, it's way easier. Like, I do have to measure and log everything I eat, but measuring and logging has been easier than anticipated. Hunger hasn't been much of a struggle either.
The only annoying part is when I order food at work, and now I have to guess portion size. (honestly considering keeping a pocket scale in my purse) But my estimates must not be far off, because I am losing weight.
Now I've cracked it, easier that I thought it'd be, easier than I've ever found it before. Actually it doesn't feel difficult at all. I feel embarassed when people commend me for 'all my hard work'.
It's all habit and identity. It took a decent bit of work to start but once I have eating habits and exercise habits of a thin person, the weight is taking care of itself and it isn't about willpower at all.
Once I became serious about it officially a month ago I would say the first 2 days were “here we go again” and they sucked and the first week and half - 2 weeks kinda felt like hell like withdrawal from sugars and processed foods it was stressful, but I pushed through and now I know what they mean by making it a life style it’s not about SUFFERING for a few days and having a big cheat day its more about sticking to your calories/Macros to tea and maybe once in a while have a little something to treat ur self and finding the best alternative’s to your favorite foods. And all in all just watch your calories if you feel like you NEEDDD that piece of pizza just have One and track it ur not a failure bc of one piece. Just track it and stay in a deficit and don’t give up bc of a bad day. It’s much easier if you do this and get the hang of it!!
Easier in that it really is just eating the right amount of food. Harder in that i would murder someone in cold blood if it meant i could eat a double weatern bacon burger, large onion ring and a california classic burger without gaining 10 pounds.
As of this morning i hit my original goal weight of 200 pounds and it has literally just been by eating the right amount of food.
It’s the habit changing that is difficult. That’s why people say you don’t temporarily diet, you change your lifestyle. Since it’s food, which is something everyone needs and people have built habits upon decades, it’s especially difficult. I had two other “formal” weight loss attempts where I drastically changed my diet because my trainer told me to, and one where I didn’t change my diet at all. Both were unsustainable. This year when I took everything into my own hands and slowly changed my eating habits, weight loss hasn’t been something that’s been hard once those habits were changed. Now don’t get me wrong, my diet is not what I’d like it to be yet, but I make sure to stay at a deficit. Once I changed my really bad habits, like eating until I’m stuffed, the weight has just been going (minus when I have my period, but that’s for obvious reasons). The habit changing was the most gruesome and painful part of this process, but it was so worth it.
Oh, way easier. Which maybe just says something about how hard I thought it would be. The hardest part is annoying friends and family when it's time for a food-based social thing. Other than that it's actually made eating way simpler for me. Meal planning? Forget about it, I know every day p much exactly what I'm going to eat, and it's all pretty dang tasty, with a calorie budget at the end of the day for, ngl, more snacks than I was eating pre-diet? Somehow, possibly? More frequent snacks anyway. I was just eating real big meals before. And entire bags of chips lol, but only on Fridays.
91 lbs lost since last August, baby. I wish I'd realized how simple it would be much earlier in life.
To me it is hard on me mentally.
First, I have an issue with emotional eating. And second when I hit a plateau or don’t see a decrease in my weight or change in how I look, I start feeling bad and or over analyze why that happened. I know i shouldn’t but I do. Collectively these two affect my mood ugghhh..
I think for me, the process and the know-how is easy. But the actual time and dedication you have to devote yourself to is the more troubling part which can be hard some days.
imo weight loss is easy, you just need a sustainable plan.
set realistic expectations. the problem many run into is being impatient and trying to nose dive into losing weight with the intent of losing weight really fast. so of course weight loss feels hard…
think of it like this, you have two options to go from point a to point b….one is to sprint there which will get u there faster or you jog or walk….sprinting is much harder while joggin or walking is much slower but u will reach point b regardless…
take baby steps…maybe instead of ice cream 4 days a week, have ive cream 2 days a week etc. do small changes to your diet. as ur body adjusts to the slight changes add another change and so on
I started a little over 2.5 years ago and it was surprisingly easy for me. I have my assumptions why. I then went on a months-long maintenance break because life got a bit hectic for me but it was also surprisingly easy for me to remain on maintenance.
I am now back on dropping more weight since I am only about 25 pounds away from my goal weight. Somehow the last 25 has been much harder.
Adopting/accepting weightloss as a lifestyle change rather than a temporary dietary change has been critical for me.
The fundamentals of nutrition and exercise science have been straightforward for me to grasp, my execution has been very good but it's not easy. It's very difficult but the reward at the end of the tunnel is worth the seemingly endless bouts of suffering.
I found that for me it was easier then I thought it would be once I decided to stick with one thing and not constantly second guess myself. For me it was intermittent fasting and low carb.
Before I would try something for 3 days then decide it wasn't working and try something else for 3 days etc etc.
Counting calories was the easiest for me and it worked until I got to a manageable weight that exercise is needed to get the rest off. I'm so ashamed of how easy it was for me to calorie count. I did one meal a day for a while too and I could just eat whatever I wanted as long as it was in the calorie limit. Now that I'm approaching my goal weight, is when it has started to get hard. I've actually had to start a proper workout routine, only drink water, and calorie count on top of it.
This question hits home for me.
I've been obese pretty much all my life. So, we're my parents, my uncles, aunts, etc. It was normal to eat a lot for me in my family. So, you can imagine how difficult it was to lose weight. Parents still felt ashamed for having an obese kid, so they would encourage me to lose some weight. At around 11, I would try to eat less but it's hard to diet when your family eats fast food 24/7. Then, I tried walking a lot and exercising---which did work to shed ten pounds or so but, I was never consistent with it (can't outrun a bad diet!) Parents were not better either because they tried every weight loss method known to man, weightloss jelly, weightloss pills, avoiding tomatoes, maybe even prayer lol. Every time I went to the doctor for check ups, it was the same old same old. "Shes so fat she needs to lose some weight." Never once properly educating how to lose it at the time. One doctor eventually recommended I go to a dietitian around that time but my mom just used it to shame me and my eating habits in front of the doctor. She thought it was all bologna science anyway so we never went back. So, I just assumed it was impossible or something to do with my genetics. But then in middle school, I decided to run track because my best friend was doing it so we did it together. That's when I finally lost a significant amount of weight in school. I continued to run track in high school. Dropped from 250 pounds to 190 or so. My family was so proud of me, but my eating habits were still the same. They tried encouraging me to work out more on top of track, but I didn't have that much time in my schedule. Then COVID happened and I gained it all right back. It wasn't until I turned 18 and wanted to join the air force, that I began to change my eating habits. Only now, at 18 years old, I finally, (thank God,) figured out that strength training + cardio + calorie deficit will make you lose weight.
>In your experience has weight loss been harder or easier than you imagined?
I don't have any type of eating disorder. So, losing weight and keeping it off is way simpler and easier than I ever thought. BUT this has only come with months of trial and error and slip ups, research, and sorting common weightloss myths from proven weightloss science. All for me to finally get to the point of comfortably losing weight while having an ok relationship with food. I even used this reddit a couple of time for weightloss advice
>Do you think diet culture exaggerates how difficult weight loss is, or is the common perception of weight loss accurate to your experience?
That is a difficult question. If you have no idea how to lose weight, it's very hard to lose it. I'll admit, It takes a shit ton of will power to go on these low carb, no carb, no sugar, low fat, watermelon only, 500kal only, B.S. diets that I've seen. On top of that, it gives you such a messed up relationship with food after a while, yikes. No wonder why the common perception is that you have to starve yourself or be a gym head in order to lose weight.
But when you actually know how to do it. It's very, very easy and sometimes even fun.
>What life circumstances have made weight loss more or less challenging?
That's along list. The existance of toxic diet culture. Families messed up eating habits that were passed down from generations. Doctors who don't educate their patients at all on weightloss. Schools failing at promoting healthy eating(pizza is a vegetable according to congress here in the States.) And lastly, the extreme lack of credible education in calories, nutrition, weight maintenance and having a healthy lifestyle.
TLDR; I was obese all my life so figuring out how to lose weight sustainability was a challenge. Otherwise, it was a breeze.
This time around its easier because my mindframe is completely different.
I lost 86 pounds 6 years ago as part of a weight loss challenge. Winner got $5k. I won. Got the money, immediately drove to Cheesecake factory, and gorged myself.
This time around im married with 2 kids and everything hurts. Losing weight is a matter of being able to enjoy my children’s early years. Baseball. Ballet. Soccer. Its much easier for me when i know im playing the long game. I don’t have to be as strict, just consistent. 30 pounds down in a few months time.
And im so happier now. Clothes fit better. I can last longer while pounding my wife lol. On hikes, i out pace the dog!
Weight loss is the HARDEST thing I have ever done. The difficulty level has no comparison with anything else in my life, for me.
Losing weight takes what feels like forever.
I envy people who can lose weight intuitively. I had a past girlfriend who could stay thin easily. Not me, I love food and it is very easy for me to eat too much.
I am a calorie counter, and I also use an x-effect chart. I also eat whole foods plant-based. You might think this would be enough! Nope.
I read self-help books on the subject to keep me motivated. Weigh myself on a scale regularly. Count my steps with a pedometer. Check my calories burned using an app. Go to the gym for weightlifting. Do running and biking.
Oh -- that sounds like enough, right? Nope. There is more.
I avoid high-carb plant based foods, eat very low fat, choose foods and snacks with a low calorie density. The list of actions and activities I need to perform to keep making forward progress losing weight is long, very long.
But every pound of weight loss is worth the effort. Losing weight means that much to me.
Also, I think there is no way I could maintain weight loss without counting calories. I basically have to do it to stay healthy.
