Does anyone want to lose weight as a snail's pace?

[ginandchocs]

I'd say most people want to lose weight quickly. I certainly do. But it just doesn't work. Or, it does initially, but then it all goes back on and some.

I've decided to try a different method. I'm aiming to lose weight slowly. Maybe a couple of pounds a month. If I achieved that, I would lose almost 2 stones in a year but in a way that would be sustainable.

I'm going to do this using myfitnesspal. I'm setting my calorie goal for the week to be relatively near to what I usually burn without exercise (obviously a little lower otherwise I wouldn't lose anything!). I'm splitting the calories unevenly throughout the week though as I always tend to eat that bit more at the weekend (I end up falling off the wagon and giving up another diet - hopefully by having a greater calorie allowance would allow for this). Any exercise I do would then increase the weight loss (by a tiny amount) and would obviously make me healthier. I will not eat the extra calories.

The calories I've allotted myself may need to be tweaked if they're too high and I'm not losing at all. Time will tell. This may be a bit mad, but if it works then great. I would have to eat around this amount of calories to maintain my weight if I had lost anyway so I'm hoping this brings with it lifelong good habits.

My calories will be:
Monday to Thursday - 1675
Friday - 2000
Saturday and Sunday - 2250

Some days I may be over, others under. I'm not going to eat for the sake of it nor will I say no to something because I don't have the calories left for it. However, I want my weekly calories to be 13,200 or less. As I said, though, these calories may change if the numbers aren't right. It's a bit trial and error.

Anyone else fancy a slow weight loss journey that will hopefully create new habits, and allow me to maintain forever more?

@PigglyWigglyWoo TOTM is difficult but that doesn't sound too bad at all

I've been on plan food wise today and did my exercise this morning. I only managed 6,000 steps but I did deep clean the oven which got me in a serious sweat so hopefully that burned a few cals! 😂 I'm hoping for a loss tomorrow after last weeks maintain!

Cals around 1600 today

B - total yoghurt and banana
L - ham and cheese sandwich with chutney, bag of baked crisps
T - gousto sausage, veg and mash
Few pieces of Edinburgh rock

Tomorrow's plan

B - egg mayo on corn cakes
L - tuna cucumber sandwich, baked crisps, yoghurt
T - left over sausage and mash with veg, muller bliss yoghurt
Snack - banana

Comes in at 1700

I'm eating more towards the 1700 than 1500 at the minute but shark week is due...

1800 cals today but was a stressful day.

If I’m not imagining it, my stomach is looking flatter. I can also bend forward in yoga without a fat roll blocking my progress now.

Hope everyone’s doing OK.

Weight diary lite app is good if anyone is a geek like me! It tracks your weight if you weigh daily and levels out any random blips to show how much you are losing a week and makes a graph with an average trend
Plus it's free

Tomorrow’s plan (I don’t know why I bother writing these because I never stick to them. I usually gobble everything in sight at breakfast time and then fast for the rest of the day. There’s always a first time though):
B: pain au Chocolat 350 fruit salad 250
L: still eating up the roast veg/grains/beans mix 400. Chutney 100 2 Babybels 160
S: half a cookie 160

I can sympathise with TOTM. I'm due on this weekend and felt constantly hungry today! I decided not to snack on anything after dinner as I knew that 1 thing would lead to eating half the kitchen! I brushed my teeth at 7:30 which helped!!

So, yesterday I had:
B: pineapple, nectarine, bagel with cream cheese.
L: chipotle chicken salad wrap (not my wisest move, as hadn't twigged what was for dinner until I started eating! Was tasty though!!). Chilli crackers and 2 lindt chocolates (the usual size balls).
S: a mix of the mini lindt balls, and cashew nuts
D: chicken fajitas (spot the lunch/dinner oops!! Chicken wrap day 😂).

To drink I jad sparkling water and flavoured sparkling water.

I've now got another food oops this weekend. I'm having pizza 2 nights in a row 😂 We're out to a pizza tipi place tonight, but before that was arranged I'd already put pizza down for tomorrow night's dinner. Pizza is the boys' favourite food, so changing one would be very disappointing for them! Luckily I love pizza!!

Week 12 weigh in:

I'm 135.5lbs so 1.75lb down this week

In total I've lost 20.75lb so another quarter of a lb and that's a stone and a half gone!

