I'm starting to get annoyed. My first week and a half I lost around 7lbs. For essentially this second week and half I have only lost 1 lb. I'm eating 1200-1500 calories per day, not very high in sodium but definitely more carb than protein content. I'm not exercising so I guess that could be it? I just thought at my weight I would surely lose fast for the first month, exercise or not with that amount of calories. It seems to me like I haven't really lost anything because I'm sure the first weeks amount was mostly water. My plan was to add in exercise on month two to boost what I figured would be slower weight loss since I can't adjust calories much lower than 1200 per day. I guess I might just be uninformed but I even if I did exercise for 1 hr per day and kept at 1200 calories isn't that not a good idea when I have so much to lose? wouldn't i plateau or need to lower calories or increase exercise even more each month? that isn't doable for me.
Previously at around 260 I went down to 220 in 4 months. I was working out for an hour per day and eating about 900-1000 calories per day. Then one year later I went from 225 to 204 in one month on diet alone(the same calories as I am on now 1200 maybe a bit less) and no exercise. Yet, I lost about 1 lb per day. I figured this first month would be somewhat similar and then it'd taper off. I'm just upset at seeing no change. Aren't I surely big enough to be losing more than 1 lb per week and gaining a bit and then dropping or having the same number come up on the scale over and over?
Its frustrating, but the scale isn't the best measure of *fat* loss. It is perhaps the worst measure of fat loss. So many other thing impact total body weight that have absolutely nothing to do with whether you are making healthy choices and using more energy than you are taking in via food.
I'd encourage you to start some form of exercise just to help with overall health and a good mindset. Walking is perhaps the best thing you can do to start with as it requires no special equipment and it is easy to do.
Try not to get too frustrated with the scale. Trust in what *you* do, not what the scale says.
It sounds like you've lost 8 pounds in three weeks. That's nothing to sneeze at! The body isn't a machine that burns off a certain amount of fat if you do X and Y. It seems to go through cycles where it drops weight fairly steadily, then holds on at a certain weight for a week, then drops again. Many people on this board have specifically said that they see a cycle to their weight-loss over the course of weeks or months.
Please do not be discouraged so soon! If you have a solid plan, it WILL work over time. You just have to keep plugging away at it through thick and thin.
I can't tell you how many times I've given up on weight loss... not because it wasn't working, but because it wasn't working FAST enough for me. And then I'd slowly gain it back.
One of the ladies here has inspired a lot of us by declaring that she will keep to her plan for a whole year before she decides whether to give up or not. No weekly or monthly fluctuations, pauses, or even plateaus stop her. She just keeps plugging along. A lot of us have taken guidance from her stance and are doing the same.
Weight loss is rarely linear, our bodies are very sophisticated machines and process calories and nutrients (as well as waste elimination, including fat) in complex and varied ways. We cannot control the output of the equation (the scale), only the input (how we move and what we eat). Following a 12-1500 calorie plan at your weight, if you follow strictly, will yield good weightloss, and over the course of a year it will likely lok very steady on a graph. But many of us, myself included, tend to have big whooshes (2-5 pounds) and then two or three weeks of holding steady while our bodies adjust, before another big whoosh.
The average weightloss is good, but the pattern of loss isn't a clean downward trend. That doesn't mean we're doing something wrong or our plans aren't good, it just means that there is more going on in our bodies than a strict mathematical equation we can easily manipulate.
You had great losses and solid average loss the past few weeks, so your plan is working just fine. I would not advise dropping your calories any lower unless you need to.
8 pounds in three weeks is awesome progress, not slow. There is no "should" when it comes to weight loss, because your body doesn't do what it "should" it does what it does.
I'd strongly encourage you to avoid the "I should be losing more," mentality - it's a treacherous trap. Every diet I ever quit, I did because I thought "I should be losing more." It made what I was losing seem insignficant - I didn't quit because I was failing (despite my thinking so) I quit because I wasn't seeing the results I expected (and my expectations were far ahead of reality or even the realm of possibility at times).
It bothers me (if I let it, and I try not to) that the same 1800-2200 calories that once earned me losses of 2 to 10 lbs per week, now yield no more than 2 lbs a month. I can give up because I "should be losing more," or I can suck it up and take whatever weight loss I get.
If you're not satisfied with your rate of loss, you can try to change what you eat (low-carb seems to help some people lose more rapidly), or exercise more, but even so it doesn't guarantee you'll lose as quickly as you like to (it seems no one ever loses as quickly as they like to, or even as quickly as they feel they should be).
"Should" is a word that can get a person into a whole lot of trouble. It makes success look like failure just because the success isn't big and impressive enough.
Thank you so much for taking the time to reply. I think I was writing off the initial 7lbs as water only so I was starting to panic at 3 weeks diet coming out to only 1lb that fluctuates. My scale goes up and down on weight, bodyfat, and muscle mass. I have never been in the position where my body didn't show a daily loss while dieting but then again my longest run at it was 4 months. I'm committed to the plan I was just scared I'm eating too much or need to find a better way to get more exercise in. I guess I'm just tempted to go to calories like 800-1000 but I'm already hungry falling asleep every night as is. I'm just scared of failing or taking years to get weight off if there is something I'm doing wrong that would put me on a better track. I guess I will chart daily and look at it monthly for trends. It's very interesting and relieving to know weight can be stable for awhile then drop and that is just how some bodies work.
Hi butterfly- All the advice given to you in this thread is soo good! So I will not parrot it. I did want to ask you to please not go below 1000 calories daily. I know it is tempting because the scale shows loss...but it is so unhealthy. And that's what this weight loss is really all about being more healthy. Yes looking nice is an added bonus but you have a long happy healthy life in front of you- you want to take very good care of your body. Eating below 1000 a day can cause: muscle loss, hair loss, dull looking skin, vitamin deficiency, heart palpitations, loss of energy, etc. A weight loss of 1-2 lbs. weekly is normal. Some weeks I don't lose any according to the scale- but my clothes sure do show it. Be sure to keep a journal with your weight and date it. You will see the numbers descend downward. Enjoy this time...it is very exciting getting more healthy!
Thank you so much for taking the time to reply. I think I was writing off the initial 7lbs as water only so I was starting to panic at 3 weeks diet coming out to only 1lb that fluctuates. My scale goes up and down on weight, bodyfat, and muscle mass. I have never been in the position where my body didn't show a daily loss while dieting but then again my longest run at it was 4 months. I'm committed to the plan I was just scared I'm eating too much or need to find a better way to get more exercise in. I guess I'm just tempted to go to calories like 800-1000 but I'm already hungry falling asleep every night as is. I'm just scared of failing or taking years to get weight off if there is something I'm doing wrong that would put me on a better track. I guess I will chart daily and look at it monthly for trends. It's very interesting and relieving to know weight can be stable for awhile then drop and that is just how some bodies work.
I really appreciate your responses and insight.
For me, going too low in calories is a sure recipe for hunger, cravings, and eventual cheating and backsliding. Your body needs fuel, and it will do whatever it needs to get it. This shouldn't be a fight.
And please keep in mind that one pound loss a week, average, will lose you over 50 pounds in a year!! Slow and steady probably is what got you to this
weight in the first place. Slow and steady will get you down the scale.
Please, please, think long-term on this. It's the only way to ensure that you not only lose the weight initially, but you keep it off forever!
Shouldn't I be losing more?
