Reflection on my 105 lb weight loss

I was 300+ lbs for over 10 years. In the past 12 months, I went from 311 to 206 now. It started when I lost 6 lbs in a month just by cutting out soda. I thought "If I could do that just by cutting soda, what if I really gave it my all, and started tracking calories".

I did it mainly by counting calories, and staying within the 2200-2500 calorie range consistently. Pure calories in, calories out. Track calories precisely. Use pen/paper, notes on your phone or an app. Eat foods that have labels or are in the database of an app, so there's less guesswork. Eyeballing doesn't work because most people underestimate how many calories they eat. And ironically, making a habit of tracking calories makes you better at eyeballing during some situations.

I had no restrictions on when I could eat. Sometimes I'd have a bunch of little snacks during the day. Sometimes I'd have a big breakfast, a big lunch, nothing for 6 hours and then a protein shake before bed. Sometimes I had 3 equally sized meals. Any of the above is fine as long as there's a calorie deficit.

No restrictions on what type of foods I could eat. What I eat one week vastly differs from what I eat the next week, as long as the calories and macros line up. Though I stay away from sugary beverages and foods with too much added sugar because sugar spikes increase appetite among other side effects.

Many people go wrong by having restrictive diets. They go on an intermittent-fasting no-carb diet. They try to convince themselves that they love it, but deep down, they don't really intend to do this long-term. This results in them either a) having cheat days, or b) they do lose a lot of weight in 6 months but then they feel deprived and go back to their old habits.

Losing weight was far easier than I thought it would be. Obese people go through extremes. They go on a 1700-calorie deprivation diet of lean chicken and celery for a few weeks; then they feel deprived and go back to their 4500 calorie a day fast-food diet, promising themselves that next month they'll start their restrictive diet up again. The middle road is easy; consistently eating ~2300 calories a day of almost whatever I wanted.

Many obese people are holding out for perfection. They don't want to take the middle road and lose 10 lbs a month because they're holding out for a miracle weight loss plan where they can lose 20+ lbs a month. For years, they tell themselves that they can just lose 90 lbs in 3 months at any given point.

Consistency is key. If your 500 calorie deficit per day, and then you have a 500 calorie surplus one day. Then you need to spend the next day on a deficit just to break even. And as a result, it takes you 3 days to achieve a 500 kcal deficit instead of 1.

Cheat days are where many people fail. It's a fallacy that if you eat properly 5-6 days of the week, then you can cheat for 1-2. It's not the amount of days you eat properly that matter, but instead, your weekly, monthly and yearly calorie balance. You're still accountable for the calories you eat, even on "cheat days". If you have a 2000 calorie surplus on a cheat day, that can negate 4-5 days of of 400-500 deficits. On the rare days I go over my calories, I try to not go over more than a few hundred, because a 4-digit surplus can really set you back.

Moreover, you shouldn't feel like the foods you're eating are so unpleasant or boring that you need to "cheat". If this is the case, find foods you enjoy that fit within your calorie/macro goals.

I've commonly heard that weight loss is 80% calories/nutrition and 20% exercise. I find this to be true. Years ago, I used to go to the gym, but I didn't track what I ate, so I never saw progress. Exercising can increase appetite and you want to make sure you're not compensating by eating excess calories. Getting into the habit of tracking calories first, and then adding exercise on top of it helped.

Mental health is a key component too. If your mind is drained by many other aspects of life, it's harder to stay consistent with making good decisions on food. For some it may be therapy, making friends, finding your life purpose, medication, strengthening relationships with family, etc. TMS helped me.

A few of my perspectives have changed when losing weight:

1) My confidence went up. It's not super-high now, but it was very low back then.

2) I don't enjoy feeling bloated. I now eat enough just to not feel hungry. Years ago, I would eat until I was stuffed, and I mistakenly thought being stuffed was the same thing as being satiated.

3) I'm shocked at American portion sizes. If you look at how much food people put on their plate when they go to buffets, barbeques or even family dinners. And many restuarants adds lots of butter, oil, lard, cream to foods; the dish you think is 1000 calories could be 1500. Granted, I still do eat big meals from time to time, but on days I eat big meals, I eat low calories for the rest of the day.

4) I'm less sympathetic to excuses. I used to buy into the idea that obese people were unlucky for many reasons. But the truth is that people just think they're eating 2000 calories when they're actually eating 3200. And you can't complain about genetics or other factors until you've done everything possible in your power to change it.