5th day and already discouraged..

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  • nicola8989
    nicola8989 Posts: 381 Member
    I get so demotivated sometimes but I'm only on day 20 - I haven't seen the scale move for a week and it's just making me fed up!

    It's right what people say it's a marathon not a sprint. Make small changes - one of the best things I did the first time around was change from drinking diet Coke to flavoured water and that's a habit I kept up even after I fell off the wagon for a while. Pre-log your food and try and plan your meals. And just log everything - if it's a "bad" day it can still inform you of bad habits that you need to address, show you how much you are currently eating etc. If you find you used to be eating 3000 calories, for example, you can't cut straight down to 1200 it'll be too hard to sustain. I was averaging 3000 a day so now I aim for 2000, will drop it in a few weeks once I'm comfortable with eating that much.
  • NobodyPutsAmyInTheCorner
    NobodyPutsAmyInTheCorner Posts: 1,018 Member
    I started 105 days ago. The first week was hard. REALLY hard. All I wanted to do was stuff my face with all the bad stuff. But I figured I wanted to be slimmer more than I wanted to pig out so I stayed strong. I had earlier night's when it was too much to deal with.

    105 days down the road, I still have days where I'd love to eat my body weight in grease but I don't. I've learnt that giving in isn't an option. It doesn't make you a failure if you DO give in but I'd rather not. I eat my fave things in moderation and within my calorie goals. It can be done and does get easier. Honestly.

    Concentrate on WHY you are doing this. WHY it is important to you. My new mantra is eat to live, not live to eat. x
  • toofatnomore
    toofatnomore Posts: 206 Member
    When I first started I used to ask myself...am I more discouraged being obese, or more discouraged by trying to lose weight?
    The answer was, it is always more discouraging going through life fat...hang tough.
  • CockneyLady2014
    CockneyLady2014 Posts: 199 Member
    Nicola you appear to have said it all yourself - the reasons not to give up. Have you used the facility in MFP to work out your basal metabolic rate? This will tell you how many calories your body is using to survive. Once you know that to lose 1lb per week you need to reduce by 500 calories a day. However knowing this doesn't mean to say to have to jump in feet first and do it. What it may do though is to go some way to explain why you may not have lost any weight over the last week.
  • nicola8989
    nicola8989 Posts: 381 Member
    thank you cockney lady - to be honest I think some of it is water retention/DOMS and some of it is my calories being too high x
  • ValkyriesCharge
    ValkyriesCharge Posts: 11 Member
    Pre-logging the food really helps me stay on track. Everytime I think about food, I drink water. I also try to think about what I'm feeling when I want to eat. Bored? A craving? Feeling emotional and want to escape? It seems to help me identify at least if I'm actually hungry. I'm usually not, or at least not so hungry that I can't wait until my next meal.

    I've false started soooo many times! I think most of the times, the reason I fail is I do too much at once. Cutting down to super low calorie, adding in exercise, etc. This time I started logging food first, no changes. Just to get an idea of what I was eating. Then I started cutting the calories when I felt ready for that. Nothing too drastic. Then I'm going to see where I am in a couple weeks. Adjust the calorie intake if I need to. And I'm hoping soon I'll want to exercise, rather than force myself to. Baby steps. If you can talk to a nutritionist or naturopath, I highly recommend it! Some supplements might help!
  • amy8400
    amy8400 Posts: 478 Member
    OP, when it feels the worst that means you're close to seeing good thing happen. Your hard work now will pay off eventually (don't be surprised if it takes 2 weeks for that stupid scale to go down...that's normal). Focus on the here and now. Drink more water to keep yourself hydrated. Weigh everything. Log everything.

    Be accountable to yourself and at the end of the day, be proud of your accomplishments. One day it might be that you stayed under your calorie goal even though you fought back awful cravings at 10 p.m. Another day it might be that you walked 2 miles in 30 minutes. Or that you drove past all the fast food joints on your way home from work and said no to a quickie burger or taco. Those are the little victories that you need to start with and then you'll progress to seeing the scale move, clothes feeling looser or your face looking thinner.

    You can do this. Just be patient and know that you are making postive changes for the rest of your life. It will be worth it!
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    It took months before I stopped thinking about food so much, and it is still a daily routine. No getting around that. If you're not craving it you are calculating how many calories it is. It sounds like pre-logging is working for you.

    I suggest you set yourself mini-goals, like sitting down two weeks from now, working though your progress to date, and setting new goals.

    Weight loss is not a goal, as so many factors out of our control can affect weight gain on a single day. Your weight can go up or down five pounds in a single day, on water weight alone! That's not a good measure of success or failure.

    Preferable goals in a two week period are behavioral goals, as in pre-logging all desserts all week.

    Now of course you have to weigh yourself once in a while just to check if you are going in the right direction but please don't wrap up all your happiness in a number on the scale.

    I've been at this for many months now, and this is spoken from the heart. It's a long game, progressive habit change, and the weight will move...given time.

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