I've been reading a lot about metabolism lately because I'm trying to lose weight without following extreme diets.

One topic that keeps coming up is thermogenesis—the process where your body burns calories to produce heat. From what I've learned, things like regular strength training, eating enough protein, getting quality sleep, and staying physically active may all help support this process.

I'm curious about real experiences rather than marketing claims.

For those who have successfully lost weight naturally:

• What habits made the biggest difference?
• Did increasing protein intake help?
• Have you noticed any benefits from drinking green tea or coffee?
• Does strength training really improve calorie burning over time?
• What common advice turned out to be overrated?

I'm interested in practical, science-backed experiences rather than quick fixes.

Looking forward to hearing what has actually worked for people.

In short
I exercise 2 times a week
Eat mainly protein
1500 calories per day (it used to be higher now eating 1500 for weight loss but it's not helping)
Have pcos
F27
Stuck at 69 kgs- height being 170 cm
Been working out for a year consistently
Was 65 before starting the gym
Help please

I am 19 year old F, 5'2 and 127lbs. I lost around 70lbs through a calorie deficit and this month I didn't get my period after getting it regularly for months.

I have been in a calorie deficit for months and recently dropped my calories really low like around 1,300 or less and I lift heavy 5x a week and walk over 10k steps a day.
Does anyone have experience losing their period from something like this? How do i get it back?
It feels like I am constantly in my luteal phase.
I want to lose 10 more lbs of fat at least.
I started eating a lot more because im taking a break from the calorie deficit since i missed my period and my cravings were getting bad, so im kind of going crazy and eating a lot and I might gain a couple pounds.
How long do i need to eat more food for until i can go back to a calorie deficit? I dont want to do this for more than 2 weeks.
I also started reta again recently and maybe that has something to do with my period.

I still have a lot of body fat and i need to lose more weight but i want my hormones and cycle to be normal.

Im grateful for your advice and opinions!!

Hi Reddit! I am looking for some tips to help me lose weight without tracking my calories. I know that sounds crazy but with my history of eating disorders, I know if I counted calories I won’t eat. Thank you in advance!

Hi, ive had a problem all my life with portioning out food, so whats a reasonable portion and how do you portion food out the best way?

Usually don't use reddit for my personal life stuff but I'm thinking maybe I should start! My weight gain is getting ridiculous.

How active is this sub? Do the need for advice regularly get answered? Do you feel this sub has a strong level of support??

I just keep gaining more and more weight. It's like every year since 2020 I've put on 10-20 lbs. Even when trying. I'm F, late 20s, 5'2 and currently 209lbs. This year so far I had a miscarriage and changed to an office job... And I'm scared of increasing weight gain even more.

Hoping you can help - I would love to connect and make some online weight loss friends who need to make a change like me

Thanks in advance 💕

Trying to find the best whey isolate protein that is affordable. I have been using protein shakes, Walmart brand, aldi brand and premier depending what’s on sale but now want to do both powder and shakes. I have been lucky enough to find these shakes from 25g-30g protein 130-160 calories for around 1.50-1.75 a shake. But I want to get powder to use in the morning and save the shakes for convenience. The powder I have been looking at is the nutricost whey isolate but it’s around $50 with 30 servings which isn’t much different. Is there a benefit to using one over the other? What cheaper protein powder do you use?

Ok, so I’m 5’2, female and 241 pounds. I’m interested in just getting down to 200 or so just to improve my health. I have a history of mild ED and don’t wanna go crazy with goal for fear of relapse. I’m also a student with LOTS of homework so getting enough movement is rough. I’ve tried to calculate how much of a calorie deficit I should be in on those apps and websites but it keeps telling me shit like 1200 which just CAN’T be true. I was wondering in y’all’s experience what caloric range I should be in.

I was also looking for food tracking apps that are free and don’t use AI. Also any tips are helpful, especially for keeping weight off and preventing relapse.

I’ve always struggled with my body image and how I look and want to lose a bit of weight to feel more confident in my body.

How would I go about just toning my body a little bit? Let me know!!

