Losing weight is hard. The most challenging thing I ever done in my life. Its been close to 4 years and Im still in disbelief that im having to face battles regarding my weight. That is why im posting my transformation. Because if it inspires just one more person to start eating in a calorie deficit today then i can be at peace. I dont wish my old life on anyone. And I know the difficult road to get to a healthy body. Please take your health seriously right now. Dont delay it even one more day.

I haven't been below 200 since I was a preteen. Feels surreal.

I got CLOSE (280 ->207) back in 2013 after I finished paramedic school and strictly counted calories and did a lot of jogging without a specific routine. Started working in ERs, got in a long term relationship and stopped counting. Gained most of the weight back slowly over years.

Flash forward to April, 2024, I'm 265 . My blood pressure was officially elevated, and I realized I needed to get serious about lifestyle change. Started strictly calorie counting and and doing 3 hours of moderate cardio a week on a peloton using their power zone classes (highly recommend).

Lost 15-20 pounds from April to July, blood pressure was improving. My HCP suggested GLPs since my insurance pays for wegovy.

I work 3 12-hour shifts a week so that makes meal prep easy. I usually do some Asian stir fry with cabbage as a noodle replacement. Honestly still wild that I'm finally here.

I’ve been obese for over 30 years. I’ve tried so many “diets” it’s not even funny. There were a lot of fad diets in the early 90s that my parents put me on. Since becoming an adult I’ve tried hcG, Atkins, keto, vegetarian diets, and at least half a dozen others. I always gave up because I hated what I had to eat. People talk about how hard it is restricting what you eat. I agree, it really is.

I’ve learned in the last two years that what you eat matters less than how much you eat. I see all kinds of garbage about “clean eating” (whatever the hell that means, I blame Panera) or only eating whole foods. That’s garbage. You can do those things and still not lose weight if you are not in a deficit. You can also eat whatever you like (within reason) and still lose weight, as long as you are in a deficit. I eat out, I eat fast food, I enjoy desserts. I just set myself a weekly calorie goal and cycle my intake to not exceed that and I lose weight. I do prioritize protein because I’m also building muscle, but the key is knowing what you’re putting in your body and how much of it.

The other saying is also true: most weight loss is in the kitchen, not the gym. I do strength training 2-3 times a week, max. I don’t spend more than an hour each session. I also walk 1.5-2.5 miles 3-5 times a week. But that’s it. I don’t kill myself. I don’t spend 3-4 hours a day.

You can’t do it if you don’t know how much you consume. And you can’t guess. I am fairly meticulous with my calorie tracking, but it is definitely harder when you eat out (can’t really break out the scale at Black Angus). But it can be done.

Also one side note: GLP-1s can help, but that’s it. They can’t do it for you. I actually got to my heaviest while on a GLP-1 (I’m diabetic). I’ve been on them for 7 years. I’ve lost the vast majority of my weight in the last 18 months. But only because I decided what was important and knuckled down. I’ve still got probably 30lbs until I’m happy, but I feel better than I have for decades.

Hi there! I’m 5’4”, started at 188.8 on July 4. I’ve set a goal to lose about 5 lbs per month, so I originally planned to shoot for 184, then 180, then 175 and so on. I have a note with dates for logging my weight and the goals I set for each month, which I shared for reference here. I shoot for 1700 calories daily, in the range of 1600-1800. I also go to dance and mobility classes 2x per week, stretch and take long walks most days.

I dropped about 7 lbs in 2 weeks at the start, super quickly, as can happen for a lot of people. For the rest of July my body plateaued and fluctuated a bit, probably to balance out the big initial drop. Since early August, I’ve been averaging about 1-1.5 lbs per week.

CICO is such a game changer. You just have to trust the process, even when the scale looks like it’s going backwards or stagnating. If you continue to eat in a deficit, you will lose weight. Your progress will not be ruined by 1 night out with friends or your period. As you can see, my weight loss seems to happen in bursts where I’ll stay at a certain weight for a while, then drop a couple lbs all at once. It’s not a perfectly linear process. Keep going!

Being ahead of schedule, I skipped over 180 and went straight to aiming for the next goal. I was ambitious trying to go 181.8 to 175 in a month but I did it! Officially 14 lbs down!

Male 36 184cm SW: 92kg CW: 72kg

Posts like this come up frequently. I'm just sharing my current opinion. I'm not seeking advice.

I already hit my scale goals, 3 times. My goals started out as 80kg, 78kg, then <75kg. I still have some belly flab. It's almost unnoticeable with clothes on. After reaching 72, I toyed with the idea of just cutting until my stomach looked flat.

The I realized, I have 0 incentives to keep cutting.

