My Story So Far... (crosspost from Introduce Yourself)

clairrob

SW: 220lbs
CW: 167lbs
GW: 134lbs
Height: 5'7

Hi all,

I started my journey at my largest in 2015, but I've spent all of my 20s obese or overweight. Prior to that I was nice and slim during my teenage years. I went from 220lbs to 196lbs gradually without necessarily trying over a few years.
I've always struggled with my mental health and have been hospitalised many times due to it. I'm finally beginning to realise my triggers and warning signs so in November '22 I decided that I'd do everything in my power to improve that. I started going to the gym at least 4 times a week, strength training only because cardio is my idea of hell and I started to eat better. I now have 3 meals a day, no snacks and prioritise protein. I allow myself a weekly treat but ensure to maintain a weekly deficit.

Healthy body = healthy mind, right?

I've now formed a habit and look forward to the gym, mealtimes and my weekly treat. I've never been this dedicated before and my main motivation was mental wellness, not weight loss. Weight loss isn't a priority when you're feeling that low, but if I'm honest it's a welcome by-product of my efforts. I decided to track everything recently and I've set myself a goal to have a BMI of 21 but the goalposts may be moved depending on how my body looks.

I'm 29 this year and its looking more likely than ever that I'll enter my 30s at an ideal weight and shape, and my mental health has improved! I'm not "fixed" by any stretch of the word but there's been a marked improvement.

I have lost 53lbs total since 2015, 29lbs since November 2022 and I have 33lbs to go to my goal. On my current trajectory of a 2.2lbs loss per week I should be at a healthy BMI by Valentines and reach my goal by the start of May! Who knows, I may even post a before and after in the 'Success Stories' forum.

Friend requests welcome

Retroguy2000

Congrats! Great story.

What is your current calorie count and protein intake? I ask because you're 167 with goal weight 134, you've lost 29 pounds in the last 12 weeks which is 2.4 pounds per week, and you're still targeting 2.2 pounds per week until goal weight. Seems fast to me.

Since you're focusing on weights, you may want to gauge your progress as body fat percentage in addition to, or instead of, BMI. Use the Navy method rather than a cheap scale. Muscle mass skews the BMI result.

clairrob

Retroguy2000 wrote: »

What is your current calorie count and protein intake? I ask because you're 167 with goal weight 134, you've lost 29 pounds in the last 12 weeks which is 2.4 pounds per week, and you're still targeting 2.2 pounds per week until goal weight. Seems fast to me.

Thank you! I'm aiming to have at least 1200 calories a day or have a deficit of 3500 in any given week. My protein intake is usually 40% of my daily calories. I will definitely be altering my goal based on body composition, and I understand that my weight will start to plateau based on having less to lose and if I'm honest I'm dreading the day. All I've seen is loss so far so I don't want to be disheartened.

My body fat has reduced from 46.2% in November to 38.4%, I'd be happy if I ended up at 30% or high 20s

Retroguy2000

Good to hear you'll be adjusting goals as you get closer. I just wanted to make sure you were having realistic targets and are currently getting enough nutrition. Btw a deficit of 3500 suggests one pound per week, which imo sounds great for you currently, but you previously mentioned targeting 2.2 pounds.

Also, if you're only consuming 1200 while also working out a lot, that's not enough imo. MFP assumes you are entering exercise calories separately and eating those back, or as many people here do, they eat back a portion not necessarily all, since exercise calories can be inflated for various reasons.

40% of 1200 calories is 120g protein, which is an excellent minimum target for your situation. Since you're cutting while doing weights, you could benefit from going a bit higher, adding another 20g-30g.

How are you measuring your body fat %?

clairrob

Sorry I forgot to mention I’m not accounting for my exercise calories and I don’t eat them back, I understand it’s not sustainable long term so on the intense days I have around 1500 calories to ensure there’s enough fuel in my system.

Today for example I’ve consumed 50% protein and I have to be honest, there’s not been a day where I’ve gone to sleep hungry.

I measure my body fat using scales with my Nurse at work, the type with the handlebars. I know they’re not super accurate which is why my ultimate goals will be how I feel and look. A little less jiggle would suffice haha!

