[Scotsgal]

Yes, I did spell Organisation the UK-English way lol.

So This thread is about being organised about weightloss!

My aunt was the type of person who would go out and buy bags of sugar, totalling the amount of weight she needed to lose. Then she would move the bags of sugar from one shopping bag to the other to physically feel the amount she has lost.

My gran did the same but in little glass stones, she would move them a lb at a time from one jar to the other. No wonder I am also one of these people who benefit from visual aids, However I do not use the same methods as my family members, I am a chart freak!

In January at the start of my journey, I decided to create a chart that would last the entire year. I vowed to lose just one pound a week so that on a bad week, I was able to catch up and not feel overwhelmed with unreachable targets. Each week had a sticky tab on it, and as I lost weight each tab was pulled away and put in the bin. If I didn't reach my weekly target, the tab would be moved to the bottom to reach later on. I also gave myself an extra 5 bonus pounds to lose in addition to my one a week to reach before xmas. If I was not able to reach the 5 extra, then its ok! they were bonus points only.

I also have a current 14 day chart challenge that will hopefully motivate me to do all of the exercises on the list every single day for toning my legs and tummy.

I have attached pics of my two charts that I swear by every single day/week/month.

Do you use Visual Aids to help motivate you on your journey??

[Ameline]

I'm one for charts too! I prefer online ones, though, as I have access from everywhere and it isn't cluttering my already heavily cluttered space I do have one tiny little place with a tear-away little tokens in the form of tiny cute pictures for each kilo lost. I have ignored it for quite some time as I regained part of the lost weight and tried not to look at it, but now after a month here I'm back at my low point. It feels good, actually, to see that I'm actually half gone towards my high goal. Sure, two years, most of which I wasn't really trying, but hey! Something's happening, right now. I don't do well with timed challenges and daily plans - I have a problem with constantly overestimating the goals and then getting frustrated, or just forgetting about filling it for some lengths of time etc. I do better with goals by themselves, with the time they took as more of an afterthought. I love doing the numbers, it's very comforting to me. Graphs, charts, calculations, estimates - I like to get technical, despite being the most disorganized person I know. Sometimes it's easy to forget life's messy (especially mine) and get lost in the beautifully simple abstract universe of numbers (despite how much I love it I'm really no good at math, though, don't have the right kind of brain )

[Scotsgal]

Hey,

Yeh a lot of people now use online charts and it is great! I was just never very good at excel and I keep forgetting all of the formulas to do it that way. I am a Microsoft Word Genius though lol so I know that it would be pretty easy to do it that way. I take pics of myself every few weeks or so and keep them in a folder online which is good, parties/ weddings/ then the usual in-front of mirror in your underwear shot lol.

I would find that I would always give myself goals and targets and never reach them also, but I think it was because they were always rather far fetched. For example: My friends got married last October and 6 weeks before it I wanted to lose 2lbs a week so that I was 12lbs lighter come the wedding. Me and my friend went on the cabbage soup diet, we did the exact same things and in 7 days she lost 7lbs, and I put on 2 . I was going to the gym 5 times a week and really burning everything off (I thought). In the 6 weeks, I lost 6lbs it was half of what I aimed for and I felt huge! But in reality I had gained a lot of muscle.

Now I lose like mentioned before just 1lb a week, sometimes I don't reach it, But some weeks I lose more than that and it catches up.

I like visually seeing the loss, because after 32lbs I still don't see it on my body yet.

[Chunkahlunkah]

Those are great visual aids! I bet there are people who would pay you $ to get those templates. Maybe an Etsy idea?

What's helped me a lot this month is writing down my weight every day and then putting in bold my week's lowest weight. I like it bc it helps me see my progress more easily than when I would keep that list only in my head.

For the past few weeks, I've also been strictly tracking my calories. That's helped me know what my weekly average calories are, and to see how my daily cals impact my weight the next day. That's had some surprising info for me!

[Scotsgal]

Chunkahlunkah Why thank you, might need to look that up lol.
I see a lot of people do the daily charting. I do the same on My Fitness Pal, every morning I step on the scales to remind myself to have a good calorie day, then every week I write it on the chart. Like you said, it is very motivational, it can also save you from gaining weekly if you catch the bad day midweek and fix it before weigh in day.

What do you find you use each day? my calories every day are very low, but I don't lose weight on anything higher. Yesterday I was 1180calories and I can't go over 1350 or it will instantly alter my weightloss for the whole week.

[Chunkahlunkah]

Scotsgal - Oh man, that's rough that 1350+ has such a detrimental impact! I assume you've had your thyroid checked? What foods do you typically eat?

