Anyone need to lose a stone or less and needs motivation?

[Flippetydip]

Not that I can provide the motivation but hey ho, I thought perhaps if there were more of us it might help!

I'm currently 10 stone 12 and 5 foot 7. My fighting weight is 10 stone and I would like to get back down to this.

Lockdown has seen me put on at least half a stone. A bad back has seen me stop running and lack of school runs means a distinct deduction in time on my feet.

Anyone else in the same boat?

@overweightcat - Haha, that's the one!

@PowerslidePanda congratulations and also @overweightcat.

After 16 hours fast, a Pilates workout, coffee, water and consequent abundant peeing, I stepped on the scales this morning and I am ....60kg. That is, I"ve lost a princely 100grams since last week. And Ive been quite active this week, including an 8k walk yesterday, a lot of it uphill and with backpack of shopping.

Bugger. I'm going to have to calorie count to make more progress, and I hate doing that. According to MFP, I will need to stick to 1650 calories a day and stay active (5 workouts of 40 minutes each) to lose at a rate of 0.2kg a week.

On a brighter note, my nice new underwear arrived from Etsy yesterday. I am gradually replacing my tired M&S basics with something with a bit more va-va voom. Good for morale!

@BorsetshireBlueBalls I don't log any workouts or long walks on MFP. I find when I did I ate those calories and my weight loss completely stopped.
I'm on 1200cals a day and usually use YouTube and do a 20min HITT workout 3 x a week, a longer 40-45min workout (one toning one calorie burning) 2 x a week and a 7min ab workout everyday mon - fri but I don't log any of it on MFP.
Also walk the dog and go for walks with DCs.

I've been averaging 1kg which I think is about 2lbs a week loss since I've stopped logging physical activity on MFP. It's a bit of a faster weight loss though, not sure what you are aiming for.

Also 60kg is my target weight so I'm slightly envious - how tall are you?

I"m 5foot 5 and a half inches cat. I"m bang in the middle of the healthy BMI range at around 21.6, but I really do feel any spare ounce these days, whether as a tighter waistband, or wobble and squish around the bra-strap. Something to do with reduced muscle mass perhaps.

I don't think I could stick to a low daily rate - yours, at 1200, sounds too low for me. I'm trying to adopt a regime that I can stick to for the rest of my life, that has pleasure and appetite built into it, so that when I go on holiday to a foodie destination, say, I know I can enjoy what is on offer without ballooning because my habits are already moderate. I'm not going to go mad when faced with delicious local cheese or patisserie because I've never deprived myself of these things - in small amounts!

I suppose this means I have to settle for a sloooowww weight loss, but I hope the trade-off is that I can maintain my weight and dimensions easily.

I’ve made it to 65kg - hoping to see a 64 by Monday. fast800 definitely does what it says on the tin! I need to be 61kg before I’m a healthy weight again, I think that’s probably not achievable before the wedding on 1/08/20 but I can at least make inroads. I was 68.5 kilos not so long ago after all!

Great progress @Plancina !

@BorsetshireBlueBalls I'm 5'5 too! I've calculated that to stick to 60kg with no exercise my daily calories would have to be around the 1650 mark which I think is doable especially if I'm aiming to keep walking and doing some form of working out anyway.
Have you worked out the maintenance calories for your goal weight?

I don't know how to work out maintenance calories, @overweightcat. I haven't really thought much in calorie terms - what do I do?

@BorsetshireBlueBalls if you type in maintenance calorie calculator in Google it should come up.

If you type in your weight, age and height and activity levels - I usually put a bit less rather than more activity wise to account for when I might not keep up with it. It should show you a little table which outlines how many calories you should be consuming to maintain your current weight, loose 0.2kg a week, loose 0.5kg a week and so on.

I based my target weight on it as I didn't want to try and get down to a weight I would have to constantly be dieting to keep. 1650cals seems like a comfortable amount to me as I'm currently doing completely fine on 1200 with exercising alongside.

