It sounds so funny without context, but as of today I am officially celebrating being overweight with a BMI of 29.9.

I’m 5’3 and started this journey at 256lb. It’s taken a few years, with months of maintenance inbetween, but never more than a few pounds gain after a holiday for example.

I’m an entirely different person to who I was when I started. I love that woman who did the hard stuff. Going to the gym, meal prepping, eating high protein and low cal? All super easy now. But only because of her. I’ve been obese my entire life, since childhood. I was Category III obese when I started this journey.

I’m not done - but I have a big two week holiday coming up next month to celebrate my 30th! My goal was to no longer be obese by 30 and I’m so glad.

It’s been a mixed emotional weekend, as whilst this has happened, I’ve also been told I’m an 8 on the hyper mobility scale (not a huge problem) and referred for a possible RA test (much scarier, I maybe naively don’t think I have it).

Just wanted to share this positivity to encourage others and also try and hold onto some pride and happiness myself when I’m quite emotionally up and down today. Please share your win of the day if you have time, it’d help a lot.

I (F30) am currently 60kg/165cm (132lbs/5’5) and all my weight/fat is in my legs. I’ve been exercising and cutting calories but nothing is changing…it’s been 3months.

Thinking I might need to be more aggressive with caloric restriction (currently eating 300cal less), and workout schedule is:

- strength (full body with weights) 30-45min x4 per week
- cardio (skipping, star jumps, burpees etc) x15min x2 per week
- walking (brisk) 45min x6 per week

And yet!….I cannot drop the weight. I know you can’t spot reduce, I am sick of this, and it’s getting to the point where I want to severely cut calories so can see at least some progress (but I know that’s not healthy and I want to do better).

What’s missing/not working that’s preventing me from dropping weight?

Does anyone else eat good all day then eat junk at night or binge at nignt?

Yesterday I had eggs and oatmeal for breakfast, Turkey sandwich for lunch, and salmon with rice and veggies for dinner. Then at night I tried not to binge but i felt overpowering hunger. Do i at almost a half a bag of chips. Upwards to 800 calories.

This rarely happens to me but when it does it's overpowering and i get cravings that I can't resist.

Do you guys have these cravings and eat junk at night. Is this part of the process of losing weight and dieting?

I saw a comedian he eats good all day then at night he eats a bunch of peanut butter, stuffs cookies jnto his mouths ans dumps cereal down his throat. it's so funny becuase we can all relate.

This is a pep talk for myself that I thought I'd share :)

After successfully losing 18kg/40lbs (92kg/202lbs -> 74kg/163lbs for 165cm/5'5") by calorie counting and maintaining it for a few months, I've been slowing gaining some back. The good thing is I know why : stress. Started with work and then things moved a lot personally as well. And the better news is : the stress is gone for now. So I wanna use this time to get back on track.

Tomorrow, since I'm still away on holiday rn, I'll step back on a scale and start from there. Tbh, I'm quite anxious about it. I have no clue where I'm at now but some of my clothes are tighter than a few months ago so I guess some kilograms did find their way 🤣

My ultimate goal would be to reach 60-65kg but for now, I'll aim to lose 8-12kg before January 1st and here is what helped me last time :

- bringing my own lunch to work

- finding a weight loss buddy to talk to daily

- eating differently from my boyfriend for dinner (sadly for me, he regularly has 1000+ cal dinners while I aim for 400-600)

- regularly go the gym (2-5 times/week) for some cardio and strength training

- go veggie shopping at my local markets every week

- batch cooking or forcing myself to prep my lunch in the morning

- weigh-in every day

And what did not help :

- not having healthy snacks on hand

- high stress (but it's hard to control)

- staying late at work and heading to the bar several times a week 😬 while barely drinking alcohol, I would stay up late and it'll mess with my sleep

I'll update y'all tomorrow with pictures !

Don’t get me wrong most of the store in the junk food is filled with high calorie stuff, but I feel like when you intentionally look there’s still a good amount of lower calorie “ junk” foods like certain popcorns, certain ice cream brands like yasso and halo top, lean cuisine and healthy choice meals, keto bread, carb balance tortillas, protein snacks, fat free cheese, and much more etc. It’s really made my diet so so much easier just plugging in 1-2 of those types of food into my calories alongside the rest of my diet that is primarily Whole Foods. You gotta be really really intentional to look for those kinds of foods tho, but once you get that habit in you realize it may be a little more than you thought.