AnnPT77

clairrob wrote: »

Retroguy2000 wrote: »

What is your current calorie count and protein intake? I ask because you're 167 with goal weight 134, you've lost 29 pounds in the last 12 weeks which is 2.4 pounds per week, and you're still targeting 2.2 pounds per week until goal weight. Seems fast to me.

Thank you! I'm aiming to have at least 1200 calories a day or have a deficit of 3500 in any given week. My protein intake is usually 40% of my daily calories. I will definitely be altering my goal based on body composition, and I understand that my weight will start to plateau based on having less to lose and if I'm honest I'm dreading the day. All I've seen is loss so far so I don't want to be disheartened.

My body fat has reduced from 46.2% in November to 38.4%, I'd be happy if I ended up at 30% or high 20s

You're doing great so far, for sure.

But if you've averaged 2.2 pounds a week at 1200 calories (or whatever), your deficit is not 3500 per week, but has been more like 7700 per week. (Roughly 3500 calories in a pound of fat, times 2.2 pounds per week), or a daily deficit of about 1100 calories.

The calculator (or MFP or fitness tracker) estimates give you a starting point, but once you have enough personal experiential data (calorie intake and weight changes), your own data is what tells you your actual deficit much more realistically.

What's enough data? Generically 4-6 weeks minimum on the same regimen of eating/exercise, but women who have monthly cycles should compare body weight at the same relative point in 2 or more different menstrual cycles in order to calculate average weight change per week).

Losing too fast risks losing unnecessarily much lean tissue alongside body fat, because researchers believe we can only metabolize a certain amount of body fat per pound of such fat remaining on our body. I'd suggest not waiting for your loss to plateau, but rather to slow it down intentionally if necessary as you get lighter.

A pound a week (actual 3500 calorie weekly deficit) is probably reasonable for you for maybe another 15 pounds-ish, but losing faster than that increases risks, IMO. Since you have body composition goals, hanging onto muscle mass you currently have is a good plan, because it's relatively slow and effortful for us to regain. Many people don't realize that overweight/obese people tend to carry more pounds of lean mass than similarly-active slim people, because it takes some muscle and such to move that larger body through the world every day.

Best wishes for continuing success!

glassyo

All I can add is this little mindset. "I didn't lose anything this week." "At least you didn't gain."

PAV8888

You're doing great and you have done great.
It is impressive.
I bet you do feel awesome!

But.
Yes. there is a but.

But what happens after weight loss matters.
But 2.2lbs a week is way too fast for a target BMI of 21
But losing 2.4lbs a week is too fast if you're already within the normal weight range.

Yes. I truly get the fear of "but what happens when I don't lose".
Yes. I truly get the fear of "but what happens if I don't see the scale go down"

BUT: BOTH WILL HAPPEN DURING MAINTENANCE. Including, CONTRARY to what @glassyo (with who I usually agree) mentions, your weight going UP during maintenance. AND including your weight going up DURING WEIGHT LOSS. Yes I did say UP, during weight LOSS.

Normal weight variations during non "kittens to the wall" weight loss exceed gradual changes to your weight level. Your weight, especially if you have a monthly cycle, can easily swing 2,3, even 5lbs within a week or two. Slow and steady weight loss and maintenance involve smaller and longer term weight level changes. So yes. You could be losing 4lbs a month and weight a lb more on the 31st than you did on the 1st.

Sooner or later you will have to make peace with all this and you will have to start targeting tiny changes as opposed to going "all in" all the time. An all or nothing mindset will be hard to maintain over the next 50+ years.

And, I've always found it easier to engage in experimentation while still pushing for a loss as opposed to trying to discover everything without the cushion of an ongoing deficit.

Continue losing weight by all means. But start figuring out how to deal with smaller deficits (and overages) as opposed to only targeting large deficits. And 2.4 and 2.2lbs and more than 50% of your TDEE ARE huge deficits.

Even start thinking about how you would cope with reduced gym time if life were to happen! I don't expect you would be all giddy about it; BUT IT DOESN'T MEAN THAT ALL HAS TO BE LOST. So think about contingencies!

