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.

Welcome @Octopus45 and yeah not surprised you’re emotionally eating, that’s a lot to deal with. That’s my go too when I’m overwhelmed or stressed too (or happy!). Food is life. I cannot have any crap in the house or I devour it. Summer was ok as I ate a lot of fruit and cream when I had sweet cravings but all the tasty fruit is heading out of season now. Not sure what I’ll do instead.

I’ve tried IF but I just end up hitting the carbs hard at lunch, so I’ve realised I have to have a filling breakfast every morning, and then I make better choices throughout the day. Took me ages to work this out!

IF is a tricky one. I’m fine with not eating till 12 (if you don’t count a coffee) and having a healthy lunch but unfortunately my willpower then tails off… if I eat dinner at 6 I’m snacking again by 9 and if I delay dinner I end up grazing at 5! So end up eating the usual amount just delayed.

Thanks for the support ladies. I’ve just bought the Allen Carr book about emotional eating for my kindle. I had a lovely day out with an old uni friend, which has really lifted my spirits, even though it did involve quite a lot of eating and drinking. Off to do my somatic yoga now

@Octopus45 do you follow any somatic yoga practitioners on youtube? It's something my pelvic physio suggested I do but I'm not sure where to start... I already do some yoga but I need to get more into the mind-body stuff as I mostly do it for flexibility.

Hi, yes I follow Brett Larkin. She does some shorter work outs for emotional release and also some longer more weight loss/toning based ones. This morning I did one of her Pilates/yoga based workouts

@Octopus45 great, thank you!

Welcome @Octopus45

It sounds like quite a few of us are enjoying the September ‘back to school’, routine, etc.

Do any of you have a Garmin? I recently got one for the first time (had a Fitbit before). I wondered what your average calorie burn is and the breakdown of active/rest? Do you think it’s accurate? I know that no tracker is completely accurate, but interested to know data from other fellow petites.

I have a Garmin @ACuppaAlwaysHelps I struggled to find the information in an easy to understand way.

Yesterday my active calories were 272. I walked to work and back, did a bit of housework and sat at my computer in the office. Approx. 12k steps.

Jut had a play.

Over the last 4 weeks my average resting calorie burn was 1367 and my active 306. So total 1673 (presumably this would be my maintenance) I do quite a bit of walking, not much formal exercise. I can loose weight consistently (but slowly) at 1500 calories so I would say it is probably about right.

I used to have a garmin but I'm on apple these days. It says my resting energy (average for the year) is 1421 and my active energy is 573 (total 1994). I average 13,000 steps a day and I do some exercise most days. I'm not sure how accurate that is but I do eat quite a lot so it's probably in the right ballpark. I'm 5'1", 57kg, mid forties.

These are my stats over the last 6 days.
At 5'2" and around 63kg (I don't constantly update garmin's weight)

It estimates my basic/ resting calorie burn per day at 1490. I've done 10,000- 13,000 steps per day (now on my feet all day at work plus active commute of walking or cycling)

I'm paused on running while I adjust to this, but still have my gym/ workout sessions twice a week (and I felt much better after my mid-week one). I'm feeling twitchy for a run though. It's an awkward balance because I'm adjusting to the tiredness and energy levels, but my legs are begining to complain at night that they haven't had an energetic blast.

For food, I'm now too busy to have a boredom snack or have any opportunity to think about or get one. I'm doing a smoothie in the morning as my appetite hasn't kicked in, but I need fuel in me to keep me going until 1pm. So I'm on the old fashioned 3 square meals a day.

I'm not micro-managing that at this point as energy matters so I'll see where that routine gets me for a few weeks. There's good nutrition in there anyway.

The scales have been stroppy, but my legs are tired and achey and that always bumps the scales up. I'm feeling good elsewhere and scales aren't the best measure of what my body is doing. I'm limb-heavy which is good for general health but tired muscles automatically mask any of the subtle body composition, fat loss changes. I've also been taking creatine which can also distort the muscle effect.

So sod the scales, I'm feeling positive!

Been ages since I checked in and no change here! Been gaining and losing the same 2kg for the entire year. My lowest was 56.5kg but typically I bounce between 57-58.5kg.

I also have no trust in scales. Yesterday my bathroom scale said 57.6. My spare bathroom scale said 57.1. And I had a GP appointment an hour later where I was weighed at 56.5 WITH clothes. So without clothes I would have been a full 1-1.5kg less than I was at home. So absolutely no idea what I actually weigh 😂

I think just fighting the steady middle aged spread and staying roughly the same is a massive achievement. I have barely budged from 56-58 now for six months. If I could kick my sugar habit I think I'd be losing but I don't think I'm motivated enough to give up cake if it's available. The best I can do is not have sweet stuff in the house and hope I have some days without it.

I am way more consistent with my exercising though this year, and my legs are definitely feeling stronger. My arms look quite big these days and quite bingo-wingy but if I flex, it's all muscle. So I am celebrating the fact I am strong in middle age, even if I do still have more lard than I'd like. Just gotta keep on trucking!

My scales also have an optimistic weight and a real weight. The slightest movement in one of the corners knocks 2kg off. I have to have an idea of what I'm expecting before I stand on it. My GP scales were a bit pessimistic but the nurse added an inch to my height so I think it all balanced out on their bmi calculator!

Yes, not gaining unhealthy weight is definitely a win.

I'm not looking that successful in terms of kg going down reliably, but in the last 6m, I'm feeling better. And I'm not steadily gaining in the middle.

