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.

I was but not so much at the minute. Runs are hit and miss because I'm injured and the gym is not the place to be when it's such nice weather.

I have started going on the exercise bike at home, it's so much harder than running but it's also great for working different muscles and getting my fitness back without hurting my foot.

I bailed at the gym last night. There was a lot on last week just constantly in and out of the house. I was in hormonal gear change mode. I was still settling from a somewhat in-depth sports massage on Friday and the gym doesn't have the best air con.

I just needed a vegitative evening in.

By 8:30 I was bored and persuaded DH out on a lovely, gentle sunset walk.
But that was still relaxing, just a different kind of relaxing, and it wasn't busying around.

Hello. Please can I join? I'm 5 ft 3.5 (the 0.5 in counts of course 😂) and currently 9 stone 8. Would love to be down to 9 stone on the dot by the end of the year. Currently calorie counting and have been doing this since March 12th - lost 32 pounds so far but since hitting 9 stone 8 it's been a slower journey.

Wow, @Sallysushine that's an amazing loss, is that 32 pounds since March? I have been trying since Feb and was pleased with my 9lb loss! I'm 4ft 11.5, I get the need for the extra 0.5. Congratulations and welcome.

I was 8 and a half stone this morning. Am aiming for 7 and a half so quite a long way to go yet. But plodding on slowly but surely. Another 5-6lb by October for my holiday would be amazing.

I think it does get harder as you get closer to your goal. On the plus side, I have been adjusting my diet and my stomach has been adjusting to my new diet and calorie intake and I now feel very full on what I am eating though its lower overall calories. I have also increased my fruit, veg and salad intake and reduced my alcohol and carbs and feel better for it.

I need to re-find my flow.
Normally as the holidays approach it goes out of the window, but with the DCs being older, that's less of a disruption than it had been in previous years.

What I can do is concentrate on a couple of two-week blocks around our holiday so that I can make a bit of progress between now and September.

Good weigh-in this morning 62.2kg. I think last week was a bit elevated from heat related water retention.

My appetite's a bit AWOL. OK for my waist but not necessarily the most nutitious

Same again today. I would love to see a 61 soon!

Hi @BogRollBOGOF looks like you are posting more, trying to get your mojo back. I could do some company as I gained a bit during a house move and am now hovering at a better, but not ideal weight.

I weighed in at 54.2kg this morning, I would love to get under 54. But schools out for my kids today and that pays havoc with the dieting.

Today will be a disaster (have friends round this evening to watch the euros) so wine and snacks and bbq will be eaten.

But will be back on it tomorrow. I have been lazy and not preparing proper lunches or my overnight oats. I have found a routine of.

Overnight oats or scrambled eggs for breakfast
A third of my previous nights portion of dinner for lunch
A dinner slimmed down by saving some for the next day and loaded up with extra veg or salad.
Two squares of chocolate, a handful of nuts or piece of fruit for snack.

Is my winning combination for weight loss, alongside a lot of walking.

Now just need to do it.

It's always the doing it that's hard! And yes, I'm definitely posting to try and convince myself I'm keeping going.

The holiday dynamics for me are having to feed ravenous, growing teenagers, and persuade them away from computers (or warhammer) before they get repetitive strain injuries. I can diddle off and leave them, and to be fair DS2 is easier to persuade off on something like a bike ride than DS1. What I miss is that background NEAT movement as I'm in and out less.

Now they're older, I'm happier about eating differently and seperately to them. They know they need more energy than me to facilitate growing out of their clothes

I last posted on 13th July and was frustratingly 8st10 (much higher than when we started this thread!). I was 8st8.5 this morning, which is slightly more encouraging (my target is around 8st). I’m also apple-shaped, like some other posters, and every extra pound is on my stomach.

Weirdly, I am feeling so, so hungry today. It is genuine hunger and, to be honest, I don’t experience this very often at all. I want to listen to my body, but I don’t want to undo my progress. I’ve just had another big glass of water but we’re eating dinner later than usual today, so I might need to eat something before then. I’m still doing lots of walking and doing Caroline Girvan weights 5 days a week. I’ve now completed most of her YouTube series, so I might re-do Iron, as that was the first series I did.

Welcome @Sallysushine

@Hoolahoophop I’ve just seen your post from last week where you said you had made changes to your diet. Are there any particular changes that you think are helping? I can’t remember - do you count/log calories?

@ACuppaAlwaysHelps thanks I do count calories but mostly for monitoring and planning I wouldn't say I'm good at sticking to a calorie count. I'd say that cutting down on snacking and balancing my meals helps. I used to skip breakfast or eat very little, then have a very low calorie lunch. Then snack because I was starving and eat a massive dinner. Now I have three larger meals, very few snacks and am rarely hungry. I still enjoy chocolate most days as I love it. But only one or two nice chocs of an evening. Not a whole bar.

