When you have over 100 pounds to lose the enormity (Ha!ha!) of the amount just make goal seem so far away.

I'm not losing that fast (24 pounds in 23 weeks) and I keep reading about people losing faster and I get so annoyed at myself that its not flying off. I'm eating well and finding keeping to 1500 or less calories pretty easy. I'm exercising 2-3 times a week and have just walked into a gym of my own accord, which is AMAZING for me, and will be making an appointment for an induction (I'm writing that to make me do it!).

My pattern at the moment thanks to lovely TOM is that the first 2 weeks of the month I lose a pound a week then the last 2 I go up by those two pounds. When I finally do finish TOM I lose 4-5 pounds. That day is fab but the two weeks leading up to it..which are mostly PMS days are driving me loopy. I want it all regular and sorted - a pound a week like clockwork. Obviously I am delusional!

I think the thing is that I want, and I KNOW this is ridiculous, for my life at the moment to be some sort of musical montage where I sweat a bit, eat a smaller meal then whay hey am at my goal weight. Basically I want it all and I want it now.

That's one side of me..the other is glad its going slowly because it gives me time to adjust and, hopefully, really settle in to new patterns. I dont have any desire to go back to my previous lifestyle.

Today I'm struggling with balancing those two sides..lets say they are my angel and my devil. My devil says it should be easier and faster, my angel says its better to take your time.

So I'm posting for two reasons...
1) Tell me its not just me dreaming of the movie musical montage.
2) How do you keep going cheerfully? (I'm not going to stop or give up but I don't want to feel so bloody frustrated with it. I want to enjoy it again. Its much easier when the pounds are flying off in the beginning)

I totally understand where you're coming from! I think those same things! When I first started this I had 100lbs I wanted to lose and I thought that at first it's not that bad. When I got into it and wasn't losing as fast as I was hoping I got a little discouraged. I just stick with it and hope for the best! I've already had a couple of weeks where I stick to the same number and it's very discouraging!! I, too, wish it would be like that where you exercise a little and eat a little less and bingo bango the weight is gone! haha

"You didn't put it on overnight so you're not going to take it off overnight" is the saying I have to stick with!!

I just think of it also as I may be losing the weight but gaining some muscle. It's not just about the number on the scale Try measuring yourself if you don't already. Sometimes the inches fly off faster than the number goes down

Me too! I was thinking it'd be 2 pounds a week, especially at first, but no such luck. That Biggest Loser show is partially inspiring, but partially disappointing. I see them lose 10+ pounds in a week and realize it'd take me 1-2 months to lose that. Oh well, I guess.

I do feel healthier than I did 4 months ago, though. I know I'm eating healthier. I'm lighter. I have areas I can work on, like exercise, for sure. Still figuring out how to get myself motivated there.

I know it's hard, and so discouraging sometimes, but try not to look at the big picture. Think about how much better you feel and all that you have changed. The weight coming off is great, but you're also getting so much healthier. It WILL happen! Count each victory and realize how much easier life is getting with all the changes you're making.

I've been plugging away for a year now, and have lost 63lbs. At first I wanted it to be now, I just wanted to wear those size 10 jeans and be skinny, yesterday preferably.

Now, I am really happy with the speed of my weight loss. Yes some people lose it really quickly, but we're all different. I've actually had a fabulous time, I have learnt so much about food, exercise and myself. I've really enjoyed the journey.

I think as you go along, the weight becomes secondary to the whole lifestyle thing. I lose so slowly now, but I am losing fat all the time, but gaining muscle. And I know, because I can see the muscle as well as having my body fat measured.

The trick to keeping motivated is to concentrate on everything that is happening with your body, not just the weight. And enjoy it, take your time, and really learn what it will take to get the weight off and keep it off forever.

Thanks for your replies. I do feel much better healthier and it is good to know its not just me feeling like this.

I know that the devil part of me is just being petulant really but I find myself there, like a crazed fool, working it out in Excel...if I lose 1 pound a week I'll be at goal by....

