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?

I suspect I might actually have to track calories but at the minute, if I’m honest, I don’t want to. I had nachos with tea and have had a glass of wine so it might all be back on by now

But actually, I don’t feel bad about it and at least I’m not eating the ridiculous amount of cake that I did at the start of lockdown...!

I ate and drunk so much at the start of lockdown 🙈 I have found that if I put pressure on myself things end up going wrong so the more laid back approach is definitely better for me. There's no reason to feel bad for eating nachos and drinking wine. I hope you enjoyed it, everything in moderation is good.

As long as it doesn't turn into a habit, it's good to have a treat now and again!

It has taken until today for me to spot the typo in the thread title 🙈 I hate making mistakes like that 😳

Today has been good food wise, though my period is due at the end of the week so I know I'm going to bloat and eat more chocolate but I also know it's temporary and it'll be sorted within a few days. So, today looked like this:
B: bacon, scrambled eggs (2 with milk and butter), toast and tomatoes. Cranberry juice (475 calories)
L: jacket potato with cheese and beans with a side salad. Diet coke (468 calories)
S: 2 crackers with paté and a diet coke (91 calories)
D: Carribean chicken with roasted veg. Glass of squash (384 calories)
S: jaffa cake mini roll, 2 squares chocolate and a diet coke (213 calories).

That brings today to 1,630 calories. Writing that out has made me spot that I've had 3 cans of diet coke today. I know calorie wise it isn't too bad but I don't think drinking that much is good. I went out for a run this morning, went for a walk to collect a prescription and also went for a walk with my son to look at wild flowers as part of his school work so I've got some good steps in there. It has felt strange going out 3 times though.

I haven't counted all my calories today 🙈 The nice weather meant a couple of gins followed by a Chinese. The biggest problem is that the Chinese was awful and totally not worth it and I now have a post-Chinese headache!

I think the last time I ate one was around a year ago, a little more, and I then spent half the night being ill, so it's definitely a rare thing here (and hopefully I'll be ok tonight!). I suffer with IBS and was in the middle of a bad flare up at the time so think that's why that happened. Tonight's was just not great taste-wise and I do regret it now for that reason. Should have gone for a curry 😂

Hey ginandchocs love the user name!

I'll join you! Sounds like you've had a good week, I started on Monday just trying to be more aware of what I'm eating and stop when I'm full, I'm a boredom eater and lockdown has not helped this!!

I'm not using scales as I find it really demotivating for me and I want to concentrate on how I feel rather than loosing weight because I always feel so much better when I'm eating better.

I've got into a bad habit of sinking a whole bottle of wine to myself on a Friday night 'as a treat' which has got to stop! It's really not a treat as it makes me feel rubbish the next day and is just empty calories

I have quite an active job and I'm still going to work so can usually clock up 10,000 steps a day which is good.

How have you done today?

Hi @zyxa I think it's great to concentrate on how you feel rather than the scales. I wish I could do that!

Yesterday wasn't perfect, but I'm pre-menstrual and always eat awfully in the days leading up to it. I did log all my calories yesterday, and pretty much ate what I burnt off during the day so over my 1,650 target but far better than I could have been.

I've just planned today's meals and made them exciting and new to hopefully motivate me to stay away from the snacks. I'm having crumpets for breakfast, chipotle black bean and lime tacos for lunch, and a pork belly noodle salad for dinner. There are lots of flavours there. I've also planned for one double g&t tonight as Friday night can also mean opening a bottle here and it disappearing.

Good luck on your journey 😊

I'm using fitness pal too. It's going well so far but only been at it since Monday!

One thing I am doing that I know makes me lose weight is to just stop eating sugar. If you stop then try and eat it a week later it tastes awful. Once you stop sugar then the weight drops off. Obviously I'm here because I started eating sugar again!

ginandchocs well done for tracking your calories on a day where you have eaten more, it's so easy to just ignore them but you sound really in control.

I weighed myself this morning so I have a baseline but I'm going to try and stay away from now on, I love to loose 16 pounds and drop a dress size which should hopefully be manageable with small changes.

Today I've had porridge for breakfast, (250 cal) a mid morning banana, (100 cal) tuna salad (400 cal) and a yoghurt (100cal) for lunch and 2 rice cakes (30 cal each) this afternoon. Friday is pizza night in our house but instead of eating a whole larger pizza like a normally would I got one of the smaller pizza express ones and ate 3/4 (450 cal) with lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes and dressing on the side. (150cal?) It was delicious and it was enough! I've not had any alcohol today but I did have a 200 cal ice cream after dinner. This brings me to roughly 1710 calories? and I did 13,668 steps and is much better then a usual Friday for me! Happy to loose a couple of pounds a month and keep it steady.

Ahh I have such a knack for killing off threads 🙈

@zyxa 😂

I just had a bit of a rubbish weekend. I ate too much, too much wine was drunk and I 100% used the excuse of having my period (I seem to think that having my period is a green light for total overindulging). I do really need to sort this out in my head.

However, I am today back tracking what I eat and drink and have had a good day. I need to work on snacks, but that's been my biggest issue from the start. My snacks today have been a chocolate bar (it looks like a treatsize one, but actually had around 220 calories so it's closer to a full size one) and a tube of smarties. One of those was enough, I should have picked something different this afternoon. I know I'm within calories, but I want to be healthier too!

