People who have tried multiple times to lose weight, was there a eureka moment?

[ACDCed]

Hey all, my very first post here so please excuse my formatting

So as per title, I'm sure a lot of us who struggled with losing weight over the years has tried multiple times to do it, through either fad dieting, putting strain on your body by exercising too hard too fast or by motivating ourselves with all the wrong reasons, just to gain back the weight and then some.

So this is a question to everyone who finally did it. Did you feel it coming long before you saw any results?

I've been fat (and short) my whole life and I've tried multiple times to lose weight. I'm currently a month into a 3x a week spin class and I just started weight lifting again today. When I looked back to when I started this fitness journey a month ago, and all I could think of is holy crap, my endurance is insane compared to when I started. I've also started counting my calories instead of just relying on a diet like keto (yes I did it before, it worked but my body was really asking for carbs and I gained back what I've lost) and all I could think off is "holy crap, this might actually work this time."

Although I've not noticed any changes on the scale, my first day lifting in the gym went smoother than expected, I noticed my cardio spin class had actually have me a bit of newbie gains in the chest and arms area to kick start my lifting journey. For the first time in my life, I started light and prioritized my form and I even made a friend.

[xsquid99]

Yep, for me it was just discovering that I actually loved lifting weights and the process of bodybuilding. Now 5 years in I don't set PR's anymore but I still love the process, and its something that now I do out of habit every day. I've actually learned to love the gym, I'm there 6-7 days a week, not always lifting (some days are only cardio) but I can't break the habit of going. I've made several friends there and we all agree that its kind of our "safe space" out of work and away from home where we can just unplug and have some personal time. I work out a lot of stress on the gym floor.

[Darkius]

I've lost weight many times. Some was muscle though. Maybe a lot was muscle. Losing pure fat is what you want. Losing weight is easy.

There are lots of people who never get a ripped physique despite trying. There is so much misinformation being spread around. Even if you know the truth, there are many ways to fall off track or just not use the right volume for your current fitness level. The reason people quit is they are not confident there will be a reward for what they are doing. Most of the time they are correct since they were doing it wrong. But they blame themselves for inconsistency.

[RamonHolder]

I think breaking bad habits is all about finding some kind of fulfillment in whatever your new habit is. Some people achieve that in the form of "rewarding" yourself or "cheat days", but it's better to find some consistent source of happiness, like runner's high or some kind of specific joy in exercising. It could also just be the joy of seeing progress, which means all you need to do is get past that hard initial start. Consistently losing weight is more about finding what works for YOU specifically, and it's kind of more of a journey of discovery than one of pure willpower.

[ACDCed]

Yep, for me it was just discovering that I actually loved lifting weights and the process of bodybuilding. Now 5 years in I don't set PR's anymore but I still love the process, and its something that now I do out of habit every day. I've actually learned to love the gym, I'm there 6-7 days a week, not always lifting (some days are only cardio) but I can't break the habit of going. I've made several friends there and we all agree that its kind of our "safe space" out of work and away from home where we can just unplug and have some personal time. I work out a lot of stress on the gym floor.

I completely agree with this statement. I've lifted before but I've never gotten hook to an intense cardio exercise and now I am really loving it. Still getting hungry from CICO though but it's not too unbearable but I started to use the gym / working out as a way to channel negative emotions out.

As a noob it's quite nice to see a new PR every week and I am really looking forward to the day I can cut down to get that classic aesthetic look.

I've lost weight many times. Some was muscle though. Maybe a lot was muscle. Losing pure fat is what you want. Losing weight is easy.

There are lots of people who never get a ripped physique despite trying. There is so much misinformation being spread around. Even if you know the truth, there are many ways to fall off track or just not use the right volume for your current fitness level. The reason people quit is they are not confident there will be a reward for what they are doing. Most of the time they are correct since they were doing it wrong. But they blame themselves for inconsistency.

Yeah I think that's the problem, they lack the motivation to lift or they're just a bit intimidated by the gym or they end up re-eating the calories they lost during cardio. I think a lot of people underestimate the rewarding feeling post workout but I'm hoping people get educated more. It's such a nice feeling.

I think breaking bad habits is all about finding some kind of fulfillment in whatever your new habit is. Some people achieve that in the form of "rewarding" yourself or "cheat days", but it's better to find some consistent source of happiness, like runner's high or some kind of specific joy in exercising. It could also just be the joy of seeing progress, which means all you need to do is get past that hard initial start. Consistently losing weight is more about finding what works for YOU specifically, and it's kind of more of a journey of discovery than one of pure willpower.

Honestly, I've cheated twice already on the fitness journey but it's cause I the carbs I ate after my workout ended up making me super hungry. I ended up eating around 300 more calories during those specific days. It took me literally 2 days to change that around and cut the carb out of the post workout meal and I'm back on track. I find that pure willpower is quite a dangerous thing, since you crash way too hard when you fail

Unfortunately I don't think I can see too much progress off the scale since I am still thinking of doing a body recomp to make use of my newbie gains. However, as a data driven person, it's nice to see the total weight lifted at the gym rise up week by week and seeing an improvement with my heart rate from an intense session of cardio. HR monitor is definitely a really worth purchase imo.

[Mr13percent]

Also make sure your doing it for the right reasons. I thought looking a certain way would change my social status and get the girls, and while it did to some degree, I still had other issues going on the weightloss could not help.

In other words, besides the obvious health benefits to my body, my mental health did not change and it may have actually gotten worse..

[Casca]

When I stopped trying to go from being fat to fit next week, next month, 6 months, next year. Just made sure I was consistent, didn't do any crazy low calorie starve yourself, hate it, forced crap. Just tried to eat less, just enough where I felt I don't really need to eat anymore and STOP. If later I felt I need to eat, then I do, but just enough. Enough became lesser and lesser over time. I was losing weight, not counting calories, not feeling hungry. Workout was simple, just go to the gym and walk on the treadmill. Not do crazy hard stuff that would make me dread the workout and possibly quit. Workout became more and more, started lifting, swimming and running. Took probably over 2 years till I felt like I was really in shape again.

That was maybe 4-5 years ago. I have switched how I workout to purely calisthenics. Work on skills like planche, front lever, dragon press, hand stand, besides push ups, pull ups and dips. This is stuff I couldn't even imagine doing even when I thought I was in shape and it really motivates me to keep at it.