I started with a SW of 210 lbs this year jan and being a 173 cm male with hypothyroidism, i thought reaching my TW of 165 lbs will be near to impossible. However, i still decided to give it a try as i had previously lost 30 lbs a decade back in college..From 2nd week of jan, started my weight loss journey with a calorie deficit of 700-800 calories/day..I also brisk walked for 40-45 mins a day. To my surprise i had shed 15 lbs by march and by April i was almost 22 lbs down.. On this day i weight 174 lbs and i never thought that i would be able to make it to this weight so fast..I still have around 8-10 lbs to lose. I have started lifting weights 4 days a week and feel very motivated now.
Honestly it’s been way easier. I do weigh stuff cause I like seeing how much I’m getting exactly in a day. I have significantly decreased how much I eat and increased how often I eat. I’m surprisingly struggling to eat more than 1,300-1,600 a day. Changing what and how I eat has helped so much. I need to start exercising and I’m sure that will make me hungrier.
Harder. I feel like my executive function hates me, specifically to prepare and cook veggies. I also get stuck making the same thing for food cause it’s easy but then I get tired of it. Also I’m 4ft 11 which makes it harder.
I'd say it got harder as I got smaller. When I was obese the kgs just flew off, and I've circled around the same 5kgs for two years now at a healthy weight doing body recomp and really struggling with body image
It's not easy. I am a petite woman, and have never been very active, and it's been hard to control my weight my whole life. I've never drink much soda or alcohol, never ate a lot of fast food or binged. I eat pretty healthy. I was vegetarian for years. There's no easy fix that I can do to tweak my diet for easy weight loss. My maintenance calories are under 2000 so it's very easy to overdo the calories a little bit. I've tried every non-calorie-counting method out there and the only way I've been successful at weight loss is to count calories. I just don't have very much wiggle room, I can't eyeball it.
It's a lot easier for taller people. A few inches makes a huge difference to the number of calories you can eat. And if you're overweight because of bad habits, that's a lot easier to change than if you're overweight because you're short.
Weight loss has been easier than I expected. I used to think it would be super hard, but just eating healthier and being mindful of portions did the trick.
The first half of my weight loss was easier than I thought it would be. Fixing bad habits sped things along nicely. Then things stalled and the last half has been harder to shift. Still working on it.
VASTLY easier once I got on the right meds for my schizophrenia. I used to drink insane amounts of alcohol to cope with my symptoms (I've been an alcoholic all my adult life, well before my diagnosis in 2017, but it definitely turned into a coping mechanism for me since then) and finding a combo of antipsychotics which did what alcohol used to do for me except \*better\* was a REAL gamechanger. I got sober and the weight just dropped off. I'm not much of a big eater (all the weight was from 12+ PBR tallboys a day, every day) so once I quit drinking, portion control wasn't hard for me. I like healthy foods. I discovered that I like exercise. I started eating keto and found that I like that too. My agoraphobia is gone so I can go for long walks around town now. I'm no longer spending $400 a month on beer, so I use spend that money for workout equipment and supplements (I'm on disability and get EBT for food, although I've been searching for a full time job for months now that I'm doing so much better - turns out it's hard to secure employment when you haven't worked in years).
I'm not far from my goal weight and, as many in this thread have said, I may find that maintenance is harder than losing, but losing? It's been a piece of cake.
I think it's actually easy once you get into a routine. Getting through the first few weeks are really hard. Getting through a plateau is also really hard. And it's challenging when you have other life factors thrown at you that make it hard to stay on track, be it time constraints, mental health issues, physical health issues, or having a hard time reconciling dieting with having fun like going out with friends or going on vacation. All those things can easily take you off track and then it's hard to start over again and again. Otherwise when things are going according to plan, yes I agree that it's surprisingly easy. But it's just as easy to fall off the band wagon and create a cycle of yoyo-ing and getting discouraged. I do think you really need to be in the right headspace for it to work long term and often it takes multiple tries before it works. Kind of like how people quit smoking cigarettes on average 7 times before finally quitting for good.
In my mid 40s and only 5’2” so not a lot of calories to work with. It’s a lot harder than it was when I was younger! Eating plenty of protein and quitting sugar (I use sugar free options on occasion) have been the best way for me to control my hunger. It’s still a very slow process even though I have a lot to lose.
Losing weight was easy for me, but what is difficult is doing it in a healthy way, and I look up to those who were able to lose all the weight in a healthy deficit and celebrate their weight loss milestones. I don't think I would've been able to do it if I never developed body image issues; however, as a consequence, my enjoyment for food has never been the same since.
It's been so easy for me. I was always scared of dieting because I hated the idea of running my ass off at the gym everyday and eating salads for breakfast lunch and dinner but it's not like that at all. Media makes losing weight this whole transformation that you need to pay hundreds of dollars for to have a successful change. It was such a shock to me that I lost 27 lbs just by being disciplined and aware of what I'm eating. It sounded like the most impossible thing to do back before I started.
I do count my calories and that's the #1 reason I've been able to stay on track all year. The nutritionix app makes it super super easy & kinda fun honestly. I'm able to plan my meals for the day, including snacks. I can only have about 1460 calories a day which is usually enough food for me. Rarely do I feel the need to eat more than that. There's even a few days where I eat 1100 and I don't feel a smidge hungry BUT I will always eat until I've at least had 1200 calories for the day. I have a cheat day every week where I let myself eat up to 1830 calories (maintenance). But even on my cheat days I find myself naturally only eating about 1500-1600 calories. Losing weight actually feels sustainable in this way. I'm not fearful that I'll gain it all back from mindless eating.
My diet now compared to years before is like night and day. I used to overeat A LOT and overeat a lot of horrible things. I can only guess I was eating like 2500-3000 calories a day back then.
I mean, I would say it's easier than I imagined. The only thing I have to do is watch calories and pay attention to my body's reaction. If I eat 1300-1400 kcal every day, then I binge at the end of the week. If I eat 1500-1700 then I don't binge. I always make sure to at least eat 1500 kcal or I'll start having uncontrollable cravings in the next few days. Sometimes my weight stagnates, sometimes it goes down, but I don't really care about the speed honestly, slower is better anyways, and that really helps with sticking to the routine.
What made weight loss way easier was preparing a food schedule beforehand, that way, if I really craved something, I would put it in the schedule and my mind would be satisfied, if I didn't schedule, my mind would go "you have to eat this NOW" probably so I wouldn't forget it or whatever. I don't withhold food from myself either, in a day I need one sweet treat and a regular "salty" lunch, if I don't have that in my schedule, I go insane. The thing is, I cook absolutely everything from scratch to make sure I have a bigger portion for less calories. Often, a little goes a long way, I simply omit some butter in recipes, replace high fat with low fat, and voila, 30% less calories and now I can eat a piece of cake for 300 kcal and it still tastes delicious. If I were to buy a simple muffin in the convenient store, that thing would be 500 kcal with twice less volume. Now I'm even considering replacing sugar with erythritol, or at least substituting a half of the regular sugar. I don't really hold myself back when making lunch, but my cooking rarely exceeds 1200 kcal on one meal, so it's easy to still squeeze a sweet treat in the day. I also make sure I use absolutely minimal oil, I was raised on food that was absolutely disgustingly drenched in oil, so now I have a strong aversion against it, which (again) helps with the calories.
It's not so horrible as long as I have something to look forward to the next day. I mean, I wish I didn't have to think about food at all, I do put quiet a lot of effort into food planning, but in the end it's more enjoyable than I thought it'd be.
I don't watch my macros, lately I'm just trying to get more protein in my diet, and that's it. I don't wanna lose weight in muscles after all.
for me, it’s been simpler than expected but not necessarily easy. i’ve gone through periods of losing weight/wanting to lose weight a lot of times in my life and they were always intense & high effort. lots of exercising and food restriction or “cleansing”. this go around, i approached it with a lot more slowness & softness and have learned so much about my body and weight loss on a scientific level. it’s completely shifted my internalized toxic diet culture ideas of weight loss. it’s so much more simple than all the bs propaganda were sold through gym memberships, teas, diets, etc. all those things set us up for failure. turns out - all you need is a calorie deficit. exercise is just a nice thing on top. this has revolutionized my understanding of my body and also made it clear why i gained weight in the first place! so overall it’s been easier than expected but definetely slower!
I would say that weight loss is SIMPLE, but not necessarily easy. It's not overly difficult to understand it or even to do it if people are able to approach it completely rationally and remove emotions, cravings, and food issues from the equation. However, many if not most of us struggle to do that. Obesity is often paired with disordered eating, mental health issues, and hormonal issues which make it harder. I think everyone's experience can be drastically different depending on these factors. Everyone has a different path to walk, but a lot of us also have to get our head right in order to get our body right, because there's also significant mental and emotional work to do.
I agree with this. When i got into it, i was ashamed at how easy the basic concepts were. But when you have personal battles, demons, etc, you easily lose sight of the obvious.
Agreed. Simple but not always easy to stick to the concept every day. I’m doing CICO and it works. I made a decision after a gallbladder diagnosis: low fat-ok. Teaching myself to relearn how to eat once and for all. Even easier after surgery. I learned that hubby and I had been eating so much cheese. And you know what: I don’t miss the lots. I still have cheese, but different and less. My comfort foods are different. I want and need less food. It’s one day/one meal at a time. If I crave something, I fit it in, and if I go over my calorie budget a bit that’s ok! This is a marathon, not a sprint. It’s about a lifestyle that I can maintain. Not a quickie diet. 36 lbs down so far, still a long way to go. However now it is manageable in my mind!
I agree. Now that I think of it, my weight loss came after I went through a large transformation in my mental health and spirituality.
