About to give up

barbarasigut

Someone tell me not to give up. I've only lost 6 lbs this month and none for 10 days. I go up and down and up and down. I'm about to just eat everything in sight and give up. I feel defeated.

Lietchi

I think you need a shift in perspective. There is nothing 'only' about losing 6 lbs in 1 month.
This isn't a race, you're (I presume) trying to make durable changes so you can lose weight AND keep it off long-term.

With that in mind:
- focus on the process, not the scale results (for example logging food, increasing activity level, increasing vegetable/fruit consumption,...)
- are you making things unnecessarily hard on yourself by eliminating your favorite foods, aiming for a calorie goal that is too low to be sustainable, etc? You sound like you're possibly being over-restrictive which usually backfires because it drains every bit of willpower you have until you give up. If you choose a more durable and moderate strategy (suffering is entirely optional and best avoided when possible!) you don't need tons of willpower, you just need to groove in some new habits until they're second-nature.

Antiopelle

6 lbs in a month is great! Well done !! Imagine you'll do that every month, for the rest of the year?
Hell yeah
As you probably know, weight loss isn't linear. I've been a miss-goody-two-shoes for the whole year already and see how this looks in the graph below.
Eating everything in sight won't solve anything, as there is nothing to solve in the first place. Keep on doing what you were doing and it will go down. If not, adjust a little bit. You've got this!

88olds

Don’t put only and lost in the same sentence. Losing 6 lbs in a month is very good. A big problem in weight loss is accepting success. Step back and look at the big picture in just basic terms. You set out to lose weight and you’ve done it. But your brain, and keep in mind that part of your brain does not want to change, your brain is trying to convince you that you’re failing. You are not. You are in fact succeeding.

A friend says, we eventually get the weigh in we deserve, but not necessarily when we expect it.

As much as we would like our bodies to run like machines we are not machines. Unfortunately all the WL gadgets and calculators add to the idea our weight loss is going to proceed like driving a car on a cross country trip. Just know our speed and how many miles we need to go and we can calculate when we arrive at our destination. Know the mileage our car gets and we can figure how many gallons of gas we need. But our bodies don’t work like that. And it drives a lot of people crazy enough to to make them quit. Don’t quit.

Your program is working fine. Your expectations may be out of line. Weight loss is an individual pursuit because it has two parts. One part is eating in a calorie deficit. The other part is living with it. I can tell you how I work the calorie part and maybe you could copy that. But the living with it part is personal. One thing that is likely is the whole project will take longer than you would like. Give it time. The longer you stick with it, the more you will know about how you will manage the living part. Don’t mess with a plan that is working. If your calorie deficit is too strict to live with long term, recalculate. The best plan is one we can actually follow. Good luck.

elisa123gal

Don't let the devil on your shoulder talk you into giving up. If your best friend lost six pounds in a month and was complaining she was a failure would you agree? Tell her to throw in the towel? No.
You are getting smaller. No one ever loses weight as fast as they would like. We have to grow up.. be mature and trust the process.. that as habits change our bodies will also. ( and that works both ways..gaining and losing weight)

GinLee61

6 lbs in a month is actually a high rate of loss. More than what is recommended. Why would you give up?

You say you've lost nothing for 10 days and that you go up and down and up and down. It sounds like you are weighing yourself daily and that the normal daily fluctuations are messing with your head? If you are you might think about not weighing daily. Weigh yourself no more than once per week. And make sure you are measuring yourself. You can be losing inches even when the scale is showing little to no loss. Also,10 days without a loss is pretty normal as you progress further into this lifestyle change. I started this journey 15 months ago and sometimes I go 2 to 3 weeks with barely any loss then suddenly drop a pound or a pound and a half.

I don't know how long ago you started or how much you have lost in total so far. Try to readjust your expectations. Many factors can impact rate of loss, be sure you're not comparing yourself to others.

Don't give up! You're doing great. And, don't let the scale be your only measure of success!! Think about how you feel now, compared to how you felt when you first started this journey.

