The last 10lb

[PlateauArgh]

Does anyone fancy joining a support thread for losing the final 10-14lb? I've lost over 20lb now, and since hitting the overweight/healthy weight borderline it's become so much harder! I've been gaining and losing the same 2lb for almost a fortnight. I'm doing calorie counting, eating healthier, drinking lots of water, and walking more.

SW: 11 stone 4
CW: 9 stone 10-11
GW: about 9 stone or slightly under

I have an event in early June and I'd really like to be comfortably around 9 stone 5 by then. I would also like to get back into my pre-Covid clothes!

My danger time is whenever I'm home alone. It's like my body thinks calories don't count if there is no one else there to see.

Always tempted to pick at the food my son leaves. I hate waste but need to accept that food is better in the bin than adding to my thighs.

I’ll join you. I started slimming world in September, I was 11 st 9, I’m now 10.9…, it’s been very very very slow weight loss! I don’t lose quickly and I’ve had a couple of huge gains (Xmas, Easter) which have really set me back.

I reckon my target is around 10.3, it’s the lowest I’ve been in my recent years and even that further 6lbs off feels like a mammoth task. I’m still attending Sw but I’m actually calorie counting now because I need to actually track what I’m eating. I’m at my first target now so I’m going to enjoy a few free weeks until I’m 3lbs under before I decide if ‘ going to lower my target or stick where I am.

I’m sticking to 1400 calories a day Sunday to Thursday, and a bit higher at weekends. I exercise every day (run x 3 a week, I’m doing Caroline Girvan, and I walk the dog about 3/4 miles a day and longer at the weekend) - but it’s hard.

My danger zones are the days I’m at home with the kids during a week. On my work days i find it so much easier to eat less as i am busy or distracted. With the kids I'm busy too but if we’re at home i just find myself snacking all the time or if we go to a soft play i will buy a drink and a snack and so on.

9 stone 10.4! Will this plateau never end!

After reading the messages on this thread I've been thinking about the differences in my life between now and when I was really slim in my late teens and twenties. I had been assuming that I'd started putting weight on more easily because it happens naturally with age, but apparently the metabolism doesn't actually slow down until perimenopause and I'm not quite there yet.

These are the key differences, some of which I think I can do more about:

1. If you'd asked me at the time, I would have said and genuinely believed that I loved food and ate whatever I wanted. In reality, though, I ate a lot less than I do now, and looked at food completely differently. I used food as fuel because I was much more interested in going out, spending time with friends, etc., and spent a lot less time sitting around - even when I was sedentary, it was more likely to be in the library (at uni) or in the office once I started work, not on the sofa, so there was more moving around involved.

2. In addition, I had little disposable income and prioritised spending it on clothes and nights out. Food was simple and filling, e.g. my housemates and I would make pasta and pesto and scarf it down before getting ready to go out. Food wasn't an event. Desserts were a rare treat, just because if I had a spare £5, I'd rather have used it on a couple of drinks or a lipstick than a cake. Towards our late twenties/early thirties, my friends and I changed our habits, so instead of going to someone's house and drinking tea, we'd order a takeaway, or a shopping trip would include lunch out rather than just a quick coffee.

3. We drank a lot more alcohol, but would also dance for hours, walk all the way across town to a club and then walk home. I bought almost everything I owned in person, and spent loads of time trekking around the shops hunting for things and carrying my shopping. Online shopping didn't really feature in our lives.

4. WFH and covid changed a lot of things. During that time, food became much more of an event because there wasn't much going on and mindfulness made the tedium of life more enjoyable. The downside of that was becoming more food-focused, and starting to see food as a comfort or reward.

5. On the other hand, I care more about nutrition now! As a student/young worker I mainly ate pasta, potatoes, meat, bread and the occasional piece of fruit. I at least try to get enough vegetables now. This does mean, though, that I have to think a lot more about food.

So basically I'm going to try to go back a bit to my previous attitude, if that's even possible. Not the drinking and clubbing, but just trying to be a bit less bothered about eating. This will mean making some changes so that I'm doing more outside work, so that food stops being such an interesting part of my day.

What do you think? What has changed for you?

That last post of your struck home OP.

I think about food a lot, whereas I used to just grab a sarnie, I walked a lot more, I couldn't afford to go out and eat lovely meals with a bottle of wine and pudding.

I was way more active and tea would be something grabbed quickly before I headed out again, now it's the main event....

Yes, I need to think about food less.

I had 2 pregnancies and an abdominal hysterectomy, my body is physically completely different from my 20’s. There are areas I cannot change unless I had surgery and I don’t want that.

I always ate a lot I have binge eating disorder. I had a crap childhood and turned to food. I did not really have much of a youth as I got pregnant at 20 so I haven’t really known much else apart from being tired and working and raising kids

My Kids are older now so I have more time to invest in myself and I had let myself go for a long time so I have years of unfitness to contend with.

I am happy just being healthy I don’t need to be skinny or anything, I don’t think that’s my goal. I just want a normal BMI and a healthy level of fitness

But I have had to change my whole relationship with food. In all honesty I was a fussy and lazy eater who had never tried salmon till I was in my 30’s, or an avocado so I am now feeling like I am an adult for the first time and learning about nutrition

I’ll join. I am 9st 10. I should be around 9 stone. I gained a stone last year, but have lost some since Christmas.

