I weigh weekly. For me, the scale is an emotional roller coaster. For different weight loss attempts, I wanted fast fast fast results and I got on the scale many times per day. If the weight was down, I was ecstatic, motivated, committed. When the weight was up, I was demoralized and felt like it wasn’t working. Weighing weekly and recording my weight loss in an Excel spread sheet really let me see my progress over time. The line may have bobbled a bit, but it slowly, steadily moved down. I always weigh on Sundays (pee, strip, weigh). I will confess, if I don’t like the what the scale says on Sunday, I just re-weigh on Monday. Whatever was affecting the scale (salt, whatever) was normally gone. I was determined NOT to let the scale control my happiness!
The year I was losing, I weighed daily. I made certain though that I did everything in my power to get that scale moving down, meaning I stayed strictly on plan; therefore I had nothing to fear.
Weighing daily helped me to stay on plan. I knew I had to face it every morning (no more sticking my head in the sand).
I weigh daily and find that I actually obsess LESS because of it. When I allow myself to weigh whenever I want it ends up being more amusing than anything else. I record my weight daily in the daily weighing thread in the 100 club on this site. I love that thread because it shows a really good example of how everyone's weight fluctuates. It shows fast losers, slow losers, steady losers and those who have plateaued. (Ahem...meaning ME.)
I think weighing daily will be a critical component to maintenance. I can not imagine gaining all that weight again if I am facing the scale every day.
the plan that will work for you is the one you stick to. As long as it includes healthy foods, it may not matter what you do, ww, sb, atkins, calorie counts etc. Unless and until you accept you cannot eat junk, you must make lifetime changes, you will not have the diet success you crave. Yes, you will not be perfect, but the day after, you get back on plan and stick it.
These days, my binges or cheats, are so small, they seldom have an effect on my weight, except to slow my loss perhaps. and the next day, I go back to plan, and stay there for quite a while. After a year of pretty much sticking to plan, I can keep it up. (doing atkins so that my blood sugars stay stable, as I am pre-diabetic) I believe I can keep doing this for life.
I am losing, but VERY slowly. But after a year, I weigh less than last year when I was diagnosed. My sugars are stable. I exercise more. This years goal is to exercise more frequently and be in better shape this time next year, while sticking to plan. The way I eat is sustainable for me, and I can stick to it, but first I had to accept I could not eat the way I use to eat. (the way that made me fat) It was hard to accept, but getting there is half the battle.
good luck in your journey!
Yeah, that was the true lightbulb moment for me, Fatmad.
I was sooo good at dieting. So many times I had dieted and lost weight. Then, I would gain it back. And I would diet and lose weight.
So, in 2004, I sat down with myself and said "self, why are you so good at dieting and so bad at keeping the weight off?" and I realized that when I dieted 2 things always happened:
1. I reached a goal weight and quit dieting and started eating normally
2. I got tired of dieting and quit dieting and started eating normally
I can't believe it took me 20 years to figure out once and for all that how I ate normally made me fat!!! I had to change how I ate normally. No more dieting and stopping, but just changing how I eat forever.
That was the piece of the puzzle that had eluded me. Seems pretty simple now.
Yeah, that was the true lightbulb moment for me, Fatmad.
I was sooo good at dieting. So many times I had dieted and lost weight. Then, I would gain it back. And I would diet and lose weight.
So, in 2004, I sat down with myself and said "self, why are you so good at dieting and so bad at keeping the weight off?" and I realized that when I dieted 2 things always happened:
1. I reached a goal weight and quit dieting and started eating normally
2. I got tired of dieting and quit dieting and started eating normally
I can't believe it took me 20 years to figure out once and for all that how I ate normally made me fat!!! I had to change how I ate normally. No more dieting and stopping, but just changing how I eat forever.
That was the piece of the puzzle that had eluded me. Seems pretty simple now.
This is true for me as well. I have learned I can NEVER go back to my old way of eating if I want to stay at goal. This was a flash of insight for me .
Eliana- I Love reading your post and your 1 year commitment. I'm making a similar one also and that is my goal, I might not lose 80 lbs like you but I will definitely make a pact with myself to stick with a plan and give it all I got for a year. Right now I plan to do WW but like you it might evolve over time into something else but you are such a inspiration and definitely repeat yourself as much as you want
Awe, I appreciate that. I am just in continual amazement that I didn't figure it out sooner and that it worked so well.
Hang in there, we all know we didn't gain this weight in only a month or two! I'm like you, I had the most success with a combination of Atkins and Weight Watchers at first (30 lbs), but I don't like the fact that in WW you're still allowed to eat junk food, which for me creates cravings for more (just like sugar). So what I'm doing now is what a friend of mine was told by her nutritionist and she has lost 45 lbs so far. Don't eat the white stuff (potatoes, rice, sugar, pasta, white flour). Eat very small portions of lean meat or fish. Increase your portions of veggies (except corn and peas) so that they fill you up. Eat 3 -4 fruit portions per day. Exercise more (my friend just takes 4 long walks per week). It's much easier because you're not counting anything, but you do have to shop for the right foods and plan all your meals ahead, like any other plan. It works! Good luck
Well you said calorie counting doesn't work for you...but so far that is what works for me. I guess I would feel more constrained, deprived and then discouraged if I felt like I could only eat xyz, whereas when I know my allotted calories, I eat what I want keeping it on the healthy side and fit a treat in if I so desire. That for me is easy to follow and guilt-free. It also feels sustainable for the long haul and not like some "special diet thing". I feel things like getting meals delivered and diets that say you can only eat this or this are not going to work for the rest of my life. I do not plan for my entire life to be restricted so to me counting calories, is a sensible thing that I can do forever since it boils down to simply being conscious of what you eat and how much.
