Maintaining weight whilst ill?

angel8541

So long story short, I'm ill and I was advised by the doctor at casualty to rest for a week or so. I've been losing weight for about a month now and yet I don't have a scale to check my weight but I could see and feel the weight coming off, if that makes sense. I was exercising and slowly building my way up to a better diet. I went from hardly exercising at all to exercising 5 days a week for 30 minutes a day. I was getting there, slowly.
Now I'm slightly afraid that the weight I did lose will come back within this week of rest. I want to at least maintain my weight during these 7 days so, when I do recover, I can get back to where I left off. 4lbs might not seem much, but if you're taking the slow route to losing 80lbs, that's a month's worth a weight loss. I'm obese, just thought I'd get that out there and my BMR is around 1600 - 1700 calories (every BMR checker says something different, but it's always in that range).
My mental health goes down the drain when I don't exercise and my brain will not leave me alone about how I'm putting on weight. As someone who is so overweight, putting on more is something I do not want to do. Thanks for your help.

beamer0821

i think all that pressure while you are ill is not working for you either and probably feeding the mentality that you'll gain weight this week.
just concentrate on getting yourself well and back to "normal" and don't worry about the weight.
you've been a few weeks at this now so you should have an intuitive sense of what are healthy choices to eat and not eat just focus on that and drinks lots of fluids.

most of your weightloss will be due to a calorie deficit anyhow, so not working out won't affect that as long as you eat within a range that is a deficit.

but ease up on the pressure, with 80lbs to lose this is an early lesson that would be great to learn now. you'd be amazed if you were more relaxed about it how much easier it would be to stick to plan.

good luck!

angel8541

Thank you! I'm a lot better now and starting to work out again. I took your advice and was a little easier on myself, allowing myself to calm down over the missed workouts and water weight. I still go a little crazy when I realise I ate over my goal or something like that, but I know that weight loss isn't perfect; everyone messes up from time to time. It's quite a long journey ahead of me and sometimes I wish I could just wake up after a month of healthy eating and exercise and I'd be 80lbs down - but nothing is that easy. It could take me a year, maybe two, but it's worth it. Thanks again for putting my mind to rest!