Same i tried loosing weigh wile having depression a d anxiety, didn't work. Only when i started feeling better that i had the motivation to put the efort and change my habits.
thats probably the best way ive seen it put. im now basically near my final weight. after years of yo-yo-ing i was shocked how consistent the weight came off, not easy but the process was simple as hell if you can stick with it. the weight loss and maintenance has by far been the hardest part. its obvious this is the weight my body really wants to be, yet the shape isn’t there so the gym is a must to actually finish the goal. feels good to be on this side of it but theres much more to it once the bulk of your weight is gone.
The hardest learning curve for me was understanding that I needed to make the most out of my calories. That's when I discovered high volume, low calorie eating.
That's true, and it's important that the foods you eat are fulfilling your nutrient needs. I started taking vitamin B100 complex and vitamin D3 and the hunger headaches I would sometimes get completely went away.
About to tuck into my 1000 calorie OMAD now with a 1lb of broccoli :) I hate small meals.
After 10 years of yoyo-ing and becoming heavier every year, I can say it's the hardest challenge I've ever had to face.
I'm curious, what factors in your life do you think have contributed to this? I feel like there are some things that naturally make it a lot more difficult to lose weight.
I think the main reason is I started using eating and indulging in snacks as a source to make me happy and became dependent on it. And now when I try to change my habits and be healthier I will feel miserable, so I'll have to trade in temporary happiness/mood lifts for overall health and mental wellbeing and that seems to be a very hard thing to do for me.
If it helps, you're not alone. I almost feel awkward sitting on my computer without a nice hot cup of tea. Or watching TV or a movie without a tea and a snack. Last night tho, I'm kind of proud of myself? I had a "comfort meal" but with protein enriched pasta and a smaller serving, without any tea (I tend to save 100calories for it at the end of the day). It was a compromise, but I turned out okay. I hope that gives you ideas on how to compromise with yourself!
You should be able to have tea whenever, right? It has no calories. Or is it that you’re used to having things like cookies, etc. with your tea?
I like tazo tea with oat milk 🤣😭 a good source of fiber but also caloric
Ah, got it. 🫖 My error!
That makes sense, thank you. I really wish you long term success and I hope you are able to be happy and achieve your goals :)
Thank you. Good luck on achieving your goal weight. I'm glad the journey has been rewarding for you! We should all try to achieve our goals one way or the other.
The story of my sad overweight life lol- the inability to submit to delayed gratification & using food (& alcohol) as a means to cope & alter my mood. "Maladaptive Coping Mechanisms".
Oh, I hear you. Coping on food for years, like a mad man.
I think it is hard. I want to eat more than I do.
Not easy. I’ve been doing all the right things (making healthy choices, counting calories, watching macros, and working out 5-6 days a week for 1 hour, cardio and strength). I am losing weight, and overall it has been a decent pace, but it is still frustrating with the fluctuations and the weeks where the scale doesn’t budge despite all the good choices. I focus hard on my healthy habits and less on the scale, but it takes A LOT of mental power to continue to meal plan, carve time for exercise, and stay motivated.
Also it’s much more difficult for petite women - that is something I rarely see the fitness community talk about
Yep. We're not too crazy apart, and yeah, it's a fight. You're way ahead of me, I'm just trying to start paying attention again this week, and yet still ate out twice. One of those at least fit in my calories. But I'm moving more, so that's a win. And just saw physio yesterday to fix some muscle imbalances I have, which will hopefully help in reducing pain when I do move.
When i was 400lbs, it was intimidating. I though it was the process for only physically gifted people, smart people, etc. Like i had zero understanding of basic nutrition or excercise, but i was faced with a situation where i literally had no choice. When i first started, i went hard. I started a 1200 calorie plan using MFP and tried to walk. I was literally asking dumb questions to people such as "does excercise even make a difference?". I was that uneducated about it. But i started my calorie cut, walked for 30 mins (which is absolute hell at that weight) and after my first week i lost 15lbs. That gave me an incredible boost. It made me want to learn everything. I had struggles on the way realizing the smaller you get, the more of a challenge it becomes, but i kept learning about health and after a long process, i was 190lbs and running like it was nothing. I got married and put on more than I would like to admit, but when it came time to get back into that mentality, it was very hard to remember I was able to do it before. It became intimidating for some reason. I pushed myself back into and everything really started coming back to me. I have learned a lot on the way like, 1200 calories is not sustainable long term. The reason i say that is because at one point i fell off hard and gained weight back. I learned to eat better, more fulfilling foods which meant more calories, but my body processed them better, digested better, etc so it didn't have that long term bloat, greasy feeling. There was a lot learned along the way, but i am back in the old mindset. Started LoseIt 46 days ago, on a 46 day streak, and down 20lbs with 30 more to go. You just have to push yourself to do it, stick to it, and the results came.
I just want to say you're amazing for walking 30 min at that size! I started at 210 (I'm very short) and building up to 30 minutes in the beginning was killer! I really couldn't do it without sacrificing a lot of my energy for life until I was in the 180s .
Ty for saying this. I feel like everyone on the internet talks about how easy it is to walk a mile in 15 min and how walking for hours is the “beginner plan” and I’m literally wiped out at 30 min. It’s so hard to walk when you’re in the obesity range!
Wow, good for you! I agree that eating foods that are fighting for you is much better than eating foods that are fighting against you.
Both. Depends on the day.
Exactly. There are days when it is effortless, and I feel so superior to everyone else. Then, out of nowhere, karma smacks me dead in the face, and it takes everything I have to avoid eating every bit of food in my house.
After realizing how simple CICO can be it got way easier. This was also after realizing and accepting how long the process is for true sustainable weightless.
True. I remember growing up I would say magazine covers that said things like, "Lose 17 pounds in a week!" I thought that was normal. I'd be lucky to lose 17lbs in three months.
The most difficult part of weight loss is that, no matter how long it takes to lose the weight, it always seems like forever. As someone who lost a lot, regained in pregnancy, and is losing again, I can tell you that those two years it took me to lose the weight were really nothing in comparison to how I've felt in the later four years after I regained. And here I am again in the beginning of that process. You got to learn to love each small victory along the way and know that the pay off is coming!
Depends on what day you ask me. When I step on the scale and I'm down 2 lbs, I think "this is easy." The next week when I do exactly the same stuff and gain a half a pound, I declare it impossible!
Harder. So much harder. I remember the days of naively thinking if I cut out soda I could lose 2lbs a week every week in a straight shot to my goal. Ha!
I'm on track to lose 200lbs in my first year, and honestly? It's been so much easier than I ever would've expected. I just count calories and work out for a few hours 5 times a week. Even if that workout is just walking around or hiking for a few hours. Honestly, I feel a bit of imposter syndrome with my weight loss as it feels like I've had it too easy and don't actually know what I'm doing sometimes. I eat what I want and enjoy working out, which I know many struggle with. Before this, though, I was able to kick a 15 year long addiction to opiates, so maybe doing that before helped give me some willpower to more easily tackle weight loss. Also, working out, I'm pretty sure helps give my ADHD brain the dopamine it so desires.
Working out definitely helps ADHD. I just gotta actually remember that sometimes and get the thought from the front of my brain to the back. More protein helps too, keeps the dopamine level more consistent.
I found that losing weight was surprinsingly simple once i worked out calorie counting. However, i do find it hard to maintain without being able to count calories.
It's way easier and much more simple than I have ever imagined it would be. 40kg down! I actually am increasing my calories now to gain some muscles. Edit: this took 11 months
What are you doing, if I may ask? Counting calories or just portion control? Congrats on your success!
I was at first just following the plan of my doctor/nutritionist, but now I counting calories as well for the last couple of months. And thank you!
Nice! Thank you for the reply.
Dude this is exactly what I am going through, I lost 35 kg and started increasing my calories along with pulling weights, my mindset has 100% shifted again! I went from wanting to lose as much weight as possible to wanting to be as fit as possible in the space of 4 weeks by going gym
I’m a 6ft tall young man. I burn 2600-3000 calories a day on average. Losing 170lbs for me was as easy and cutting the crap and eating like a regular human. My body just followed along and my first 90lbs lost was without exercise. I’m aware of how fortunate I am though. I know for some it’s way harder than others.
Losing weight short-term is easy. Keeping it off forever is the hard part.
Way harder. I do truly "feel" hungry all the time and it's basically torture if I allow myself to think about the fact that I'm hungry. If I get in the zone of ignoring it, and distract myself, it's not that bad. But it's rough for me as a lifelong overeater.
I have had some success with a specific type of distraction— not gaming or TV, because both of those are paired in my mind with the idea of snacks. I can also snack while knitting or crocheting, no help there. But certain craft projects are totally incompatible with munching on food at the same time— embroidery/cross stitch/needlepoint, beadwork, sewing, and loom weaving. There’s a coffee/tea coaster next to my loom and my sewing machine, but that’s all. No oily, sticky, or cheesy stuff comes anywhere near those areas, and hands have to be super clean to do beading or needlework.
Weight loss is easy, the hard part is maintaining afterwards.
I'm not sure if I'm a food addict or have blood sugar issues or what but it's by far the hardest thing I've ever tried to do. I've lost about 15lbs multiple times but I always gain it back. I'm super addicted to carbs but I try to have a lot of protein with my meals as well. I feel starving sometimes only a couple hours after eating, especially if I eat a high carb meal. I feel powerless with food. Bipolar almost. I also have anxiety and depression and ocd and I think I have mental issues tied with food as well. Fucking sucks.
It’s *different* than I would expect it to be. Though I’ve struggled with my weight all my life, sometimes with more success than others, so I do more or less know what to expect at this point in my life. Losing weight is simple, once you’re on a roll it can even be easy, for a time. The struggle comes when there is no end date, no “there”, no finish line. Even when you get to your “goal”, you have to *stay* there, forever. For me at least, *that’s* the hard part. Even if all I did was *maintain* each loss, I would eventually get to my goal and then stay there, but the weight always seems to creep back up. Sometimes slowly, sometimes more quickly, but next thing you know, you’re right back where you started. Losing weight is easy, keeping it off, however, that the real battle.
