The only thing getting shredded is my ego.
In my 20s I was literally unable to break 98 pounds despite eating basically the Super Size Me diet and having a sedentary job. All I had to do to get a slight 6 pack was wake up slightly hungry and a little dehydrated.
I had a huge ego about it. I felt contempt for fat people and anyone who couldn’t lose weight. “Stubborn” fat? What a joke! What total lack of self discipline these people must have!
Then I aged ten years, quit nicotine and in what seemed like 3 days my belly hung over my belt buckle.
“No problem!” I smirked, “I’ll go God-Mode for a few days and be back to normal.”
God-Mode was a single Huel shake (600 calories) a day. It was completely unsustainable, I was starving all the time, but at least I should be losing weight like a plague-victim, right?
The weight didn’t budge. Some days, it went down a bit. Other days, it went up. After a few weeks, I switched to OMAD + zero processed food or carbs.
It’s been six months of zero processed foods, OMAD, and calorie restriction my ego is shredded. The rules aren’t working. The math isn’t mathing.
No, I’m not delusional. I’m not accidentally undercounting sugar in my morning coffee or beer in the evening or sneaking off to the fridge at night. And I’m extremely physically active, including biking to work in a hilly city, 70 pound KB swings, weight jump rope, running, walking everywhere, and weight lifting, and a standing desk.
One thing that’s very clear to me now is that CICO doesn’t tell the whole story. The same calorie in one person is not the same calorie in another. And something has changed at an environmental level that’s made the old rules basically obsolete.
I have a diet and lifestyle that 50 years ago would have gotten me either committed to an insane asylum or an olympic gold medal. It shouldn’t take this much effort to lose weight. This is stupid. It’s insane.
Something is making our bodies fat that has nothing to do with calories or self-discipline. I’m not saying it’s impossible to lose weight, but it shouldn’t be this hard. My parents and grandparents were skinny as fuck, ate like shit, and never exercised. I’ve spent months at what should be an extreme calorie deficit, with no results.
So, anyway, sorry to all the people I judged and mocked for trying hard with no results. I thought you must not be trying that hard. But you were.
Edit: responses here sound exactly like me a few years ago, thus proving my point