My weight is sticking around the 56 kgs mark, I think it would take quite a lot of effort to lower it now, I seem to be stable on my three fibre oriented meals per day, with the occasional snack. I have a fair amount of fat in my diet from nuts, seeds, tahini, dairy etc but I'm not really prepared to cut that out as it's the fats that make a vegetarian diet tasty!

I've not been running as much recently and I've given up the gym to stick to home weights, but they're not as effective. I've started on the progesterone pill to get rid of my periods as they're just more pain on top of my existing pelvic pain but I think it's making me very irritable and fed up.

I'm hoping to start HRT soon. It had better help me out of my mid life slump!

Hi everyone please can I join?
I’m 5’ 2” and currently 52 kg so technically a healthy weight. However I have a very small frame and my natural weight for most of my adult weight was always around 46/47kg. I don’t mind being heavier but all
the weight is on my torso and apart from my vanity not liking the wobbly bits I’m aware that this isn’t healthy. I used to be a petite hourglass but I’m more of an apple now. Also, I don’t know if this is normal or not but when I’ve seen other friends gain weight they seeem to have plumped up and got generally bigger all over but still in a smooth way if that makes sense whereas my torso is now all puckered and cellulitey. A bit like after you first give birth and everything is jelly.

Activity wise I’m fairly active in daily life. I usually walk 35-40km a week, 50 if I get out for a proper walk as well. I’m on my feet all day at work and generally busy with housework/kids etc at home, I usually sit down for less than two hours a day (obviously pottering around isn’t going to do much calorie burning though!). I do yoga once a week and am trying to add in at least three short dumbbell workouts. I can tell that my core is stronger than it used to be from the yoga which is nice but I’m still pretty weak and unfit generally.

Diet. I’m struggling with. I’ve always eaten whatever I want whenever I want and not gained any weight. This has only changed in the last couple of years and I’m finding this the most difficult part. I can’t get my head around the fact that I can’t do that anymore, my appetite is huge, and I’m really resentful of not being able to eat all the things I want to anymore. To give you an idea, I tracked my food eating as I used to for a week and I was eating 2500-3000 kcal a day. The tdee calculator says I should be eating 1549 to maintain and 1249 to lose 😭.

In terms of what I eat, it’s not that bad, but obviously too much of it. I’m a grazer and my natural eating pattern is to eat all morning, have lunch, have an afternoon snack, have dinner then not eat til morning.

I eat lots of whole grains, nuts, seeds, vegetables and salad, kefir, Greek yoghurt, home made dinners, hardly any upf. I grew up eating like this so this is normal eating for me and I enjoy all those things. However I also love dark chocolate, cheese, bread in all its forms and creamy puddings like tiramisu and cheesecake. I have a velvetiser and a daily 300+ kcal dark hot chocolate was normal for years 😳

I’m trying to eat more protein, smaller portions of carbs and nuts and cheese. I’ve cut out my second breakfast and have drastically reduced my chocolate consumption. It’s bloody hard and I resent it and I’m still not getting anywhere close to 1200 calories. And am seemingly getting squishier by the day, I tried on a swimming costume I bought a month ago (which looked ok at the time) and was bulging out of it.

Hoping you can all give me some motivation and any tips gratefully received.

Also one of my children has anorexia so any dieting/cutting of foods has to be done in a very sneaky and not obvious way. Eg I usually get a massive tub of full fat Greek yoghurt but last week they didn’t have it so I bought two smaller tubs, one full fat and one low fat. I thought I’d get away with hiding the low fat at the back of the fridge and serving them the full fat and myself the low fat but they immediately homed in on the low fat and started questioning me over why I’d bought it and served themselves that one instead. Same when I didn’t add cheese to my bolognese.

You don't need to cut to 1200. If you're constantly on the go with little rest time, you'll be burning extra energy. If you've been eating 2500-3000, and you've gained weight gradually, you're going to be a bit over what your body needs, but you don't need to half it to reach an arbitary number. Try something like 2000 first. It will be easier, and gives you a guide for if it's enough. If it's still too much come down a little more by 100-200, but do it gradually to adjust.

Your diet sounds healthy and varied which is great. I wouldn't switch to low fat; fat is satiating. It's also looking like the old advice on nutrition that's been around for decades isn't that sound. I'd reduce (but not eliminate) the sweet treats like the hot chocolate and enjoy them less frequently.
With something like bolognese, I use my old 80's bowl with a smaller base to reduce the pasta proportion, keep the meat/ veg part similar, and be more sparing on the chese portion. You're still eating the same food (adding a side salad helps keep quantity, but adds low-calorie fibre) but just managing it so it meets your needs and doesn't reach a surplus. I also like my 80s plate with larger rim. The centre is the same as the mid-size side plates, but the plate is the same external size as the Denby, so that helps reduce portions without restriction too.

During Covid, I ended up getting into a mid-morning snack habit to ease the misery of the "home-learning" daily double meltdowns. I phased that out by delaying breakfast to adjust my appetite.

