From 380lbs down to 265lbs (without peptide intervention)

suiteheart

suiteheart

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hey everyone! I figured I'd post a few before-and-after photos from my weight loss journey, which I did naturally. My starting point was 416lbs, and I felt absolutely awful. I was so embarrassed by my body that there aren't any photos of me at my heaviest. I stuck with a calorie deficit and exercised 3-4 times per week, and within a year I got down to 265lbs!! I felt incredibly proud of myself.

Sadly, I ended up regaining roughly 40 lbs in total, and right now I'm sitting at about 299lbs. The after photos were taken when I hit my lowest weight of 265. I began reta not long ago, and my food noise and appetite have been almost completely wiped out.

There's still a long road ahead, but I feel optimistic about what's coming.

I just wanted to share part of my journey as a way to stay motivated and keep pushing forward
 
suiteheart said:

hey everyone! I figured I'd post a few before-and-after photos from my weight loss journey, which I did naturally. My starting point was 416lbs, and I felt absolutely awful. I was so embarrassed by my body that there aren't any photos of me at my heaviest. I stuck with a calorie deficit and exercised 3-4 times per week, and within a year I got down to 265lbs!! I felt incredibly proud of myself.

Sadly, I ended up regaining roughly 40 lbs in total, and right now I'm sitting at about 299lbs. The after photos were taken when I hit my lowest weight of 265. I began reta not long ago, and my food noise and appetite have been almost completely wiped out.

There's still a long road ahead, but I feel optimistic about what's coming.

I just wanted to share part of my journey as a way to stay motivated and keep pushing forward
Click to expand...
Nice work — keep in mind this is a long haul, and reta does its job, so let us know how things go as you continue.
 
That's fantastic. I've got 2 things I want to ask. What's your height, and what dose of Reta are you on right now?
 
suiteheart said:

hey everyone! I figured I'd post a few before-and-after photos from my weight loss journey, which I did naturally. My starting point was 416lbs, and I felt absolutely awful. I was so embarrassed by my body that there aren't any photos of me at my heaviest. I stuck with a calorie deficit and exercised 3-4 times per week, and within a year I got down to 265lbs!! I felt incredibly proud of myself.

Sadly, I ended up regaining roughly 40 lbs in total, and right now I'm sitting at about 299lbs. The after photos were taken when I hit my lowest weight of 265. I began reta not long ago, and my food noise and appetite have been almost completely wiped out.

There's still a long road ahead, but I feel optimistic about what's coming.

I just wanted to share part of my journey as a way to stay motivated and keep pushing forward
Click to expand...
FUCK YEAH OP

Stories like this are my favorite—when someone figures out how to shed pounds through their own effort and by building better routines, instead of leaning entirely on medication.

My own path: began at 200, and after 3 years I was down to 160. No peptides involved—just developing good eating patterns and sticking with exercise until healthy living became second nature. Obviously it's nowhere near the scale of what you've done, but that's exactly why your story hits home for me.

This is the kind of thing I fucking love to read. You've made massive fucking strides. And honestly, because you built those habits before getting on the GLP, you're going to come out 5x stronger.

A lot of folks on these meds depend solely on the GLP and never pick up the routines that are actually needed to maintain the loss…

Plenty of people begin a GLP, treat it like a crutch for dropping weight, don't absorb any new ways of eating or moving, and then pile it right back on once they quit the GLP.

You're not that kind. You figured out what had to happen first to keep your health going, began reversing course, and now you're using glp1 to speed up the process.

You've earned this.
 
BNLFL said:

That's fantastic. I've got 2 things I want to ask. What's your height, and what dose of Reta are you on right now?
Click to expand...
thanks!

i’m 5’4” and roughly 2 weeks back i began at 1mg. no adverse reactions showed up, which had me anxious beforehand. the way it quiets food noise is unreal though. earlier today i realized i hadn’t eaten anything until around 1pm since i was busy with schoolwork and never felt hunger or even had eating cross my mind. i figure that’s going to be my hardest hurdle. i’m also trying to add muscle, so protein has to stay high!
 
wildweasel said:

suiteheart said:

hey everyone! I figured I'd post a few before-and-after photos from my weight loss journey, which I did naturally. My starting point was 416lbs, and I felt absolutely awful. I was so embarrassed by my body that there aren't any photos of me at my heaviest. I stuck with a calorie deficit and exercised 3-4 times per week, and within a year I got down to 265lbs!! I felt incredibly proud of myself.