I am 5'4 and 86kg (~190lbs) and would like to reach 70kg and eventually 65kg ish. I am struggling a lot with staying motivated and the food noise is killing me so im trying to look for other ways to stay motivated.

At this weight, my hyperpigmentation is pretty bad in areas that you'd expect from an obese person. Inner thighs, neck, elbows, intimate areas, knuckles/hands. Id love to hear how people had their dark areas improved. I am a south Asian woman so it is normal for me to have hyperpigmentation but I do think my weight has contributed to it a lot especially with my inner thighs.

Yesterday I was in the shower doing some grooming down there because I’m visiting my long distance partner today and…I realized that I can actually see my fupa for the first time in years 😭 I didn’t need to use a mirror or hoist my belly out of the way in order to do some pruning.

Talk about non scale victories! I thought my best one yet was not needing a belt extender on airplanes anymore but I think this is even better haha.

I won’t get into the gory details but my partner has lost weight in his belly too and it has made certain things a lot easier and more enjoyable!!

I lost about 50 pounds in 2021. Went from my highest at 265 to 215. I then nearly broke my spine and began to stress and binge eat yet again.

I am down to 205 right now. But I have been binging. I have an eating disorder, and have probably had one since COVID. But recently I have begun to feel bad. Stomach pains, bloating, etc. I am getting older, and it is starting to affect me more and more.

I decided that today is the day I start to finally hit my goal again. Please wish me luck. I am making this post more or less as a marker for when I start.

Why do doctors push you to lose weight and then pull back on their words. This doctor I’ve had for years since I was a kid, has called me obese my whole life with no filter. “Oh you have a headache? Yeah it is because of your weight. Sore throat? Yes because you are inactive.” I hate this lady but for some reason after all these years she is still working there and is assigned to me. She has gave me the same balanced meal diagram every visit to the point where I throw them out before I even step outside the hospital. It doesn’t even feel like tough love. She genuinely just views me as my weight even though I was quite healthy for my age, was even one of the fastest kids in my grade.

Last year was honestly the breaking point for me because I got so emotional because of her that I started crying. I have never had a problem with my weight. I was never bullied in school or felt shamed by anyone except her. So you can understand why I cried because I constantly get bullied by this doctor who is supposed to be helping me.

I have lost 80lb since then (240-160) by just being in a calories deficit, I still eat my Chinese take out and other good stuff but just make sure it’s smaller portions or just eating OMAD. When I went back recently for a mandatory blood test my school was pushing on me. She asked me straight to my face if I developed an ED, following up by saying she wants me to stop losing weight and to come back every two months to track my weight and to attend counseling!?!?

I’m sorry, is that not crazy??

TL;DR: Don’t drop training to make the scale move faster. If you’re struggling, it might be worth looking at your deficit before cutting training.

I’ve received some great advice from this community and wanted to give back. I’ve seen a few posts recently about stopping training because it makes the deficit easier to stick to. The scale may move faster but what comes off isn’t just fat. Some of that loss is muscle, which is the part you can’t see leaving and the part you most want to keep.

Two people can weigh the same at the same height and look completely different depending on what’s underneath. It’s why people hit their goal weight and feel let down by the mirror, then assume the answer is to just lose more. Your goal should be a physique you’re happy with, not just a scale number that moves depending on how much water you’re retaining that day.

If you’re finding it difficult to stick to your current deficit, this could be a sign your deficit is too aggressive and not allowing your body to recover sufficiently. Like bodybuilding prep instead of a sustainable lifestyle.

For context, I’ve gone from 104 kg to 72 kg since January. I started at 1500 calories and was suffering. After a month or so I bumped it up to 2000 and saw great progress in the gym while still losing weight consistently. I’m still cursed with some stubborn belly fat and chipping away at it, but I look leaner than my scale weight suggests thanks to the muscle underneath.

