Share your Numbers
Replies
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rieraclaelin wrote: »For those who do weigh daily, do you log in your weight every day on here, or do you log in a chart daily and then once a week update your MFP?
I used to log in the Fitbit app which would then auto-forward the weight to Trendweight and MFP.
But I turned off the MFP friend notifications about weight changes because I was tired of announcing to the world that I had lost the same lbs again and again!
But, whenever I would hit a new scale low on consecutive days? Then I would sneakily turn the notification function back on before inputting my weight into Fitbit... and would turn it off after the notification posted on MFP!
Of course you could just make a wall post with the same information and format and no-one would ever know it was typed by you as opposed to being automatically generated!
I am now using a Bluetooth scale with its own app which pushes the weight-ins to Fitbit which pushes them to Trendweight and MFP... it's like a little data train that starts when I press the little "add a new weight-in" button on my phone!
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Today I hit pre-quarantine weight! Sitting at 210, down from 223. Took me 4 months to put on 13 pounds and 6 weeks to take it off. 10 pounds to get to Onederland, 55 to get to a healthy BMI, 75 to goal weight!6
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rieraclaelin wrote: »For those who do weigh daily, do you log in your weight every day on here, or do you log in a chart daily and then once a week update your MFP?
I used to log in the Fitbit app which would then auto-forward the weight to Trendweight and MFP.
But I turned off the MFP friend notifications about weight changes because I was tired of announcing to the world that I had lost the same lbs again and again!
But, whenever I would hit a new scale low on consecutive days? Then I would sneakily turn the notification function back on before inputting my weight into Fitbit... and would turn it off after the notification posted on MFP!
Of course you could just make a wall post with the same information and format and no-one would ever know it was typed by you as opposed to being automatically generated!
I am now using a Bluetooth scale with its own app which pushes the weight-ins to Fitbit which pushes them to Trendweight and MFP... it's like a little data train that starts when I press the little "add a new weight-in" button on my phone!
Im logging my weight daily in my paper log and weekly in MFP.so that it will also reflect my new calorie goal if there is one. .2 -
Hi Rashel here im not new to MFP but im new to this group and i really need some accountability so i dont fall off the waggon or just quit when i hit that dreaded plateau i know is coming eventually. I started back on MFP on August 11th at my all time highest weight of 290.0 pounds. As of today (September 5th) I'm at 276.4 and I know im at the point where it will and should begin to slow down and im so scared it will stop and ill completely loose my motivation and i dont want that ! I want to be back under 200lbs not at 300 !4
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I was 360 lbs at peak, about 10 years ago. Dieting had always been an on again off again thing for me, until May 2019. I was at 320 lbs then and started what I am hoping will be my final weight loss diet. So some numbers:
Peak weight - 360 lbs
Weight at start of current diet - 320 lbs
Current weight - 158 lbs, at goal, actually a little below
Rate of loss in current diet, average - 2.6 lbs per week
Calories per day in weight loss, average 1,000 to 1,200 per day
Calories per day now, average 1,600
I have been in maintenance since about August 1, the transition has been interesting and sometimes hard. People talk a lot about weight loss, but not so much about maintenance. So I am muddling along a bit finding my way, so far so good. I do not believe I will ever be able to eat "normally", its just me. If I don't continue to control my diet I am sure the weight will come back, as it always has before. Trying to think of it as my final plateau.4 -
alligatorob wrote: »Weight at start of current diet - 320 lbs
Current weight - 158 lbs, at goal, actually a little below
Rate of loss in current diet, average - 2.6 lbs per week
Calories per day in weight loss, average 1,000 to 1,200 per day
Calories per day now, average 1,600
I have been in maintenance since about August 1, the transition has been interesting and sometimes hard. People talk a lot about weight loss, but not so much about maintenance. So I am muddling along a bit finding my way, so far so good. I do not believe I will ever be able to eat "normally", its just me. If I don't continue to control my diet I am sure the weight will come back, as it always has before. Trying to think of it as my final plateau.
Sincere congrats on having accomplished the first half.
I am not sure whether your very fast loss will make things easier or harder for you in terms of maintenance.
But I am sure that if you invest the same or more effort into maintenance and weight stability as you did during weight loss you will achieve weight management!
