My weight-loss journey: From 145 pounds to 130

Losing weight is a struggle – especially if you love food as much as I do, and much more when you’re a yuppie with a desk-job that essentially makes you sit in front of your computer for most of the day. I’m only 26 as of writing, but I can already feel the effects of slower metabolism, lingering with every calorie that I count. Gone are the days when I would store a whole tub of ice cream in the fridge, just for myself.

I had to force myself to go to the gym, say no to dessert, give in to temptation, and say no again.  Working-out has started to become a habit, but changing my diet, now that is the real challenge. I started to realize that for me to be able to truly enjoy food, I must be healthy enough for it to be excusable to indulge in what I eat.

That was motivation enough for me to make efforts to lose weight. I started the year at somewhere around 145 pounds. I went on a diet sometime in May and a few weeks after, I dropped to 127 pounds. Now, I’m maintaining my weight of 130. Allow me to share with you my weight-loss journey and hopefully, it works for you too! Here are some of the stuff that I did:

Strict with the Plan

You’ve probably been hearing that losing weight is 70% diet and 30% exercise. I’m not sure if this works for everyone but to me it does pretty well. Initially I’ve been working out two to three times a week, with very slow results. I guess it’s not the same as when I was younger when scrubbing the floor was enough workout.

When I realized that my pretentious diet isn’t doing the trick, I tried one of those diet delivery services that are getting popular lately, particularly Yummy Diet. It limits my daily calorie intake to 1,200 calories. Now the trick here is to be strict with your diet plan, and not to eat anything else other than the meal set for you. I know some friends who cheat on their Plan, and that’s prolly why they don’t see much results.

The good thing about Yummy Diet is that it limits the calories, but doesn’t hold back on the taste. You can check out what I had the whole week here.

Drill with the Diet 

Anybody would tell you that any good diet must come with a little bit of exercise.  In my case, since I was getting only 1.2K calories from my daily diet, I didn’t do a lot of high-intensity work out to keep myself from you know, fainting in the gym and all.

The good thing is that this means my body had to utilize stored and excess fat for energy, and thus help me lose some more weight. I didn’t want to overdo it though given the reduced number of calories I’m getting from my diet. I limited myself to 30 minutes of exercise per day – composed mostly of cardio routines, with just a little bit of time on the weights (since I read somewhere that building and repairing muscles actually burn more calories than cardio).

Count your Calories

I know this can be such a hassle but it does help. Whenever I buy something to eat, I also check the labels to see how many calories you’ll get for each serving. I compare brands and usually choose the ones that would give me less calories to burn.

I’ve also discovered this neat website that lets you know how much calories you need in a day to keep, lose, or gain weight.  On days that  I consume more than my desired number of calories, I try to burn those off by working out, just so I’m still within my calorie range. Sounds easier said than done but it helps.

You don't have to say "No"

I realized that every time I try to avoid something that I’m craving for, I usually lose the battle and end up eating much more than what I usually would. The trick that worked for me is to actually give in and satisfy my craving, but only by having a small portion that’s enough to satisfy my raging taste buds.

For example, when I’m craving for French fries, instead of saying “No”, I actually eat some, but only at around 2-3 pieces. This way, my French fries craving gets satisfied yet I don’t get too far from my calorie goal.

Now this method may not work for everyone, and I know because I have some friends who can’t stop once they get a taste of good food. It would ultimately depend on your willpower and discipline, I guess.

Cheat Days shouldn’t be made of buffets

Since my Yummy Diet plan is good for only 5 days a week, I often have the weekends as my cheat dayS (yep, I have two!) Some people think that cheat days are an excuse to overeat and indulge since you have been eating less for the most part of the week. Thing is, if you’re also going to get back all the calories you have worked so hard to lose, then why did you limit yourself in the first place?

Cheat days were supposed to be a chance to eat the food that you like, not eat more than what you would usually have. You can go ahead and have that burger or pizza, but don’t binge.

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So that was the “formula” that I followed to lose weight. Now I’m not a dietician or weight loss-expert, so please take everything with a grain of salt. I’m just sharing with you what I did (since several of the people I know have been asking) and what worked for me. And if you got weight-loss tips of your own, feel free to share it with us in the comments section below J