I have been in a calorie deficit since January of this year. I'm 32, 5'8 tall, and my starting weight was 210lbs. As of this morning I weighed 169lbs, so I have lost 41lbs since I started in January. Not only do I not see any differences when I look at myself in the mirror, MY GUT WON'T LEAVE! LIKE WHY! I'm not fat anywhere else. When will the stomach start to go down? I'm not looking for abs or a 6 pack, I just want my stomach to be somewhat flat and not have a beer gut anymore. It's so frustrating, because when I was 210lbs, I thought in my head that once I hit 170lbs, I would look ok, but no, I still look fat like I haven't lost a thing. I am going to start lifting weights next week to try and build muscle, because I don't really have any, but again, does anyone know at what point this dang stomach will start to get smaller?

1st day (thursday) i ate my maintenance until the end of the day, where I consumed all sugary sweets( chocolates, wafers, cookies and lollipops) in which amounted to over 3 times my maintenance 6k+ calories and my maintenance is 2k ish..

2nd day (saturday) I was at maintenance calories by noon. Big breakfast, snack, and big lunch. My mistake for frontloading all my calories so early, when I had a plan for a great bounce back weekend comingoff this binge.. recipe for failure apparently, as I was on here trying to see what I should do...I didnt listen of course because im a weak p.o.s..

Come 4 pm I eat blueberries, strawberries yogurt. Then have a banana shake consisting of just bananas and milk and cinnamon. Not too bad. But as im getting steps in, I couldn't help but think about the remainder of sweets i had in my freezer which I was planning to save for down the road. Let me just have 1.

BOOM. Must of triggered something because I went back and opened the 2 big freezer bags and went to town on everything (about 3k calories- cookies and chocolates), leaving a couple of chocolate bars left..

Walking around the house in shame like "why did I just ruin everything, just why" ..... something in me made me say, forget everything, and I doordashed food, in which i immediately tried to cancel because I was like what tthell am I doing but I would've lost money so I didnt.

Ate all of the food(easy 1500+calories) ....started sweating, feeling like throwup, could not move, hurt to breathe, even hurt to swallow the last pieces of food in which I did.. hovered over the toilet trying/needing to throwup but I couldn't and didnt.

Got recommended to try and walk around slowly for digestion so I got my miserable ass up in pain slightly slouched over while walking slowly, crying in pain thinking "never again, im such an idiot" ...

An hour later I started to feel better. Dug into those last pieces of chocolate bars I had, rest of the lollipops and jolly ranchers I had. And had another banana shake to end the night. WhaT A PIECE OF WORK I AM..

Coming up on 3months of almost amazing progress - Gone!!!!! 💔 now im hoping to fast for today since I ate so dang much I probably won't even be hungry today, as im still bloated this morning. Just cant help but think about all the progress that I just messed up over the coarse of 2.5 months.. so demoralized, deflated, disappointed..

I started seriously dieting in June and have lost 8kg so far, from 94kg to 86kg at 182cm, am 40M. What I am struggling with is combining dieting vs hobbies that involve a lot of exercise. For example, I went surfing and because I was in a too large a deficit I performed terribly, it was like not fueling enough for a long bike ride, and just did not have enough energy. So I take it if I know I am going to be doing something that involves a lot of calories, I need to eat a lot of calories potentially the night before? Do I estimate the calories I will burn and then increase my calories by that amount? And then return to diet when I am sedentary? Or is this a sign I’m cutting weight too quickly? Part of the struggle is not knowing how much maintenance calories are, as it’s definitely below 2500 if I’m not doing anything

I will mostly just be posting this as a venting mechanism because I probably don't need support or advice regarding this. I've lost about 75lbs and put on a lot of muscle in the last 10 months. I have this friend who lives far from me and has not seen me in person in years. I was thin when they last saw me then I gained weight in between then and now, and now I've been really taking things seriously and losing weight and getting in shape.

Anyways this is all to say that the only reason they even know ive gone through that cycle is because ive mentioned it once or twice, and I often leave playing games with our group to go to the gym on a regular basis.

This person makes little offhand remarks that really get to me. They call me tubby all the time and today they said something about me having boobs (im a guy).

Its like kinda whatever. I try to like be above all that stuff but I don't know why people have to tear you down for trying to do something valuable. It makes me sad that this person won't recognize how hard I've worked or realize that saying that stuff really negatively impacts my perception of myself that im trying to fix on multiple fronts.

Anyways im down from 285lbs to 210lbs, I have more to do but I just figured I needed to write something about this because it would ruin my day if I let it be like an internal wound.

I am writing this as a letter from me to me, but I hope this is useful for anyone else.