Some concepts for you to think on in semi-random order:
--weight range: your weight trend is not the same as daily weight daily weight changes faster than range. trendweight.com / weightgrapher.com, libra, happy scale show weight trend. 2-3lb weight trend change, for most people, is a real indication of a trend. even 8lbs change for a few days for some people is not an indication of a trend. Goal at maintenance would be to slow down weight changes and perturbations. Dampen the pendulum. Avoid big spikes up that require big spikes down to correct. Corrections should, hopefully, be in the sub 500 Cal a day range. To be honest, my biggest corrections since maintenance have been at LESS than 200 Cal a day, applied over long enough time periods. It helps avoid the syndrome of "I will start on this tomorrow"
--Calories. Numbers of 1000-1200 for rapid loss and 1600 for maintenance don't quite jive. Look at your weight loss during the last 8, 6, and 4 weeks leading into maintenance. What was your average intake? Average weight loss? Figure that whatever you were eating +500 Cal a day per lb of weight change would bring you to your maintenance. Further figure that as you eat more your TDEE for the day (maintenance level) tends to go up a tiny bit. So the final maintenance figure may be a good number of percentage points higher (as much as 10 or even 20% though either of these figures would be fairly rare)
--if you end up feeling hungrier than expected when you start eating more normally: DO NOT DESPAIR. even if it leads to slow regain. This is where the fight will have to happen and where you will have to fight both psychology and physiology. It is common for hunger to increase substantially after weight loss. Disproportionately. And when eating at maintenance it will quite probably hit you. This is NORMAL. It is not a failing. You may be looking at more than a year of having to battle this even with a small level of regain depending on how low in terms of fat levels you've ended up at your current 158 lbs. BUT THERE IS HOPE! Maintaining for 2+ years is the biggest indication bar none in terms of successfully continuing to maintain. (obviously if none of this happens to you YEAH, bob's your uncle and you're home free---but having extra hormonally induced hunger levels at the end of weight loss is not exactly unheard off)
--my own personal thing has been multiple levels of "safeguards". Continuing with the activity level I was using during weight loss and only slowly bringing it down a bit over an extensive period of time. Having food staples that are easy to prepare and which I can quickly grab from the fridge and turn into known filling for few calories meals. Continuing to log the same way I did when losing weight. Continuing to regularly weigh myself and enter the information into a weight trend app. Being ready to apply small deficits if needed to correct weight trends that are out of whack. Even continuing to be active on MFP is part of the new me who is interested in putting in the effort required to continue to maintain weight.
Putting in some effort to get something rewarding out of it doesn't strike me as a bad bargain. Yes, the initial year or two of effort may be more intense than afterwards; but still well worth it. Jump into the maintenance board and maybe even participate in one of the weight change / challenges for the month threads with other people who are maintaining.
Best of luck and take care of yourself2 -
@alligatorob this thread (and subsequent ones that will come up) may be of some help to continue to keep you focused, if that's something you feel might be of use to you: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10808657/sept-check-in#latest1
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Rashel_kitten wrote: »Hi Rashel here im not new to MFP but im new to this group and i really need some accountability so i dont fall off the waggon or just quit when i hit that dreaded plateau i know is coming eventually. I started back on MFP on August 11th at my all time highest weight of 290.0 pounds. As of today (September 5th) I'm at 276.4 and I know im at the point where it will and should begin to slow down and im so scared it will stop and ill completely loose my motivation and i dont want that ! I want to be back under 200lbs not at 300 !
My weight loss slowed from the amazing first few weeks but remained at a pace to keep me encouraged. You can do this!
I wrote down my 3 biggest motivations for losing weight & refer to them when I get discouraged. Maybe that would help you, too.2 -
@rockconner I did something similar when I started this quest for better health. However, my list was more than 3 items. lol I included everything I thought weight loss and better fitness would improve in my life from being able to walk more than 100 feet or so without feeling like I was going to die to fitting in an airplane seat to being able to ride a bike again. I have about 25 or 30 things on my list. Reading that list helps me focus on why I really want to improve my health and fitness.
Another thing I've been doing is every 3 months I write down how my health, fitness, and life in general have improved over the past quarter. It's hard to see progress day to day. I mean, really, are you going to see a change after a day or 2 or even a week or 2? But writing down the improvements after 3 months demonstrates how much the cumulative efforts day after day really impact your life for the better. I've been on this journey for almost 17 months now. Going back to read the improvements in my life helps me reinforce the changes I've made and reminds me that I don't want to go back to the way things were before. Some of the things I wrote after the first 3 months I barely remember so it's good to have that list to see how bad things were health and fitness-wise and how much better things are currently. I still have 50 to 70 pounds to go (I've lost over 200 pounds so far & I don't really know what my "goal" weight should be), but the improvements to my life thus far have been greater than I ever allowed myself to dream might be possible.4 -
What a great response PAV! No doubt the best advice I have seen on maintenance, it is really appreciated.