Sadly, I ended up regaining roughly 40 lbs in total, and right now I'm sitting at about 299lbs. The after photos were taken when I hit my lowest weight of 265. I began reta not long ago, and my food noise and appetite have been almost completely wiped out.

There's still a long road ahead, but I feel optimistic about what's coming.

I just wanted to share part of my journey as a way to stay motivated and keep pushing forward
Click to expand...
FUCK YEAH OP

Stories like this are my favorite—when someone figures out how to shed pounds through their own effort and by building better routines, instead of leaning entirely on medication.

My own path: began at 200, and after 3 years I was down to 160. No peptides involved—just developing good eating patterns and sticking with exercise until healthy living became second nature. Obviously it's nowhere near the scale of what you've done, but that's exactly why your story hits home for me.

This is the kind of thing I fucking love to read. You've made massive fucking strides. And honestly, because you built those habits before getting on the GLP, you're going to come out 5x stronger.

A lot of folks on these meds depend solely on the GLP and never pick up the routines that are actually needed to maintain the loss…

Plenty of people begin a GLP, treat it like a crutch for dropping weight, don't absorb any new ways of eating or moving, and then pile it right back on once they quit the GLP.

You're not that kind. You figured out what had to happen first to keep your health going, began reversing course, and now you're using glp1 to speed up the process.

You've earned this.
Click to expand...
I really appreciate that, man! Honestly, there are still moments when I glance in the mirror and all I can see is the version of me that weighed 400lb. Having been obese for as long as I can remember, and after doing therapy, it hit me that I had never actually allowed myself a fair shot. Whenever someone tells me I'm pretty, my reflex is to think and say "no!"—and if I'm asked what I'm good at, "nothing" comes out automatically.

Being someone who takes pride in showing empathy and kindness to other people made this realization weigh heavily on me. I understand now that hating myself will never get me to a place where I can lose weight in a lasting way and "feel better". I'm putting in the effort to treat myself with the same kindness I give others, and to truly believe I am worth it! Your response means a lot to me.
 
suiteheart said:

hey everyone! I figured I'd post a few before-and-after photos from my weight loss journey, which I did naturally. My starting point was 416lbs, and I felt absolutely awful. I was so embarrassed by my body that there aren't any photos of me at my heaviest. I stuck with a calorie deficit and exercised 3-4 times per week, and within a year I got down to 265lbs!! I felt incredibly proud of myself.

Sadly, I ended up regaining roughly 40 lbs in total, and right now I'm sitting at about 299lbs. The after photos were taken when I hit my lowest weight of 265. I began reta not long ago, and my food noise and appetite have been almost completely wiped out.

There's still a long road ahead, but I feel optimistic about what's coming.

I just wanted to share part of my journey as a way to stay motivated and keep pushing forward
Click to expand...

suiteheart said:

hey everyone! I figured I'd post a few before-and-after photos from my weight loss journey, which I did naturally. My starting point was 416lbs, and I felt absolutely awful. I was so embarrassed by my body that there aren't any photos of me at my heaviest. I stuck with a calorie deficit and exercised 3-4 times per week, and within a year I got down to 265lbs!! I felt incredibly proud of myself.

Sadly, I ended up regaining roughly 40 lbs in total, and right now I'm sitting at about 299lbs. The after photos were taken when I hit my lowest weight of 265. I began reta not long ago, and my food noise and appetite have been almost completely wiped out.

There's still a long road ahead, but I feel optimistic about what's coming.

I just wanted to share part of my journey as a way to stay motivated and keep pushing forward
Click to expand...

Nice work! Once you add Reta, nothing will hold you back. Nailing down your food plan and training routine is the toughest piece--but you've already managed it.

My own path was similar: I dropped a huge amount of weight with zero medication--just hard work, giving things up, exercise and pure determination--and I was likely unpleasant to be around at times. Then progress stalled and no further pounds would come off, despite eating very little. Tests showed insulin resistance, pre-diabetes, elevated cholesterol and hypertension. That's when I started tirzpepatide, and the pounds began dropping away, far quicker and with less struggle than simply starving myself--the key change being that I wasn't miserable during the process. I'm now close to my target weight and intend to move into maintenance before long. My pre-diabetes is gone, my cholesterol numbers look excellent, and my blood pressure has dropped a lot. It feels like a miracle drug.

