I need a realistic weight loss goal for 10 weeks

[BuggeringBugger]

Exactly as the title says, I need a realistic weight loss goal, in 10 weeks I(hopefully) go on holiday. I'm 5ft 7.5(the half is very important to make me feel like I carry my weight better, in reality it doesn't-clearly!) and my weight is 12st 12. I've been yo yoing too long. I have a tendency to binge when I am emotional, which sadly is frequently. I also sometimes make myself starving by completely depriving myself. I've worked out my TDEE is 2171 calories a day, so to lose 2lb a week I'll be at 1171 calories a day. I can't really do low carb easily, and I have lost weight without it before so I'll go LOWER but not low. I don't even really know why I'm writing, I suppose I just wanted to know if anyone had a goal time too. I want to get down to 10 stone but for now I'll be making it a goal of 11st 10 to try and make sure it's doable as it's 1.6lb a week. I'll be logging on MFP and trying to limit the calories I drink(not alcohol but tea, i have sugar and milk), I also will try and exercise every day. Just getting into running again lately though my knee on my left side hurts but hopefully losing some weight will help anyway!

I feel like with your history, setting yourself a calorie or target goal will just put pressure on you & cause you to relapse into disordered eating.

Lots of protein, veg & movement will have the desired effect & be more sustainable. Log your exercise calories but don’t eat them back.

I have been healthy eating and exercising for 8 weeks and have lost 11.5lb.
I would recommend a goal of no more than 1 stone, but break it into smaller goals.

They say safe weight loss tends to be around 1% of your weight (in pounds) per week.

So a 200lb person can safely lose 2lbs.

150lbs is 1.5lbs etc.

I would say stick to 1lb a week and then anything about that is a bonus. You don't want to go in too high and then get disappointed.

I second the half a kilo. Achievable but not back breaking which in my experience is the recipe to stick to it

I agree with MaverickDanger , a calorie or weight target may add some unnecessary triggers. Water comes and goes and your weight may fluctuate, so I'd recommend switching to a healthier diet and regular exercises instead. 10 weeks of a healthy and active lifestyle will work much better than a certain number goal

hi op I had a similar amount to lose to you and have been doing 5 2 and lo cal other days, factoring in some wine at the weekend and a free pass on Sundays. I have been losing about 1-2 lb a week (500-1kg) and have lost a stone since mid Jan, I feel great, half way there.
I think excercise is great for mh and toning but is overrated as a weight loss tool. I think if you don't mind me saying it might be beneficial to focus on the emotional eating and find strategies to distract and avoid situations where you do that, like having some pre prepared lo cal snacks.
you can feel very full only 1000 cal I'm of you use them wisely even if the 5 2 isn't for you. Good luck

@Stovetopespresso

hi op I had a similar amount to lose to you and have been doing 5 2 and lo cal other days, factoring in some wine at the weekend and a free pass on Sundays. I have been losing about 1-2 lb a week (500-1kg) and have lost a stone since mid Jan, I feel great, half way there. I think excercise is great for mh and toning but is overrated as a weight loss tool. I think if you don't mind me saying it might be beneficial to focus on the emotional eating and find strategies to distract and avoid situations where you do that, like having some pre prepared lo cal snacks. you can feel very full only 1000 cal I'm of you use them wisely even if the 5 2 isn't for you. Good luck

I know there's probably lots of info out there but please could you give a couple of examples of menu on 5 2 days that is working for you (pref non-meat) thanks

1.6lb a week is quite a high target for sustainable weight loss, it'll be quick but it'll be painful. And it won't stop the yo-yoing.

My plan, although it can be slow is to eat at my goal weight BMR calorie number, that way it doesn't change throughout the weight loss and won't change when you hit goal. Just sometimes is a bit slow!

Thank you for your responses, I think you all may be right, I might be setting myself up for a failure. I'm going to concentrate on better eating, try and avoid emotional eating and try to avoid depriving myself, I'll up my water intake and keep trying to exercise. I've had awful depression lately and some days I've just lay in bed all day but I'm on new medication and it's starting to take effect, I think I was desperate to push myself but I think everyone is right, I don't want to fail, I don't even want to feel like I failed if I don't reach the target I set myself. Thank you everyone :)

I'm 5'8 and a few years ago at 63kgs (not overweight but I like being bottom end of BMI as I'm a runner) I did 5:2 and lost 5kg in 7 weeks. You are a lot heavier than I was so I think your goal is very achievable. Good luck!

Last time someone pissed me off (so fucking much) i REALLY wanted to pig out on donee. And when I say pig out I mean it because few times I found sauce as far as my hair and ears🤦
Then it hit me that they are just being a dighead and me eatong 4k caloriea on a day I am supposed to have 1400 will only hurt me and will absolutely not have any effect on anything or anyone else.
It was just a sudden realisation of "why do you want it? It does nothing". It was like if someone switched a switch. I had the normal planned dinner.

Yes, especially coming out of depression I would absolutely recommend not putting unachievable goals. There is a pound a week thread here and people there are lovely so jump on for some support

@VaVaGloom so my "starving days' are working days where I have plenty of distraction which helps and are something like:
breakfast: milky coffee 50 cals
lunch: salad with some dressing and something interesting like chickpeas with fresh parsely or chilli flakes, or a half fillet of smoked mackerel (I'm pesc) or a hard boiled egg. 200 cals
dinner: I work out how many cals I have left, you can go up to 500 and I'm not toooo strict about it and I adapt family meals so as not to look to "diety" in front of the kids, so eg

• homemade veg stew, family has dumplings in it, cheese on top, garlic bread on the side. I don't. about 200 cal.

or one slice frittata or Spanish omelette which is very veg heavy, family might have homemade chips or oven chips too, I won't.

• one veggie sausage and a mountain of veg (again family has potatoes with and 3 or 4 sausages each)

pasta which is mainly veggies sauce, eg veggie meatballs in tom sauce with minimal spag. no garlic bread unlike family! salad nicoise if its summer, I just major on the salad bit risotto, again, small portion, whatever is up to 200 cals stir fry, min noodles/ricd veggie tray bake with eggs, again no potatoes if they're in there.

I think this gives you about 50 cals to play with if you need something first thing in the morning, a smoothie perhaps or I just do cups of tea throughout the day. ypu need to factor in the olive oil too.
it's not easy and I do worry I might get bored and fall off the wagon but at the moment it's really working and that motivates me loads. whether I will lose motivation if I plateau is another question but a stone in 10 weeks is gone, my zips do up easier and my bmi is shrinking and I always do it for summer for when i take the kids to the beach etc.
don't know if that makes me a yoyo person or not but I enjoy the sense of empowerment over my body tbh.

@Stovetopespresso that does help thanks.Well done on your weight loss.
Very similar to the type of food I eat normally so should be do-able. Over lockdown my portion sizes have crept up and I am less active as wfh. I just need to step away from the dumplings! I think it's harder when I'm dishing things up for the family, it's far easier if I'm just preparing a meal for myself as happy to just have veg soup or sushi etc... I've fallen into the pattern of eating what my growing children eat & I'm growing too just outwards rather than upwards! Made a risotto recently and ate mine and then, because it was delicious, finished off what the kids left! Need to rein in my alcohol as that's just empty calories and more likely to snack then too.

Hopefully will be more motivated/ disciplined now summer is coming with the promise of going out and not just wearing jeans and a jumper at home. Going to do 5:2 thanks

Good luck I used to find it hard but this year its better not sure why...I drink more water this year and on the other normal days I still calorie count a bit which has better results, therefore motivates me. ooh and mfp counts.