You’re a good dude. Aside from all the jokes and lightheartedness in your videos you always show an incredible amount empathy and understanding of what you’re talking about
My wife had a weight number fixation, and by having her change the scale to kilograms, it *completely* changed her outlook. Now she was no longer fixated on some number, because as an American she had this Freedom unit lb number burnt into her brain by 17 magazine or cozmo or whatever, but by just switching from pounds to kilograms, she was able to just be like "okay, I'm trying to lose 250 g every 5 days" or whatever, and the number on the scale wasn't really a goal she was shooting for anymore. She started finally just looking for momentum until she looked the way she liked. Small tip, may work for some people that have number fixations to switch to a different measurement system
I actually did this on my bench- Partly by accident, but not knowing the exact weights I used to lift with made me properly reset my expectations and now I enjoy going on my calculator dozens of times a session 😝
I also switched to kg (although I can easily do the conversion in my head), I like that I just look at 2 digits and then the minor fluctuations are ignored (e.g. 85kg could be 85.0 or 85.9, which is a couple lbs margin)
Thanks for all the valuable information and humor. Started in February 2024 at 300lbs and am at 250lbs now. Last weigh. As a longhaul trucker ive customized my diet and excercise in line with your advice and suggestions. My jawline is visible my shoulder and chest muscles are more visible. Friends and Family have noticed physical changes. I use resistance bands for higher weight and chest muscles due to space management within my truck but i also use 15lb weights with controlled slow reps. Again, thank you.
I read them a couple of times. One had a section where teenagers could ask a doctor questions. One question was "can I get pregnant from swallowing" and mfer replied "no, just make sure you swallow a condom"
I am a 5' 11" woman. When in the best shape of my life, running 20 miles a week, I weighed 180 at my lightest. I am large. I have huge parents. My grandfather is 6'7". It was a lifetime of telling myself that I will always be a monster and huge and never get to be feminine like the rest of the tiny women I saw. I finally came to realization that I look my best at 200lbs. Especially when I am just very strong and farm grown as they say. I can look at myself and start to love myself. I want to be healthy and feel good. I dont care what my number is, as long as I get stronger and feel better thats a win for me now. Now finding clothes that fit my shoulders and chest is a whole other story, lol.
I’m from a psychology background. I have always thought the psychology of losing weight is 100X harder than the actual science or method. Losing weight is easy. Overcoming the mind games of losing weight is almost all of the actual work. I didn’t lose weight until I spent real time trying to understand my emotional issues around food and weight first. Took me a year. Once I got the crap out of the way, it was pretty easy.
Yeah, and it's not even necessarily limited to the psychology of the individual actually doing the diet. If you have a partner who doesn't understand how everything works and wants you to give up or thinks you messed up just because your body is holding on to extra water it's worse.
@@sevionmelidan1682 Yes, totally true. Thankfully I have a supportive partner. What you’re talking about is a second psychological minefield all by itself.
@@dangallagher6176 Willpower exists, it’s just an incredibly finite resource. You can’t use it to keep up a diet for long periods of time. It burns out. You use it to for building habits or thought patterns you can leverage into new systems, expecting it to get used up fast. But yes, the old fashioned idea about how it works is terrible. People who tell others to just use willpower already had something about their personal context which meant they didn’t need willpower to get results-something else made it easy or provided the energy.
As someone who doesn't really struggle with weight loss and never had big emotional issues around weight, I would agree. To me, losing weight is pretty easy. I follow a calorie deficit, and yeah I get a bit hungry, sometimes I get impatient about results, but ultimately it's no big deal, I can mostly stick to the diet and get results over a few weeks or months. But I see so many other people really struggle with dieting. But why is it hard for them? It's certainly not that complicated: Eat a bit less than normal, and tolerate some hunger while you keep doing that. It's not the most fun, but it's so simple. Maybe some part of the problem is fad diets confusing people about what actually causes weight loss, but I think the bigger problem is with the psychological issues, which some people have way more of than others.
I don't think I've ever felt more "seen" by a fitness type video. I had an eating disorder in my early 20s and I was obsessed with the scale. I was able to overcome it, but I have struggled with losing weight off and on. I have tried counting calories, macros, points, steps, you name it. Anything with numbers sends me into the same eating disorder headspace I was in all those years ago. As a result I have been feeling like weightloss isn't possible for me because I get so anxious when I try counting stuff. This gives me so much hope.
