Tips to improve rate of loss?
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MEG924
Posts: 37 Member
I started June 2015, I have lost 72 lbs since, but have between 13 - 23 left to lose. I haven't been my current weight in atleast 10 years, so I'm not sure what my exact goal weight will be yet. I'm 5'4", 24 years old. Rate of loss has slowed in the past few months and I'm eager to get to goal by my 1 year of lc. Is there anything I can do to speed this up or should I just accept it and be patient? Also, what's the typical amount of lbs lost for anyone who has been doing this for a while? Maybe my rate of loss is normal but I'm just seeing it differently because I'm so close to goal? I eat between 70-100 g protein, 10 - 30 carbs, and 70 - 100 g fat.
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How much have you lost in the last month? Two months?
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I think you might have to accept it and be patient. When your close to goal its much harder than when you are larger. Its a struggle everyday for me to not be discouraged by it. If you are keeping within in calorie limits and macro targets you'll get there. The whole process seems to change through. I'm stuck at 150 (147.8 is the lowest I saw) and for some reason am retaining water right now but dumping sodium. Who knows, all I know is things are not consistent like they were for the first part of this. My one year is March 18th and I hoped to be to goal by then too, at this rate it isn't happening.
My recommendations are to keep doing the right things and be patient. Also take photos to compare, your body may be using its energy to recomp and not reflecting changes on the scale but changing the way your body looks.0 -
January 1 - 23 I lost 7 lbs.Sunny_Bunny_ wrote: »How much have you lost in the last month? Two months?
Between January 23 and today I lost 2 lbs.
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auntstephie321 wrote: »I think you might have to accept it and be patient. When your close to goal its much harder than when you are larger. Its a struggle everyday for me to not be discouraged by it. If you are keeping within in calorie limits and macro targets you'll get there. The whole process seems to change through. I'm stuck at 150 (147.8 is the lowest I saw) and for some reason am retaining water right now but dumping sodium. Who knows, all I know is things are not consistent like they were for the first part of this. My one year is March 18th and I hoped to be to goal by then too, at this rate it isn't happening.
My recommendations are to keep doing the right things and be patient. Also take photos to compare, your body may be using its energy to recomp and not reflecting changes on the scale but changing the way your body looks.
Thanks so much! Your current is around my goal. I hope to be between 145 and 155. Maybe even lower but since I haven't been in that range in a long time, I'm not sure what my body is capable of. Plus, I'd like to stay active and be strong, so I'm okay with compromising the number on the scale to "look fit."
I'm sorry you're stuck, it IS incredibly discouraging and I keep comparing this phase to how it was in the beginning, but I think you're right, I should probably just keep doing what I am and be patient. It's a pain though. What's your goal (and height), if you don't mind my asking?0 -
January 1 - 23 I lost 7 lbs.Sunny_Bunny_ wrote: »How much have you lost in the last month? Two months?
Between January 23 and today I lost 2 lbs.
Ok. That's pretty good. Better than I've done.
Which I was kind of expecting because I have felt exactly the same way.
I went from having less than 40 pounds to lose and losing at 2lbs a week like clockwork. To a complete halt. Then, once it got started again I only lost 4 pounds from September to now. And technically, I'm up almost a whole pound for almost 2 weeks now.
But this is what that 4 lb loss looks like.
I am now 10 lbs to goal. It came to the abrupt stop at about 15-16 pounds left and oddly at the same time that I actually started any consistent exercise, which lasted from August til October before I went back to my lazy ways.
From August to October I think I lost a single pound. Added exercise, kept eating the same. Go from losing 2 a week to nothing measurable on a weekly basis. It had me a mess!
But I just had to keep at it and have faith. And, even though the scale isn't doing what I want it to, my body actually is.
Hang in there. You're losing faster than a whole lot of us around the same point in the journey.
You're doing awesome!0 -
Thanks @Sunny_Bunny_ ! And congrats on your journey! What a difference 4 lbs makes. I should definitely start taking progress pics more often. My loss started slowing down when I started excercising more too. From the beginning, I mostly just walked. I started running in Aug and stopped around the holidays but in January, started running 3 - 4times/week, and was going to the gym every day. Now I excercise 4 - 5 times/wk depening on my schedule. I think maybe the extra excercise in Jan is what started slowing me down, but I've noticed more muscle and my body changing a bit, so I guess I just need to stick with what I'm doing, take more progress pics to compare and be patient. It's good to know I'm not alone in these feelings of frustration though.0
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Thanks @Sunny_Bunny_ ! And congrats on your journey! What a difference 4 lbs makes. I should definitely start taking progress pics more often. My loss started slowing down when I started excercising more too. From the beginning, I mostly just walked. I started running in Aug and stopped around the holidays but in January, started running 3 - 4times/week, and was going to the gym every day. Now I excercise 4 - 5 times/wk depening on my schedule. I think maybe the extra excercise in Jan is what started slowing me down, but I've noticed more muscle and my body changing a bit, so I guess I just need to stick with what I'm doing, take more progress pics to compare and be patient. It's good to know I'm not alone in these feelings of frustration though.
oh your defiantly seeing a slow down from the exercise, your body takes time to adjust to that, it sounds like you are doing everything right so just stay the course. i'll try to upload a pic I did earlier this month if I can find it on my phone. I was super frustrated with the scale (that much hasn't changed lol) so I needed a visual when I compared the pics I could not believe I'm actually heavier in the current pic but I can really see a difference in my body even gaining weight. pictures at this point are going to be everything to you. without it its very hard to see any changes especially in the areas you might not normally look for changes.
