Slimming World Weight Loss!

(SV Post) Hope everyone is well. Just wanted to share my exciting news. Over the last 5 weeks in lockdown I’ve lost half a stone, bringing my total loss to 2 stone! I began Slimming World in November 2019 (so been doing it for ~6 months) and I’m so thrilled. 2 thirds of the way to my target weight! I’ve wanted to lose weight for years and have gone up and down with my weight, never being able to maintain. I’ve finally found a sustainable lifestyle and diet I can maintain and I am so excited! That’s not to say I don’t struggle sometimes and I do have the occasional cheeky takeaway. There are weeks I gain, weeks I stay the same. It’s about drawing a line and forgiving ourselves when we trip up and then getting back on it. Guilt over messing up is what always led me to messing up more.

Will add some things that has helped me:

For me it has mostly been planning. Generally I’ve been better in lockdown than usual - not being around my friends/boyfriend who snack a lot and like to eat out. But the trick for me really is to have meals/plans prepared. I don’t want to have to think about my food, rather just go to the fridge and eat the food I premade. Less stress and I find it a lot easier that way. I usually make bulks of healthy pasta and have that for the week, usually a mugshot or poached eggs on a slice of toast for lunch, then weetabix with milk for breakfast. Very much about routine, having options prepared in advance. In my house we also have very few snacks around. If there’s nothing around to snack on, I don’t snack. It’s always so much worse knowing there’s food around but not being able to have it. Then if I feel soooo snacky, I have fruit in the fridge so I can still nibble. Much better to keep cravings in check by swapping out for healthier options rather than restricting myself entirely.

Also: keeping busy. If I’m busy and doing things, I don’t notice time passing and my brain is too busy to think about food. Too much time on my hands leads to me obsessing about food and getting more hungry/bored and wanting to eat more. I don’t want my life to revolve around food, so I make sure my behaviour/daily activities don’t revolve around it

I also try and focus on positive reinforcement. I reward myself with treats (not food based) when I reach a weight achievement eg every half stone. I don’t beat myself up or punish myself for messing up, I get back to trying to get my goal. At the moment my treats have been a Nintendo Switch, and then a couple of games.

Trying to make it all as positive as possible, humans are more successful with positive reinforcement than negative reinforcement (I studied Psychology at uni).

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Why am I barely losing weight after 1 month in a calorie deficit? FAQ not helping,

Here are the results of the TDEE calculator showing 2,500 maintenance calories and 2,000 weight loss calories. For the last 3-4 weeks I've been in a heavy calorie surplus and have stayed in the 1,300-1,600 range every day save for 2-3 cheat days. I'm down to 187 from 190, but with this deficit I should be losing at least 1.5-2lbs a week, right? Am I being obtuse?

Exercise:

Monday Push

Tuesday 45 minutes bicycling @ 15mph

Wednesday Pull

Thursday 45 minutes bicycling @ 15mph

Friday Legs

Sat/Sun 45 minutes/day @ 15mph

Using MyFitnessPal to log calories. Daily goal for 1.5lbs down a week, according to the app, is 1770 calories. I typically keep my calories daily in the 1,300-1,600 range to have a margin of error. I understand the importance of weighing food so I weigh literally everything that goes into my mouth. Knowing the intake isn't the problem. I do not eat prepackaged food. I cook everything I eat so I know exactly what's going into my food.

Daily Nutrition:

6AM black Coffee.

9AM 1 Scoop Muscle Milk 150cal + black coffee.

11AM black coffee.

12PM 2 cups salad mix 15 cal, 3TBSP Dressing 120 cal, 2 hard boiled eggs 143 calories.

Dinner will change nightly but I weigh and measure every dish. Example tonight was 220g sweet potato and 200g of pork chops. Every day dinner has been in the 400-600cal range or less This put me around 1,300-1,600 calories for the day.

This is my first time trying to actually count calories and lose weight so I'm pretty perplexed here. Calories in Calories Out. I understand the logic. I weigh my food. I put in the work in the gym/bike.

What the hell am I missing? Am I expecting too much too soon?

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Getting to the root issues of my weight gain is helping me so much on my weight loss journey

So I’ve yo-yo dieted throughout my life, and one thing that all of those instances have in common was that I tried to lose weight too quickly while focusing solely on controlling food and exercise without getting to the root of my issues. When that backfired, I felt like a failure, but the problem is I was trying to sort of bandaid the issue was without going deeper.

Lately, I’ve been working with a therapist, dietician, endocrinologist, and journaling a lot about physical and emotional underlying issues around why I keep gaining weight. Here are some of my personal reasons, I suggest you do the same to really combat your specific issues! Weight is coming off slowly but surely

-I’ve got hormonal imbalances due to PCOS and thyroid issues. These cause my metabolism to slow down while increasing the hunger hormones and encouraging fat storage mode. They also cause insulin resistance. Getting on the right medications & supplements (metformin & spironolactone) intermittent fasting, low carb, and learning to eat to encourage hormonal and blood sugar balance has been a godsend

-my cortisol (stress hormone) tests came back high which is notorious for causing weight gain. I’ve decided to make sure to incorporate meditation, yoga, regular sleep, and Ashwaghanda. Journaling and cognitive behavioral therapy are also helping immensely.