I tend to focus on one habit at a time rather than complete overhaul. In our position where we were stable and in balance for years but our biology tweaked the goal posts, we often don't need a radical change, just reviewing our habits and adjusting them a bit, but being patient. It's also finding the balance on giving ourselves enough (and being active, 1200 isn't enough) but just under to make a modest deficit.

I'm currently ignoring the heavy muscle effect on the scales. I can feel the effect in my quads and shoulders!

I dug the tape measure out yesterday (they are so good at hide and seek!) and my waist is an inch smaller than it was a while back.

My chest around my ribs has broadened which is fine, that's my back getting stronger and more muscle. That means that I was right to find the 30 back bras a bit pinchy and go up to 32.

Looking back at where I was this time last year, I've bought my weight back down to it after peaking in the winter, but I think there has been recomposition of modest fat loss and modest muscle gain. I feel better for it.

For a few months I've been using a self-care app called Finch to basically gamify daily targets. I've added in targets like "dance" to encourage me to twirl and twerk around the kitchen more often
It's also got dull, easily forgotten targets like "take vitamins" that I still forget despite laying them out in a pretty rainbow medicine case to try and make it easier.

I need to get focused again, I seem to be having a bit of a low period mood wise. And that means binge eating (i wont call it comfort because i don't actually get any comfort from it). Looking for strategies to deal with the mood first, then the healthy eating will follow. But its hard.

Reporting in!

I've well and truly been off the wagon - an ankle injury has been really hard to cope with and I'm not running, as well as life stuff getting in the way.

I'm at 8 stone 13lbs as of this morning - I just want to get down to 8.5 for clothes to be comfy again.

Fasting worked really well before so I'm back to that now - as of today!

I am FOREVER gaining and losing the same 4kg.

@ACuppaAlwaysHelpshaven’t had a chance to reply before; but yes, I found I was so hungry, but I’m not sure if it was due to over restriction. It was frustrating because I over ate a lot, and ended up going from 8stone 8 to 9 stone.
I don’t know how much I weigh at the moment, as am
away on holiday, but was at 8 stone 11 last week. I have been eating whatever I want so it might not be good ☹️

I have enjoyed the iron series, but had 5 days left so didn’t finish it. I think I’ll be restarting in September now as August is usually busy with family/kids and I don’t have the energy 😂

Made it to 8st 4lbs! No idea how as we went on holiday a few weeks ago and I’d convinced myself that I would be much heavier when we came home.

Only 4lbs to go before I reach my target weight :D

8 stone 11 this morning - feeling like I've got my motivation back now.

@Hoolahoophop Sorry you’re struggling this week. I had just typed the following in response to your post last week, before I read your post from yesterday… ‘It sounds like you have a really sensible approach to eating and have found what is working for you.’
But it sounds like you’re struggling more this week. Do you know approx how many calories you’ve been eating each day? Would it be worth slightly increasing your calories? Would that help you not to feel restricted/binge?

Welcome @Tomala I agree with what others have said about not dropping your calories too low. If you’ve only gained a few kg by eating 2500-3000 calories, then I would just cut down by around 200 calories and see what happens. If you keep gaining after a couple of weeks, then take off another 100.

@BogRollBOGOF That’s great that you’re seeing changes in your measurements.

@Vallan Sorry you’ve been struggling but great you feel you have your motivation back today. Well done.

@TheBirdintheCave Wow - well done! You have the same target as me. Do you have any tips?

I was back up to 8st10 this morning, after being lower earlier in the week. My target of 8st is feeling a long way off! But my Happy Scale app is looking slightly more positive than it was a few weeks ago. I do think I’m getting slightly stronger from regular Caroline Girvan workouts, so I’m trying to focus on that as a positive.

Feeling really frustrated :-(
was doing 5:2 for a couple of weeks and lost 2Ibs each week. However, was finding the fast days quite tough- have a busy stressful life so struggling with energy and mood on fast days - which I can’t afford to do. So this week changed to just lowering calories everyday to 1,200 (this is what my app said I needed to do to lose 2Ibs a week) with no fasting (although still no snacking etc in the evening. But I’m just not losing at all :-( I don’t understand how 2 days of 500 calories has a result but 7 days of 1,200 doesn’t.
Guess I need to go back to what works… but it just doesn’t feel sustainable

Sorry to hear that @Millie2008 It’s so frustrating isn’t it? Especially when it feels like we’re really trying to do all the right things. What’s your current height and weight? What app are you using to get your daily calories? I wonder if it might be worth you trying slightly higher calories? Are you eating plenty of fibre and protein?

Thanks for your reply @ACuppaAlwaysHelps
I’m using the nutracheck app which tracks fibre, protein etc and I’m getting a good amount of those.
I’m 158cm (so 5ft 2.5) and 8st 13.4Ibs this morning. Initial goal is 8st 7Ibs but really I’d like to get to 8st or even 7st 7Ibs as I have a very small frame and weight all on my middle sadly