Anyone around to give me a pep talk?!

[Ohyesthankyouglitter]

Okay, my general strategy with weight loss in the past has been to weigh myself, and then not weigh myself for 4 weeks. This helps remove the emotions of all the ups and downs.

Five weeks ago I started and weighed 12st 7, today I weighed myself and I'm 12st 12.

I am sort of on my period (on mirena so don't get much) but I just don't understand it. They've not been brilliant weeks but I have definitely eaten less and moved more than the months before, and my clothes feel less tight (I became ill last summer and it's taken a long time to recover- put on 1.5st in that time, just from eating rubbish and not moving at all).

Anyone got any pep talks they can give me?! Need some encouragement to keep going. Arghhh, it's so disappointing!!

If your clothes are less tight, it’s likely to be fluid retention, hormones etc, not genuine weight gain. Keep the faith and maybe weigh yourself in a few days after your period. Well done on making positive changes, it’s not easy.

You’ve got this👏

I used to weigh myself every 2 weeks and I'll share what I do now and you can decide if it's for you or not.

Now I weigh myself daily. I try (and sometimes fail) to not react to the scale moving up or down because what the change is on a daily basis matters less than what happens as the overall trend and is more influenced by water etc.

I then track both my weight on a Monday morning and the lowest weight in the previous week on excel once a week. The latter was a suggestion from someone on here. Honestly I quite like it. It helps me stay "honest" with how I'm doing.

I know all of the objections to not weighing daily but honestly I found the same as you, I used to weigh fortnightly then it was a surprise I'd not lost anything despite what I felt were "good" behaviours and it gives you less information about what else might be going on, e.g. that it's just shot up in the last couple of days (so probably water) or that you've gained over a lb a week on a steady basis (probably genuine).

Thanks @Lemonthyme. Can I ask a really practical question? did you always weigh yourself first thing, before you had anything to drink?
I have a large glass of water by my bed that I like to drink before getting up. Can I weigh the water and take it into account?! Or sometimes my husband brings me a cup of tea.
Part of me is actually interested in your strategy, partly because it might help me to recognise which foods cause bloating and which don't.
I'm determined to lose this 1.5stone!

Have you been exercising too?

Personally I find I retain water overnight, if you wake up with any stiffness or aches then you probably do too; I actually find 10am after walking the dog and giving myself chance to settle is actually my lowest weight. I can be 1-2lbs lighter then than first thing. I don’t like weighing every day but I do a couple of times a week. I heard on a podcast that if you weigh a few times a week as long as you are following your plan, take the lowest weight of the week- it’s very easy to get a false high but not as easy to get a false low, therefore your lower weight is probably more accurate.

I always do the same thing. Weigh myself, pre coffee, pre water, after a wee(!) I don't know if this is true but it makes sense to me to weigh at the same time after the same things. Then whether or not you're lighter or heavier at that time, you are consistant.

I'm a bit weirded out waking up thirsty though I have to be honest. I always wake up with the opposite problem, needing a wee! But then I tend to drink far too much herbal and decaf tea in the evenings.

Okay @Lemonthyme , I'm going to start tomorrow, see how it goes 😂
@Chica1990 , yes I have- that's why it's been strange- am back to pretty consistent exercise. Bizarrely I don't usually find myself more hungry after exercise, so don't think I've been unconsciously eating more.

When I learnt the difference in volume between 5lb of fat vs muscle it changed my view of weight! I can't seem to post an image but it's worth a google. I've now ditched the scales because they are demoralising and don't give you a full picture of your make up and instead do once a week progress pics, how I look in the mirror and the fit of my clothes.

Dont let the number get you down, you're doing great

Can I start tomorrow with you?

I also weigh 12.12 and ideally would like to get to 10.7 so have a fair way to go. My main down fall is sugar so I am planning on giving it up from now and going cold turkey.

Perhaps we can motivate and encourage each other?