You have every reason to feel proud--You've got this!
 
suiteheart said:

BNLFL said:

That's fantastic. I've got 2 things I want to ask. What's your height, and what dose of Reta are you on right now?
Click to expand...
thanks!

i’m 5’4” and roughly 2 weeks back i began at 1mg. no adverse reactions showed up, which had me anxious beforehand. the way it quiets food noise is unreal though. earlier today i realized i hadn’t eaten anything until around 1pm since i was busy with schoolwork and never felt hunger or even had eating cross my mind. i figure that’s going to be my hardest hurdle. i’m also trying to add muscle, so protein has to stay high!
Click to expand...
Remember that gaining muscle means the scale can go up, which could change how your loss looks. Stick with one dose for 4 weeks so your body can adjust. I take 8mg and have very few side effects, other than feeling and being full. Keep it up.
 
I'm a 68-year-old woman with an endocrine imbalance, and across my lifetime I've dropped close to 200 pounds on 5 or 6 separate occasions. THAT TOOK A TOLL ON MY HEART, and I'm dealing with the consequences now.

Shedding pounds isn't a matter of willpower or Calories. Diets do produce results. Right up until They Stop Working, the weight comes back, and your body's systems take damage.

That's exactly why it's such a relief that the GLP-1 class of drugs is now understood and embraced — at last, a medication aimed at the underlying cause, treating a chronic condition. These drugs are for life. Period.

Make no mistake. If your metabolism was messed up from birth, no diet will carry you through the rest of your life. Really glad the GLP-1s worked out for you.
 
Nice work!!! Walking took me from 310 down to roughly 265. It wasn't voluntary in my case (a job change made it happen), yet it was still the one and only thing I did.
 
Nice work on what you've achieved.

Obesity has been part of my life for as long as I can remember, and I've battled it down to a healthy weight multiple times, only for the pounds to come back. That's why I'd advocate for GLP medications. Sure, you can shed weight without them — but as you've just seen, the real challenge is preventing it from returning over time. With GLP drugs such as reta, if you remain on them for the long haul, ideally you'll only need to go through the weight loss once, and they'll handle the maintenance part for years. From everything I've come across, the loss is sustained for years with no indication of regain for at least 4 years up to now, and longer studies will arrive eventually.

Most of my own loss — from 145 kg down to 75 kg — happened without medication, and I held that for a year, but it was quite a struggle, even with the knowledge that regaining would carry fairly serious medical risks. A year on, GLP drugs transformed my overall hunger, how little food it took to feel satisfied, cravings for junk, and so on, making maintenance far easier and giving me some belief that I can likely sustain it.

I won't tell you to ramp up doses faster than the standard schedule, and if hunger and loss are under control at lower doses, then lower doses are fine. But since you're aiming to lose a lot and keep it off, you'll probably need to raise the dose to 12mg in the end (provided side effects aren't an issue). Almost everyone here always stresses the lowest dose possible, yet I'd argue that isn't the right strategy for severe obesity. Higher doses of reta also carry some metabolism-boosting effects that make big losses easier and more probable, plus they likely offer better long-term health advantages than lower doses.
 
suiteheart said:

hey everyone! I figured I'd post a few before-and-after photos from my weight loss journey, which I did naturally. My starting point was 416lbs, and I felt absolutely awful. I was so embarrassed by my body that there aren't any photos of me at my heaviest. I stuck with a calorie deficit and exercised 3-4 times per week, and within a year I got down to 265lbs!! I felt incredibly proud of myself.

Sadly, I ended up regaining roughly 40 lbs in total, and right now I'm sitting at about 299lbs. The after photos were taken when I hit my lowest weight of 265. I began reta not long ago, and my food noise and appetite have been almost completely wiped out.

There's still a long road ahead, but I feel optimistic about what's coming.

I just wanted to share part of my journey as a way to stay motivated and keep pushing forward
Click to expand...
Nice work. Dropping that much purely through your own discipline deserves respect. The meds route may turn out shorter than you expect. Outsiders often file it under 'cheating' -- my take : it's just another tool for reaching a target. Two acquaintances said it to my face: 'you are cheating'. My reply was to suggest they ditch their cars and walk, eat with their bare hands, or switch the AC off 🙂

On the other hand -- I've also watched people I know push the not-eating thing too far, and a few women ended up with hair shedding in clumps afterwards. I'm no doctor, but here's a pointer for your own reading : the body can only soak up so many calories a day out of fat. Crunch those tables yourself , and go do your homework.
 
suiteheart said:

hey everyone! I figured I'd post a few before-and-after photos from my weight loss journey, which I did naturally. My starting point was 416lbs, and I felt absolutely awful. I was so embarrassed by my body that there aren't any photos of me at my heaviest. I stuck with a calorie deficit and exercised 3-4 times per week, and within a year I got down to 265lbs!! I felt incredibly proud of myself.

