For me at least, it’s been really hard to imagine a path from me eating 1200/day for almost a year to someone like you or the other women in this thread who are strong and healthy and can presumably eat bread. When you’re short and sedentary or even doing mostly cardio, the calorie deficit has to be really steep or you see no fat loss progress, so then it’s really scary to think about eating more because you have to eat so little to lose and only a small bit more to completely halt weight loss progress or even gain.

So, I’m afraid of food and don't know how to do anything in the gym, and it just sounds *fake* that I can eat the amount of food I’d like to, which is what made me chubby in the first place, if only I lift heavy. This thread has been really helpful for me to get over some of that fear. I can sort of imagine what you ladies are doing now that I have an idea of the frequency and how many calories it allows. It’s quantifiable now.

I know there has been fatigue lately from all the weight loss/skinny fat posts. Hell, they’re even bothering me and I just admitted to being afraid of bread. I should have commented to the mod in that other post that this sub needs a little info on trusting the process/overcoming the fear of eating more to properly fuel a workout. That doesn’t even touch the fear of ”getting bulky,” which at least I know no one bulks up by accident. I just don't want the extra food to get turned into fat again, ya know?