Are you not losing weight fast enough?

xKoalaBearx

I realized something that completely helped me to overcome how bad I used to feel when the scale didn't say what I wanted it to say....

When we're trying to lose weight, we naturally focus on the number on the scale. And in addition we focus on some time frame associated with that number. "I lost 5 pounds in 7 days." "I need to lose 2 pounds this week, because I didn't lose any last week." "I only lost 1/2 pound in the past month." Etc.

I've been in maintenance since the beginning of the summer, but as I remember my weight loss journey, and as I see others go through this journey, I'm thinking maybe some of us have been focusing on the wrong things, and this could be something that causes many people stress.... maybe we need to focus on the process of watching our calories (CICO) and living healthy. That magical weight number is just a by-product of us living healthy. The time frame will be whatever time frame it takes our bodies to get to by being in a calorie deficit.

So what I mean is that.... I've stopped my unhealthy dietary habits of overeating (CI>CO), I now eat within my calorie goals, I drink plenty of water, I eat fruits and veggies regularly. I exercise regularly, and get plenty of sleep. I'm doing so much better than I was before.

I'm not going to worry about getting healthy, because I'M ALREADY THERE. The scale numbers will follow as a side effect of me living healthy, and not the other way around.... and it really has for me. Plenty of people lose the weight, have a great looking number on the scale but still aren't necessarily healthy... people with eating disorders, for example. So the numbers don't mean much unless you're living healthy.

Now, there's also no time frame we can really put on this. I think it's really stressful to say, "I need to lose X pounds by summer." or "I need to lose Y pounds this week." Why do I need to lose it by then? What's going to happpen at X pounds? Am I going to be healthier? Am I going to look that much better if I lose 2 pounds or 1 pound?

This is supposed to be a lifelong change. One or two pounds is nothing in the entire scheme of it all. We're supposed to be learning how to be healthy. If it happens this week, or next, this month or next month, does it really matter over the long run? It's not like I'm going to start behaving unhealthy once I reached my goal weight right? Or am I just lying to myself, and I plan on going right back to the bad habits I once had once I reach my goal weight? I had to be honest with myself.... In the beginning, I think I was planning that very thing.

So I think that we need to walk the walk... be healthy... and enjoy how much better we already feel, how our clothes already look on us, how much energy we are starting to have. We should still look at the scale, but feel comforted in the fact that if we are living healthy, the numbers will eventually follow. And we need to do this for the rest of our lives, or just fall right back to where we were before starting this journey.

My scale has gone flat or up plenty of times in my journey, but I no longer stress about it, because I know I have been living healthier than I've ever been (monitoring CICO) , I know I am mindful of calories in and calories out, and I've seen the scale numbers drop over and over again.... eventually.

Maybe just change our focus.

Keep fighting!!

DeguelloTex

I'm more goal-oriented. "Get healthy" is too amorphous to be useful to me.

xKoalaBearx

Maybe I was too vague, but by healthy I meant watching calories in vs calories out (instead of overeating) and getting regular exercise.

Kalikel

Focusing on my health has been helpful. I was extremely motivated to eat healthier and do the exercise, even if I didn't feel like it. It's hard to say if I ever would've succeeded if I hadn't had a reason to bother. Probably would've, but the health focus has been extraordinarily motivating.

Lots of people don't care about their health and are only interested in looking better...and that's cool, too. We all have different goals! There is nothing wrong with losing weight because you want to look better, IMO.

zyxst

I'm healthy right now, so I guess I can stop losing weight.

kshama2001

Great OP @xKoalaBearx

I do like having the goal of losing one pound per week, but I don't freak out when it doesn't happen each week, as I know that over time it will average out to close enough.

I agree that the thinking "I need to lose X by Y" can be unnecessarily stressful.

DeguelloTex

Or supremely motivating.