Petite support for losing a few pounds/getting to our 'happy' size

[ACuppaAlwaysHelps]

Hi all. Following on from the thread that @SprayPaint started yesterday, a few of us (@Waiting9 @Horriblehistoree @FaceofSpades) seemed keen to have a thread to support each other in reaching our weight loss/body shape/fitness/health goals.

All petites are welcome on this thread, but it seemed like it would be particularly helpful to have a corner of Mumsnet for those of us who are petite/small framed and officially a 'healthy weight' but know we feel/look better a few pounds lighter (which would still be within a healthy weight/not underweight).

Maybe we can share goals, progress, struggles, things that are working, etc.? It would also be lovely to hear from any petites who are at a 'happy weight' and what you are doing to be successful.

Someone (maybe @FaceofSpades?) posted some helpful thoughts on the thread yesterday.

Please share how you all think this thread could be helpful.

Feel free to share as much or little as you like. Height, current weight, goal weight or other body measurements, nutrition, calories, exercise, NSV, etc.

@ACuppaAlwaysHelps I didn't get round to replying, but I stopped intermittent fasting, and was pretty much still stuck weight wise; it didn't seem to make a difference at all.

It all went to pot as we then had half term, which usually means not much exercise and eating whatever. At the end of half term unfortunately we had a family bereavement, and my only way to deal with anything is food. I ate my emotions for a few days.

I'm now fasting for the month (Ramadan) but zero exercise as I find it hard to work out when I could fit that in. This is the first time I'm finding it hard to eat anything substantial in the mornings, I end up feeling sickly. Am consciously making healthier choices for the evening meal; and have a routine where we eat a lot of fruit first, followed by whatever I've cooked.

@ItIsAlwaysSwingsAndRoundabouts it is true that when you fast for Ramadan you are not allowed fluids during the day? If so, that is pretty hard going.

When I am fasting, I use drink as a crutch instead to get me through the day. This usually means lots of black coffee and sugar-free squash.

Ramadan Mubarak (I hope I've got that right)

I saw a lady in a hijab at the gym last night which impressed me, particularly for an evening session when it's so long since eating by dawn. My energy bonks quite quickly if I'm not fuelled up for working out.

I hope the month goes well for you.

DS's teacher took them on PGL during Ramadan which I thought was pretty hardcore to get through. They're long, tiring enough days without managing the logistics of a fast at the same time!

@blueshoes yes, no fluids too..it's not too bad as long as I remember to drink lots at both the pre sunrise and post sunset meals.

@BogRollBOGOF thank you 😊 you've definitely got it right.
I keep thinking i should do a small, not too intense workout after the evening meal; but I'm too lazy for that 😂
One of my siblings lived in Singapore and said the gym is usually full of people working out about half an hour or so before the evening meal, which sounds ideal but again not for me 😂

Evening all. I'm just catching up and that post from a few days ago from someone highlights exactly why we need this thread!

Hope everyone's had a good start to the week.

I'm sat here pondering if I can use Lent to have a real push/focus, but I'm not sure how as I already feel like I'm trying so hard! (Wouldn't it be great if we could simply give up chocolate and lose weight!)

Does anyone else here track their calories and macros? I'm using Nutracheck and wondering if I need to make some changes to my settings. If you do track, what numbers do you aim for?

I’m totally stuck and wondering if I should just accept it now. I lost 3 lbs in the first 2 weeks and hit 9 stone 1. Over the last 2 months I have basically lost and regained a further 3lbs multiple times and keep landing back on 9 stone 1.

I have seen 8 stone 12 twice. My goal was 8 stone 10. I just don’t know how to get there. I realise 9 stone 1 is a healthy weight for my height. I just feel so much better a bit lighter but I am not prepared to under-eat when I am already in a healthy deficit and SHOULD be losing a small amount each week!

I've had some success this week - finally - only by tracking every bloody gram of food and keeping to 1150 calories (I don't plan to do this for long!)

I've also hugely increased my protein and cut carbs.

Daily I've hit:
Protein 120-160g
Fat 40-50g
Carbs: max 50g
Sugar: 10-15g
Sat Fat: 8-12g

And I'm only drinking water. 2-3 litres of.

I'm back down to 8.11 from 9 stone but it's not much fun.

I'm training for a long run so I have to be mindful of being adequately fuelled and still caring for my body, I love my body and what it can do I'm just fed up of the few extra pounds I don't want/need!

