🌼LOSE IT!🌼 Summer Ready May 2025🌼

[TheRealHousewife]

⭐️OPEN TO ALL⭐️

Following on from ⭐️ Active April 2025⭐️

Are you up for getting Summer Ready? There’s still time to make a change, to make a difference and feel confident in your body in time for the summer sun ☀️

To reach optimum health and vitality we need to focus not only on our food intake; but movement, mental health and sleep quality too!

Who doesn’t want to feel good and energetic as well looking great! Get on board to reset & refresh and become a healthier version of yourself.

These threads are for those who’d like to lose weight and those who wish to maintain whilst eating a healthy varied diet.

As no one size fits all, members need to follow their own way of eating. This thread aims to offer guidance, support and a bit of hand holding.

We generally have WOW (weigh on Wednesday) day each week. However post and share your progress as often or as little as you prefer. Do what works for you.

The important thing is not to think of it as a diet (based on deprivation and unsustainable) but more a way of life (sustainable & enjoyable).

I calorie count based on a lower carb Mediterranean diet. I intermittent fast and generally eat twice a day. Im a long time healthy eater and overall I’ve lost just around 45lbs. After having been on the wrong side of 12st The last time I weighed I was hovering around 9st 2lbs. I would like to get back into the 8’s 🤞

Are you in😊 What food plan will you be following? What do you want to change and why?

New members … Give it a go; it’s never too late! Come summer you’ll be pleased you did 😊

Beloved long timers it would be great for you to keep going❤️

PS - Grok 3 created my picture … not the best but perhaps I’m instructing him wrong. I still thanked him 😅

Happy Friday everyone!
I lost 1.8lbs this week, which has been the most I’ve lost in a week for a long time! It’s been so frustrating. For mental health week our work have done a step challenge between departments and whichever department wins gets a free lunch, so we’ve all been on it! Ive managed 64,736 steps so far this week, so I’m happy with that!
SW 13st
CW 12st 7
I would like to lose another 2/3lbs in the next week and a half as we’re going on holiday, so hopefully it continues!

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend ☀️

My go-to is a New Covent Garden Soup - the veggie one is 200 cal for 2 portions. Very filling.

@LightGirl oh my god, the 30 day shred! I remember everyone having that on DVD back in the day!

A seemingly good week for me weight-wise. I weighed in at 93.3kg on Wednesday, and this morning I’m 92.6 kg. Not quite sure how! But jeans are feeling looser, so presumably it’s a real result. What I need to do now is not throw it all away over the weekend…

Was aiming for 92kg by the end of May, so fingers crossed we’re getting there.

whats everyone up to for the weekend? DH is on call, so can’t really leave the house. DS and I have a couple of gym sessions booked in, and I think my dad will come over for lunch on Sunday.

Salmon is a good option. With either new potatoes or bulgar wheat. See attached photos of two dinners of mine this week - just over 300 cal. The bulgar wheat was cooked weight.

This weekend dh is away. I have a coffee date with a friend and dd and i are having a takeaway and movie night on Saturday (she’s mid-GCSEs) so I’ll need to track carefully. Have eaten low calorie since Monday to give me a bit of leeway.

@QueenMabby Thank you! I think I'll go with salmon, just have it on hand. Which app do you use on these screenshots? I love how simple it looks!

@TheWayTheLightFalls Thank you! Soup sounds great, I think I'll have it for lunch tomorrow (don't have pre-packed now, and don't want to cook it from scratch lol)

I also had the 30 day shred DVD back in the day. Couldn't stand her voice for 30 days straight though 🤣 remember muting it in the end!!

Hope everyone is ok! TGIF. I have had a couple of insane busy days at work and fell face first into a packet of M&S cookies. Back to it today. Giving up daily weighing for a while too seeing as I have lost a big fat ZERO this month and it's just filling me with dread which is not the relationship I want with the scale.

@LightGirl- I use My Net Diary which is good but American. Some U.K. restaurants are not on it but I don’t eat out much so it’s ok! I have the premium which i pay about £35 a year for. Loads of recipes and meal plans on it.

It probably will be a hormone fluctuation causing a bit of water retention. I got that a lot when I was younger.

Afternoon all, I’ve been away with work which made counting calories difficult, but I got a decent walk in last night which was good on the exercise front. I think tonight’s planned class might get bumped in favour of a bbq, the weather is glorious here!

Thanks for the well wishes! It was just about 15 hours of feeling like death but I’m fine now thankfully.
WOF of 57.35kg today so 9st in whole numbers. Hmmm. Not awful but not great either although it’s still 3 lbs below my original goal weight. I have to remember that when I was originally 9st 3lbs I hadn’t had Ds and it was 11 years ago.

Will try and catch up later.

Evening. Will read messages and catch up. What I learned this week, or reminded myself of, is never start a diet during the week of your period.

@PatienceOfEngels Yes, I found it impossible to return to my pre-pregnancy weight after my first so there’s not a chance after two. I’m going to reconsider my long-term target weight with each mini target I hit along the way, I think, because I do find that losing too many pounds can age me so I may have to choose between my arse and my face. 😁 I also like chips which is the main reason why I may need to make my target weight higher. Good luck.

@Medee if you want a quick start then lots of water, veg and protein, cut down on carbs, sugar and alcohol (I struggle with cutting out bread completely because of fibre, but try for a higher fibre/denser bread for breakfast to fill me up more - I notice the difference when someone eats all my bread and I have to have a slice of wholemeal - I need 2 slices to stop me getting hungry instead of one slice of rye bread). Get lots of sleep and break a leg!