Sadly, I ended up regaining roughly 40 lbs in total, and right now I'm sitting at about 299lbs. The after photos were taken when I hit my lowest weight of 265. I began reta not long ago, and my food noise and appetite have been almost completely wiped out.

There's still a long road ahead, but I feel optimistic about what's coming.

I just wanted to share part of my journey as a way to stay motivated and keep pushing forward
Click to expand...
This is within your reach! Soak up every bit of knowledge you can. My peak was 318lbs, and I'm sitting at 272 now. Modest change, sure, but my eyes are on the direction I'm heading. There's no room for negativity upstairs. Eventually I'll land wherever God intends for me. I'm convinced that wherever we end up, whether it's a high point or a low one, it's there to teach us something. Expertise? Not me, not even close. But I care deeply about people and wish them nothing but the best. In the end, every one of us is just a brother or sister giving it our all. Keep pushing!
 
Dropping to 265 lbs in just one year, all on your own — that's genuinely incredible, and you have every reason to feel proud!!! The effort you've put in is enormous, and with any luck, shedding the remaining weight will come more easily now!! 🙌🏼♥️
 
suiteheart said:

hey everyone! I figured I'd post a few before-and-after photos from my weight loss journey, which I did naturally. My starting point was 416lbs, and I felt absolutely awful. I was so embarrassed by my body that there aren't any photos of me at my heaviest. I stuck with a calorie deficit and exercised 3-4 times per week, and within a year I got down to 265lbs!! I felt incredibly proud of myself.

Sadly, I ended up regaining roughly 40 lbs in total, and right now I'm sitting at about 299lbs. The after photos were taken when I hit my lowest weight of 265. I began reta not long ago, and my food noise and appetite have been almost completely wiped out.

There's still a long road ahead, but I feel optimistic about what's coming.

I just wanted to share part of my journey as a way to stay motivated and keep pushing forward
Click to expand...
Keep your head up—everyone in this space is traveling their own path, with things in common both large and small. You stepped up and took charge; that's great!!
 
wildweasel said:

suiteheart said:

hey everyone! I figured I'd post a few before-and-after photos from my weight loss journey, which I did naturally. My starting point was 416lbs, and I felt absolutely awful. I was so embarrassed by my body that there aren't any photos of me at my heaviest. I stuck with a calorie deficit and exercised 3-4 times per week, and within a year I got down to 265lbs!! I felt incredibly proud of myself.

Sadly, I ended up regaining roughly 40 lbs in total, and right now I'm sitting at about 299lbs. The after photos were taken when I hit my lowest weight of 265. I began reta not long ago, and my food noise and appetite have been almost completely wiped out.

There's still a long road ahead, but I feel optimistic about what's coming.

I just wanted to share part of my journey as a way to stay motivated and keep pushing forward
Click to expand...
FUCK YEAH OP

Stories like this are my favorite—when someone figures out how to shed pounds through their own effort and by building better routines, instead of leaning entirely on medication.

My own path: began at 200, and after 3 years I was down to 160. No peptides involved—just developing good eating patterns and sticking with exercise until healthy living became second nature. Obviously it's nowhere near the scale of what you've done, but that's exactly why your story hits home for me.

This is the kind of thing I fucking love to read. You've made massive fucking strides. And honestly, because you built those habits before getting on the GLP, you're going to come out 5x stronger.

A lot of folks on these meds depend solely on the GLP and never pick up the routines that are actually needed to maintain the loss…

Plenty of people begin a GLP, treat it like a crutch for dropping weight, don't absorb any new ways of eating or moving, and then pile it right back on once they quit the GLP.

You're not that kind. You figured out what had to happen first to keep your health going, began reversing course, and now you're using glp1 to speed up the process.

You've earned this.
Click to expand...
Yeah, whatever. Sure, I've been dieting my whole life—losing, gaining, repeating. I actually did drop the weight once and maintained it for 4 years. That's 45 years of going up and down. Like you'd put it. I'm going with the damn drugs. No regrets. GLP-1s are heaven-sent.

Bill
 
AWESOME WORK! Stay with it, and hold on to THAT GOOD ATTITUDE! That goal is within reach! Treat it as your #1 Priority — don't allow anything or anyone to block your path!
 
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