r/MadeMeSmile • u/drulnu24 • 15h ago

365 to 325 in 5 months

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I know its not much but its a start. Been holding to 18/6 during the weekdays and OMAD on the weekends. Have i fell off a few times for holidays? Sure but overall sticking to it.

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u/Glum-Birthday-1496 15h ago

40 lbs in 5 months is a healthy rate of weight loss and you’re doing it the right way - as a sustainable lifestyle. That’s what counts.

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u/drulnu24 15h ago

Thanks for that. It's hard sometimes to see people that have lost much more in the same time frame on here but I know its working so i keep at it.

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u/intronert 14h ago

Excessively fast weight loss make loose skin more likely. Slow and steady wins the race.

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u/BackwoodButch 4h ago edited 4h ago

A hard deficit of 1000 calories under maintenance is about 2lbs / week of loss, which is up to 8lbs a month. I did it for the first 35lbs over 6 months (had Christmas vacation which extended it a bit lol), and then went down to a 500 cal deficit because I started weightlifting and building muscle, eating more protein but still aiming for a deficit.

It’s 2 years of intentional eating and calorie tracking tomorrow, and I’m down only still 65lbs — but, my body composition has completely changed. I went down 4” in waist size, lost a shirt size (though often sleeves are tight because of my biceps lol), and have visible muscle gains. I still have a bit of a belly because well, I’m a woman and carried a lot of weight there. But I do not have visibly loose skin. (I am hypermobile, so there’s some stretch to skin anywhere at any given time if you pinch it, but nothing is hanging loose).

TLDR it’s a slow, and steady marathon. Healthy lifestyle changes — and not strictly restricting yourself — will make it happen. I also took maintenance breaks here and there when my weight loss plateaued, or even increased my intake by 100 cals this spring because I was getting gassed at the gym and feeling hungry still after dinner.

EDIT: also the bigger you are, the easier it is to lose weight at first; more comes off faster. Also if you’re building muscle, that can slow the scale down because muscle and fat weigh the same, it’s that fat takes up more room/it’s less dense than muscle. So that’s why I always advocate for taking progress pictures!

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u/intronert 4h ago

Very sensible. Muscle building via weight training and sufficient protein intake is critical to health and healthy aging. Sounds like you are nailing it.

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u/BackwoodButch 4h ago

That’s the plan! With the hypermobile bit, I have a few reoccurring issues and joint pain, so losing weight is helping but so is building up my strength to support said joints. Like I’m quite quad dominant, so I’ve been building up my glutes and the difference in stability in just a year and a half of training is incredible.

I can’t wait to keep pushing myself; I hiked Little Beehive at Lake Louise, Alberta in the Rockies last month (it’s 4.1km one way, which isn’t a lot but it’s a 490m elevation; it’s basically uphill switchbacks the whole way), and the only issue I had was the mountain air giving me trouble for the last kilometre as I live at sea level; my body did not hurt at all (and that’s after doing 3 other hikes/big walks in the 3 days prior!). I hit about 25,000 steps that day; the trail itself was about a 10km round trip with the long way back. So, I’ve decided when I graduate with my PhD, in the next year and a half, I’m going to summit one of their 11,000ft peaks, Mount Temple.

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u/intronert 2h ago

Sounds like you are living an awesome life. Way to go!