[Elladorine]

I'm 53 pounds lighter than I was last March, and I figure I can look at this in two different ways.

I can be extremely annoyed that I've only managed to average a one pound per week loss. It hardly seems fair, right? No matter how vigilant I am about my choices and portions, and no matter how much I push myself with everything, I apparently can't make myself lose any faster. Growl, growl, snarl.

Or . . . I can realize that hey . . . thanks to all my vigilance and hard work in the past year, I'm currently at my lowest weight ever. Because I'd wasted a lifetime of feeling like any effort that didn't get results now wasn't good enough, saying screw it and eating myself all the way up to 360 pounds.

At the rate I'm currently losing, it's going to take another year and a half to reach my goal. And I'm ok with that. I don't have any control over how quickly I can lose, but I do have control over the choices I make every single day. I'm choosing healthier habits to live a longer, fuller life, and if I have to be extra patient for my smaller body to arrive, so be it. It's really been helpful for me to let my main focus be my long-term health, not the amount of time it's taking to reach a certain number.

I can't wait to see where I'm at next March.

[Vex]

A guaranteed pound per week? Heck yes.

At this point there are some weeks where i lose nothing, despite being on plan. Weight loss can really slow to a crawl, so it's important to be comfortable with the fact that it WILL come off eventually if you stay the course.

You can't let those weeks with no loss, 1 lbs, or even a gain discourage you.

[Elladorine]

Originally Posted by Vex

You can't let those weeks with no loss, 1 lbs, or even a gain discourage you.

I still have plenty of weeks where I gain. Whenever I say I've gained at my meetings (we always announce whether we've lost or gained when we do roll call), everyone looks at me in disbelief. "But you're losing, how can you have gained?!" They seem to forget that I still have gains quite often. The key is that I don't let those gains get to me and I keep on trying, no matter what.

I do wish I could have that elusive guaranteed loss every week. Instead I watch the overall trend and am satisfied with it going the right direction, no matter the pace.

[AlmostMe]

If I could lose 1lb of FAT a week - oh yes, please. Weight?? Not so much.

[Nojunk4me]

Considering the amount I need to lose, I don't know if I would be able to sustain my drive for two years at a pound a week. I sure am going to keep trying, and see how it goes.

[eliza422]

I've taken 3 years to lose 105ish pounds - I still have 25 to go to get to my goal, which if I stay on track will be this summer, around August.

That means I averaged 3/4 pound a week - not even a whole pound.

Am I sad/mad it is taking this long? Sure. Have I ever given up? No, even when I plateaued several times for several months.

What has this long time also done for me? Allowed me to really change my habits and style of eating and exercising. After doing it this long it's almost second nature, and I should be able to relatively easily ease into maintenance.

If I could guarantee a pound a week? Well that sure as **** ain't going to happen - read any of the hundreds of posts of "life getting in the way" of someone's best laid plans.

There are no guarantees about anything we do - so I don't even think that way. Each week am I getting a little closer to where I want to be, even if it's one ounce - or even a stay-the-same moment? Then I'm making progress and I just keep trucking on.

I consider myself pretty cynical, which is maybe why I can still keep on after all this time. Who knows?

[lunarsongbird]

I've thought about this for a couple days now...and I'd have to say no. I'm coming up on 30 pounds down in 3 months and I just LOVE that. I love averaging nearly 10 pounds a month!

[merilung]

Originally Posted by lunarsongbird

I've thought about this for a couple days now...and I'd have to say no. I'm coming up on 30 pounds down in 3 months and I just LOVE that. I love averaging nearly 10 pounds a month!

lunarsongbird - we are neck and neck with our losses! I started at the tail end of last December and I'm down about 33 pounds. I'm hoping to keep this pace up for awhile!

That said, I'd be happy with a one pound loss a week - if that's what it takes, than that's what it takes. I'm losing more than that now, though, and I'm in no hurry to see it slow down.

[rodeogirl]

I'm happy I'm not gaining. I'm more happy that I'm losing. I'm loving the big losses that one gets at the beginning.

I play a lot of poker and in poker it's VERY important to not be results oriented in the short term. You can play a hand perfectly and get sucked out on and lose a big pot. This tempts you to switch your play up so that doesn't happen again. But in the long run a good poker player will win money if he/she makes the best decisions given the information they have and not go on tilt because of variance.

Variance, in poker is basically the luck factor.

I'm trying to look at weight loss the same way. I'm GOING to have variance. Sometimes it's TOMs fault, sometimes it's my fault, sometimes it's the fact that calorie counts in food are estimates at best.

If I want to live healthy in the long run I have to learn to live with variance and not worry about it. Life happens.

So yeah if I lose a pound a week I'm going to be satisfied because at the end of the year I'm still healthier than before. I'm winning in the long run and that's what really matters to me.