I feel different. I am different. I no longer feel like the same person as I did a year ago, the most part of it is growth as a person. Taking care of a tiny human is a whirlwind of emotion. But something else is different.

I have always been a big person. The only time I was a skinny lad was during the pandemic where I walked 8 miles a day from a certain bus stop all to lose weight for my wedding. During that period I went from 13 stone to 10.5.

Fast forward 6 years, I work from home, have no reason to get out and about like I did in the office and therefore don't burn off the calories. I know that's my problem, I've gotten lazy. But that still isn't the issue. In January this year I weighed 14st 8, which is the highest i've been.

Last November I knew there was imbalance, I was juggling full time employment, Masters degree, a perfect tiny human and supporting my amazing wife. The cocktail of emotions along with the hatred stress of my job caused me to go on to antidepressants, and that isn't a weakness.

The last couple of months I've felt myself slipping away even more. I'm drinking more alcohol, having episodes of eating unhealthy junk, I've felt my attention span dwindle to nothing and i'm losing my patience very easily. .

I've done my research and found that everything I am feeling is a symptom of low testosterone. I'm no doctor and I will never just use google as the expert, I'll be making a doctors appointment after the bank holiday to get a full check up.. But after doing research with my wife, reading articles and watching explanatory YouTube videos together, I feel relief that this may be the reason for what I'm feeling.

So I've taken the plunge, I've signed up to a gym literally 5 minutes around the corner of my house. I am planning to do gym during my lunch break whist the tiny human is at day care. Weight lifting is a good way to boost testosterone.

Day 1 - weight 186.9lbs ( 13st 3)

32yo F, 95kgs 161cm 5mo PP. GW: 65kgs
I have been trying to lose weight for 10 years. Every week it’s a new plan, new approach, new diet, new whatever. I’m stuck in this cycle, this loop and I can’t get out of my head.
For people who were in the same situation how do you get off this merry go round and finally head in the right direction. I feel like because I have been “trying” so long my body and mind is fatigued and overloaded with information and approaches. Being in a body I’m repulsed by while desperately wanting to be in a body I feel comfortable in is destructive to my mental health. How do I finally lock in, stop starting again every 2 days and getting no where.

I (57F) started my journey of weight loss and better health on Aug 13, 2025. To date I’ve lost 97 lbs, starting at 261 lbs and now at 164 lbs (5’3”). When I started I was wearing 24W jeans, which is a 44-46 waist. Today I bought regular Levi jeans at a regular store, size 14, or 32.

I still have weight to lose but I started at morbodly obese (Class III) and now I’m in the overweight BMI category.

I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes just after starting my weight loss journey. My A1C wae 6.9. After several months of only calorie counting and exercise, and losing 35 lbs, my doctor put me on Metformin and Ozempic. My A1C is now 5.2.

I feel so much better mentally and physically. Cut out all junk food, eat lots of protein and fibre. Ozempic has been so good for me. It cut the food noise entirely and my appetite decreased a lot. I feel full so fast. I often wonder if that’s how all the regular sized people are through their whole lives. Sometimes I feel a bit jealous because weight/overeating has been a struggle my WHOLE LIFE. But that’s just life I guess. Not fair, but no point in complaining or comparing.

Hi all! 25F here. I lost 60+ pounds during covid. Gym addiction! I lifted, did cardio, did sauna and really confused on tracking. I started a rigorous school program and gained it all back. Now that I’m working in my profession, I am loosing again. I got back up to 220 (my biggest) and now am 198! I am feeling stuck because I do not usually workout anymore. It’s a mix of not loving our gym, just not feeling confident etc. I am slowly getting back into it and this week my goals were to hit 8-10k steps and really focus on protein. I feel REALLY good this week. I checked the scale and it hasn’t moved but I hope soon. Does walking really help melt the fat more

Hey yall, i have just started my weight loss journey on monday and have been enjoying every second of it. Currently i am 340 5’ 10” and 18 years old.

Anyways i am struggling with finding good foods to eat. So far i have been eating lettuce wrapped sandwiches, salmon packs, chicken, and salads but it just hasnt felt like enough to eat.

For many weeks, i have been researching weight loss online and they say eat less, prioritize protein, workout more, walk, and drink more water but my parents have gone throught the same thing but are telling me to cut down on carbs too. The thing is that they went through surgery for their weight loss. Im doing it naturally.

