How do you feel motivated by weight loss when you’re still not slim?

[TheNewLook]

I started my diet one week ago. Calorie counting and increased exercise. It’s going ok. I’ve lost 3lb. This is a good thing.

In my 20s, a 3lb loss would have meant a flatter tummy and a spring in my step. Now, the wrong side of 40 it still leaves me overweight.

How do you all stay positive when the loss doesn’t instantly make you slim, but still much fatter than you want to be and much fatter than you were a year ago (when you already felt fat!!!)?

By thinking “yay, that’s 3 lbs down, if I keep this up I will soon double that figure” I suppose.
I just know I wasn’t happy the size I was, if I kept going I would be bigger still. You have to start somewhere. The fact that you start is great, the fact that you lose is better still. After a year I was a stone and a half lighter, I’m now 2&1/2 stone lighter and a lot happier.
My Fitness Pal changed my life. It’s so easy to think ‘oh that can’t be more than 100 calories’ so it’s a huge wake up to find it’s actually 350 calories! You have made a start and lost 3lbs, that’s brilliant. Don’t think about where you are now, think about where you will be in 6 months, you won’t care it took 6 months to lose the weight, only how happy you will feel that you have.

You accept that you have a choice: either stay as you are and probably become even fatter or do something and each week you’re slightly closer to where you want to be. Losing it all at once isn’t an option so there’s no point wishing it was.

But yeah, I know how it feels because I feel it too. I have lost quite a lot so far but I know that I have been far lighter so that gets me down sometimes. A lot of weight loss comes down to mental strength I think.

Find something which weighs 3lbs e.g. a large bag of flour. You might not see the difference but I'm sure you would feel it if you picked up a 3lbs item.

I have a a LOT of weight to loose, I find that weighing myself everyday really helps - i don't expect a loss everyday, but it's useful to see there are natural fluctuations.

I log my weight on my fitbit app, and in true COVID style it gives me a weekly average, this is the figure I'm bothered about and however slowly I'm loosing weight, I know this will be a long journey but I'm going in the right direction

I've thought this today.Im a stone and a half from where I want to be and years ago I'd cut stuff out for a bit and my stomach would be like an ironing board!

All about training your mind. Don't be so hard on yourself, 3lbs down is great! This is not a quick overnight fix, there will be times where you plateau and nothing shifts for a week or two or maybe more.. but that's still positive! You have to turn these negatives into a positive because a lot of people fall into this trap and put the weight back on again because they cba!

You've got it 💪🏻😉

I figure December is going to arrive whether I diet or not, and when it gets here I’m going to wish I’d started to diet in June. So I’m dieting in June. I’m not thinking about the long term goal, just the short term benefit of being slightly lighter and more comfortable with each passing week. I set small goals like achieving the next half stone.

slightly lighter and more comfortable with each passing week

This is a good way of looking at it.

I will also hold onto this:

You accept that you have a choice: either stay as you are and probably become even fatter or do something and each week you’re slightly closer to where you want to be.

Very true. With baking and panic-buying chocolate (in case of national shortages!) at the beginning of lockdown, I must have been on an upwards trajectory of a pound a week since April. If I hadn’t made the decision and stuck to it - a week is a long time for me - is certainly be another pound up by now.

I don't know the answer to your question I'm really unhappily 3 stones over weight. I weighed myself earlier for the first time in years. I weigh 12 stone. I could cry but I don't know how to tackle it.

Last week a friend said this to me which made me think.

Being over weight is hard, being on a diet is hard. Choose your hard.

Ooh, that a great one isn’t it? I’m putting that on my list!

Love it sevendevils so true. The weight loss part is hard and will potentially be miserable for some months but the being overweight thing will bring low-level misery over a lifetime so I know which I am choosing!

Good question TheNewLook! After some trial and error, my own solution is to have started weight training at the same time as dieting. I'm still overweight but the bits that are starting to slim down slightly are also coming up toned rather than untoned. I find this a 'win/win' and encouraging. Plus, on the days the diet doesn't go so well, I still have the satisfaction of at least having worked on the framework underneath the fat!