We are pleased to announce that on March 4, 2025, an updated Rich Text Editor will be introduced in the MyFitnessPal Community. To learn more about the upcoming changes, please click here. We look forward to sharing this new feature with you!

Measuring progress - my wardrobe and my cat

Clawsal
Clawsal Posts: 255 Member
edited November 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
Hello,

So here are two of my ways of measuring progress

1- Wardrobe

Like many of you I suppose, I slowly gained weight and I have clothes in different sizes that no longer fit. After cleaning my wardrobe a few months ago, I kept 6 pairs of jeans/trousers that fit my current weight and 13 pairs of jeans/trousers/shorts that no longer fit but that I would like to wear again.

Today I hit the -4kg benchmark (every kilogram is a benchmark for me ahah), which amounts to 6% of my body weight. So I decided to try all 13 pairs of pants and... I can squeeze into some of them (yay!) and one pair actually fits nicely so I am wearing them tomorrow! I also have a skirt that fits but I need confirmation before wearing it in public :). So the score is now 8 to 11 (instead of 6 to 13).

In my mind I now have a timeline. By the end of March I expect to fit into 5 more of those pants (I can wear them now but they are snug and thus disgraceful).

Who knows, maybe one day those clothes will actually be too big for me :)

2 - My cat!

I have a cat that is 4.5 kg. So in just 0.5 kg I will be able to tell myself that I lost the body mass equal to that of my cat. It may sound silly (and not accurate) but it's a nice visualization... My cat is pretty big :)

How do you measure your progress and keep yourself motivated?

By the way, I sadly see no difference in the mirror. However two different people who don't know I am trying to lose weight commented on my weight loss. I guess our minds are the last to catch up.

Replies

  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
    At first it was clothes, but now I measure my progress by how much I can lift :D
  • Clawsal
    Clawsal Posts: 255 Member
    I am trying to work up the courage to start lifting because I am so jealous of you lifters that have super nice bodies at my BMI and eat a ton of calories and still lose/maintain... But I am not quite there yet, motivation wise.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    I just love your cat. Regarding lifting, it's tough for me too because I don't enjoy it at all, but my motivation for exercising was to be able to eat more, lol.

    Honestly I just measured progress by what the scale said, I kept the same clothes for a very long time, as I had nothing else.
  • Mediocrates55
    Mediocrates55 Posts: 326 Member
    I do the cat thing. I've lost more than my 6 year old weighs, almost ten five-pound packages of ground beef, six of the eight pound packs of chicken breasts we buy, or over two 24 packs of pop. It's a great tool for me. LOL!
  • berlynnwall
    berlynnwall Posts: 669 Member
    Absolutely. I gained weight over the last year. When I got out my winter coat in October, I could barely zip it over my stomach. Now I can zip it freely, and I have plenty of room to move around without fear of ripping it haha. I don't care as much what the scale says, I like those visible results!
  • morrskie
    morrskie Posts: 13
    Cat-measuring sounds like a great idea! I have a cat and some dogs, so I should find out their weights and use them as milestones :lol: I've lost around 2 stone in the last year and I don't see any difference in the mirror, but I think clothes are a quite reliable indicator - some jeans I couldn't even squeeze into this time last year are now too big, and I found some t-shirts that I haven't been able to wear since I was 12!

    (But seriously, I'm stealing your animal-reference idea :D )
  • lovematthewchristopher
    lovematthewchristopher Posts: 147 Member
    Hi! I think alot of us are in the same boat. I too, looked in the mirror and didnt see a difference in my reflection. It has only been recently that i can somewhat see that i have lost some weight. I think it takes awhile for the brain to catch up to the body. I see it in the numbers on the scale, and mostly, i see it in the clothes and how they fit me now. Clothes that were tight on me, that i was getting ready to give away, now float on me. I had already gone through all my stuff, thinking that i would never be that size again, and given it all away.So, if i lose any more weight, i will be taking myself on a nice reward shopping trip to get me some new threads.
  • lemon629
    lemon629 Posts: 501 Member
    LOL. That's funny. I've lost 1.5 cats (my cat weighs around 12 pounds-- yes he's kind of big) and I want to lose one more, maybe one and a half.

    I have two pairs of pants I periodically check. They should fit after losing one more cat, maybe sooner because they sort of fit now, but like you said, they are disgracefully snug.
  • Wiseandcurious
    Wiseandcurious Posts: 730 Member
    I do both wardrobe and weight (in my case not cats but adjustable dumbbell plates).

    I also do rings - my rings span the whole range of my weight from teenager to today, so that's a fun and enjoyable way to track progress as I get to wear them again, one by one.
This discussion has been closed.

Categories