u/Famous_Buddy_1137

Hey everyone,

I’m currently on a journey to lose 140 lbs, going from 280 lbs down to 140 lbs. Since November I’ve lost about 55 lbs and currently weigh 225 lbs, mainly through diet and tracking my calorie intake daily.

For context, I’m a 5’4 male with a fairly sedentary desk job, and I estimated my body fat was around 60% when I started. I track both my calories and weight every day and I’m currently eating in roughly an 800 calorie deficit.

As I’ve lost weight, I’ve noticed my NEAT and overall daily expenditure have continued to drop, which has slowed my rate of loss quite a bit. I know this is normal considering I’m now 55 lbs lighter. Since my deficit is already fairly aggressive and I don’t want to lower calories any further, I decided to increase my activity over the last month to improve my conditioning and strength.

I started walking 10–15k steps a day. Most days I’ll do an hour on the treadmill at a 6% incline (increasing .5% each week) around 3.5 km/h, plus an hour-long walk with my dog at night. I’ve also been trying to walk everywhere possible just to squeeze in more movement throughout the day.

On top of that, I recently started weight training and have been following the Reddit PPL program on a 3-day split to improve my strength and preserve muscle mass.

The issue I’m struggling with now is that despite doing significantly more activity, my overall expenditure doesn’t seem much higher and my scale weight goes down painfully slow. I’m definitely getting stronger, which feels great, but the lack of movement on the scale has been taking a mental toll. I know a lot of this is likely glycogen retention and water weight from recovery, but emotionally it still feels counterproductive when I’m so far from my goal weight.

My question for the CICO community is: would it make more sense to mainly focus on steps/cardio until I get closer to my goal weight? The training has been pretty taxing overall, and going from essentially zero activity to this much movement has left me feeling like I’m doing a lot while seeing very little return on the scale. Trying to not burn out.

Hey everyone!

I’ve been using MF for daily logging since November and have lost about 52 pounds so far, mainly by sticking to a strict calorie deficit. For context, I’m a 5’4 male with a sedentary work-from-home job and lifestyle.

As I’ve lost weight, I’ve noticed my rate of weight loss has slowed dramatically and my estimated expenditure has dropped to around 2,035 calories/day. Because of this, I’ve been eating roughly 1,200 calories a day for the past 7 months. Some weeks I eat a bit more or less due to social events, but I haven’t had a week above maintenance the entire time.

Over the last month, I’ve tried increasing my expenditure significantly by walking 10–15k steps per day and starting weight training using the Reddit PPL 3x split. Before this, I was probably only walking 2–3k steps daily, so it’s been a huge increase in activity.

Despite that, my weight loss has mostly stalled and some weeks I even gain weight. I have noticed physical changes and started taking progress pictures to stay sane. After heavy cardio sessions, I’ll sometimes drop 3–4 pounds temporarily, but gain it all back and some the next morning.

Does anyone know what could be going on here? I know some of it is probably water retention from the sudden increase in activity, but I’m struggling to believe that fully explains it. I’ve been getting stronger but It seems too early for meaningful muscle gain in just 4 weeks.

Trying to stay sane here. I really can’t cut calories any lower, and I’m already spending 2–3 hours a day walking or training.

Looking for advice on what I can realistically do with my natural beard growth pattern. This is about two weeks of growth.

I’ve got a pretty low beard line with patchy growth on my lower cheeks and neck. My facial hair also grows in very thick and straight, so coverage tends to look sparse unless it gets longer.

My moustache comes in much stronger than the rest of my beard too.

I don’t think a full, dense beard is in the cards for me, but I do think I look better with facial hair and want to experiment with styles that actually work for my growth pattern instead of fighting it.

My original plan was to grow it out for four weeks and reassess, but at this stage I’m starting to look a bum and think I probably need to learn how to shape/style what I have properly.

Would really appreciate any recommendations.

My wife and I have always loved food. It’s something that brings us both a lot of joy, and we’ve always enjoyed trying new restaurants and different types of cuisine together.

That changed for me about 6 months ago when I started on a GLP-1 and began calorie counting on a 1,200 calorie diet. Surprisingly, I actually don’t struggle much sticking to it. I eat mostly home-cooked, high-volume meals with around 90g of protein a day and feel pretty satisfied.

For context, I’m a 5’4 male with a sedentary desk job working from home. I currently weigh about 228 lbs and I’m down 52 lbs so far.

The problem is that ever since starting this diet, eating out just hasn’t felt enjoyable anymore.

We recently went for a weekly date night and did omakase at a fancy sushi restaurant. I took pictures of every dish as it came out and logged everything afterward. The AI tool I use estimated the meal at around 1,700 calories. I know omakase can add up quickly, but it still felt insane for small plates of sushi.

Even after basically not eating all day to bank calories for the meal, I still went way over. What made it more frustrating is that by the time I got home, I was still hungry anyway. On top of that, it took me about 30 minutes to upload and estimate every dish in my tracking app.

It’s created a lot of food anxiety around eating out. Now when we go to restaurants, I usually end up ordering something boring or “safe” that I probably could’ve made at home for half the calories.

