How I lost the “last 5 pounds”

CeeBeeSlim

@AnnPT77 @PAV8888 Thanks. Very helpful. I guess I need to celebrate the nonscale victories.

Somewhere between fall of 2019 and early 2020 I was in the mid-140s with a goal weight of 125-128 by mid May.

I started a 12 week progressive training program in midFebruary and my last day of the program is this Sat. I am feeling stronger, seeing muscle, losing inches all over, clothes fit great, folks are saying I’m disappearing. but when I got on scale I was more than my hoped for goal weight of 127 by 4 pounds.

Soooo I figured - well, I didn’t reach my goal weight, the weight loss has been slow, but I’ll be happy when I see I lost at least 10 pounds since I started the program in feb.

I looked at happy scale and saw that I was 135 in mid Feb when I started the program not the 140-145 I thought I was! Drats! All these visible changes and only about a 4 pound loss in 12 weeks?!?! I was actually 140ish in October not Feb.

I know I shouldn’t be focused on scale numbers but dang!

Thanks for helping see this in a better light.

AnnPT77

PAV, LOL that my "Corona Curve" looks surprisingly like yours. I'm actually losing a little faster than I'd prefer, right now (although there's some weirdness IMO about how Libra reports loss rates that's in play in what shows here. I've been on slow-boat loss since around October, with some more stable periods. The view below is 7 days smoothing/projection; usually I use 30/60 in maintenance as a very uneven eater, which makes a smoother down-trend appear.

Either settings, you can see the effect of disappearing restaurant temptations kicking in, with a definite knee in the curve right about the 2nd week of March.

OP, slow loss works fine, when you have small amounts to lose. Maybe try it? You'll need a weight trending app, plenty of weigh-in data, and large amounts of patience, to see it happening

PAV8888

@CeeBeeSlim you sound as if you have "classic" water retention from your increased exercise. This is GOOD weight which would be detected as non fat mass, even as muscle mass by some detection, even though it is actually water. And it is because you're using dem muscles!!!

If you were to STOP your exercise routine and just veg on the couch for a week, you would lose some/a lot of that weight and it would make your scale results pop! But would it be a real victory/difference/improvement?

I don't think that it would be either bad or good per se. Just a different number. You've got all the answers you need in how you feel and how your clothes are fitting!

CeeBeeSlim

@PAV8888 Thanks! This makes sense and funny you mention just vegging on the couch. I won’t do that 😀, but I was thinking of my options after I’m done with my 12 week program (Strong Curves) on Sat. I’m newbie -ish and have heard of deloading so will research what that could look like. Less for the scale weight change just need a lil break - physically and mentally.

PAV8888

CeeBeeSlim wrote: »

@PAV8888 Thanks! This makes sense and funny you mention just vegging on the couch. I won’t do that 😀, but I was thinking of my options after I’m done with my 12 week program (Strong Curves) on Sat. I’m newbie -ish and have heard of deloading so will research what that could look like. Less for the scale weight change just need a lil break - physically and mentally.

Post in the more fitness oriented forums as I'm sure you'll get some great ideas from other people who have done Strong Curves and similar. Active rest / recuperation / some happy vegging may be different from de-loading.

CeeBeeSlim

Thanks @PAV8888! I found a great sticky thread in the fitness section. Old but very very informative! Thanks for the suggestion.

fiddletime

CeeBeeSlim wrote: »

@fiddletime and others - still having success? Looking for inspiration (and clearly was getting tired of adding a 45 minute treadmill walk) to lose these last 5 pounds. 😤

Yes, I’m still having success, which means ups and downs. I’m in my maintenance range of 125 +/- 3 pounds. I flew up to 139 in December with an 8 month lapse and am back to 126.6.

I did buy Klondike bars last month to encourage me to finish “the last 5 pounds” 😂😂. Some people maintain in a narrow range, but many of us swing up and down 15 pounds or so. My goal is to keep my swings to 5 pounds, and after each setback I learn something. I don’t rely on exercise to lose weight as I’m 65 and can’t count on it lasting. But I’ve exercised my whole life though, love it, and currently use my Pelaton bike and water rower 4 days a week before work.

ridiculous59

AnnPT77 wrote: »

I'm not @fiddletime, but I suppose I'm "others".

I've been slacking off exercise (can't do on-water rowing, my true love, because boathouse is closed due to state of emergency). I'm trying to counter that, because it's bad for my strength, health, and long-term independence. That's more of a struggle, psychologically.

But if weight were all that counted (sadly, it's not), all is well. I'd been working, since roughly last October, on losing a few pounds in maintenance. The absence of oh-so-tempting restaurant meals - even though I'm a decent cook - has made it easier to stick to that tiny deficit most days, so my loss rate has accerated a little. I was going for 0.5 lg/week or less . . . hitting that or a little more, recently. Below 130 a couple of days, recently - first time there since early 2018.

Body comp is suffering, though, I fear.

I so feel your pain with regards to your boathouse being closed! I belong to a dragon boat club and its impossible to social distance in one of those so no paddling this summer 😭 However, a group of my paddling friends have kayaks and we usually get out on the lake together at least once a week. I miss the team aspect of the dragon boat, and the wonderful rhythm, but its easy to social distance with kayaks and we enjoy our time together. I just couldn't imagine an entire summer of not being on the water, plus it was my main form of exercise during the warmer months. Hang in there.......hopefully we'll be back doing what we love next summer ♥️

MadisonMolly2017

Can you guess the times I ate out the most & when my Self-Quarantine began?

I, too, decided to use this time of only home prepared foods to correct the Winter house guests/vacation gain.

I’m seriously thinking of not eating out anymore, as it makes my maintenance easy & it’s much healthier for me.

I’m all for easy!

MadisonMolly2017

Forgot the graph & editing no longer seems to work for me...

MadisonMolly2017

So, I talked with the Happy Scale guy & he cant put a maintenance range in, but I JUST realized that I can use a digital editor. Smacks my forehead! Why didn’t I think of this sooner!!

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