-I got diagnosed with ADHD, and I read about the connection low dopamine levels have with weight gain. Food increases dopamine temporarily. I’m not medicated for it because stimulants give me anxiety, but I try to make sure to do fun stimulating things that raise my dopamine levels without turning to food, especially exercise and social activities. Boredom can be a real trigger

-My anxiety medications (Lexapro) cause carbohydrate cravings, so I’ve really been working on distinguishing between cravings and real hunger. I will honor real hunger but not cravings.

-I used to eat when I was sad/lonely. Therapy and finding other activities that help me feel better or journaling has helped a lot

-I used to eat really fast because of my guilt around eating. Making sure to eat very slowly and putting my fork down between each bite really helped. I also remind myself regularly “nothing is off limits, if you really want to eat this again when you’re hungry you can”

-Im letting go of the all or nothing thinking. This is a lifestyle change, and I need to make room for foods I enjoy as well. If I eat over my calorie limit, I just add it to myfitnesspal and move on instead of bingeing and saying that I will start again tomorrow

-I can be an impulsive person, so making sure I have structure, a schedule, and a plan is important. This helps a lot with restaurants and social eating

-I’m embracing slow change. This took a lot because I’m an impatient person. Slow change = my body is having more time to adapt to the changes and won’t fight back as hard as I lose weight. I continuously ask myself: would I be able to eat like this for the rest of my life? If not, I’m going too hard, too fast

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Day 1? Starting your weight loss journey on Sunday, 03 May 2020? Start here!

Today is your Day 1?

Welcome to r/Loseit!

So you aren’t sure of how to start? Don’t worry! “How do I get started?” is our most asked question. r/Loseit has helped our users lose over 1,000,000 recorded pounds and these are the steps that we’ve found most useful for getting started.

Why you’re overweight

Our bodies are amazing (yes, yours too!). In order to survive before supermarkets, we had to be able to store energy to get us through lean times, we store this energy as adipose fat tissue. If you put more energy into your body than it needs, it stores it, for (potential) later use. When you put in less than it needs, it uses the stored energy. The more energy you have stored, the more overweight you are. The trick is to get your body to use the stored energy, which can only be done if you give it less energy than it needs, consistently.

Before You Start

The very first step is calculating your calorie needs. You can do that HERE. This will give you an approximation of your calorie needs for the day. The next step is to figure how quickly you want to lose the fat. One pound of fat is equal to 3500 calories. So to lose 1 pound of fat per week you will need to consume 500 calories less than your TDEE (daily calorie needs from the link above). 750 calories less will result in 1.5 pounds and 1000 calories is an aggressive 2 pounds per week.

Tracking

Here is where it begins to resemble work. The most efficient way to lose the weight you desire is to track your calorie intake. This has gotten much simpler over the years and today it can be done right from your smartphone or computer. r/loseit recommends an app like MyFitnessPal, Loseit! (unaffiliated), or Cronometer. Create an account and be honest with it about your current stats, activities, and goals. This is your tracker and no one else needs to see it so don’t cheat the numbers. You’ll find large user created databases that make logging and tracking your food and drinks easy with just the tap of the screen or the push of a button. We also highly recommend the use of a digital kitchen scale for accuracy. Knowing how much of what you're eating is more important than what you're eating. Why? This may explain it.

Creating Your Deficit

How do you create a deficit? This is up to you. r/loseit has a few recommendations but ultimately that decision is yours. There is no perfect diet for everyone. There is a perfect diet for you and you can create it. You can eat less of exactly what you eat now. If you like pizza you can have pizza. Have 2 slices instead of 4. You can try lower calorie replacements for calorie dense foods. Some of the communities favorites are cauliflower rice, zucchini noodles, spaghetti squash in place of their more calorie rich cousins. If it appeals to you an entire dietary change like Keto, Paleo, Vegetarian.

The most important thing to remember is that this selection of foods works for you. Sustainability is the key to long term weight management success. If you hate what you’re eating you won’t stick to it.

Exercise

Is NOT mandatory. You can lose fat and create a deficit through diet alone. There is no requirement of exercise to lose weight.

It has it’s own benefits though. You will burn extra calories. Exercise is shown to be beneficial to mental health and creates an endorphin rush as well. It makes people feel awesome and has been linked to higher rates of long term success when physical activity is included in lifestyle changes.

Crawl, Walk, Run

It can seem like one needs to make a 180 degree course correction to find success. That isn’t necessarily true. Many of our users find that creating small initial changes that build a foundation allows them to progress forward in even, sustained, increments.

Acceptance

You will struggle. We have all struggled. This is natural. There is no tip or trick to get through this though. We encourage you to recognize why you are struggling and forgive yourself for whatever reason that may be. If you overindulged at your last meal that is ok. You can resolve to make the next meal better.

Do not let the pursuit of perfect get in the way of progress. We don’t need perfect. We just want better.