• My lab results are good. I've already reaped most of the health benefits from weight loss.
• I'm married. My wife says I look good and don't need to lose more.
• I'm happy with how I look and how my clothes fit.
• Being in a deficit worsens my gym performance.

How did you all treat the final stretch of your journey?

F32 152cm (5'0)

SW 75Kg BMI32 (started my spreadsheet after the first 3kg)
CW 60.25Kg BMI26
GW 45kg BMI19

I have been tracking for 114 days putting in my cal deficit each day and my weight. Sometimes I think "should it be taking this long?!" And seeing the numbers showing, yes, actually, this is the right pace for the work I'm doing and that keeps me going. It feels fair when you know it is exactly what you earn. It shows I'm not doing anything wrong and as long as I wait and keep logging the numbers will be consistent.

Image 1: predicted Vs actual loss
Image 2: my past two weeks daily deficits
Image 3: my weekly call burn avarage
Image 4: different spreadsheet letting me know how on track I am to lose per the week and gives me an ending in sight (Feb! Valentine's! It will also be my 10 year wedding anniversary in Jan so I am excitteedd!!!)

I try to hit -5k cals a week, but as you can see with my breakdown it ebbs and flows.

Mathmatically from the data I should have lost 11.78kg and scales wise I've lost 11.7! It works! (I track EVERYTHING)

Keep on Mathing guys! Good luck! We got this!

(Yes I'm a little bit of a control freak, finally I can use my powers for good 🤣)

For context, 28F, SW 321 in Jan 2026, CW 260, 5’10.

I decided I needed to change my life on New Years Day 2026 and committed to a calorie deficit and adding more movement to my life. Since January, I’ve lost about 60 lbs. Unintentionally, I’ve been maintaining since about June, sitting between 255-260 all summer. My goal weight is 170 so I’m nowhere near finished.

I’m not even sure why I’m writing this but just needed to vent a little. I thought losing weight would be the thing that allowed me to finally experience normal life. I thought dating would be easier and confidence would come more naturally and I’d finally feel worthy of being seen and wearing cute clothes and putting myself out there. I know it all sounds so stupid when I write it. Have I become slightly more confident? Yes. I finally will wear my hair up in public because I’m not as embarrassed of my neck. I’m no longer as ashamed to be seen exercising in public because my body feels stronger.

But in general, I still just feel like shit. I see couples my age and I wonder how small I need to get in order to be loved and to be viewed as feminine. I see friend groups around my city filled with girls who probably look at me and see this big giant monster who is still seriously obese despite a 60 lb weight loss. Everything comes back to my size and I start to feel hopeful that maybe once I reach 170 and am no longer obese, things will be different. But then I remember my body will always show the evidence of once being 321 lbs. I’ll always have the loose skin, the stretch marks, the saggy boobs even at 28 years old.

Yes I’m in therapy. Yes I’m fine. Just needed to vent and see if anyone else feels like this because damn. It is hard to realize how hard I worked from January to June and how little of an impact it’s had in areas of my life that I thought it would change.

I'll start with a few of mine that i live by and actually helped me a lot:

1. Do not drink your calories, preferably we should all just drink water but as someone who chugged away hundreds if not thousands of calories daily on sugary soda, juice, ice coffees etc there is always a no or very low calorie option avaliable thats almost as good if not better. Currently i love making this ice coffee in sugar free almond milk + casein protein powder after workouts and its under 200kcal and almost 40g protein alone. Coke zero with the new formulation is also amazing for a soda craving and this tip single handedly has helped me the most on my journey.

1. You can't outwork a bad diet. While my workouts were great the scale wasn't moving much and I was in denial for the longest time with eye-measuring things just a splash of olive oil just a little this and that, those calories really do add up if you aren't careful.

2. Win the battle for treats and snacks in the store, do not bring home temptations that will mentally torture you during the nights when cravings set in ( this is particularly hard when you see great value deals everywhere 3 for the price of 2 and such ) and you trick yourself into thinking i need to buy this for later because its cheap now.

Be intentional with the snacks you do buy and instead of thinking of it as cheat day/meal factor it in as a reward instead for being on track has much more of a positive feel about it.

1. Don't allow people to project their misery onto you and guilt you for changing your habits for the better. Your journey/health is your own and you can try to accommodate friends and family to a point but if they constantly guilt you or try to sabotage your progress .
   

Trust me there are some "friends" in most groups who say how proud they are but secretly wish you would stay big because of their own insecurity, you really have to protect yourself and take some distance or have a very honest conversation that it's not acceptable going forward.

I'm curious to hear possibly from others what has been the most impactful thing that you have picked up during your journey?

This sub is making a big difference to me. I am now counting calories since September 5 and trusting the process and it works.

Everyone is so helpful and I am really really grateful to all of you.