Personally, another reason tracking all of this can feel "icky" is because it can kind of feel like you're treating yourself like a computer or a robot and food as simply a resource, which can feel inhumane and kind of like a disservice. A lot of people treat food as something that brings people together, something that has a lot of nostalgia and emotion and connection tied to it, so tracking and aligning yourself with statistics around nutrients can feel like a threat to that.
But food is literally just that, food. A fuel source to keep you alive and moving. The sooner people realize it and stop dwelling on food for anything else in their daily lives the sooner they can actually work on their relationship with food. Daily food is supposed to be boring fuel, only that way will having some special meal with other people feel special because it will stand out,
@@MrFurley69 Well many things can be viewed like that. But food is unique because it’s one of the rare things in day to day lifts that tends to bring people together physically and because everybody needs food throughout the day. Sure some more extreme people can’t afford to eat somewhat casually, but food doesn’t have to be just fuel for anyone, even very low body fat people. There can be a different approach for different circumstances or a different application of the counting calories approach
Good take, but viewing food as just fuel helped me to stop letting food to control my life. Now I have no problem leaving food on my plate if I think that that's enough (especially in restaurants, I had the "I/someone else paid for it, I GOTTA eat it all!" mentality)
This is exactly what I needed. I cannot keep up with religiously tracking my calories. It makes me too food obsessed and I feel like I can't live my own life.
@@mhead81 because the overwhelming body of scientific literature and the real world experience of tens of thousands of competent Bodybuilders, Athletes, Fitness Models, PT's, Nutritionists and Dietitians for decades suggests people can get great results while eating SHOCK! HORROR! Rice and Broccoli along side their Chicken Breast. Wild I know.
@@mhead81because any diet that creates a calorie deficit works.. carbs and plants aren’t evil. This is coming from a guy who eats 1.5-2 lbs of meat a day.
@@mhead81keto isn’t sustainable for the rest of your life imo. So if u lose a lot of weight on keto you havent learned how to eat balanced including all food groups and are bound to returning to your old eating habits after the diet.
@@mhead81 keto is indeed great for fat loss, but eating carbs with protein is superior for muscle growth, which is generally better for long term health and even weight loss (if you're putting in the work for muscle growth). So yes keto is imo the gold standard for actually just burning fat and losing weight, but if you want to gain a bunch of muscle and tone up, eating carbs will be much more efficient and effective (and you'll likely feel a lot better and happier).
Fun fact my PhD supervisor (rest in peace Steve) was originally a journalist before retraining as a scientist. He worked at teen magazines (they just have a couple of guys that write all the same group of interest magazines saves on cost). All of the quizzes, reader questions and articles were made up by a bunch of middle aged guys.... the more you know!!!
You don’t surprise me 😅. I’ve heard it’s the same for s** lines. Ugly people or grannies sounding breathy and young on the other end of the line. 😬😅😅😅.
Same here, I’ve got myself at 700 cal daily deficit, but I’ve caught myself feeling absolutely awful about myself if I don’t have like 300 or more calories left at the end of the day. I have to make an active effort to tell myself, that hitting that calorie count is okay.
