Determined to lose 1.5 stone by July!

[Getfits]

Enough is enough..I need to lose 1.5 stone and to keep it off! My goal is to look and feel better, and to be fitter too.

So I’m only 5ft 2 and have been 9 stone for most of my adult life but after constant takeaways, home baking, lack of sleep and inactivity during lockdown, my weight crept up close to 13 stone / 83kg by the summer of 2021 and my body fat percentage was close to 40% which put me in the obese category.

I managed to lose a fair bit of weight using various methods (SW, 1:1, running,
walking, calorie counting, IF) and I was down to 11 stone /70Kg by late 2023. But over the last year it’s been hovering around 11 stone with not much change which has been frustrating.

The past month or so my weight’s actually been creeping up, the latest is I’ve just came back from a 2 week holiday and weighed myself - I’m 11 stone 8!

This is the heaviest I’ve been in over a year I think and I could see it in my holiday pics :/

I want to nip this in the bud by actively starting to get my weight down
towards 10 stone instead of continuing to head back in the direction to 13 stone.

I’m going to post at least every Monday setting out my intentions for diet and exercise and posting my weight/measurements update. Anyone in?

Will also be a good space to share fitness videos and simple healthy recipes!

Can I join. The thread I'm on is a little quiet at the moment and I want to stay motivated.
I've lost 24lbs this year and would like another 7 this month for my holidays.
After that another 21 for the next holiday!
I'm 12st 12 right now and started at around 13st 9

Sorry I've written that wrong!
I am now 11st 12lb

Hey welcome @socks1107 yeah this thread is active and IMO super helpful for staying motivated and getting tips from everyone.

Well done on losing 24 pounds this year - I think it took me nearly 2 years to lose a similar amount 😄

Good luck on losing another 7 before your hols.

New scales are weighing me at 12st 13lbs not 12st 6lbs! 😣But 5:2 has done its work, I'm off the plateau.

SW: 12st 13lbs
CW: 12st 12lbs
GW: 11st 6lbs

Well done @socks1107 that's great work.

I'm delighted to post that I weighed in at 74.6kg this morning. Back on track. This means only three pounds to go and I've lost a stone! That seems like a good interim goal.

This means I'm on course as I'm 5 weeks in with 12 weeks still to go. I am eating the same for breakfast and lunch every day, which just makes things easy for me.

Not a recipe as such but I have raw sauerkraut with my lunch every day. Great for the gut biome and low in calories as well as tasty. Apologies if I have banged on about this before...

Well done everyone posting here - some great inspiration x

Well done for getting that far. I eat raw sauerkraut with my lunch every day too. And kefir either as part of my breakfast or as an afternoon snack.

@Netcam - what does Kefir taste like? Something puts me off trying it... And what's the texture?

I get the Yeo Valley natural kefir drink. It tastes very similar to yoghurt, perhaps a little thinner but creamy like greek yoghurt. I really like it, I usually have it for breakfast with some nuts and seeds stirred in and sometimes chopped fruit. Or my afternoon treat is a small bowl of kefir with a teaspoon of unsweetened cacao powder stirred in with a few pecans, it gives me a chocolate fix without eating chocolate.

It's so motivating reading everyone's progress! I'm finding this thread so helpful.

Have had a good day today.

B kefir yoghurt with cherry compote and oats, cappuccino
L miso soup with gyoza and a poached egg, prawn crackers
D chicken Thai green curry, rice and edamame. Then 4 segments of chocolate orange.

1300 calories in total.

Thanks for the warm welcome.
I've had a good day, stuck to my calorie goal. 12k steps and a 30 minute swim.

Please can I join? I'm starting at 69ish and 5'2 and would like to get down to 65kg (and eventually to 63kg). I hovered around 65kg for years and the last year after some very difficult months and much comfort eating shot up to over 70kg and haven't had the willpower to curb the eating! My plan is to: stop snacking and having pudding, reduce portion size by using smaller plates and to move more.

I had an ok day, ate normally really, but fasted 16:8. Not as much walking as I'd like. I did aloe myself 2 squares of chocolate and 2 shortbread biscuits.

