feeling a bit discouraged

joecooler

Hello,
Looking for some encouragement here ... I've been doing this about 2 months now and have made a huge number of changes: stopped hitting the candy jar, stopped all the unhealthy snacks at home including eliminating a lot of sugar and my standard evening bowl of ice cream, stopped going out to lunch and eating a home-made salad or frozen meal instead (lean cuisine, saffron road, usually around 10 oz and 300 cal), healthier snacks at work (apple or Kind bar), and added a bunch of exercise - went from basically doing nothing to working out w/a trainer 3x per week, and road cycling on the weekends - at least one ride of 40 miles or more. Oh, and I've cut way back on the beer. And yet in two months I've lost a whopping 10 pounds! How is this even possible? I honestly have no idea how I can drop another 40 or 50 if all these changes only resulted in a 10 pound loss.

Fuzzipeg

Please don't be disheartened. 10 lb is good. much depends on how much you have to loose. Aiming for 2 stone, 28 lb, is it something like 12 kg its more difficult to loose. Someone with way more to loose could possibly loose more. Exercise is wonderful, I hope you are having your rest days, the body needs time to recover, fluid is involved in the recovery process. Keep doing what you are, look at the different categories in your diary and endeavour to meet them as best you can.

I would watch products which have calories counted for you they are not always that accurate. I think they need to put in over to make sure they do not provide less, if you follow.

rj0150684

How many calories are you eating, how many calories are you burning?

Deficit x Time = weight loss

kdbulger

10 lbs in 2 months is decent!

If you continued at that rate of change, you would lose 60lbs in a year. As someone who has lost roughly 2/3rd of that 60lbs, I can tell you, that is a visible and amazing change.

Furthermore you may not have to change anything else to continue to lose weight. Just keep going at this rate and then make small adjustments if needed. I've been doing the same things more or less for 10 months (nutritionally) and the weight continues to come off. The only thing that changes is my workout intensity as I get more fit.

elizabethmcopeland

Hello, friend! I've only lost 6lbs in 10weeks, so you really are doing comparatively well!

Weightloss is a long game. Find things that you can do as smart habits so you don't get worn down. (In fact, some people recommend not dieting at first and just logging what you normally eat, and then slowly decide on what you can cut out at a reasonable deficit instead of going whole hog.)

mbaker566

you are doing fine. keep up the good work
keep in mind that weight loss is due to a calorie deficit not necessarily how hard you work out or eating healthy food

eleanorhawkins

As others have said, that loss over that time is reasonable! You're going to have days when you feel like you've achieved nothing and none of this is worth it, days you'll be fed up because you'll realise you will probably have to be careful of what you eat and weigh food and count calories for the rest of your life. Then something will happen, like someone will compliment you, or you'll catch a side glimpse in a mirror and realise your belly is shrinking, or your trousers will get so big they'll fall down, and you'll start to feel AWESOME!
Sometimes you just have to grit your teeth and sit it out. I spent around 14 months hating the entire world and in a constant state of hungry anger. But I came out of it 59 pounds lighter, I'm fitter than I've ever been and I can steal my 12-year-old daughter's clothes Oh and I'm over the hating everyone part too, now I'm just trying to make everyone lose weight and start running lol.

Stockholm_Andy

I don't know where you started or how much you have to loose but 10lbs is a great amount of weight! Well done.

You did put the weight on over night and you'll not loose it over night.

Keep at it Joe you got this. It takes time but you're on track and kicking *kitten*.

mulecanter

Just remember beer has calories AND decreases your willpower to curtail eating.

try2again

If you started with about 50 lbs to lose, 1 lb/week is actually the perfect rate of loss. And you are likely preserving much of your lean muscle mass by losing at a less aggressive rate while training. Win/win

If you are not losing as much as you might expect, you need to look at the accuracy of your logging. It will likely become a bigger issue as you get smaller and you have less room for error, but for right now, you are doing great.

malibu927

10 pounds in two months is an excellent rate of loss. You didn't put it all on in two months, did you?

try2again

joecooler wrote: »

I honestly have no idea how I can drop another 40 or 50 if all these changes only resulted in a 10 pound loss.

