Need Motivation Urgently!! Please Help ME!!! :-)

lazergirl21

Hello everyone,

I am really in need of some motivation, and quite urgently now!! After successfully losing 74lbs over 2 years (with another 42lbs to go) I have hit a wall since September. My weight loss became erratic and I seemed to hit a plateau leading to lack of motivation. I had a change in jobs, sleeping habbits and consequently exercise. Since October I have fallen off the wagon well and truly and I have gain back some of the weight (rougly 21lbs but I have not been able to look for a few weeks so possibly more by this stage).

My gain is a combination of lack of exercise, comfort eating and generally poor diet due to psychologically making up for my deprivation (although I was enjoying my food at one stage on the diet).

I know that all is not yet lost and I haven't gained back a lot of the weight yet, but if I don't do something quickly I am going to head that way quite rapidly. I have tried a combination of things to get myself back into it such as finding new recipes, trying varying forms of calorie counting (i.e. either counting everything I eat down to the last lettuce leaf, to eating an unlimited, uncounted amount of vegetables) I have tried the abs diet, meal replacements, increasing the amount of meals (to speed metabolism) and tried to get back into exercise.

A lot of my problem is due to my lack of sleep (I suffer from insomnia) and the hours in which I work.

I just wonder if anyone can suggest a simple diet I can try to get myself re-motivated into eating better, without feeling hungry. I am fine to lose weight at a slower pace such as 1lb a week, I just know i cannot let myself gain any more!!

So if you have been in the same position as me or have any advice, I would really appreciate it.

Thanks to all in advance from a desperate dieter!! :-)

nornyb

I had the same thing going on through last summer and into the fall, until one day I just decided to start logging. Good or bad, I log it. It motivates me to do better when I see it in print. I am now able to stay within my calorie allottment but I don't go without. If I want ice cream or cookies I make sure I have enough calories left or do some exercise to earn them and eat what I want. I don't do anything special except make better choices. I don't think of it as a "diet" because that suggests that it is temporary.

Koldnomore

Stop 'dieting' - diets are doomed to fail.

Read the roadmap http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/804485-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12
Figure out your numbers and follow the advice there. This is not a 'diet' it is something you need to do for the rest of your life, so I would highly recommend treating it as such. Don't throw out everything from your pantry, don't join a gym immediately and start working out 6 days a week, don't start exercising your face off unless you plan to do this every day for the rest of your life. If you do then great! but most people will not have the desire/motivation to follow a plan like this.

If you are just starting out or just coming back after a break I would suggest that you buy a kitchen scale and start getting used to weighing your food and logging everything you eat for at least a couple of weeks - don't try to change everything. Actually I would suggest eating 'normally' to establish your baseline. Once you have that then you will be way ahead of most people in knowing what you need to cut out. Take a cut off the top and eat that for a while, you will lose weight if you have been honest with yourself. Once you start losing a few pounds you will eventually need to reduce your food by a little more but do NOT do this right away. The trick is to eat as much as you can and still lose weight. Depending on how much you need to lose you should aim for something close to the following:

Over 80 lbs = 20% cut - 2lbs / week loss
50 - 80 lbs = 15- 20% cut - 1.5 - 2lbs / week loss
30 - 50 lbs = 15% cut - 1 - 1.5 lbs / week loss
20 - 30 lbs = 10 - 15% cut - .5 to 1lb / week loss
Under 20 lbs = 10% cut - .5/week (or less) loss

If you only need to lose 10 lbs do not expect to lose 2lbs / week - that is not possible or sustainable unless you severely restrict your food intake. Doing so will make you feel like crap and probably cause you to binge and gain all the weight back eventually not to mention messing up your metabolism.