My 70lb Weight Loss Journey
Before:
At one point in my life, I was extremely unhappy with my body and with the way I looked. I knew very little about nutrition, as eating pizza seemed equally healthy to eating chicken and vegetables… I would constantly ask myself is chicken the best source of protein? Are bananas good for weight loss? Are grapes good for weight loss? Is rice a good carb? … You can see the pattern; I did not know much. On the other hand, I was always motivated from these stories about weight loss on Instagram, so that’s what helped me get started!
After:
For a long time, I wanted to change, but I didn’t know where and how to start. I started with low calorie meal plans, diet restrictions, and intermittent fasting meal plans, but these all lead to no results. I realized that my problem stemmed from my mindset. After figuring this out, I decided to do an abundance of research on the science of weight loss. This taught me that one must always be in a caloric deficit to lose weight, and in order to be in a caloric deficit, you must always eat less than your calorie maintenance level. My goal was to eat 400 calories less than my maintenance calories, and by doing so, I was able to lose on average 1.5lbs a week. After the first month, I had a 20lbs weight loss and I felt extremely driven to continue, which in the end resulted into losing 70lbs in a year!
Here are some of the key takeaways from my weight loss journey:
Protein intake is essential to weight loss!
Protein intake is the primary factor to weight loss. This means that if your protein levels aren’t as high as they are supposed to, you won’t lose much weight. But how do you know how much protein you’re supposed to have? EASY!! Your body needs exactly 1g of protein per 1lb of body weight. Follow that ratio, and you’ll be GOLDEN! Or just stick to our meal plan.
It’s okay to always eat, as long as the foods are low in calories (fruits and vegetables)
One thing about me, I LOVE to eat… I needed to find a way to consistently eat and hit my daily calorie need. After a lot of trial and error, I found out that fruits and vegetables are the best to snack on, as they are extremely low in calories and have great nutritional facts.
The importance of water
Another tip that extremely benefited me was to drink minimum 3L of water daily. Not only will this suppress your appetite, but drinking a lot of water even helps you boost your metabolism.
Don’t dwell if you binge, tomorrow is a new day!
Finally, I realized that if I binged, it wasn’t the end of the world, as long as I came back even stronger the next day and stuck to my meal plan! The damage is done, FORGET IT!
In conclusion, they key to my success was being aware and creating a strong mindset. Follow the tricks mentioned above, as well as the meal plan and you will accomplish your goals IN NO TIME!
*Reference of 70lbs weight loss picture: Anthony Monda Anthony Monda - YouTube