Fast vs. Slow - How Not to Get Discouraged?

I just kept plugging away. I kept telling myself I was making real, sustainable changes. Yes, my husband has successfully stuck to and Atkins type plan for years, but me? Nope, I'll lose 20, gain 25 back and so on and so forth. Doing it slowly the calorie counting way and changing habits (some I'm still working on 2 years later) and moving more and making it a habit, has completely changed my life. I lost almost 50 pounds. I did slip up bad at the holidays and gained about 12 back, but I was lifting heavy at the time, so I tell myself that at least a teeny bit of that was muscle. Besides that slip up, I've kept to my new lifestyle for almost 2 years now. I maintaing my loss for a year. I have never, ever done that in the past. Ever. Even with the weight gian, I weigh less now taht I did in college. I'm pretty sure I weigh less than when I graduated HS (I know at my lowest pre-holiday weight I did), and I weigh 15 or so pounds less than when I got pregnant for the first time. Just keep that in mind. You are going slow because you are make life changes. This is not a diet for weight loss, a temporary thing, it is a lifestyle makeover for a healthier you with weight loss is a happy side effect!

I focus on the process of being a healthier me and my health in general...not just the results on the scale. The scale really only tells a very small part of the whole story.

Here's a short list of NSVs for me:

1.) Blood work has done about 180* improvement in the last 5-6 months. I'm talking Dr's jaw dropping progress on my blood work here.

2.) I now have the energy of a man in his mid 20s...I'm 38 and until I got my **** together I felt like I was about 78.

3.) I used to take multi-vitamins because my diet was so void of actual nutrition, I was deficient in a number of areas...now all I take is vitamin D (still deficient) but I get everything else from my food.

4.) Overall fitness level is greatly improved. Before I started exercising, just walking for 30 minutes just about killed me. Now I'm jogging 2-3 miles 3x weekly. I've also made major strength gains with my weight training as well.

5.) My resting HR went from 104 back in Sept/Oct to 65 now. Still high, but it keeps going down.

And yes, I've had scale victories as well...but really, the number on the scale and looking better is just gravy in relation to my overall health improvements.

Hey! Sadly I am really susceptible to this and just want to lose weight as fast as possible!
But this time i'm reminding myself to do it slow, because I have did it the unhealthy way (restricting badly, over exercising) and have never been able to sustain it, leading to extreme binging and gaining all back and a lot more. It also makes me depressed and stuff. Yes when I get used to restricting I am so strong and I feel like I can sustain it, even though I was dizzy and weak a lot of times, but still managed to push myself to do HIIT running for an hour on the treadmill everyday. But eventually one binge leads to a bigger binge, they become more rampant, and eventually everyday. I lose my sense of hunger and don't know when to eat. I look at all foods as calories, and it is on my mind 24/7. Binging is so dis-empowering? it is something I wouldn't even wish on my greatest enemy. That being said, I have battled anorexia, and now battling overeating, binging, food addiction and bulimia! So maybe it is an extreme case..

But what i'm saying is that whatever you do, know that you will have to do it for the rest of your life, and drastically increasing your calories for a long period after your 'diet' would definitely lead to weight gain and more, and starvation also triggers binging and once you acquire the binging habit i'm afraid that it is something that seems to be incurable, and battling to curb it every day is a real struggle for me. So if you don't already have problems, trust me I SWEAR ON MY LIFE, do it slow, and do it healthily, and makes small changes that you are happy with, and can sustain the rest of your life. If you feel that you are not doing enough, then increase your deficit/add more exercise bit by bit, and see how it goes. There is really no need to rush it!!! That is something I really need to tell myself

In my third bout of beating the daily junk binge of 10000 calories, I restricted to a few fruits, a few veg smoothies, and at least one hour of intense exercising and loads of walking. It was terrible but I felt 'strong' and held on to it. I had a couple of binges here and there, but after losing about 13lbs I stopped losing. And then it became really frustrating because I am already struggling to sustain it, so if I wanna lose, i'd have to eat lesser or exercise more! That is just insane.... I actually did eat lesser after an environment change, and did lose like 5lbs but it took like 1.5months, which to be honest could be done the healthy way... And I felt deprived all the time because if I ate with friends that was the only meal I can have the day and I'd probably even need to starve the next to stay within my measly calorie intake for the day!

Always remember, if you're eating xxxxkcals you will have to stay around there forever. I random binge/spike in calories would do no harm but if you start eating more you'll definitely gain.

Sorry for the rant but I really don't want to see people falling into the habit of overeating/binging/calorie obsession/losing the sense of hunger cues because I know how dehabilitating it is and now this is my life....

I think the best way to think of it is the old hare and tortoise fable. Apparently people who lose weight really quickly have an extremely high rate of putting it back on something like 97% (can't remember where I read that think it might have been the fat 3 fit website) but going slowly and doing it in a more sustainable way will be much better in the long run. I have done the eating next to nothing and exercising loads before and I did lose a lot of weight BUT I put it all back on and then some.

This time I'm working on what I can live with doing for the rest of my life. If it takes me 3 years to get to my goal so be it. As long as 3 years later I am still at my goal it will have been worth it.

I don't have a huge amount to lose - somewhere in the 10-15lbs range - but for me it's helping to focus on the the micro-goal: 1lb/week. It took several years to put the weight on, and so it will take time to work it back off. When I think about the small goal of a weekly loss, rather than how long it will take me to get to the finish line, then each week is a victory rather than a slog. It's hard not to feel competitive, particularly when you and your partner are both working on weight loss, but you're probably both doing it for the same reason: you want to spend many more happy, healthy years together. Keep up the good work!!!

I try to keep my patience in check by remembering I don't want loose skin and I don't want to reduce maintenance calories through metabolism adaptation. When your body is restricted to lose weight, it adapts and lowers the metabolism so you have to eat less calories to maintain your weight then someone who didn't restrict that is the same size. I am aiming for long term solution, not a quick fix. The more calories I get to eat now and later, the happier I will be.

I try to keep my patience in check by remembering I don't want loose skin and I don't want to reduce maintenance calories through metabolism adaptation. When your body is restricted to lose weight, it adapts and lowers the metabolism so you have to eat less calories to maintain your weight then someone who didn't restrict that is the same size. I am aiming for long term solution, not a quick fix. The more calories I get to eat now and later, the happier I will be.

Yep, definitely helps to remember the long term benefits!