@@sebastianblake6119 If it helps I'm in the same boat, I'm already at a 1000 ish calorie deficit but subconsciously don't want to hit my 2000 calories per day so I often fall short. Here's the thing I learned this month that was HUGE. It's not sustainable when you're at 1000 calorie deficit, you need every calorie out of that 2000 set for the day. 10 out of 14 days I'll be anywhere up to 200 calories short of the 2000 and I get really hungry, and after a week I have no energy at all and my partner tells me my mood is changing or my energy is low. Now this is just what works for me so take it with a pinch of salt, but I do and will continue to struggle to hit whatever number of calories I'm allowed per day so my solution is this: (Maintenance is 3000 calories, goal is 2000 calories) I actually eat around 1800 per day - that's a weekly deficit of 1400 calories FROM MY 1000 calorie daily deficit, it's not healthy. To fix this I've added a refeed twice per week where I can have an additional 700 calories and this removes the phycological issue I have of daily calorie targets. When my brain knows it's a refeed to catch up on calories, there's something about that my brain understands and is okay with. So I'm 2000 calories daily except twice per week, on any day, where I can have 2700. This works amazingly well because I can either reintroduce foods I can't currently eat like cereal or toast, because 2000 calories isn't enough to have those foods as snacks whilst eating proper meals, or I can continue as normal but have a REFEED meal, not a cheat meal, there's a difference. I've been clean eating for 3 months now but yesterday I had a pizza from Papa Johns which I easily fit in to the 2700 calories, it was dinner and then a few slices for breakfast the next day. Obviously the better answer is - if I'm already at 1000 calorie deficit, which is around the maximum safe/healthy amount for 1-2lbs per week loss, I should be eating 2000 calories per day (for me and my body based on BMR and TDEE). But because I can't seem to do that these refeed meals level me back out to 2000 calories per day over the week, there's no cheat meals because the calories are accounted for and are a part of my planned deficit. I hope this helps anyone else who has a similar problem to me, I could set a calorie goal of 3000 per day and I still wouldn't eat it😂 Refeed is definitely the best way I've found to keep me going, keep my hormones in check, mood up, energy levels good. If you think this might be for you, just remember you can't leave too many days between your refeeds because 5 days at 1200 calorie deficit is too long and you will start having mood swings, low energy, you'll stop exercising and all sorts. 2 refeeds works for me, but you may need more - so instead of having two 700 extra calorie days, try 3 days with an extra 466 calories if your energy is too low or your mood is affected. Good luck everyone! Mike if you're reading this, thank you for everything you do - and I'd LOVE to hear your opinion on how I'm dealing with this and if it's good advice for those in a similar position to me. - Luke
Cool video doc, and good timing. My partner recently decided to lose weight. Previously she tried fads (to my annoyance) and she could do it. It was always temporary. Over years she has steadily gained weight. Nothing extreme, but recently she was quite upset by it. She was upset by the weight also! Tracking macros is off the cards. She actually is too busy, and it's an unnecessary hurdle. I started her off with breakfast. I made her two types of breakfast. Finely balanced, nutritious and filling. She snapped it up, and after a month, it was the absolute standard. A habit she doesn't even have to think about. The best part? She is less hungry throughout the day, and no longer snacks in the evening and afternoon. Bonus: she was losing (on average, scales didn't really appear until recently) 1lb a week, by eating a hearty breakfast! So, she mentions food again, talking about weight loss. Next step, lunch. To be fair, I only discussed options with her, and she came up with some easy lunch ideas that both feed her, and maintain her hunger levels. She did it herself. After a couple of weeks, and up until recently she was dropping 1.5 to 2lb a week. She hasn't been hungry, eating solid meals. Losing weight. Now she has seen that she can in actual fact control her bodyweight, she has been bolting on other things. Everything is sugar free - easy win. She doesn't touch alcohol or wine at all in the week, has a glass or two on the weekend or events - easy win. The biggest thing I saw, was that she adopted a mindset of small but long term changes. Changes that will last a lifetime, and be easy. New habits. Not drinking low calorie soup as lunch and dinner for weeks on a time. I actually put it down to one of your videos that you posted at the beginning of the year, where you basically slammed "new year new me" and resolutions. You warned heavily against dramatic sudden changes, or excessive amounts of change. So I bided my time, then paraphrased your video (mainly by removing the stuff that would offend her or weird her out). Not sure where this is going, but thanks Mike 👍
When the switch flipped for me and my head got in the right space I just started with portion control, cut out the beers, and started one of Dr Mike's dumbbell routines. It all started to gel about 4 weeks in for me. I'm a little past the two month mark and clocking about 224lb down from 255lb. I listen to the good doctor in the background while getting work done and tweak my workout based on what I learn that fits me and my goals. To make it more crazy I'm 47, have broken my back within 3 years, have an unrelated L1 compression fracture, an ileostomy going on a decade, and yes my GP and all of my specialists are on board with what I am doing. If my old beat-to-crap ass can do this, you can to my friends.
As far as dieting without counting, somone once told me: Think of hunger as a scale from 1 to 10. 1 being hunger pains, dying from hunger, and 10 being loosening your belt and feeling sick that your so full. If you can keep your hunger at a 7, your golden.