It was actually 185 and not 220, but still 367 of today's calories came from chocolate. That's probably too many!

Morning! had stayed the same at yesterday’s weekly weigh in but when I weighed myself this morning I was another 1lb down! But we live near the beach and are going to have fish and chips there for tea tonight so it will probably go back on!

Slow and steady wins the race and all that.

Hi Everyone! PotteringAlong I couldn't agree more about slow and steady wins the race, it has to be realistic and maintainable. Someone on a different thread said 'every day is a new day' and it stuck with me because it's so easy to eat to much one day and then throw in the towel and eat crap every day. In reality one day of eating too much won't make a difference in the long run if you aren't over eating the majority of the time.

ginandchocs my go to snacks are a packet of sweet and salted proper corn at 63 calories or salt and vinegar rice cakes at 30 cals each. The rice cakes a great because they take time to eat and have flavour but 2 is enough because they aren't as moorish as a chocolate bar or something.

I'm lucky in that I'm still going to work so I take my porridge, morning banana, lunch and afternoon rice cakes with me. Preparation is key for me and it takes the effort of deciding what to make for lunch when you've already made it!

I've decided to buy a pair of jeans in the next dress size down as it would be great to have a visual idea of how much i need to loose to get into them. I tend to buy stretchy jeans and the ones I have at the moment have a bit of a flap at the back which I'm no longer filling out! (This is probably due to them stretching when I kneel or sit on the floor at work but it's making want to see how small the next size down would be!)

Keep up the motivation as well ladies! Gin you started this thread nearly 3 weeks ago so now is probably the hardest time (I always find the initial burst of enthusiasm sees me through the first 2 weeks!) just think how we will feel in another 3 weeks time a pound or two lighter. Then 3 weeks after that and 3 weeks after that! It all adds up!

Also this is zyxa!

Forgot I changed my name 🤦🏼‍♀️

I’ve noticed I am less hungry this week though. Definitly less walking through the kitchen and wondering what I can snack on and I’m eating less at lunchtime.

When I go back to work rather than WFH at least I can continue that and wanting to eat less has got to be a good thing

Can I join please?

I am determined to lose this extra stone I’ve gained over the past year and agree that slowly and sustainably is the best approach.

I’m going to try and stick to 1,650 calories per day during the week and 2,000 at the weekend - but only if I need to. At the moment it’s not difficult for me to not splurge as I don’t really drink at home anyway and we aren’t going anywhere! Eating at home means there is also less need to indulge.

I’d like to lose around 1lb per week over the next couple of months and get that first half a stone off, then I’d be happy for it to take the rest of the year to see the other half a stone come off.

This morning I’ve had a protein shake with banana and almond milk, plus a coffee with 2 sugars - 261 calories.

Going to spend a few minutes now inputting lunch and dinner and then work out what else I have to play with.

So my meals today will be 1,250 kcals so I have 400 left.

I did a 6k step walk this morning and I’ve done Joe Wicks PE with DS and I have yoga later so a good start!

Hi Basin!

Sounds like you have a good plan! I'm still feeling really motivated which is great. I think that's come from the 'not a diet' audio book by James Smith which I've been listening to. He gives loads of advice to help your health and well being and reminded me how important it is to get a good nights sleep! He says he sets an alarm an hour before he needs to be in bed which I've found really helpful as a bit of a wind down routine before bed. I really recommend the book!

I've been managing 10k steps most days, currently on 7k but will go for a pram walk when little one wakes up. Dinner tonight will be lemon prawns and courgetti from my new cook book. It's so nice being hungry for a meal and really appreciating it. I was grazing all day because of lockdown and eating proper meals aswell so this makes a nice change!

Ohh that’s strange @lmfaoo I’ve literally just been listening to a James Smith podcast in the car! I haven’t read his book but he does make a lot of sense and makes good SM content.

I’m trying to #neatup247 (if you know you know) at the moment, I’m trying to hit 10k steps throughout the day to start and increase up to 15k over time.

Might download the audiobook though I have heard good things about it

Yes to #neatup247! I live in a block of flats where the car park a few streets away and I have a fear of lifts. Getting the weekly shop in is exhausting but I have to remind myself it's all calories burned!

I'd not heard of him until I stumbled across his audio book last week but I'm quickly turning into somewhat of a fan! He's so refreshing and his approach to bettering your health and well being makes a lot of sense, ill be checking out his podcast when I'm done with the book!

Came in 50 kcals under my target yesterday.

I’ve already input into MFP today’s lunch and dinners and know I have 450 kcals left for breakfast and any snacks.

Just having a coffee and then I’m going to head out for another walk to make sure I get a head start on today’s 10k steps.

Just checking in, how was your day Basin? I've been busy today and clocked up 17,000 steps so really happy with that. Food wise I've had: Porridge, Banana, Tuna Salad, Yoghurt with granola, Popcorn, Omelet with salad, Ice cream cone, 3 cups of coffee with milk and plenty of water.

I might weight myself on Friday which will be 2 weeks from my first weigh in. My trousers are feeling a bit baggier so I'm hopeful I'll have lost a couple of pounds!

Shattered now so heading to bed!