By quitting drinking alcohol
Literally the only thing I changed about my life at that time and I went from 185 lbs to 165 lbs in 3 months
I was drinking a fifth per night of alcohol that was at least 100 proof, so I was a bit of an alcoholic at the time
I quit cold turkey and within just a few weeks I started feeling a lot better overall and by about 4 months after I quit the cravings stopped every time I smelt alcohol
I’ve been sober now for about 5 and a half years and the weight has stayed off the whole time. I’ve basically been 160±5 lbs since
That’s amazing! Congrats on sobriety.
Thank you
It wasn’t my first attempt but my 4th to get sober. Getting sober wasn’t easy, and I think is a topic more people should talk about. You never seem to here people talking about how many attempts it took to achieve something like that, you only ever here that they did it.
And honestly this is the longest I’ve been sober since I was 12 years old
I wouldn’t give it up for the world, the quality of life improvements have been amazing and not just my physical health but my mental health as well. It’s amazing how much easier PTSD is to deal with while sober vs not.
You hear about it more in recovery groups. It’s pretty eye-opening.
Shit, you stole my exact answer
Except I’ve finally started to gain the weight back
Congratulations that’s awesome, I’m sober myself (just over 18 months) and it took me a lot of tries and many years to stop drinking so I can relate to that.
The one thing I would really caution people about is quitting cold turkey - alcohol withdrawal can be fatal. It’s also miserable even when done with medical help, I’ve done medical detox in the hospital and at rehab more times than I care to remember and each time serves as a huge reminder of what awaits me if I start drinking again. So please if anyone is considering stopping drinking and is drinking a lot, talk to a doctor about it and be honest. Seizures and strokes and DTs are not fun and can kill you.
That all said I also struggle with weight, and a few times after I stopped drinking I ate more and gained weight and it contributed to going back to drinking. This time I’ve been very conscious about calories in vs calories out because that has been something that works for me. Food scale and honesty tracking everything I eat and all my exercise.
And again, awesome job on 5 years, I love coming across sobriety out in the wild.
I see a lot of exercise reccomended ITT, but just remember that it takes an hour to “burn” 300 calories walking, but under a minute to eat a donut. Dieting is your battle. Also, doing a little exercise (5 min walk) everyday that you can keep yourself doing consistently is WAYY more important than the 2 hour gym sesh you hit twice then get demotivated and never do again
(This is coming from someone with no experience losing weight, so take it with a grain of salt)
All people who mentionned sport also mentionned the importance of diet. It’s sport that is always downplayed when it comes to losing weight.
I go road cycling a lot. That burns more than 600 calories an hour. Just one 3 hour ride per week offsets almost as much calories as eating in one day does.
Got a divorce and lost my job. Spent six months eating 1500 calories a day, 600 of which were liquor, and walking five to seven miles a day. Hours of walking by the Sound in the rain every day. Felt like the only thing I could control was what I ate and how much I walked. Lost thirty pounds. I got a few compliments on how much thinner I looked. Didn’t tell anyone that every pound was burned with hate.
I’m doing better now.
I’m glad you’re better now, I wish you all the best!
No magic tricks or diet fads.
Eat less, move more.
Eat more vegetables and salad, cut down bread and meat.
Stop drinking sodas and juices with extra sugar in them and learn to quench your thirst with water.
Limit eating candy or cookies to one day per a week, if you can’t let them go entirely.
I tried to do a bunch of small things. No single thing was the key.
- started drinking my coffee black
- drink more water, and drink water instead of other things
- I take the stairs instead of elevator/escalator whenever possible
- I try not to eat seconds at dinner
- “Real” exercise (like running, rowing, etc.) every other day, but if I can squeeze in extra ones, (e.g., 2 days in a row), I go for it
- If I’m not up for real exercise, I’ll go for a walk
- intermittent fasting in the mornings, so often no breakfast, but not necessarily every day
- No snacking after 19:00
- At restaurants, if 2 options look good, go for the one with fewer calories
There are probably more, but those are the kinds of habits we’re talking about.
Also important: if you don’t stick to all habits, don’t beat yourself up about it.
With the above, I was able to get from a high of 235 lbs down to around 180. I’m a bit more than that right now, but pretty close still.
these sound like very good habits
Eliminating certain kinds of food entirely
Some foods tended to be things I quite simply ate too much of, and eliminating them entirely was the simpler option. Snacks are obvious in this category, but less obvious for me was bread and sandwiches.
Walking, a whole lot of it
Running can often be the exercise that comes to mind when wanting to lose weight, which is natural on account of its cultural prevalence and high energy requirement. The problem is that you can’t really do a whole lot of it without getting tired, and if you’re overweight it probably hurts like hell to do it.
Walking, on the other hand, can be done essentially in unlimited quantities. I took every opportunity to go for long walks at a brisk pace, listening primarily to podcasts but also audiobooks to keep me entertained. It was also a good opportunity to catch up with family by giving them a call.