Man it-'s easy to get obsessive with calorie counting especially if you've ever had eating disorders.😢It's like a trauma that comes back when you have to rely on numbers instead of your hunger cues
thanks Dr. Mike for being so understanding on this topic. People who haven't had to undo years of bad habits and rebuild their relationship with food/themselves don't understand the struggle of it all. As someone who has lost 80+ lbs, I really hate the "negative reinforcement" people put on themselves or onto others. Calling yourself/someone a "fat slob" or "fat piece of shit" is 1) cringe, have some (self) respect and 2) builds a terrible relationship with food/ skews healthy habits. Positivity is possibly the best thing you can do to lose weight. In my experience, it made me feel like i could finally climb out of the hell I had made for myself and gave me the confidence to persist. It made me want to eat healthier so I could improve my lifts/runs. It no longer felt like an endless cycle of failure and embarassment. Anyways great video, love what you do man.
11days left on my 10week weight cut. Using the RP app ! I hit my goal weight today. I’m going to smash my goal , do my photoshoot and enjoy my rewards . Flip to maintenance / clean bulk for the summer and then mini cut again for Christmas vacation. Thank you RP You are legends
Nah. My appetite keeping me big. I can control it by training but when for what ever reason i stop training i instantly turn into a fatblob. Its a give and take but thanks to it im big.
No, i dont like tracking calories because its so much work and math. Lets say at dinner i take 600g of stew that is made of 5 ingredients. Thats fuck load of math to figure what im eating there. 😬 And if my wife have made that food, how in the hell i can know how much she have used each ingredients to make that food. 🤷
You can estimate, I counted calories for 3 months straight and after a while, estimating gets really easy. Try to figure the ratio of fat vs carbs vs protein in food and use the usual 9,4,4
Watching a Dr. Mike video is like watching a combo SNL/Mad Magazine skit. You just don't know how it's going to turn out. I like his Stacey character sooooooo muchhhhh!
calorie tracking throws off my hunger/fullness cues and I’m not sure why. when I’m thinking in terms of how much I have left for the day, I don’t pay attention to if I even need or want it. I just eat it because it’s in the budget. and then I spiral and binge :/
I track nothing that goes into my mouth, except for keeping a rough mental count on protein to make sure I'm over 150g a day. It's just too tiresome to constantly try to figure out all the nutritional info for all home cooked meals I eat. Instead I weigh myself every single day and log it into excel. That way I can see what the trend line is doing over the last month or two. It's not hard to just adjust my eating accordingly from there. It's not like my calories have to be perfect daily, just good enough over time. I'm currently on a 12-week cut and planned to loose about 400-500g a week. I can do that without counting calories so long as I know my weight. Looking at my spreadsheet right now, it tells me I've lost an average of 541g a week over the last 6 weeks, so I'm a little ahead at the moment, but I know that'll slow down over the next 6 weeks as my body fat goes down. So long as you can accept reality on an ongoing basis, it's not rocket science.
Exactly the same thing I do, except I weigh myself weekly, every Monday before food. Losing somewhere between 0.3 and 0.7 kg per week, which is very sustainable. Also satisfying to see the trend line go down once you put the data into a chart
@@isaac_rodriguez17 cool, whatever works! :) there's two reasons I do it daily; 1) I'm impatient! 2) it smooths out the random weight fluctuations. My weight is fairly consistent, but some days I am kilogram heavier than yesterday and if that was my weekly weigh-in it'd piss me off lol
This hits home so fiercely. I just went through all of this and have struggled my whole life with disordered eating, on and off. Tracking calories makes me slowly descend into terrible mental health and obsessive practices. Thank you for the helpful advice, Dr Mike.
Mike is the perfect example of not judging a ripped guy by his cover. I think a lot of people might look at Mike and first assume he's just a meathead, but once he starts talking it's obvious he has genius intellect. He also looks like he'd be super stern and drill sergeant-like, when he's actually one of the funniest people I've ever seen anywhere, not just the fitness sphere
I definitely get the feeling that mike is a lot like my trainer- the loveliest person to know as a friend but completely merciless in the gym during class - mo mercy with the reps 🤣🤣
I actually used to have an ED and have been wanting to cut after fully recovering the weight I lost and more without triggering myself, I really appreciate this video. Thank you Dr. Mike!
