Weight loss

[Lovesacake]

Hi,

NC for this thread. So I shall start with a not so stealthy boast...I have finally, after a VERY long period of dieting, reached a healthy BMI (it was 36 when diet began). I’m glad to be here after losing 4 stone but also nervous as I have lost large amounts of weight before and then put it all back on.

So AIBU to ask for any tips/advice from those of you who have lost weight and actually kept it off? How does that work?? I am mid 40’s so don’t have the metabolism I once had. I really want this time to be the time I actually maintain a healthy weight!

Daily weighing.

I lost 2 stone 15 years ago and have always weighed every day. I have to confess that since lockdown I’ve crept up by more than my ‘allowed’ amount so am currently getting it off again but it’s a bloody slog. I prefer to deal with a couple of pounds rather than 10.

Well done.

I use my fitness Pal app.
You put in all the food you eat and you can monitor if you're overeating

I would keep doing whatever it is you have done but plan in treats. It’s all about planning and raiding the biscuit tin when you’ve had a bad day. I would save calories for the weekend but other people prefer eating more throughout the week. I’d tried to plan to fit your life once you can go out. I save calories for meals and drinks out at weekends.

YABU, this is the wrong board. There is a whole host of weight loss and diet boards to choose from. Pretty fed up of AIBU being taken over by swarms of people wanting to loose weight.

Thank you 😊. I have been sticking to weekly weighing throughout the diet and had thought it would be a good idea to keep doing that, but daily weighing hadn’t occurred to me. Does it fluctuate much day to day? That could really throw me!

Sorry that was to @MatildaTheCat

Not much traffic on those boards.

Watching with interest as I have also lost 4 stone but have a bit further to go yet

@CarterBeatsTheDevil maybe there isn't traffic on those boards because instead of using them you are on AIBU instead...

My weight fluctuates by a pound or two. I weigh first thing in the morning post poo.( creature of habit!) I read about this method working at the time so stuck to it. I guess it’s pretty similar to weekly weighing as long as you don’t go mad.

@Biancadelrioisback and @superram thank you. These suggestions make sense, I guess it’s finding the balance where I’m not in calorie deficit as won’t be trying to lose weight but also not having a calorie surplus so I gain. That’s probably the crux of why I always put the weight back on, I come off the diet and then don’t get that balance right! Even though my intentions are always good.

Definitely daily weighing - like a PP said, if you take action immediately it only takes a week of deprivation, rather than the miserable slog of months if you let it creep up too high without really noticing.

You'll soon work out what your normal fluctuation is, so you can set parameters.

Wow! That is amazing, well done you!!!

I am currently doing Second Nature and so I don't know what my goal weight is, it's just what I get to when I am eating healthily but I've lost a stone so far in 3 weeks. My BMI currently is 27 so I've got a way to go but enjoying the process.

I'd say meal plan, eat healthily, save your treats for weekends and I weigh myself daily but don't get caught up in a fluctuation from one day to the next because that's normal.

Just to say as well, with the programme I'm doing, we don't count calories and just look at food portions and macro proportions. I used to think that eating healthy fats turned into body fat 😂 I was very wrong!

Definitely seems like daily weighing is a popular choice so I will give that a go. Whilst dieting I’ve found the build up to the weekly weigh simultaneously quite nerve racking and exciting, it’s like finding out each week whether the effort has paid off. So I guess it makes sense to take out that build up and just have it as part of my day to day routine.

Great work on your weight loss!

My fitness pal is great for tracking. Try this website
tdeecalculator.net/result.php?s=imperial&g=female&age=42&lbs=158&in=66&act=1.2&f=2

This gives you your calories for deficit (loss) maintenance and surplus (gain) I keep my maintenance number in mind when there is a night out or occasion if I'm trying to lose weight as one or two days on maintenance won't impact your overall progress. Good luck

Maintenance is hard! Congratulations on reaching your target .