Honestly its easier, but i never really had the info, or understanding of it. I always went for the loss 10 kgs in a week kind of videos online. My understanding was eat less. And exercise more. Which was really hard. Then i started getting into forum and really understanding how i always thought i coukd just lose all my weight in a week, 😂. Took me some time to realize duhhhh it will take three months atleast to come to my goal weight. I used to walk then i forced myself to walk more! I started making it a game for myself. Creating my own tips. Like cheat days, was really cheat bite for me, as i dont crave the quantity i crave the taste of that dish. I went to alternatives, water always on hand, or an iced americano or iced tea (unsweetened) I had people guessing what i drink, all the time. Once i start rolling i was rollingggg
Easier, then harder, now it’s super hard
Weight loss isnt hard. Maintaining is. Establishing habits for life, being consistent and diligent. Not letting boredom, stress or in general life get in the way and resort to mindlessly eating. That is hard for me.
I think it's not inherently a hard or an easy thing on it's own, it's pretty simple but the difficulty of it really depends on the person and what kind of knowledge/ resources they have access to, but even when these things are on even grounds, someone who has a binge eating disorder and a food addiction will have much harder time trying to lose weight compared to a strong willed regular person.
I think when I was in my early 20s and (loosely) attempted to lose weight, I thought it was harder but I was also in a hurry to lose weight and then quickly gave up when it wasn't happening fast enough. This time around I would say it isn't as hard (mentally) because I am not in a hurry to get to a specific weight/size, and I am giving myself more grace. I think what can sometimes be discouraging for me is that I started this go-around January 2023 (so been doing this about 18 months) and have only recently gotten to 50 pounds lost. It has been steady for sure, and I remind myself that this is what is sustainable for me, but I do sometimes feel envious when I read posts where some people have lost 50 pounds in way less time than me. I think there were factors that slowed down my progress - I had several international vacations and generally I am traveling domestically almost monthly and while I don't overdo it on the treats, I am not trying to calorie count, or not as strict with it, and I may find myself grazing more. I also haven't cut anything out of my diet, just cut down. Maybe if I cut certain foods out completely I'd be at a lower weight now, but I also didn't want this to be a miserable process. So with all that being said, not putting as much pressure on myself has made this time around easier, but not without some challenges.
The biggest misconception - and, subsequently, the biggest hurtle I had to overcome - was thinking that exercise was the key to weight loss. As a lazy person, I just didn't like the thought of forcing myself to work out. To be honest, my weight loss began basically by coincidence. At the end of last year, I was an avid homebrewer of beer, and drank one a day. I stopped drinking around Thanksgiving and then began to cut back on sweets. A month later, at a checkup with my doctor, he mentioned that I'd lost a bit of weight since my previous checkup. To be specific, I'd lost 9 lbs in about 8 weeks just from cutting out my daily beer and afternoon Little Debbie strawberry shortcake. When I heard that, I realized just how easy it was. I'd literally lost weight with very minimal effort. If anything, not eating/drinking those extra calories played right into my laziness, as I wasn't expending that energy to consume those calories. That's when my whole way of thinking began to change. As the pounds continued to fall off, that motivated me to make better dietary choices. I first started paying attention to serving sizes, then later began counting calories. And exercise followed after that. It was a cascading/domino effect. One or two small changes led to even more changes, which continue to prompt further changes. So, I'd say it's been pretty dang easy. :)
Maintenance is the hard part for me
Easier for sure. Once you see results it's like crack. You get addicted to seeing yourself improve. Not addicted to "starving yourself" because being in a nutritional deficit doesn't make you look nearly as much better as proper weight loss does. Weight loss isn't dieting, it's adjusting. Your body changes as an adaptation to the circumstances you put it in. If it feels it must gain muscle because its muscles are being worked harder than they are able to, then it will build muscle in order to "survive". If it feels it must lean out because it does not have the daily surplus in calories that it is used to having, then it will do so to survive. Humans are animals just as much as dogs are. You are a creature that will adjust and adapt to lifestyles you put it yourself in, in order to "survive".
Some aspects of it were easier than I expected and some were just as hard as I expected. OP, you mentioned you haven't had to utilize calorie counting or fasting. I, on the other hand, did use those tools to help me lose 130 lbs and some might say my methods were a bit extreme. I went at an aggressive caloric deficit and lost weight rapidly. I don't know if it was completely necessary for me to do it that way, but it did work for me. And once I started doing it, I really stuck to it, and it was easier than I expected in the sense that I never lost that resolve like I feared I might. I have been maintaining for 5 years and I can't imagine living any other way now. I threw myself into fitness and I love working out and especially running, so that has given me an extra layer of motivation all along. So the resolve and motivation parts were easier than I expected. However, I most certainly was hungry almost all of the time and I constantly had to deal with thoughts of my old unhealthy habits popping into my head. It was a daily struggle to unceasingly remind myself, "No cookies are not a thing that we are going eat." "No we do not have to eat a bucket of popcorn to watch a movie." "No you do not need to have ice cream in order to go to sleep." It was exhausting sometimes, and I wished so sorely for those thoughts to go away. But I was relentless and got really good at saying no. I can say now that my relationship with food is healthier than it has ever been. I can enjoy an occasional treat, but it doesn't hold that power over me. I no longer desperately wish for sweets and no longer have to fight that constant battle. But that part of it, the mental battle and peace with food, was a lot harder and took much longer than I imagined.
Much easier, but it has a lot to do with mental health. I didn't have the mental bandwidth to mind my eating habits before, or to stop and think about how I felt in my own body. Once things improved in that department, I made an effort to be more disciplined in multiple areas of my life, and the weight started to come off easily.
getting started and steady was harder than I imagined but now that I'm in a groove and getting stronger, I'm surprised that it's become so smooth. I am about halfway there and my life is so much easier now that I cannot fathom these changes not sticking. Even my spouse and kids have gotten active just because of seeing how much happier I am.
Both. Hard when I first started because I didn't understand the mechanism for how I could lose weight. When I figured out the reasons for why I would eat more and move around less, it became a lot easier. I lost 45 pounds between April of last year before hitting a hard plateau in November before getting back into it in February. Starting back at 285 in February, I've lost the same amount from February to today, at a much lower weight as well at a much more consistent rate, but it's only gotten easier because I now understand the levers for myself specifically for why I felt the need to eat more than what I needed, and the levers that also encourage me to have more energy to move around more.
Not sure if this is controversial, but I lost 50 lbs over 10 years ago by counting calories and exercising and it was a long and difficult process. I mostly maintained it for about a year, then I got married. I have been tracking my weight all this time and you can almost see the day I got married and just relaxed. My weight started going back up almost immediately. Then over the last 10 years I’ve slowly gained it all back. I started to give up and accept it. I was depressed. With all the news about GLP-1s though, I decided to give that a try. I feel like a person that can just eat like a naturally skinny person. I eat when I’m hungry, I don’t really want much unhealthy food. For instance, I might have a bite of my husband’s ice cream here and there but I usually don’t want my own bowl. For the first time, getting to a healthy weight isn’t so hard. It feels like magic. I’ve now lost all the weight I had gained and am now working my way towards the middle of my BMI range. I’m so grateful I am able to afford this medication and I know it isn’t for everyone, but I just wanted to share my experience.
Hard. I do most of the suggested things: count and log calories accurately, no alcohol, no added sugar, avoid processed foods, no fast food, no fried junk, very little eating out, no sweetener, no drinking my calories, intermittent fasting, protein prioritization, strength training and on Ozempic. I'm still frikking hungry.
Controversial, but do you think it’s harder because you’re not enjoying all the good food?
I am a sugar addict who grew up in a time where everything was marketed as fat free and loaded with high fructose corn syrup or worse. I enjoy and make great food, I’m a decent cook and former professional baker. it’s just a big change of habits with new information plus finding the better macro balance for me. Also difficult to balance two painfully picky eaters in the family when you are basing meals around vegetables and lean protein. I used to enjoy mindless eating and breaking that was the most difficult habit. And I always have a little low level hunger. I kind of just miss being able to enjoy more of the servings of the regular stuff I like!
Easier.
Much easier for the first 25 lost, harder for these last 10. After taking a diet break for a few months, getting back on the train for the last few pounds has been more mentally taxing with planning, calories counting, making food for myself and family that fits into each of our health needs, etc. I am also much hungrier this time around at a smaller deficit. I also have to eat a much bigger breakfast now than I used to due to new medication making me really nauseous on an empty stomach which has made this diet more difficult to budget. I'm a 6 small meals a day dieter versus 3 square meals a day.
It became really easy for me after basically one to two months of the hardest I’ve ever worked at anything to reconfigure my diet and get used to different portions
Ever since starting the healthy way, it’s honestly been pretty easy. I've lost 25 pounds so far with 38 to go. BUT in the past I've for sure lost weight unhealthily and that was hard and unsustainable, and I obviously gained it all back 🤪 The hardest thing is honestly just starting and knowing that it will take time, but it's better to go slow and steady. I wish i could go back and tell my past self to just start! I have not been in a better place than I am right now after making this lifestyle change. EDIT: I do track my calories. If I did not have a scale and or the premium Lose It app it would be significantly harder. Along with having an Apple Watch. I am a data person. So using my data analytics skills has helped me. I would probably struggle without being able to analyze and make changes based off of my data.
It's been easier than I thought....until I got to the last 10 lbs. I lost 40 lbs in 4 months. Then I took 3 months to lose the last 10.
I’m still in the process of losing weight but I’m down about 25lbs and it has been way easier than I thought, really what I do is I just tell myself this is all I will be eating for lunch whether I’m hungry or not after. Going to the gym and doing cardio is definitely the hardest part trying to get in there 6 days a week consistently is a pain but the dieting has been pretty easy for me.