In 2019, I weighed 210-215 lb and I decided it was time to lose it. Getting obsessed with that number was what fueled me. The more I saw it decrease, the harder I worked to see it decrease more. Once I hit about 175-180, I even started running 5 miles every single day. I hate running. But I got down to my goal weight of 150. Then when I stopped running (bc 5 miles/day isn’t exactly sustainable for most people), I had PERPETUAL anxiety that I was going to gain weight. It never went away. I did start to gain weight about a year ago, and the deep wounding i feel when I see the scale now is insane, esp because there’s the added feeling that I “failed.” That plus the fact that I hate running has made getting back in shape some insurmountable goal. The fact that you address this in this video gives me hope again. 😭
Hey I feel you ! I know you can do this ! Sometimes we are asking ourself to do it a way that is not really aligned we what we truly want because we think it’s better and we « should » do this but it’s actually better to find something that we can sustain as you mentionned Concerning cardio Mike has released a video recently where advise among other things to vary types of cardio in order to make it more enjoyable thus sustainable, I think it could be interesting content for you ! Anyway, wish you the best ! You got this !
Wow. Running to lose weight is pure torture. Running for 1 hour only burns a couple hundred calories at best. Who in their right mind can do that? Walking on the other hand is way more sustainable. Sure. It takes way longer to burn calories compared to running. But I can walk for 8 hours and burn a good chuck of calories whereas no human alive can run for 8 hours.
I've ditched ultra processed food and eat meat, fish, vegies, fruit and dairy. I lost 16 kg in 3 months and maintain new weight without any problem and without tracking calories.
Thanks for addressing this topic. I lost 120 pounds strictly from dieting, but picked up a nasty binge-restrict eating disorder along the way that made me gain about 40 of those pounds back. It's something I actively went and seeked treatment for with a therapist for, which helped a lot and I'm still navigating trying to lose not just the weight I regained but a little bit more while knowing I have the freedom to have treats or enjoy meals out without feeling guilty.
Hearing you change the narrative on “cheating” nutrition goals (e.g. having a burger after a night out) as let’s try better next time, rather than in the tone of failing, is helping me along with I am sure a lot of people with eating disorders as well as binge-eating disorders. It’s that inner voice criticizing falling “off track” certain nutrition goals as failure is what is fuelling my binge-ED and even though I consistently weight lift 4x a week, that inner talk around food is a giant beast to tackle, so thank you for this. You gained a new sub ❤️
Love this content I’m a 5”8” female in the 215 range. I have dieted all my life have lost and gained over the years. I do train in the gym and eat fairly healthy but the consistency with my eating falls off during the evenings binge eating is my issue. I’m still a work in progress. ❤
This is EXACTLY how I'm losing weight! Not an overnight fix. It has been 20 months & counting. How I wish I knew about this at he start. I'll be sharing this video with others because u do a better job explaining it than I do. And thank u for all u do! U have no idea how much you've helped me. Blessings! 😊
The big change to the fear of stepping on the scale came when i decided not to care about daily weights and only care about the weekly average. So what if i gained 2 pounds one day, so long as my average on sunday is lower than last week, I'm happy.
Sitting here looking like a Skinny pregnant chimp.. First bulk in 20 years.. I've gone from 60kg to 66kg in 8 weeks.. Nearly full on shat myself about 3 times just standing up though🤐🤐 #TurtleHead
Second! For my 1st fat loss phase I could only weigh myself 1x a week because the scale impacted my emotions too much. After 8 weeks I was down 5 kg & building muscles. Am now doing maintenance and weighing myself every other day.
Everyone should start the gym just lifting weights, worrying about getting stronger and protein intake. To get them started with calories and stuff when it might not be necessary and most of the time detrimental (to adhearance or even preventing body recomp) is silly . Then if the progress stops, worry about another variable
Counting calories has been my most consistent means of losing fat. I don't track most of my macros, just calories and protein. It can be quite tedious and especially difficult if you want to eat out occasionally so I understand why it's not something others are keen on.
I'm regularly shocked how calorific meals are when eating out. Seems like most meals are 800-1300 calories here in the UK, and very easy to eat. I imagine it's even more in the US
Mike, wtf are you talking about? Lmaaao "You're functionally immortal. At least 900 years." This is what I get for listening in the car and not actually paying full attention haha.
