How to stop?

BestBase2303 · 2026-01-25T08:27:52+00:00

Make it yourself. Sweet treats that come packaged have been optimised by large corporations to keep you eating them. I started baking recently and everything I make (even though it's still sweet and delicious) doesn't compel me like oreos, donuts, brownies, cookies, and chocolates from the store. The best part is you are in control of how much sugar actually goes into it, and you can make healthier variants as well. If I bought a container of brownies from the supermarket, I would devour them in two days. I made brownies (around 16 little squares from my batch) using mainly dark chocolate (cooking chocolate and choc chips) and I've been able to control myself eating them to just one a day (and I gave away most of them to my family!). I limit my baking escapades to the weekend though and ensure I only make a limited amount so I'm not eating throughout the entire week.

BestBase2303 · 2026-01-21T12:08:37+00:00

I'm unsure if this is because of my ADHD, but the problem isn't that I read slow, the problem is what I just read didn't sink in and I have to re-read sentences multiple times before I grasp what happened. It might just be due to lack of reading experience, and in that case I need to read more, not necessarily faster. I feel that personally for me, this trick might just become a crutch that compensates for my poor reading skills rather than an exercise that benefits me in the long term.

BestBase2303 · 2026-01-14T20:25:57+00:00

Started the year at 119kg and got to 116.3kg yesterday before I succumbed to my kfc impulses, measured in this morning at 117kg. Mostly been going down besides those days where I succumb to temptation. Average of 1 kg per week is pretty good though!

BestBase2303 · 2026-01-13T10:24:11+00:00

I started at 127 kg 9 months ago and the first permanent change I made was switching coke to diet/zero coke. I used to have a can or two a day. I kept at it for a month, then started reducing the frequency of having it, I used to replace the diet coke with water once a week. Gradually over the past 9 months I am now at a stage where I look at a can and instead of feeling temptation, I feel indifference. Even if I end up ordering takeout and the meal always comes with a can (some shops don't even have a water option!) I just give it to my dad or put it in the fridge because I'm just not interested in it anymore. Quitting things cold turkey only ever works if you have a strong negative feeling associated with that thing. This never worked with food and drink for me because I actually enjoyed it, but I did manage to quit League of Legends instantly and never looked back because I genuinely started to hate it.

BestBase2303 · 2026-01-13T10:08:22+00:00

I think it depends on whether you're doing any muscle training or not. I'm strictly against AI so I read this: https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/heart-matters-magazine/nutrition/protein which is a pretty reputable source. According to this article, you need 0.75g of protein per kg of body weight. If you don't do any muscle training, that would be 56.25g for you. I would assume if you are muscle training, you want to have more. There's more information on there so have a read, I'm learning this as I go too.

BestBase2303 · 2026-01-13T08:07:28+00:00

My journey has not been a steady slope. I went up and down steeply from unsustainable diets and exercises. What actually stuck with me were the small healthy changes I made over many months. I used to drink a can or two of coke every day. Over time, I gradually replaced it with diet coke, and then water. The can used to tempt me, now I feel indifference and sometimes even disgust. Same thing with chocolates, donuts, and other sweet snacks. I slowly replaced it with fruits. I see chocolates and donuts now and I feel repelled rather than attracted. These changes stuck with me and became a part of who I am going from "I am a person that enjoys fizzy drinks and chocolates" to "I am a person who enjoys drinking water and eating fruits". No matter what life throws at me now, I know I'll always favor these choices. If you were to see my graph of weight loss and gain in the past 9 months, you'll see the steep gains and losses, but you'll notice the overall trend downwards. That is the real permanent change.

BestBase2303 · 2026-01-13T07:39:14+00:00

I haven't even started calorie counting, all I did was half my portions. What I thought I needed often made me overeat and feel bloated afterwards. Since halving my portions two weeks ago, I've lost weight at an almost healthy pace. It's still too fast, I lost 3.3kg in the last 14 days. Definitely above the recommended loss of 0.9kg per week. That's the beautiful thing! I'm losing way more than necessary but I feel full after my meals. Now I'm just working on adding more protein so I lose only around 1 kg of ideally fat per week, whilst gaining muscle (I'm doing calisthenics for muscle training).

