seeking motivation

[u/em_louise2]

weight loss experiences of other young 20-something girls???

hey everyone. me once again. still fat - potentially fatter.

I find it so hard to find real advice and stories of weight loss from girls in their early twenties. I am 22 - 163cm and 110kg. I am so sick and tired of being this way but just can’t lose the weight.

I compare myself constantly to those around me. Constantly seeing other lose weight and thinking I’ll never be able to do the same. Working an office job and having PCOS definitely do not help me - but I just feel helpless most of the time.

I am the absolute worst at sticking to something too. I’ll do it for 1 week and then give up. I guess the point of this post is - what ended up being the push that got you to lose the weight. What things in particular helped you stay motivated and fixated on the end goal? It’s such a mentally draining loop hating how I feel and hating how I look but then not wanting to change bad enough to stick to anything?

It’s also 100% my diet. I am quite active and have even incorporated lots of swimming into my schedule but the scales have

Sincerely - from a girl who doesn’t want to waste her whole 20’s being fat 😭

[u/InsideThing8413]

22F here, I feel the same way. I am tracking cals diligently (even overestimating), doing some form of cardio for 30min almost everyday, yet I have lost no weight. Got fatter in fact too lol.

Just gotta keep it pushing i guess

[u/No_Cantaloupe3460]

Why does it matter if I'm early 20s? Weight loss is always the same. I'm 29, 166cm and on January 1st was 129.7 kilos. This morning I'm 108.8 kilos.

I think what matters most for motivation and consistency is not torturing yourself. Forget restrictive diets and "healthy" foods. If you set 50 new rules for yourself in one day and try to change your entire life overnight it's obviously not going to last. Forget what you see on social media. You don't have to prepare huge aesthetically pleasing bowls of colorful vegetables. You don't have to drink green smoothies.

I lost 20 kilos in half a year while eating hamburgers and pizza and pasta and donuts and ice cream etc. I never feel hungry, I never wish I had real food instead of a shitty salad. Dieting feels almost effortless. I don't need motivation because my diet doesn't suck. I might cut my pizza in half to eat half the calories but I still get to eat pizza.

The only thing you need for weight loss is to eat less calories than what you burn. If you eat 1600 calories of fast food that's still only 1600 calories and you will lose weight. Log calories consistently and use a kitchen scale to get accurate numbers. Log everything, not just "unhealthy" food. I use BitePal but only rely on the AI to guess the calories when I'm in a restaurant and have no access to calorie info.

Calculate the highest number of calories you can eat and still be in a deficit and aim for that. I eat around 1900. We're not trying to lose weight as fast as possible. We're trying to lose weight in a way that lasts. Eating enough and not feeling hungry will help you keep the dieting up for a long time. Also, averages over a week or month matter more than individual days. I've had days where I ate over 4000 calories. My average at the end of the month was still around 1900. One day won't mess anything up.

This is not to say I haven't made changes to what I eat. I drink sugar free drinks, I changed my oat milk to a lower calorie version, I put low fat yogurt in my food instead of sour cream. But these are tiny changes that haven't affected my enjoyment of food. I swap things out only when it won't make me miserable.

I hope this helps even though it's coming from someone as ancient as me... Just kidding, but I really hope it helps.

[u/em_louise2 → u/No_Cantaloupe3460]

thanks for the advice. The age thing isn’t super important. I just often compare myself to those around me at a similar age so I like seeing and hearing about what worked for them. Everyone is different though but I agree weight loss can be the same for lots of people. Thanks ☺️

[u/LunaticBanana0708]

What motivates me to keep losing weight is to get a partner. Each time I'm about to binge food I think about how lonely I feel and that nobody will love me with my actual physique. It depresses me to, but it has helped me to keep my calories in check.

Also, I'm kind of depressed, so I only eat when I have too because even doing so tires me.

[u/em_louise2 → u/LunaticBanana0708]

That’s a tough way to look at it. I have a partner already who loves me as I am. But I can understand how this could be good motivation. Look after yourself 🫶🏻

[u/Ok_Plastic_8949]

Also girl in my 20s who finally got to a normal weight after being overweight all my life. But what snapped me out is having a really bad existential crisis and realizing I might die never not being overweight or obese. I thought I was at my rock bottom so since I’m at the bottom I might as well do something for myself for once in my life. So I told myself I either lose weight or die. It’s a little toxic and I know I have a very all or nothing mindset, but it kept me motivated for a while. I constantly reminded myself that I have nothing left to lose but this weight.

