Encouragement needed!

spence9010

Hello all, thank you for reading and for your responses.

I'm posting because I think I just need a little encouragement. (This is my second post. In my first post I asked advice for stalling early on in the weight loss journey.) It has been about 9 weeks since I began my diet. The weight loss seems slow. I've lost about 8-9 pounds. And yet, I know this is normal and healthy - losing 1 lb per week. That's why I say, it seems slow. In the past I've been able to lose weight faster, and you always read stories of people dropping x amount of weight in x months, and I feel like I'm the turtle over here crawling at 1 lb a week (barely, because I've stalled for the last 2 weeks or so).

I've noticed I will drop a couple pounds, then stall, then drop couple more, then stall. It kind of screws with my head! I was diagnosed with sub-hypothyroid, and treated. That seemed to help for a little bit. My leptin also tested low (common from dieting?) I did some reading on leptin and refeed days, and decided to eat at maintenance today (2000 cals - first refeed day so far). I'm hoping it will help boost the weight loss, and if it does, I'll incorporate a refeed/maintenance day every couple weeks or so.

I am just feeling discouraged at how difficult this process is. For some people it seems so easy. I feel like I'm doing the right things (tracking food, exercising, etc) but not seeing consistent results. I almost feel like I'm fighting my body to give up weight (I have 20-25 more lbs to go). I stall way more than I would like. So I'm just hoping for some encouragement, advice, maybe stories of people who can relate to my experience.

Thank you.

apullum

What you're describing is 100% normal.

Weight loss doesn't happen at a linear pace. It's more common to experience what you're experiencing: seeing the scale go down only every few weeks. A couple of weeks with no weight loss is not a stall. It's normal.

The less weight you have to lose, the slower it will (and should) be. With 20-25 pounds to lose, you can probably still sustain an average pace of 1 pound/week loss, but that does not mean the scale will consistently go down a pound every week. If you have some days eating at maintenance, then keep in mind that your deficit will be smaller. Additionally, as you lose weight, your body needs fewer calories and it cannot safely sustain as large of a deficit anymore. In about 5-10 pounds or so, you should be targeting a 0.5 lb/week rate of loss. At that point, it usually becomes crucial to be very, very accurate with your logging.

Weigh ALL your food, make sure your exercise calorie burns are not exaggerated (start by eating half of them if you're using MFP's estimates), and be patient and consistent. The weight will come off.

spence9010

Thank you apullum. It is nice to get this feedback to know I'm on the right track. Thank you

RunsWithBees

I am also low thyroid, I lost 43lbs without any special diets and with mostly walking as exercise (though I am a runner now) and I’ve kept the weight off for nearly 6 years. Hoping it helps, here’s one post I wrote about my experience:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10742984/300#latest

Don’t compare your weight loss to anyone else’s. Just keep going and patience, patience, patience you can do it!

AnnPT77

. . . you always read stories of people dropping x amount of weight in x months, and I feel like I'm the turtle over here crawling at 1 lb a week (barely, because I've stalled for the last 2 weeks or so).

I'm betting most of the stories of dropping X (big) amount of weight in X (small number of) months are marketing something.

Usually, the ones I see are on the covers of tabloids/magazines, in blog posts on sites that sell nutritional supplements or diet plans or exercise programs, posted by IG or YouTube (etc.) personalities who are trying to monetize their influence in some way, on "reality" TV shows, etc. It's all about drama, and can't be relied upon for accuracy. There are even reports of people on sites like MFP who've had their before and after photographs (from real-life slow, sensible weight loss like yours) stolen and posted with representations that they lost months' worth of weight in mere weeks by taking some supplement or following some program that the person in the picture never even heard of. Don't believe everything you read.

What you're doing is losing the way sensible people do it in real life, making manageable changes in eating and activity, learning ways to eat that will be satisfying and practical, to help you stay at a healthy weight long term.

Do some people lose weight fast? I'm sure they do. Do they keep it off? I'm sure some do.

But your current experience is totally normal and sensible.

Very fast weight loss, especially if not under close medical supervision, risks health problems, undernutrition, fatigue, weakness, and more. Most of those side effects are really not compatible with simultaneously having a calm and happy life! And fast loss can be hard to stick with: It's not unusual for someone with a slow and steady loss rate to get to goal faster than others who try to lose super-fast, but keep stumbling and restarting.

Other than the fact that it requires a bit of patience and persistence, what's the down side of losing at a gradual rate?

It took me the better part of a year to lose around 50 pounds at age 59-60 (while hypothyroid, BTW). Three years later, I'm happily still maintaining a healthy weight.