Would especially love to hear from people in relationships where their partner isn’t dieting and still loves going out to eat regularly. Food used to be one of our favorite shared hobbies, and I’m struggling a bit with how to balance my weight loss goals while still enjoying that part of life together.

Hey everyone!

I’ve been really happy with my meal rotation lately and it’s been a huge part of helping me stay consistent with my calorie goals and continue making progress on the scale (down 52 lbs since November).

A big reason this has worked for me is finding recipes I genuinely enjoy cooking and eating. Going from eating out every day to cooking at home was a pretty major shift, and since I absolutely hate meal prep, having a handful of dishes I can throw together quickly has made things much easier. Most of these meals take around 30 to 45 minutes, and by reusing a lot of the same ingredients across recipes, I’ve cut down on food waste, prep time, and grocery shopping headaches.

I also have a pretty big appetite, and one of my biggest pet peeves with online recipes is when they look amazing but the macros are based on tiny portions. These meals are all high-volume and really filling, so I can eat satisfying portions while still staying on track. My wife loves them too (especially the lentil soup), and cooking dinner has honestly become something we both look forward to. They also make great leftovers for lunches.

Below are the meals in order of the photos, along with calories and macros. You could probably make some of these even lower cals if you have access to fat free sauces.

Chicken Stir Fry
Serving size: 365g
292 calories — 33g protein, 8.8g fat, 23.7g carbs
Usually served over 200g cooked white rice (+260 calories)

Chicken & Red Lentil Soup
Serving size: 416g
358 calories — 29.9g protein, 38.2g carbs
Served with fresh cilantro, dill, parsley, and lemon yogurt (+48 calories)

Soy Honey Garlic Salmon

Serving size: 152g
272 calories — 25.7g protein, 15.4g fat, 9.8g carbs
Usually served with 125g cooked white rice (+195 calories) and 100g steamed green beans (+37 calories)

Greek Marinated Chicken Plate
Chicken serving: 121g
205 calories — 33.6g protein, 7.4g fat, 1.5g carbs

Served with:
125g Yellow rice: 156 calories — 3.1g protein, 1.5g fat, 31.5g carbs
45g Tzatziki: 25 calories — 2.1g protein, 1.2g fat, 1.3g carbs
135g Greek salad: 176 calories — 6.3g protein, 13.8g fat, 8.2g carbs
50g steamed green beans (+18.5 calories)

Southwest Chicken Salad
Serving size: 300g
406 calories — 48.2g protein, 12.1g fat, 27.4g carbs

Pan Sauce Chicken with Mushrooms
Serving size: 223.7g
336 calories — 33.6g protein, 18.4g fat, 6.4g carbs
Usually served over 200g white rice (+260 calories)

Chicken Fajitas
Serving size: 198.7g (two large tacos)
229 calores — 34.9g protein, 6.8g fat, 6.4g carbs

Served with:
Diego Sourdough Wraps (2): 200 calories — 2.9g protein, 3.3g fat, 22.0g carbs
40g Sour cream: 93 calories — 1.4g protein, 8.7g fat, 2.6g carbs
57g Salsa: 16 calories

One quick note: the rice and addons aren’t included in the headline serving sizes, but I listed the portions and calories for how I usually plate each meal below. You can easily scale them up or down depending on your goals and appetite.

Hope this helps anyone as much as this has helped me. Happy to share recipes or cooking tips if anyone’s interested!

Hi everyone,

Curious if anyone has experienced needing to put their older cat showing signs of cognitive decline in "cat jail".

I have a 14-year-old tuxedo cat who is incredibly sweet, but has had a long history of urinating outside the litter box. We’ve dealt with this for years and have finally gotten it to a point where it’s manageable and somewhat predictable. For example, if we leave shoes on the floor, she will eventually pee on them, so we’ve learned to manage around those triggers.

Recently though, we’ve started noticing a new pattern that feels different. Sometimes she’ll suddenly become anxious, start meowing, and run around the apartment like she’s confused or doesn’t know what to do. It almost feels like she’s forgotten how to use her litter box in those moments. This behavior is usually a clear sign that she’s about to pee outside the box. If we put her in her box she will jump out and keep running around crying.

To manage this, we’ve started putting her in a private bathroom and closing the door or “cat jail” for about 15 minutes when we notice these signs.

Every single time, she’ll use her litter box, do her business, and calm down almost immediately. We usually let her out as soon as we hear that she’s finished, and when she comes out she seems completely settled again and no longer distressed. We’ll usually give her a treat after.

We’ve spoken with our vet and a cat behaviorist, and they think she may be showing early signs of dementia or cognitive decline. They’ve put her on a low dose of gabapentin, using Feliway, and we've even explored cat acupuncture. The only thing that seems to help is cat jail.

**

For additional context, we have two EXTRA large litter boxes in different areas of our apartment (single floor), including one in a low-traffic, unused bathroom. She uses both, and we clean them multiple times a day with a full change and deep clean monthly. We’ve also switched to a litter she seems to prefer and have tried most of the typical advice around litter box issues, so this feels less like aversion and more like something cognitive.

Not really looking for advice but would love to hear if anyone has dealt with something similar, especially the anxiety > confusion > accident pattern.