General Weight Loss Support Thread

The Raptor

Diet starts back tomorrow.

Faith

I went out for dinner last night. It was a set 3-course meal. I ate a tomato-based clam chowder to begin (a very small portion), with two small bits of bread and some butter. The main was roast beef, mashed potatoes, vegetables, a light gravy (no cream or flour apparent) and a yorkshire pudding. I ate about 75% of the plate, giving all the fatty beef bits to my husband. For dessert, I had a small slice of lemon tart. I had a 175ml glass of white wine.

Total calories, as my best guesstimate: 1,250 :eek:. It really didn't feel like I ate that much, and it was a pretty standard "Sunday Lunch". I had budgeted for the calories, but I was still totally shocked. I think it's a good indicator as to why tracking all of your calories is a good idea!

spaceylou

Haven't posted here before, currently 69.8kg and aiming to reach 65kg initially, although somewhere between that and 60 is probably my ideal weight. Am 168cm or about 5'6.5, female, aged 34.

After Christmas I was 73kg and while the trend has been downward it has been slow and quite bumpy... Think lowest I've been in past six months was 69kg. Haven't been following a diet, more trying to make healthy choices and watch portion size. Am also training for marathon in October and really don't want to fall into trap of thinking i can eat more because I am running, especially when the rest of my day is fairly sedentary! Hoping that if I start following this thread and post weekly weigh-in it might help with motivation and keep me accountable.

Faith

Posting here is a great move, spaceylou!

xLisaBx

Hey everyone. Haven't posted yet but here it goes!

Looking to lose weight, (duh, Lisa!) and have lost 8 pounds over the last few weeks. I'll be getting a gym membership at the end of August too if I keep eating healthily will I continue to lose weight at this rate, and add in the exercise from the gym too?

Faith

Hey Lisa,

We can't answer that for you . You need to work out your Total Daily Energy Expenditure, or TDEE, which is the approximate number of calories you can expect your body to use each day. Then you need to subtract ~20% of that figure to get the number of calories you should be aiming for each day for a rough 1 lb/week loss. Every 5-10 lbs lost or so, you should recalculate your requirements.

Try using this website: http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm

As long as you consistently eat fewer calories than you burn, you'll continue to lose weight.

It's very important to track your food accurately. Many of us use an app called MyFitnessPal. I'd recommend weighing as much of your raw food as you can, before preparing it. What your eye thinks is "about a tablespoon" can be vastly different from what the weighing scales thinks!

Have a read of this too.

Exercise, while wonderful, should not be considered as the best approach to lose weight. Weight loss is almost always based on your diet. Exercise is excellent for health and fitness, but it can also make us hungrier and more inclined to overeat after a work out (and overestimate the calories burned!). By all means, exercise away, but your best bet is to still stick to your normal calorie goal. I "save" exercise calories, so if I overeat at the weekends, I limit the damage done. But if I cycle 20K one day, I don't eat an extra 500 calories just because I can.

IrishLoriii

Hi,
Long time lurker first time poster I weighed 92.7kg this day last week. Im currently
90.1. Just changed my diet alot with help and have been trying to go to the gym more and
really focus on cardio. Also growing a love for having lots of energy and eating healthy food..is this
a new me?!

Birdsong

Hi there, I am joining in on this thread as I need the support. Earlier this year I got to my almost ideal weight of 11st, I am 5 8 , female. Then in May disaster struck & I injured my foot. So now I can not walk, run, or even stand for long periods of time. I have put up 6lb in the time period which is just not moving. It's very disheartening, I would have a good diet - I thought! But following reading this thread I have signed up for my fitness pal, so hopefully that will keep me accountable and probably open my eyes a little . Sorry for the long post but I need to get back in the mind set.

spaceylou

Down 1.5kg to 68.4 this week so happy with that. MFP is very handy, had never used it before - probably won't log religiously (takes too long when you cook from scratch for everything) but handy for checking recipes that I use a lot. Also realised I am not getting enough protein in my diet everyday - something I definitely need to work on.