Hope everyone has a great day!

@lmfaoo that's amazing! Well done!

Thanks @ginandchocs I'm celebrating with a takeaway 🤣🤣

Congratulations @imfaoo!

68.3kg still. Nothing’s shifting. At least I’m not gaining though! Going to have a more lax day today.

@Egghead68 same here. Keep on keeping on I've literally halved my calories and no change

B - huel
L - egg mayo on corn thins
T - gousto sausage casserole

Need to do some food prep tomorrow and get some meals made and eggs boiled ready for the week so I don't reach for the wrong stuff

Thanks @QueenCT. KOKO too! I have to say I look better though. Am doing loads (8 hours a week) of light to moderate exercise and it’s given me a very defined waist and some abs shaping.

@Egghead68 as difficult as it can be to believe (I massively struggle with this), the number on the scales isn't always what's important. If you can see yourself toning up then that's so much better!

For a Saturday, I'm actually pretty impressed with myself. I've not been perfect, but today I've had:

B: sausage sandwich (my son asked for one, which got me fancying one 😂)
L: mango and cashew nut salad. It was amazing!
S: a few more of the Lindt mini balls (I've only got around 1 portion left now!!)
D: Pizza Express pizza (from the supermarket, not eating out). It was 608 calories for the whole lot which was great. It was obviously smaller than other pizzas but more than enough (and half price at Tesco!)
S: a handful of the hippeas crisps and a couple of glasses of prosecco.

I have no idea of calories for the day, but I think I might work it out to see if I'm on the right track. Also, totm starts today and I haven't eaten everything in sight......success!!

Thanks @ginandchocs. Your menu again sounds lovely. I have a Tesco half-price Pizza Express pizza for tomorrow too. Agree they are surprisingly low in calories. I’m going to pimp mine with loads of mushrooms.

I’m down 1.3lbs today despite TOTM and eating terribly

Just found this thread and after advice please

I’m on week 2 of focusing on getting myself back to a healthy weight 🙄

I’ve weighed today, I’m down to 12st, so that’s 3lb lost in 2 weeks. I was secretly hoping more would come off in the first couple of weeks, but I won’t let that demotivate me.

I’m currently working on 1200 calories / 16:8
Doing 10,000 steps and 40 minutes + of active, walking up hill/ running daily. My Fitbit’s been really good for reminding me to move my ass!

Do you think I should be doing more or changing my calories?

@Motiv8meplease

How tall are you? 1200 calories seems low with that amount of exercise. Have you calculated your BMR?

Thanks @PigglyWigglyWoo. I’m 5’4” - I’ve just googled BMR, never heard of it before! It comes up with 1424Cal.

Does that mean I should be consuming more 🙄

@Motiv8meplease
Do you know how much you tend to burn?
I can easily burn 2500 calories and my BMR is 1600 so I try to eat at least 1500 as I’m still often on around 800-1000+ deficit which is plenty

Thanks @PigglyWigglyWoo My avg Calories burnt for the last fortnight is 2500 based on my Fitbit.

So do you think I could afford to up my calories and still lose?

This is the first time I’ve tried calorie counting to lose weight, previously it’s been Slimming World, but I haven’t got the patience to be doing lots of food prepping / eating differently to the rest of the family.

67.9kg. Broke the 68kg barrier!

Good afternoon everybody. I've been reading everyone's posts and getting my motivation back. Haven't wanted to accept I've possibly put on a pound or two so I've been procrastinating and avoiding working hard at my diet and exercise, if that makes any sense! I've been claiming it's water weight from my mini holiday or because it's the totm. But tomorrow morning I'm going to weigh and use that as my official current weight, regardless of whether I like it or not! I'm off work this week and the kids are at school so absolutely no excuse not to exercise and eat right. I'll be weighing and counting my food this week, I tried just being mindful this week and I just didn't like not knowing for sure how much I'm eating!

Good luck @MrsEHB.

My plan for tomorrow (I know I’m not going to win any prizes for healthy eating):
B: melon, raspberries, cake 600
L: mushroom pasta 350 salad 50
S/D: baked crisps 100 ice lolly 66 Turkish delight 200

@Motiv8meplease I couldn’t eat less than 1400 calories a day over a long period. In your shoes I think I’d experiment with eating a bit more and see what effect it has.