You also said you quit when you don't see results, I know the feeling However, what has worked for me is changing my mindset. In the past I would try to go on "lose 20 lbs in 2 weeks" diets and these quick solutions, that ofcourse were not working or were far too constraining then I'd give up after a day or two. This time though, I acknowledge the reality that it is going to take TIME to get to my goals, so one day at a time is all I can do. That takes the pressure off. Also seeing it as a healthy lifestyle change versus "I need a bikini body in 6 weeks" also takes the pressure off. I also realize the scale can be tricky. I do weigh daily, but I understand that sodium and other factors can affect it, so if I see a rise, I don't freak out. I just continue sticking to my calorie allotment and exercise and sure enough it goes back down to the lowest recorded weight.
Slowly but surely with each pound coming off and after each work out I am feeling better and better and feeling small changes in my body. This makes me know it's working and that while I haven't dropped a size yet, that's okay because with everyday I am getting there Goodluck!
Right now, I am kind of tailoring my plan on Sparkpeople and it did take some editing. They had me on a pre-diabetes plan and my lifestyle just wasnt working for it, sadly. So!
It goes like this:
1200-1450 calories a day (I rarely go over 1300. 1260 is my average)
80-150 carbs (Try to hover around 110)
39-68 grams of fat. (Always dont get enough)
60-115 grams of protein (Formerly 34-64, then it was 80-180, I chose this median)
and finally 25-35 grams fiber. Which I struggle with.
I try to eat a lot of vegetables in salad form, mixed frozen veggies and I like to try and replace at least one meal a day with a shake if possible. So far it's been working out. I got serious about weight loss back in mid September and I have lost 25-27 pounds so far. Not bad, I hope? My saving graces: Shrimp, shirataki noodles, brown rice/brown rice vermicelli, chicken breasts and frozen fruit bags from Kroger.
Trying to work out 5 days a week. I just need to actually DO IT.
I have a calorie-counting framework (1200-1600 calories/day) within which I limit carbs (no more than 30 grams carb per meal, usually less).
Within that "plan" there is enough flexibility for me to eat just about anything in moderation (including the occasional half-cup of Rice a Roni or mac and cheese when my husband is cooking "from the pantry").
Jumping on and off diets was my problem too. Now, for the last 14 months, i have stayed on one diet and made minor adjustments along the way. I calorie count and watch my carbs.
The trick for me was to not to have any rule except entering every bite I eat into my software program. That's it. I cannot fail a calorie number or a carb number. If I enter the foods, I have accomplished my goals.
It wasn't until I did it this way that I learned the truth of my eating, my choices and what it did to me and to my health. I became Type2 diabetic and had to take my carbs down to prevent taking meds. I watched my blood glucose numbers go down as my carbs went down. Now I know the right range for me. I saw what calorie level helped me lose weight....I let the whole thing become a learning experience instead of just following someone else's plan. It became uniquely my own.
I think it is hard to find out what works and a program may be great for someone else and not so good for another person.
I had my most success on the old WW exchange system and became a lifetime member. Points was OK but not as good for me. So far I really, really like Points plus.
I know that I have to have a combination of things to work:
1. I need a program that encourages me to eat healthy food but doesn't require me to eat food that I hate. WW for me has been the best although I use elements of South Beach.
2. I like to calorie count plus do WW counting. Keeps me honest. But calorie counting for me by itself isnt' enough.
3. I get a lot from going to weekly WW meetings. When I got to goal I went all the time even if out of town where I had to find a meeting. I don't learn much new there any more but it creates an external short term deadline to work to each week. And I like to get the little stars and awards and such. Attending the meetings keeps me focused on weight loss.
4. I do best when I make weight loss a real focus of my life. I just went to the library and checked out a bunch of books of true life weight loss memoirs, fictional memoirs, etc. I don't expect to learn anything but it keeps me intense.
5. Exercise. Exercise makes a huge, huge difference. It is the difference between a slow weight loss for me and a reasonably fast loss.
6. I need to limit restaurant eating. I never ate food that was really high calorie when at home. Some, sure. I almost didn't know that they had frozen meals that weren't low calorie. I didn't eat a lot of candy or cookies or whatever that was high calorie. Where I get in trouble is portion control. At home that was bad enough. A handful of nuts that was more like 3 servings than 1, etc. But, restaurants are the real villain for me. I went to Chili's recently and a meal I might have ordered before was like 24 WW points. And then I would have perhaps shared an appetizer. I would go to a restaurant and eat a normal entree with sides and maybe share an appetizer and it seemed OK. But it was a full day's food and it wasn't my only meal that day. And I ate out several times a week. And it is hard for me to go and limit what I eat. I find it is much better for me to just limit myself to eating out maybe once a week unless it is a place where what I would normally eat falls within my eating plan.
On weighing -- I weigh daily since it drives me crazy not to. Same time every morning wearing my WW weigh in clothes. On the other hand it would probably be better to weigh once a week to avoid being crazed by the day to day fluctuations.
I agree with Deetermined2! Belly fat cure is amazing! It is a very reasonable price (about $11 on Amazon) and it has absolutely changed my life. 40 lbs in about 8 months and I will eat this way forever!!
I am just in continual amazement that I didn't figure it out sooner and that it worked so well.
Goodluck!
