Help

huggit

I’ve just had two days off tracking as had a meal out and lost it after that! I was only in the middle of first week and the weight on the scales was not budging so I thought what’s the point? I try so hard and nothing works, I’m was on 1700 calories and I am thinking of going to 14500 is this better do you think? I am exercising daily and am nearing menapause. I also find diets hard due to IBS 🤪

Lietchi

You can't expect results after a few days only, you need at least a couple of weeks to judge the results of your weight loss efforts, if not a month, especially as a woman.
Water retention, food waste in your system,... are all factors which will influence your weigh-ins from day to day. It's the general longer term trend that matters.

Are you weighing all of your food? This really is essential to make sure you are in a calorie deficit. And it will help you make guesstimations if you are eating out and can't weigh your food.

As for finding diets hard: you don't need to diet per se. Just eat the foods you like, but adapt the quantities to your calorie goals.

So no, I don't think you should lower your calories, I think you should stick to your current calorie goal for a month and see what the results are.

tinkerbellang83

It takes 4-6 weeks of data to see if something is "working" when it comes to weight loss, this gives you time to see how your weight changes throughout your menstrual cycle (hormones can affect water weight throughout) and also allows time to see a trend.

To give you an idea of what weight loss actually looks like on a scale, weighing daily for 6 months:



The scale isn't only showing you your fat loss/gain it also shows water retained/food in your system, etc.

Try to re-frame your thinking a bit and consider why a meal out seemed like a reason to go off the rails instead of just enjoying the meal and then going back to your normal deficit. Have you been too restrictive with your diet which is then leading to you bingeing? Are you too emotionally focused on the scale and after seeing the rise on the scale after your meal (which is mostly water retention from increased carbs/sodium), you've decided it's all pointless, even though it actually probably had little to no impact on your fat loss (a pound of fat is roughly equivalent to 3500 calories, so to gain a pound of fat you'd need to eat you maintenance intake + 3500 calories).

IBS shouldn't make dieting any harder than eating at maintenance, presumably you already know your trigger foods, so avoid them and eat the other foods you like in moderation in portions that meet your calorie goal. If you don't know your trigger foods ask to be referred to a Dietician who will work with you to help discover them.

88olds

Step back. As others have pointed out, nothing in weight loss can be assessed in days. I’ve always planned by the week. But it takes about 4-6 weeks to get a clear picture of what’s working.

Plus, there’s a significant calorie counting learning curve that doesn’t seem to get much discussion. Calorie counting is a skill set. No one was born counting calories. Give yourself some time to adjust. Keep trying. It gets easier as you learn the numbers for stuff you eat regularly.

Try to make your plan a set of things to do. Log everything you eat and drink. Use a food scale whenever possible to crunch the numbers. Your first goal should be to log everything with a number. Don’t be distressed by calorie counting gray areas. Sometimes the best we can do is a good faith estimate. Do the process and the scale will follow.

Last- don’t let your brain wreck you. Our brains don’t like change and seem to hate weight loss in particular. Your brain will likely jump at every opportunity to say “what’s the point?” Push back. The point is calorie counting works. A calorie deficit will result in weight loss given time to work. It has to work. It’s science. You just need enough trial and error to get the numbers right. You can do this.

cmriverside

Two days?

What is your reason for losing weight? I had to hang on to that and keep it at the front of my mind. I was sick of being fat. Life was hard when I was over weight and it's 1000 times easier now.

It doesn't matter which foods you eat for weight loss other than making sure to get enough protein and fat for health reasons. So if you have a list of IBS safe food, just eat them in the portions that will keep you within your calorie goals.

You didn't gain weight over night. It will take time. Try to learn something new about it every day by looking at your FOOD log and making small sustainable changes. Learn from your FOOD page, and log everything you eat. You'll start seeing patterns and ways to improve without it being emotionally or physically painful. :flowerforyou:

Back at it.

imxnianne

A cheat meal isn’t the end of the world. After the cheat meal, why not work out harder tomorrow or that night. Body weight fluncuates way too much everyday. Weigh yourself every 1 week max. I’m a scale slave, that’s why I know that. Also, the first few weeks are the toughest. It gets easier! I’m just back at dieting. Believe me, I know what you’re going through. After stuffing my face going all in, I need to go back a bit before I lose myself.

Lietchi

imxnianne wrote: »

Body weight fluctuates way too much everyday. Weigh yourself every 1 week max. I’m a scale slave, that’s why I know that.

I think this is a personal preference though. I find it very informative to weigh everyday, to fully grasp how variable my weight is (influence of exercise, carbs, sodium, TOM...). There are apps out there that will show you what your weight trend is based on individual weigh-ins; personally I have an Excel-sheet where I can see my daily weigh-ins and my longterm weight trend.

Also, when you weigh once a week, it might coincidentally be a day when you're retaining water and you might think your weight loss attempts are failing, while your weight on the other days of the week would have shown a downward trend. (Or the opposite of course, an exceptionally low weigh-in while the other days were higher)

quiksylver296

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

NovusDies

A good article on weight fluctuations:

https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations/

I suggest weighing tomorrow and then putting the scale away for 6 weeks. You need to figure out how to sustain your weight loss without scale numbers to motivate you. If you abandoned your plan that quickly you probably need to work on a plan that makes adherence easier.

After 6 weeks you can choose how often to start weighing yourself again but hopefully by then you will no longer be so scale oriented.

My suggestion is based on personal experience. This is exactly what I did to overcome my poor relationship with the scale. I learned to be process driven not results driven.

AnnPT77

If you were driving to somewhere far away, and accidentally took a wrong turn 100 miles into it, would you decide you ruined it all, so turn around and head home? If you came out to get in your car one day to go to work, and had a flat tire, would you get out an ice pick and & puncture the other 3?

If not, why is changing your eating any different. If things don't go as planned, just get back on track.

You don't have to totally revolutionize your eating and exercise all at once, either. For weight loss, eat enough less - of whatever you like eating - to be in a slight calorie deficit, then stick with that the majority of your days. If you want to improve fitness, gradually add fun activity that's a bit of a challenge, and incrementally increase type, duration, intensity, or frequency gradually over time to keep it a bit challenging. That's all it takes, really.

If dieting aggravates your IBS, think about why: Are you adding supposedly "healthy" foods that aggravate symptoms, for you? Figure out which they are, and don't eat them. If it's IBS/C, makes sure you're getting enough fiber, fats, and water . . . not crazy much, but enough. (Too low fat is a common constipation trigger among dieters.)

Best wishes!

LyndaBSS

You need to learn to have a whole lot more patience. Without it, you’ll crash and burn. Weight loss is not instant gratification.

If you eat out, log as best you can.

You need to dig deep to access your motivation and dedication to the process.

Good luck with your journey.