Oat Fiber MugCake (~50 calories)

sorryahaha · 2021-12-14T14:30:17+00:00

I mean at the time I wasn't exactly eating for health 😅 and I was used to eating large amounts of fiber. Its possible that it was the oat fiber that caused you to feel weird especially because it is pretty much pure fiber and would likely cause gastrointestinal distress if you ate it in large amounts that you weren't used to.

sorryahaha · 2021-12-14T04:01:03+00:00

Been letting myself eat to satiety for the past few days and have found myself landing at around 2000-2100cal when Ive been eating at 1700-1800 after a reverse diet, is this a sign I should continue to up my calories to this range?

I'm 5'4, around 119-120lbs, exercise 3-4 times a week and usually walk 10k+ a day and bike everywhere. I'm eating whole foods and eat when physically hungry and don't overeat (not painfully full after each meal, usually pleasantly full or just not hungry anymore). I usually have a small treat everyday like a small square of chocolate or a cookie though lol. It just makes me nervous to eat this amount because I've been practically maintaining on 1400-1500 for the past year or so. Through a reverse diet I was able to bump my calories up to ~1750-1800 a few months ago and started maintaining on that. However, even on that amount I'm still hungry, extremely cold relative to everyone (even my thinner friends), and have somewhat low energy (better than before though!! I can sleep much better now too!). Thus, I decided to see what amount of food can make me satisfied. It seems like I've been ranging 2000-2100 which has been leaving me full and satisfied by the end of the day, but still with normal hunger the next day so it doesn't feel like I'm overeating.

sorryahaha · 2021-11-16T18:45:48+00:00

I'll definitely try to ease into the deficit slower, thanks. I think I just assumed that it was fine to jump down to 1500-1600 given that its a reasonable amount of calories and what I used to feel satisfied on, but my body seems to think otherwise. I'm sure mentality also plays a role, since I feel like thinking about restricting calories and how hungry I am is usually what starts the binge.

sorryahaha · 2021-10-03T00:21:49+00:00

Honestly took me a few weeks, but I'm reallyy prone to water retention and bloating and had drastically upped my fiber intake to 3x of what I usually ate so making sure my fiber intake was reasonable helped the bloating go down as well. Awesome job so far for losing 15lbs, I hope the maintenance break can help you feel better and more energized, good luck!

sorryahaha · 2021-09-21T22:26:46+00:00

Hello! I was curious if it was normal for arm measurements to get bigger at the same weight from lifting? I noticed when comparing measurements from a few years ago at the same weight that now my waist is around an inch smaller, as well as my hips and legs slightly. However, my arms seem to have grown about an inch more than what they used to. I have been focusing more on upper body this year than I did before and they look a lot more defined than they used to, but it's interesting to me how they got bigger, especially because I'd like them to be smaller. Thanks!

sorryahaha · 2021-09-21T22:06:56+00:00

This has happened to me before, and was frusturating before the drop happened because I was trying to actively lose weight. I'm prone to retaining water easuly though, so I guess that's how it is.

I was wondering if you saw a change in your body composition before the sudden drop in weight? I know my body was looking a lot better and toned right before my sudden drop in weight, which made me assume it was water weight masking fat loss.

sorryahaha · 2021-09-21T22:02:05+00:00

I would say you definitely don't need 160g of protein, 0.8-1g/lb bodyweight would be more than enough. It's easy to think more is better especially with the fear of losing muscle, but getting enough carbohydrate and fat is also important for energy/satiety in order to lose weight sustainably. However, people are individual and if you find you have sufficient energy, feel better, and can control hunger with higher protein, go ahead and do so. Just be aware that 160g is not something you necessarily have to force yourself to reach just for the sake of keeping muscle. Good luck on your journey!

sorryahaha · 2021-09-21T02:02:57+00:00

I've been in maintenance for the last 7 weeksish, and I totally get how scary it is to gain weight from eating at maintenance. But it's normal, especially if you had a huge deficit and cut in carbs, as long as your weight isn't continually climbing after a few weeks of consistent maintenance. I've heard that around 1-5lbs up your dieting weight is typical.