I don't have a lot of time right now for a proper response, I will get back later. One comment however, you said: "Numbers of 1000-1200 for rapid loss and 1600 for maintenance don't quite jive." and I agree. I have been giving it thought and in the weeks leading into my shift to maintenance I was still losing a lot of weight, over 2 lbs a week on average. It does not make sense to me that just by going up a few hundred calories that should stop, but it has.
It is possible that pre-maintenance I was overestimating my calories, I was being very conservative with my counts, so maybe my real diet calories were lower the average could have really been 1,000, or maybe a little lower. And I am still losing a little, down about 3 or 4 pounds since the change 6 weeks ago.
My short term objective right now is to find what I think of as the bottom, the place where I no longer lose, but don't gain weight. A little longer term I know I need to change what I eat back to a more normal diet, I am still pretty much eating what I did for the last year, just more of it. Lots of veggies, yogurt, protein supplement, etc. No oil, little fat, and no prepared foods. I don't think that is sustainable longer term. For example I know I am eating too little fat. Its been almost a year and a half since I ate the same things other people I eat with are eating.
Thanks again, and I will be back when I have more time.1 -
@rockconner I did something similar when I started this quest for better health. However, my list was more than 3 items. lol I included everything I thought weight loss and better fitness would improve in my life from being able to walk more than 100 feet or so without feeling like I was going to die to fitting in an airplane seat to being able to ride a bike again. I have about 25 or 30 things on my list. Reading that list helps me focus on why I really want to improve my health and fitness.
Another thing I've been doing is every 3 months I write down how my health, fitness, and life in general have improved over the past quarter. It's hard to see progress day to day. I mean, really, are you going to see a change after a day or 2 or even a week or 2? But writing down the improvements after 3 months demonstrates how much the cumulative efforts day after day really impact your life for the better. I've been on this journey for almost 17 months now. Going back to read the improvements in my life helps me reinforce the changes I've made and reminds me that I don't want to go back to the way things were before. Some of the things I wrote after the first 3 months I barely remember so it's good to have that list to see how bad things were health and fitness-wise and how much better things are currently. I still have 50 to 70 pounds to go (I've lost over 200 pounds so far & I don't really know what my "goal" weight should be), but the improvements to my life thus far have been greater than I ever allowed myself to dream might be possible.
Thank you for your comment. I have been thinking about keeping a diary of my weight loss-just a few notes. Haven't started it yet so your comments have encouraged me to start. I think it would be interesting and motivating to see those NSV in writing.
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@deafenbaugh The notes I make every 3 months are helpful for me and don't really take too much time. I know this might not be helpful for everyone. Try it for a little bit on whatever schedule makes sense for you and and see if it helps you to have that info to refer back to. If it doesn't do anything for you, at least then you'll know that and you haven't really invested anything but a bit of time.
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@deafenbaugh The notes I make every 3 months are helpful for me and don't really take too much time. I know this might not be helpful for everyone. Try it for a little bit on whatever schedule makes sense for you and and see if it helps you to have that info to refer back to. If it doesn't do anything for you, at least then you'll know that and you haven't really invested anything but a bit of time.
This is such a smart idea! I haven't done this, and kind of regret forgetting some of the many NSVs along the way in the last year. While I can see how far I've come, there were so many improvements along the way that I've forgotten many of them. I have to think back to remember many of them: feeling that I had a waist for the first time, walking down the stairs without my knee hurting, realizing my knees now painfully knock together when I sleep on my side, recognizing my face again in the mirror. And who knows how many I've forgotten!3 -
Age 45 Height 5’1
Weight:
Beginning 307.8 lbs
Today 304
Long term goal 125
Total loss needed 182
I can’t think about the 182. I need to focus on one day at a time. If I look at the total loss needed too long I will get overwhelmed and give up.
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_inHisGrace wrote: »Age 45 Height 5’1
Weight:
Beginning 307.8 lbs
Today 304
Long term goal 125
Total loss needed 182
I can’t think about the 182. I need to focus on one day at a time. If I look at the total loss needed too long I will get overwhelmed and give up.
