Just do the work & trust the math...

scolaris

Today is my 170th day of logging. I've lost 23.6 lbs. Everything has been set to a 500 daily calorie deficit the whole time, but my compliance has varied. I've had bad days, and bad weeks. I really like working out but occasionally I miss workouts too. On a daily basis my weight goes up, down & sideways. I've been 178 lbs for more freaking days than I care to admit. I use my Fitbit weekly average weight to track, but even that has popped up on a few occasions. And don't even start me on the holidays: what began as two weeks of maintenance eating turned into a 6 week plateau! Gah! Oh there have been victories too. Weeks where I dropped 1.5 or 2.5 lbs and I thought wow... I'll need to order a bikini for spring break at this rate! But that has been the minority for sure. So today I divided my total weight lost by my days on MFP, and then multiplied that number into weeks and it came to .966 lbs a week average weight loss.
Trust the math folks. Trust the math.

CoffeeNCardio

I worship the math. Today is something like 110 for me and I've lost 26lbs. I've been consuming total crap as well as making some healthy choices, at varying/inconsistent times of day, and I work out when I work out and sometimes that's not for several weeks cause I have to live here.

The only thing that has made me lose weight is the math. Eating less, burning more and ensuring my logging is perfect.

Seconded.

Trust the Math.
CICO is King

ETA: Scolaris congratulations on your loss!!! I so hope you get a bikini, I want one too!

scolaris

Way to go @CoffeeNCardio!

benzieboxx

Have to keep telling myself this every day! Sometimes I have doubts that I'm doing something wrong, but I know the math is correct and my scale is accurate. Congrats on your success!

scolaris

23.6 lbs in 170 days doesn't sound very successful, does it? So many people jump on MFP expecting to lose 30-40 lbs in 2 or 3 months... But when you work it out it's exactly the right pace. Don't listen to those little voices in your head! Buggers!!

williams969

Yaaaasss! I looked back at my weight loss journey during 2014; 225 days to lose 23.4 lbs. Of course, I wasn't a "perfect" dieter (alas, there were parties and holidays scattered throughout). But dang, the math doesn't lie. It always works when we work it.

Sometimes I lost 4-5lbs in a month; sometimes it was 2 or 3. December it was nothing (by choice, lol). But, overall, I lost at a 0.73lb/week rate, just by eating by a 0.5lb/week setting plus most (75-100%) of what Fitbit added. And never giving up when I felt like going over.

scolaris

High five!! People just give up too soon, plain and simple. And they want an aesthetic result in three months that it will probably take closer to three years to craft in terms of fat loss, muscle building, and gradual skin tightening.

MeiannaLee

Yes I agree 100%. it's all about the math.
Its been almost 365 days for me and Ive lost 50 pounds.
Ive maintained now for 4ish months as well thanks to counting calories, working out and making sure
I dont have a deficit or I dont over eat.
Its so simple yet some people keep on making excuses.

JordisTSM

Was feeling like I hadn't been doing enough over Christmas, but just did the math; 391 days = 56 weeks. 97lbs lost = 1.73lbs per week. Was aiming for 2lbs per week, but with an overseas trip plus blowout over Christmas, looks like I was pretty much on target.

Trust the math!

scolaris

Yay to you both! We have a problem with over-inflated notions of what 'success' really looks like and feels like in our larger society. Lots of adults gain 3-5 lbs per year over a long spell of years but losing weight that same way would feel shameful. It's really too bad. Perceived failure stops people in their tracks when they are actually progressing nicely!

bwogilvie

Yep. After my first 180 days I had lost 28.4 lb., or 1.1 pounds per week. That was sustainable and not even difficult after the first few weeks of feeling hungry all the time.

scolaris

Great!

PixelPuff

I've lost roughly 65lbs since late Feb/early April 2015. Whoo. And I've been plateau'd most of this month, so 10 months for 65lbs. Roughly 43 weeks ago. 1.5lbs/week, I've actually been doin' pretty good. Then again, I lose about 5lbs whenever my period happens, and it just stays gone [mostly]. xD

Mavrick_RN

Love the math.

Assuming you are an "average" woman living in the US, you have a life expectancy of 80 years. Minus the 52 you have already enjoyed, that gives you about 28 more years or 10,220 days. You have spent 170 days or 1.6% of that time practicing your new lifestyle. Way to go!!

Asher_Ethan

Yessssss. I love mathematicians and that's why CICO is the only thing I've ever stuck to, weight loss wise. On February 20th it will be my year anniversary with MFP.

Fursian

Another believer in the math over here! *waves*

scolaris wrote: »

Yay to you both! We have a problem with over-inflated notions of what 'success' really looks like and feels like in our larger society. Lots of adults gain 3-5 lbs per year over a long spell of years but losing weight that same way would feel shameful. It's really too bad. Perceived failure stops people in their tracks when they are actually progressing nicely!

This is true, and wise words!

Mavrick_RN

scolaris wrote: »

Yay to you both! We have a problem with over-inflated notions of what 'success' really looks like and feels like in our larger society. Lots of adults gain 3-5 lbs per year over a long spell of years but losing weight that same way would feel shameful. It's really too bad. Perceived failure stops people in their tracks when they are actually progressing nicely!