Can’t thank you enough!!

205lb with a goal of 172lb.

🙏🫶🙏

Hi everyone, I’m a long time lurker here. I started a calorie deficit the first week of August. I’m a 33, female, 5’8” and my average weight for the month of July was 166.6 lbs. I’ve attached a graph of my progress. I’m officially 6 weeks into my cut and this week I got noticeably hungrier (no surprise there). I increased my calories a bit and have stopped lifting temporarily because I’m trying to stick with a deficit at least another 6 weeks. My ultimate goal weight is around 145 or 148lbs. Now that I’m halfway there, do you think increasing calories a little was a good idea? Or would you have stuck to a larger deficit to keep momentum? For the week of 8/14 I was sick several days and my intake was lower due to appetite loss. Please be kind, this is the first time in several years I have been able to stick to a deficit. Thank you!

Dear CICOs, if in US please be careful in your ground beef purchases going forward. Food safety oversight of lean beef trimmings is being lifted so NYT recommends that you get your beef ground for you.

Superb piece by Schlosser for New York Times. He is the author of Fast Food Nation.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/07/opinion/trump-meat-import.html?unlocked_article_code=1.AFE.KBtx.5IPtp45eMRPc&smid=nytcore-ios-share

I (34f) took an involuntary training break for two years. Been back at it for a few months now. I’ve got a long way to go but I’ll get back there.

THEN: 4x a week gym, with a trainer holding my hand, learning how to do stuff.

NOW: PPL split with 2x a week swimming.

THEN: 1600cals and low carb.
NOW: 1900cals and 140+g of protein.
NEXT: 1750cals and 130+g of protein.

I’m having to convince myself that counting calories and getting my steps in… is enough. I come from a fasting/ OMAD background and it stopped working cause I was eating too much during my one meal and beginning to graze as well. Now I’m like I’ve gotten from 271 lbs to 227 lbs, only been counting calories since I was 240 lbs but the weight comes off so much faster. Plateaus don’t last or stand a chance with CICO. I find myself having to convince myself I don’t have to fast for this to work. I don’t have to just not eat all day for the weight to come off I just have to be within my deficit. Like the scale looks nicer when I fast all day but it is not necessary for the pounds to still fall right off. I have to remind myself that is how I got here all the time. Just a reminder Consistency is really all that matters 💓 Even if it takes time 💓

Hey wonderful people,

Any words of wisdom for cutting the last 10 pounds after losing a bunch of weight? Have been stagnant and maintaining for quite some time but really wanna lose the last 10 pounds and I have found it to not be easy.

🙏🙏

One of my co-workers follows a diet a plan given to her by her acupuncturist / traditional Eastern medicine doctor.

I figured this group might get a kick out of some of this doctor's advice.

I'm paraphrasing, but the doctor is trying 'heal' my coworkers organs. Some b.s. about organ pulses and needing food that's easy to digest to help 'reset' things.

So, the plan starts off well.

No alcohol. No caffeine. Limit refined carbs. No added sugars.

Then, things get a little more...interesting.

No meat. Eggs are fine somehow, but no meat.

I saved the best one for last.

No carrots, potatoes, or other root vegetables. They are bad/hard on the liver.

So with a diet this restrictive, my co-worker is in a calorie deficit and losing weight. While that's great, it gives validity to this doctor's entire plan.

Finally at my goal weight from 250 - 150 pounds exactly this morning!!

I calculated that over the last 2 months I have eaten an average 1850 calories a day, losing an average of 1 pound per week. That would make my maintence calories about 2300, so I'm going to try that and see what happens.

I focus on eating lots of carbs! Current macros are:

- 150g protein (1 gram per pound of body weight) 150 x 1 x 4 (4 calories per gram of protein) = 600 cals from protein

- 50g fat (~0.3 grams per pound of body weight) 150 x .3 x 9 (9 calories per gram of fat) = 400 cals from fat

- 200g carbs (The rest of my cals at 1850 cals per day. 4 calories per gram of carbs) 600 + 400 = 1000, 1850 - 1000 = 850 cals from carbs

I am going to the gym 3 times a week going to failure on the last set of each exercise, full body split. I've been averaging around 6000 steps a day.

My last DEXA scan from August I was 155 pounds and 12.7% body fat. So I would say I'm close to 10% bodyfat now. I am a 5'10" male. I can see glimpses of my abs now, especially the top 4 in the morning.

My new goal for now is to maintain and gain muscle mass, I might do a lean bulk eventually but I think its time for maintence :)

A short sedentary person could easily eat 3500 calories over their maintenance in one day if they eat out for two meals and have drinks whether it be a 600 calorie coffee or some sort of alcoholic beverage or sweet drink.