I think I'd surprise an HCP if they saw my BMI is currently around 25-26 because a lot of it is healthy, muscular limbs.
But I am at the life stage of needing management not to gain abdominal fat easily, and trying not to have to go through the expensive inconvenience of replacing clothes up a size.

Thanks for the replies about daily calories on Garmin (or Apple, etc). It’s helpful hearing from other petites.

My Garmin is telling me that my average resting calories are 1404. My average active are only 180 calories. So giving me a total of less than 1600. I walk around 20,000 steps a day and do Caroline Girvan workouts at home 5 days a week. Has anyone got any thoughts about how I could increase my active calories? They seem low compared with what some of you have. I’m 5ft2 and 8st6 (ideally would be nearer to 8st as every extra pound is on my stomach).

I’ve only had my Garmin for a week. But keen to make use of any stats to help!

Average resting sounds the right league for height/ weight.

I find Garmin much stingier on active for me than 6ft, 80kg husband. So for the same gym session I'll barely scrape towards 200 cals in an hour and he'll be on nearly double for a similar effort. OK, male, bigger, but he's not double my size. We've got the same diameter of calf measurement... his are just a few inches longer. I think part of it is that being fit, my heart rate doesn't go into "exercise" zones easily and my watch easily misses those little peaks of effort and they recover quickly, and likewise, "busying about" days with a lot of steps and gentle movement don't stack much up either. My resting heart rate is low, so I can be walking around on 90bpm, but that doesn't even hit "warm up zone" on my watch based on % of maximum. I'll be down to 47bpm while asleep, but can max out around 182 at the end of a hard parkrun, so it's a pretty large range (and better than the guide of 220-age).

I do wonder if garmin does underestimate some of my active calories, and the scale of difference between me and DH for a similar effort at the "same" activity is surprisingly big.

This week my active calories have been at about 400 per day for 4km of brisk walking with heavy bag and on my feet pacing around all day for about 13.5k steps.

Also, you hear a lot about strength and the "after-burn", but I don't know how well that gets picked up on the watch either.

I suppose it's better if the watch underestimates and gives more wriggle room than expected.

I try to run 3x week and do 3-4 Caroline Girvans a week, and have two dogs to walk. They walk very slowly but we live in a hilly area so it must all add up. I think most of the active calories come from the runs (which are also hilly as they’re in the Peak District). I went part time a while back and I imagine my active calories have gone up a fair bit since then as I was mostly sat at a desk all day. It’s hard to get the numbers up when you’re chained to a desk in a home office. But having dogs has definitely kept me active over the years as they won’t stop pestering me if I miss a walk. Or they start ripping up my cushions!

Thank you @BogRollBOGOF and @Fibrous. Yes, I agree that my resting calories are about right, but trying to work out how to increase my active calories as you both seem to have much higher active calories than me. My 20,000 steps that I do are usually quite fast (maybe 2000 of them are slow/child-paced).

The resting heart rate is interesting. My resting heart rate is 39. I guess my Caroline Girvan workouts are not getting my heart rate high enough to contribute to active calories. But obviously good and beneficial in so many other ways.

I’m thinking I’m probably missing some cardio. I think I maybe need something a couple of times a week to get my heart rate up (similar to your running @BogRollBOGOF) I’m a bit limited as I need something I can do at home on the first floor. So no jumping, etc. Anyone got any ideas? I’ll do a YouTube search of low impact cardio.

Get Fit with Rick is low impact aerobics. If you used some kind of hand weights/ weighted vest, it would increase the energy burn without leaping around.

@ACuppaAlwaysHelps your resting heart rate is very low. Does your heart rate remain fairly low while you are doing all those steps? I expect your low resting rate may confuse garmin.

@BogRollBOGOFthanks for the weights tip for Get Fit with Rick. Thanks for the welcome. I’ve started reading Allen Carr’s book about emotional eating and have started eating more mindfully, ie not eating when on my phone, reading etc. I’m a pound down so far.

A gentle downwards trend seems to have been developing since the September routines started up a couple of weeks ago.

New lifestyle includes active commute, home made smoothie for breakfast, canteen lunch (so moderate) portion size, being on my feet and little time to crave or access random snacking or sweet drinks. Strength workouts are also back on routine.

Numbers are still in the 64s and creeping down, but this post-holiday bump is explainable by regularly taking creatine in recent weeks, and I'm not looking bloaty at this weight like I previously had.

It's a healthy trend, and the lifestyle factors are sustainable 🤞

Sounds like a good routine @BogRollBOGOF

my RHR is also really low, 30s/40s. Had it checked at the GP recently as I was on some meds that lowered it even further but they weren’t bothered at all. Said as long as I’m not fainting or having symptoms with it it’s not an issue. I have had thyroid problems since my twenties so my assumption is it’s related to that. I had a resting heart rate of 110 for a while - that was shit! That was just before my thyroid diagnosis. I had three minor car crashes in a row and didn’t realise I was ill. Crazy how out of tune I was with my body in those days. Now I’m on the alert for any minor symptoms of anything.

My scales is veering all over the place. Think I might try and get access to the scanner at my old gym to do some measurements as I hate judging my health by the scales. Maybe if I threw them the odd fiver they’d let me use it.

Happy check in this morning. Back to the 63s despite being my heavier phase of the month.
Trends continuing. Appetite behaving well.

Not had a great couple of days here. Eating on the go, busy with work yesterday and took our Son to Uni on Sunday. Very early start so not conducive healthy eating. Onwards and downwards