That said: I look forward to reading more about your successes... for many years to come!

mtaratoot

PAV8888 wrote: »

Yes. I truly get the fear of "but what happens when I don't lose".
Yes. I truly get the fear of "but what happens if I don't see the scale go down"

BUT: BOTH WILL HAPPEN DURING MAINTENANCE. Including, CONTRARY to what @glassyo (with who I usually agree) mentions, your weight going UP during maintenance. AND including your weight going up DURING WEIGHT LOSS. Yes I did say UP, during weight LOSS.

Normal weight variations during non "kittens to the wall" weight loss exceed gradual changes to your weight level. Your weight, especially if you have a monthly cycle, can easily swing 2,3, even 5lbs within a week or two. Slow and steady weight loss and maintenance involve smaller and longer term weight level changes. So yes. You could be losing 4lbs a month and weight a lb more on the 31st than you did on the 1st.

Definitely it will go up during maintenance, and almost for sure during weight loss. My data shows both.

Definitely your trend of losing can be temporarily masked by routine fluctuations. I have had days when my scale weight went up SIX POUNDS in ONE DAY during a time that I actually was losing. Over a few days, my trend had a very brief uptick, but was still on the way down, down down.

Don't sweat the small stuff. It's mostly small stuff.

I put a spreadsheet up that you can download that, if you want, you can add your own data to see your trend. It's a weird one because it starts on the far right, and the dates increase towards the "beginning" of the spreadsheet. It is filled with data up to a few days ago with random numbers between 201 and 143. Put your own data in. It takes several days of data to get the trend. If you skip a number, the "trend" is the one-day weight you entered.

I actually put it together for @PAV8888. I have been using a spreadsheet like this, but on Excel, for years. There's even a graph feature on the second sheet you can see both the fluctuation scale weight and your trending weight. You can play around with the "scale factor" in the very first cell (A1) to make the "look back" shorter. Essentially it's a weighted moving average that puts a higher emphasis on TODAY'S weight than yesterdays, and yesterday's more than the day before that and so on. It's based on a method outlined in The Hacker's Diet. Check that out if you haven't, especially the section on Signal and Noise.

I will leave the spreadsheet up at least for a few more days. Make your own copy and have at it.

PAV8888

hmmm.... I need to work on that spreadsheet

I don't like the right to left and that should be something that we can change... not sure how it will affect the graph. But, it also doesn't handle lack of data for "yesterday". If you don't enter anything in the day before today your trend becomes equal to today's weight regardless of the factor. I suppose one way would be to come up with an interpolated value to fill any gaps.

hmmm

But yes, spreadsheet, happy scale for iphone, libra for android, trendweight and even weightgrapher for web based... all have their own strengths and weaknesses and are probably more useful than the Mark 1 eyeball!

mtaratoot

PAV8888 wrote: »

hmmm.... I need to work on that spreadsheet

I don't like the right to left and that should be something that we can change... not sure how it will affect the graph. But, it also doesn't handle lack of data for "yesterday". If you don't enter anything in the day before today your trend becomes equal to today's weight regardless of the factor. I suppose one way would be to come up with an interpolated value to fill any gaps.

hmmm

But yes, spreadsheet, happy scale for iphone, libra for android, trendweight and even weightgrapher for web based... all have their own strengths and weaknesses and are probably more useful than the Mark 1 eyeball!

On days I'm away from the scale, I just interpolate between the two measured weights. It will appear as three to 23 days with no real noise, just a straight line between measured values.

I have become accustomed to the "wrong way" nature of the date progression. They say it's good to give your brain a workout; consider this brain-therapy.

Retroguy2000

PAV8888 wrote: »

I don't like the right to left and that should be something that we can change... not sure how it will affect the graph.

I just looked at the spreadsheet. The right to left works well imo. It's the same way I do my weights progress spreadsheet. Doing it this way you can simply open the sheet and see the current data you're most interested in immediately, and easily insert columns for new days. Otherwise, you'd have to scroll aaaaaaaalll the way to the right every time you wanted to view or do anything.

PAV8888

Pffffft: my ideal would go vertically with each day added below... because my mouse scrolls faster that way! i suppose we would then argue if the new day should be at the top, which might be a valid argument so we would have a bottom to the TOP as opposed to right to left!