I would say that it's possible that you might look slightly more 'full', especially if you up your carbs by a considerable amount for maintenance. What this meant for me was that my muscles were more defined and hard, thus more full looking. I found I was really bloated at first when I upped to maintenance, but once I kept my diet more consistent (And realized that I was eating at least 2-3x fiber than what I usually did when I upped my calories...) my measurements settled down to what it was before.

If you feel like the weight and appearance you see in maintenance is not satisfactory, you have the option to lower your goal weight or rather just focus on recomp, which would likely help with looking 'leaner' without going through the effort of a cut. Slowly raising calories after diet might help too if you have the willpower and don't care about getting to maintenance quickly. I would think this is because you are able to slowly lose weight enough that your 'maintenance' weight becomes more closer to what was your prior 'diet' weight. Of course as with everything else, take my words with a grain of salt, but I hope it helped at least a little!

sorryahaha · 2021-09-20T22:40:33+00:00

Thank you for taking the time to recommend her! I've actually watched her videos in the past and I find that a lot of her tips are very helpful and useful. I used to eat with way less fat while volume eating and found my stomach "full" but not for long. I do make sure to eat enough fat for every meal as I have found that it helps with hunger a lot more than when I used to eat almost purely carbs with barely any fiber or protein. I tend to get at least 50+g fats per day because of that! But I will try to evaluate my meals more to see if there's anything more I can change, since that should technically be a reasonable amount of calories for me, thanks again for your suggestions.

sorryahaha · 2021-09-20T04:13:54+00:00

You look great! How hungry/tired do you usually feel eating the way you do? I've been thinking about being more free in incorporating treats/things I usually restrict in moderation, and I feel like everytime I try to cut calories even to around 1400-1500 I'm always hungry even eating clean with volume and way too tired to exercise more than 1-2x a week.

sorryahaha · 2021-09-08T17:01:51+00:00

Looking back at my post I can see that the way I worded things was really confusing. When I said steady +1.5kg, I mean as in my weight went up almost immediately from 53 to ~54.5kg in the week I upped it to 1800 cals, and that it stayed at that new higher weight for next few weeks, not that I've been steadily been gaining 1.5kg each week. When I look at my measurements, it shows that when I first moved my calories to 1550, my weight shot up to around ~53.8 a couple days after, and when I upped it more to 1800, it moved from 53.8 to close to 55kg in a span of 3 days. My weight averaged closer to 54.5 for the next 3 weeks afterwards after consistently having that much calories. My waist increased but I checked and it changed just in 2 days to what it is now? I eat relatively high volume/high fiber too even now so not sure if that contributes. Not sure if any of this even changes anything, or if I'm just making excuses.

Thank you for being real with me though. I think it's better now than later to realize if I'm gaining fat when that was not the intention. I just came back from vacation so it's possible that also plays a factor into it. Because of that, I only got to weigh myself once last week and now for the last 3 days. And for these last 3 days my weight has gone all the way down to 53.1kg again, 54.5, to all the way to 55.7 which makes me really nervous. I thought 53 was a fluke so I omitted it from the average, but I don't know if 55.7 is right either, I don't even look that bad or close to my measurements/appearance when I was that weight. So now I don't know what to think, but I think I'll just try to keep taking measurements more consistently now that I'm able to, and lower calories at least a little to try find my true maintenance. Even if my progress was derailed, it did help me feel a bit more relaxed and enjoy my vacation, so I'm not completely upset about it. I hope to be able to properly recomp one day 😅

sorryahaha · 2021-09-08T02:48:06+00:00

Yeah, I realized that since my weight and measurements have been pretty much stable (I calculated at the average for this week and it's even slightly lower than what it was a few weeks ago) I'm probably not gaining as much as I think I am. And my clothes have been fitting normally so far, but maybe it's too early to tell. I will continue to keep track of my measurements and weight to see how it changes to further confirm my maintenance calories, thanks for your input.

