Moving down in May

[Octopus37]

So here's the new thread for tomorrow, excuse the boring title. Unless a miracle happens by tomorrow, I will be starting the month heavier than I started April. Weigh 9st1.5. Aiming for 8st13. Hopefully things might start to change in May. even if its only slightly, which will lift our spirits.

I think it depends on activity levels - IMO, it would be an unhealthy target for someone doing a lot of exercise, but is probably fine otherwise. It's a big drop from 2000 calories a day, but that isn't an accurate maintenance level for a lot of women anyway. And I honestly don't believe that all calories are equal, so it also depends what makes up your 1200. Monstera If you feel that it suits you, then I wouldn't worry.
I've actually cut short my fast today - I started to feel a bit weak so had a late lunch and then will have my dinner as normal. I am doing quite a lot of exercise at the moment, so I might be better sticking to 16:8 for the time being... I was making 5:2 work previously by fasting on my rest days, but at the moment I'm running with my son and doing PE with Joe on those days.

People get very emphatic about other people’s diets I’ve noticed. They tend to be absolutely convinced fasting is terrible for you and you’ll go into starvation mode if you don’t eat breakfast for one day.

One thing I like about this thread is people are following their own roads rather than a single religion like method with experts telling others what to do.

@MonsteraCheeseplant I lost 6st on 1200 cals a day. That was 2 years ago. It does work. You have to be disciplined though. Unfortunately I didn't keep it off. Over the last year I've gained 3st back. I'm on a mission to lose it. I'm 5'8 and 13st. I started Friday and I've been hungry but hoping my body adjusts. It's worth it when you see the results!

I agree Badger - I like that everyone is doing something slightly different on this thread. Helps to give a more balanced view!

Thank you lou.

Also thank you to a poster who previously recommended Jordan Syatt, i'm just watching his video about metabolic damage and it is very reassuring.

I think the biggest difficulty is this alleged idea that the body naturally wants to get back to it’s highest weight due to the fact that bigger equalled better chance of survival before the days of unlimited calories sitting in the kitchen.

But we can do this dammit!

Well done @TheHoneyBadger ! You are on your way to having lost a stone too :-)
I've no idea about BMR changing if you follow 1200 cals @MonsteraCheeseplant but a suitable amount of calories is surely very variable depending on your height, weight activity levels etc...
For me 1500 is about right to loose weight, but I'm tall, chunky and quite active most of the time.

Today's food
B. Cheese, courgette & thyme ommlette 300
L. Picnic (mini Quorn eggs, hummous, carrot sticks, raspberries, bread sticks, pom bears) 440
D. Pasta with pesto, roast veg and cheese halo top ice-cream (570)
S. Iced coffee 2 squares dark choc (160)
Coming in just under 1500

Today for me:
B: Yoghurt
L: Spaghetti hoops on toast - NOT as planned but my homemade soup was fizzy. Gross. That teaches me for leaving it out overnight.
D: Huevos rotos
S: Digestive thin, fresh pineapple, 2 french fancies
1,220

Plus I discovered that Cranberry juice is low cal and delicious.

Well done on calorie goals met.

I didn’t think about food so unintentionally did a fast and because I’ve made slow cooker stew and have no alcohol in the house this will likely be a low cal evening too.

Good job as Tesco delivery comes tomorrow with nice bread rolls and dry roasted peanuts and alcohol-obviously lots of other food too but that’s what I’ll be tempted by on top of stew leftovers.

Just got on the scales and shockingly despite litres of fluids it still says this morning’s weight. If in a few weeks I’m not losing and moaning please remind me of how much it changed after my period this month.

Currently because I’m so fat and unfit, in part due to time at home recovering from surgery and my asthma returning, a 15 minute walk can see me burning more calories than a fit, slim person would burn doing longer and higher impact exercise. I am going to have to keep upping my activity levels as I lose weight and get fitter.

Sorry kind of doing a, ‘note to self’ post but posting stuff is a bit like committing itms?

Yep, good idea badger. Bit longer each day

Badger If you just keep doing a tiny bit more each day, or even week, you‘ll soon feel fitter. You’re doing really well!

Thanks. Scales still say the same which is good.