I’ve lost almost 100lbs from my max. Never wrote down a thing, just kept up with a rough estimate. Cut out all the high calorie processed stuff, got better alternatives, and if I do have them make sure I don’t overdo it.
I used to be a 190lbs when i was 18 (emotional eater), then went to uni and developed an eating disorder...went down to 120 within a few months. I tracked what i was eating but basically tried not to go above 100kcal (just craziness). I then suffered from bulimia for about 4 years until i met my husband. And just staid a healthy weight without any ED. I was then diagnosed with crohns disease and lost some weight. After realizing i could control it with excercise i started working out and became quite fit. I just had our 4th baby. Bounced back quite easily every time. Since its our last im really eager to get into the best shape. Anyhow i just eat what i want (we cook all meals at home from scratch and dont do fast food, soda and stuff). I do eat a lot of carbs, that ones for sure 😅...im honestly hesitant to record my intake and count calories because it really reminds me of my ED days.
I track my calories. I like the assurance it gives me. Cannot imagine not doing it. Even when I don't put stuff into an app like MFP, I guesstimate in my head and keep a running tally of calories / protein.
The words "meticulously tracking" do not grok with my ADHD. It's not that I'm not trying to track my intake... I just often completely forget to do so. I also completely forget to eat, or that I ate at all. So there's that complication too...
This “no tracking” approach worked for me and eventually I did get comfortable with measuring. In the past, getting on the scale was too harsh of a reality check if I knew I had “let myself go”. I didn’t want to know how far I’d gone as that would further demotivate me at the time. The extra effort to track macros, steps, weight, and change your diet can be so overwhelming, especially given you haven’t built up the habits (if you had, you likely wouldn’t be in the position you’re in). The lack of tracking was helpful in getting started with one small change at a time. Eventually, I grew to track macros, steps, and weight but it was when I felt I could handle each thing.
Counting macros is just fucking tedious. You already have the general unpleasantness of dieting and exercising. Now I have to take the time to do math equations every day. Bro, I work 12 hour days not including gym time. I don't have the time or fucks to give to minutely track my macros as a normal person.
I'm really grateful for this! I'm a woman and have struggled with eating disorders in the past. I still have a really hard time with the numbers exactly like you described. It puts me into an emotional roller coaster, and feeling like I'm doing better the less I eat, which just spirals down into obsession, starvation, binging and a fucked body image. 10 years ago I weighed 180lbs and was determined to lose that weight to get back down to the 130lbs I weighed back in my teens. But I did it all the wrong ways, lost the weight in bursts of starvation, and then eventually gained it all back. Now I'm back at 180lbs, again wanting to get back down to roughly 130lbs. (Fyi I'm 5'6 tall so 130lbs would put me at a bmi of 21.) But I really can't weigh myself excessively, or count calories daily, without it just triggering those eating disorder demons of my past. Because back then I did weigh myself obsessively every day and jotted the number down to each decimal in a notebook, and I obsessively counted every single calorie for each of my meals and every drink I had. I was determined to eat as little as possible and going above 500 calories in a day wrecked my world. It went to the point where eating ten slices of cucumber made me anxious. Eventually I did break that mindset and settled back into not giving much of a shit about what I ate or what I weighed. But then I found myself back at 180lbs, or actually closer to 185lbs, and being kinda bitter about it. Like I'm back to square one, and it was really all for nothing. I did actually start losing weight again on my own now, doing basically what you're saying here. I weigh myself only once or twice a month to get a rough idea of where I'm at. I counted my calories only once, to check how much of a surplus I was generally dealing with prior to starting. Then I figured out roughly what I should be eating for it to be around 1500-1700 calories without changing my diet too much. And then I just stick to that. I never eat past the point of feeling full, I avoid high fat foods, I only allow myself small pieces of cake once or twice a week, etc, but otherwise eat pretty much the same as ever since recovering from my eating disorder. And it is paying off. I must not be having as much as a 500 calorie deficit as I've only lost half the amount of weight I intended, but that's fine. After 2 months I've gone down 1 clothing size, which I back in my eating disorder days learned is roughly 5lbs. So I must be having an average of 250 calorie deficit, which is a great start! And imo a much healthier approach than to eat as little as possible and obsessing about numbers. I do plan on continuing like this until I get to a point of needing to make some kinda adjustments. Then re-check my bmr and re-calculate how much I should be eating, with a new plan. Maybe by next month or so, if things continue this well. I'll eat at maintenance (basically means eating more freely but still avoiding excess unhealthy foods and still not eating beyond feeling full) when I feel I need a break. I already had one such period due to vacation and it went fine, I did not regain what I had already lost the prior month. Basically I do lightly push myself to deal with the numbers at least just a little bit, to help ensure I'm not going completely off track, because I can count calories and look at the scale as long as it's not often or very regularly. I have to be able to forget about it in between in order to stay sane. But also doing the occasional weighing and calorie counting does actually help boost me to feel secure that I'm going in the right direction. Also, I hope that by pushing myself just a little to look at those kinda numbers again, it might help me defeat those old eating disorder demons for good, which would be a bonus. Also, I absolutely refuse to believe that just because I've had an eating disorder, I can't possibly lose weight in a healthy way. That is utter bullshit that some people say, and I'm not here for it. I believe I just need to be a little more careful and more observant, and that's all.