@_inHisGrace - I also don't think about the end goal (I honestly don't even know what my goal weight will be yet). I had over 100 to lose, and would have given up long ago if I only thought about that goal.
Numbers-wise, I give myself lots of small milestones. Every 5 lbs lost, every 10 lbs lost, and every time I hit a weight ending in a 0 or 5. It is silly but it works well for me. I also really focus on non-scale victories: Clothing is looser, feeling new muscle, finding a bone I didn't know was there, finding surprise clothes in the closet that actually fit, running faster/farther, doing another push up. This way I pretty much hit a milestone every week!
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_inHisGrace wrote: »Age 45 Height 5’1
Weight:
Beginning 307.8 lbs
Today 304
Long term goal 125
Total loss needed 182
I can’t think about the 182. I need to focus on one day at a time. If I look at the total loss needed too long I will get overwhelmed and give up.
That is absolutely correct. Ignore the total. There is nothing you can do about all of it. There is something you can do about a little of it today. IMO, today is the best goal. Be as happy as you can be today so that tomorrow when you wake up you don't dread doing a repeat. If you string together enough happy days when the inevitable bad day pops up you will remember that not every day is this way.
At one point I characterized myself as keeping my head down and doing my process and allowing the weight loss to happen over the top of me. I also liked to think of weight loss as the bonus prize of eating a healthy number of calories for myself each day. Ultimately the main goal is learning how to eat the correct number of calories. Weight loss will happen for a portion of time but then after that it will just be maintaining for, hopefully, the rest of our lives.
I started with 300ish to lose. I am down to 20ish. I will tell you that even now it seems impossible that I have lost so much and I lived with myself the entire time I did it. It was definitely impossible when I started. It has been impossible the entire time it has been happening. The best thing I did was to absolutely ignore weight loss as much as I could and just make each day as good as possible. Time has flown by and the weight has fallen off.
Fun fact - About 80 percent of the fat weight you will lose - you exhale. Once the fat is used for energy the two byproducts remaining are carbon dioxide and water. So ask me how impossible it seems that I have lost about 50 percent of my total mass BY BREATHING IT OUT. lol. Well I used it first then exhaled it but you know what I mean.2 -
@_inHisGrace @eliezalot
Same here - I set 220 lbs as my goal weight back when I set up my MFP profile, but I was starting at 375 lbs and that was so far down the road that I really didn't see it as being possible. I kept other smaller milestones in mind - 350 lbs, 325 lbs, 300 lbs, etc. I'd have small ones and larger ones - the 25 lb markers were the larger ones I'd celebrate - like getting to 325 lbs and finally light enough that I could find a bike that would support me without having to pay a hefty price to have it reinforced. I don't ride often but its nice to have it!
I didn't really celebrate the last 2 milestones, though, and I suppose it was because of the summer activity and that they came and went - 265 lbs and then 250 lbs. It came as a rather big shock to me when I changed my milestone weight in my accountability thread in another group and realized that the milestone goal was now the goal weight itself, and I'm within 8 lbs of achieving that dreamed 220 lbs that way back in 2017 when I started I didn't really believe was possible!
Now I've got 180 lbs in my mind and that's what I'll be changing that goal to when I get to the 220. If I had not truly believed I could get to 220 but thought it would be nice, 180 lbs is a huge pipe dream, but now I'm thinking that if I can get to 220, perhaps the 180 isn't so far fetched after all! 180 would still be overweight for me, but not obese and not obese by a pretty good BMI margin. I'd like to push to 175 lbs and get to the magic "200 lbs" lost, but we'll see what the next few years bring and whether I can have the discipline for that.
I know for some people, looking at the end goal and milestones don't mean much, and for others, the focus on the scale ends up making them anxious and not helping them, but the milestones for me were the pointers that I was succeeding and was actually losing weight. Which is why I struggle with plateaus and the stupid summer-time humidity water weight merry-go-round I'm on right now. I know @NovusDies keeps trying to break me of that mentality and get me to focus more on the NSV's, but what can I say? My head is like granite and sometimes even I need a jackhammer or three to get something past that outer layer and to penetrate it into my psyche, even when I know that what advice I"m being given is sound and would be helpful if I could implement it. I need to find some diamond tips for those jackhammers lol4 -
Thanks for reading and commenting. It’s inspiring!1
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It may be my fault then because my style of assistance is definitely not jackhammer-eque. I believe in nudging people and/or giving them ideas to try.1
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