Need some guidance; Ozempic 5th week, cutting calories and doing walks need to start small weights

CarebearKeri

I have started Ozempic and using this app to watch my calories I’m on a 1200 cal diet and just upped my does to .50 and my insurance won’t pay but told my dr I need to try this before doing a surgery. I watch my calories and walk a lot! But I’ve barely lost anything. 5lbs so far maybe as scale keeps fluctuating. I’m 236 now was 244. But like I said scale keeps going up and down so feel like I’m not losing anything.
what are some great ways to stay motivated and not snack on unhealthy snacks my kids have, also remember to drink water is a big one and lift weights which I do not like to do but k ow I need to? I need motivation I want to get in the 100’s like 199-198 would be awesome! That’s a huge goal for me. My goal weight is 145-150 I’m only 5.1

cmriverside

Did you just start logging food?

At your current weight and 1200 calories you should be losing weight over a period of weeks, not days.

Give it a month. Log everything you eat. I'd suggest buying a $20 digital food scale so you get the correct portion for your food. A 100g potato and a 250g potato might both seem "small" or "medium" to you, but it's best to have the correct portion logged. It's really easy to underestimate by hundreds of calories per day if you don't use a food scale. That would wipe out your calorie and weight loss goal.

rms62003

Time is your friend. It takes weeks/months to see a good weight loss. You don't say the time frame for the 5 lbs - but if that was a month or so great! A weight loss of about 1 lb a week is what you want to aim for. This is the 'fat' weight loss, and the sustainable way to do it that doesn't shock your body.

Keep aiming for the healthy lifestyle. Sounds like the snacks in the home may be a down fall for you. Consider healthier snack options for both you and the kids. Great thing to help show them healthy eating as well as you are on this journey.

tomcustombuilder

Is that dose .5MG a week?

You have to be a bit more patient as it takes time for these GLP1 peptides to work. It's like fatloss without those things, your body needs to adapt to the lower calories and the water fluctuation will throw off the actual results.

These aren't magic substances. You still need good nutrition to go along with them, especially plenty of protein and water.

Once things take hold your fatloss train pulls out of the station and builds momentum. Daily weight fluctuations mean nothing. Get an app that allows you to follow trends

briscogun

So you've lost 8 lbs in 5 weeks, correct? If so that's 1.6 lbs/week, which is a pretty decent rate of loss to be honest. 1200 calories is pretty low though for a goal so my thought is that you may be eating a bit more than you think you are or more than you are actually tracking?

Congrats on the 8 lbs though! Keep it up! Slow but steady wins the race!

AnnPT77

What CMRiverside said is good advice.

I'd add this: Scale weight going up and down is normal, whether the overall multi-week trend is loss, gain, or maintenance. Water retention varies, and affects scale weight. Waste in the digestive tract varies, and affects scale weight.

I'm in long-term weight maintenance, year 10, after losing from class 1 obese to a healthy weight. In the last 5 weeks, my weight has been as low as 127.5 pounds, and as high as 133.0. That isn't high at the end, low at the beginning or vice-versa. In fact, those two weights were two days apart, October 10 and October 12. The trend is reasonably level over those 5 weeks. This is just how bodyweight behaves.

Because the water/waste fluctuations are so large, they can hide fat loss on the scale for a surprisingly long time. A quite fast fat loss of 2 pounds per week is only an average of a bit over a quarter pound per day. In contrast, the and waste fluctuations can be many pounds within a day or across a small span of days. (Notice how my weight above increased by 5.5 pounds in two days? For that to have been fat gain, I would've had to have eaten 19,250 calories above maintenance calories in two days. I guarantee that I didn't. 😆)

You seem to have lost perhaps as much as 8 pounds in 5 weeks, which would be fast loss. Sure, maybe it's a bit less than that, but 4-5 pounds in 5 weeks would be a great result. If continued, that would be 40-50 pounds in a year. Losing faster creates health risk, doesn't teach new habits that will help us stay at a good weight long term, and increases odds of giving up because it's just too hard to keep up. Patient persistence with improved habits is a good strategy.

Expecting fast and steady loss is unrealistic, unfortunately.

I'd strongly encourage you to read this thread, especially the article linked in the first post:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10683010/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-fluctuations

I think/hope it will be reassuring and encouraging to you . . . if you let it.

You can do this. It will take time. Don't let your own desire to see fast, obvious results torpedo your whole effort. Like I said, patient persistence.

Best wishes!

Theoldguy1

Good for you getting started. You said you don't want to be snacking on unhealthy things your kids have. A logical question is why do you have unhealthy things available for your kids? A very occasional treat is okay, but not an everyday thing.

You mention you need motivation. I have read to make lasting, meaningful change, one needs a strong goal, something that could very well bring tears. Unfortunately at your current weight you most likely have or are statistically likely to develop health problems. Do you want to see your children as adults, be able to run and play with grandkids, etc.? Imagine if you weren't able to do those things. Making meaningful health changes will give you a lot better chance of being able to do these things.

Best of luck on your journey.