The photo that started it
Someone took a photo of me. I don't remember the occasion, but I remember opening it and feeling genuinely disappointed in myself. Not angry, not fired up. Just sad. I was 128kg at 183cm (about 282 lbs at 6 feet), and I had let it happen.
I'll be honest about something else too. I was in a pretty deep depression around that time, and the weight and the mood fed each other. I felt bad so I ate, I ate so I felt worse, repeat. I'm not going to pretend a chicken breast fixes brain chemistry. But taking back control of this one thing was the first domino for me.
Everything I tried first
Like most people, I assumed losing weight meant picking a Diet with a capital D and suffering through it.
Keto lasted two weeks. I love rice, bread and noodles, and cutting all of it made me the weird guy at every meal out. It was expensive as well, all that meat and cheese adds up fast. Paleo was the same problem with a different label. Intermittent fasting was cheap at least, but by 11am I was angry and foggy, and after a few days I would cave and eat everything in sight.
All of them worked for a bit, because all of them put me in a calorie deficit. None of them lasted, because they were too restrictive, too expensive, or too hungry. Willpower runs out. Mine always did.
What finally worked: more food, fewer calories
I stopped trying to eat less food and started eating more food that happened to be low in calories. That's volume eating, and it flipped everything.
My problem was never discipline. My problem was that I was always hungry. So instead of fighting the hunger, I removed it. Big piles of vegetables, lots of lean protein, a sensible amount of rice instead of a mountain of it. I was eating plates so big I sometimes couldn't finish them, and still losing weight. For the first time, losing weight did not feel like punishment.
The real numbers
I ate 2,200 calories a day. That was below what my body burned, but high enough that I was never starving. To find your own number you need your TDEE, which is just how many calories you burn in a day. The calculator on the homepage gives you that in two minutes.
The unglamorous part that made the real difference: I weighed my food on a kitchen scale and logged everything in MyFitnessPal. Every meal, every day. It takes about a week to become automatic. Almost everyone underestimates how much they eat, and the scale does not let you lie to yourself. That honesty was the single most important habit of the whole thing.
I kept protein high, because protein keeps you full and protects your muscle while the fat comes off. I also started lifting, 3 or 4 times a week, heavy every time, mostly a push, pull, legs split. You can lose weight without the gym, it's all calories in the end. But lifting is what stopped me from ending up a smaller, softer version of the same shape.
None of this was fast, and none of it was dramatic. It was the same boring routine, repeated, for a long time.
I still ate fast food and big meals out
I never gave up the food I love. Not once did I tell myself I could never have my favourite meal again. A big meal is not a crime, it's a budgeting problem.
When I knew a big meal was coming, a wedding, a birthday, dinner with friends, I planned around it. A long walk that day, one or two hours, or eating a bit lighter for the next couple of days. You cannot dodge every social occasion, and you shouldn't have to. The week is what matters, not the single meal.
Where I am now
The lowest I hit was 86kg (190 lbs). Today I sit at a comfortable 92kg (about 203 lbs), and I'm fine with that. I'm not chasing the lowest number anymore. I settled at a weight I can hold without thinking about it, while still enjoying my life and my food. That is the actual win.
I still lift heavy. That part never stopped, because it stopped being a chore a long time ago. So: 128kg down to 86, now holding at 92. That's 42kg lost, with no keto, no supplements and no giving up rice. Just understanding how food works, being honest with a kitchen scale, and lifting.