Dieting Advice
I started out sumo sized
It's kind of silly to me that I have to add this section to my website, but because people have started to sneak a peak at what I'm buying at the grocery store in order to understand how I'm losing weight, I am hoping that by making this information public people stop doing that.
I started at 170kg (375lbs) as of December 10th, 2024 I am 107kg (235lbs). Before walking you through the general strategies I put into practice over time, I'm going to briefly talk about how my perspective & priorities have changed.
Taste vs. Health vs. Comfort
Briefly, I'd like to highlight how my taste has changed over time and how this relates to the difficulties of weight-loss. In the beginning, I was very used to a sugar heavy diet. Soda, candy, a variety of different kind of snacks just constantly made for a very sweet taste profile. Which, can be somewhat difficult to let go of in the beginning. However, over time, as the amount of sugar in my diet decreased, things that previously seemed somewhat uninteresting suddenly had much more character to them that the constant onslaught of sugar hid. Things actually taste better on a decreased sugar diet, in my opinion. There are a wider variety of flavor experiences that I get to enjoy as opposed to the high-sugar diet. Sugar can be addictive in nature, but it really makes food less enjoyable, ironically. For example, if I treated myself to ice cream, which I did in fact do quite regularly before starting to lose weight, I enjoyed it but it was also just kind of the norm. Whereas, with the much more occasional (maybe once a month) enjoyment of ice cream, the same ice cream often proved to be so much more intensely enjoyable. When sugar was the norm, not the exception, ice cream was about as exciting as a merry-go-round, but when sugar was the exception not the norm, ice cream became a whole roller coaster. So, if you get worried about how your meals tastes, I'd like to offer a mentality shift. That instead of being bored of a constant stream of sugar, you get a more intense occasional treat that ends up making the day to day restraint more tolerable and worth it.
170kg to 145kg (375lbs to 320lbs)
I officially started trying to lose weight on November 8th, 2023. What I did was stopped eating fast food and started cooking all of my meals at home. No regular exercise was involved. The general idea was to eat enough to feel satiated, while slowly decreasing my sugar intake. The way your body digests sugar spikes your energy levels such that you fall into a cyclical trap of constant eating. Decreasing sugar, while increasing foods that take longer to digest / have a slow energy release profile makes it easier to feel satiated (comfortable) while losing weight. You do eventually feel hungry, but it's more gradual and easier to ignore while your body switches on its fat burning processes after it burns all the glucose(sugar). I lost 25kgs (55lbs) over 24 weeks (1kg/week or 2.2lbs/week) through home-cooking.
145kg to 125kg (320lbs to 275lbs)
Around April I continued to cook my meals at home, but now added regular exercise by dancing while walking on a treadmill at the gym. Walking alone is really boring, but dancing in time to an EDM mix is a lot more fun and a lot more sustainable cardio routine. This increased the pace of my weightloss from 1kg/week to 3.4kg/week (2.2lbs/week to 7.5lbs/week). The exercise pattern I did at the time started at 3 days on, 1 day of rest and repeated. Eventually I switched to 2 days on, 1 day of rest and repeated. Until I couldn't afford my gym membership and stopped exercising. At which point I experienced a weightloss plateu. Home-cooking is a fundamental starting point that gives you greater control over portion size and content of your meals, but you still need to exercise that control for it to be effective past a certain point.
125kg Plateau
After stopping exercise, my rate of weightloss decreased to 0.5 kg/week (About 1lb/week). So not truly a plateau, but then I had an intense craving for pretzels and more sugar for a short period of time. This likely was the beginning of a rebound period, and after I saw that I crept back up to 130kg I returned to my minimal sugar intake ways. I call this a plateau because from May to August my weight fluctuated around a 125kg average. This was useful to experience because it made it clear to me my progress was truly tied to my dietary decision making, and made it a lot easier (mentally) to be disciplined about my weightloss routines. While the pretzel addiction was fun it also made me feel very unhealthy and lethargic. My day to day energy levels were very sluggish and this highlighted the impact my diet has on my work ethic. There's a dangerous cycle to highlight here. Pretzels are convenient and easy to eat requiring no cooking effort, just open a bag and go to munch town. The sluggishness of an unhealthy diet feeds into the unwillingness to put in the energy to cook for oneself. In my case it was pretzels, but I can imagine everyone has a favorite snack that is extremely convenient to eat. It's a bit of a trap that can lead to a vicious cycle if you aren't careful. A key lesson I got out of this is that in order to maintain a healthier weight we need to recognize and break these vicious dietary cycles.
125kg to Now (Vegan... Kinda)
Breaking the plateau started when I made a dietary change from traditional meat products to 100% vegetable substitute meats. Slight problem, vegan meats are expensive, but they're worth it. When I can afford them, they are my preference over traditional meats. I got down to 100kg (220 lbs), then circumstances limited my access to vegan meats. Falling out of good eating habits, I took this opportunity to indulge in fast-food. A short stint of addiction, and then back to traditional meats. Felt as though I reset to original dietary habits, and then back to home cooking. My weight rebounded up to 113kg (250lbs) and I now have returned to a weight-loss trend of about 2kg/week. I am relieved to know that I am not dependent on vegan meats for weightloss, but also I do miss vegan meats because they put me in a great mood.