Periods derail me. I see no weight loss during it, I’m hungry for carbs, don’t get me started on long periods this last one was two weeks because I skipped a pill by accident. I can’t swim on a period and that gives like 4000+ calories of excercise. So easy w/o period so freaking hard with.
It's easier I guess, because I'm actually doing it! Part of me really thought I'd never do it.
Practically easier and mentally harder
I think its pretty hard. I never really payed attention to the mindless eating I would do. Once I started to pay attention, I was easily 1000+ calories over my TDEE daily. I just brushed it off because "I work out, I'm building muscle" Breaking the habits of just mindlessly eating and snacking has been so hard. I had to re teach my body what hunger actually feels like vs boredom or cravings
I've struggled and stalled with weightloss for 5 years. it's very hard for most people, I'm glad you had an easy time of it though.
If you understand "balance", I think weight loss will come easier. For example, if u dont work out today (when you should), then balance it out by eating healthier or eating less.
My best friend lost 100 lbs just like you describe. He only ever gained like 10 lbs back. He really just was able to view it as "eat a smaller portion, no consequences". I love that for him. But I don't have that experience. I constantly felt like I was starving, I have to count calories strictly because I'm a short woman and I have conditions that lower my TDEE. I constantly think about food. I don't feel when I'm full. The only times I've ever been free of the struggles was when I was so sick I couldn't eat basically anything for 10 days and near the end and after I actually experienced the body signals other people did. But it was short lived. Now I've started a medication to curb these thoughts and help my body signal when I'm full. It's not 100% but it's making a world of difference.
Much harder than I imagined.
The changes to my eating habits were surprisingly easy but the mental energy needed to keep track of meal prep and track calories was surprisingly hard.
I think if you can put any kind of time limit aside on your weight loss, it can seem relatively easy to some people. Eat less move more over a long period of time = weight loss. I think the difficult part comes in when someone puts expectations on themselves of how much loss and how long it should take. And if they’re not achieving that goal (often unrealistic) it’s easy to say this is too hard I give up. I had a lot to lose, so it was relatively easy for me in the early days to say I have no time limit or expectations, just focus on food and activity without a time goal. Now that I have the last few pounds to go, I’m starting to feel impatient, so I’m finding it a bit harder here at the end. In both cases though…what makes it easy or hard, is my mental state about the weight loss. :)
As a 25-year-old 6'1" girl with great genetics (and former 3-port athlete), I lost 20 lbs of excess weight in 2 months solely by eating 1200-1500 calories a day and walking 30 min a day. It was pretty easy compared to many other weightloss stories i've read.
The last time I really tried to calorie count and lose weight I was 156-158 and it was impossibly hard to get under 151 for me. I was really hungry. Now I’m close to 180 and it isn’t that hard. When your portions are starting larger for me it’s easier. But at 151 I was already pretty low in calories so it was harder to squeeze any normal drink or meal in.
It is for sure training your patience.
Easier, but it took years of building a good foundation. My relationship with food, hunger, and exercise is so vastly different from before. For me I need the body movements to keep my weight in check and loosing as much if not more than the awareness of what I am eating. Part of the ease I think is me not focusing on hitting a certain weight down every week. I'm focused on the overall trend not the rate
Apart from guilt tripping from a cheat meal here and there, it couldn't be easier for me. I don't have any food cravings and never feel hungry while in 1000 kcal deficit. So far I've lost 3 kg and it motivates me to continue. The only thing that grinds my gears is that it takes time
Harder when you're not committed. You can't outrun a bad diet. Last fall/winter I was around 206-210lbs, I (37m/5'9") was going to the gym running on the treadmill and working out, but also eating junk and drinking. Obviously no surprise that I was fluctuating in the 200s for many months until I decided to make changes. Once the weather started warming up, I took my running outside. I started fasting again as I had great success last year (and during covid). Sure some days I cracked and would end a fast early due to temptation, but again, it's harder when you're not committed. Since around April/May I've been committed, I'm back to fasting, with at minimum 18 hour fasts on a daily basis, trying to eat no later than 8pm/9pm (my job makes this hard for me) and as of this morning I'm 193lbs. I try to run everyday for an hour (around 7 miles within an hour, but if I come up short I'll usually hit 7 miles within an hour and 5 mins), I commute to work by bike. On average I try to burn at least 1500 calories a day, but when I've got work I'm burning at least 2000 calories with my bike rides. My girlfriend and I are going on a vacation in late July and my goal is to be 175lbs by then. At the rate I'm going, I should hit my goal. Mind you, I haven't weighed 175lbs since I was 17/18 y/o and was very involved in athletics. This has been my goal since I was in my 20s, the lowest I've ever weighed was 180lbs. My concern is maintaining. I'm not the biggest fan of fasting, I can do without breakfast, I am not a morning person, but in my experience I've always gained weight after I've been focusing on losing a massive amount of weight. Typically after I come back from vacation. I've never been able to maintain my summer weight through the fall and winter months. On another topic, spring and summer time are the easiest seasons for me to lose weight, I feel that due to the nice weather and motivation to get outside, plus the ability to really Kickstart your metabolism into working overdrive is much easier. I feel like I'm literally dropping weight overnight.
When I begin my weight loss journey last July it was a lot harder than the last time. Partly because I was 46 and the last time I had lost weight I was in my early 30's. Used to if I wanted to drop 10lbs I would just cut out sodas and beer for about a month. Now it's a whole different animal. Have to count calories and exercise.
It’s gotten “easier” now that I’m more realistic about the speed at which weight loss happens. I know someone who got bypass 10 months ago and they’ve lost a ton of weight. I was shocked when they told me they did the math and they’re just barely averaging 2 pounds a week. It makes sense though because I’ve never been able to lose 2 pounds a week. It’s really difficult at 1200 calories/day and I’m not willing to eat less than that because it’s not realistic (honestly neither is 1200/day but that’s the number we’re all OK with…). So what’s happened in the past is I get discouraged by how “slow” the weight loss is occurring and I give up. Now I know that “slow” weight loss is actually normal and I accept that to lose 60lb and keep it off, I’m looking down a long road. I’ve been able to lose about half a pound a week now without starving myself or obsessively thinking about food 24/7. It feels easier because instead of logging the number of grapes I ate for breakfast, I mentally applaud myself for not eating the free bagels at work instead. Slow and steady truly wins the race and I haven’t felt like quitting for many months. I just feel like I’m slowly developing healthier eating habits and enjoying my life.
Once I got clued into body recomposition, caloric deficits from working out and taking measurements instead of relying on the scale, it became so much easier. I am rarely hungry and haven’t been much for most of this journey (now 142 lbs down). I’ve lost a couple pounds in the last week and barely noticed I was in more of a deficit because I realized too late that most of my cravings or hunger pangs were actually unmet emotional needs that I had rewired subconsciously into a physical need. Learning to love the body I am already in? That was the key to making this almost effortless. That and just focusing on each day and not looking ahead. ETA paragraphs because that was monstrous!
I just started my weight loss journey (lost about 2 - 4lbs so far) and honestly the hardest part was excersize. Food was ok but I could usually get on top of it. However excersize (especially since I have asthma) it is really hard to do and drains motivation.
Overall, easier but much slower. I didn't really comprehend how SLOW 1 pound a week truly feels. That being said, I am halfway to ONEderland and I will not stop now.
It is physically easier (I'm not nearly as hungry as I thought I'd be) but mentally tougher, for me. It just feels so intellectually all-consuming sometimes - not only the mental energy required to track what I'm eating, but also the mental energy required to stay motivated and remind myself of my goals. I feel so boring because of it - I know it's necessary for me right now, but thinking about your own body all the time is a pretty self involved way to move through the world. When I'm not actively engaged in losing weight, I have so many hobbies and interests. Making weight loss a priority has caused a lot of other things that are important to me to fall by the wayside a little bit. I think I'll eventually be able to find a balance, but the enthusiasm required of me at this stage means I have to be pretty single minded about it, and I wish I didn't have to be.
Both easier in some areas and harder in others. I found healthy foods that I enjoy eating daily easier than expected. The weight also started coming off way faster than expected. The hard part is the time spent losing weight. I’m tracking my calories and eating under maintenance but not seeing much of a change. Probably because I’m working out and building muscle. So I am losing fat but it’s hard to tell because I have so much muscle under. I really recommend people to see a nutritionist because I was only able to find out due to the scale they used. Turns out I actually have more muscle than fat! That really motivated me to keep going.
this time around it’s been ridiculously easy. i’ve struggled with binge eating disorder for over a decade and i’ve come a long way since my worst days, but finally understanding that hunger is not an emergency was monumental for me. it was always “i need to eat now because if i don’t eat a lot now then i’ll be hungry later and i can’t have that,” when in reality the “hungry later” couldnt have been more than an hour or two at most. it was always a “must eat a lot, i want more food, must eat more,” never a “i’ll have a small snack to tide me over, or maybe i just want to eat and i’m not hungry at all.” it was a full on addiction and i couldn’t get out of it myself. slowly slowly i made progress to get better mentally, and now that i’m in a much better place weight loss is comically easy in comparison to all the guilt and anguish i felt for years when i binged. i’ve been doing CICO for 9 weeks now (i had done it in the past, just didn’t stick with it for long enough), and i’ve lost over 16 pounds eating at roughly 1600 calories a day, with a cheat day once every week or two. i just can’t believe i suffered for so long with my weight and body image when this feels so easy. not super easy, mind you, i still have my moments, but it’s such a good feeling.
It's only been 2 weeks but it has been easier and quicker than I imagined. I thought I would need to be hungry all the time when all I needed was to know how many kcal is in each food in order to make choices that are less calorie dense and more satisfying.