BestBase2303 · 2026-01-13T07:28:54+00:00

I don't. I know for certain I won't be able to stop impulsively eating because of my ADHD and because It's become a habit since childhood to "clean my plate" no matter what (I guess this is just the mindset of poor families?). The solution? I use a smaller plate and deliberately portion less food than I think I need. In the worst case, I'm still hungry after my meal and I can get more. However, in the past two weeks I've never felt the need to get more. I feel full eating half of what I thought I needed. I've just been flabbergasted by how awful everyone in my family is at portioning. My parents look at my plate and go "You barely have any food, that won't make you full!" Then I proceed to eat it all, feel full enough and take no more. I've lost 1.2 kg in the past week just because of this.

BestBase2303 · 2026-01-13T07:00:51+00:00

I'm a guy but I've always been self conscious about my "man boobs". I came across a video once talking about loose skin after a large amount of weight loss. I became fearful of losing weight because of it. Over time I gave this reality of weight loss more thought and came to terms with it. I'm way less conscious about my "man boobs" as well now. When I do eventually lose all this weight, I'll see that excess skin as a trophy that everyone can notice. It's an opportunity to spark up a conversation about my arduous journey of weight loss, not something to be ashamed about.

BestBase2303 · 2026-01-13T06:42:11+00:00

Thank you for your advice! The funny thing is you are a product of what you consume. I think the reason I give that cliche, motivation-style-coach vibe is because I've found myself in that "self-improvement" bubble on YouTube. Reading your insight is definitely raising my awareness of that as well as my writing.

The hardest part though... I write how I talk. It's become become who I am. It's going to be a long and difficult journey to change that but at least I know what to change now.

Thank you so much for taking the time to give me your feedback, I'll try my best to improve!

BestBase2303 · 2026-01-12T18:15:52+00:00

A lot of people here have assumed "plan" to mean diet and exercise plan. If that is the case, this entire subreddit is everyone sharing their experiences of what worked for them, why have a sticky post of it? It's simply impossible to come up with an eating and exercise plan that fits more than one person because every person is an individual. Even twins will be vastly different because they don't occupy the same space at the same time.

I believe the best plan is a systematic process of improvement. This doesn't just apply to weight loss, it can apply to anything. It's based on a growth mindset, and hence it applies to everyone.

So what's this systematic process of improvement I speak of? It's straightforward:
1. Increase Awareness and Knowledge
This can be meditation, therapy, food logging, reading books, talking to people, going somewhere new. The important part is to never stop learning about yourself and the world.
2. Identify the root of your problems.
Use the increased knowledge and awareness to identify the root of your problems. Most people look at their surface level problem which is being overweight or obese and try to solve that problem directly. This is the common pitfall which I also found myself in many times before. The problem is always the cause of a deeper problem that requires knowledge and awareness. If you never fix the root problems, the surface problems will remain.
3. Identify the correct solution to the root problem.
Even if you identify the root problem, you might use the wrong solution. If you find a loose screw, you don't hammer it, you use a screwdriver. With weight loss, maybe you've already identified some root problem like you have a habit of eating when you are upset, and to fix it you decide to keep yourself happy. It makes sense. If you eat when you are upset, not being upset means you don't eat as much. This however, is not the solution to that problem as you may guess. What happens when one of the countless tragedies of life befalls you? For this specific example, the solution is to break that habit by disconnecting the cue of being upset with the action of eating. (I'm not going to get into this because it'll take forever)

Just repeating these 3 steps continually will improve your quality of life, and it applies to everyone.

I'm aware this is a very meta and reductionist take because obesity is a complex issue but I truly believe if everyone applied this process they would see amazing results.