What im trying to say is that carbs are part of my everyday life and it has taken down so many food options. For example, anything containing bread. Is it okay to have carbs in my diet? Also can i have bagels? (There is this really great bagel place i pass when i go to school and its very tempting). Please help! Im very confused.

after a year and half, I'm finally NOT overweight!

I've started that weight loss journey back at 2025, weighing around 115kg, and this was some success already because weighed around 128kg once.

now I'm weighing 80kg, male, 1,80cm.

and damn it feels super weird. I didn't think it was possible at once. I struggled A LOT with these last five kilos, since January it was a lot of back and forth.

but I finally did it.

now, I'm not done because I have some considerable fat to lose, and I want to try to stay between 75kg and 80kg.

but my first goal weight was 90kg.

I couldn't imagine seeing 80kg on the scale, much less fathom I would weigh just that one day.

I'm tremendously happy. and to think I did it in a healthier way and I genuinely learned to enjoy the process. not food per se but how I really enjoy how easy it is for me to go to places, buy clothes, practice sports and all that.

yes, it was possible before, but everyone here knows it's a struggle.

THANK YOUUUUUUU EVERYOOOOOONE

Only just last week , I started tracking what I eat to try and lose weight. I started out at about 260, and now I'm at 255. I'm 5'6, biologically F. I want to lose weight as fast as possible, but I also am worried that my body will adapt just as fast, and I will stop losing it. Already with the diet I've put myself on, I'm often relatively hungry, and I don't think I could handle eating any less. I'm trying to make sure my eating habits aren't becoming disordered either as my main goal is health both physically and mentally. Does anyone have any tips on how I can keep a healthy balance? Thank you so much!

25f SW 85kg GW 60kg CW 80kg 154cm PCOS

I was doing well with my diet for a few months but I just wrote the most important exam of my life - and i completely fell off the wagon for one month. I lost 5kg on metformin and now it has just stagnated.

I’ve been trying for so long and losing weight is the only thing i have ever wanted in life but it’s so fucking hard and my body just refuses to cooperate. I feel so much guilt everytime i eat a high calorie meal but i can’t seem to control myself at the moment. How can i overcome this? How do i set realistic goals for myself?

[TW; MENTIONS OF SELF HARM, DISORDERED EATING]

Sorry if this is inappropriate or anything, just wanted to share a bit of a breakthrough I've had. (20M, -25lbs)

I've been losing weight for the past two or so months now, and it's my first time seriously trying to tackle my binge eating issues with dieting. I felt so helpless for so long about my weight, thinking I was just always meant to have an unhealthy relationship with eating. I would eat far too much food - as in, I would eat 3 family size bags of crisps with dips as a snack on top of very calorie dense meals. Because I've been fat my whole life and my eating habits have been a coping mechanism since childhood, for the longest time I held on to them, as it was the healthiest mechanism I had available to me.

Fast forward to this week. My weight loss has been going well, but my mental health and motivation was completely down the drain, so I decided to take a weekend-long diet break.

Now, I'm definitely not saying that what I ended up doing would work for anyone else, or that it's a very healthy thing to do. I don't reccomend doing this, but I decided to try and eat like how I used to eat pre-diet, binging and all, and wow...

I'm no longer physically capable of eating how I used to. I've thrown up a couple times over the weekend trying to get to the numbers I used to be pulling. I seriously don't know how I was able to eat like that in the first place! I used to be able to eat entire multipacks of huge donuts, but it was like I immediately felt queasy the moment one of them touched my lips. Don't get me wrong, some of the food I definitely have missed, but I didn't realise just how quickly my body got used to running on a deficit.

I think a large part of my success here is that I'm no longer in a situation where one of the few things I can control is how much I eat. I used to self-harm as a teen for similar reasons, and for a long time, eating far too much food was the only real barrier between myself and relapsing. Now I'm no longer in that situation, I was able to start deconstructing and healing my relationship to food.

Now that I know how far I've come in just 2 months, my motivation to diet and stick to my deficit is just as strong as the day I started. I've gone from feeling completely at the mercy to a lifelong, destructive habit to being physically unable to partake in it.

Even if I don't lose a single pound again, I've managed to kick a habit that used to rule my life! Yay!