Machka9

barbarasigut wrote: »

Someone tell me not to give up. I've only lost 6 lbs this month and none for 10 days. I go up and down and up and down. I'm about to just eat everything in sight and give up. I feel defeated.

What did you expect?

You don't want to lose weight faster than that!

tahitig

OMG no, don't give up!
I'm the turtle that can diet hard and still only lose about 1/2 pound per week, on average, so my progress is sloooooww. I've done that to myself by giving up on healthy eating way too often and messing with my metabolism.
Please don't repeat my mistake -- you're actually doing very well.
I'll have to wait 3 months to see progress like you've seen in the past month alone, but I will.
It's worth it.

Keep doing this!

DebbsSeattle

Turn your perspective from vanity towards regaining health. The vanity will follow the health. Look to your why. If it is because of a spouse or a child…you got 99% of your motivation right there. 6# a month, for 12 months? Why that is a great goal to be able achieve. Not moving the needle? Change it up. Go back to your first logged day and begin replicating it all over. Up your calories, decrease your calories, go vegetarian, go carnivore, do a fast for 24 hours, do a juicing day, do a chicken and Broccoli protocol for 2 days straight, do all 5 food groups, 3 times a day, up your water, decrease your caffeine, up your fiber to 40 grams per day with 12 cups of water, reduce your sodium to one mg per calorie eaten. Add a 5 minute walk 3 times a day, then double it, then double it. Begin drinking apple cider vinegar before each meal. Drink lemon water. Go Mediterranean, go paleo, go keto, go whole food only, go fish only. Keep mixing it up and don’t let your body catch on. Lather, rinse, repeat. Just keep doing it. The other option is do nothing and keep getting fatter and fatter and fatter. The fatter you get the fatter you get and the quicker you die. Eliminate all, yes…ALL sugar. Cut out all processed foods…yes…ALL of them. If it has more than one ingredient…don’t eat it. Base each meal upon a veggie foundation. Make your diet contain 75 grams of fat from your natural meats (eggs and nuts included) and healthy added oils like olive, avocado, flax and coconut. Do something different. Go shopping and try on skinny clothing or bathing suits for motivation. Nobody can do it but YOU. Just do it!

Lietchi

DebbsSeattle wrote: »

Turn your perspective from vanity towards regaining health. The vanity will follow the health. Look to your why. If it is because of a spouse or a child…you got 99% of your motivation right there. 6# a month, for 12 months? Why that is a great goal to be able achieve. Not moving the needle? Change it up. Go back to your first logged day and begin replicating it all over. Up your calories, decrease your calories, go vegetarian, go carnivore, do a fast for 24 hours, do a juicing day, do a chicken and Broccoli protocol for 2 days straight, do all 5 food groups, 3 times a day, up your water, decrease your caffeine, up your fiber to 40 grams per day with 12 cups of water, reduce your sodium to one mg per calorie eaten. Add a 5 minute walk 3 times a day, then double it, then double it. Begin drinking apple cider vinegar before each meal. Drink lemon water. Go Mediterranean, go paleo, go keto, go whole food only, go fish only. Keep mixing it up and don’t let your body catch on. Lather, rinse, repeat. Just keep doing it. The other option is do nothing and keep getting fatter and fatter and fatter. The fatter you get the fatter you get and the quicker you die. Eliminate all, yes…ALL sugar. Cut out all processed foods…yes…ALL of them. If it has more than one ingredient…don’t eat it. Base each meal upon a veggie foundation. Make your diet contain 75 grams of fat from your natural meats (eggs and nuts included) and healthy added oils like olive, avocado, flax and coconut. Do something different. Go shopping and try on skinny clothing or bathing suits for motivation. Nobody can do it but YOU. Just do it!

The bolded is nonsense really:
- you don't need to change it up constantly, that's not how bodies work
- apple cider vinegar and lemon water are diet myths
- cutting salt that low is not necessary unless perhaps for some people with high BP. Our bodies need salt.
- less processed food can be good because some processed foods are calorie dense or easily digested/don't give much satiety, but it's not necessary to eliminate them all