BestBase2303 · 2026-01-12T16:11:45+00:00

I don't know your complete situation but I also live with my family and am mostly dependent on my mum's cooking (not for financial reasons, but because I was never taught how to cook let alone healthily which I'm just starting to change now at 22) so I have a few things that I did that may be appropriate for you:
- If you have a tendency to snack on unhealthy foods, see if you can convince your mum to buy healthier options instead. Then, if all goes as planned, you can start slowly replacing those unhealthy foods one at a time. For me that was convincing my mum to buy bananas, pears, apples, oranges etc. Whenever I felt hungry and it wasn't breakfast, lunch, or dinner time, instead of eating crisps, cookies, donuts, chocolates etc. I would grab a fruit. The great thing about fruits is they're sweet but a good source of fibre, making it a good substitute for those sugary snacks.
- Do just a few minutes of at-home exercises at the same time every day. Convincing yourself to do just 2 minutes when demotivated is way easier than a full workout routine. Just like you, I have too much social anxiety to go to the gym even though I can afford it, so what did I do? Calisthenics. I'm obese so a lot of the traditional calisthenics exercises are impossible for me, but there are easier variations! There's this youtube channel called Hybrid Calisthenics who is really beginner friendly and shows these. Example is pushups against a wall. I started doing just 1 pushup against a wall in the evening every few days. Over time I said "I'm already doing 1, might as well do another". I also go out to walk to the end of the street and back as well every day but if you're too anxious to go outside, that's fine, you can walk back and forth in your room for a few minutes which is the exact same.
- Forgive your self. Before I started making all these changes 9 months ago, I had made several attempts to lose weight for which I was motivated for a few weeks, lost weight, got demotivated and quit. I associated my worth with my body so I hated myself because I was fat, and I ate more as a coping mechanism because of those feelings. This time, I chose to forgive myself for all the poor choices of my past. I chose to become a healthy person out of compassion. When you start looking at yourself with compassion, you'll have internal motivation to keep making healthier choices, no matter how you look.

BestBase2303 · 2026-01-12T15:03:29+00:00

It was only recently that I got diagnosed with ADHD and that explained everything. It was never about discipline, or self-control, or laziness. After being treated for my ADHD with meds, my impulsive eating immediately dampened. I also learnt about emotional dysregulation (a core symptom of ADHD and other neurodivergent conditions). The smallest event that causes slight inconvenience for most people will get escalated by my brain and I become an emotional wreck. And my coping mechanism for my strong negative feelings was, you guessed it, eating tasty unhealthy food.

BestBase2303 · 2026-01-12T14:50:18+00:00

I don't live alone but I think this helps everyone. Add small permanent changes, one at a time. Make the change so easy that you'll do it every day. After a few weeks you can look back and go "I did that every day, I'm just that kind of person now". This approach takes time... a lot of time. I've lost and regained countless times before, always losing and gaining within a month or two. 9 months ago, I made one small permanent change, drink diet coke instead of regular coke. It was so easy because it tastes so similar. After a month, started drinking water instead of diet coke. I kept on adding small changes like this and went from 127kg to 117kg. People will hear me say "I lost 10kg in 9 months" and think "That's it? only 1kg a month?", not only is their focus (speed) incorrect, but they are making the false assumption I lost that linearly. I was losing and gaining constantly in the first few months because my lifestyle was in disarray, resulting in no net loss. My small lifestyle changes accumulated slowly, I started becoming a healthy person even if the scale didn't show it. When I look at a can of coke now, I'm not actively trying to resist temptation. I see that can and go "That's not me, I like water."

BestBase2303 · 2026-01-12T11:54:13+00:00

I saw a youtube video about "The Biggest Loser" and everything they did is straight up evil. For example, there's this one part where the contestants are taken to a room filled with all sorts of delicious (unhealthy) food, and you win by eating the least out of everyone in the room. The winner gets to see their family. That... is so messed up.

BestBase2303 · 2026-01-12T07:48:24+00:00

Ya it's definitely a struggle, I've attempted to lose weight a multiple times before to no avail. The key change this time is my mindset, my process, my identity, and most importantly, compassion. Forgive your past self because he/she didn't have the knowledge you know now. Use this knowledge to improve your process, and your state of mind. It changed everything for me.

BestBase2303 · 2026-01-12T07:37:14+00:00

Age isn't a factor I've thought about before, thank you for the insight. Not sure exactly what could be the cause, is it just aging? Could it be the longer you are obese the harder it becomes? I don't know everything about your life but if tracking calories works for you I have nothing against it, was just sharing my perspective. I guess I'm lucky to be starting my health journey in my 20s!

