Shocked by how little food equals weight loss for me
I started microdosing a GLP-1 as a way to learn what it would actually look like for me to lose weight. Because as a 5' tall middle-aged woman with a desk job, I was super over calorie tracking and fine with not losing weight, but also never had a clear answer about why it "didn't work".
Four months in what I have learned is actually...healing?
I have very little if any appetite. At the beginning I was making myself eat a little something when I didn't want to because I just don't think it can be healthy long-term to eat this little protein/fiber, but now I guess I've gotten used to it and usually just eat when I'm hungry. I stopped drinking alcohol because I have no interest in it and it makes me sick. (Probably drinking maybe a bottle of wine a week before.)
And how has this affected my weight? I've lost a small amount of weight at a snail's pace, if you can call it a pace because it is not linear. I am talking take the "healthy weight loss per week" you've heard a million times and divide it by 4.
Having it laid out in front of me what my eating looks like to lose weight like this...I'm no longer the least bit confused as to why I wasn't doing it before!
I couldn't maintain an interest in calorie restriction (which btw makes me feel terrible about myself) when its effects are this small and this slow with a daily intake below what any food tracking app/doctor/dietician would recommend.
When I stop this medication I can't imagine I'll continue to eat this way - it would require a huge mental effort and negativity.
And it helped me to be honest with myself about how active I was and how I was eating and feeling about myself during the times in my life when I was at the weight that I was still imagining as the weight I "should" be and how my life is different now and isn't going back to that, at least until my kids are grown.
I don't know how I feel about that, but it is what it is and I know I am going to feel a lot saner about it in the future either way.