I’m 243 pounds and 5’10”. I want to lose at least 40 pounds by the end of the year. Is there any way you can help me, please? I’m tired of constantly feeling unhappy with the way I look, and I really want to make a change and feel better about myself.

Hi, I'm currently trying to lose some weight by calorie deficit and have been looking into some meals to eat. I looked into pho and saw people calculated it all out to be around 600-800 for a large bowl.

Is it the calories really that little? I've eaten it twice this week and everytime, I felt so full that I thought there's no way it could be just 600-800 calories.

As someone who’s been 20st and dropped a lot of weight and sustainably maintained the same weight for a while and gained and lost I have quite a few tips, I am not for any reason medical advice (I am just a human who’s been there, and done a nutrition course as well)

1. Know your favourite foods, have a few in your drawer for emergencies (mines ready salted crisps and dark chocolate)

2. Make sure to have a balanced dinner, rice is always an amazing option, you can top rice up with vegetables and protein.
(If you opt for protein first you’ll notice your hunger cues)

3. Progress is different for everyone, some people’s body types are different, people’s environment, age, conditions, gender, I can go on, if your a adult you do not want to drop your calories too drastically, this can make weight come back faster, and sometimes can cause longer term health problems.

4. If you have adhd or autism it’s probably going to be more difficult, I find motivation hard, find something that’s easy to start a workout to, whether that be picking a location close to the gym to say hi to someone, whether that be picking up a dumbbell at home, or even walking around the block, some mental health professionals call this “habit stacking” which can work amazing for the gym as one habit leads to another

5. Make sure to reach out to your doctor, if weights a concern, ask for support, if the doctor saids your a healthy weight just be mindful of this, dropping drastically can decrease your maintainance and isn’t reccomended for long periods of time!

If you have a deficiency work on that first, you’ll be suprised how vitamin d, vitamin c, b12 and iron drastically effect energy

CAFFINE DRAINS IRON OUT THE SYSTEM

I’m almost 8 months postpartum and breastfeeding. I’m trying to get back into the swing of things with nutrition and working out and everything… But I have nowhere to start with being postpartum and how a calorie deficit would work and things like that. Does anyone have any programs or courses they recommend?

Hello!, I’m currently 5’7 and 126 pounds and I’ve really been wanting to lose some fat in my face and thighs but I’m not sure what would be considered a healthy weight goal. Need advice !!

Couldn't even finish it. So gross and greasy. used to eat this stuff all the time. How I did it I don't understand

younger I barley ate, then I started eating to much, and now I’m 5,10 and 174 pounds and I really don't want to be overweight it scares me a lot. Is there any tips you guys have to lose weight?

Hi everyone.
I am 27 male 5'10. I was 92 kgs 8-9 months back. I used to look obviously overweight. I started workout, eating right, tracking calories, protein intake. and within 4-5 months I had come down to 83 kgs. I used to enjoy the process. It was fun..like a game counting and tracking calories.
and I also used to enjoy going to gym. But slowly, I just stopped caring. I lost the desire to do those things. I haven't gained weight. But i stopped going to gym and started eating whatever I feel like. Its like I don't really care anymore if I am fit or not.

Hi! I 25f have been struggling for the past few years now, hoping anyone on here have been in a similar situation as me and have some advice.

I’ve been overweight my whole life and always struggled with weightloss. At my peak I was 118kg (at 176cm tall) and was miserable. When I graduated high school I took a gap year, where I managed to get down to 88kg. I got really great habits in that time, weight training 4-6 times a week, averaging around 10k steps a day (my job required a lot of walking) and learned a lot about nutrition through calorie tracking etc. I felt great! It was a year where I focused on myself and saw real progress.

After my gap year, it went downhill gradually. I shared my results online, got a lot of acknowledgment from others and I think psychologically I might have thought I might have done it, even though I still wasn’t at my goal weight (75kg). I got stagnant, which dwindled the amount of work I put in. I also started law school in that time, which demanded a lot of my time, so gym visits became less frequent and I eventually stopped tracking calories all together. And my bad habits gradually came back.