Your weight will fluctuate quite naturally on a day-to-day basis, so you need to be prepared for that.

But the key is not to just revert back to the kind of diet you had before you started to lose weight - that will simply guarantee that you gain the weight back.

Set yourself an upper target on your weight. So, say you're 9 stone now, don't allow yourself to go over 9st 7lbs. If your weight is going up and continuing to go up, and reaches that limit, then you need to be extra disciplined with what you're eating/drinking until it starts to go back down again.

Thank you for all the supportive comments 😊. It all sounds so logical and easy when written down, but I definitely have a pattern of working hard to lose weight and then slowly but surely piling it back on because I relax too much. You’re all right though, looking back I have always started avoiding the scales when I knew I was getting bigger and then ‘suddenly’ I’ve put it all back on. I think it will be a challenge to maintain when life goes back to normal as I’ve found it much easier to control my food intake when there’s no socialising or eating out!

I personally wouldn't recommend daily weighing like others have said. It can really affect your mentality for the day. Say if you've been eating healthy and exercising and you weigh yourself and it says you've put on two pounds - you could lose motivation, feel guilty, have a blip, etc.

I think weighing every few days or once a week plus taking measurements is a good way.

I only say this because if I have had an amazing week and the scales don't match what I think, I can fall off the wagon for 2 days and completely stuff it up!

Make a big lifestyle change. I lost weight when my DS was a year old as I'd gotten heavier post-pregnancy. After about 18 months I'd started to put it back on and by the time he was 5, my BMI had entered the obese range but I didn't realise it at all at the time. I was 39 by then and made a serious effort to lose the weight again as I had this idea in my head that if I turned 40 so overweight, that would be it for life. (And while my 40th birthday itself was arbitrary, your weight and metabolism heading towards menopause isn't.)

I was a healthy weight when I turned 40 but I absolutely knew that the odds were that I'd put the weight back on as soon as I let my guard down. It was a little worrying but luckily for me, a few weeks after my birthday by complete chance I found my 'sport' and after 6 months became very fit within a year, I was genuinely athletically fit. I don't really have to worry about what I eat anymore but the truth is I seriously crave a healthy diet because my focus is on how my body feel and performs. Do I like the aesthetics of being slim and having a well toned body, yes, very much so. But that's just a bonus to how my body makes me feel and all the amazing things it lets me do now.

I doubt I would ever have kept up a diet just to stay a healthy weight. But I fully believe I will do what it takes to stay as athletic, strong and flexible as I am as I age. So find your thing. Something you have always dreamed of doing in some corner of your mind and start doing it. When your body's abilities make you happy, you will want to take care of it.

I have no advice but I did notice that after losing 4st myself, my new weight without looking after my weight and after having a baby, was still lower than when I was 15. I'm running again and I think that's the key to lower weight for me.

I think that for maintaining weight loss exercise is great, because you feel good about yourself and it gives you a daily sense of achievement.

And keeping tabs on your weight regularly & remember how good you feel now having lost the weight.

Christ @SummaLuvin who died and made you boss of this public forum where we can post wherever (and seemingly according to you whatever) we like?

I think intermittent fasting and cutting out snacks is great. Not the crazy hours one but I fast from 7pm-10am then I have 3 meals a day and no snacks. If I want chocolate etc I’ll have it straight after my dinner so there are decent periods of time where I’m not eating. It helps with weight loss and maintenance as you aren’t eating for large periods of time each day.

Oh good points about exercise. The only exercise I really love is dancing but the trouble is I’m terrible at it! So have never stuck with dance classes as I always feel like such a plum. But again lockdown has been helpful in that I’ve just been dancing my socks off in the privacy of my home and so there’s no reason I couldn’t keep that up as I really do enjoy it so much.

YES to intermittent fasting! That’s what I’ve been doing during the diet, but was sort of hoping to relax it a bit when maintaining as I really miss brunch and my ‘eating window’ doesn’t open till 1.