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Here we go, had to download them again after getting a new phone I seem to have lost some old photos
Eta: I'm 5 ft 6 in the pic on the left the before pic I weigh 147 in the pic on the right the after pic I weigh 1500 -
Awesome progress @auntstephie321! You and @Sunny_Bunny_ have definitely motivated me to take more pictures and use those to gauge my progress instead of just relying on the scale, so thank you for that.
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@auntstephie321 Do you lift weights?0
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Christine_72 wrote: »@auntstephie321 Do you lift weights?
Not consistently, really barely at all, I have neck and shoulder problems and weights always aggravated it and caused spasms that prevented me from turning my head. In January I started a plank challenge and have been building on that ever since. It's really helping with strength and I can do some minimal weights now without problems. I'm taking it slow to prevent injury and so far so good.0 -
@MEG924 great question. @5ft 4, I just completed ~ the same drop that you are looking for to my goal. It took me 6 mths to get to 4 pounds above final end point. Hope that helps. Slow down normal and exercise builds muscle which is healthy and hides the fat loss on the scale. Agree with others: photos and Patience.0
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auntstephie321 wrote: »Thanks @Sunny_Bunny_ ! And congrats on your journey! What a difference 4 lbs makes. I should definitely start taking progress pics more often. My loss started slowing down when I started excercising more too. From the beginning, I mostly just walked. I started running in Aug and stopped around the holidays but in January, started running 3 - 4times/week, and was going to the gym every day. Now I excercise 4 - 5 times/wk depening on my schedule. I think maybe the extra excercise in Jan is what started slowing me down, but I've noticed more muscle and my body changing a bit, so I guess I just need to stick with what I'm doing, take more progress pics to compare and be patient. It's good to know I'm not alone in these feelings of frustration though.
oh your defiantly seeing a slow down from the exercise, your body takes time to adjust to that, it sounds like you are doing everything right so just stay the course. i'll try to upload a pic I did earlier this month if I can find it on my phone. I was super frustrated with the scale (that much hasn't changed lol) so I needed a visual when I compared the pics I could not believe I'm actually heavier in the current pic but I can really see a difference in my body even gaining weight. pictures at this point are going to be everything to you. without it its very hard to see any changes especially in the areas you might not normally look for changes.
@auntstephie321 @MEG924 I'm curious, can you explain why exercise slows down weight loss?0 -
Excercise definitely slowed me down in the begging.. I stopped promptly and took me 2 weeks to start loosing again. Now that I'm 150 I would like to start again but not motivated yet lol. When I have slowdowns I always up fat and drop protein after a week Or 2 I'm usually back to 2 lb loss. Again I don't Excercise so I don't need extra protein. And I always keep carbs less than 20g. I swear by my fat intake... Some don't. But when I up fats it lowers something else (protein usually) at 1400 cals and I always start back loosing. Congrats on your loss that's a great number you've already lost!!0
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auntstephie321 wrote: »Thanks @Sunny_Bunny_ ! And congrats on your journey! What a difference 4 lbs makes. I should definitely start taking progress pics more often. My loss started slowing down when I started excercising more too. From the beginning, I mostly just walked. I started running in Aug and stopped around the holidays but in January, started running 3 - 4times/week, and was going to the gym every day. Now I excercise 4 - 5 times/wk depening on my schedule. I think maybe the extra excercise in Jan is what started slowing me down, but I've noticed more muscle and my body changing a bit, so I guess I just need to stick with what I'm doing, take more progress pics to compare and be patient. It's good to know I'm not alone in these feelings of frustration though.
oh your defiantly seeing a slow down from the exercise, your body takes time to adjust to that, it sounds like you are doing everything right so just stay the course. i'll try to upload a pic I did earlier this month if I can find it on my phone. I was super frustrated with the scale (that much hasn't changed lol) so I needed a visual when I compared the pics I could not believe I'm actually heavier in the current pic but I can really see a difference in my body even gaining weight. pictures at this point are going to be everything to you. without it its very hard to see any changes especially in the areas you might not normally look for changes.
@auntstephie321 @MEG924 I'm curious, can you explain why exercise slows down weight loss?
I think the idea is that there's water gain due to muscle repair and possible inflammation from the exercise itself. There is probably at least a bit of cortisol to blame depending on the activity and how long or often it's done and how stressed your body may be from other aspects of your life. Combine a bunch of other stressing things, little sleep, too aggressive calorie restriction and excessive exercise and you'll likely have high cortisol which triggers insulin, which prevents fat loss (but not muscle loss). So trying to "diet and exercise" aggressively is very counterproductive.
Besides all that, there can just be an adjustment period that your body needs where things just slow down for a bit as you make sudden changes. I don't know why my weight loss still stayed so slow even after 2 months of regular walking, but I actually think I was losing fat and it just wasn't showing on the scale so much.
My body composition scale did show fat going down and muscle going up by the most slight amounts when actual weight loss also appeared. But I can't imagine I really added much muscle with just walking for such a short time. I don't know how I could be very visibly smaller in several places and it only equate to 4 lbs lost.
It just goes to show the scale just provides the tiniest almost irrelevant piece of information to this whole process.0
