So, I haven’t posted in a few weeks. I wasn’t loosing weight and didn’t feel like boring y’all with my lack of progress. However, it seems like it sort of caught up with me this last week and I lost more than anticipated.
These are my (moving average) weights from the last several weeks…
203.32
202.0
201.01
200.39
Last week: 200.38
Today: 197.92
So I get to start my weight with the number “1”. Sweet. AND I am within a pound of droping below 30 BMI which is the cutoff between Obese and just Overweight. (I know BMI is not the best measure of things, but still will be a nice milestone).
Since I started this at the end of January, I have lost 0.92 pounds per week for a total loss of 21.24 pounds. I envisioned a faster weight loss. But I am happy about the progress. Is it possible to be both satisfied and frustrated with the same thing?
Don’t worry about boring us with lack of progress - you’ll just be experiencing the same thing that the rest of us (I think) experience. Your weight loss sounds really good for a healthy, longterm weight change.
Plateaus suck. If my body had a blog, it’d say, “OMG, I looked in the mirror today and I’m missing a lot of fat. This can’t be good! The temperature has been rising lately, so this must mean a famine. I’m going to cling like a motherfucker to every single calorie I come across.”
After losing 35 pounds, I plateaued at 155 a month ago, and then rose to 156. To jostle things up a bit, I increased my intake by 300 calories per day, to ~1500 total. In response, my body added three pounds in two weeks. Mathematically, none of this fluctuating makes sense, but whatever. I’m going to just keep on doing what I’ve been doing these last six months, and marvel at/curse the adaptability of the human body.
^^^ I could have written that post (with different numbers inserted). Plateaus suck. I do everything right, I eat right, I exercise right, and I don’t drop a pound for months. It has occurred to me that my latest plateau has been right around my body’s set point weight - it’s like I just fall into this groove and this is exactly where my body is comfortable. I gotta just keep keepin’ on, doing all the right things and being patient.
I finally found a place that sells steel-cut oats! I’m looking forward to experimenting with recipes in my slow cooker. At the moment my breakfast is homemade muesli (granola) and full fat yoghurt on days that I work out or a piece of fruit and some yoghurt if it’s a sedentary day. The muesli is high in calories, but full of fibre and nuts. And it tastes so, so delicious - the anticipation of a bowl of muesli makes waking up on cold winter mornings much easier!
I’ve been snacking on slices of cucumber with smoked salmon and cottage cheese. It’s a nice low-carb, high-protein snack that is easy to prepare. I’m going to mix some herbs in my tub of cottage cheese and try that with tuna later this week.
I’m considering tracking my diet again, because I’ve found that I’m eating less optimally now that I’m not accountable. I can hover in the high 51kg range with pretty frequent cheat meals, but to get to 50kg I need to be much stricter.
Yes, I know what you mean. I’ve lost about 27 lbs since Nov and while that’s awesome, I still feel like I look mostly the same. Oh well, I am still 27 lbs closer to my goal than I was back then so I guess I have to keep at it.
I bought a bike off craigslist on Thursday and I’m looking forward to using it. I have to get the front wheel back on since we had to take it off to get it in my car. I haven’t ridden since my early teens, so more than 10 years ago. I hope it comes back quickly. I don’t see myself doing any strenuous biking but it would be nice for rest days and to get in a little extra activity.
Boredom isn’t that big of an issue to me: whether or not I am watching what I eat, I tend to end up eating the same 10-15 things. Some people just are wired that way.
Starting weight on Jan 4th 2010: 258.2
Current weight today: 207.8
Current Goal weight by July 4th: 208.2
Woohoo! I’ve now dropped over 50lbs this year. I took pictures of the before weight when I started this process and it’s amazing the big and the small differences. (I really recommend taking pictures of yourself to use as motivation because even on the plateau weeks I saw differences).
My new goal is 198.2 for September 1st and after that, I’m not sure if I’m going to go down to 189.1 (which gets me officially out of the overweight BMI to the normal weight) or if I’m going to maintain as I work on building muscle.
Way to go stpauler! This is probably going to be a bad week at the scale for me, I was at my 25th college reunion over the weekend so lots of bad food. I didn’t take pictures of myself on Jan 1st when I started this but I’m losing weight pretty much at the same pace as you. It would be nice to compare shots of before and after.
stpauler: Awesome! You took pictures, I took measurements. It really helped during plateaus, as pics did for you. Quite often, when the scale didn’t move, the tape measure did (for the better!). I’m at goal now (two more weeks of maintenance, and then I’m a lifetime WW member, w00t!), and it’s still cool to get out the tape measure and set it where I started, to see how much smaller I’ve become.
Plateaus/slow loss: Yeah, you just gotta keep doing what you’re doing (or change things around – just don’t give up!). And remember that slow loss is more likely to stay off.
What I came in here to report: I was at the bank today (in my new size 6 jeans :D), and after I finished my transaction, one of the other tellers called me over just to tell me that I look great. Man, I never get tired of hearing that.