Ok, according to one online calculator, I would need 1930 calories to maintain my goal weight of 58 kg with a 'moderately active' lifestyle i.e. exercise or sport 3-5 days a week.

Will cross-check. It sounds quite high, but then I'm not calorie counting currently, so I don't really know what I"m taking in, only that it's good food, healthy and a bit less of everything than last month.

I think losing the booze calories makes a big difference. It also evens my mood out, and improves sleep, so I'm less inclined to view food as a means of cheering myself up or giving myself a physical boost. Getting away from the idea of food as a 'treat' ("I'm a bit miserable, let me eat something, ' 'ooh, it's my birthday, let me eat something,' 'I've done well with this, let me eat something', 'ooh, that's a naughty food, let me rebel and eat it') helps regulate appetite and attitude as well.

Me! I've put on a stone due to not being able to run the 30 odd ish miles a week I used to. Plus my eating habits went awful for 2 months.

I'm off on holiday on the 12 August so I've got til then.

I can't decide whether to do low carb as I'm not exercising now or just restrict my calories.

Thanks, @BorsetshireBlueBalls! Funnily enough, I've been looking at replacing my underwear this week too. I end up wearing whatever I grab from the drawer, which includes such delights as my post c-section granny pants! Didn't want to buy new while losing weight, but figure I'm close enough to my target weight to start looking now.

Glad you've found something that's working for you, @Plancina! I reckon you'll either be at your target weight by the wedding or pretty close to it!

@overweightcat - You said you're envious of those of us who weigh 60kg already... I'm envious that at your and Borset's height, 60kg and 1650 maintenance calories is a BMI of 21.6, rather than 25!

Welcome, @Chesneyhawkes1!

@PowerslidePanda I hear you on the height! I’m 5’2 and 60kg is BMI 24 for me. I want to get back to 55kg eventually but atm 59/60 feels more realistic.
I also think I’ve put on a lot of lean muscle under the fat which I didn’t have before so I may find that I’m heavier but leaner once I drop the fat -will use old clothes to check this theory, I have a few work dresses I can’t get into which I used to wear regularly!

I've had 1200 calories a day for the last 4 days. It's doable for me. But without exercise I don't think much will drop off.

I'm going to try and do some tomorrow. I've been walking and doing my 10,000 steps a day but that's not going to cut it.

@Plancina - I know what you mean! I'd love to be 55kg, but my realistic target is 57. I'm hoping that once I get there and start maintaining, rather than losing, I'll actually manage a little deficit each day and my weight will creep further down with time. But that might be wishful thinking! You're right that muscles make a difference and scales don't tell the full story though. Hope you get back into your dresses!

@Chesneyhawkes1 - Exercise has definitely made a big difference for me. But I really struggle with 1200 calories - 4 days in a row is excellent!

@PowerslidePanda and not a pound or even half a pound lost 😂😂 I must stop weighing myself everyday I think.

I'll get my running shoes off the rack tomorrow and see how I go!

@Chesneyhawkes1 - Oh no, it sucks when you don't see any results for all your work! I'm a daily weigher too No idea if this is true, but I once heard that it takes 3 days for any weight loss activity to be seen on the scales. So maybe it's only registering the effects of the first day, so far.

@BorsetshireBlueBalls - totally agree with you about moving away from the concept of food being a 'treat' to reward oneself with. I think I'm getting better at not doing that, but when that devil on my shoulder that someone was talking about upthread starts whispering in my ear, I get all conspiratorial with myself and somehow convince myself that I'm being rebellious and naughty to eat things I shouldn't. Or I see it as a reward for hard work. It's a trap I've been in for years and it's really hard to get out of.

I've just had a sobering realisation - my lowest weight since I started this whole thing was just over 2 1/2 weeks ago. I swiftly recorded this in MFP but I've gone up a bit since then (refusing to enter this!) and I'm just hovering around the same weight, moving up or down a pound or two here and there. Apart from a bit of over-indulgence last weekend, I thought I'd been pretty good at sticking to my 1200 calories a day and two 500 calorie fasts... Maybe I haven't been and the odd estimation of portion size etc is resulting in more calories than I thought?

