While suffering from depression I exceeded 105kg (230lbs) ... a decade ago? I managed to drop near ~90kg (200lbs) with relative ease several times, but always ended up bouncing back. That bounce always happened within ~6 months of getting there, usually when seasons turned. My goal was always 85kg (187lbs), which is the upper limit of "normal weight" for my body unless I put on a lot of extra muscle.
Sometime in late 2022 I hit 90kg again, and I was really worried about the bounce. I knew it was coming. Around March 2023 I decided my new goal was to just stay at 90kg.
Huge success! Today, one year later I'm a hair under 90kg! No bounce! Also, over the past half year the way my body composition feels has started to finally change back to something closer to what I remember. I haven't updated my goal, but I'm allowing myself to hope.
What I do:
- Make sure I get enough protein every day. (1) I finally started getting some of my muscles back after fixing my diet to > 0.8g per kg of bodyweight. (2) This also stopped my constant snacking, and I've noticed that if I get enough protein I don't have to watch my caloric intake.
- Morning exercise of some sort, in theory every morning, in practice is comes and goes. The low bar is 30 seconds of anything, which gets me through bad days and makes it easier to pick it back up after a lapse. When I'm in the groove it's 10-20min. Sometimes just light warmup and stretching, sometimes more intensive bodyweight exercise, sometimes kettlebells, etc.
- Walk or bike almost everywhere, excepting public transportation. If I don't spend the day at home I'm usually at 8-18k steps per day, but I don't have a specific goal, nor do I actively keep track.
- Break up sitting periods with walking around a 1-2 min, ideally every 20min, but at least every hour if possible. Hugely important in keeping metabolism at a certain base level.
- Archery 2 times a week, including warmups and strenght training with bow (SPT excercises).
What I want to do is to figure out to fit at least 2 x 30min / week of cardio into my life with minimum hassle. Excercise bike at home would be ideal, but space is a concern, and the weather here is too capricious to rely on being able to get this outdoors without feeling miserable. There's a couple of gyms I could semi-conveniently use, but that would require carrying a small gym bag around. Gah...