Faith

Well done on the weight loss! Logging gets much quicker as you get used to it. I cook all my own food and it only takes me a couple of minutes each day. I have logged for 62 days without missing one right now, and I'm aiming for 100.

Every time I stop logging, I fall off the wagon and gain back weight. I'm also more successful this time around because I log every single thing that I eat, even when I know I have gone way over my calories. It gives a much more accurate picture, and when I gain weight, I can look at the numbers and see exactly why. I used to not log when I ate badly or snacked when I shouldn't have, and then I'd get really frustrated and disheartened when I gained or didn't lose weight.

Alf Veedersane

spaceylou wrote: »

Down 1.5kg to 68.4 this week so happy with that. MFP is very handy, had never used it before - probably won't log religiously (takes too long when you cook from scratch for everything) but handy for checking recipes that I use a lot. Also realised I am not getting enough protein in my diet everyday - something I definitely need to work on.

Congrats on the loss.

It adds to the database of foods you use when you add new foods so even cooking from scratch becomes quick and easy over time.

I also set up partial recipes and then add the stuff I vary.

Given how well it works, the 5 minute investment is well worth it

But over time you find yourself being a much better judge of portions and calories therein and a rough idea of the carbs/fats/protein as well.

IrishLoriii

I love my fitness pal I think its a brilliant app..its the only time im really honest about what I eat!!
I did fall a bit off the wagon this evening and had a cookie and half an other from m and s..Im still
under my calorie for the day but its not part of my healthy eating plan so im dreading weighing in
tomorrow :P Could have been worse I suppose!

Ilyana 2.0

I really need to get my head together and shift these last 4lbs. I've gotten a bit lax in the last ten days or so; no major damage done but I'll never get to where I want to be if I don't re-focus. It's too easy to slip into the mindset of '4lbs? That'll come off in no time!'

Back to the running this morning, and I have all my meals planned out until Sunday. No plans for the bank holiday weekend, so hopefully nothing to sway me off-track. If I can get to my goal weight by the end of August I'll be delighted.

Konata

Joining in too as am in need of a bit of motivation and perhaps even accountability! My weight has yoyo'd a lot over the years (I've struggled with both under-eating and over-eating, and have been both quite underweight and quite overweight) but I've been roughly the same weight for the past year so I really want to kick my butt and get down to a healthy, comfortable weight for me in as healthy a way as possible, even if it takes a while! I'm just a little into the overweight category so overall I have about 25lbs to lose to get back to my goal weight. But my first goal is just going to be to get into my healthy weight category, so 8lbs to go!

JeffKenna

96.1kg this morning. I haven't been this low in years.

Bank holiday weekend is a looming threat however...

Blue Whale

Does anybody notice that weight is different on different scales? Have two in the house.. Difference is only about one percent

Alf Veedersane

Blue Whale wrote: »

Does anybody notice that weight is different on different scales? Have two in the house.. Difference is only about one percent

Can be a couple of things. My own can be up to 1.3kg heavier so I calibrate it before I use it.

Little point in using more than one anyway because all you need to see is a trend and level of loss, for example, rather than the absolute number you are at, unless you need to be in a specific weight class for something.

Birdsong

Weigh in on a Tuesday morning, and was down 1lb. I am quite pleased with that. Finding the logging in my fitness pal an eye opener. Especially in the exercises calories. Really does come down to the food

Alf Veedersane

Birdsong wrote: »

Weigh in on a Tuesday morning, and was down 1lb. I am quite pleased with that. Finding the logging in my fitness pal an eye opener. Especially in the exercises calories. Really does come down to the food

Tbh I find the calories it says you burn for exercise to be a fairly big overestimation so i really do just rely on getting my food in order

jokettle

Yup, I ignore the calories burned thing. It's far too variable to be accurate, and just slows down weight loss.

I spent the weekend with my parents, and we ate everything. Not only were myself and my boyfriend there (and so, "nice" food was bought in), but some extended family also visited! So there was cake and wine and biscuits etc. I haven't weighed myself since getting back, and I won't for another few days. I don't want to be disheartened :pac: Hopefully I'm still maintaining my goal weight!