Well done badger. 9.2.25 here, ate a lot of crisps yesterday, period as well but did lots of exercise (walking didn't managed Joe Wickes), also period. Really wish I could be on it more at the moment, but as is the case for many others, I'm struggling cause there is so much to stress about and so much to do. I still want to continue to post on here and weigh every day to remain accountable, cause otherwise if I stop, I feel that my weight creep up to back where I started. Telling myself to keep going even if I'm only managing to vaguely maintain. Also have Birthdays coming up, Sister's on Saturday, involves a zoom party with cake and drinks and my DS's on 26th. Lovely weather again today, hope everyone has a good day.

Honey Badger just read the end of your post, seems as if we are on the same wave length re posting.

Keep posting away Octopus - we all know exactly what it's like! I know that I'm pretty motivated at the minute, but I've also had longish periods of struggling and/or aimlessly treading water. It's a constant battle!
I'm having a major moment of homeschooling failure . I was checking all my son's work last night and realised that loads of work that he told me had been completed in his daily online lessons (and that he's ticked off the weekly plans) has in fact not been done at all. I'm so annoyed with myself for not checking more thoroughly as we've gone along, but he's normally so reliable at getting his work done. There's not actually any harm done as we've made a plan to catch back up in the next couple of weeks, but I really do feel awful about it!

Don’t feel awful and don’t feel you have to catch up right away. Don’t know how old he is or how critical the work i. An email saying ‘whoops we’ve managed to miss some stuff would you rather we went back and did it or shall we just carry on with present work’ might be an idea. Likely they’ll then be able to tell you if it’s vital or don’t worry.

Def don’t feel bad. Everyone is doing what they can in trying circumstances

Hello! Just checking in :)

And to say...

I've joined the dark side!! AKA Slimming World

I've done it in the past and so I know all the 'rules', and it works but I do find that once you're off it the pounds sneak back on as long term it isn't effective for me and I don't believe it's healthy (fake spray oil, hi fi bars, cola chicken, margarine... That sort of thing) so now I'm doing it again but I'm sticking to my usual diet and just synning it and counting healthy extras instead, eg I still have olive oil and peanut butter and all my usual breakfast lunches and dinners but I'm logging and staying within my 15 syns and healthy extras. So far I'm finding this is quite good, I haven't deviated from my usual healthy eating, it's making me mindful of portion sizes (eg not having toast for bfast AND lunch), it's making me syn chocolate in the evening so I don't go overboard, it's stopped me snaking in the day. So far so good :) I guess it's basically like when I was counting calories but I just don't have the headspace for that right now

Right I'm off to catch up on the thread!

Happy to see Jordan syatt mentioned again, I love him :)

Welcome @TheHoneyBadger hope it's going well for you

Comforted to read all your ups and downs during this time, I think overall it sounds like we're all doing ok

@MonsteraCheeseplant what's that calculator for ideal weight please? Sounds interesting if you could link? Did you decide on a new goal? I agree with others, we are all different and we change throughout our lives too, so what works for one person won't work for the next, and a weight you once had in mind as a goal years ago might not be relevant now. At least that's my experience anyway

Welcome other newbies too!

Congratulations @MonsteraCheeseplant!

Right I think I'm pretty caught up now! Sorry for all the posts! Well done on everyone's progress, maintaining and losing, it's all so impressive!

And btw I think in the last thread someone was talking about changing habits? Well I read a book called Tiny Habits, actually I'm half way through, and it's already helped me make some new habits (some not food related!) Like having some fruit or veg with every meal. I really like the book and would recommend it

@TheHoundsofLove don't beat yourself up too much, we're all new to this and learning as we go along

Hi Stop.

Agree. I used to be obsessed with getting to 9 and a half stone in my 30s when my body naturally stuck around 10. Now I’d kill for 10 stone and able to maintain.

I’m doing 1 goal at a time but ultimately if I could get, and comfortably stay under 11 stone I’d be happy. Would mean size 14 or under which I used to think huge but now in my mid 40s feel differently.

Hi hi, the ideal weight calculation is an output from the TDEE calculator here. I just didn't notice it before although I've always used that calculator.

So yeah I have a new interim goal of 10 stone 7lbs, and ultimate goal of 10 stone 2-4 as per that calculator. Still not sure how realistic that is for me to be fair and I'm not going to flog myself if it isn't working. That seems quite a narrow margin for maintenance too, but I'm happy to be considerably flexible and to be honest I've been pretty happy where I am at 10 stone 10 before. Just not over that 😄

I have heard of reverse dieting which I think is when you reach your goal and start focusing on building your muscles up to increase your maintenance calories. Interesting theory for making changes last.