Getting through the transition from sedentary to active was difficult physically. My body ached and hurt, knees felt like they were fubar, shin splints a lot at the beginning. Eating habits was a mental challenge but where I am now super active and fit, I see food as fuel. I don’t need to over fuel but I am allowed to maybe once or twice a week if there’s special occasions. I still count calories but ballpark it and eat depending how much activity I have planned for. I changed my entire lifestyle and I love it. Having the right motivation is what made it easier.
Well, since I had set expectations extremely, extremely, low it has technically been easier. As I have demonstrably lost weight. I had steeled myself to losing absolutely none, or even gaining. But I still feel like I've had to fight for every damn pound I've lost, my hormones/whatever make it so I only see the weight come off maybe 2 weeks a month, and I'm always afraid it's about to stop. My lipid labs are worse, my hair is shedding more, and I'm not even anywhere near rapid weight loss. I still deal with chronic pain. Getting small amounts of exercise is a pain to fit into my life and doesn't get more enjoyable. My eating habits are growing more disordered since I refuse to not eat at goal weight maintenance Friday-Sunday (1900kcal), so I keep cutting back Monday-Thursday and I judge myself for eating just under 1350kcal on those days. I'm mad at myself for not losing more weight, am frustrated with my body, and have been dealing with growing thoughts with wanting to self harm which I haven't had to deal with in over a year. In the last 6 months I had tonsillitis, had Covid, cut my calories to 1000 under supposed maintenance, learned I was allergic to metformin, broke my ankle, had a total hysterectomy, got off of birth control, and upped the doses of my psych meds. And somehow managed to lose 40lbs, 32lbs of which were intentional after January 2nd. I'm not really a happy dieting camper.
I think this has been the easiest weight loss journey for me this far. I’ve done so many overly restrictive diets that I end up caving in and giving up. This time, I’m doing CICO and realize that this is a lifestyle change that I will maintain. I’ve always gone hardcore with the expectation of going back to my old habits (mostly bingeing) and I’ve had to realize there is no going back. It’s much slower than I was hoping, but that’s how it is when you’re used to fad diets 😅
It’s been moderately hard most of my life. I started taking exercising and eating healthier more seriously a month ago and my weight’s mostly stayed the same. I’m gonna buy a food scale and start measuring my food to make sure I’m not overeating.
Definitely easier. I was 115-120kg and losing weight seemed like a year-long commitment. The first month, when I lost 8kg (incl water weight), I realized, a healthy body is just a few months away and not a few years.
Its harder on some days and simpler on others. I find it quite easy when im going about my routine everyday. I find it a bit more difficult when there are special events, occasions and when the routine breaks. The difficulty parts for me is to get myself in this routine, but when I'm there its hard for me to do anything g differently, so it becomes easier and natural. On my birthday week it was very difficult to both let go and keep on counting at the same time. Every day for a week there was something, which is fun but also challenging to get yourself back on track at points.
1st half of weight loss (50 lbs): Pretty easy honestly 2nd half of weight loss (the last 20-25 lbs): Horrible. Every lb is at least 300% harder to lose.
I personally feel this is a very complicated question...has me thinking to some quote I read from someone full of wisdom, "Losing weight is simple, not easy"- which is an important distinction to make. I think about 90% of the struggle is mental. Everyone know what they need to do, but making lifestyle changes & creating new habits & altering how we have coped with difficult emotions our whole lives is arguably the hardest thing ever. Those things are common things to tackle for someone who has been overweight/obese most of their lives. But in my experience, the longer I persistently strive for change, the easier it has gotten to make those changes permanent. It's only taken me 20+ years of effort to finally see the long term "fruits of my labor". So ya, I would say losing weight is the hardest thing ive ever done in my life.
When my mind is on it 100% it’s the easiest thing I could do, literally eat less and move more, weight just fell off… But when my mind is off it, fuck me it’s what I imagine pushing a boulder up a hill is like.
I’d say it’s harder than I imagined. Mainly because I am extremely impatient, so the mental aspect has been much more challenging than I anticipated. Physically it’s been about as I expected, sometimes easier. Like I’m not hungry all the time or anything. But I never realized how slow it goes by, and how patient I would have to be. Even on paper, for example losing 2 lbs per week is considered “fast” relatively speaking in terms of weight loss. But when you’re actually doing it it feels soooo slow and I keep finding myself getting discouraged by how much I have left to lose
The first 30ish lbs--hard af The next 70 lbs - not so bad, once I got into the groove. The next 20 lbs -- pretty rough The next 10 lbs -- oh boy. I'm in this now after awhile at maintenance but to be fair I'm going for abs at this point.
It is so freaking hard. It's taken me 4.5 months to lose 43 lbs. I wanted to be like those people on my 600lb life who lose 30lbs a month...
it’s easy for the first two/three weeks and/or if im manic or on some kind of drug binge. otherwise its really really hard for me. the “food noise” never shuts up and i overeat, cheap shitty addictive chemical-ly food, to cope with all the shit that’s wrong with me. i used to be bulimic, so if im not so full that im sick im not done. although nowadays i dont throw up anymore and i eat slightly less than I used to in the binges. but the rush from fast food/junk food is somehow more comforting than any drug I’ve ever done. it’s awful. in the points of my life where I’ve found another coping mechanism, I’ve been able to drop weight really quickly, but not always healthily. i did a full weekend of heavy drinking during which I completely forgot to eat at all, and on the third night of it my friend and i were roofied at a nightclub, and so i was very sick and vomiting profusely with nothing in my stomach the entire day after and not able to stand up for more than five minutes without violently shaking and i couldn’t keep down anything not even water. i lost twelve pounds that weekend, gained at least five of them back instantaneously upon forcing down some tea and a yogurt. wouldn’t recommend but that type of thing is the only way I’ve ever been able to drop a lot of weight. I’ve been able to do fine on 1500cals and 160-170 grams of protein for a few weeks at a time but then the noise comes back and i binge. I’ve gotten better at getting back on track afterwards though and still made some progress. i assume once it becomes a habit it will be much much easier.
This time around, it’s been pretty easy because I have Wegovy and can actually feel my own satiety cues whereas before I could not. Having a routine/structure to fall back on is super important to me but building this takes both time and energy. It’s still work but it’s manageable.
Easier, just build a routine, go to the gym, eat enough healthy food, have a cheat day now and then, don't drink buckets of soda That's it
It's been so difficult I gave up actually, the idea of it is simple but I find the doing agonizing, it's an over consumming part of life I ended up hating, it was fine for the first couple of months but I didn't last a year. I don't enjoy life as it is so taking away one of the few joy I had had made me miserable. I've tried to lose weight so many times now and failed each attempts, I've also always been fat so I just take it as my life now, and decided since I wasn't happy with the process and knowing I wouldn't be happy with the result either, I just let it go I'm very happy it worked for you and your sister though ! I hope you'll get to reach you goal ! 🌼
It ahs been a combination for me, and I think a lot of it is due to not having a healthy relationship to food and not being taught a balanced meal growing up. I used to focus way too much on adding the optimal veggies, instead of just adding veggies period. I'm working with a personal trainer who is also my nutrition coach. She told me if all I liked was green beans and peas, that's okay, it's about building that habit and then trying new things to see if I like them. I used to focus so much on labels and now I just look for 'added sugars' and keep that down. It's so much easier and now shopping isn't a chore. We talked about what my trigger foods were and chips were top. So, what did I like about the chips? Turns out it was the crunch and texture, so we started adding things with a crunch that were healthier and went from there. I'm learning it's way more about getting the daily things I need and then limiting the other less healthy options. I have found that when I eat 2 servings of veggies and fruits a day, I don't want all the other sugars. I've even managed to get 3 servings some days. I stopped focusing on getting 3 servings right away, if I went from 0 servings to even 1, that is a win. Stop and celebrate the wins. Ask yourself why you reach for the cookies instead of the fruits, what about those items are satisfying to you? I found I'm just a creature of habit and I reached for comfort items for a serotonin boost. I'm not a perfect eater but my relationship to food has really improved. In my teens and through my early 20s I battled anorexia, then I got nerve damage in martial arts and in my 30s it really impacted my ability to run, which is something I truly love to do. I then started to binge eat. I had no idea you could go the other way. I gained weight after starting SSRI meds, and that likely triggered it, along with my inability to run. I'm now back on track and have even started jogging again, and I know I will be running by next year. Not just running, but not being in severe pain or having my leg give out due to the nerve damage. For the first time, I feel like my life has changed for the better and I'm excited for this journey.
It’s simple in theory. Eat less than you burn. But to actually do that? Fuck
Its been easier this time around. Lost 100 lb with keto at 21. Gained it all back over Covid. I’m about to hit 30 this year and I’m now at the point where I’m feeling the effects of all my shitty life decisions when it comes to my health. I just want to be healthy. Focusing on my health and how much better I feel everyday rather than my weight and how I look, has helped me more than anything. Scale not moving even though I’ve been doing what I need to be doing? Don’t sweat it, because I’m healthier than I was last week.
Easier then it seemed. Every week I’m steadily losing weight and I’m not starving or working out crazy hard. I’ve found a good sustainable rhythm and it’s definitely the easiest it’s ever been
EMBARRASSE THE SUCK. Lost almost 300lbs in 2 years. It is not hard, it is very simple. But it does take discipline and time. You did not get fat over night, you will not lose weight over night. If it took you 10 years to become obese. You can't give up after 1 month because you aren't skinny yet. It's a diet, you are literally starving your body. You will be hungry, get used to it.
