Shorties trying to lose weight!

[SwimmingOnEggshells]

I started my fatbusting journey a couple of weeks ago and my plan is to document my progress here.

So far I've been doing a fair bit of cardio - 5 times per week - and I'm hoping this will help me get rid of some lbs. I posted a thread on AIBU looking for people's advice on only using exercise to lose weight but the general consensus is that no, I need to calorie restrict too. Boo! is what I say to that but maybe I need to face facts that I'm no longer a spring chicken and need to make a concerted effort with food too to shed anything!

Anyone want to join me?! @neverenoughchelseaboots

Current weight: 60kg/132lbs
Target: 50kg/110lbs
Height: 5'0 :(
Age: 39

Hello would love to join in please as a fellow shortie!

I'm 5ft 1 (and a half)
current weight is 9st 5 (131 lbs)
target weight is 8st 5 (117 lbs)

Am also menopausal (47) so shifting the lbs is a lot trickier these days. I did do a fitness drive at the gym a couple of years ago and joined a diet and fitness group there and managed to lose 10.5 lbs in 6 weeks so hoping for similar (ish) again.

My current strategy is no snacks (only corn cakes) and reducing carbs massively at tea time - tend to try and have meat or fish with veg where possible. I always have breakfast (porridge) and a light lunch. Also doing a 20 minute workout each morning (am going through the classes on Popsugar).

So I'm aiming for a 6 week programme again but doing it on my own and not quite as strict as the gym thing.

I'm also only weighing myself every 2 weeks as I was finding weighing myself every day quite demotivating as obviously there are fluctuations.

Am hoping joining this thread will keep me on track over the 6 weeks too!

Welcome @Wargghhhh - 6 week programme sounds good. I've been hopeless with exercise since Christmas, but have committed to a long bike ride with a friend on Friday. I just know it''ll be banned by then and I'll be back on the sofa

5.5 lb down so far. 8 to go ( or 10 ideally!)

Evenings are the worst for temptation.

@Wargghhhh welcome! I'm finding this thread great for accountability.

So, I had a medical appt this morning and then did a few loops of the local park. Only 5k steps but I'm happy with that

Today:
B - none
Morning snack - veggie sausage rolls (using up party food from freezer)
L - homemade carrot & coriander soup (from freezer), with a slice of rye bread
D - leftover slow cooker ratatouille, with 2 veggie sausages and a fired egg

Anyone else fancy sharing their planned meals for today?

inspired by @knittingnanny I'm now hunting online for a lovely salad plate to eat my dinners on!

B: Coffee
L: Homemade Leek and celeriac soup
D: Steak and a green salad or a maybe a cheese soufflé

I'm a low carber- but I've been going too hard on the dairy, nuts, almond muffins and protein bars and wine since the pandemic. Back in keto now and trying to stay there.

Welcome aboard! @cannonball8726 and @Wargghhhh

Yeah evenings are a killer, especially when you eat between 5 and 6 like we do because we have small kids. I often find I'm hungry by 9pm again. So often I go to bed with a slight grumbly tummy these days, it's a bit miserable but it seems to be the only way I can lose unfortunately.

Yesterday I managed to get back on track with my 16:8 and still at it again today.

Food yesterday was:

Breakfast: Coffee
Lunch: Sweet potato and butternut squash soup (no bread)
Dinner: Hoisin pork

Today:
Breakfast: coffee
Lunch: The rest of yesterday's soup, again no bread
Dinner: Prawn pasta dish

Tomorrow:
Breakfast: coffee
Lunch: roast cauliflower soup - it's my new fav dish
Dinner: thai pork mince with rice and salad

I hear you on the lack of exercise @cathyandclare, my exercise bike went into the shed for christmas to make space in our spare room and it's still languishing there...realistically I can't see me getting to use it again until schools and childcare reopen.

@SwimmingOnEggshells would you mind sharing the cauliflower soup recipe? I'm all about the soups right now. I currently love this www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/mushroom-soup made with creme fraiche instead of cream

My mid morning snack of veggie sausage rolls has kept me full, enough so I've not had my soup/bread for lunch. If I get peckish before dinner, I will have the soup only.