I was at 13 stone 5 at my highest. I gradually crept down to 13 stone 1 after giving up alcohol. I've weighed myself this morning 11 stone 13 and 3/4. (That extra quarter lb under 12 stone has really made my day.)

I do a weekly fast (1 x 24 hours) but around the same time I picked that up, I stopped eating sugar and sweeteners. I'm not totally religious about it so if there's a small amount of sugar in a savoury marinade, I'm not going nuts but I don't eat cakes, chocolates, sweets or fizzy drinks (apart from water) anymore. To cope with the transition, I just ate fruit and dried fruit instead and have continued to. I sometimes crave some dates or watermelon nowadays, but I never crave stuff with added sugar anymore. I have no idea if it's what has happened but your gut bacteria are meant to change quite quickly and be really involved in cravings.

I'm so close to not overweight now. BMI 25.5. But I'd still like to be at 10 stone if I can. I know I'll feel like I look loads better though at 11 stone. And that's only the kind of change I've achieved in a month and a half... I could get there by mid June (fingers crossed!)

I find a daily weigh in works. I do it as soon as I get up.

I fast from approx 6/7pm until lunch the next day. Except on one weekend day where I eat breakfast. I rarely eat anything sugary - homemade cakes made by my daughter are the only sugar items worth eating (in my opinion). After reading Von tullekans upf book I can’t stand to eat most processed food - I found it really helpful. I rarely have a calorific drink - a dash of milk in tea/coffee but I buy really nice camomile, Yerba mate, rooibos, lavender teas etc.

Food noise has pretty much stopped. I’ve dropped over 7kg (down to 60.8kg) in 3 months and it’s been okay. I am 5 ft 6. I weighed everything for the first 5-6 weeks. I used Noom and it helped. But my fitness pal is easier to log so I won’t renew Noom - but I would recommend it as it clearly worked for me.

I expect the scales to go up and down daily, it’s the trend I’m looking at. I’m now trying to decide by looking in the mirror when to stop losing weight -

Ooh @Twinandatwoyearold for herbal teas, if you've not tried it, Pukka Vanilla Chai is so flipping delicious. It's like chai without the chai bit (i.e. without the black tea) but a MUCH stronger spice flavour. It's a bit spendy but seeing as I don't drink and don't eat cakes, chocolate etc anymore, it's a treat.

@Lemonthyme and @Twinandatwoyearold you guys are so inspirational!
Lemon, are you actually saying you've lost all that weight in 6wks or did I read it wrong?
Think I might go get the Van Tullekan book out of the library - I need scaring. I'm late 40s and totally of the generation where convenience food in my childhood was seen as new, exciting and easy. Some of the stuff I ate in the 80s could barely be described as food 😂

@HelloDaisy I would absolutely love company.
My plan is to do two (or more if possible) days of OMAD- one meal a day at tea time. Weirdly I actually find this easier- it's like once I start eating I feel much hungrier.
I'm also going to continue to exercise- I've not been able to do any since last summer, so it'll take some time to get back to fitness.

Weighed myself today and am 12st 10.5.
My ultimate goal weight is to be in a window between 11st 3 and 11st 7 but initially aiming for 11st anything - by then I think my clothes will start to fit better.

Thanks Chica! I am not quite at the stage of gaining proper muscle weight, but I do hope to be- would love to get stronger

@Ohyesthankyouglitter Excellent! I am sure we can do this together. Not sure I could manage on 1 meal a day though, I’m impressed!

I weighed 12.10 this morning and want to be 10.7 but will aim for 12.3 to start with. I’ve given up sugar and have started a food diary. I also plan to walk 7k steps every day…

@HelloDaisy I'm going to break mine down to, into two lots of 10lbs. It's too much to think about a big lot.

Made myself a little calendar with all the dates between now and August, and will add weights in. Feels good to look at it and remember that I'm in this for the long-haul.

