Marianna is a regular poster on the Reddit r/luuzers community, and one of the first people to use Luuze. When I saw her post on the success she had using Luuze for 100 days, I asked her to share her experience. Before Luuze, she was frustrated with calorie counting, but Luuze’s alternative approach has helped her find a sustainable method for weight management.
Through her first 100 days, she was able to lose 12 pounds and 4 inches off her waist. Even more importantly, she transformed the way she thinks about the weight management process. That’s really what Luuze is all about – this transformation is what helps us repair our feedback loops to support permanent weight loss.
Her insights from using Luuze for 100 days and a bit of my commentary are below.
Do you have a success story or experiences that might help others? Let me know at andrew@luuze.com.
Marianna’s Experience
The Initial Struggle With Calorie Counting
I’ve tried various methods of calorie counting in the past and, while I’ve had initial success, I have not been able to stick with it for longer than a few months. I never learned anything that “stuck” with calorie counting and I always felt sort of embarrassed that I had to do it.
I initially found Luuze through an ad on Reddit and noticed a bunch of comments about how it was a rare “good ad.” I read Andrew’s story and felt like the method made sense. As someone who has always been interested in data, I instantly realized the power of daily data and focusing on the trend. I also just liked Andrew’s philosophy. I was on a different weight management program and was hating every second of it, so I decided to try Luuze for a few weeks just to see how it felt.
Learning with Luuze
Luuze helped me think more about the specific factors that influence my weight. So instead of just following someone else’s formula by calorie counting, I had to figure out how to get it right myself. I felt more able to eat things I enjoy and just figure out how to balance them out. Luuze also helped me get over the fear of weighing myself. I used to avoid weekly weigh-ins because I didn’t want to see the number. Now that I do it every day it feels much less scary.
I have had my share of gains and plateaus since starting Luuze. When those happen, I try to reflect on what I’ve done differently and see if I can pinpoint one or two key differences. Then I try to take action on those items the next day. I snapped out of a plateau by reminding myself what worked for me during my first month. It’s common sense but I just went back to doing that and got back on track. It’s easy to drift away from the goal since I don’t count calories but the daily weigh-ins really keep me honest.
Progress
I’m eating more intuitively and I’m just so much less stressed about food. That has given me the energy to encourage others, enjoy time with my family, and exercise.
Another source of my success is being organized about meals. So while I’m not counting calories, I am being intentional about meal planning. I try to prepare as many lunches and dinners over the weekend as possible. This leaves me time and energy during the week to just live. It allows me to make plans when I’m in the right head space and benefit from those plans when things get busy or stressful.
In 100 days with Luuze I’ve lost about 12 lbs and 4 inches around my waist. I’ve also increased my daily exercise from about 25 minutes per day to 65 minutes per day. I truly believe this is partly due to not spending so much mental energy on calorie counting.
Beyond the accountability of daily weigh-ins, I have also built other accountability strategies into my daily life. I know from previous attempts at weight loss that increasing exercise helps me do a better job making good food choices. Before I started Luuze, I started using StepBet to give myself accountability for walking a certain number of steps per day. After a month of using it privately, I decided to sign up with a friend for a virtual 17.75k race. Preparing for that has kept me motivated to walk every day and I’ll be finishing that in a few weeks.
One month after starting Luuze, I decided to add strength training to my routine. I chose kettlebells because it’s something I can do at home while my toddler naps and I don’t need much equipment. I added accountability to the equation by finding a personal trainer. I’m working with him now once a week.
Andrew’s Thoughts
Even though Marianna is still progressing in her journey, Here are some of my thoughts from Marianna’s story:
A weight management program you hate is one you may give up on.
Don’t get me wrong: weight management can feel like a slog, and I’m not necessarily asking you to love the process of losing weight. Every weight loss journey has its frustrations and negative points, especially when a plateau occurs.
But if there’s one thing that I see on the regular, it’s how people torture themselves unnecessarily to lose weight. If the process feels like something that you could do your entire life, the odds of its success are a lot higher. It’s why I aim to make Luuze as simple as possible for you to use, without calorie counting and all that stuff.
It’s your journey and your formula.
Marianna had to figure out a process that worked for her and her lifestyle. For her, one of the things that really helped her was planning meals for the week. Much like Veronica did, she aligned her process with her strengths.
This can be hard, but this is what the feedback loop is all about. If there was one best way of losing weight, we’d all be doing it! Instead, there are multiple methods and multiple ways to succeed, so find the way that works best for you. If it doesn’t work, reflect on why and then make adjustments. Sometimes micro-adjustments may be all that is needed, as well!
Weighing yourself daily doesn’t have to be scary.
The scale lies. Because of this, not only can weighing yourself daily be scary, but it can be extremely demotivating. This is why trend weight is a key feature of Luuze, to help turn the scale from a person’s biggest enemy to their greatest ally.
You can learn more about the benefits of daily weighing by reading this article.
Struggles can be a good thing.
Marianna mentioned that she had her shares of gains and plateaus. However, those struggles helped her build the skill of weight loss. Due to her mindfulness and reflection, she started to learn why she was gaining weight, why she was in a plateau, and over time, figured it out. Amazing!
There’s a paradox about mental energy when it comes to weight loss.
This may be the most important insight in Marianna’s story. After stopping calorie counting, she actually reduced her stress about food, which then gave her the ability to make better decisions around food. There is a real truth to this, and this is why Luuze regularly focuses on the positive. If we invest negative mental effort into our weight loss, it may impact our ability to stick with the program. If we invest positive mental effort, however, our odds of success go up. I talk about this more in my article, three ways to control your weight.
Every Journey Has Great Lessons to be Learned
Marianna’s journey, although still in progress, already has some amazing insights. Discovering these insights is actually what Luuze is all about, because this journey of self-discovery helps us repair our damaged feedback loop and keep the weight off. I’m super excited to see how Marianna progresses on her journey!
If you have any lessons to share, please do! Send me an email at andrew@luuze.com, or post on the Reddit r/luuzers subreddit and share your experience!
I am using your app and noom as it has a calorie, exercise and a step tracker which I think are very useful for me.
Noom categorizes the foods in three colors green yellow and red and percent and calories to eat from each colour. This way we can see what we eat and the calories and also tracks how not to overeat as it counts calories for you . I love the feedback loop from Luuze and although it has less to input on Luuze I feel I need to track caloric intake. I feel that I’ve got the best of both worlds by using both apps. Remember I emailed you that I’ve plateaued, but I have come down a little bit but it’s still a slow process.
I am using your app and noom as it has a calorie, exercise and a step tracker which I think are very useful for me.
Noom categorizes the foods in three colors green yellow and red and percent and calories to eat from each colour. This way we can see what we eat and the calories and also tracks how not to overeat as it counts calories for you . I love the feedback loop from Luuze and although it has less to input on Luuze I feel I need to track caloric intake. I feel that I’ve got the best of both worlds by using both apps. Remember I emailed you that I’ve plateaued, but I have come down a little bit but it’s still a slow process.
Great to hear that you’ve come down from your plateau, Sandra! I think the most important thing is that people get a bit of a positive boost with the tools that they use, and for many, calorie counting can be tough. But for many others it works great, and that’s awesome! Happy to hear that you are getting value from both methodologies.