Scott the video guy needs to do a super cut starting with Dr Mike saying he's not into guys followed by clips all the guys Dr Mike has drooled over on the channel. 😂
As someone who has struggled with disorderly eating her whole teen and adult life, I am deeply grateful for the information you are sharing in this video. Calorie counting and weigh-ins are highly triggering, even with a healthy person such as myself that wants to get in better shape and gain some muscle. Thank you
I know as a general rule for everything in life, “you have to measure it to manage it”, but I suck at tracking my food. I haven’t developed the habit so I’m lazy about it. I just fill up on protein and it makes me eat less fat and carbs. I lift weights pretty much daily. I lose a half pound a week. I’ve decided to be happy with that.
Counting calories gave me an eating disorder, and I still couldn’t get a six pack because I had underdeveloped abs while also deregulating my metabolism. When I stopped caring and just ate three square meals with meat and vegetables, sometimes even fast food, the six pack just came naturally over the course of about a year, and I had the energy to actually work out with intensity.
ive been building muscle for a bit and watching the scale NOT go down after all that effort is hell. society is horrible to girls, particularly tall girls who can’t get below that ideal 100 safely. and i grew up without 17 etc.
"can you lose weight without tracking" No. The reason people get to the weight they are is because they don't track and have no idea about how many calories is in the food they're eating. They need to consciously eat less, which means they will be tracking. No you don't need to track calories, but you do need to track how much food you eat. While you might not understand how many calories you eat, you do understand how much food you eat and you know you need less of it. Feeling icky about going on a scale has no relevance here. I felt "icky" about taking progress pics, so I didn't do it. I was still able to lose weight. Weighing yourself is kinda unimportant, especially if you track your calories. Obviously you'd need to do an initial weigh in so you can work out how many calories you need a day (if you're going the counting calories route), but if you're going the "I'm just gonna eat less route", you don't need to know your weight because you aren't going to be doing any math with it. The only significance of weighing yourself is knowing what you're doing is successful, but there are other ways you can know you're being successful, you'll visually see your body change, you'll feel a lot better and other people will complement you and say you're losing weight. At the end of the day if someone comes in and refuses to weigh themselves because it makes them feel icky, they weren't gonna succeed anyway. If you wanna take their money knowing that, well do whatever you need to do to keep them paying for as long as possible.
"Genetically determined psychology"... Unless there's an already diagnosed psychiatric disorder, in addition to said disorder being prevalent in the clients family history, the "mostly genetically determined psychology" is overstating the impact of their genetics and understating the impact of the client's developmental environment. To make the claim confidently you'd first have to identify the genes determining a "healthy" self-image, then find a person with these genes who was reared in an environment not conducive to a positive body image that nevertheless came to overcome such environmental conditions and resolved to developing a healthy body image. I'd be curious to know if you have an resources alluding to such.
I'm sure Mike isn't a fan of carnivore, but it's been great for me as a fat ass. I've lost about 30 lbs in several weeks and I feel better and my bloodwork is better than ever.
I was carnivore for 6 months. Yes, I lost a lot of weight. I also ended up a prediabetic with high cholesterol. Do yourself a favor, and try another way.
I have disordered eating. I’ll eat nothing or I’ll binge. So I’m trying this thing where I stop eating fast food everyday and cook and not snack so much instead of going on a water fast. I’m glad I saw this. Taking little steps is best for my mental and I can still make some progress.