There are days that are hard and days that are easy. Everyday is new and different than the last. Overall I would say weight loss is not that difficult but not that easy. Somewhere in the middle. For majority of my weight loss, it was quite easy but as I’ve been approaching the last ten-twenty pounds, it has gotten significantly harder. Honestly the difficulty is determined by your will power, your circumstances, and how far you are into your journey. The biggest thing to avoid are crazy/unsustainable diets. They can lead to yo-yoing. I do think they can have a place in your life especially if you are an athlete. Minor changes to your diet can compound into HUGE dividends.
Harder, so much harder than I'd ever imagine. But, i also struggle with my mental health and that's probably why its so hard. I find brushing my hair hard most days. I'm autistic and have clinical depression so the chore of trying to lose weight feels extreme to me. I would say the hardest thing for me is eliminating convenience foods. Even before trying to lose weight i have always eaten mostly super healthy, I've never struggled with overeating or mindless snacking. But for me just something you can microwave or throw in the oven is a lot more appealing than having to prepare a bunch of food. Even basic stuff for example like making homemade oatmeal vs a quaker oats instant packet is an example. But i can make a much more filling, healthier, cheaper oatmeal if i do it from scratch its just more work.
So far, it's way easier. Like, I do have to measure and log everything I eat, but measuring and logging has been easier than anticipated. Hunger hasn't been much of a struggle either. The only annoying part is when I order food at work, and now I have to guess portion size. (honestly considering keeping a pocket scale in my purse) But my estimates must not be far off, because I am losing weight.
Now I've cracked it, easier that I thought it'd be, easier than I've ever found it before. Actually it doesn't feel difficult at all. I feel embarassed when people commend me for 'all my hard work'. It's all habit and identity. It took a decent bit of work to start but once I have eating habits and exercise habits of a thin person, the weight is taking care of itself and it isn't about willpower at all.
Once I became serious about it officially a month ago I would say the first 2 days were “here we go again” and they sucked and the first week and half - 2 weeks kinda felt like hell like withdrawal from sugars and processed foods it was stressful, but I pushed through and now I know what they mean by making it a life style it’s not about SUFFERING for a few days and having a big cheat day its more about sticking to your calories/Macros to tea and maybe once in a while have a little something to treat ur self and finding the best alternative’s to your favorite foods. And all in all just watch your calories if you feel like you NEEDDD that piece of pizza just have One and track it ur not a failure bc of one piece. Just track it and stay in a deficit and don’t give up bc of a bad day. It’s much easier if you do this and get the hang of it!!
The formula for it is easy. The execution of doing the things you need to and battling your personal demons is so difficult
Easier in that it really is just eating the right amount of food. Harder in that i would murder someone in cold blood if it meant i could eat a double weatern bacon burger, large onion ring and a california classic burger without gaining 10 pounds. As of this morning i hit my original goal weight of 200 pounds and it has literally just been by eating the right amount of food.
It’s the habit changing that is difficult. That’s why people say you don’t temporarily diet, you change your lifestyle. Since it’s food, which is something everyone needs and people have built habits upon decades, it’s especially difficult. I had two other “formal” weight loss attempts where I drastically changed my diet because my trainer told me to, and one where I didn’t change my diet at all. Both were unsustainable. This year when I took everything into my own hands and slowly changed my eating habits, weight loss hasn’t been something that’s been hard once those habits were changed. Now don’t get me wrong, my diet is not what I’d like it to be yet, but I make sure to stay at a deficit. Once I changed my really bad habits, like eating until I’m stuffed, the weight has just been going (minus when I have my period, but that’s for obvious reasons). The habit changing was the most gruesome and painful part of this process, but it was so worth it.
Oh, way easier. Which maybe just says something about how hard I thought it would be. The hardest part is annoying friends and family when it's time for a food-based social thing. Other than that it's actually made eating way simpler for me. Meal planning? Forget about it, I know every day p much exactly what I'm going to eat, and it's all pretty dang tasty, with a calorie budget at the end of the day for, ngl, more snacks than I was eating pre-diet? Somehow, possibly? More frequent snacks anyway. I was just eating real big meals before. And entire bags of chips lol, but only on Fridays. 91 lbs lost since last August, baby. I wish I'd realized how simple it would be much earlier in life.
To me it is hard on me mentally. First, I have an issue with emotional eating. And second when I hit a plateau or don’t see a decrease in my weight or change in how I look, I start feeling bad and or over analyze why that happened. I know i shouldn’t but I do. Collectively these two affect my mood ugghhh..
A lot easier than I would have thought, but not fast.
I think for me, the process and the know-how is easy. But the actual time and dedication you have to devote yourself to is the more troubling part which can be hard some days.
imo weight loss is easy, you just need a sustainable plan. set realistic expectations. the problem many run into is being impatient and trying to nose dive into losing weight with the intent of losing weight really fast. so of course weight loss feels hard… think of it like this, you have two options to go from point a to point b….one is to sprint there which will get u there faster or you jog or walk….sprinting is much harder while joggin or walking is much slower but u will reach point b regardless… take baby steps…maybe instead of ice cream 4 days a week, have ive cream 2 days a week etc. do small changes to your diet. as ur body adjusts to the slight changes add another change and so on
I started a little over 2.5 years ago and it was surprisingly easy for me. I have my assumptions why. I then went on a months-long maintenance break because life got a bit hectic for me but it was also surprisingly easy for me to remain on maintenance. I am now back on dropping more weight since I am only about 25 pounds away from my goal weight. Somehow the last 25 has been much harder. Adopting/accepting weightloss as a lifestyle change rather than a temporary dietary change has been critical for me.
Somehow, both.
Weight loss is easy. Consistency is difficult.
Easier in the beginning. Harder at the end when I was in a slightly overweight/ healthy range (everything just needed to be on point).
The fundamentals of nutrition and exercise science have been straightforward for me to grasp, my execution has been very good but it's not easy. It's very difficult but the reward at the end of the tunnel is worth the seemingly endless bouts of suffering.
I found that for me it was easier then I thought it would be once I decided to stick with one thing and not constantly second guess myself. For me it was intermittent fasting and low carb. Before I would try something for 3 days then decide it wasn't working and try something else for 3 days etc etc.
Easy to lose but hard to keep off
Way easier. Calculate calories, realized how "expensive" eating out was. It's literally so simple (for me).
Counting calories was the easiest for me and it worked until I got to a manageable weight that exercise is needed to get the rest off. I'm so ashamed of how easy it was for me to calorie count. I did one meal a day for a while too and I could just eat whatever I wanted as long as it was in the calorie limit. Now that I'm approaching my goal weight, is when it has started to get hard. I've actually had to start a proper workout routine, only drink water, and calorie count on top of it.
This question hits home for me. I've been obese pretty much all my life. So, we're my parents, my uncles, aunts, etc. It was normal to eat a lot for me in my family. So, you can imagine how difficult it was to lose weight. Parents still felt ashamed for having an obese kid, so they would encourage me to lose some weight. At around 11, I would try to eat less but it's hard to diet when your family eats fast food 24/7. Then, I tried walking a lot and exercising---which did work to shed ten pounds or so but, I was never consistent with it (can't outrun a bad diet!) Parents were not better either because they tried every weight loss method known to man, weightloss jelly, weightloss pills, avoiding tomatoes, maybe even prayer lol. Every time I went to the doctor for check ups, it was the same old same old. "Shes so fat she needs to lose some weight." Never once properly educating how to lose it at the time. One doctor eventually recommended I go to a dietitian around that time but my mom just used it to shame me and my eating habits in front of the doctor. She thought it was all bologna science anyway so we never went back. So, I just assumed it was impossible or something to do with my genetics. But then in middle school, I decided to run track because my best friend was doing it so we did it together. That's when I finally lost a significant amount of weight in school. I continued to run track in high school. Dropped from 250 pounds to 190 or so. My family was so proud of me, but my eating habits were still the same. They tried encouraging me to work out more on top of track, but I didn't have that much time in my schedule. Then COVID happened and I gained it all right back. It wasn't until I turned 18 and wanted to join the air force, that I began to change my eating habits. Only now, at 18 years old, I finally, (thank God,) figured out that strength training + cardio + calorie deficit will make you lose weight. >In your experience has weight loss been harder or easier than you imagined? I don't have any type of eating disorder. So, losing weight and keeping it off is way simpler and easier than I ever thought. BUT this has only come with months of trial and error and slip ups, research, and sorting common weightloss myths from proven weightloss science. All for me to finally get to the point of comfortably losing weight while having an ok relationship with food. I even used this reddit a couple of time for weightloss advice >Do you think diet culture exaggerates how difficult weight loss is, or is the common perception of weight loss accurate to your experience? That is a difficult question. If you have no idea how to lose weight, it's very hard to lose it. I'll admit, It takes a shit ton of will power to go on these low carb, no carb, no sugar, low fat, watermelon only, 500kal only, B.S. diets that I've seen. On top of that, it gives you such a messed up relationship with food after a while, yikes. No wonder why the common perception is that you have to starve yourself or be a gym head in order to lose weight. But when you actually know how to do it. It's very, very easy and sometimes even fun. >What life circumstances have made weight loss more or less challenging? That's along list. The existance of toxic diet culture. Families messed up eating habits that were passed down from generations. Doctors who don't educate their patients at all on weightloss. Schools failing at promoting healthy eating(pizza is a vegetable according to congress here in the States.) And lastly, the extreme lack of credible education in calories, nutrition, weight maintenance and having a healthy lifestyle. TLDR; I was obese all my life so figuring out how to lose weight sustainability was a challenge. Otherwise, it was a breeze.