Maybe I need to just bin the time scale and chill out a bit. I'm not suggesting I stop the lifestyle but I think its the pressure of the time scale that's doing me in.

My sister thinks I should weigh only once a month and then I'd always see a big drop. Good plan but unless I bury the scales in the garden 6ft under and guarded by a large hungry lion its not going to happen!

Which leads me on to another question really..are time scales good or bad? Motivation or pressure?

Our bodies fluctuate, as you've so aptly described. That's just the way it is. The scale only measures total weight -- fat, muscle, bone, water -- not just fat. But we see a loss, and immediately think we've lost fat. We see a gain, and immediately think we've gained fat. With those normal 2-5 pound fluctuations, it JUST ISN'T SO. There's NO WAY you can be eating 1500 calories a day and gain 2 pounds overnight. ****, you'd need to eat almost 7000 calories, over and above what your body needs each day to function, to gain that much fat.

So don't sweat it. I know, I know... it's easier said than done. What works for me is to weigh myself daily, so I get used to the fluctuations. I weigh-in "for the record" once a week. But I also keep a spreadsheet and a paper clip chain showing my progress over time. I may get discouraged seeing the scale at 262 this morning, when it was 257 on Wednesday. But I KNOW I didn't gain five pounds of fat since then. I KNOW I've lost about a pound a week for the past year. I KNOW I'm 50 pounds lighter than I was this time last year. I have the numbers. I have the charts. I have the looser clothes. I can test it and I know it's correct.

A pound a week is nothing to scoff at. A pound a week is over 50 pounds a year. A pound a week is slow, methodical, and indicative of better habits. A pound a week is more likely to stay off than if you lose faster but don't change your habits.

So don't beat yourself up about it. My mantra is "A pound a week is fine." My other mantra is "Don't look at the total you still have to lose. Look at how far you've come, instead. You know how to do this. Just keep doing it."

First off, as a technical writer, I just have to mention that "enormity" means "extreme wickedness or evil" and often gets confused with the word "enourmousness," which really means "hige" or "vast in size." I suppose the amount you have to lose could be viewed as evil, but it is a pet peeve of mine

ANYWAY...

We all want to lose all of the weight as quickly as possible. I only had a net loss of 30 pounds over the past year--HOW FRUSTRATING! But it's still better than being those 30 pounds heavier still. No matter how slowly it happens, we just have to keep moving in the right direction. We're not flying toward our destination here--we're walking, which is better for our health anyway!

I have two timescales a minimum one and then a would like to achieve one. For example I wanted to lose 50lbs by the end of 2005 and I lost 62. I would have liked to have lost 100lbs (which is two lb a week) but pretty obviously my body wasn't going to comply with that. Now timescales are out the window and am just plugging away and seeing what happens. This year for me is about getting healthy and exercising a lot and working on my fitness, the weight will just have to look after itself.

It takes time but (and this might depress you even more than that at first, but it's true, so get used to it), you will have to do this for the rest of your life anyway, so it doesn't really matter. In maintenance you might be able to give yourself a bit more leeway, but if you want to keep the weight off you will have to eat and exercise sensibly indefinitely, so put into context taking two or three years to lose the weight isn't a huge thing.

The other thing to bear in mind is that by losing slowly you're giving yourself more time to adapt to your new habits. If you woke up tomorrow thin you'd probably forget how important it is to really change the way you deal with food, and you'd be back where you started before you knew it.

One thing I've noticed as I get closer to goal is that it does get easier, as it becomes just the way you live your life than a diet as such. And one thing that fits with that is that the non-scale victories get more and more important too. My big example is that I started running to lose weight. I still do run partly because I want to lose weight, but I also run because I want to run. I'm running a half marathon at the end of the month, and if I had to choose between running the whole race and finishing in under 2 hours (unlikely but a girl can dream) or being under 160lb on the day of the race, I'd go for the first option. Getting to a nice looking number on the scale is the big thing, and if you can feel yourself getting fitter and healthier in other ways then you're still achieving something, even if you are seeing water fluctuations on the scale or losing slower than you'd like.

