I guess this is how I lose weight now ...

Let's get the stats out of the way:

31 female, 180 cm / SW: 107 kg / CW: 88 kg / GW 79 kg at least (healthy BMI)

I lost the first 16 kg over the last 3 years (I was pregnant in this time too so I kinda lost it twice in 3 years) through first WW and later calorie tracking.

In the last few months I felt kind of burned out with calorie tracking. Not really the tracking itself (I plan out my meals anyway so it just takes me a few minutes every other day) but with the numbers. It's hard to explain, but it kind of got to me. Seeing how many or how little calories a meal had shifted my thoughts to "oh I ate so many calories" (whenever I ate around 500 cal which is not that much for a tall woman like me) or "oh I ate so little" (even though a lower calorie meal can be very satisfying too).

I also noticed that these thoughts affected my feelings toward eating and made me think about food a lot. I even had a small binge here and there.

Long story short I decided to take a break from tracking. I made myself a chart writing down the foods I eat and use for cooking the most in categories of energy density (light green under 0.5 cal per g, green under 1.5, yellow under 2.5 and red over 2.5) in case I needed it when not tracking to make sure I don't overeat (spoiler: I didn't need it once) and deleted my tracking apps. I gave myself a limit of 3 meals and one afternoon snack (which is what I'll usually have when tracking too).

My ultimate goal was to maintain my weight while on this break. 10 days later I stepped on the scale and lost 1.5 kg and hit the lowest weight (88 kg) I had since I started measuring my weight (which was in my first pregnancy in 2015 at 95 kg).

I still started to track my calories again after that, even though I was very pleased with the outcome of this break and the mental state I reached while not tracking.

Well, turns out the tracking felt really stressful again after a few days, I started to feel "underfed" again even though my food intake wasn't far from what I ate while not tracking (I think I even ate more calories while tracking just "because I can") and just generally started to have more thoughts about food and eating and also urges to binge again.

So I decided to try my "break approach" again. To eat with a clear mind, but without clear numbers. Maybe this is the "lifestyle change" I always tried to approach and after 3 years of tracking I think I got my numbers down anyway and I KNOW what I'm usually eating is fine. Also I ask myself before EVERY meal: would a thin person choose that? Would they eat that amount? That food? That often? These thoughts really helped me making the right choices.

I won't weigh myself again until friday but what I can tell you by now is that my thoughts around food are much calmer already, my urges to overeat or even binge are gone and I feel mentally more satisfied after eating even though I still make the same healthy choices everytime I eat.

submitted by /u/Julia_the_Jedi
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/my2af1/i_guess_this_is_how_i_lose_weight_now/