What's your method? Do you need to switch it around a little?

Good news here. Half a kg lost in a week which is 0.2 BMI points.
OK so it's easy holiday/ menstrual bloating helping, but I've also hit the ground running on good food choices. Lots of plants and protein, some fat, reduced carbs and sugars.

I don't like tea/ coffee so have tended to have about 4-5 Red Bulls a week to kick my brain into action. I naturally didn't want any on holiday and have kept that momentum going since helped by the sunshine automatically waking my brain and lifting my mood. Getting back has also tipped into the waking in daylight zone which also helps.

Other positive choices have included buying 85% dark chocolate. For several years I've bought the Aldi mint dark chocolate which hits the spot and I don't go mad on, but I though that upping the cocoa is positive anyway but it's that little bit less sweet. I also bought a standard wholewheat loaf (for the family) that contains soya that I can't eat rather than my usual safe seeded loaf to cut bread out without affecting the rest of the family. I kept automatically toasting two rounds of soldiers for boiled eggs.

The full list of not-water I've drunk in the past week has been a cider in the pub with a meal on Friday before I intended on getting going, a hot chocolate on Sunday, a very small glass of squash before a run yesterday as I've been struggling with tired muscles and a small bottle of coke in the pub during my "reading hour" during a DC's activity when it's not worth going home. I don't get on with artificial sweetners so my options are very limited when I'm out. The main thing is cutting squash at home and those pick-me-up Red Bulls that can easily add several hundred calories of energy through the week.

I did try to kick the Red Bull in a similar way last year but was very rapidly thrawted within 48 hours by DS requiring a 999 call for an asthma attack, hotly followed a month later with emergency surgery for something totally seperate so it was into May before I had the stability to find mojo mode.

Maybe? I don’t know.

I do intermittent fasting so don’t tend to eat between 7pm-12pm

I then eat lunch, an afternoon snack and dinner.
all home cooked vegetarian food. Average calories about 1400
I quit sugar for Jan and my intake has stayed very low, I do not have anything sweet most days.
Walk 10k steps a day, 4-5 days a week walk with a weighted vest, 2 days a week gym weights session and a light jog and 1 day a week pilates.

But still not losing. If anyone has suggestions I’ll take them!

Is it worth increasing slightly? You're probably eating close to your BMR (mine is just shy of 1500 anyway), and that's a good amount of active calories on top.

How is your energy generally?

Increasing the calories I’m eating?

My energy is pretty good on the whole!

If they're slighty too low (which is why I asked about energy) then the body can stall. It sounds a sensible intake generally, but is it the right deficit with the exercise load? Or might need customising a bit for lower/ higher activity days.

Do you track exercise to get an idea of your energy burn?

Not specifically but my Fitbit usually registers between 1800-2200 cals burned depending on the day

You might need a small amount extra on your busier days, but keep the same on regular days.

When my muscles are tired they hold water retention and that masks progress too.

I've never understood the 'eating too few' calories thing- while I understand your body will perhaps reduce your metabolism, as long as you're eating less than outputting, you'll still always lose weight? Otherwise no one would ever be underweight?

I need to research more to understand it! My feeble brain can't compute.

As I understand it, your body will try to be more efficient, so you'll naturally try and burn less to save the energy and reduce the deficit, so it's finding the sweet spot of enough deficit to lose but not going too far to be under nourished or run low on energy and burn less. There's also the risk of losing some metabolically efficient muscle mass along with fat reserves which reduces your BMR longer term. That's why maintaining (or adding) muscle building excercise is important for sustaining healthy weight.

Regular incidental movement is really good for the metabolism and assisting fat loss, but its easy for that to take a hit and not notice that you're generally doing less. People training for marathons often don't lose weight despite those long, slow runs being hypothetically ideal fat burning, because they're knackered and tend to cut movement elsewhere when recovering. When I looked back at my marathon training and recovery block, it was similar milage to what I'd normally run in those months on a HM plan but had less regular consistency with more long runs and more recovery, and reduced general movement.

In general, going too low is a risk of triggering binge cycles and we're very good at forgetting and accounting for small amounts that we snack/ pick at so it's easy to aim to eat low, think we're doing it, but fall into that trap, and mindfully eating a bit more can avoid falling for subconcious extras.