Since tracking, I've been averaging around 1250 calories a day, but that's from looking at my weekly average. Some days are higher or lower. My Fitness Pal recommends I eat 1200 a day to lose 1 pound a week.

I have a pattern of dropping weight the day after I eat higher calories, and either maintaining or even slightly gaining after my lowest calorie days. Bizarre! My body seems to really love the reassurance that calories are available and lets go of weight easier when I send it that message.

I also wonder if my metabolism is quick to adapt to calories: drops a little when calorie intake is very low, and quickly goes up a bit when it's higher. Even though I'm cycling calories now, I'm still averaging for the week close to what calculators recommend for my weight loss. I'll need to track a while longer though to get a better idea of what weight loss I can expect from various weekly calorie averages.

[Chunkahlunkah]

Oh, I just realized something! MFP recommends that I eat 1200 calories a day only because, as a rule, they don't drop below that recommendation. However, my TDEE is estimated at 1500, so to lose a pound a week, according to that calculation, I'd actually need to average only 1000 calories a day. Fortunately that's not been the case for me!

Going by the calorie intake at which I've been averaging a 1 pound loss a week, my current TDEE appears to actually be in the 1700s.

[Ameline]

Originally Posted by Scotsgal

I would find that I would always give myself goals and targets and never reach them also, but I think it was because they were always rather far fetched. For example: My friends got married last October and 6 weeks before it I wanted to lose 2lbs a week so that I was 12lbs lighter come the wedding. Me and my friend went on the cabbage soup diet, we did the exact same things and in 7 days she lost 7lbs, and I put on 2 . I was going to the gym 5 times a week and really burning everything off (I thought). In the 6 weeks, I lost 6lbs it was half of what I aimed for and I felt huge! But in reality I had gained a lot of muscle.

Now I lose like mentioned before just 1lb a week, sometimes I don't reach it, But some weeks I lose more than that and it catches up.

I like visually seeing the loss, because after 32lbs I still don't see it on my body yet.

Oh, been there so many times! If I didn't lose a kilo a week, I thought I'm doing it all wrong I even made complete charts detailing what event I'll be at which weight - believing I can keep losing 1kg/week for at least 20, preferably 25 weeks My scale doesn't help things - +-1 kilo at the best of times, it's hard to tell the difference even if you're really trying, like stepping on it the same way every time, trying to guess the right angle... I always lost quite fast the first month or two even at a quite high intake for whatever reason (last time it was about 2000 cal) but then it stalled and I might have lost half a kilo in two, three weeks (or not. My scale is a moody old lady, as previously said, and it's better not to trust her completely), I would get discouraged and a) lower my calories until I'd start feeling bad b) conclude it's not worth it. This time it will be different, I swear

This time my plan of attack is a bit more sophisticated. I previously counted my calories at a local version of "myfitnesspall" (it looks similar enough), but found that I had trouble devising meals, keeping my fridge and pantry stocked, I would sometimes sneak a big treat and not eat enough for the rest of the day, it allowed me to be fairly erratic with meal planning etc.

So after estimating my intake at 1800cal with 35% fat, 20% protein and 45% carbs, I divided these numbers between breakfast, lunch and dinner. The protein and fat is the same for all, but the carbs are sliding down through the day. Then I calculated several options for each meal (sometimes even with sub-options - do I want three apples or some juice ), so they are easily interchangeable. If I want something different, it's also easier to calculate it to fit a single meal rather than the whole day. And if I like it, I record it, so my meal options are getting larger. The big advantage is that it can be really effortless if I don't have a lot of time, while being flexible enough so I don't feel too constricted. It's actually easier than regular meal planning. The downside is that it's harder to fit in any potential irregularity because there's less of a "buffer zone" due to calories per meal being a tighter measure than calories per day. Lately I was a little slack about the macros, I often forgo my carby side for things like extra cheese or some fruit, but as long as I'm not reducing protein or it isn't getting too out of hand, I think I'm good.

I'm a little baffled at how can I lose at this intake, though. I wasn't exercising nearly as much as my calculations included. Will change beginning today, though. It's the first month, sure, so I shouldn't be too concerned, but... well... it could look like there's a flaw somewhere in the calculations. And it also begs the question what in the name of God was I eating to gain the weight in the first place, but, ah well. I guess it's just the first month with the water weight and all

[Scotsgal]

MY BMR Is: 2070


MY TDEE Is: 2509

Yet like I said, If I eat anymore than 1350 I instantly put on weight. I did get checked out for hypothyroidism twice, it runs in the family, but apparently I don't have it. I do sometimes have problems with blockages in my Fallopian tubes sometimes, but they clear up within a few days. I am awaiting surgery for my elbows, once that is done with, I will concentrate on figuring out what it going on with my downstairs lol. I know that I don't show any signs of PCOS though. I also can't eat any pasta, even if I have set aside the calories for it, It will also make me put on weight because I don't think my body can process it properly. Yet rice and bread is fine, even though I still make sure that I don't have too much of it.

