MFP to lose weight - Part 4

[Emz449]

Part 4 Already! Thought I'd get things started before the old thread got full! Will be posting in a sec to see what my weight was at the beginning and end of the old thread

So...weigh-in day for me today and I lost ~3lbs (1.4kg) !!! I am not allowing myself to be delighted, because in all honesty, I don't believe the scales and fully expect an upward trend this week. I didn't exercise enough and had a few blow-outs, including last night's chicken burger and sweet potato fries. It wasn't all body fat this week either (only 0.8kg) which is also telling me it can't be completely true.

BUT a loss is a loss and I'm now at 11st 8lb ish (73.3kg). If I can try to keep my gain this week to ~1lb (0.5kg) due to my few days away I will still be in the black.

Hopefully I love the idea of the incentives! Traditionally the only treat I gave myself was chocolate so it would be fun to think of something new instead. Also well done on so much loss so quickly - you will definitely pass the 10.7 mark shortly!! And I am very much in awe that you exercised to gain some extra calories for the day - I'm not sure I have built up that level of determination yet.

fitter that is some amount of walking to use 1300 calories - jealous . You more than deserved that scone but that is some resistance not to have the jam and cream (unlike yours truly ahem).

karate a loss already - well done! Your food plan sounds similar to mine except I haven't got out of the snacking habit fully yet. I really don't have one bad day for snacking - it depends completely on my mood so could be any (or multiple) days. I'm like sesame though in that after lunch is always the worst time for me. Trying to break the habit is almost more about stopping myself buying the chocolate than eating it.

stewards I can't help with the WW question, but I think a RL group is a great idea for a kickstart. But it's great that you've made such a good start yourself esp with the run!

loli would echo what fitter and sesame said. Also in another week or two you will probably see a big drop on the scales! How do you manage all the exercise - do you do classes in the evenings and/or weekends?

Aw sesame bloody periods; they mess us up so badly. Would it be worth trying the opposite and weighing every day - to see if there's a pattern to the overall effect? Maybe the 1lb will go again quicker than you expect .

Reporting in from my undercover assignment at Weight watchers. They let me join! Just waiting for the talk.

Okay I am home now. TBH WW is pretty much calorie counting with a little nudge towards healthier choices. Foods with loads of sugar or saturated fat get given more points to nudge you into choosing better options. I can't be arsed looking up all the points for everything though. The beauty of calories is that every single food you buy has a calorie count right there on the packet.

But for the princely sum of £5 (or something) a nice lady will weight me every week and give me a pep talk. Which seems like a bargain to me.

I have to say that this group seems very nice. Last time I went to a slimming group it was about ten years ago and it was Slimming World (maybe that makes the difference). It was an absolute joke. The group leader was vastly massively morbidly obese - much bigger than I was at the time. I can't believe that I went to the group for about a year to listen to her weight loss tips! This group tonight is much better. The leader is slim and has maintained her weightloss for six years. It all sits much better with me.

So I'm a bit of a traitor to the MFP group but not completely. Can I stay on this thread??!!

Glad it was worthwhile steward! And glad that the leader seems to walk the walk. Which was the comedy sketch that had the fat weight loss group leader? I always think of that when I think of weight loss groups.

Despite cream-tea-gate, I have managed to come in a fraction under my calories today, mainly by having no lunch and having a couple of slices of cheese and some tomatoes for dinner with a couple of rice cakes as a snack. Not exactly nutritionally sound dieting, but I'm pleased I didn't go wildly off track. I shall endeavour to eat something with some actual nutrition in it tomorrow.

Dawhead I do my classes 3 nights a week then swim Saturday and Sunday. I have a very forgiving DH! I leave the house for work at 7am, don't get in til gone 5 then often run straight back out again. Luckily no young DC's.
I've slightly increased my calorie intake the last couple of days and changed my routine as I was stuck in a diet rut eating the same food. Hopefully I'll see a difference. We're going out Friday night and I've treated myself to a size 16 jumpsuit. I will need a wonder bra (they've disappeared!) and stuck-em-in Knicks as I have a fat apron but it is lush and does show that I've lost weight.

Managed to nose a fraction under 10st 7lb this morning, woo hoo! This is always my best week of the month - pretty much mid-cycle. If I can lose another lb or two before PMT bloat kicks in I will be super happy - I never really feel I've properly passed a certain weight until I don't even reach it when I am bloated, and I really want to kiss 10st 7lb goodbye for good.

Quick check in hope you are all well. 10st 9 again this morning. Don't think I'm going to reach my goal this month. reached 10st 9 on the 1st August but since then I've been fluctuating between 10st 9-11 I wanted to get to 10st 7 before 1st September which would be my 3st loss but don't think it's going to happen TOTM is coming up now too.

dawhead woo hoo! Well done on 3lb off, you’re making a great start. You will have to keep it up and to keep on updating us!

steward, our WW undercover agent really glad that they let you in and that you like the group.

loli well done on getting to all those classes and for celebrating your new figure with a jumpsuit. Hopefully you’ll see some changes with that new routine.

hopefully glad the scales were going in the direction this morning. Fingers crossed that’s the last you’ll see of 10-7!

must cheering you on over here – you can do it!

Scales has me right on 10st5 this morning, so better than yesterday. Still a little bloat hanging about, but not too bad. Just waiting now for the witch to show her ugly face, and once she’s out the way my weight should hopefully start going down again.

Well done dawhead and hopefully on your losses!

I too notice the pre-period bloat sesame. Everything just seems to stall completely for a week. I also get the pre-period sugar cravings.

I have a confession to make...me and dp went to the cinema last night and I caved and got pick n' mix. I also didn't manage to avoid the "cake sharing" at the work leaving do. Although, I ate less of my lunch to make up for it. So all in all..a bit of a failed second day of dieting!