Purplegirl, it’s part of my vintage royal soul tin Lambeth ware set called “ florinda” or something like that
I bought bits at a time in 1979/80 and it has lasted much longer than the first marriage did! 42 years later it has survived 3 boys, dishwashers, microwaves, house moves and hardly any has broken. I bought 8 of everything but can’t for the life of me think why I needed 8 egg cups!

Royal soul tin????? Royal doulton

Here it is

Would recommend this recipe for soup, it's really lovely www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/hearty-lamb-barley-soup

@purplegirl13 someone on this thread suggested cauliflower and cumin soup but I couldn't remember who said it and didn't have a wherewithal at the time to search for it, so I ended up finding this one which is really lovely: damndelicious.net/2017/12/25/roasted-cauliflower-soup/

I amended it a little though; I leave out the cream completely and I only use one clove of roasted garlic. I thought a whole head of garlic would be overpowering.

Must try that cauliflower cumin one though...

Evenings really are a killer! So knackered after bedtime - food represents that "aaaand relax" moment! Haven't given into that feeling for the past two nights though and just had a decaf tea instead! Also had smaller portion sizes today...

Know what you mean re: exercise bike @SwimmingOnEggshells. We put ours away when our cleaner comes round and then I feel like I can't be bothered to take it out again! Does anyone know any good exercise bike workouts?

@knittingnanny that is a lovely plate! I found some lovely ones online, but unfortunately only in sets of at least 4-6. Given it's just me (with no-one visiting right now!) and a tiny kitchen with limited storage, I had to settle for one plain white salad plate.

@SwimmingOnEggshells thanks for that, I will add it to the 'soups to make' list

Today:
B - hot water w/lemon (I'm not one for breakfast in the morning)
L - leftover ratatouille with a fried egg
D - lasagne
will have about 200 kcals spare so might have a coffee, or add a veggie sausage to lunch

Morning all. My eating plan has been:

Yesterday
B: cereal
L: pasta with sun dried tomato sauce and rocket
D: veggie sausage, peas and Yorkshire puss
Snack : cheese and crackers. Whoops

Today:
B: Cereal
L: tbc
D: homemade dhal

Exercise is all bike at the moment. I'm trying to do the coast to coast distance over a month. So far am fairly behind. So I'll either fail or my legs will build stamina and I'll start to cover bigger daily distances.

My enormous win of the week was for the first time in a very long time I didn't even think about having a glass of wine. It didn't even enter my head until my dry jan app pinged at 9.30pm to ask it I'd drank. I feel so pleased that my brain is breaking the habitual routine of it.

Well done @neverenoughchelseaboots on your abstinence, that's brilliant! I swear for me most of it is habit.

I woke up at 1am last night absolutely starving. I managed to get back asleep thankfully and I've just had my coffee so far this morning. Cauliflower and cumin soup today I think for lunch, it's going to be a long, hungry day until dinner time!

Yes - for me too, a long hungry day with soup for lunch. I will join you @SwimmingOnEggshells. I will think of you before anything goes in my mouth. Black coffee only so far today. TEAM SHORTIE - wish us luck!

I have really overeaten totally (!!) since Christmas. There are still too many goodies in the house and I am a bit stressed with a refurb.

The larder and freezer is still full. We had thought we would see lots of family in rotation for Christmas and we have lovely foodstuff about, and I bought lots of treats and snacks.

Yesterday I did a lot of veg chopping and l made curried parsnip soup and also got roasted sweet potatoes and butternut squash pre-prepped and roasted. I plan on roasting some cauliflower today and doing something with a catering tray of white mushrooms. Maybe soup. If I have lower cal options I will go for them. Mind you - roasted sweet potato .. is this fattening?

My neighbour is Vegan and she is very slim and fit and this encourages me very much. It suits me to eat less meat, and then I make myself a liar as I really enjoyed a fantastic family roast chicken yesterday!

Give me strength. I need to fast today to break a Three Week habit of topping up with choc and pastries!

