Lose 7lbs/3kg per month. The October edition. Oooh spooky!

[cricketmum84]

Evening all!

Welcome to the lose 7lbs per month thread for spooky October! My second favourite time of the year! Big coats, snuggly scarves, pumpkins, ghosties and toffee apples!

Link to previous thread is here The September 7lb per month challenge! http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/weightlosss_chat/4013012-the-september-7lb-per-month-challenge

I only lost 3lbs last month (booooooo) but have really upped the exercise in the last couple of days so hopeful I will start seeing proper losses again.

All are welcome, whatever programme or diet you are following. We just stick together and raise each other up which has worked so far and I've seen some amazing results from you lovely regulars :)

See you in the morning ready for first weigh in!!

Guys you were right the 2lb I put on has gone plus another so far. Bringing me in at 10st 11lb.
Thanks for your words of encouragement

Just done my joe wicks HIIT this morning. Now for running around after baby for the day.

Well, I managed not to snack between breakfast and lunch, then broke down and had a pudding after lunch. No snacks for the rest of the day.
I'm so impressed with you all, my will power is in the sub zero range. Hopefully being accountable here will help me.

@TheGhostofGlumy I was 79.5kg at the end of June and am down to 66.4kg now with a target of 60kg. I didn’t lose anything in September when I ate more sweet things than I should have done and felt I didn’t need to track my food. But October is going a lot better.

Plus I’m part way through a Macmillan challenge to run ten 5ks in ten days - was day 4 today and it’s still going all right

Could I join in the November thread as it’s a bit late to start now! I just can’t lose that last stone to get to my ideal weight! Is that ok??

Theghostofglumy, I try and make decisions about what snacks I'm going to have during the day in advance. I find that once I've made the decision I stick to it. So instead of thinking to myself, ooh I'd love a mini mars bar (for example) I've already locked in my ideas of that days snacks and I'll have fruit or nuts instead. I feel ridgid in my thinking, I think that's a plus during weightloss. I think mindfulness is really helpful as well, enjoy whatever you're having, concentrate on each bite. These are a couple of things that have helped me anyway.

@Angrymum5 join now if you want, you could drop 2lbs before November, that might feel good?

I've walked my legs off today! And I had sushi for lunch, yum.

I'm going to join.
SW 13 stone 12 lb
CW 12 stone 6lb
TW 11 stone 7lb

I seem to have hit a plateau recently, but if I'm totally honest with myself its because I've let the snacking creep back in a bit. I really wanted to hit my target before Christmas but I'm not quite sure if I'll do it now.

Good luck everyone

Today I weighed in at (Drum roll.....)
9st 7lb!!

SW 12st 6 (11st 6 when I joined the thread in June)
TW 9st 7lb =CW 9st 7lb!!
Total 6” loss from my waist, 2” from hips too!

Can I stick around please, as I’m not sure how to maintain? @MsTSwift @recklessgran any tips welcome if you’re still here please?

@Goinglive there’s plenty of time left. I always found my weight dropped faster after a plateau.
@Angrymum5 Welcome, and I agree there’s still time to lose a couple of lb this month if you join now.

Well done @Howmanysleepsnow and please stick around.

I'm on the naughty step and had a takeaway last night. We had a long day yesterday and treated ourselves. Desperately trying to get back on track now!!

@Howmanysleepsnow you’ve reached goal weight! Well done. You’re target is also my target! I would be ecstatic in your shoes!

I think maintenance is something you have to have a plan for, I know I keep thinking about how to keep the weight off. I think I’ll weigh myself once a week to begin with and see what happens. I just need to shift 7lb then I can start figuring it out!

@DownUdderer can you share your plan?
Meals are complicated here as there’s 6 of us, including DS15 who is growing rapidly (but still skinny) and needs about 1,000,000 calories a day, DD13 who is also growing and skinny with the added complication of being veggie and DH who has 3 stone to lose and just started fast800 on Wednesday. I can’t eat what the teens do, and eating what DH eats wouldn’t be healthy over the next few months. I’ve no idea what my daily maintenance intake should be either as if I eat my calculated TDEE (or even 300 less) I always seemed to gain in the past. I managed to get my head around how to lose weight but maintaining seems much harder.

@Howmanysleepsnow well done

Your starting and target weights are the same as mine - I started losing weight in June and now have just under a stone to go

Weight this morning was 76.5kg.
@DownUdderer I find it easier to have no snacks than healthy ones, as mostly it's stress eating and if I eat other stuff I end up eating loads because they don't hit the spot. It's so obvious that we need to not eat when not hungry, but still really hard to get out of the mindset that life sucks and I deserve chocolate. I know that hypothetically life will suck less if I lose weight, but I long ago wrote myself off and it's hard to change my thinking on that one.

Gosh, some great losses. Well done.
I'm 2 lbs down since Tuesday, only another 20 or so to go until I am back to where I was in March ! Losing anything though definitely helps to keep me motivated. I am completely useless at eating when I am bored and rewarding myself for being ' good'. I love food and drink so every day with restrictions feels like an effort. Eventually it just has to become how you eat. For me 'all things in moderation' is how I approach things. It's just that I haven't stuck to the moderation bit

Hello lovelies! Still no scale movement for me but I pulled out an old too small top that now fits so I'm going for the little wins at the moment!

Skipped breakfast this morning and just kept topping up with water instead. I should really make some lunch but I really can't be bothered making anything! I might just have a handful of nuts and a couple of cheese chunks for protein.