Types of calories matter, so filling up on slower digesting vegetables, proteins and moderate use of fats will be more satisfying than quick digesting starchy carbs. The body also has different levels of efficiency at extracting all the enegy from food. Apparently because of the proteins and fats in nuts, we miss out on about a third of the calories in them so the real effect is less than the calorie label would suggest, whereas for sugar it's 100% efficiency. Also the body favours using the easiest option avaliable, so it would use starches before breaking down existing fat reserves. Being more complex to digest, proteins make breaking down fat reserves a more favourable priority.

Bodies do weird stuff anyway. They definitely don't follow the straightforward calories in/ calories out in outcomes! It's definitely a PITA working out the right balance for your build and lifestyle and resisting evolution that was designed to efficiently hold on to body fat in anticipation of lean times that (fortuately!) aren't happening.

@BogRollBOGOF that's fascinating. Thanks for taking the time to share. There is so much to learn about the body.

I am short (155 cm) and have lost over a stone since mid december by eating three high fibre meals a day, and spending less time sitting around. I'm waiting for haemorrhoid surgery referral so I am very motivated to get good quality, high fibre food in me as otherwise the pain is unbearable. I've actually been surprised at how easily the weight is coming off as I'm mid forties, with thyroid disease, and despite being active (weights, running, yoga), I've struggled for the last few years to shift any weight. My mindset has really shifted to getting enough good quality food into me rather than restricting food. I don't calorie count at all, but obvs all upf, white carbs, sweet things (exc fruit) are off the table. But I'm still consuming lots of fat. I eat a lot of beans and pulses, and instead of sandwiches for lunch I always have salads or soups, with added beans or lentils and nuts and seeds. I gave up alcohol years ago so that helps.

There's so much conflicting information out there which doesn't help.
Not all the established science that we've been given in the past 50-60 years is great either, and some of it has been over-emphisised by the food industry.

I tend to look at information in terms of how it makes sense in context of traditional diets and trends in health.

I don't do artificial sweetners. I don't like the taste (immediately and for the next couple of hours). I don't like the effects (headaches and laxitive effects). We're pushed the idea that they're lower calorie, better against diabetes and a "healthier" option. Logically, if they're living up to that expectation the BMI of the population would go down as they've become more and more widespread and are now rather awkward to avoid. But it hasn't. It's still going up. There's a lot of variables involved but it's a food trend that isn't seeing widespread positive outcomes.

I find the Zoe podcasts interesting. To me the 30 plants a week makes sense. We know it's good to eat vegetables, whole grains and spices for a multitude of reasons, and no one specific is really making a gain out of that. It ties in with how people have eaten traditionally across cultures.

The effects of different fats seems to be deeply disupted. I can't fathom much from that one. I tend to sway towards butter over processed spreads. I generally have a policy of aiming to eat foods in the more natural form avaliable and manage portion size rather than going "low fat" "reduced". Generally if you take something out, you need to put something else in to make it behave in a similar way and that means more additives which I was wary about before the current focus on UPFs.

I'm no guru, but my approach has served me well for 25 years so it can't be too bad- for me anyway. I'm just needing to tighten up on some habits that snuck in during recent years as my hormones are shifting.

I think the zoe approach is a good one. Or Michael Pollan's advice: "Eat food, mostly plants, not too much". We have so much industrialised food in this country. I lived in France for a few years and the quality of the food in the supermarkets was so much better than here, never mind the amazing markets. They've been anti-UPF for a long time. I really miss the food. I was my slimmest ever when I lived in France and I ate so much. We had a great canteen at work so I'd have a three course meal (sometimes with wine) every lunch.

Hi everyone
I just wanted to share that finally I've had some movement.

The scales are now at 8st 6.5 lbs so I'll take that!!!!

Everyone have a great weekend x

Finally movement with me too - 3 lbs lost this week.

Will maintain for another week, then drop kcal again.

Seems slow & steady does NOT work for me!

Need to drop the few pounds at a time with a drastic cut, then maintain, then cut.

That's awesome, well done.

@OObelixtheGaul thank you.

How are you doing?
I had to get on them 3 times because I wasn't sure if they were messing with me!! Haha

I'm having a treat tonight because it was already discussed earlier in the week we'd have a take out and I think genuinely a treat stops you going mad and then binging out.

I still want to get back to 8st. That is my happy happy weight for shorts. But I will absolutely take the small wins because we all know how hard this is.

Have a great weekend xx