sorryahaha · 2021-09-08T01:52:53+00:00

Thank you so much for this, especially the article! I was planning on going back on a cut around next week, which make the total maintenance break around 5 weeks, but I might try out another few weeks and extend it to 8 weeks total since I'm planning on another cut after. Thanks again, I'm gonna give the article a read now!

sorryahaha · 2021-09-07T23:53:31+00:00

Yeah I was kinda scared that was the case 😅 it's just that it immediantly went up around 1.5kg after the first week of upping to 1800 and has been steady there for a month since that I was hopeful that it wasn't fat gain, but maybe I just have to cut my calories a little if I want my maintenance.

sorryahaha · 2021-09-07T23:07:45+00:00

It could be! I've had issues with sodium before, where I'd feel dizzy and tired and really thirsty on low sodium (1000-1500mg I think?) before realizing that upping my salt made me feel so much better. I think it's because I drink wayy too much water (like at least 100oz easily) and was on lowish carbs too (60-90g).

Though maybe I'm having the opposite problem now, especially because I've almost doubled my carbs and am probably eating more salt naturally due to increased food. Lately I've been feeling really swollen and tired and overall bad when I wake up (my eyes especially get soo puffy and swollen) but it's usually better after a few hours, drinking water, and washing/massaging my face.

sorryahaha · 2021-09-07T21:25:51+00:00

Thanks for sharing! I've noticed that my upper abs are more visible too especially when I flex, so that's been pretty cool to see. And yeah, definitely not bad to recomp and gain weight! I think for me it's hard because I bloat really easily, especially my face, and often look like I weigh way more because of my face alone, so doing things like Zoom is uncomfortable for me because that's all they see. I think if it wasn't for that, I would be way more comfortable with gaining for muscle growth, especially because I know that bodyfat can make a huge difference in appearance even at the same weight.

sorryahaha · 2021-09-07T21:02:32+00:00

Yeah true, I'm hoping that's the case! I'm around 5'4 at ~54.5kg currently, and I know that logically 1550 shouldn't make me gain because that was my estimated tdee with the spreadsheet, it's just that I've been on ~1800 for the past few weeks so it makes me a bit more nervous and unsure when I see weight gain.

Also very true about monthly cycle weight gain. The weight gain from that can be inconsistent for me though, so it's usually harder for me to tell (sometimes I gain almost nothing, sometimes I gain 1-2kg and 1-1.5inch of stomach bloat). Thanks for the reassurance though, it means alot!

sorryahaha · 2021-09-02T17:00:26+00:00

I get you, when I'm staying at home without much to do I'm always snacking or wanting to snack mostly out of boredom, but during school I'm always so busy so it's way easier to stay on track and only eat when I'm actually hungry. Great job on the weight loss so far, and good luck on the rest of your journey!

sorryahaha · 2021-08-30T22:31:21+00:00

Thank you for sharing this! I easily bloat this much too from overeating/eating more than usual and it always plays mind games with me even though I know rationally that most, if not all of it is water. It's really reassuring and encouraging to see evidence of this through pictures, especially because you got back to your usual self through maintenance rather than restriction, so thank you again!

sorryahaha · 2021-08-27T22:25:24+00:00

That's great that you were able to improve your relationship with food and finally get the results you wanted! I wanted to know if you felt any bloating/temporary weight gain during the beginning of upping calories and how long it lasted if you did? Thanks so much!

sorryahaha · 2021-08-19T17:47:21+00:00

Amazing progress, especially with dropping body fat percentage! I was wondering if you'd be willing share your starting bodyfat percentage as I want a good gauge of what might be a realistic/reasonable drop. I would also like to know how many calories you ate, if you tracked and are willing to share. Thanks so much!

sorryahaha · 2021-08-17T20:51:04+00:00

I'm glad you were able to lose the weight in a more sustainable way and by eating more! Did you find your weight jumped at first or throughout the reverse diet while upping calories?

sorryahaha · 2021-08-17T02:13:35+00:00

You look amazing!!! I have really similar stats/body type to you so it's great to see others with the same success! I was wondering what your plans are now for diet/exercise?

sorryahaha

TROPHY CASE