Ok I'm going to call myself out and say that even though I've been veggie for almost 2 years I'm going to have some fish for dinner. I'm really craving it and I'm sick of bloody meat substitutes and beans. I will say an extra prayer for all the worlds fish tonight.... I'm doing salmon parcels with mediterranean veg cooked en papillot with new potatoes and am really looking forward to it. Sorry Mr Salmon.

202lb this morning, I'm so impatient to get below 200lb, it seemed like an impossible challenge when I started this in August at 233lb but now it's so close I just want it to happen.

Stayed the same with weight but realised with scrolling through mfp that I last weighed 12st 7 in June 2014! Yeah! And is the lowest I've ever recorded on there. So hopefully for next week so I can record a new low 🤞Also checked my bmi and it's now 27.4 so (slightly 🤣) closer to healthy weight than obese. Taking every small victory to stay positive at the mo 😀 well done to all the losers and the nsv going on 🥳

Well done everyone who has lost this week, especially Howmanysleepsnow - thats great news. I have lost 1lb this week so down to 11st 8lb. I am crawling towards my target weight but at least it dropped a bit. Its getting a little frustrating sticking at the same weight for a couple of weeks, then watching the needle on the scales wavering to decide if I go down or not

Well done everyone on losses and NSV. Really great to read.

I lost 0.4kgs this week - so just under a 1lb. That's ok.

Total October loss - 2kgs
Target for October- 92.4kgs
Current- 93.4kgs

Pleased with progress :).

@Howmanysleepsnow I know it can be hard when everyone eats differently even when you all live together. I never have the same as everyone else.

I have thought a lot about maintaining the weightloss because I just don't want to put in a good effort now and then have to repeat the process again down the line.

I think for myself I'll stick to what I do now with perhaps slightly relaxed weekends or meals out. I guess the first week after getting to target I would enjoy a few small treats, but then weigh myself after a week and see where I'm at. I think I will begin with a 3lb rule, if I gain 3lb I'll revert to a weightloss eating plan until I'm back at goal weight. I follow someone on instagram who reached goal weight about a year ago, she mostly maintains her healthy eating plan with occasional treats. If she puts on a few pounds she alters eating to lose the weight again, she still weighs weekly. I'd like to work towards weighing once a month. I think someone like my mum just goes on her clothing, so if a skirt feels tighter she just eats sensibly until it doesn't! I think for the first 6 months after reaching goal weight I'd like to monitor myself and try and get a good feeling of what works for me.

@Howmanysleepsnow that’s amazing! Congratulations on reaching your goal.

I have also been thinking a lot about maintenance. It’s the really hard bit where most people who lose weight end up regaining and I don’t want to be in that category. But from what I can see, maintenance still requires attention and tracking of food - it’s just that your goal is to maintain, which means you can eat a bit more. I think the mistake people make is to stop paying attention to what they eat because they’re no longer ‘on a diet’. The thing is, as they’ve found in the past, eating what they like leads to weight gain.

So I have accepted that I need to track my food for a long time to come, even if it’s just to maintain my weight. I don’t mind, it takes me less than 5 mins a day. I don’t think it’s unhealthy or restrictive to keep an eye on food intake for life (I have seen many social media posts suggesting that it is). Getting diabetes is unhealthy. Weighing my portions and tracking them to make sure I get the right amount, not so much.

I also need to track steps and exercise because my natural tendency is to be sedentary. I think having a Fitbit or similar is a good idea because it tells you your TDEE and you can estimate your food around this.

Anyway, you should definitely stay on the thread for maintenance. I intend to and I’m currently taking a diet break anyway to see how I’d get on with maintenance.

Thanks for all the congratulations, and thanks @DownUdderer and @Shedtheload for the maintenance advice. I think I’ll carry on weighing daily and tracking activity and calories until I can get a handle on what works for me as maintenance. A 3lb (or even 2lb) rule is a great idea.
I had my usual food yesterday, plus 2 glasses of wine and a chocolate bar (god, I’ve missed it!) and still somehow weighed 9st 6lb this morning, so a lb down . I’m hoping that means my previously hugely slow metabolism has been reset a bit by low carb. Yesterday’s calorie intake would’ve seen me gain 5 months ago. Anyway, a 2lb rule now would keep me a lb either side of my goal weight so that’s my new plan.

@cricketmum84 did you enjoy the salmon?

Morning all and happy Saturday! Really happy to report a 3lb loss this week! It's the most I've lost in 1 week for so long. 5lbs for the month so far and well on track for the 7lbs and maybe more!

Things I have done differently are:
More water
Swapped to ww purple plan (more free foods and less restricted carbs)
Eaten slightly more than usual
Eaten evening meal 2 hours earlier than usual

@Howmanysleepsnow yes it was gorgeous! Unfortunately it didn't agree with me though and I ended up on the loo all night... that will teach me!

I'm firmly on the naughty step this week. Had a takeaway on Thursday and a supermarket dinner for 2 thing last night. I need a massive kick up the bum.

Well done on everyone's losses.

77.1 this morning, so still going backwards. I feel like I need to start calorie counting again but it's such a pain in the arse. I've already done next week's meal plan/shopping but I'll start the week after.

Sure I'll join now! I'll aim for a 2lb loss! @cricketmum84 Salmon doesn't agree with me either!! Haha. I'll update you all with what I ate in the evening!