Finally checking in here… my official weight at the doc’s office yesterday was 252.5. My home scale weighed me a pound more for some reason (both before and after the appointment); usually it’s about a half pound less. Anyway, it’s down 8ish pounds from the early April doc visit.
Just recorded that in Spark People and set a further-out goal (I had a goal of 252 for the end of May; have now set it to 249 for the end of June). So far the calorie limits per day are tolerable if I go for that slow pace of loss. Now if I could just get off my fat ass and exercise… Maybe once I get the joint fluid injections into my knee I’ll be able to walk some distance.
I’ve had quite a few meals where I was not eating properly, I fear - mostly when I prepare food it’s pretty healthy, but we’ve had some desserts…
My stomach has decided that this is not acceptable. If I eat anything rich late in the day, I’m guaranteed to have a horrible night (what appears to be worsening reflux - I wind up having nasty, sleep-disturbing coughing jags). So that might help. OTOH, I often have the coughing jags even when I have not eaten badly. Still, it might help enforce the better food behavior. Sigh.
Congratulations to everyone on their progress.
The human body is weird. Back in February, I had an unexplained 6 pound loss, and this week, I had an unexplained one pound gain.
Now, I’ve been baking and eating dessert breads the last two weeks, but I’ve been staying under my daily intake limits. My plan and my daily routine, which have yielded consistent weight loss since December, have not changed. On paper, there’s no reason for me to not still be losing a pound and a half a week.
Then there’s the math: In order for me to be a pound heavier this week, it means I’d have had to have eaten enough calories to offset my planned rate of loss as well as enough calories to add weight. This comes out to 8750 calories, which works out to roughly eating two large cheeseburgers per day on top of my normal meals. As diligently and honestly as I’ve been recording my intake, I’d be painfully aware I was eating that much. I haven’t been.
I don’t feel heavier, and my clothes are even looser, so I’m filing this week in the My Scale Is Wrong. No, Really, It Is folder. Next week I should be at 150.
I think I’ve finally broken my plateau, thanks to hours and hours of hard physical labour; my mild frustration now is with my weight coming off everywhere except my nice, round stomach. Oh well - it’ll come off there eventually. Once my arms and legs are toothpicks.
There are a couple of things to keep in mind: First, your body is not a Swiss watch where everything runs in some precise fashion. If you step on a scale each day, you’ll notice that there are little fluctuations up and down from day to day, although the overall trend is towards your goal weight.
Second, not all weight loss/gain is due to body fat. Water weight and undigested bulk (poop) come to mind. I’ll use myself as an example - I went to a weekend long bachelor party and got a little off the rails vis a vis how I usually eat. I was 171.5 on Friday morning. On Monday morning I was 176.5, argh. I was careful about what I ate Monday (I didn’t starve myself, just went back to my normal healthy eating habits) and went for a run (my usual). Tuesday morning, I weighed 171.5. Weds morning, 171. Yesterday morning, 172.5. This morning, 171 even.
I’m quite sure that I didn’t put on 5 pounds of fat between Friday and Monday and I’m also quite sure that I didn’t lose 5 pounds of fat in one day eating salads and going for a run.
If you weigh yourself daily you’ll see that this is normal - even if you do everything exactly the same from day to day you’ll see those variations, so don’t worry about them. Just keep track of the long-term trend.
It’s possible that since your diet has been so carb-heavy, you’ve been retaining some water. One of the reasons everyone loses so much weight the first week or two on any new diet is the drop in calories overall, and carbs in particular (proteins are supposed to help you dump water).
I’m WAGging here but if you continue with eating the breads, you’ll hit a different equilibrium a couple of pounds higher than if you weren’t eating, but overall you’ll still trend a little lower.
Popping in with one lovely statistic: My A1C reading (a sort of measure of average blood sugar), which was 6.1 (just barely into the diabetic range) in January, came back normal the other day. I don’t know what the number was - the phone message just said “normal” - but it’s one area in which the loss has directly improved my health.
And this is with, as noted, some intake of sweets lately - and a fairly carb-heavy diet (Sparkpeople tells me I’m not quite making the protein limits most days). So clearly my body is doing better with processing carbs.
Valgard: Oh, I know. I’m not worried or upset, just amused.
I weigh myself weekly, every Wednesday around 10pm. My caloric intake is set so that I lose weight at a particular rate, and if the scale tells me my rate is off, it’s feedback to see if I need to change my behavior. I don’t care so much what my actual weight is. I don’t even have a goal weight or size in mind.