It's a depressing thought for some reason (probably not helped by the fact that I'm fasting today so feel grumpy anyway!).

How's everyone today?

Had a long walk with the dog early this morning but didn't put my Fitbit on to track steps or anything. Was out about an hour at a fairly brisk pace though.

Wasn't hungry for breakfast so just had a coffee and I'm now having lunch. Air fryer sweet potato chips with some baked beans and a runny poached egg on top - I know it sounds disgusting but it's actually very nice and moreish all mixed together - or maybe that just makes me weird
All weighted out comes in at around 280cals.

Salmon, homemade air fryer chips again and broccoli for dinner.
DCs are having pizza and I'm jealous

I'm intrigued by this talk of air fryers. I will have to investigate further 😊

I'm a pound up on last week, after a week of AF and cake/sweetie eating. However, I lost 3 the previous week which is clearly not sustainable. So overall, the trajectory is downward and I will be logging all calories in MFP this weekend.

Exercise is going well, the only problem is feeling sad on non-running days! Never thought I'd say that. 😂🏃‍♀️

Not sure where thatast emoji came from...

@clevername - when I joined this thread I had been gaining and losing the same kilo for ages, it seemed. It was only when I looked back over the whole time that I'd been monitoring my weight on MFP that I saw how much I'd lost and how consistently downward the trajectory had been. Which made me feel better and more motivated to make some more changes to lose the next bit of weight! Your regime is fierce! do you mind saying how much you want to lose?

God, food as reward/consolation/compensation/distraction. It starts so early - a chocolate button to distract from the vaccination jab, or the ice-cream to make the trip to the park a bit more special. My newly-replenished underwear drawer is testament to how I'm trying to shift these habits. Doesn't always have to involve spending though - could be you go and paint your nails, or sit down with a book or a telly programme you've been promising yourself. I know it's a bit of a cliché of 'self-care' but I think it works.

I've got an air fryer but I'm not too keen on the chips. I prefer mine oven baked using spray olive oil.

@BorsetshireBlueBalls I was looking through MFP earlier and realised that I was 9, 11 at my heaviest which was in Feb. I'd forgotten how heavy I'd got. Now I'm 9, 5.8 so slow progress but satisfying!

Thanks, @BorsetshireBlueBalls. That makes me feel better (and I love that you think my regime is 'fierce'!). And you're right, even with the slight gain/stagnation that's going on at the moment, I have lost 9lbs since beginning of May so that's still pretty good. And I'm wearing a pair of trousers today that I thought fit me before, but they really fit me now! I was aiming to lose just over a stone - I started on 9st 3 and I want to get down to 8st (I know this sounds tiny but I'm really short and very slight and it really is the right weight for me). I'm currently sitting on 8st 8, but was 8st 7 a couple of weeks ago. So I guess I'm over half way there...

Thing is, food (and wine ) really is the best, isn't it? It's so comforting and yummy and rewarding. So, even though I've managed to change my habits somewhat, a part of me is still thinking 'I can't wait for this to all be over so I can start eating shit loads of cheese sandwiches and chocolate (not necessarily together ) again. Like you say, I should probably redirect my reward system to something better for my waistline.

I suppose I need to start exercising, and maybe even get to the point where I actually enjoy exercising (hate it at the moment, but I have liked it in the past) so I can a) keep the weight off and b) tone up the flab!

I'm on for another 1200 calorie day today. Didn't weigh myself this morning. Stupid fancy scales that connect to my phone and record it all for me to see 😂

I did run 2.5 miles though. Was tough. Feels like I've never ran before.

Tomorrow I'll try for 3 🤞🏼 soon be beach body ready 😬

Had 230cals left in my allowance after dinner so since it's Friday I'm having some mint chocolate chip ice cream