As winterhawk says, one or two pounds a week is very, very sustainable – it’s cutting back to a number of calories that won’t leave you feeling pissed off and deprived, so you can stay on the diet much, much longer. As I said when I signed on, I’m not planning anything radical – my goal is about five pounds a month, which is only a a few ounces more than a pound a week.
Here is an interesting article. It basically says that you should weigh in every day. This goes against what I was originally taught. I had always been told that weighing in every day can cause discouragement. But the article says that it can be a motivator.
Yeah, mentally I know all that, but then I look at my progress over the last year: 20 pounds lost since March 1, 2005 (and the recent gain is eating into that). About half a pound a week overall, if that. Granted, I did have a few intervals where I wasn’t getting to the gym regularly, and I managed to hold my weight steady over those periods. It just kind of bums me out that at this rate I have at least two more years to go (at ~$450/year for the gym membership) to lose the ~50-plus pounds I have left to go.
It’s easy to do when everything else is going well, but when other things in your life are going shitty, it can seem like a big damn annoying chore to have to haul your carcass to the gym, plan and shop for healthy meals and snacks, chop and prepare all those fresh veggies, make sure there’s ALWAYS cold bottled water in the fridge, etc., etc. AND not get bored out of your mind.
Eh, I’ll let the pity party run its course over the next day or so, pop some fresh tunes into my armband MP3 player, make a trip to Festival’s gorgeous produce section on Sunday, and start fresh on Monday.
(I did have people telling me over Christmas that I looked thinner. Wouldn’t have thought that possible for only 20 pounds. Must have all been in my face. When is it going to start coming off my ass??)
I personally weigh myself every morning. Some people advise that you should only weigh-in weekly, as daily weigh-ins can be disappointing - but my experience is the opposite. Yes, you have daily weight fluctuations. However, if you keep this in mind and concentrate on the trend of your daily weight changes, it’s less discouraging. What if you have a “light” day on the first day of the week. And then a “heavy” day one week later. I looks like you didn’t lose weight, even though the trend is that you actually did.
To pick a week at random from my weight log, on July 14, 2005 I weighed 250.6lbs. On July 21 I weighed 250.8lbs. A gain of 0.2lbs! Horror! Especially since my caloric intake said I should be losing about 1.5lbs per week.
However, my daily weights were:
14th - 250.6
15th - 250.2
16th - 247.6
17th - 247.6
18th - 249.2
19th - 248.2
20th - 249.4
21st - 250.8
So logically my “true” current weight is about 247.6 on July 21st, but daily fluctuations in salt and fiber intake, retaining water, etc… hid that, especially if I had only been weighing in once per week and picked a bad day to do so.
I find the daily (or weekly or monthly, for that matter) weigh-in stressful. You feel unjustifiably high when a good day combined with the scale being in the"right" spot on the floor combined with a empty bladder make you feel you did GREAT, and unjustifiably low when the opposite occurs.
As I said, I want only my long-term goals to be met. I don’t care a damn if I were to lose two pounds this week, that means nothing in itself to me. Weigh-ins are just more diversionary crap for me to get myself caught up in, and there’s so much of that already.
I can definitely understand where you’re coming from. I’m a very numbers-oriented person, so that’s why I said daily weigh-ins work for me. My weight loss method is eating less calories, by tracking everything I eat with a a software program. Numer-crunching is integral to my method, and it works to keep me motivated.
Now many other people I know (including my mother) are the complete opposite. Any weigh-ins act more to de-motivate them (is that even a word?), and just stresses them out. Which can’t be good.
Just us whatever works best for you.
I’m another fan of no more than weekly weigh-ins – for one thing, I’ve just got a low-tech type of bathroom scale, it doesn’t measure at anything like tenth-of-a-pound accuracy, so I’m not going to get anything other than the big picture anyway. (“Big picture” – get it? Hee! I slay myself!)
I do weigh myself, though, because although “these jeans are a little loose” is nice, “X number of pounds” is nicer.
Speaking of which – I was thumbing through a tabloid while buying salad fixings at the supermarket on my way home (I’m with pseud on salads being a great way to fill up – a quarter of a grilled chicken breast doesn’t seem measly when it’s on lettuce with some cukes and a little Italian dressing) and in said tabloid they mentioned that Kirstie Alley just passed a milestone – a half ton lost. Well, her and her whole diet group (family and friends, I’m not sure how many people in all, I was in the express lane).
So I was thinking – maybe someone would volunteer to do a monthly weigh-in for the amount lost amongst all thread participants?
I haven’t lost any weight this week. Oops. Actually, I may have gained a pound. Double oops. At least I know where I messed up, so maybe I’ll do better this next week.
Wasn’t obvious to me! Thanks for the idea. Yesterday I bought five bags of salad for five dollars. Low in Calories, and low in carbohydrates! 
I’m eating a bowl for breakfast. I’ve made it more interesting by adding a slice of ham (25 Calories, no carbs), half a slice of medium cheddar cheese (50 Calories, no carbs), and two tablespoons of blue cheese dressing (150 Calories, 3g carbs).
You’re welcome, Johnny L.A. (though if you’ll keep posting about how wet it is where you’re living, shouldn’t you be thinking about changing your name to Johnny Seattle? Think of the confused newbies!) I just ate my 10th salad in the last six days. So if those salads cost me around 2.50 apiece I got off pretty easy in terms of cost, convenience and calories, and I’m not remotely sick of eating salad–YET. Maybe I’ll add some flavorful (and calorie-rich) bits like crumbled blue cheese and anchovies to the next few to keep the taste novel.
That’s why I do it! 
I weighed myself this morning. Lost another pound. Eight pounds since 27 December.
bad week. no weigh in.
Next week will be better
Well I’m late checkin in, but here goes. Officially I started the diet Monday, but I’ve already lost 4 lbs. I’m eating 5 small meals a day with the occasional cheat, and went to the track yesterday and today. 2 mi yesterday, 1.5 today.
Actually I had bought that six week body make over a few years ago. It really does work, but I have tried it twice and failed. I think it’s because the portions really were small, but this time I’m upping some of the portion sizes. Granted I’m not losing weight as fast as I did the first time, but I think I’ll be able to stay on it longer.
-1
Which makes my total, year to date, 0.
Hm. Perhaps it’s time to start taking this more seriously?
Down 1.5 lbs since last Sunday.
Last week was a pretty good week for me. I managed to take a long walk 4 mornings and one day I doubled up and took the same walk in the evening so I did get 5 45 min walks in this week. I have been diligently working to reframe my thoughts about eating and make this a lifestyle change rather than a diet though I still want to lose fat.
My stats are 185.5/180.5/140
That’s 5 pounds down so far.
And I’m working hard on the psychological stuff by rethinking the reasons that I like being fat. I know that sounds contrary but try it. Fill in the blank “I like being fat because ________.” You may be surprised what you find out. For me it’s because it keeps people away from me. I’m still sorting out exactly what that means and how it is affecting other areas of my life.
Onward and downward.
Nice one, you guys!
I genuinely forgot to do my weigh-in this morning so I’ll do it tomorrow.
I’m not expecting a good result though, because we had a couple of days ‘offsite’ for work and there was a LOT of food on offer and I wasn’t strong enough to resist it. 
Still, I’m not going to go with my old way of thinking ‘well the diets blown’, i’m just gonna get back on that diet horse and ride into the sunset!
As of Friday, I’m up 4 lbs. Damn… :mad:
Any ideas as to why, VunderBob?
Not sure, but I’ve been eating more carbs, and my exercise is not up to par.