Hello all! I am in my mid 30s, female, 5’3”. Most of my life I didn’t struggle with extra weight. Several years ago I gained about 30 lb and got to 150 lb. I stayed that way for over a year, then finally decided to take control and lose the weight.
I started with 38% body fat (dxa scan). Within the first 8-9 months, I lost 20 lb. I live a sedentary lifestyle and did CICO and weight lifting to lose weight. I also made it a goal to get 10k steps everyday by buying a Fitbit and I did improve my activity levels but would only reach my goal 1-3x/week. I started with 1800 calories and did weights 2-3x per week, but wasn’t really gaining strength and if anything, I was losing strength. I got down to about 34% bf.
It took over a year to lose the last 10 because I stopped tracking for the most part. I still kept the exercise the same. I lost 5 lb this way. I eventually started tracking again and aimed for 1500 calories. I am now at 120 lb and 31% bf. 120 lb is my old weight.
Unfortunately, I’m much more flabby and soft than before at the same weight and I still haven’t regained much strength. I used to be able to do 7 pull ups in a row prior to the weight gain and now I can barely do 1, if that. I am currently working on gaining my strength back with a lot of protein powder and more intense weight lifting. I hope by summer next year I’ll be in good shape again although I’m not expecting to be at 7 pull up status.
I still don’t fit into my old clothes either, I’m still off by about a size. Muscle really does take up less room than fat. My new goal is to get down to 25-27% body fat.
I hope this posts is relatable to anyone else like me. I never had tons of weight to lose but I was considered overweight on the BMI scale and I didn’t look or feel good. I learned that it’s better to just... not gain the weight to begin with. But if you do gain weight and diet, make sure to eat enough protein (something I didn’t track well abs I suspect is the main cause as to why I lost so much strength). It was so hard to lose the weight and it’s so much harder to be fit again. I also learned that it was better for me to be less restrictive but more consistent over time, since I really enjoy food and it’s a big part of my life.
The weirdest part of all though was how weight gain completely messed up my own self image and it still hasn’t recovered. The entire time I was “fat,” I kept crashing into wall when turning corners because I didn’t realize I was bigger than before. Now when I see people much heavier than I am, I think we look the same. It’s a complete mindfuck every time I look in the mirror. It makes no sense because I can see my clothing size and I have before and pics but for some reason my brain hasn’t caught up subconsciously. I hope it catches up soon. Prior to the weight gain, I was very accurately aware of my own size and look.
Here are some before and after pics:
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/ji7g0e/i_finally_got_to_my_goal_weight_but_im_a_lot/
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