Additional resources

Now you’re ready to do this. Here are more details, that may help you refine your plan.

• Quick Start Guide - Build your foundation!
• Loseit Compendium - Frame it out!
• FAQ - Answers to our most Frequently Asked Questions!

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Accountability post of my second week of calorie tracking with MyFitnessPal

This is a repost from r/WeighLossAdvice. I figured it might be more suitable to this subreddit.

So for two weeks I am using MyFitnessPal. The first week I didn’t manage to get an overall calorie deficit and whenever I had a day-deficit I binged the next day. So I tried to take my learnings from it by aiming for a smaller day deficit and under all circumstances staying below my TDEE. So the second week went better! - I managed to keep track on what I eat for two weeks, for the first time in my life. Usually I can only keep to my calorie tracking goals for a few days and if I binge I suddenly loose motivation. - I never went over my TDEE. - On five out of seven days I had a deficit between 200 and 500 calories.

So it might not be huge. But this week I feel I have taken one more step towards a healthier lifestyle and long term weight loss. I don’t have a proper scale and with my tiny deficit it would also be hard to notice it on the scale. But I was told that my face already looks less blown up!

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Fat logic - The myth of losing muscle while you’re losing fat

My sister (who lost a lot of weight a couple of years ago before I started my journey) recommend me the best book I ever read on weight loss. It’s called “Fat logic” and written by a psychologist that herself came from an obese family and weighted 150kg.

She struggled with the yo-yo effect, diagnosed hypothyroidism and generally a bigger build and it lead her to accept that she would need to suffer hunger all the time when she’s skinny as that’s her genetics and she decided to live a happy life, eating healthy but how much she wanted.

Until she fell down and injured her knee. Then her meniscus and she basically became immobile. This is when she decided to lose weight and used her academic approach to read through all the studies and truly understand weight loss for the first time. She quickly realised more information out there is bullshit but as it’s widely accepted and gives people a reason to believe being obese isn’t their fault no one (including herself before) really questioned it.

She called these false facts “fat logic” and she uses science and her own experience to debunk them. The book is only available in German so I thought I share one that comes up often here in this thread too:

Losing muscle because of losing fat is a myth and unfortunately a wide spread one. Losing fat has actually NOTHING to do with losing muscle. It’s two separate systems for your body. She gave the example of a cave men. If he’d be unable to go running / hunting because of using his winter fat for energy he’d probably die.

There are only two reasons why your body would reduces muscle mass:

• it thinks you don’t need it anymore - so you suddenly stop being active and using your muscle. For that to happen you would have need to stop exercising, if you never have this is not a problem. It usually happens after 1.5-2 weeks of not using your muscles anymore

• you don’t eat enough protein and the body can’t repair muscle mass. So this one is where the myth started. Because often when people suddenly reduce their calories they don’t take enough of the nutrients they need. BTW overweight people often have these deficits too as they tend to eat a lot of carbs but not enough vitamins. Okay got side tracked so basically you body needs about 0.8g protein for every kg you weight when your inactive and about 1-2g per kg if you’re very active. Your body uses protein to repair muscle mass - for example when you work out and get sore muscles it’s a sign that the work out “damaged” your muscles. Usually your body responses by repairing the damage and building slightly more as it sees that there wasn’t enough muscle for your requirement movements. However if your body doesn’t have the proteins to repair the mass it will disintegrate the “damaged” muscle mass. So basically a work out could lead to less muscle if you don’t eat enough protein. But that is normally only the case if your protein is lower than 45g per day.

She went in to give her personal example. When she became immobile she decided to lose weight quick to release pressure from her body. She did that on a 500 calorie diet for 6 months. Which comes to another myth “eating less than XX calories is bad for you”. But please don’t take this out of context because what you need to do is get the nutrients your body needs and can’t produce itself. Mainly protein, vitamins and some fats. She consulted a special dietician that gave her that mixture and did monthly blood tests to measure any potential deficiencies.

It’s still mind blowing to me. She gave academic examples of 200kg people that lost 130kg in a year basically by eating nothing but their required nutrients (in an hospital environment). As long as your body has enough fat to use as energy you don’t need to eat anything for energy.

I hope you guys found it as interesting as me. It certainly gave me a lot of new perspectives.

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I'm not overweight anymore!

I've struggled with being ever so slightly overweight for almost half of my life, and today, I checked my BMI and my weight is classified as "normal"!!! I'm not at my goal weight yet, but I'm finally at a place where I'm not scared to look at the mirror or take photos of myself.

I just do CICO and IF, plus 15 minutes of yoga everyday :) It's surprisingly easy once you get into it. One tip I saw on here that really resonated with me was to count VERY small wins. e.g. if your goal weight is 120 and you're at 150, make it your next goal to be 149. This is honestly what made weight loss such an exciting experience for me because even seeing a 149.5 would excite me as I'm halfway to my "goal". Instead of seeing it as losing 30 pounds, I'd view it as losing 1 pound 30 times.

Just wanted to share this small win and tip because I'm very happy and extremely grateful for this sub!

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