You're doing great: Hang in there! :flowerforyou:

PAV8888

spence9010 wrote: »

Hello all, thank you for reading and for your responses.

I'm posting because I think I just need a little encouragement. (This is my second post. In my first post I asked advice for stalling early on in the weight loss journey.) It has been about 9 weeks since I began my diet. The weight loss seems slow. I've lost about 8-9 pounds. And yet, I know this is normal and healthy - losing 1 lb per week. That's why I say, it seems slow. In the past I've been able to lose weight faster, and you always read stories of people dropping x amount of weight in x months, and I feel like I'm the turtle over here crawling at 1 lb a week (barely, because I've stalled for the last 2 weeks or so).

I've noticed I will drop a couple pounds, then stall, then drop couple more, then stall. It kind of screws with my head! I was diagnosed with sub-hypothyroid, and treated. That seemed to help for a little bit. My leptin also tested low (common from dieting?) I did some reading on leptin and refeed days, and decided to eat at maintenance today (2000 cals - first refeed day so far). I'm hoping it will help boost the weight loss, and if it does, I'll incorporate a refeed/maintenance day every couple weeks or so.

I am just feeling discouraged at how difficult this process is. For some people it seems so easy. I feel like I'm doing the right things (tracking food, exercising, etc) but not seeing consistent results. I almost feel like I'm fighting my body to give up weight (I have 20-25 more lbs to go). I stall way more than I would like. So I'm just hoping for some encouragement, advice, maybe stories of people who can relate to my experience.

Thank you.

You have a (hopefully) insurmountable problem: just not enough fat available to lose!

I mean my first year on MFP I lost 72.5lbs. In case you're counting that was MORE than 1lb a week on average. I also had lots of available fat happily getting breathed out!

My second year on MFP? I lost 11.1lbs. In 12 months. In case you're counting that was MORE... well it was 11.1lbs more than nothing and it moved me from barely overweight to squarely within the normal weight range.

I cannot possibly express how happy I was both with the loss and with how long it took!

One year. 11.1lbs. Deliberately not trying to go any faster!

Why did I not go bonkers?

Because all I did was do what I was planning on doing for the three years after that!

Which I have.

Just a quick note that (optimal) re-feeds are 48 hours long, at maintenance, and with a high priority given to cabs: by preference letting them crowd out extra fats. See re-feeds and diet breaks thread!

spence9010

Thank you all so much for your input and sharing your realistic experiences! This is so encouraging for me to read and exactly what I was looking for. Real stories, real experiences, even with hypothyroid. Congrats to everyone on these successes! I hope by the end of the year I can add my story too Patience.
Sad that companies steal photos like that.
I'll check out the refeed thread, and your post too, RunsWithBees.
Thanks guys!

wmweeza

PAV8888 wrote: »

spence9010 wrote: »

You have a (hopefully) insurmountable problem: just not enough fat available to lose!

I mean my first year on MFP I lost 72.5lbs. In case you're counting that was MORE than 1lb a week on average. I also had lots of available fat happily getting breathed out!

My second year on MFP? I lost 11.1lbs. In 12 months. In case you're counting that was MORE... well it was 11.1lbs more than nothing and it moved me from barely overweight to squarely within the normal weight range.

I cannot possibly express how happy I was both with the loss and with how long it took!

One year. 11.1lbs. Deliberately not trying to go any faster!

Why did I not go bonkers?

Because all I did was do what I was planning on doing for the three years after that!

Which I have.

Just a quick note that (optimal) re-feeds are 48 hours long, at maintenance, and with a high priority given to cabs: by preference letting them crowd out extra fats. See re-feeds and diet breaks thread!

My weight loss has been the same! I've lost 86 pounds, 60 of that right away, the last 2 years though? A pound a month, maybe 2.
Now everyone says "Well you must not be logging or measuring"...I AM, I am logging, weighing, measuring and now I'm even going to the gym. I'm just one of the slower losers....but I'm still losing and that's what matters

PAV8888

wmweeza wrote: »

PAV8888 wrote: »

spence9010 wrote: »

You have a (hopefully) insurmountable problem: just not enough fat available to lose!

I mean my first year on MFP I lost 72.5lbs. In case you're counting that was MORE than 1lb a week on average. I also had lots of available fat happily getting breathed out!

My second year on MFP? I lost 11.1lbs. In 12 months. In case you're counting that was MORE... well it was 11.1lbs more than nothing and it moved me from barely overweight to squarely within the normal weight range.