Woo! Way to hit your goal, stpauler! I’m still bouncing around the same point, but since I’ve been doing so much more gardening and my clothes are getting looser, I’m still convinced my weight staying the same is due to putting on muscle. I’ve started taking full body pictures, too.
144! haven’t seen that number in at least 3 years. It also puts me down an official 10 pounds from my starting weight. I can’t fit into my older clothes yet, but the stuff I have now is looking better and better!
I am getting dangerously close to all of my clothes being too big for me. I understand now why people who have lost weight sometimes wear sloppy, too big clothes - it’s all you have! I bought another pair of summer capris (so I have two pairs to wear now), and I didn’t even bother trying on the smaller size, and I think the ones I bought are too large already. I guess it’s a good problem to have.
I weighed 50.56kg the other day, so I’m officially back to where I was before my week of gluttony. I’m also back to tracking what I eat - I can estimate my calories fairly well, but I want to start playing around with my macronutrient breakdowns. I’m aiming for 40% fat, 40% protein and 20% carbohydrates, with more carbs on training days.
My husband likes to mix his protein powder in with yoghurt, so I bought some plain yoghurt for him. I tried some today, and bleurgh! I don’t think I could choke that down again. I love yoghurt and the protein powder totally ruined it and made it all chewy. On the plus side, low fat cottage cheese with tuna, baby spinach and red capsicum is much easier to eat - though I think I’ll experiment with spices to get it more flavoursome.
Last week: 197.92
Today: 195.88
So two interesting developments to report.
First, I am officially overweight. Woohoo! Sounds like a weird thing to be excited about, but I just moved DOWN into that category from the “obese” category (according to BMI anyway).
Second, after over 25 lbs of weight loss, I had my first person ask me if I’ve lost some weight. Not only that, I had 4 people ask me that this week. I was starting to wonder if anyone would ever notice, and now I got 4 at once, which is nice.
And two interesting notes.
First, I don’t think my body shape has really changed at all. My buddha belly doesn’t seem to be shrinking much at all. It sticks out just as much as it did before. It’s impossible to target WHERE you loose weight from, right?
Second, I have gone vegetarian. It’s actually been well over a month that I’ve been doing this. I don’t know if it is directly affecting weight loss or not, but if nothing else, it helps me to really carefully consider my food options before I choose what to eat.
Started Atkins again on Wednesday, I maintained on it for several years with no problems but had some health issues that changed my diet and caused some minor weight gain followed by surgery and more weight gain and a complete loss of all discipline in eating.
I have always found that being accountable to others really helps me to stick to my goals. I can justify anything to myself when a craving hits but thinking about explaining it to others later helps keep me on track. Hubby has also decided to lose some weight so we synchronized our initial goals so we’re both looking to lose 55lbs and we’re paying ourselves for each 5lb loss. Between that and checking in I’m hoping for success, so here we go:
My weight’s been slowly creeping up over the past year or so, and it’s making me pretty unhappy. My allergies are getting worse (which may or may not be related to the weight gain), and my breathing is getting downright difficult at times. Plus, I can’t afford to buy new clothes. So, I need to get back to looking good in the ones I have.
Current weight: 160
Goal #1: 150 by July 25th
Goal #2: 140 by September 15
Goal #3: 135 by October 31
I figure by spacing out my goals, and making them less aggressive as time goes, I have a better shot of making them. I think 130-135 is about the lowest weight I’ll be able to reasonably go.
My husband and I are starting the Dukan diet sometime next week. If you’re not familiar, it’s a low-carb and low-fat diet. It’s a little crazy, but I need a gimmick to get me started. I also downloaded some Tabata MP3s (Tabata = High Intensity Interval Training) and I’m going to try to get some Tabata time in on the bike, at least 3x per week.
I have been maintaining my weight loss for 5 years. I hit my “redline” weight a few weeks ago and have been carefully focused on getting back into my comfy jeans. 3 weeks later, I’m down 2lbs to 137. 5 lbs to go!
Whole foods, calorie counting, food journaling, 4-5 times a week on the treadmill.
I love the 3fatchicks.com weight loss board, if anyone is looking for more support. I have found it a big help over the years.
I think this crowd gets your excitement (and go you! ).
I’m finding the same thing - my fat is going from everywhere except where I’d really like to go - from my abdomen and stomach area. Well, it is going from there, but slower than everywhere else. Oh well. Once all the rest of my fat is gone, it’s damned well going to HAVE to go from my stomach.
Right. I had caliper measurements taken while I was losing weight, and found that I initially lost a lot of fat from my arms and back (at around 22% BF), then my upper abs and calves (18% BF), and on my last measurement I finally lost fat from my thighs and stomach (15% BF).
That area is where a lot of people lose their weight last. Just keep doing what you’re doing and you’ll definitely see an improvement.
