r/CICO

Mine was, surprisingly, my favourite chocolate! It was 100 calories for 4 "squares", I used to avoid it like the plague, but now I give it to myself a lot more as a treat!

Before I started counting calories, I thought losing weight meant forever saying goodbye to lots of foods.

I still eat some of my favourite foods fairly often and people always get surprised when I tell them.

What is a food that you eat a lot that people would think you “shouldn’t” be eating when you’re trying to lose weight?

For me it was condiments, especially mustard. I always thought it had close to zero calories until I learned that my big spoonful of it in the salad sauce actually is 50 cal.

Might not seem like much, but I'm 5'1 and have to stick to 1200 cal to lose anything so my margin of error is slim.

Anyone else?

I'm 5'8'', 42F. I got a Garmin watch and Cronometer app so I could start doing CICO. I lost about 10 pounds in ~4 months going for a 250-calorie deficit every day, from around 165 pounds to 155. I'm fairly active and easily get 11-12K steps per day, plus doing suggested daily workouts from the Garmin (usually 30-40-minute base runs).

Those first 10 pounds seemed really easy...like where has CICO been all my life when I've struggled with body image. (Granted I've never been majorly overweight but still had big self-image and self-confidence issues my entire adult life...also admittedly the Garmin and Cronometer make it a LOT easier to track.) I feel so good being 155 pounds, I don't think I've been this light since high school.

Trouble is when you lose weight, your basal metabolic rate drops, as does your daily recommend calorie intake. Now on rest days it is only 1300 calories. Even when I run and burn around 400 calories that I can eat back, I'm just ravenous. This has happened before CICO too when I was training for half-marathons--I start off feeling like I'm losing weight and then suddenly I get overwhelmed by a crazy high appetite. I'm hoping now that I'm using Cronometer and can better track my macros, that at least I can get more of my calories in proteins--I was eating waaaaaaay too little protein before. But the scale has been stuck at 155 for about a month now. I'd like to lose another 5 and then maintain.

Anyone else struggle with this? How did you overcome it?

It can be a recipe involving oatmeal or just oatmeal as the base doesn’t really matter. Just need some recommendations to make it taste good in a low calorie but also healthy way

Edit: sorry I should have clarified this but I’m looking for recommendations to make it sweet ( the sugary kind of sweet)

Hi!

I've been doing good - the good habits are set. I'm eating healthy, fokusing on protein, fiber and veggies. Doing some form of exercise daily I enjoy - from vigorous training to chill yoga.

4 years ago I weighed 10 kgs less than now and I felt confident and strong - 63 kgs as a 170 cm woman in her thirties.

Now I'm a little overweight at 73 kgs and have a realistic goal of 65 kgs.

But. I'm losing too slow. Like 0,5 kg every other or third week. Its been stalling.. I think I might be eating at my maintenance or very close to it.

For those of you who successfully lost weight while maintaining a healthy lifestyle, how did you make the shift? Did you simply eat smaller portions of the same foods?

I'm eating 2000~ a day. That is sustainable to me long term.

For weightloss I should maybe do 16-1800? But it would be a significant change in mindset.

How did you adjust mentally from "eating for health" to "eating for weight loss"?

How did you manage the hunger in the beginning?

I'd love to hear what worked for you!

I lost about 18 pounds earlier this year, and then went to maintenance mode for about two months and saw the scale jump up 3-5 pounds and just bounce around that new number.

I'm now back in a deficit trying to lose the rest of my goal, already down another 4ish pounds from where it was during that maintenance break. Should I be aiming for a lower weight than I want to actually be once I'm in maintenance? I have seen some other posts indicating that you can expect to gain back a few pounds once you go into maintenance.

41f, SW 186, CW 167, GW 150ish (so should I be aiming for 145?)

I used to believe a lot of things that weren't true before I started to care more about nutrition.

Looking back, what is something you were totally wrong about?

What did you learn that made you change your approach to weight loss?

Hi! Long time lurker first time poster. I calorie counted in my 20s to lose weight along side training for a 10k and I had never been fitter. In my 40s now, female, 5’2” 162 lbs when i last weighed (about 2 months ago). I started walking 10k steps at least a day — going on 90 days — and realized increasing activity alone was not going to be enough to lose weight and tone up.

Long story short — too late — I’ve been lifting 3x / week, walking / running/ stair climbing at least 10k steps a day, and tracking against 1650 calories, about a 500 calorie deficit to lose about a lb per week.

I don’t want to obsessively weigh myself. I do want to check in regularly - ish to know when to adjust my macros.

How often do you weigh in a way that supports not only your physical health journey but also your mental health. Bonus points if you have OCD, AuDHD, or PTSD and found a good balance without getting too hyper-focused in the weight numbers. I know I will fluctuate. I have hormones and bloating. I want to have grace and not obsess. But also I want the math to math.

Advice appreciated!! Thank you and good luck to us all!

View Poll

I went on the treadmill for the first time today! I've been calorie counting for a while now, and I've lost 35 kgs in the process.

Today, as it was my first time, I took 4-5 breaks while working on the treadmill for 45 minutes on a 14 incline. Also, when overwhelmed, I lowered the speed for a bit.

In the end, the treadmill said 321 calories burnt. I wonder if the breaks changed any of the calories burnt. The 45 minutes do not include the breaks.

Stats:

Height: 165 cm / 5'5 ft

Weight: 83 kg / 183 lbs

Sex: Female

Thank you so much!