It is interesting Ameline when you say you cut the calories down per meal, I don't think I have ever heard of anyone do that. But like you I save most of my meals which makes it much easier to keep track off on the app. I still eat quite a carby diet, I always try to up my protein but I just don't have the calories to do it lol.

Most days my meals consist of:

2 boiled eggs on a slice of toast
cup of tea

Toast with Tuna and Cucumber or soup

small Yogurt

Turkey, rice, veggies, stirfry sauce or prawns, rice, veggies

Hot chocolate

It doesn't look like very much, but on days where I have worked out I feel more hungry so I will maybe have an apple with peanut butter, or a tangerine or something like that. I try to not snack on more bread because I only allow my self 2 slices per day and like 120g of rice. The rest is all proteins and healthy fats. I also don't really drink unless there is a specific event, like me going to Germany in 2 weeks, lots of beer and wodka there.

[Chunkahlunkah]

Scotsgal - I would be pissed if I had to eat so far below my calculated TDEE! Do you think your TDEE is actually much lower than the calculations predict? I've heard that doctors can run tests to find our true BMR, but I don't know the first thing in going about it. I hope your body eventually doesn't react to calories above 1350 like that.

I hope your surgery goes smoothly for you.

Germany, nice! Beer, makes it extra nice!

[Scotsgal]

Chunkahlunkah Yeh it is annoying to see people who are 100lbs lighter than me and eating way more than me, it has always been a question on my family and friends thoughts. My sister who is a nurse even spoke to her specialist doctors at work to see what they think about it. They just said what most doctors say, I must be eating hidden calories. But the only thing I don't add on my fitness pal is the extra virgin olive oil that I use on the days I have stirfry. It is roughly 1 table spoon and about 50/60 cal each on me and my mums dinner. So as long as I am 60 cal under 1350 I don't really mind. There will be about 1 day every 10 days that I can feel my body wanting more calories, those days I have about 1500, but then I go straight back down the next day.

a Mystery lol.

I think at first I started to wonder if I was actually lying to myself about how many calories I would eat a day. Especially after so many people telling me that If I ate 1900 calories I would lose 2lbs a week. It really messes with you when you are constantly told that you are lying about how much you eat. So My Fitness Pal made me start counting things that I didn't add before, like my Tea, tomato ketchup and stuff like that. Now I count it all....

[Chunkahlunkah]

Originally Posted by Scotsgal

Chunkahlunkah It really messes with you when you are constantly told that you are lying about how much you eat.

I can imagine! It's so frustrating not to be believed. It's kinda like dating a person with major trust issues who constantly suspects you're cheating! And I can see how it could also be a mind f*ck and cause self-doubt. I'm glad you know what works for you. I really hope that it gets easier someday.

In the meantime, you're sitting on a goldmine with your weight loss templates, especially since you're a Microsoft word wizard. Or witch, I guess?

Do you prefer having the visual trackers on your wall rather than in a notebook?

When I work on large papers, I often hang up the various notes and index cards on my wall so that I can get a complete look at the whole. It helps me organize things. So I can see the appeal in using a wall tracker for weight loss.

[Ameline]

Scotsgal: Oh, sorry, that really must suck. I had no idea... I hate when medical professionals say things like that, most actually have very poor training in nutrition (unless it's different where you are from), but still have authority in such matters.

I'm by no means an expert or close to being one, but from what I gather calorie counting is only a part of the story, the body can alter both sides of the equation quite significantly. I wish I had an idea what's going on on your side.

Anyway, hope your surgery goes well. And enjoy your trip and the beer

[Scotsgal]

Chunkahlunkah I am a wall person, some of it is about getting over a fear of letting other people see just how bad I let it go. That is because my family and friends are soo supportive, that they also needs to see just how bad it got, it is not only a reminder daily for me to get my butt in gear, but also a reminder for anyone who goes into my room that this time its for real. Some of it is down to my need to be visual, you should of seen my walls when I was doing my degree, there was no space left lol.

Ameline Yes the majority of our doctors are the same, the more weight I lose, the more my body changes in what it needs. Sometimes I know that it needs more exercise than usual, for me its about listening to what it needs.

[Chunkahlunkah]

Have fun in Germany next week, Scotsgal!