Yes We Canuary! Lose 7lbs in A Month Thread.

[BitOutOfPractice]

Happy New Year Slenderistas.

Let's move away from the Christmas bugger and ditch Linda for good.

I am v good in the day because I have no access to snacks. I snack terribly when I am making dinner, bit of cheese, few olives, babybel, gherkins, celery and peanut butter. After dinner I shut the kitchen door and ban myself this has 2 positive points: 1) I can't snack, 2) DP has to make all the cups of tea after dinner!

I know it isn't "bad" stuff per say but it all has calories and extends the amount of time my blood sugar is raised for.

Your body will happily tuck into muscle reserves, not just fat. Extreme dieting does mean muscle loss too unless you take steps not to. The whole 500 calories on a fast day business helps to mitigate against that, as opposed to not eating at all.

'Starvation mode' is highly dubious in the way most people bandy it around. But your body will certainly stop burning off the calorie reserves as quickly when it adjusts to less coming in. I see it as your body streamlining it's processes during lean times, whereas it can burn through calories without care during feast times. In my own non-scientific observations I will generally lose more easily if I've thrown in a high fat eating day (say a big roast on a Sunday) after a week of lowered intake. Low calorie all the time does not work nearly as well for me personally, I find my body needs to be surprised!

I tend to hang on to carb calories though so feasting on bread & cake is not so effective as having roast pork with lots of crackling, for example.

hairspray I try and do the 'kitchen in closed' thing too. Those evening nibbles are generally superfluous and can easily undo a good day's work! And I know from experience that I don't tend to lose weight unless I go to bed a bit hungry.

I'M 11 STONE SOMETHING!

Only just but I'm grabbing it with both hands!

HOORAAAAAAAAAY FOR BOOP!!!!!! Well done you super-slenderistatastic loser!

Well done Boop

and I am only the tiniest bit jealous

BOOP WHOOP!

Well done BOOP!

I'm afraid to say I fell briefly off the wagon but am hauling my lardy arse back on it again. Will have to do mini dinner to compensate.

My bad exercise week is certainly not set to continue: I was just looking at the weather forecast and cowering at it, and right on cue I got a weather warning from Addison Lee of all people warning about terrible wind and rain in London! Arrrrgh I must get my steps in, I must!

I really need some warmer clothes.

I also knocked 20s off my PB for 5km. Still pitifully slow but...it all counts.

I got a bit tearful on the gym scales!

Boop that's ace!

Soooooooo late to this but count me in. I'd like to lose 3 stone in total, but am going on holiday in 8 weeks and want to lose 1.5 stone before then. That should be totally do-able, shouldn't it? If only I wasn't utterly incapable of sticking to any plans I start and I don't know why. I can barely manage one day of good eating, never mind two consecutive ones.

Off to rtt...

You're very welcome who. This thread is great for keeping focus

Welcome who! I think accountability helps and this is a lovely group!

Hello Who . What is your plan?

Hello! I've been going to Slimming World for ages (when I say going, I mean paying a fiver, getting weighed, getting fed up, eating crap, repeat. Ad infinitum.) It's actual lunacy, I don't know why I don't just knuckle down, I think I need some sort of an arse kicking because I'm sure it would work if I actually did it.

...Oh, just to add that I watched that "How to lose weight well" (or whatever it was called) the other night, and people doing crash diets lost half a stone in a week. I could withstand anything if I could be guaranteed to see 7lbs off in a week.

That's not sustainable long term though is it?

In a way I quite admire your tenacity in going and getting weighed every week in the face of it not working for you

Maybe time to try something different?

MFP? 5:2? Lots of ways to do it. Just need to find the one that works for you and by the sound of it, it ain't SW!

I've been MFP and not eating back my excercise calories, within reason, I ran 14 miles the other weekend... I had a bloody pizza for dinner! But not every 100 I burn walking around town for work etc.
Well worth trying.

whowantsadog just try changing one thing. for example replacing unhealthy snacks with healthier ones, (e.g. a couple of choccy digestives, to some carrot/apple./cucumber sticks) or if they're already healthy, replace with water/drinks?

BOOP - whoop! Brilliant! Well done you!

Whowants - 1.5 stone in 8 weeks is 3lbs a week - I don't think I've ever managed that week on week. 1 stone in 8 weeks is totally doable! If you want to lose more, have a look at the Blood Sugar Diet - I personally didn't manage to stick to it for more than 4 days at a time, but even doing it 4 days on, 1 day off, 2 days on, 2 days off, 4 days on etc made me lose weight. I imagine if you stuck to it properly it would really whoosh the weight off.

Thank you for all your lovely messages. You lot have helped me so much to stay on track

Hello Who. I'm daunted by making huge changes all at once because in the past I've never stuck to WW etc.

I'm doing the 52 small changes thing, where each week you add on a new change, so it's not too daunting and each thing has time to bed in.

So, since the start of the month I've been eating quite a bit better, but I haven't been really hard on myself as last week's target was 2 litres of water a day, and this week I'm continuing with that, but also cutting out Diet Coke.

Plan-wise, I'm doing MFP (because I love the scan thing, it's like playing shop ), but I'm going to investigate 16:8 I think.

Welcome who! I agree 1.5 stone in 8 weeks is a tall order - we need Hairspray to come along and tell you her secrets. The main thing is to find something you can stick at, and if you're seeing 1-2lb coming off a week when you want to see more, not just despairing and giving up. I think that's the hardest thing, when you want to lose a stone, say, and after what feels like saintly hard work for ages being "only" 5lbs down, so easy to just give up. But soon enough that 5 is 10, and that 10 is 15, etc.

Keep posting here though, this thread has done absolute wonders for me in terms of keeping me on the straight and narrow!

Apropos that: I think I may have tipped over into insane territory. I decided to try and hit my step count by just marching out into the rain. I walked for about 50 minutes, getting more and more completely drenched, and still didn't meet the sodding target. I had optimistically shoved my swimming kit in my bag in case the feeling took me, but it most certainly did not take me.

So only 8k steps but still feel like I deserve a bloody medal

I love the scanner too Arsey The 52 small changes thing sounds like a great idea.