Onto day 3. This morning's weigh in is 9.13. Back on track today with no snacks so far. Also got exercise tonight to burn some extra calories.

Loving the undercover WW assignment stewards. I have heard better things about WW than slimming world. MIL is always raving on about WW zero point soup or something.

karate if I could just stall during PMT I'd be happy, but I usually gain a good 3lb, and it takes me another 10 days to lose it, so there's only about a week in which I actually lose weight before the cycle starts again!

hopefully That sounds really sucky. Is it a true 3lbs or do you think it's bloat/water? I guess it makes not a lot of difference when it comes to the scales. I tend to find that (tmi alert) I pee loads and loads after my period from all the bloat i've been retaining.

It's funny all the bodily patterns and stuff we notice when losing weight.

I always think it's bloat, but TBH I think I stealth eat a lot more when I have PMT, so some of it is 'real', which is why it takes so long to clear. I normally find some excuse to abandon logging during the run up to my period, so I am determined to at least log over the next couple of months even if I'm disastrous, so I can start to pinpoint the weak spots. It would be nice to be able to lose weight more than one week a month!

karate my tip for cinema sweets is to get a small calorie counted treat like a regular pack of maltesers before you go in, or if you do have to get pic-and-mix, try to put only 4 or 5 of your favourite sweets into your bag.

So my understanding is that gaining and losing weight across a menstrual cycle is an actual thing. Apparently in the first half of the cycle, the follicular phase, oestrogen is dominant which is better for fat burning. Then in the second half of the month progesterone rises. This increases your core body temperature by a fraction (which is a better environment for a fertilised egg to implant) and effectively increases your metabolism. The metabolism boost in turn makes you crave carbs and, if you're not aware of this, it can even effectively undo all the weight loss efforts in the first half of the month. So it turns out the stealth eat thing is a real phenomenon - it's what your body wants you to do. I don't know the explanation for the bloat part right at the end of the month, I can only guess it's something to do with how your body responds to falling progesterone which triggers af.

A pound off here this morning. I was starving yesterday and a couple of times my brain was like "hey, why don't we just eat all the chocolate?" But luckily I also remembered that I have to go and be weighed next week and I really really want to be lighter. Public scrutiny does me good. My brain really does work like those cartoons with an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other. It is always suggesting bad ideas to me. My brain seems to literally have a mind of its own and I am really led astray by it!

This morning I was really happy though to stand on the scales and have a good loss. Even though it is all bloat this week.

Hopefully - do you have a graph of your losses? Is the trend downwards over the months despite the PMT bloat?

I am lucky that I don't get a monthly bloat thing

I do have a graph of my losses steward, but it's effectively been flat for (sob) two months. The odd gain and lose but the average is exactly where I am now - within 1lb of 10st 7lb. I really really want to get down to at least 10st 6lb over the next few days before PMT begins. We are going for dinner at friends' this evening, so am going to either do yoga or a walk this afternoon to try to pre-emotive my burn a few cals.

So it is a stall rather than bloat? I would do something drastic to kickstart the losses again then. Like three soup days in a row or a week of exercise every day.

I lose properly every month, around 2-3lb, then I put on about 3lb during PMT and it doesn't disappear again, so I spend the next month losing those 3lb, and so on and so on. It is a stall in that i haven't gone above/below the same weight range in two months, but it does fluctuate within the month. I lose well when I lose, but it all goes wrong in the run up to my period.

I am going to log during the run up to my period this month at least, so I can't be in denial about what I'm eating.

Quick check in. 9.12 this morning. Managed to stick to the plan today.

sesame I probably should have taken a bag of malteasers or bought popcorn. I thought about it but just caved. I will prepare myself better next time and buy something from the shop before I go in. Sometimes I think completely denying myself treats has the opposite effect!

Well done on your loss stewards and for resisting the little devil on your shoulder.

It's a good morning here. 11. 2 exactly . There is potential for it to all go wrong this weekend of course, but I know I will start to feel better once I am back in the 10s and want to get there ASAP.

I am going on holiday in October half term and I so want to be happy in my bikini then.

A bit under 10st 6lb this morning for me, woo hoo! A new low. We will gloss over the fact that it is probably 50% dehydration because I had two enormous glasses of prosecco yesterday.

A good morning here too...after a stagnant couple of weeks I've reached my 2 stone point. I'm now 14st 2lbs. Still about a stone and a half ish to go but I'm chuffed to get there. Thanks for the advice this week I definitely think slightly increasing my calories and changing my food has helped.

Well done on the losses! 10st 9 again this morning, was 10st 10 yesterday and 10st 9 the day before that. this is the longest I've gone without a loss, it's been 20 days now. The longest before that was 16 days on a few occasions then I lost 2lb in 2 days. It's really starting to annoy me now. I just want to get to 10st 7 my 3 stone loss and I'm going away to see family again in September and I don't feel like I have enough leeway to keep me in the 10s after holiday food gain. Last time I think I came back 4lbs heavier but it had all gone in 3-4 days but now I'm finding it harder to lose.

I'm right behind you Lolimax. My 2st mark is 14.4 and I saw a "4" this morning. Admittedly it was followed by 7/8 but it's a number that I've not seen since 2005.

When I was last seriously losing weight (2004) I had ten days in the month when I could have gained pounds if I'd lived on fresh air and water. I don't have that problem now, there are some advantages to the menopause.

Mustbe is it worth trying either a kickstart few days where you have something like homemade veg soup for lunch and dinner and fruit/yoghurt/seeds for breakfast? I say this as someone who has never ever managed a 'detox' type diet in their life .