Finally hit more than 3 stone lost since June 🎉

natts_journey

To be honest, I’ve been focusing on my mental health — it’s taken a hit with cancer & everything that’s happened, plus the aftermath of surgeries and post-op complications — so this feels huge.

Happy to finally see the scales move past 3 stone, but the hard work starts now.

Time to knuckle down and keep going — another 6+ stone to go 😂💪

What’s your goals when it comes to weightloss?

PAV8888

Hey: for someone who is handling more than one health challenge you seem to be motoring along at top speed! That's awesome to see!

Keep at it and double down towards making choices that will help you keep on keeping on (i.e. increase the sustainability of your effort) more so that worrying too much about the speed.

9+ stone is a substantial loss and when you achieve it you want to still be in a position where you continue to be happy to manage your intake so that you can manage your weight as you desire!

Looking forward to seeing your future community posts and updates!

Strudders67

Congratulations on what you've achieved, particularly with everything else going on!

Potentially, yes, the hard work does start now - but you don't have to be losing weight at the rate you have been. Yes, keep going, but any weight loss is still an improvement on where you were, even if it's not as fast or as much as you hoped for in a given period. Look after yourself and ensure you're eating sufficient protein and getting a wide balance of nutrients.

Don't beat yourself up and deprive yourself either. Reduce portion sizes or make substitutions for alternative options rather than feel you're missing out on anything. During this weight-loss period, you're practicing for how you're going to be eating for the rest of your life.

My goals were to get into the mid range of 'Normal' BMI and to reverse a diabetes diagnosis / get my numbers down to below pre-diabetes / not have to take medication for diabetes. My updated goal is to maintain my new, reduced weight / not have to take medication for diabetes.

It took between one and two years to get to my target weight. That was fine - I learned a lot about what keeps me feeling fuller, what higher cal food items I could substitute for lower cal options and still feel like I was eating my regular meals etc. I stopped eating crisps with my lunch and switched to lentil curls - not because they were better for me, but because the packets were smaller. I was still having a post-lunch snack, but the lentil ones had fewer calories than the crisps. I still have cheese on crackers after dinner, but I've found the thinnest crackers possible. I rarely eat bread anyway, but I do know which one has the fewest calories per slice (because the slices are thinner) and that's what I keep in my freezer. Pretty much the same foods, but better options for my calorie goal.

When I started on MFP, I'd been going to the gym for at least 20 years and pretty much stayed the same weight, because I was eating more to compensate for the additional burn. By tracking my intake, I could see the effect, of what I was about to eat, on my daily calories - and think about whether that was a good choice. Even now, years into Maintenance, I still log almost everything before I eat it.