I have four freezers/freezer sections by the way. All full. I inherited two appliances and they became useful. I won’t replace them when they break.

@modernfemininity cheese and eggs are half my diet so I know I couldn't be a vegan! I would lose weight so easily if I change nothing but cut out cheese

I posted a link (a few posts ago?) to a mushroom soup that I'm enjoying and made twice in a week.

@neverenoughchelseaboots good job holding off on the wine. Gold star for you!

I’ll join you fellow shorties. I would like to lose about 5kg.

Losing weight when you are so short is tough. According to various apps to lose 0.5kg a week I should be eating 1200kcal a day - that’s really not very much. That also takes into account that I train 7 days a week. I need a deficit of 500cal a day.

I’m a bit of numbers geek so I’m calorie counting. I’m working at home so I keep a diary at my desk to write down what I eat. I prefer handwriting than to use an app. I have a lookup page with the calories of the foods I usually eat. So it’s fairly easy to keep track of total calories.

SW - 54kg
CW - 53kg - 2 weeks in so on track so far
TW - 48kg

@RainbowCookie Your target and current numbers are similar to mine, though I started bigger. The remaining loss you and I want will make a big difference on a shortie small frame! I am 50.6 currently.

I have gained over Christmas after dipping to 48.5 and my appetite is now bigger and I am struggling with motivation, and, as mentioned, I have a lot of nice family food and snacks in. Tricky combo. Even though my gain was only smallish at 2.4kg it will continue to be a very hard bit (5lb) to lose AGAIN (have only lost 0.2 of it!!).

After re-losing I want to dip another 0.5kg lower still to give me a little wriggle room.

THIS is the hard path I predicted for maintaining. Since I started maintaining say four weeks ago (and hoping for a little further dip) I have continued to feel like I am still on a diet. I took my foot off the brake for Christmas and gained very rapidly.

It is nice you have joined this lovely thread. In real life we do not meet many other shortie people who are as light as us or who understand the numbers.

I look a similar shape and size as a few friends of mine that I had a zoom call with this week, and they are 15kg to 20kg heavier than me and were discussing weights and their targets for 2021. I cannot join in their accountable weight chat in numbers because experience tells me they just dismiss me as being silly, with my very low numbers, and to them my weight is soooo low that they would be severely underweight if it was them. They cannot relate. Even though I bulge in my jeans too and feel less fit than they do.

This group is a Godsend. As a very very petite woman I love the support here in getting to a better proportional figure for our size and for our small aims that everyone shares that we would like to have less wobbly fat!

*frames

Hi all,

I am not in a great head-space today, and would love to binge on all the doughnuts/cakes - thankfully I have no sweet treats in unless I want to make them. I'm tired and cold, and a bit emotional which does not help.

Today:
Lunch was a massive bowl of filled tortelloni and cheddar (950kcals!)
Dinner will have to be something light so miso soup with tofu and whatever veggies I have in the freezer, or asian dumpling soup.

I am so glad I have no chocs in, and absolutely must not even consider pouring myself a glass of wine.

Hope you are all having a better day

Hello all, I'm back ! After shifting a few pounds in time for my late October wedding they are creeping back and I went for it over Christmas. I'm stepping on the dreaded scales tomorrow for the first time since October. Arrgghh. Congrats to all those who are doing well and I look forward to joining you on a six week programme..

Purplegirl, it’s the weather.
When I was still teaching infants whenever something went wrong , me and my colleagues used to say
“ it’s the weather” said Mrs May
A reference to one of the Oxford Reading Tree books where the children are playing up and the teacher Mrs May blames the weather.
So if you are having an off day with the dieting just say “ it’s the weather”
Definitely me today, I’ve eaten non stop carbs and not even going to bother filling in my food diary!
New day tomorrow

Hello @TheDogsMother, welcome back! You've made great progress before so it's probably just a matter of being back in the zone :)

Going ok here, I'm cautiously optimistic I'll have a loss tomorrow, I'm guessing 1/2lb or if I'm really lucky 3/4. Based on my progress I'm hoping to be under 9stone by next Friday :)