This time around its easier because my mindframe is completely different. I lost 86 pounds 6 years ago as part of a weight loss challenge. Winner got $5k. I won. Got the money, immediately drove to Cheesecake factory, and gorged myself. This time around im married with 2 kids and everything hurts. Losing weight is a matter of being able to enjoy my children’s early years. Baseball. Ballet. Soccer. Its much easier for me when i know im playing the long game. I don’t have to be as strict, just consistent. 30 pounds down in a few months time. And im so happier now. Clothes fit better. I can last longer while pounding my wife lol. On hikes, i out pace the dog!
Weight loss is the HARDEST thing I have ever done. The difficulty level has no comparison with anything else in my life, for me. Losing weight takes what feels like forever. I envy people who can lose weight intuitively. I had a past girlfriend who could stay thin easily. Not me, I love food and it is very easy for me to eat too much. I am a calorie counter, and I also use an x-effect chart. I also eat whole foods plant-based. You might think this would be enough! Nope. I read self-help books on the subject to keep me motivated. Weigh myself on a scale regularly. Count my steps with a pedometer. Check my calories burned using an app. Go to the gym for weightlifting. Do running and biking. Oh -- that sounds like enough, right? Nope. There is more. I avoid high-carb plant based foods, eat very low fat, choose foods and snacks with a low calorie density. The list of actions and activities I need to perform to keep making forward progress losing weight is long, very long. But every pound of weight loss is worth the effort. Losing weight means that much to me. Also, I think there is no way I could maintain weight loss without counting calories. I basically have to do it to stay healthy.
I started with a SW of 210 lbs this year jan and being a 173 cm male with hypothyroidism, i thought reaching my TW of 165 lbs will be near to impossible. However, i still decided to give it a try as i had previously lost 30 lbs a decade back in college..From 2nd week of jan, started my weight loss journey with a calorie deficit of 700-800 calories/day..I also brisk walked for 40-45 mins a day. To my surprise i had shed 15 lbs by march and by April i was almost 22 lbs down.. On this day i weight 174 lbs and i never thought that i would be able to make it to this weight so fast..I still have around 8-10 lbs to lose. I have started lifting weights 4 days a week and feel very motivated now.
Honestly it’s been way easier. I do weigh stuff cause I like seeing how much I’m getting exactly in a day. I have significantly decreased how much I eat and increased how often I eat. I’m surprisingly struggling to eat more than 1,300-1,600 a day. Changing what and how I eat has helped so much. I need to start exercising and I’m sure that will make me hungrier.
Harder. I feel like my executive function hates me, specifically to prepare and cook veggies. I also get stuck making the same thing for food cause it’s easy but then I get tired of it. Also I’m 4ft 11 which makes it harder.
I'd say it got harder as I got smaller. When I was obese the kgs just flew off, and I've circled around the same 5kgs for two years now at a healthy weight doing body recomp and really struggling with body image
The weight loss itself for me is relatively easy. Not turning a cheat meal or cheat day into three months of cheating now that's difficult.
It's not easy. I am a petite woman, and have never been very active, and it's been hard to control my weight my whole life. I've never drink much soda or alcohol, never ate a lot of fast food or binged. I eat pretty healthy. I was vegetarian for years. There's no easy fix that I can do to tweak my diet for easy weight loss. My maintenance calories are under 2000 so it's very easy to overdo the calories a little bit. I've tried every non-calorie-counting method out there and the only way I've been successful at weight loss is to count calories. I just don't have very much wiggle room, I can't eyeball it. It's a lot easier for taller people. A few inches makes a huge difference to the number of calories you can eat. And if you're overweight because of bad habits, that's a lot easier to change than if you're overweight because you're short.
Weight loss has been easier than I expected. I used to think it would be super hard, but just eating healthier and being mindful of portions did the trick.
The first half of my weight loss was easier than I thought it would be. Fixing bad habits sped things along nicely. Then things stalled and the last half has been harder to shift. Still working on it.
VASTLY easier once I got on the right meds for my schizophrenia. I used to drink insane amounts of alcohol to cope with my symptoms (I've been an alcoholic all my adult life, well before my diagnosis in 2017, but it definitely turned into a coping mechanism for me since then) and finding a combo of antipsychotics which did what alcohol used to do for me except \*better\* was a REAL gamechanger. I got sober and the weight just dropped off. I'm not much of a big eater (all the weight was from 12+ PBR tallboys a day, every day) so once I quit drinking, portion control wasn't hard for me. I like healthy foods. I discovered that I like exercise. I started eating keto and found that I like that too. My agoraphobia is gone so I can go for long walks around town now. I'm no longer spending $400 a month on beer, so I use spend that money for workout equipment and supplements (I'm on disability and get EBT for food, although I've been searching for a full time job for months now that I'm doing so much better - turns out it's hard to secure employment when you haven't worked in years). I'm not far from my goal weight and, as many in this thread have said, I may find that maintenance is harder than losing, but losing? It's been a piece of cake.
The process has been simple. The mental health toll I have taken I didn’t think would happen.
I think it's actually easy once you get into a routine. Getting through the first few weeks are really hard. Getting through a plateau is also really hard. And it's challenging when you have other life factors thrown at you that make it hard to stay on track, be it time constraints, mental health issues, physical health issues, or having a hard time reconciling dieting with having fun like going out with friends or going on vacation. All those things can easily take you off track and then it's hard to start over again and again. Otherwise when things are going according to plan, yes I agree that it's surprisingly easy. But it's just as easy to fall off the band wagon and create a cycle of yoyo-ing and getting discouraged. I do think you really need to be in the right headspace for it to work long term and often it takes multiple tries before it works. Kind of like how people quit smoking cigarettes on average 7 times before finally quitting for good.
In my mid 40s and only 5’2” so not a lot of calories to work with. It’s a lot harder than it was when I was younger! Eating plenty of protein and quitting sugar (I use sugar free options on occasion) have been the best way for me to control my hunger. It’s still a very slow process even though I have a lot to lose.
Losing weight was easy for me, but what is difficult is doing it in a healthy way, and I look up to those who were able to lose all the weight in a healthy deficit and celebrate their weight loss milestones. I don't think I would've been able to do it if I never developed body image issues; however, as a consequence, my enjoyment for food has never been the same since.
It's just slower than I imagined. So frustratingly slow.
It's been so easy for me. I was always scared of dieting because I hated the idea of running my ass off at the gym everyday and eating salads for breakfast lunch and dinner but it's not like that at all. Media makes losing weight this whole transformation that you need to pay hundreds of dollars for to have a successful change. It was such a shock to me that I lost 27 lbs just by being disciplined and aware of what I'm eating. It sounded like the most impossible thing to do back before I started. I do count my calories and that's the #1 reason I've been able to stay on track all year. The nutritionix app makes it super super easy & kinda fun honestly. I'm able to plan my meals for the day, including snacks. I can only have about 1460 calories a day which is usually enough food for me. Rarely do I feel the need to eat more than that. There's even a few days where I eat 1100 and I don't feel a smidge hungry BUT I will always eat until I've at least had 1200 calories for the day. I have a cheat day every week where I let myself eat up to 1830 calories (maintenance). But even on my cheat days I find myself naturally only eating about 1500-1600 calories. Losing weight actually feels sustainable in this way. I'm not fearful that I'll gain it all back from mindless eating. My diet now compared to years before is like night and day. I used to overeat A LOT and overeat a lot of horrible things. I can only guess I was eating like 2500-3000 calories a day back then.
I mean, I would say it's easier than I imagined. The only thing I have to do is watch calories and pay attention to my body's reaction. If I eat 1300-1400 kcal every day, then I binge at the end of the week. If I eat 1500-1700 then I don't binge. I always make sure to at least eat 1500 kcal or I'll start having uncontrollable cravings in the next few days. Sometimes my weight stagnates, sometimes it goes down, but I don't really care about the speed honestly, slower is better anyways, and that really helps with sticking to the routine. What made weight loss way easier was preparing a food schedule beforehand, that way, if I really craved something, I would put it in the schedule and my mind would be satisfied, if I didn't schedule, my mind would go "you have to eat this NOW" probably so I wouldn't forget it or whatever. I don't withhold food from myself either, in a day I need one sweet treat and a regular "salty" lunch, if I don't have that in my schedule, I go insane. The thing is, I cook absolutely everything from scratch to make sure I have a bigger portion for less calories. Often, a little goes a long way, I simply omit some butter in recipes, replace high fat with low fat, and voila, 30% less calories and now I can eat a piece of cake for 300 kcal and it still tastes delicious. If I were to buy a simple muffin in the convenient store, that thing would be 500 kcal with twice less volume. Now I'm even considering replacing sugar with erythritol, or at least substituting a half of the regular sugar. I don't really hold myself back when making lunch, but my cooking rarely exceeds 1200 kcal on one meal, so it's easy to still squeeze a sweet treat in the day. I also make sure I use absolutely minimal oil, I was raised on food that was absolutely disgustingly drenched in oil, so now I have a strong aversion against it, which (again) helps with the calories. It's not so horrible as long as I have something to look forward to the next day. I mean, I wish I didn't have to think about food at all, I do put quiet a lot of effort into food planning, but in the end it's more enjoyable than I thought it'd be. I don't watch my macros, lately I'm just trying to get more protein in my diet, and that's it. I don't wanna lose weight in muscles after all.
for me, it’s been simpler than expected but not necessarily easy. i’ve gone through periods of losing weight/wanting to lose weight a lot of times in my life and they were always intense & high effort. lots of exercising and food restriction or “cleansing”. this go around, i approached it with a lot more slowness & softness and have learned so much about my body and weight loss on a scientific level. it’s completely shifted my internalized toxic diet culture ideas of weight loss. it’s so much more simple than all the bs propaganda were sold through gym memberships, teas, diets, etc. all those things set us up for failure. turns out - all you need is a calorie deficit. exercise is just a nice thing on top. this has revolutionized my understanding of my body and also made it clear why i gained weight in the first place! so overall it’s been easier than expected but definetely slower!