In all this, I guess that we all do agree that the OP should probably start looking at longer term trends instead of just looking for daily scale drops that are large enough to overwhelm natural water weight variations, especially as she is already normal weight and will eventually get to maintenance?!?!?!?

And (even though the results are nearly identical for my current set of weigh-ins), not quite understanding the way the original formula was working I went in and just manually added a sixth line that does a weighted average of the past 10 days assuming that all days have valid weight ins entered. It doesn't properly handle the first 10 days or any subsequent blanks.

=if(ISBLANK(C4),"",if(D5="",C4,round((10*C4+9*D4+8*E4+7*F4+6*G4+5*H4+4*I4+3*J4+2*K4+1*L4)/55,1)))

I just copied and pasted the one day I typed out.

mtaratoot

PAV8888 wrote: »

Pffffft: my ideal would go vertically with each day added below... because my mouse scrolls faster that way! i suppose we would then argue if the new day should be at the top, which might be a valid argument so we would have a bottom to the TOP as opposed to right to left!

In all this, I guess that we all do agree that the OP should probably start looking at longer term trends instead of just looking for daily scale drops that are large enough to overwhelm natural water weight variations, especially as she is already normal weight and will eventually get to maintenance?!?!?!?

And (even though the results are nearly identical for my current set of weigh-ins), not quite understanding the way the original formula was working I went in and just manually added a sixth line that does a weighted average of the past 10 days assuming that all days have valid weight ins entered. It doesn't properly handle the first 10 days or any subsequent blanks.

=if(ISBLANK(C4),"",if(D5="",C4,round((10*C4+9*D4+8*E4+7*F4+6*G4+5*H4+4*I4+3*J4+2*K4+1*L4)/55,1)))

I just copied and pasted the one day I typed out.

I just added that to the downloadable one. It obviously will give a bad result days 2-9, and then it's really neat to see the difference.

---

Editing to add...

I tried that formula, but too it out. I did add a simple ten-day average. There are now two graphs. One is Scale and Trend, the other compares Trend to the simple ten-day average. Just so you can tell the difference between the two methods of calculating an average. It isn't a large difference, but it might be with real data.

mtaratoot

This should be my last post about this here.

Just for grins, I populated the sheet with a year's worth of data so anyone who first downloads it can see how the weighted moving-average works and compare it to the slightly different results from a simple ten-day average.

If this helps the original poster @clairrob with the last phases of her journey, that's great. If it helps anyone else, that's keen too.

clairrob

AnnPT77 wrote: »

You're doing great so far, for sure.

But if you've averaged 2.2 pounds a week at 1200 calories (or whatever), your deficit is not 3500 per week, but has been more like 7700 per week. (Roughly 3500 calories in a pound of fat, times 2.2 pounds per week), or a daily deficit of about 1100 calories.

The calculator (or MFP or fitness tracker) estimates give you a starting point, but once you have enough personal experiential data (calorie intake and weight changes), your own data is what tells you your actual deficit much more realistically.

What's enough data? Generically 4-6 weeks minimum on the same regimen of eating/exercise, but women who have monthly cycles should compare body weight at the same relative point in 2 or more different menstrual cycles in order to calculate average weight change per week).

Losing too fast risks losing unnecessarily much lean tissue alongside body fat, because researchers believe we can only metabolize a certain amount of body fat per pound of such fat remaining on our body. I'd suggest not waiting for your loss to plateau, but rather to slow it down intentionally if necessary as you get lighter.

A pound a week (actual 3500 calorie weekly deficit) is probably reasonable for you for maybe another 15 pounds-ish, but losing faster than that increases risks, IMO. Since you have body composition goals, hanging onto muscle mass you currently have is a good plan, because it's relatively slow and effortful for us to regain. Many people don't realize that overweight/obese people tend to carry more pounds of lean mass than similarly-active slim people, because it takes some muscle and such to move that larger body through the world every day.

Best wishes for continuing success!

Thank you! My food deficit is at that point for sure but the additional exercise has meant that I probably have made it up enough to lose around 2lbs a week. Do you think I've been overdoing it? Apologies I thought 2lbs was just right!