OP, you are the picture of success. This is one of the best threads I have read in a while. Very realistically optimistic and motivating. I want what you have.

joinn68

When I started in September I couldn't see logging long-term so I did an Excel worksheet for six months to show me where I could be if I just followed the plan.
I have now done another spreadsheet going to June where I project myself to reaching a normal weight. So while the scale has been moving "slow" at 1.5 lbs per week on average, and every month seems like barely anything at all it is still -3% of starting body weight per month for a total of 12/13% of body weight lost excluding Jan when I took a break.
35 lbs down. From class II(just) obese to a couple of lbs shy of overweight. Looking forward to the next 5 months when I will reach normal BMI.
Can feel like glacier speed but it all adds up.

Edited to add: today is my 150th day on MFP

wrenak

I hate math. It's the bane of my existence. But this kind of thing makes math my friend! Today is Day 287, so 41 weeks of this new life. In that time I've lost 66.4 pounds. While it has been creepy off slowly lately, if I do the math I'm averaging 1.6 pounds gone per week. Not too shabby, really.

Congrats on everyone's successes, and thanks for this thread!

kpeterson539

This is one of the great, most inspirational thread I have read in a long time. Thank you for starting it.

VintageFeline

I hadn't actually done the maths (British, I need the "s") for a while. But 288 days, about 41 weeks. I've lost 41lbs (give or take) so at an average of exactly 1lb per week I am dead on target. Happy Scale projects me to be at target, or there abouts, I have no set end weight, for August. Works for me. This is now just my way of life and 18 months seems a perfectly reasonable drop in the ocean after spending nearly all of adult life overweight to some degree.

AnnPT77

Maaaatttthhhh. Maaaaathhhh. It's my mantra. I love the math, too. The math, and the data - it makes the whole process simple and understandable. Like a fun science project that makes me feel healthy, and in control. (OK, I'm a geek. ).

I log carefully so I can do the math, and figure out loss rates, or - when I have the occasional over-goal day - so I can dispassionately estimate how much of the resulting scale increase is likely real weight gain, and how much is water weight, how trivially short a delay it means in progress toward my long-term goal, and whether that over-goal day was worth it to me in overall happiness.

I've been working at weight loss since April 2015, on MFP since July 2015 (190 days), have lost 62 pounds - 2 pounds a week initially, then 1, then 0.5 or less, as my weight surplus shrunk - with the math making those adjustments reasonably straightforward.

Now I'm pretty much at goal, at a weight I haven't seen since the 1970s, and thought I'd never see again. If you'd suggested such a thing to me at this time last year, I would've laughed you out of the room.

It's the math. Yay!

knelson095

6 months in, 192nd day here and I've lost 31 lbs. Some days it feels so small...but I know it's really not. Feelings are stupid.

I love all the data, though. Just bought a fitbit yesterday and I am already in love with it. The day I flipped that switch in my mind, learned and accepted the math and science of weight loss (instead of just feeling sorry for myself) was the best day of my life.

Congrats everyone! Great thread OP!

AspenDan

I agree..I'd bet 95%, maybe even 99% can trust the math and lose weight.
Still there are "snowflakes" out there that are special, and should consult professionals if things don't ever work out.

angelamichelle_xo

neldabg

Wow. Congratulations on your success!!!
Thank you for starting such a nice thread. I needed this reminder about the power of the math behind CICO. It's my 228th day since I decided to make a permanent change, 181st day of logging, and I'm down 56 lbs, which averages to 1.75 lbs of weight loss a week. I'm really close to my goal weight now, and I have reached the upper limit of my target weight range, and I'm in the middle of reverse dieting, so the scale is BARELY moving. The weight loss is more like 0.2 lbs a week so far, and the day to day fluctuations are quite interesting/perplexing/annoying. Looking over my data again, it's clear, however, that though I've gone up and done so many times or stayed the same for days, the general trend is downward. It truly is a matter of patience and trust.

WinterSkies

@Scolaris, this is a great discussion! I hadn't done the math either, but now that I have, I feel great! I have lost 31.2lb over about 30 weeks, for 1.04lb per week. I had higher losses at the beginning when I was still nursing my baby, but I also had about 5 weeks of maintenance in there due to travel and holidays. Not bad! Thank you for reminding us to look at the big picture

scolaris

Thanks you guys for all your kind words! It is so fun to spread the encouragement around & hear about real people's real progress.

alizesmom

I,too, just did the math. 404 days and 72 pounds lost. That works out to be 1.25 pounds per week. Not bad! I think that a lot of discouragement comes from the fact that the closer I get to goal the slower the rate of loss. However the other thing I remember is that those 404 days would have passed whether I was dieting or not and I wouldn't feel near as good as I do today.

Qskim

Always enjoy your posts OP.

Francl27

Totally agreed OP, but it's only as accurate as the person's logging is.

But I know I'm pretty accurate so I never really freaked out if I had a stall for a couple weeks.