Staying motivated/Long term goal achivement - stuck after 40lb loss

Roman G wrote:Last year, I was 176 lb, at my heaviest, and now I am 136lb. I lost 40 pounds! A little preface: I was overweight most of my life, turned 28 in Sept. Tried to lose weight but I never gave it any real effort. Last summer I got on a scale and it said 176lb and I almost lost it. I am 5’5, male, no muscle mass at that point. June of last year 2015, I read a post here on MP by a user which mentioned myfitnesspal.com and decided to try it. Wanting to lose weight for a while and a combination of fun to count calories I was able to start losing weight pretty easily. It took me a year to lose 40lb, mostly because I was slacking here and there. Over the course of a year while losing weight, I did various tests and experiments on my body and learned how to tweak food intake and how my body reacts to variables. I realized the cycle my body goes through with every number of pounds. Losing weight is not a problem for me, staying motivated is becoming a losing battle as I still have a number of pounds to go. My goal: is to be around 12% body fat or rather have a visible midsection and be in a VISIBLY physically good shape. I want to look good and climb at my hardest. I am training regularly (mostly for ice climbing season now) but will start hang boarding and training for rock season January 1st. I have about 6-7 lb more to go to be <12% body fat. I understand this is just a mental struggle and I am at a loss and I just can’t break past my point. It’s become really frustrating. Evenings for me are the hardest. I stick to my plan through out the day and don’t deviate from my plan, but come evening when I get home from work, I over eat and keep telling my self, “just today is okay!” EVERYDAY. I am not gaining weight, I am simply overeating and not staying in calorie deficit. I know why I am not losing weight, I just can’t bring myself to stop consuming more calories in the evening. Perhaps food is just a mental stress relief after a stressful day at work. But I have never been a stress eater as far as I can tell. Changing routines, times, locations, making a schedule, creating a whack in the system, none seem to be producing the mental edge I’m looking for to stay on track. When I get home from work every evening, the last thing I care about is a sixpack. Right after overeating, I get mad at myself and force to go work out/burn calories if I can muster enough anger(sounds depressing). I can stay at pretty much the same weight level and control my weight. Staying motivated to lose more weight however is a big struggle. Do I just not want it bad enough and created this delusional image in my head? Maybe. This may not be the place to ask, but there are some really motivated folks here on MP so I’m curious what has worked for you, as far as getting your motivation to train, diet, reach your goal weight/fitness level, long term goal achievement. Do you have a routine that you activate once you get off track? Daily reminders? Pictures of your goal? A threshold that you won’t allow yourself to go past and able to snap back? Do you stare at a mirror and tell yourself: “I can crimp and pull on slopers all day”, “today I won’t eat junk, today I will stay in calorie deficit”. Maybe something is holding me back and I just can't see it. I am trying to figure out what it is that is holding me back, or rather why I’m losing motivation for long term goals. Perhaps after all I just don’t want it bad enough… I want to hear what has worked for you to stay motivated. Roman

climbing friend,

you may overeat as many vegetables and as much water as you want, thus you will feel full and still starve yourself to anorexic climber shape.

climbing friend,

I am not fat, I just am having of the thick skin.

Aleks Zebastian wrote:climbing friend, I am not fat, I just am having of the thick skin.

I was waiting until Aleks chimes in. I was expecting more climbing wisdom from you, climbing friend lol

Roman G wrote:I understand this is just a mental struggle

No it's not just "mental".

You're up against tough biochemistry.
Your mind (and your eating) is partly controlled by that biochemistry.

Everybody's biochemistry is different and the way it controls your mind is different.

You need to find out what works for your mind and your biochemistry.

12% body fat is not a sustainable goal for lots of people. No guarantee it's a sustainable for you.

Losing weight is the easy part (especially the first time). Keeping it off is really hard -- for most people.

Welcome to real life.

Ken

Roman G wrote: “I can crimp and pull on slopers all day”

You don't need 12% BF for that.

Seconding the idea that you might be dealing with excess skin from the weight loss, especially if you carried your weight in your abdomen. And seconding the comment that at 28, it'll likely go away. I had my kids around that age and the extra skin disappeared 90%, and I don't have good collagen-y skin either.

You need a new goal to maintain your motivation. You have already lost 40 lbs, that goal was reached. Everyone looses motivation when they succeed with something that took a lot of effort to achieve. Your current goal (12% Body fat) isn't even something that can be measured with much accuracy. Yes it may be some ideal that you have placed on the wall, we all have those ideals. But just saying "I want to climb 5.14 before I am 50" is a goal it's not one that is likely to lead me to get there. Find out what motivates you now that you have changed your body (congrats on that BTW, awesome job) and focus on that. Make sure it's tangible and achievable. Realize that maintaining your weight loss should be a high priority for the next couple years until your new eating habits are ingrained. My recommendation would be to shift the focus of your motivation off your body and onto something else, like a dream route or strength standard.