Ilyana 2.0

jokettle wrote: »

I spent the weekend with my parents, and we ate everything. Not only were myself and my boyfriend there (and so, "nice" food was bought in), but some extended family also visited! So there was cake and wine and biscuits etc. I haven't weighed myself since getting back, and I won't for another few days. I don't want to be disheartened :pac: Hopefully I'm still maintaining my goal weight!

You had a really similar weekend to me actually, food galore and a fry to send us off. It was really nice though. I was up a pound yesterday morning but it's gone today, obviously just some water. It's probably not as bad as you think

Blue Whale

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

Can be a couple of things. My own can be up to 1.3kg heavier so I calibrate it before I use it.

Little point in using more than one anyway because all you need to see is a trend and level of loss, for example, rather than the absolute number you are at, unless you need to be in a specific weight class for something.

I had a normal one but then a bought one that logs your weight by WIFI to an app, so now have two. Only about 1% difference in the weights recorded, could just be down to the location/surface the scales are on etc

Faith

Blue Whale wrote: »

I had a normal one but then a bought one that logs your weight by WIFI to an app, so now have two. Only about 1% difference in the weights recorded, could just be down to the location/surface the scales are on etc

Very much so. My scales varies depending on what part of the floor it's on :rolleyes:

IrishLoriii

Put up 0.4 today! To be expected but still raging..hopefully thatll be the only gain for this week

spaceylou

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

Congrats on the loss.

It adds to the database of foods you use when you add new foods so even cooking from scratch becomes quick and easy over time.

I also set up partial recipes and then add the stuff I vary.

Given how well it works, the 5 minute investment is well worth it

But over time you find yourself being a much better judge of portions and calories therein and a rough idea of the carbs/fats/protein as well.

I will investigate the partial recipes idea because often dinner ingredients, veg especially, will vary depending on what is in the fridge.

But seriously five minutes? No way. Took me longer to log a salad the other day than to eat the thing because I had lots of different stuff in it. And that is going to be different every day pretty much.

Alf Veedersane

spaceylou wrote: »

I will investigate the partial recipes idea because often dinner ingredients, veg especially, will vary depending on what is in the fridge.

But seriously five minutes? No way. Took me longer to log a salad the other day than to eat the thing because I had lots of different stuff in it. And that is going to be different every day pretty much.

But you have a database of items you use to make a salad. There are only so many different foods you'll use so before long all you do is select that food from the list. You don't have to search for everything every time.

Faith

spaceylou wrote: »

I will investigate the partial recipes idea because often dinner ingredients, veg especially, will vary depending on what is in the fridge.

But seriously five minutes? No way. Took me longer to log a salad the other day than to eat the thing because I had lots of different stuff in it. And that is going to be different every day pretty much.

Of course it's up to you. If you'd rather take this risk of gaining weight due to accidentally eating too much, than spend a few minutes logging every day, then that's totally your choice .

I personally wouldn't care if it took an hour a day, if it ensured I was losing weight consistently.

There's also an option to create "Recipes", where you can bulk add ingredients. It's much quicker than adding individually for multi-component dishes.

IrishLoriii

Maintained today but hoping for a nice loss tomorrow!!

Faith

I have known rocks that have more sensitivity to change than my weighing scales. It will give the exact same read-out even if something significant happens between the two weighings. I could weigh myself, pee out a litre of water, and when I weighed myself afterwards, it would be the same weight - to the gram.

I'll be chucking it out in a few weeks, so anyone have any recommendations for a replacement?

Faith

Faith wrote: »

Woop woop, I broke through my plateau! Down 2.2 lbs this morning, bringing my total loss to date to 10.6 lbs . My next personal goal is 12 lbs lost, and when I hit that, I can buy a Fitbit, so only 1.5 lbs to go! I'm feeling motivated to try and drop that bit next week... Hopefully I can do it!

And I hit my goal yesterday! Slower than expected, but I guess 1.5lbs in a week was always a big ask.

FitBit, here I come...

In one more pound, I'll be at 50% of my goal!