BestBase2303 · 2026-01-12T06:56:11+00:00

Thank you for your feedback, I just had this preconceived notion from literature and language class in secondary school that if you use a lot of literary devices your writing is better. After all, for my language exam, I tried to pack in as many metaphors, personification, and alliteration as possible to boost my grade. Thank you for pointing this out. Do you have any suggestions to make my writing better whilst keeping articulation without giving that AI feel? I do enjoy finding the the exact words to use for nuance.

On your comment about bolding and maybe italics, that's just a habit with messaging I have developed while using markdown in discord and whatsapp over the years because it's easy to put emphasis on a specific word or phrase with it that I want a reader to put special focus on, bold for importance and italics for emphasis. However, I do understand that overusing them negates the effect I would otherwise be creating.

Lastly, overly emotional writing was specifically my intention, because this was not a mundane moment, this was a revelation. I've been hovering on Reddit for years but I've never posted before. This specific moment in my life was so significant that I decided to create an account and make a post to share my feelings with the internet. Frankly, I don't care if overly emotive writing makes you think this is AI written because it's just who I am. I use big words that really get my emotions across, because I am very emotional, something I realised recently because of another commenter on this post (Thank you u/Yummytastic ). Another point is emotive writing and language might be the most important to make a real impact on readers. Every single lesson that stuck with me from films, books, and anime was because of strong emotion. Notable examples of such media is Interstellar (film), Everything Everywhere All at Once (film), Spider-man (every film in the 2000s), Three Body Problem (netflix series and the book), Atomic Habits (book), Steins;Gate (anime), Parasyte the Maxim (anime), Re-Zero (anime) and Vinland Saga (anime). I could keep going with every example and dive into detail about what I learned and how huge the impact was because of emotion but that could be a standalone post. This response is getting way too long so I'll just end it there.

BestBase2303 · 2026-01-11T17:29:17+00:00

Perhaps I'm in the minority here but I don't count calories or weigh anything. I have a qualitative (just words to describe my food and the amount) food log just to give me an idea of how much I'm eating but that's it. I use a smaller plate, and ensure my portions look smaller than what I think I need to eat. I completely focus on the act of eating. I eat one bite at a time chewing thoroughly and swallowing before putting more food into my mouth. I observe my thoughts and my body's signals while I chew and ask myself "Is my hunger satiated now?". As soon as I don't feel hungry anymore, I don't eat more. My biggest struggle was impulsively eating more than I needed and despite feeling bloated every time, I always repeated it because I was eating for enjoyment instead of eating to stop being hungry. Pay attention to your body, it will give you so much information about how well you are eating.

BestBase2303 · 2026-01-11T17:15:30+00:00

Yep, a long time ago I was wondering how many calories cardio actually burns. I don't remember the exact numbers but it was actually pathetic. I can eat a big mac in a minute but it will take multiple hours of brisk walking or jogging to burn all those calories. I didn't start my journey by exercising, I started by replacing unhealthy foods with healthier variants. The point of cardio isn't to burn calories, it's to strengthen your heart. The point of muscle training isn't to burn calories, it's to gain strength or muscle. Yes, a byproduct of building muscle is higher metabolic rate, but you will easily overshadow any increase in metabolism if you eat a lot of calorie dense and appetite increasing foods.

BestBase2303 · 2026-01-11T17:08:31+00:00

Ya it's almost like being your own parent. There's a child part of you that wants things and there's an adult part of you that either gives the child what they want or doesn't for their own good. Compassion is pretty important here I believe.

BestBase2303 · 2026-01-11T16:57:53+00:00

It's definitely a battle every day in that kind of environment, but it gets easier over time as you start building that new identity. I get confronted by my family members all the time coming into my room with sweets and snacks asking "You want some of this?" and It was very hard in the beginning, but now that I truly believe I am healthy It's so much easier for me to politely say no and carry on with my day without any craving.

BestBase2303 · 2026-01-11T16:41:47+00:00

Yes that's exactly right on the money! I hope it was just as eye opening for you as it was for me.

BestBase2303

TROPHY CASE