How slow is too slow?!

[spey2]

I have 1 stone and 12lbs to lose for my wedding next April. That's the weight I last felt comfortable.

I decided to eat healthy and hopefully the weight will come off slowly as I have over 10 months to go and I don't want to be completely deprived.

I've been doing it for 4 weeks and have lost 3lbs. Is it sustainable to do it this way? Am I going to get bored without the motivation of seeing the scales jumping down?

Or should I maybe switch to weighing myself once a month?! Eeeek I don't even know if I could stick to that!

I am not dieting but simply trying to change my habits through intuative eating.

I am still losing weight but as I am not following any diet it's slow and sometimes the scales don't move for weeks. However, nothing is off limits and I am not depriving myself of anything. In that time I am almost 8kg down from end of last year and the trend is still downwards so clearly I haven't found my base weight yet. I do weigh lots but that's so I can see that fluctuations are meaningless and going up and down isn't anything to panic about.

Only you know if you will get bored of not seeing the big losses but for me I have done that in the past and it doesn't work long term. In fact the books that describe why dieting doesn't work for the majority describes what happens so clearly.

I have 7 stone to shift! I am aiming for 1 pound a week. I am trying to change my lifestyle to be more active and by cutting down on junk food. So that it becomes a new way of life.
I think slowly is better as you do not change things too drastically in a short time, so the weight should stay off.

FoddyWaddle makes a good point about a new way of life. A worry about getting bored signals that you are losing weight purely for the wedding. That's all well and good but how will you feel about putting it all back on again when you go back to behaviour that does not make you bored?

An initial crash diet and bigger weight loss is not (imho) the worst of things for motivation but anyone doing that needs to realise it is not sustainable and you do have to find a lifestyle that supports your ongoing aims.

Good luck with the loss. FWIW I think you are taking a sensible approach. Bear in mind that as you start to weigh less so your calorie needs will gradually decrease. That is the part that really sucks.

IME slower weight loss is more sustainable. If I look back through MFP my average loss in a month is 3-5lbs and I’m happy with that. Means I have enough calories to include some treats so I don’t get bored with restricting absolutely everything and go back to eating how I used to.