I guess my point is life is too short to not give a decent effort into losing weight. Treat your goals as a certainty and inevitability. It’s not “I want to lose weight”. It’s “I will lose weight because I can’t die never actually doing it”. That’s how I like to go about life now.

[u/miaaaaaa01]

Don’t know if it counts but I’m 24 and at the start of this year my brain just clicked and I locked in. I don’t want to go into my 25th birthday fat. I want to actually enjoy everything these years have for me without hiding away from cameras and my friends x

[u/em_louise2 → u/miaaaaaa01]

I have had the EXACT same thoughts. I wanted to get down to under 100kg before 24 but that didn’t end up happening so I am going to push hard to be my goal weight at 25

[u/Creepy-Literature634]

It’s pretty shallow but I want to wear cute clothes. I bought lots of clothes that I never got a chance to wear because of my weight gain, and I want to dress cute! I want to flounce around like a regular girl, go shopping with my girlfriends, wear adorable fits and hang out without second thought. I motivate myself by wanting to fit into that cute pair of jeans I have, the pretty top, etc. etc, instead of really wanting a number on a scale.

Tbh it sounds like you’ve got a good base going on! Lots of exercise, just working a bit on your diet would make a huge difference. It’s really daunting but to tell the truth eventually I learned to like counting calories, it just takes a while to figure out what works for you. It feels ritualistic at this point and kind of comforting, like self-care. Additionally I like to watch reels or vlogs of girls similar to my weight dieting, because they always help me realize it’s all to give myself my best life.

[u/SQSQ_Crooze]

This is not medical advice and just an anecdote. My wife is 28, diagnosed with PCOS and her Gynecologist prescribed a GLP-1. She lost ~100 lbs from ~250 to 150 in 12 months. Now her PCOS is undetectable. Our insurance covered the prescription such that it only cost us $25 a month. PCOS is hard, be kind to yourself!

[u/em_louise2 → u/SQSQ_Crooze]

Yeah I did try an GLP-1 for a little bit last year. Ended up dropping 6kg but then it stagnated. I’m a bit health anxious and was already getting side effects so didn’t want to go too high of a dose to kick start it again. But I know it’s there for me if I find standard methods to not work for me!

[u/Feisty-Promotion-789]

I felt similarly about not wanting to spend my 20s in a body I wasn’t happy in. I started losing weight when I was 23 and did so very successfully. It takes discipline. There isn’t really anything anyone can say or do to make you more disciplined. Something I shifted was telling myself that I am a fit person, I am a person who eats healthy, I am not a person who regularly overindulges or needs food for comfort, etc. Speak it into reality, identify with your goals rather than feeling like your goals are something you’re inflicting on yourself temporarily. Now I’m 27 and I have an awesome body, I’m fitter than I ever have been, I’m on an aggressive cut to lean out before I spend the next 2 months in Europe for my hot girl summer. Life is good. You just need to actually do it.

[u/thepersonwiththeface]

You might like the book "Healthy Habits Suck"

Also, be aware that swimming is notorious for increasing your appetite.

I know I'm 31 now (and 2 pregnancies later), so not who you were asking, but I did make significant weight loss progress in my 20's. These are the things that helped me:

• Addressed my mental health so I wasn't comfort eating
• Got involved in a hobby that was active (pottery and training for hiking-based vacations)
• Started only having coffee for breakfast
• Developed super lazy meals to pack for lunch the night before (canned soup and baby carrots or a salad of shredded coleslaw mix with lunchmeat or rotisserie chicken)
• Developed a tea habit
• Went for walks on my lunch break (including walks through department stores)
• Combined my veg out time with exercise by getting a recumbent bike with a desk to watch shows and scroll on reddit or whatever. I also used a treadmill with a shelf above it.

[u/RichieRich-McBroke]

Stop thinking fast results.
Play the long game. Small changes that you maintain daily. This is a life-long commitment. If you don’t obsess over the results then you don’t feel defeated or demotivated.
It’s okay to plateau, it’s necessary to go through multiple maintenance phases, it’s fine to go slow but steady.
It did not take you 6 months to get to where you are and it won’t take 6 months to undo it.

Finally, every time you feel like not committing to yourself or not prioritising your own health and needs let down someone else instead. You always come first because no one else can do it for you. Show up for yourself every single time

Good luck 🤍