Sticking to it longer than a week

[bingsulaflop]

Hello,

I've done CC a couple times in the past but never seem to stick to it longer than a week - regardless of the motivation I have (holidays coming up, big events etc)

How do you all stay motivated after the first week or a rubbish week?

I got so disheartened with only 1lb loss on my first week but later though by Xmas I would have been 3/4 of the way to my goal weight

Thank you for any advice!

No advice as I'm the same. I think it's about how much do you want it?

Maybe add reminders all around food prep places to prompt you into doing it?

Don’t weigh yourself

If you can't stick to it, surely this is telling you that this way of trying to lose weight isn't right for you?

Calorie restriction doesn't work in the longer term anyway. I seriously recommend you have a read of "Why We Eat (Too Much)" by Dr Andrew Jenkinson. He's a bariatric specialist, and explains very clearly why calorie restriction not only doesn't work, but is harmful for your metabolism.

I did that week a few times too. I simply wasn't very committed. This time (several months ago) I committed to 4 weeks. Regardless of how I felt about it, I was going to do thise 4 and if I didn't think it was working out I'd stop again after that. I ate as many calories as I could while still losing weight, which also made it relatively easy to do.

It's worked for me so far and I've chosen to go on maintenance for a while after losing 10% of my weight. I might have another round of losing more again in a few months, but either way I'm better off than being obese and procrastinating.

I’ve done it a year. 4.5 stone down. Longer than a week I’ve found the following helps;

Dont set an unrealistic goal at the start. You can’t go from 2000 cals to 1200 immediately because no1 you’ll have cravings, give in easily and feel starving, and no2 you’ll have no where to go next week when you are slightly less weight. With each pound, lower your daily cals by 50 or something. Eat the full amount you are allowed and enjoy them. Once weight loss plateaus, then take another 50 off.

Increase your exercise even only slightly. Climb more stairs, walk more and quicker.

Cut out sugar and carbs as you’ll have more food to eat for the same amount of calories.

Don't cut out carbs! You need those in the form of vegetables, salad and (some) fruit.

Don't calorie count, it's incredibly restrictive and takes over your whole life.
Look at eating less, moving more - lots of fruit and veg. Colourful food. Just keep it simple at first.

Obviously ... but 200 cals of chips and 200 cals of broccoli, cabbage, swede, or green salad are going to look very different aren’t they. And the second one will fill you up longer.

OP doesn’t say if she’s eating 1200 cals of chocolate all day or 1200 cals of salad.

Also it is the least restrictive diet there is, you can eat anything. It’s just making the right choices. I’ve just sat and eaten a halloumi salad and a punnet of cherries. I’ll have a bean and sausage casserole for dinner and won’t be hungry at all and still be under 1400 cals. If you are sitting there with Turkey dinosaurs and 8 McCain carefully counted oven chips, there won’t be much incentive to go longer than a week - and you’ll be hungry.

It’s impossible to cut out carbs, what the poster means is reduce carbs. Even cucumber has carbs. Sigh.

Op, if calorie counting doesn’t work for you, why don’t you try something else? Low carb works for me.

I weigh myself every day and log it on my fitness pal. By day three I can definitely start to see my weight going down. (This doesn't work if you start just around your period as your weight goes up then). Even if is goes up a little through natural variations if you look at the my fitness pal graph you can see it definitely going on the right direction overall. I find that very motivating.

Finding a way to eat that you can sustain long term. Breakfast for me is about 200cals lunch 600cals dinner 300ish cal milk and cookies at bedtime 200cal 1200 cal +100 (or more) exercise calories. I like milk and cookies at bedtime, it makes me happy so "spending" the calories there is worth it. Being able to Eat a main/large family meal at lunch works well with us as a family and gives me the bulk of the calories
when I need it during the day. Finding meals that are small and filling for breakfast and tea makes a huge difference to me (eg egg white cheesy frittata and coffee for breakfast, wraps not sandwiches for tea). For me that makes a sustainable regime long term. Its the flexibility of how you use those calories that works so well for me

Yy to committing to a period of time. Usually a quiet period when nothing much is planned.

Changing my way of thinking. I am not entitled to food. My body actually only needs a small amount of food compared to what is available to eat. I'm am not entitled to eat everything that is available no matter my mental state. I am only entitled to what my body needs.

The above especially applies to anything I have munched uncontrollably. They are not allowed to be stocked in the house until I consider myself trustworthy again.

No bread. I have never kept to a diet and still been able to eat bread.😞

Ironically I seem to have created
a tradition of having a takeaway on my first day of any diet or at the end of the first week. Either a 2 piece kfc meal, a small fish and chips or a mcnugget meal, all of which if I'm careful I can fit into a 1200cal diet. Reminds me I can still enjoy the odd naughty treat even on a diet.

I've been CCing for a year now - not sure how much weight I've lost because I don't weight myself but I've gone down to an 8 from a 10. I look and feel much better. The key for me is to log everything on MFP and to log in the day's food in the morning. So when I get up I log in my three meals and that's those calories stashed away. I can then 'play' with the leftover calories throughout the day. It's worked well for me.

I do still eat a lot of takeaway and still lose weight on it. Turkish takeaway (loads of salad) or KFC (you can make quite good choices there as well, and remain within cals) or a curry every week - tandoori so no sauce and a plain vegetable curry. Loads of poppadoms.

Once you get past the first week OP it becomes more of a routine and you automatically choose better foods and start to enjoy them too.

Thanks Bluntness. That’s exactly what I mean. Bread and potatoes are barely any nutritional worth for much less calorie “spend” on green leafy veg.

I think the problem can be that you feel disheartened at a pound loss.
Pound is great! When you don't see results, it's always difficult to stick to something, the problem is especially when you THINK you aren't seeing results.
Remind yourself that pound is good loss and that should help.

Also look at what you are eating. I have thoroughly enjoyed my weigtloss because I was eating good, varied, tasty food. Still am. Just with some twists. Like using powdered peanut butter instead of normal one for the flavour, but less cals. Or having one less potato and having extra piece of chicken.
Plenty of herbs and spices. The nicer the food, the easier it was for me to stick with it

And having a day "off" (pushed calories from other days towards it) was a saviour 😁 I need pizza sometimes or mountain of grilled lamb chops😁

Because of this?

I do calorie counting with Nutracheck. Often it just acts as a bit of a wake up call if you log before you eat - the kind of conversation that goes on in my head is like

• do I really want 5 biscuits? Or will one do? Or should I have a drink of water instead becasue I'm actually thirsty.

@MagpiePi

Because of this?

😂 i feel that

I find that working out my preferred eating pattern - I eat most calories in the evening - I plan my day around that the night before on mfp. That gives me control the next day. 1 week might only be 1lb but over 3 weeks that could be 3-6 or 7lbs. 1lb is the scales going the right way. Weightloss doesn’t really understand what a week is and the graph of loss rarely goes straight down with no wobbles. Just keep going, one day at a time!

Here’s my weightloss graph to show it’s bumpy but as long as it’s overall down then you’re doing well.