Hello everyone!

R

RonMarsh

New member
New to this forum, although definitely not new to weight loss - and weight gain!

I'm 32, male, 5'10 and at the moment struggling with weight loss. Due to bad circumstances, I ballooned up to about 240 during last year and, after a really bad breakup, I'm trying to slim down again. And I'm really bummed, at this point.
I've been on a very strict calorie deficit for the past month and have only lost about 1 or 2kg, which is absolutely disheartening! I'm eating much, MUCH less than I used to, cut out bread entirely, I always eat cooked food, no takeout or junk, cut out sweets entirely and I do an hour of kickboxing three times a week - which is kicking my ass, albeit in a very satisfying way!
And still, nada! I used to be able to lose the weight pretty fast in my previous attempts without even exercising but this time, the scale doesn't budge!

I must note that the breakup has made me severely depressed and my sleep is best described as disturbed, at best. I never can sleep more than 4 or 5 hours a night, which, I'm sure both the aforementioned have a part in this.

Anyway, very nice to find a support forum and... here's hoping I'll start dropping!
 
Hi Ron and welcome,
You're in the right place, always plenty of advice here Perhaps a little info on your nutrition? I.e. What you're eating and drinking. When you say you're on a strict deficit, how much are you talking about?
 
Welcome to the forum :)

I would suggest starting a thread in the diary section, additional support will hep you keep on track and fine tune what you are doing to get results.
 
Thanks guys, nice to be here!

Well, mostly I'm eyeballing/guesstimating the calories of my meals. Always small plates, small, "logical' portions and everything's home cooked. Most days it's some kind of protein for lunch, perhaps coupled with vegetables and the same for dinner. I can't for the life of me eat breakfast apart from a cup of coffee. A typical meal would be a portion of roasted chicken or some other roasted meat with a small side salad, usually tomatoes and/or greens (lettuce usually) with either a tablespoon olive oil or no oil at all. No bread, no other side stuff. Dinner's the same, or, if unavailable for some reason, either a small grilled cheese, one slice turkey and some kinda gouda cheese or just 3-4 slices of turkey.

I also down at least 3l of water daily, probably more. Used to have a couple beers at first which kinda relaxed my whole... situation, but I've cut down on those too, although I will drink some occasionally. Usually on the weekends. Saturday I kinda go for a semi-cheat day. Certainly not binging on sweets or junk, just eating a tad more.

I'm not one to track macros and weigh every portion, never could do that but I'm pretty confident that what I'm eating is certainly, definitively, significantly less than what I used to eat, and coupled with quite a strenuous kickboxing exercise three times weekly, I was sure I'd be losing. Not yet, it seems.

What's baffling me is that, last time I tried -and succeeded in- losing quite a bit of weight, I followed a more lax diet than my current one, did very little exercise, no cardio at all, just body weight exercises at home whenever I felt like it, really, and the weight just fell off me. Now, it's less quantity, more exercise and yet... no results! At least yet. Not even water weight, although that could be due to the strenuous workouts.

I do experience telltale symptoms of major depression and I know the system's default is to flood the body with stress, fight or flight reaction hormones which are really bad for fat burning and weight loss but I can't do much about that at the moment and I'm trying to fight it sans pharmaceuticals. Coupled with the aforementioned lack of adequate sleep, it might be the problem.
 
Hi Ron,
I'm new here but I can feel where you're coming from. I would suggest finding something that you like to do that takes your mind off of your issues, hang out with friends that have a positive effect on you, do some moderate but not overwhelming exercises, take the television out of the bedroom, if you are religious, visit your place of worship, cut down on alcohol and caffeine consumption, if you feel the least bit guilt, forgive yourself. Realize that you are important and never let anyone take that away from you. Realize that piling on the pounds can lead to other health complications, that would only escalate your problems. Lay off the fast foods, potato chips and all those snacks that have a lot of empty calories. Ron You're gonna be fine, it's a process and soon it'll work itself out, I promise!

Thanks for sharing,
Robert
 
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Hi, Ron & welcome to the forum. As Tru said, the diary section of the forum is where you'll get additional support. Most of us stay in that section & only venture out occasionally. The link to that is https://weight-loss.fitness.com/forums/weight-loss-diary.9/
Stress alone can slow weight-loss. Cortisol release under chronic stress can make weight loss difficult for a couple of reasons. High levels of the hormone attack muscle mass, slowing metabolism due to the fact that muscle burns calories to simply exist. It's a double whammy when you are also not getting enough sleep. Tackling the stress & finding ways to relax seems to me to be your best strategy. Something like yoga, meditation or swimming, which may sound tame to you, may just be the key to being able to learn to switch off.
Make sure that you are not under-eating as that may also slow down your metabolism. As Robert said, you will get there. We never stop learning.
 
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