Caloric restriction
At the end of the day, no matter what kinds of food I ate, my appetite still pushed me to put more energy into my body than I was able to spend. As such, I had to implement some form of caloric restriction to keep the number going down.
These things worked for me but may not be appropriate for you. Losing weight is very hard, some trial and error is probably a good idea. Good luck!
Use a calorie counting app like lose it. Log everything you eat. It’s very tedious at first but pretty soon you get really good at judging how many calories are in things. Don’t stop logging! Track your weight. When you hit plateaus zoom out on the time scale and look at your trend line going down and feel good about yourself.
The trick is being honest with yourself. There are no free calories. Those 2-3 little cookies you had at work? They count. The extra scoop of rice? That counts. Most people have no concept of how many excess calories they’re really taking in.
Over COVID lockdown my wife and I both gained 10-15 pounds and I was already a good 20 pounds over where I wanted to be. We both started this and never stopped. I lost 40 pounds in about 9 months (230 to 185) , she lost 20, 155 to 134, and we’ve both kept it off for the last three years. We log all our meals and we exercise. Exercise becomes rewarding because burning extra means you can cheat! Did you bike twenty miles today? HAVE YOU A FUCKIN DONUT THEN!
pretty soon you get really good at judging how many calories are in things.
This was the key for me. Understanding the cost of the food I enjoy let me cut back on rice and replace it with ice cream, for example.
Also when I’m logging food, it adds a bit of friction, especially for new foods, so I eat less just because of that. Usually that’s when I realise that I’m not eating because of hunger.
amphetamines
Crippling Depression
Funny, that just makes me eat even more. How can I learn your power?
Get more depressed and add intense anxiety to the mix.
If my depression is bad, but not suicidal bad, then I overeat. If it’s suicidal bad, I stop eating.
ADHD meds 🫤
Ha - going on to ADHD meds led to me gaining weight.
Same, I just eat more at night when they wear off.
I’m struggling with this right now. I started going to the gym 6 times a week almost a year ago knowing it wouldn’t be enough by itself but trying to only make one big lifestyle change at a time. Now my gym habit is well and truly locked in I really need to improve my diet as my next big change. My weight has been basically exactly the same since I started. Lots more muscle mass now but still…
Good luck to everyone trying to make improvements to their health!
Oh I actually did lose like 20kg a few years ago by doing keto but it wasn’t sustainable to me so I put it all back on. I guess the lesson for me there is to keep trying until you find a sustainable change you can stick to as a lifestyle, not just temporarily.
Well muscles are very dense. If you go for body shape and fitness, don’t go for raw weight at the same time basically.
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Premake healthy snacks like overnight oats and fruit salads. Throw away all cookies, chips, soda, juices, and other high calorie and low nutrition foods and drinks. Eat more fiber and whole grains. This is hard for people but going vegetarian doubles weight loss if you replace it with direct substitutes like tofu and mushrooms. Round it all by adding beans or chick peas to your meals.
Having high fiber foods means you don’t need to change your eating habits. The issue with advice in this thread is it ignores the struggle with eating habits. Not everyone can go to snacking addiction to “I just eat a banana before 5pm and nothing more”, it’s completely unrealistic and makes you feel worse about yourself and causes more binge snacking as a result.
Finally, look at small goals. Try to switch your foods to the first 2 things I mentioned. Switch to only water. Always drink a ton of water right before eating anything and your stomach will feel full. You will see weight loss of 5 kgs quickly if you go all in. Then target your body’s feeling, the aches will go away slowly as you put better things into it. Then target further small kg losses, 5 kg at a time.
Better eating habits. More physical activity. There are no magic tricks.
Keto definitely felt like a magic trick to me.
It’s not, it’s a tool to help you have better eating habits, which is the first thing mentioned in the comment you replied to.
Counting calories. I used MyFitnessPal, but I’m sure there are other apps.
Figure out how many calories you need daily to maintain your current weight, depending on age/gender/height, and then subtract about 500 calories from that. This also depends on your stats; you don’t want to go below your minimum daily calories. You’ll be hungry and dizzy all the time, and your body will try to store extra fat because it thinks you’re starving.
You can eat whatever you want, as long as you stay under your daily calorie number. You might not be healthy (depending on your food choices), but you will lose weight.
Good luck!
My weight loss started in a thread exactly like this. I read about someone using My Fitness Pal to track their food intake and consuming less than they were burning. I tried the same thing and within days I was losing weight and feeling better.
I lost 80 pounds over the following year, took up running using the Couch 2 5K program and have been maintaining that since 2018.
Finished my first triathlon last summer.
100% calorie counting, NO ‘extra’ exercise. Lost 30 lb in 30 weeks just by being ~500 cal negative every day.
Don’t drink calories, skip breakfast, and cutting out obvious ‘junk’ made it rather easy once I got past the first 4 weeks of willpower & adjustment.
that’s it, nothing fancy. (40yr old male)