I consider myself very lucky that I’ve seen the consistent progress I have. I’ve expected to hit plateaus, or for my loss to inexplicably become a standstill. It hasn’t really happened. Two weird weeks out of 22 is really very good, better than I expected.
Mama Zappa: I limited myself to one slice of bread (about the size of an iPod Classic) per day, so it wasn’t much. My diet’s actually less carb-heavy now than it used to be. I’ve switched to low-carb pasta, and my meals and snacks are oriented toward protein and veggies.
Oh OK cool! Ignore me, I was thinking my own recent experience.
I made some homemade cinnamon-raisin bread a few weeks back and even though the amounts I ate also didn’t blow my calorie limits, I had rather more than an iPod Classic-size portion and of course plateaued.
Nothing like a raging sore throat to keep you from (over-)eating for a day or three. I did a spot of compensating yesterday, but nothing like half a week’s worth. Let’s see if I can treat that as a de-plateauing moment. (Yeah, right, with my 50th birthday party coming up next weekend.)
I lost 2lbs this week which was good for me, I had stuck much more closely to the diet than I had done in the previous weeks, and I’m now back in my Slimming World target range. Woo and hoo.
Last check in, May 11: 218.2
Today, May 25th: 215.6
Ambitious Goal, July 4th: 210.0
I did the calculations and I will have to “burn” an extra 665 calories per day to do that. It’s been my pace for a while to do that so I think I can keep it up. si_blakely, had the advice upthread to do some HIIT which has been a lot of fun. I’ve been doing a warm up of 20 minutes on the treadmill. The first and last 5 minutes are at a 4MPH pace and then the middle 10 minutes are running at 8-9.5MPH for 40 seconds and then jumping off to the sides for 20 seconds. This has really gotten my body warm, literally. I then do my strength training and then 45 minutes of cardio afterwards.
I’ve tried the rowing machine and can last maybe 10-15 minutes on it before getting completely wiped out. It’s great all body exercise, but I can’t imagine doing more than that yet.
Question here: Now that Memorial Day weekend in the US is fast approaching, what are some good, healthy eats to bring with when camping? Most of my previous fare wasn’t what would be considered healthy. At all.
Now to maintain for 6 weeks (and actually I’m going to drop another 3.8 pounds to get my 75-pound WW trinket), and then I’ll be a WW Lifetime member! Free meetings, w00t!
Congrats Scarlett67! This is the sort of progress that folks should think of when they’re concerned that they “only” lost a pound last week - it’s not what happens in a week, it’s what happens in 50+ weeks.
If it’s appropriate for your body I’d recommend dropping a little below your goal weight (as you mentioned that you’re shooting for) because there will inevitably be some weeks where you’re a little up; gives you a safety cushion.
I got back to 84kg, but am bouncing about a bit - I have a Sprint Tri tonight, so have stopped working out so much to prepare and am allowing myself a few more carbs - back into it tomorrow after the event, though.
I have achieved my exercise goals for the month - 1 six minute mile (single session on the treadmill), and 2 seven minute miles (another single session) - next month I’ll aim for 1.5 six minute miles and 3 seven minute miles. I think I’ll not quite get down to 83kg, though. But I am close.
Congratulations, Scarlett! - it is such a good feeling when you reach a goal, isn’t it?
I lost a pound this week which is good because it means I’m still comfortably within my target range. I’m hoping to lose a couple more pounds over the next few weeks in preparation for July’s trips to Belgium and Hungary so I’ve got some spare to play with and to make sure when I come back, I’m not over the top limit of my target range.
Now that I’m over my nasty cold, I want to get back to some cycling this weekend too, and maybe a bit of exercise digging up the garden!
Indeed. My WW leader asked if I had any words of wisdom, especially for the several new members who’d just joined yesterday. I told them to stick with the plan, and EXPECT to have ups and downs. I drew my jaggedy weight-loss graph in the air to show that yes, there were ups and downs and plateaus, but the overall, long-term trend was down.
Way ahead of you, sport! That was exactly my intent. It’s just convenient that I happen to hit the golden 75 at that point. I may even see if I can go a little further (the running may help with that), but at the same time I won’t be disappointed if it’s not in the cards. I was 135 in high school and college (I’m 5’ 7"), but of course I was also 20-some years younger!
and of course plateaued.