Skipped breakfast
Lunch: jacket potato with tuna mayo and salad
Dinner: ready meal chicken with cashew nuts with rice, fried mushrooms and tomato and pepper.
Chocolate and biscuits and a tiny spoon of trifle

Aldi sells 3 flavours of Kefir yoghurt, plain, strawberry and I think the other is mango or passion fruit. They are nice.

A brief and disappointing update from me - I’ve put 2 kilos on. I have had two big parties and a few fancy client lunches and dinners - and completely neglected the walking and weights.

This morning a friend has sent a photo of me and I’m so embarrassed. I thought I looked great at the time, but in the photo I look like a cheese. All my weight is sitting around my middle and I honestly don’t look healthy at all.

Determined to start afresh this morning.

Yes, agree there are lots of varieties around. Just check the labels as some of the flavoured ones have added sugar, while others don't. I have tried some flavoured ones and they taste nice, but have decided to just add my own fresh fruit instead if I want it. I find it annoying that sugar is so often added to these kinds of foods that would be fine with just fruit.

Be careful as a lot of kefir, kombucha, kraut and kimchi (do they always start with k?) are actually not particularly healthy or necessary as part of a balanced diet, it's just healthwashing certain products. Like shitty processed cereal and chocolate bars, apparently healthy because they have protein powder added. But by all means have them if you enjoy them.

www.theguardian.com/food/article/2024/may/12/cheese-please-eight-everyday-foods-that-are-great-for-gut-health-and-arent-kimchi-kombucha-kraut-or-kefir

This is what is in the Aldi Kefir yogurt - is this ok? I usually buy the plain one.
https://groceries.aldi.co.uk/en-GB/p-grahams-kefir-yogurt-passion-fruit-mango-papaya-350g/5025840005454

I don’t know what’s happened to my appetite but I barely had 1000 calories yesterday and didn’t get hungry until quite late. Maybe all the matcha is helping as it’s said to be a natural appetite suppressant! Today seems
to be going the same way, this will give me a bit of room to eat more when my period starts, I’m due to start soon. Nice not to be thinking of food all the time.

Weighed myself today to see if yesterday had an immediate effect and lost another pound. It could be just be the usual random scale fluctuations but hopefully I’m on track to meet my weekly target of losing 2 pounds a week.

Today :

B: yoghurt and dry roasted oats with honey
L: banana and matcha smoothie OR noodles
D: potato and mushroom soup
Snack : 2 slices of toast with low calorie dark chocolate spread.

Exercise: Half an hour on my walking pad

I'd add some leafy green veg to that. Beware feeling okay on low calories then being ravenous the next day or later on if you don't eat much for breakfast and lunch.

Sympathy @NarrowGate we've all been there!

Plan for today ...
B smoothie with protein powder (yawn, need to start mixing this up a bit)
L pasta with broccoli, peas and cheese sauce
D half a crustless quiche and steamed vegetables

Had a carby lunch as I'll be going for a run shortly.

Need to try and resist the rest of that chocolate orange tonight 😬

Having read the article it only says they are not particularly healthy if they have added processed ingredients, like some kefir and kombucha do. It also doesn't say that raw sauerkraut or kimchi are not good for you, it just mentions other foods that are good for gut health as well as those. Without the added processed ingredients I would imagine sauerkraut and kimchi are nothing like a cereal bar with protein powder that probably has lots of added sugar too.

The plain one looks fine to me, but the flavoured ones have added sugar which I personally would avoid.

@netcam I agree.

I use the Yuka app which scores food on how healthy it is.

Biotiful organic plain kefir scores so much higher than the fruit ones.

I'd add some leafy green veg to that. Beware feeling okay on low calories then being ravenous the next day or later on if you don't eat much for breakfast and lunch.

That is a good point , I experienced something like that on the Cambridge 1:1 diet a couple of years ago. I was so hungry at one point during the first week I ordered a takeaway!

I’m still ok today after yesterday’s reduced calories. Ended up having salmon and sweet potato fries for dinner.

And although it sounds super low, because I’m quite short & currently fairly sedentary I guess 1000 calories is not that much less than my usual calorie allowance! Probably hit closer to 1200 today.

I have fallen off the wagon the last two days.. the sweet tooth has hit and IF went out the window! Determined to stick back with it from today as I have been feeling so much better!

lack of meal prep when WFH does not help!

what’s on the menu for everyone today?