I cannot possibly express how happy I was both with the loss and with how long it took!

One year. 11.1lbs. Deliberately not trying to go any faster!

Why did I not go bonkers?

Because all I did was do what I was planning on doing for the three years after that!

Which I have.

Just a quick note that (optimal) re-feeds are 48 hours long, at maintenance, and with a high priority given to cabs: by preference letting them crowd out extra fats. See re-feeds and diet breaks thread!

My weight loss has been the same! I've lost 86 pounds, 60 of that right away, the last 2 years though? A pound a month, maybe 2.
Now everyone says "Well you must not be logging or measuring"...I AM, I am logging, weighing, measuring and now I'm even going to the gym. I'm just one of the slower losers....but I'm still losing and that's what matters

Well done so far!!!

Is your loss reflective of your apparent deficit, or is your apparent deficit no longer producing scale results?

With three years+ at a deficit, have you checked out the re-feeds and diet breaks thread and have you been incorporating any re-feeds and/or diet breaks into your routine over this time?

But yes, if you're doing what you're going to be doing anyway, any progress towards the final goal is just that: progress!

wmweeza

It's just not posting results like it says it will.
I can just FEEL someone ready to come along with "Well you're not logging / measuring / using the scale right". I am not new at this, I'm logging religiously. I just happen to use a wheelchair and I am the definition of sedentary 4 days a week. 3 days a week I go to the gym,2 days a week I work out for 20 mins at home, the other 2 I rest. I don't leave the house except for the gym, I don't clean the house, vacuum, mow lawns or anything else most people do. I think others can burn enough to lose a pound or two a week just by going to work and cleaning their homes. My husband does that, I supervise...lol.
I took a week off once, didn't see a major difference.
It's very frustrating, but I suppose since I am slowly losing I should just stick to it. I have about 40 pounds to go

PAV8888

So you may want to read on that refeed thread a bit. A break is at least 14 days at maintenance level eating. A refeed 48 hours at same with carbs prioritized.

Because of your setup you probably have a lower tdee than most which makes it harder to sustain a large deficit.

And because of the length of time at a deficit it is not unexpected to have a slow down. Most people who lose weight also tend to get more active which masks some of that slowing down. You don't have that option so a slow down may be more obvious with you.

To see what may be happening run the nih bodyweight planner starting from your original weight and look how the simulation predicts your loss to be slowing down these many days later.

spence9010

Wow, there is so much success and congrats to be given here. Everyone deserves it, specially you wmweeza.

I'd venture out to say weight loss does a number on our hormones. I've heard it said weight loss is more about hormones than calories. So I'm guessing with you and PAV888, those second year slow losses may be because of hormones being affected from the first year of dieting.

I have yet to report back on how the "refeed" day worked out - time will tell. (I managed 1 day not 2, by the 2nd day I was stuffed pretty quickly and didn't quite make it to maintenance. But did get in lots of carbs at least - felt great mood and energy wise hehe).

And those comments about incorrect logging, I hear you. When my thyroid results came back hypo and my lipid panel and insulin were up (though I eat clean - non-diabetic), my first doctor said "cut out the junk food and lose some weight, and the numbers will go down" (mind you I only had 30-35 lbs to lose!) This was after explaining to her that I was already on a diet and exercise program and the weight loss seemed hard. What a disheartening response! I am learning to work with my body and whatever imbalances it has, be patient and appreciate the losses I can get.

PAV8888

In general I totally agree but just for general truth in advertising purposes, second year loss for me was deliberate at that level as i increased my calories eaten by more than 350 and my Fitbit estimated TDEE was down another 150.

So, at most, I was dealing with 100 Cal of "unexplained" lack of weight drop, which was less than 3% of my tdee and has too many potential measurement issues to be meaningful based on n=1

I did feel later on, after extensive eating at maintenance, a recovery/resolution of issues potentially caused by hormonal effects during weight loss. But their existence did not hamper me personally during year 2.

I have no way of knowing if I WOULD have been hampered had I attempted a more aggressive deficit.

I deliberately didn't in order to avoid the possibility!

etherealanwar

I began in the obese BMI category (200 lbs at a height of 5'4") and was aiming to lose 2 lbs a week but was not able to keep to such a steep deficit and lost at the same rate as you (1lb a week). It felt very slow but I am so glad I stuck with it because time passes anyways and now 1.5 years later I am in a healthy bmi and only 10 lbs from my first goal of 125 lbs. Taking it slow has made me learn lifelong lessons regarding my diet that I will utilize going into maintenance. Look at the positives and know that progress is progress no matter what rate!