Good Luck.

Congratulations on the weight loss you've achieved so far! I'm curious about your body fat % goal and equating this with another 5-7 lb loss. Body composition is not the same as body weight - are you having your body fat assessed and by what method? Most are pretty inaccurate. Muscle weighs more than fat, so it's possible to be 'overweight' on a measure such as BMI (which only takes height and weight into account) yet be very fit and have a low/healthy body fat %.

It does sound like you are running a pretty severe calorie restriction - also curious about how you arrived at 1500 calories for your resting metabolic rate? That seems pretty low. The physiology of weight loss is really complicated and your body will respond (appropriately) when it thinks you are in starvation mode. I know you asked about motivation, but from your post it seems that you might not be in the healthiest place with your relationship to food and body image. Perhaps consult a nutritionist to get a more balanced picture?

There's also research out there about fatigue of self control - basically you can restrict yourself for so long, but the self control to do that fatigues and then you rebound and overindulge. It sounds like you are experiencing some of that.

You should be very proud of bringing yourself down to a healthy weight - long view is your overall health and life will be better for it!

Your real mental struggle revolves around the definition of what "looks good".

I would echo what other are saying: take a break from calorie restriction and focus on building muscle and strength. You'll gain weight in the short term, but it will be from putting muscle on. Just keep in mind that during this stage of training, the scale will not be your best indicator of success.

The interwebs will show you plenty of before and after examples of people looking way more ripped and being 15 pounds heavier.

If you motivation is waining, changing things up will probably help a lot. You just have to be willing to change your mindset as well.

Is the real goal a number on the scale? or being health, happy, and strong (with the probable consequence of looking good)?

Thanks all making some adjustments now, new routine, better schedule. Took some very useful points from your feedback and writing them down in my "rules" book for lack of a better name. Will post follow up results.

climbing friend,

increase sexual frustration, so you are more motivate, for training harder, ferocity of wild polar bear trapped in cage with cheesesteaks just out of paw's reach.

I agree with those who've advised you to go for a non-appearance goal and to work for more muscle rather than a number on the scale.

That said, I will pass along to you and the entire internet haha my secret to weight maintenance. Eat beans/lentils at least twice a week, and real oatmeal twice a week, and fermented foods daily like kefir, yogurt, saurkraut, some cheeses (google for more options).

I'm going to throw a bunch of study links at you, but the gist of it all is: eat probiotic and prebiotic foods and maybe the bacteria in your gut will help you be lean.

nature.com/news/bacteria-fr…
Takeaway from the study above - don't eat the feces of obese mice ;)

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl…
Effects of Gut Microbes on Nutrient Absorption and Energy Regulation
"The ingestion of oligofructose has been demonstrated to result in a reduction of food intake145 and a decrease in body weight in mice, as well as weight loss and satiety in humans."

Some more gut biome info/research for you...

A Gut Makeover for the New Year nyti.ms/2iIZJ2f

MelRock wrote:Eat beans/lentils at least twice a week, and real oatmeal twice a week, and fermented foods daily ... probiotic and prebiotic

Oddly, I had been eating lots of beans and oatmeal, and then three-and-a-half months ago I abruptly stopped. And instead of probiotic yogurt, I've been eating ice cream about every other day. During this period I have so far lost 10 pounds (using my "super-fiber" strategy).

So now I expect that in the next two months I will gain back 5 pounds. Like most people who lose weight -- and for no well-understood reason.

MelRock wrote:http://www.nature.com/news/bacteria-from-lean-cage-mates-help-mice-stay-slim-1.13693

key quote:
“It’s a complex puzzle with many interesting parts. The microbiota is just one piece.”

Ken

The true secret is that they inject parasitic worms into your intestine. During the next eight weeks, the worms eat 25% of the calories in your food, so your body only gets 75% of normal. But you don't notice any weight loss on your bathroom scale, because even though you lost body fat, the worms gained weight.

Then just before you're ready to send your big project, they inject this special purgative which flushes out all those (now much bigger) worms. So suddenly you're 4 pounds lighter.

... (only trying to help) ...

Ken

P.S. If we were living in a normal universe, I would have guessed that "healthy" bacteria are the kinds that promote the absorption of more nutrients from the intestines and stomach into the bloodstream.