You should really adjust the way you are viewing/approaching the situation. The weight loss phase is just a tiny part of what will be a lifetime of weight management. If you have adopted changes in your diet & exercise that you don't intend to maintain, there will be a problem. Think in terms of the kind of diet & activity level you want to have for the rest of your life, and just observe a modest calorie deficit until your weight is where you want it to be.

DogServant

joecooler wrote: »

Hello,
Looking for some encouragement here ... I've been doing this about 2 months now and have made a huge number of changes: stopped hitting the candy jar, stopped all the unhealthy snacks at home including eliminating a lot of sugar and my standard evening bowl of ice cream, stopped going out to lunch and eating a home-made salad or frozen meal instead (lean cuisine, saffron road, usually around 10 oz and 300 cal), healthier snacks at work (apple or Kind bar), and added a bunch of exercise - went from basically doing nothing to working out w/a trainer 3x per week, and road cycling on the weekends - at least one ride of 40 miles or more. Oh, and I've cut way back on the beer. And yet in two months I've lost a whopping 10 pounds! How is this even possible? I honestly have no idea how I can drop another 40 or 50 if all these changes only resulted in a 10 pound loss.

Nice work on the ten pounds! I am coming up on 8 months into my journey and have lost only 12% of my starting weight. Read that carefully... ONLY! I am elated. If you told me 32 weeks ago I would only lose it at a super slow rate, I might have said forget that noise!

Try changing your perspective for a moment, and toss that ONLY out the window. Keep up the good fight!

cheryldumais

Hey Joe, Sounds like you are approaching this in a very casual manner. The changes you listed are great and you are losing about a pound and a quarter every week which is a great rate to lose at. With a slow steady loss you won't lose muscle and it is easier to maintain the loss. Slow and steady wins the race here. The only concern I have is that you don't sound like you are actually logging anything. Forgive me if I misunderstood you. If you log it will actually help you to get a better handle on how to maintain when you finish losing. Logging for me taught me so much. There were things I thought I knew the calorie count on and I was miles off. Last of all losing slowly helps you to make permanent changes because you can never go back to your old habits or you will just gain the weight back. Other than that you are doing really great. Don't be discouraged. Just keep going.

joecooler

Thanks for all the feedback, maybe I don't need to feel like I'm going too slowly. I do need to get better about logging in the evening ... I have cut way back on eating out but even cooking at home I find it hard to figure out how to enter what I'm eating. I am ok w/the changes I've made and figure this isn't a diet, really a lifestyle change that I'll need to keep at forever. I'm mostly OK with that but I miss some of the foods I've given up and I hope that once I reach my goal I can eat "bad" stuff occasionally and be able to maintain a healthy weight.
I'm also considering giving up beer completely for a while to try to get things moving a bit quicker. We'll see .....

fiddletime

I had to give up alcohol as my calorie requirements are low and alcohol was becoming a too large percentage. Many of us lost weight before the internet and apps. What I love about mfp is that I have a number of calories and can eat anything, as long as it fits. If I don’t fit then I gain weight. It gives me a sense of power knowing where and why I’m gaining or losing. I’m in maintenance now for a year and whenever I stop logging I start reverting to eating too much within a few days. There are no “bad” foods with this ap.

try2again

joecooler wrote: »

Thanks for all the feedback, maybe I don't need to feel like I'm going too slowly. I do need to get better about logging in the evening ... I have cut way back on eating out but even cooking at home I find it hard to figure out how to enter what I'm eating. I am ok w/the changes I've made and figure this isn't a diet, really a lifestyle change that I'll need to keep at forever. I'm mostly OK with that but I miss some of the foods I've given up and I hope that once I reach my goal I can eat "bad" stuff occasionally and be able to maintain a healthy weight.
I'm also considering giving up beer completely for a while to try to get things moving a bit quicker. We'll see .....

Maybe you would find this helpful in regards to logging:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10640205/the-basics-of-accurate-logging#latest

It's helpful not to view foods as "good" & "bad". Some foods have more nutritional value, and we need to be careful with more calorie-dense things, but many of those who have been successful did not give up any particular food- they just plan and make sure the things they enjoy fit into their day.