Just home from Aldi, stocked up on fruit, brown bread, salmon etc

Have a sun holiday in June. Really hoping to fit back into my summer clothes with ease, not squeezing myself in

Similar story here @PlateauArgh , food was not a priority. I am very ordinary looking but definitely look better slim, it suits my round face and small frame. I could get away with relatively inexpensive clothes from Top Shop and Kensington Market when I was a size 8. I didn’t drink much but did go clubbing every week, usually twice and was always rushing somewhere. My flat mates were the same. Sundays was catch up on sleep and do laundry, not sit down for a big family lunch. Getting married, having babies, it’s a steady grind with a lot of time spent in the kitchen.

I used to survive on coffee, fags and vodka. I think I'd die if I tried that now.

Can I join? Very similar stats - I'm hovering between 9.9 and 9.12 and want to get to 9.2. Honestly I dreamed of being under 10 stone for so long and now I've come this far I want this final bit gone but can't seem to actually do it!

My eating habits have slipped so I need to get them back in check and start exercising regularly rather than sporadically. This has been partly due to undergoing ivf treatment / TTC / a number of miscarriages in the last year HOWEVER I don't want to use that as an excuse anymore, we are still very much on that rollercoaster but I can eat well and exercise anyway!

My other excuse is that I need to get up at 5 to work out (early rising 3 year old who is always awake by 6) and when the time comes I just...roll over and stay in bed. Does anyone have any foolproof tips for that boost of morning motivation?

My brother gets married abroad in July and if I can't be pregnant by then I'd at least like to be looking my best!

Honestly? I used to be very, very strict to stay at 9 stone. I’m not sure if I’m that disciplined anymore. It required serious effort.
But I’ll give it a try.

@Eggling I have been trying to master the art of exercising early doors before children wake up. I leave my curtains open now that its light early on, and I have 2 alarms set on 2 different devices - one next to my bed at 5.50 and one in the bathroom on the scales at 6am. Basically my theory is i wake up and have to get out of bed before the alarm in the bathroom goes off which is very echo-y and would wake the whole house up! Then because I am by the scales i weigh myself straight away and usually slunk off downstairs to workout 🤣
I got this from something I read where they put the second alarm downstairs next to the kettle and flicked the switch ready for morning coffee - but that wouldnt motivate me as wouldn’t drink coffee that early and also legging it downstairs in my half asleep ness I would probably break my neck.

Hi,
Would anyone who's goal weight is 9stone of less mind telling me what height they are please?
Just purely out of interest, I'm nowhere near 😁

@StressyMessyJess I’m 5ft 3 inches

@StressyMessyJess i’m 5’7 and the lowest healthy weight for me is 9.2. I would be literally a skeleton

I’m mid cycle today and my whole mid section is ballooned up like a rock hard ball, it’s so uncomfortable. The bloat is real. I have eaten well so far, protein yogurt and fruit, salad and chicken and rice cakes, and a couple of pieces of fruit. I had to have a quick portion of soup after work because I’m now out at football training til 7.30 (with ds). I’ll come in around 1400 cals today with a light dinner. It’s really not much food, zero snacks, no treats, no bread, no pasta. This is what it takes me to be bmi 23. I really can’t fathom what would be involved in being bmi 18 (9.2 as above)

the only times I have been really slim (I remember how excited I was that Miss selfrige in Solihull started stocking size 8 work trousers, this was in 2001, they were probably a size 6 in modern sizing) - but like a pp above I lived on vodka, fags, adrenaline (and a few class As at the weekends) - but I also ate a lot more takeaways (our local chippy did chicken meat and chips for £2) and chocolate (I’d eat a bar of choc every morning on my way to work) and bread (loaf of bread and pot of butter would be my lunches at work every day). I was very unhealthy.

I got pregnant at 19 and put on 4 stone and have spent the rest of my life in a diet 😢

I am just over 5’5 and a full on triangle shape with a small waist/arms and I don’t have big boobs unless I am overweight.

l am still 11st 5 but I have a 29inch waist and 39 inch hips! 30B/C boobs? I would assume I would look awful at 9st to be honest 😂 I would have no boobs at all but still the big old hips 😂

Body shape/composition is important in context!

This is my last week. Im happy if the right hand side column is green 😅 you can see the weekend was not great, but back on it this week. I am due on my period this week too.

9 stone 9.4! Finally! Hope everyone else sees some progress too.

I used to seriously diet once I got above 9st and now that's my goal weight. Ideally less as I'm 5'1". I think I'd look best around 8'8. Probably won't ever happen.

10 St 2 now

Recommitting this week to input calories into my tracker before I eat the food and not after. I've planned my lunch and drinks today leaving me with 500 for dinner. Hoping to stop the creep of going over every day!

5 foot exactly. Id like to be just under 9 stone so I'm a healthy weight but not gaunt in my face.

@StressyMessyJess I am 5ft 5, current weight is 9st 8lbs which is a bmi of 22.2. I have rolls of fat on my tummy and hips still. My goal weight is 8st 12lbs. BMI works for my small frame, according to this I can go down to 8 stone.

@PlateauArgh congrats on breaking the dreaded plateau and losing 1lb.

@PrimroseYellow1 Thank you! I'm sure it will fluctuate back above 9 stone 10 but I feel like now the barrier has been broken it should be on a downward trend!