Thankfully today is my weekly weigh-in and I've lost 1lb, notice how I didn't say only haha! I'll work on my diet to adjust closer to maintenance now.

clairrob

PAV8888 wrote: »

You're doing great and you have done great.
It is impressive.
I bet you do feel awesome!

But.
Yes. there is a but.

But what happens after weight loss matters.
But 2.2lbs a week is way too fast for a target BMI of 21
But losing 2.4lbs a week is too fast if you're already within the normal weight range.

Yes. I truly get the fear of "but what happens when I don't lose".
Yes. I truly get the fear of "but what happens if I don't see the scale go down"

BUT: BOTH WILL HAPPEN DURING MAINTENANCE. Including, CONTRARY to what @glassyo (with who I usually agree) mentions, your weight going UP during maintenance. AND including your weight going up DURING WEIGHT LOSS. Yes I did say UP, during weight LOSS.

I think you've given me quite the kick I've needed, even though the loss is going amazing for me its very possible that there will be fluctuations whether I've done everything I can or not. I do need a mindset change especially because I've been so used to seeing the numbers going down, only plateauing during my monthlies with a 3lbs+ loss the following week.

If I'm honest before my lifestyle change my eating pattern was messed up, I could go a day or two without any food whatsoever and absolutely binge the next. Or I'd feel so down where I'd have a "nap for dinner". I have no aversion to food but I never had a routine so my weight has yo-yo'd unintentionally for years. Don't get me started on my attitude to exercise! I'd prefer to stay in bed all day if I could than face the day, I didn't believe these fitness obsessed people that said it helps to work out. After my lifestyle change, I truly have a healthy relationship and routine with food and exercise now.

My healthy BMI is only 7lbs away now, I need to readjust my deficit as Ann and pretty much everyone said above.

clairrob

mtaratoot wrote: »

Definitely your trend of losing can be temporarily masked by routine fluctuations. I have had days when my scale weight went up SIX POUNDS in ONE DAY during a time that I actually was losing. Over a few days, my trend had a very brief uptick, but was still on the way down, down down.

Don't sweat the small stuff. It's mostly small stuff.

I put a spreadsheet up that you can download that, if you want, you can add your own data to see your trend. It's a weird one because it starts on the far right, and the dates increase towards the "beginning" of the spreadsheet. It is filled with data up to a few days ago with random numbers between 201 and 143. Put your own data in. It takes several days of data to get the trend. If you skip a number, the "trend" is the one-day weight you entered.

I actually put it together for @PAV8888. I have been using a spreadsheet like this, but on Excel, for years. There's even a graph feature on the second sheet you can see both the fluctuation scale weight and your trending weight. You can play around with the "scale factor" in the very first cell (A1) to make the "look back" shorter. Essentially it's a weighted moving average that puts a higher emphasis on TODAY'S weight than yesterdays, and yesterday's more than the day before that and so on. It's based on a method outlined in The Hacker's Diet. Check that out if you haven't, especially the section on Signal and Noise.

I will leave the spreadsheet up at least for a few more days. Make your own copy and have at it.

I love it!! I'll try it but I do think a daily weigh in for me will start a bit of an obsession and may deter me. I weigh every Friday morning and plot my own graphs and have marked my cycles for future dates to account for anomalies or fluctuations. If I can help it I want to do this as healthily as I can for my body and mind.

For sure this will work for others, appreciate it!

This is a small snip from my own data I've gathered, I love number crunching.

clairrob

Turns out everyone was right, I've just calculated that I have an 8000+ calorie weekly deficit. I will definitely adjust this as I'm only 30lbs away from my goal, then after that is where lifetime maintenance begins.

Appreciate all of you!!!

clairrob

Also the estimated figures are based on how I've lost so far.
In future I'll aim for a goal of 1% body weight a week to be more sustainable.

AnnPT77

clairrob wrote: »

Also the estimated figures are based on how I've lost so far.
In future I'll aim for a goal of 1% body weight a week to be more sustainable.

You might even consider more like 0.5% of current body weight per week, since you're getting closer to goal weight. It's easier on the body, and helps practice the eating habits you'll need in maintenance, plus may start getting you accustomed to the slower scale progress and therefore help you identify some other psychological rewards and feedback mechanisms.

Just a though - it's your call, obviously.