I'll give you the perspective of a fast loser (there aren't many of us). I've lost 102 pounds in 31 weeks. I'm on a very low calorie diet and it is extremely difficult. I sincerely regret choosing this type of diet, because I easily gain and have to re-lose. I am also more apt to suffer binges. I gained 14 lbs over the holidays and had to retake them off. I've probably gained and re-lost 30 or 40 pounds. I don't think it is worth it anymore. I wish I had gone on a normal 1200 calorie a day diet and lost it more slowly. I'm sure I would gain weight if I went up to 1200 or 1500. But I'm so impatient; I just wanted the weight off as quickly as possible. And now I read it is SO much more likely for someone who lost it fast to gain it back. I very well may have a **** of a time with maintenance. I wouldn't reccommend a VLCD for anyone, including the most motivated and impatient of individuals.

One word ladies: Atkins

If you really are tired of it taking so long, Atkins is the quickest diet I know. It works and it works well because it removes a lot of the cravings, because it starts you directly burning your fat very fast. Because most of us who have gained so much weight have done it because we love carbs (starchy and sugary foods). Eliminate most of those from your diet and your body doesn't overreact with insulin production (which stores all that extra food as fat).

Atkins works VERY quickly. I've lost 15.5 pounds in a little over a month. If you have a lot of weight to lose and if you are impatient, Atkins is worth a try.

I don't really think this thread is about finding a new diet plan but more of just letting off a little steam about the process of dieting/changing lifestyles. It's about the frustration you feel sometimes when you compare yourself to others and feel as though you're not measuring up in some way.

For example, I always compare arm size. Weird, I know, but that's my thing. I've always had a problem with the size of my upper arms and that's the first thing my eyes go to when I'm looking at anyone's before and after pics. I get frustrated that someone that may weigh much more than I do has much smaller upper arms. I look to see if someone who had larger upper arms at their start weight now have significantly smaller arms. It's just sometimes frustrating to compare.

Good for you for sticking with it, even though the road may be long.

~Dee

I don't always. I've been known to have the odd tantrum on occasion.... I still have 50ish pounds to drop to get me to where I want to be, but now it's less about that "ideal weight" than how I feel. I keep going because every healthy choice I make makes me feel good mentally and physically, and the cumulative effect of those choices leads to a reduction in my size.

Sure, from a comfort/vanity point of view I'd rather be at my goal weight right now, but as Helen pointed out, it's not as though I'll be sitting in front of the telly eating ridiculous amounts of fried chicken, and drinking gallons of beer when I do get down to 10 stone. (Yes, that's what I was doing this time last year. )

From what I've seen of my friends' experiences with Atkins, that's true. BUT the pounds pile back on quicker than you can say "fad diet" as soon as they stop being ultra-strict.

Each to their own. My weight loss has slowed down since I stopped obsessively counting calories, and I'm actually okay with that right now. I make healthy food choices the majority of the time, get out walking most days, and do strength exercises a couple of times a week. This is something I can keep up for the rest of my life, Atkins (or any other highly restrictive plan) is not. YMMV.

Just to clarify your statement on burning fat immediately. That is not true. This diet's initial weight loss is based on water and glycogen depletion. It takes 3 g of water to store 1 g of carbohydrate in your body. In reality, Atkins weight loss is coming from water loss that is used to store the CHO and lean tissue.

Don't worry about slow weight loss. Physiologically, our bodies are only set up to lose 1 kg or 2.2 pounds a week. That can be a little higher the larger the person is. But if you lose more quickly, chances are you are losing water and lean tissue.

Quick fixes will only put a band aid on the problem. Reduce calories coming in by 300-500, increase calories expended by 300- 500 and you will offset a decrease in your metabilosm and maintain muscle mass.