Dr. Mike, before university I was a Jiu Jitsu competitor. Gained a lot of weight sitting at home in 2020 and 2021 and then first year of college, I discovered your channel last year around November and stuck to weight training and dieting, ever since I come back to these videos less for the diet advice itself but more because the psychology aspect you talk about is spot on. It's so reassuring to hear both negative and positive aspects of the psychological stuff you go through in the process and realize you've been through them and is on the right path, thanks for all the good work.
I went from 215 to 175 pounds, life style, diet, exercise changes, took 5 years. Slow and steady is sustainable. Rapid loss is an illusion, you will not be able to sustain it and will go back up or yo-yo. Change things gradually and stick to those changes.
I'm 5'3 and I was 165lbs when I had fat rolls, saggy arse and a double chin. Im now 175lbs....but with a small waist, glutes and boulder shoulders.. Ive learnt to ignore the scales 💪
BMI is not an accurate measurement for muscular people. Most bodybuilders would come at an overweight or obese number. Hip to waist ratio is a better measure.
@mattwakeman6167 Yep, that is what my BMI says, which is wild.. pictures of me before, I look like a right fatty but now I have defined legs, back, shoulders etc... I don't know how it works. I'm obviously not 5% body fat or anything, definitely have some stubborn fat on my arms and hips but I have visible muscles everywhere else. I workout hard (2hrs, 5 days a week) and I'm getting pretty strong... I can rep out clean pull ups (as a nearly 80kg lass, I don't think is too bad). So my point was I don't care what the scales say as I look 20x better and feel better 10lbs heavier
@@TACT1LE BMI is useful for assessing populations, but not individuals. You don't treat the statistic, you treat the patient. and btw, 5'9 200 pound athletes also have 30 BMI, and they aren't that rare.
I think fat shaming myself is what got me to step into the gym again. I was ridiculously over weight and unhealthy! It took some serious self talk to get in there and consistently.
Thanks for this. I'm a 49 year old female hitting menopause. My height is 166 cm and I weigh 68 kgs which suggests I'm getting slightly overweight based on my BMI. I've been through silly diets and such, but realised consistent workout and a healthy, balanced, but not super strict diet is the key on a long run. I do both strength and endurance training, feeling physically quite fit. I can run 5k in 33mins, bike 35 km in 80-90 mins and pretty much can row on the ergometer for an indefinite amount of time. Those numbers are not super impressive for an athlete, but in my age group I consider them rather impressive. Yet, I looked at the scale just yesterday and it made me feel like vomiting. The number on the display is what I call gaslighting...like how I see myself in the mirror (not too bad) and a number that suggests I'm being kinda fat. Today's beauty standards are so extremely damaging, comparing our bodies to others will take us nowhere and yet, we're being forced doing it so. I feel sorry for the young generation, who grow up surrounded by fake influencers throwing proper BS at them on a daily base. I mean,, if those numbers freak me out so much and I'm actually aware, I just can't imagine how let's say a teenager with a developing body could feel completely out of it. I love your approach and explanations, again, thanks for helping us out with your sanity, when the world seems to be going all fake and completely insane. Scales don't often represent reality, as muscle weighs more than fat, so my motto is as long as I feel fit and healthy, fuck the scale. Really, health is all that matters.
I'm in a similar boat to you. Except my weight exploded when i got to your point for no obvious reason (except of course effects of low hormones). Among the few I'm following, Dr Stacey Sims advice has helped. You might want to check out her work. She focuses specifically on active women through menopause.
Last April I was drinking at least 14 beers a night and over 300 pounds. Today I'm sober a year and at 190 pounds. I didn't count calories at all.. I did keto keeping under 30 grams of carbs a day and lift 3 times a week and do moderate cardio like walking. This channel helped me a lot, I appreciate you, the information given helped me change my life.
I have lost 10 pounds over this last two weeks. All I have done is cut the carbs to no more than 50 grams daily, and increased my daily walks. Still eating plenty of meat protein and I am not counting caleries. Basically cut out Potatoes and Breads and Sweets. I have had to cut back on some of my weight training because of Tendinitis . So this is a good time to walk and cut back on the foods. 60 years of age and starting weight was 270 now today 260 and feeling great.Target weight 225.