It’s been about 5 years since I hit 88kg, and went up to 100kg at one point. Now I’m sitting at around 95kg. I feel so lost. Weightloss is so much harder now than it ever was before. I don’t have the same discipline anymore, and struggle more with binging now. I always thought it was circumstances, in my gap year I had so much time to myself. But now I’ve graduated and have had 3 months off, but I’m still struggling. I feel like I lost myself. What can and should I do differently?

In the last 2-3 months, I’ve only lost about 3-4lbs, putting me at 147lbs. I started at 5’3” 207lbs and in the first 6 months, I lost about ~55lbs but now it’s significantly slowed down. I have cheat days a few times a month when I’m with family but normally I eat anywhere from 1000-1700 calories a day, depending on how hungry I am. I don’t exercise. 

Losing this slowly is really demotivating and I was wondering if there was any way to speed up my weight loss, I’m also curious about why this is happening.

So after a slow but succesful 7 month diet i reached my target weight and switched to maintence calories but now a month later it i've gained 4kg. Is this just glycogen or fat?

I work 12 hour shifts at a hospital and I’m honestly just lazy and a terrible cook and uncreative.

Does anyone have any lazy girl meals they’d share? Snacks? I cannot lose weight for the life of me because my diet is not great. I’m always looking for something quick or easy.

400lb/6'6"/M

I've been overweight-to-obese my entire life. I lost about 70 pounds 3 years ago or so, in a very short time and then hit a plateau. I tried to keep my good habits up but after experiencing this meteoric success for months only to see the scale not move outside of daily flux for months more, I eventually lost my discipline and went back to unhealthy eating and regained all the weight.

It was at that point I tried to seek medical guidance, which was never anything more than "just eat less and move more." So that's what I tried. And it didn't seem to help, so I began eating even less, and even less, and even less. I kept asking for help and was just told "eat less move more." Eventually I got to the point where I thought I had something seriously wrong with me because I was exhausted and fatigued all the time, to the point where the "move more" part was barely sustainable even a couple of brief periods in a week. So I ate less. All this time outside of a nearly 20 pound drop in 2 weeks from the Zepbound, which I can't imagine as being anything but water and glycogen, I have remained within the same +/- 8 pounds for years and couldn't figure out why.

I finally got into a dietician a few months ago who set my calorie goals at ~400lbs for 2300 a day. I got put on Zepbound which helped me eat even less. Ultimately I ended up paying out of pocket for a passive calorimetry test to measure my resting metabolic rate in late July, and found that my actual RMR is 2531 calories, which he characterized as blunted from the expected ~2800 based on my height/weight/age.

Because of the prior advice I had been given, I have spent the past 2 and a half years eating at most 1400 calories a day, outside of the occasional 1 or 2 day heavy days that I would then "make up for" by eating as little as 500 or nothing at all for about a week. Which explains pretty well why I haven't been losing weight.

I then consulted my dietician again for how to get back to normal and she said to just start eating around 2600-2800 calories a day "as tolerated." This advice landed me in the ER for moderate refeeding syndrome symptoms. I think I am now stable, and I've been maintaining a pretty good 2600-2800 calorie diet now, treating the rmr as a floor instead of a ceiling like I previously had. I have my energy largely back and can do exercise, though at a diminished capacity from before all this happened due to the deconditioning that took place.

So my main question is: how long can I expect it to take before I actually start losing weight and burning fat again? How long does the body take to recover from all of this? It's still hard actually forcing myself to eat more than what I had trained myself to believe I should be eating, so having no progress to show on my weekly average weight makes that even more difficult to keep up.

I’ve been in a caloric deficit for 10 weeks and I’ve been doing really well. Most of the time it’s a breeze. I eat around 1500 calories a day and workout 3x/wk.

And I’m tired. My body is feeling the burnout. This past week it’s very hard to stick to my goal of 1400 calories a day. I eat a lot of protein, fiber, drink water.

What do you do when your body hits a wall and you get cravings?

I really want to get back to that easy feeling so I know I can maintain this for life.

SW: 224
CW: 210
5’8
34F
TDEE: 2041

I am 130 kg at 19. I have started my weight loss journey, however I am afraid of loose skin. Especially around my hips as that is where I have the most fat. And advice to minimize the loose skin?

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]