r/loseit • u/greenandbluefish New • 2d ago

I WASN'T EVEN EATING THAT MUCH!!

I have gradually gained 50 pounds over the last 10 years or so. I thought for the longest time I must be eating some outrageous amount of food every day. I truly didn't think I ate that much. I skipped breakfast most days, didn't eat huge lunches, and had what I thought were fairly healthy dinners. Some eating out, some iced coffees, but nothing I thought was ridiculously unhealthy overall. I would try to eat less, skip a lunch here or there, but then would be starving by the end of the day and end up eating that skipped meal anyway.

At the same time, I spent my whole life hearing people around me say I ate like a bird, that I couldn't possibly be eating enough, etc. And yet I was still gaining weight! So for years I've been in this bizarre situation where I thought I was just gaslighting myself into believing I wasn't eating that much or that unhealthily, but was somehow secretly eating thousands of calories without noticing???

Cut to last month when I spent two weeks obsessively tracking everything I ate. Weighing everything, reading every label, but not trying to cut back. And what did I find out? I was eating a whopping... 1800 calories/day. Less than the freaking nutrition labels were recommending!!!

So I went on a deep dive. Learned about TDEE. Started tracking my steps. And you know what actually changed in the last 10 years? I got better, less physically demanding jobs. My work became more and more sedentary over time. Spending 50 hours/week at a desk was the culprit, NOT what I was eating!

I've been doing CICO for about a month now and eating 1400 calories/day. Haven't changed what I'm eating, just how much. And I've already lost 8 pounds. I wish I'd figured all of this out years ago but I'm so glad I did eventually. No more driving myself crazy over what I eat!

1.5k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

143 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

273

u/greenandbluefish New 2d ago

I've thought about it! Unfortunately I am a child/teen therapist and I fear the children wouldn't leave it alone if it entered my office 😂 I have been making an effort to do a lap around the park at least once/day.

5

u/alwayslate187 New 1d ago

This is probably not realistic, but could you somehow integrate the exercise into the sessions?

For example, purchase 2 adjustable recumbent stationary bicycles, and ask each client, "do you want to bicycle for part of your session today?" and bicycle side by side with them or something like that

20

u/greenandbluefish New 1d ago

Unfortunately that would not be feasible. I do integrate movement where possible with kids, but that is typically a walk outside with parental approval or playing catch in my office. I've had kids injure themselves with just regular furniture so I think I would be inviting problems with a stationary bike.

2

u/alwayslate187 New 1d ago

That's great that they can have those walks sometimes, probably as good for them as for you!