Really struggling

Fight through it, Steve. Its the toughest thing when you have your own brain working against you and if you stop, its hard to get back in the game. An object in motion will stay in motion. And exercise doesnt get easier, you just become better at it.

Try setting a goal for youself like a 5k or something group oriented like muay tai. Dont give up

Good news! You can still lose weight without the exercise (Calories In-Calories Out). You'll need it again but at least you can rest your sore muscles.

1 pound in a week is fantastic! It's a nice, safe, healthy rate of loss! 1 pound a week is 52 pounds in a year. If you were GAINING at that rate, it wouldn't seem so small, would it? Never, ever, say "only" in front of a loss.

That being said, weight is lost in the kitchen and you get fit in the gym. Exercise is great for you, both mentally and physically, but if you are constantly sore, maybe you do need to lighten up a bit, or change up your routine. Also, taking a break from your normal exercise routine doesn't mean you have fallen off the wagon. Find something different to do. If you go to the gym and only do machines, take a class. If the weather is beautiful, go for a walk or a hike. Go to the roller rink with your kids (if you have them, or a friend if you don't). There are so many fun things to do that are as physically beneficial as going to the gym and pounding the machines for an hour!

As others have said 1 pound a week is a great rate of loss. You didn't put the weight on over night and it wont come off like that. Motivation is highly overrated in my opinion. What keeps you going is setting up good sustainable long term habits so that even on your 'off days' you just do them. Part of this is finding exercise or activity that you like doing. If you hate it no way will you keep it up long term. So it may be worth looking at something alternate to do even just short term. Sometimes a small change can just posh you through the hump period

Good Luck

Keep working through it. You'll get to the point where you hate yourself when you miss a workout.

Good luck.

SteveMFP123 wrote: »

Thank you all for the kind words. I guess I just got "greedy" for big losses on the scale, and when it didn't happen it was a shock to the system. I'm nearly half way on my weight loss so I really don't want to relapse, this time next year I want to be done and happy, not back where I started.

As for exercise I've been doing T25, I'm on my 4th week of the Alpha cycle which is 25 minutes a day, Monday - Friday with the weekend off. I haven't missed a day but if I'm honest with myself I've been working at maybe 60% effort during the past week. I'm still eating well within my calories as well, thankfully I've never been much of a binge eater, I gained all my weight from sheer laziness.

Here you just said it yourself, Steve. You gained weight from laziness. Now, you're tired of exercising. That means you have to find something you like----and do it for the rest of your life, or you'll be right back here again. You have to enjoy your exercise, or you will quit sooner or later. Try something else. Best.

You can do this! We all go thru what they call plateau's where we may not lose for a week or two here or there, it happens. As long as you are maintaining your plan it will come off. Remember you are also losing inches, sometimes it shows in inches not lbs. I am losing 1-2 lbs a week, I messed up my weight entry so my scale shows only a 3 lbs lose in the past month where its actually 15 lbs total. The first 2 weeks I lost more but I've leveled off. I will take this loss because by next summer I will almost be at my goal. (I had a lot to loose).
Stay positive, try not to think about it, accept it as part of your "job" each day and keep moving on.

SteveMFP123 wrote: »

Well another week, another weigh in and I lost nothing, nada. Now I'm really depressed. It took a lot of effort to continue working out this week and once again I got no result. It's amazing how eating the same and working out the same worked so well for months and now it's not working at all.

I've been reading up as to why and Julian Michaels says I shouldn't eat less than 1500 calories whereas I've been having 1300 - 1400 a day, maybe I'm not eating enough? I'm 6ft 3 and currently 263lbs.

You're still assessing - that's GOOD! IMO, you are eating too little for your height/weight/workout (if you're still with T25) but that is just my opinion. Plateaus are a normal part of the process so STICK TO IT. Shake things up a bit - same ol'same ol' sometimes needs a kick in the butt try taking a walk on an "off" day or shake up your menu a bit. Just keeping at it is the most important thing!

I agree with Pudnyn 1... I have been on here since Dec 2010 and lost 60+ lbs in 2011... Kept it off until last year ( hurt my knee ) have regained 30 lbs ... Hate myself and have no motivation to work out !!! I am determined tho ... Monday starts a 90 day workout challenge ( and better eating ) ... Wish me luck ... I will be incorporating more strength training this time around... You CAN DO THIS ... And SO CAN I !!!

Have you considered switching up your exercise? If you are bored to tears with what you are doing, try something else. Are you doing this at home or a gym? If at home, go for a really long brisk walk or run. Find a pool and swim laps. If at a gym, go on the treadmill or elliptical. Take a spinning class.

I agree with adjusting your calories to fit better with your stature and activity level, and rethink your weekly weight loss goal. Slow and steady may be a PITA for impatient people (like me) but it is better in the long run. Also, plateaus will happen. I just jumped off a 3 week one.

SteveMFP123 wrote: »

I've lost 34lbs total and fairly fast but for the last week I have been really struggling, not with the food but with exercise, I dread it now and I hate every minute of it while I'm doing it. Before this week I enjoyed it in a perverse way, the pain felt good but not anymore, now I'm just sick of being sore. Plus I only lost 1lb this week which just didn't seem worth the effort, previously I'd lost 12lbs the last two weeks combined so I definitely crashed back to earth this week.

I guess this is something everyone goes through when losing a significant amount of weight and I hope I can snap out of it soon, I really need my motivation back. It just feels like I'm really losing the mental war right now.

Are you taking a break from it all every week?
Sometimes we just need time off to rest and recover. And ease up on the weight loss. 1 pound per week should be a good goal for you in this effort. Sure, you could lose faster, but what would be the quality of that?
You'd lose too much muscle which further slows metabolism. and once you finally reach your weight goal...guess what? You look and feel bad, and the weight starts piling back on in most cases. Don't be that person.
Remember, this is not a race.
GOOD LUCK!

SteveMFP123 wrote: »

Well another week, another weigh in and I lost nothing, nada. Now I'm really depressed. It took a lot of effort to continue working out this week and once again I got no result.

Weight loss isn't linear, and the closer you get to your goal, the more fluctuations you'll have. Here's my MFP chart showing my weekly weigh-ins from last December through February:



Here's a chart showing my actual daily weights (blue diamonds) and exponentially smoothed moving average from the same period:



Note that except around the holidays, when I was logging but not aiming for a deficit, my daily weights were usually below the moving average, indicating I was losing weight. But there was quite a bit of fluctuation from day to day, and some Mondays (when I log my weight on MFP), I was heavier than the previous week. Did that mean that the week's effort was in vain? No, it simply meant that I was retaining more water and solid waste that week than the week before. And sure enough, in a week or two it was gone.

You can only measure results in the long run. And as John Walker points out in The Hacker's Diet (free online), the problem with weekly weigh-ins is that, if your weight happens to fluctuate up on weigh-in day, it can be really demoralizing. That's why he recommends a daily weigh-in, with the moving average to identify trends.

Best of luck on your weight loss journey Steve !