Am 1lb down today but I'm often low after an OMAD day, there's just much less food in my system. (Still encouraging 😂). Am sort of looking forward to the first day I have a gain, just so I can practice my new positive mental attitude 😎

How's the sugar craving?

Like PPs I find weighing myself daily helps. I use an app called libra which helps iron out any fluctuations and shows a trending line.

I do IF but instead of OMAD I do 20:4. That way I can break my fast with a bit of fruit or similar and then I cook dinner. Otherwise I struggle with the cooking smells!

Not heard of Libra @SeekingHappinesss , but I'll check it out.
How many days a week do you do OMAD?
I've sort of settled into two days a week, maybe more if I know there's going to be a slighter larger dinner for some reason. I do drink tea/coffee with milk so it's not a strict fast.

Started on Monday at 12st 10.5, down to 12st 8.75 today so pretty chuffed with that. Hoping for 2lb loss a week if possible, just to begin with.

Sorry I missed your previous message.

I think the CvT is eye opening as to the level of UPF food we now eat but please do be aware that there is very little evidence that UPF food is actually bad beyond what we already know about high fat, high sugar, high salt, low fibre. The thing is that a lot of UPFs are automatically all or some of that.

No I've not lost that over the past 6 weeks. Since I started fasting it's been 13 lbs over 11 weeks (some of the weight loss was before fasting but it's been quicker since). I'm happy with that rate of weight loss to be honest as I think it's more likely my body will adapt to being lighter also while I'm not seeing crazy changes in the mirror, I am seeing changes and just catching a glance now and again and going "ooh I'm lighter!"

@Ohyesthankyouglitter Annoyingly I haven’t lost anything in 6 days despite no snacking, healthy meals, plenty of water and walking at least 7k steps a day 😫
I will keep going and hopefully metabolism and body will sort itself out soon…

6 days is still early. Often you don't see the impact of your actions for a couple of weeks. Are you doing any other exercise apart from walking? Were you not walking much at all before? In a way it's more the change that matters than the quantity. So if you were walking, say 3000 steps a day max before and get up to 7000, that will probably make a difference. If you were at 6000, you may need to increase it some more. Also good to include some higher intensity exercise if you can and strength, especially as you get fitter.

@HelloDaisy that's really frustrating, and demotivating. Are you going to persevere as you are, or try something different? Hang in there

@Lemonthyme 13lb over 11 weeks is really impressive. I've lost a couple of lb this first week and feel a bit impatient. I know the weight loss will decrease, but haven't quite settled into the mindset of 'this is how I'm going to live for the next few months'

Am enjoying weighing every day- there's been 3 days where the scale was higher than the day before but it hasn't bothered me (too much 😂)- partly because it's never my expectation to have had a huge drop, which it is when you weigh less often.

I think that's the thing @Ohyesthankyouglitter that 13 lbs in 11 weeks sounds like a lot and it is a lot but week by week it's not. It's about consistency that gets you there.

My OH has been inspired and keeps nagging me now to do long walks with him at a weekend even though I run as well. I thought I broke him last weekend with an 8 mile yomp 😆but then he wanted to go on a (shorter) walk this weekend too. I'm now getting 14-15,000 steps a day on average.

I'm also loving this FitnessBlender work out. I do it quite a lot, it's my go to upper body one. You can really lift heavy (if you want to) on the chest presses which I love and apart from the push ups (not a fan) the rest of the exercises are all doable and modifiable. I do the chest fly standing with fairly light weights for example.

Upper Body Strength Push Chest, Shoulders, Triceps: Build Muscle and Endurance | Fitness Blender

I use their workouts quite a lot on days I'm not running. I don't do as much lower body because the running works that so much but I tend to do more Pilates for lower body both to build strength in a different way and prevent injury.

I’ve had a bad weekend food wise as too much going on to plan meals so ended up snacking. Back on it now and hopefully will see a change soon.

I usually walk a lot but not every day so thought that may help but probably need to add a different form of exercise to my week so will try that, thanks.