Thanks @PatienceOfEngels . Is soda water ok as an occasional alternative to plain water. And is the odd GnT ok, somehow being colourless feels less calorific!

Today ok, mostly protein and veg, ended up eating lunch so late there was no dip mid-afternoon. Enough steps and an evening cycle and dumbbell session.

Quick question, - how much is okay to lose per week? I see everyone has different results here (which is understandable), but I just checked my weight and it was -1.1 kg PER DAY (thanks, Jullian Michaels lol). I know I would probably gain it all in the next few days because rapid weight loss puts a body into a stress mode.
So question is, how much is okay to lose and when I should be alerted?

This will vary from person to person. For me I'm a slow loser so I'm happy with 0.4lbs to 0.8lbs. That's sustainable for me.

1.2lbs - 1.4lbs would not be impossible but that's probably the week after my period when I've been retaining water.

These numbers for me came from when I worked with a personal trainer. She deliberately got me to eat in a calorie surplus (quite a bizarre feeling to be intentionally gaining weight and seeing scales go up!) then we did a planned calorie deficit (only about -300 calories maximum difference from what I was eating at the height of the surplus). I was doing my 10k-12k steps plus three weights/cardio session a week.

The reason for the slow loss (plus maintaining gym sessions) is to avoid loss of muscle mass.

I have in the past done faster losses (or losses without the strength training elements) and what happens is I've lost muscle mass as the body doesn't distinguish between muscle or fat when it comes to losing weight.

If muscle isn't being used some of the weight being lost will inevitably be muscle (especially the longer the diet goes on) as its a more calorie intensive body tissue to maintain (it uses slightly more calories at rest).

What that has meant for me is that over the years (say 2-3 diets over a decade) I've become untoned i.e. maybe feeling and looking slimmer overall at the end of the diet but not actually liking the overall look.

It took me a long time to realise that the reason I didn't like the overall look was because I'd lost muscle mass. Muscle mass is quite hard to put back on without conscious effort to use the muscles and eating more calories than you need to build it.

I did a deliberate muscle gain programme in my early 40s with a personal trainer to put it back on. It was brilliant but probably one of the most intense things I've ever done (i.e. three gym sessions a week without fail for five months)...so I'm cautious about losing it. I've kept the muscle mass (but unfortunately added a layer of fat I need to lose 😂).

Long answer to a quick question from me 😂

WOS 11st 13.4

Goal next week is to not gain weight.

That makes a lot of sense to me.

Without meaning to, I lost 2 stone in the space of one month. (16st 4 down to 14 st 4.) I did lose body fat, but I also lost muscle mass in my arms and legs - not a good look in an older woman.

I quickly regained the weight, but it took me rather longer to regain the muscle mass - I've had to work out three times a week to manage that. I'd say that my arms and outer thighs look okay now...Don't ask about the inner thighs!

I'm currently 14st 12.5lbs. (I'm 65 and 5ft9.)

Weigh day for me today, 1lb down. Pleased with that as haven’t really exercised this week and also had a few more treats than I should have (TOTM). Hope everyone has a great weekend

Well, I've been to the gym. Didn't manage a huge amount, but it's the first time that I've been on a Saturday. 20 minutes HIIT on the treadmill, fast walking - 6.6kph was the fastest I managed. I'm trying to keep an eye on my heartbeat while I'm on the machine: 163 bpm was the fastest.

I did worry about a bit of a pain on the left side of my chest, but realised that that was where I'd wrenched myself by accidentally putting the speed up too high! (Had to grab onto the bar to stop myself having a comedy backward run and fall.)

3 sets of 10 (20kg) with angel wings in between for lat pull, triceps pull and biceps pull.

ETA Have just had a bowl of lentil soup with creatine stirred through.

Increasing calories and watching macros seems to have made a huge difference! I’m down again this week and feel really good. I had a huge mid week wobble, started a new thread spent the day obsessing but gave myself a shake and talking too and carried on.
had a hair cut, did a weight work out today and focused very much on my next two goals. I’m in a size 12 trousers today and that feels good!!
hope everyone is having a lovely weekend

An ok today. Hit step count, mostly stuck to healthy choices- out for dinner tonight and stuck to protein and minimal carbs.

I think a vaguely reasonable weekend here. Out for dinner on Friday, but managed to suggest noodles instead of pizza. A high amount of exercise (for me) on Friday and Saturday, so have taken today more easily - a walk and some gardening is as physical as it got! Overate a very nice peanut chicken curry last night, but have been reasonably sensible today. Will see what the scales look like tomorrow morning…

Hope everyone has seen some sun today!

A walk this morning with family then a cycle to meet a friend for a walk, plus a few weights at home. So I've hit step target and focussing on protein and salad for food.

14st 12lb this morning. No gym - just some gardening. Continuing to massacre brambles and ivy.

Cornflakes and oatmilk for breakfast. Coffee - half skinny oatmilk.

Farm shop for lunch - chicken and corn soup followed by goat's cheese salad: cheese, rocket, betroot and a small amount of dressing plus (I think) sesame seeds. Chamomile tea.

I've been looking at various calorie calculators online. They're all telling me that it's unsafe to lose more than two pounds a week. By contrast, the NHS weight loss app seems to reckon that it's okay to lose up to 4 pounds a week...but that I can do that on 1400 calories a day. Experience tells me that I need to get closer to 1000 in order to lose anything, but I'm increasing my workouts, so fingers crossed.