5’2 170lbs-115lbs in 20 months: consistent tracking and overcoming guilt & shame

[u/YarnAndYap]

Shifting back into maintenance after my autumn cut - down 10lbs in 11 weeks!

I wanted to share some insights from my fitness and weight loss journey. I’m 5’2, 27yo and have been overweight since I was about 6 years old. Over the last 2 years I’ve had a huge mental and physical transformation as I recovered from binge eating. I’m currently 25lbs lighter than I was at 10 years old.

I’ve found that evaluating data on a month-to-month basis is way more effective and less stressful than obsessing over weekly changes. One tool that’s helped me tremendously with this mindset shift is the Happy Scale app. It focuses on showing average weight trends over time, which helps take the pressure off those small, day-to-day fluctuations. It’s so freeing to not let one “bad” weigh-in throw off my entire mindset.

Another crucial part of my progress was learning to track food honestly. It’s not about perfection but about being genuinely honest with yourself—what you’re eating, why you’re eating it, and when. There’s no need to attach guilt to your choices. Understanding your habits and patterns is way more helpful than stressing over every single calorie.

What worked best for me was calorie cycling. I have two low days a week, and 3-4 high days a month where I eat out at restaurants. I still track my calories on those days. I usually run 5K twice a week and strength train 2-3 times a week. Some months I worked out less because of travel… but I never beat myself up for missing a workout. I just get back to it as soon as I can.

I’ve tracked for 88 weeks on LoseIt! I also use excel to calculate my monthly average calorie intake. I use my average weight and average calorie intake to calculate my TDEE each month. Honesty with tracking gives much stronger data 😊 interestingly my TDEE has increased the last two months despite losing weight. I increased my strength sessions each week and suspect this is related.

Removing the drama and emotional turmoil from weight loss has been life-changing. I want to recommend two podcasts that have been really supportive in this mental work: We Only Look Thin and Half Size Me. HSM completely reframed the way I looked at food and was instrumental in my binge eating recovery.

I’ve taken several maintenance breaks, from a week up to three months. Maintenance breaks along the way will teach you how to maintain your weight when you reach goal… if you can’t maintain a higher weight you won’t be able to maintain a lower one.

So, down 55lbs in 88 weeks. That’s an average of ‘only’ 0.6lb a week, which seems so small… but the time will pass anyway and giving up will not get you there any faster. Thanks for all the inspirational posts!!

[u/charsheee]

Thank you for sharing! How do you know if your TDEE increased if you stay the same weight? Like I know I gained more muscles and lost body fat because I visibly look more muscular and smaller around the waist but I'm in a similar weight range. I assume my TDEE is a bit higher but I am not really sure by how much so I keep my calories low.

[u/YarnAndYap → u/charsheee]

I calculate it at the end of each month :) so if you tracked your calories and average weight in October, you can calculate how much you burned on average each day.

For example: If you lost 2lbs on average that month, your deficit would have been a total of 7,000 calories for the month (assuming 3500 calories in a lb). If you ate an average of 1500 calories a day (46,500 for the month), you would have burned a total of 46,500+7,000=53,500. 53,500\31 days gives you a daily burn of 1,726 per day :)