How do you stay patient?
SoulOfRusalka
Posts: 1,201 Member
It's driving me crazy. I know of course I can't reasonably expect to lose noticeable weight in a few weeks, and it requires patience and probably gradual loss, but I'm in a phase where restricting feels easy and I just want it to come off as fast as possible.
How do you deal with this? I know long-term lifestyle change etc. is the way to go but I can't make myself put it into practice. Even 2 lbs a week seems agonizingly slow, it will take so long to get to where I want!
Any tips/advice?
How do you deal with this? I know long-term lifestyle change etc. is the way to go but I can't make myself put it into practice. Even 2 lbs a week seems agonizingly slow, it will take so long to get to where I want!
Any tips/advice?
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Replies
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I just tell myself to trust in the process, that dieting on as much food as possible is healthier for my body (and mind) and more likely to lead to sustainable weight loss.12
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When I started, I decided to stick with it for 16 weeks. That's all. 16 weeks isn't that long ... so I could wait till then if there were "special" things I wanted to eat.
At the end of 16 weeks, I was back into my normal BMI range. I took a 1-month diet break, and then stuck with it again for 16 weeks.9 -
You will have good days and bad days just take them in stride and look at the end goal. If you have a family make eating and being active a family affair. Then it feels like family time not working out. Try to change up your workouts every couple months. Will keep your mind and body fresh. Best of luck!
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Don't see reaching goal weight as an end goal. To maintain, you'll still be doing the same things as you do while losing weight, just with a slightly higher calorie intake. Even the satisfaction of seeing a lower number on the scale, will be gone.
Instead, find ways to enjoy your lifestyle. It sounds like you do have an enjoyable lifestyle, that's good. How about practicing gratitude? Every day, find three (or ten) things that make you grateful and happy. It can be things like "I have a job" or "my family loves me" or "I have plenty of food" or just "I can breathe". This exercise can be powerful.7 -
When I started, I decided to stick with it for 16 weeks. That's all. 16 weeks isn't that long ... so I could wait till then if there were "special" things I wanted to eat.
At the end of 16 weeks, I was back into my normal BMI range. I took a 1-month diet break, and then stuck with it again for 16 weeks.
I'm actually spending a semester abroad for exactly 16 weeks right now...so if I can follow your example I'll be happy! One week at a time and it's really not so long.
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i don't think it gets any easier for anybody, suddenly you look back, and in 12 months you've lost 'x' amount, but you have to give the process a chance to work.
i've averaged roughly 1.9lbs a week, over 19 months with about 4 major plateau's, but when the weight wasn't going down my body shape and size was changing.
lots of people on MFP suggest taking measurements rather than weighing every day.
I weigh every couple of weeks at my doctors, i just pop in at a lunch time( so i don't use an allotted appointment), i don't actually own any bodyweight scales.
At least only weighing twice in a month you can only be dissapointed twice a month!!
(Also i always weigh on the same set of scales)1 -
I started with MFP in June and felt the same way - 1-2 pounds a week was agonizingly slow. I was ready. I was weighing all my food. I changed. I just wanted it all to fall away NOW!
But like @livingleanlivingclean said, I decided to just trust the process. I focused on one week at a time, one day at a time. Now it's 15 weeks later and I'm in a totally different place. Down 22 pounds so far. It feels slow until you start doing it and don't think about the time. Then the time passes and you get where you want to be. Good luck!4 -
Find alternate goals than weight loss. I choose fitness (running) goals, because that's my thing - but find your thing and then choose small, attainable goals that keep you interested. Someone above said that looking at weight loss as a goal gets boring - always the same - so mix it up! And also ... as others have said it's less of a goal and more of a lifestyle change. It sounds a bit hokie, and MFP is definitely designed for us to think of it as a goal, but maybe try shifting the thought process in your head and remembering that MFP is only one singular tool to help you create this lifestyle change. You're doing great!1
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I realized I do not want my gallbladder taken out, which can happen if you lose weight too rapidly and you get gallstones. I don't want that to happen, so I stay within losing two pounds to 1.5 pounds a week. I was surprised to read that and bummed out I could only lose that much a week, since I'd lost four pounds the first week. But now I realize it's for the best to take it slowly and I'm just going along with the CICO program and it's working fine.
Best of luck to you!1 -
it's one day at a time....win each and every day, if you don't? well don't throw in the towel, continue on the path. Nothing is easy in life, we must work hard and be patient, as we get older, we reflect on our past and adapt for the present.0
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Gallstones tend to come from low fat diets, not from weightloss. I lost my gallbladder long before I made my first serious attempt to lose weight.msmith404040 wrote: »I realized I do not want my gallbladder taken out, which can happen if you lose weight too rapidly and you get gallstones. I don't want that to happen, so I stay within losing two pounds to 1.5 pounds a week. I was surprised to read that and bummed out I could only lose that much a week, since I'd lost four pounds the first week. But now I realize it's for the best to take it slowly and I'm just going along with the CICO program and it's working fine.
Best of luck to you!
You can lose up to 1% of your body weight per week - a little more if you are morbidly obese - but the first week usually comes with a bit of additional water weight.
CICO is not a program, it's the process by which weight loss happens. Maybe you mean counting calories and eating anything you want.0 -
Not focusing only on the number on the scale has made me more patient.
I don't know what your starting point is like but I was in pain, had trouble walking far, was out of breath climbing stairs, had trouble sleeping. My reason to lose weight is primarily to be healthier and improve the quality of my life. I didn't set a deadline. 1 lb a week was fine. Every week seemed an improvement even if the scale didn't go down.
The day I noticed I was easily walking beside my family instead of struggling 5 feet behind them was a bigger reward than seeing the number on the scale change.4 -
For me, I put more emphasis on the changes I see rather than the scale. I had to buy new shirts recently as I went down a size and looked like one of those rappers that wears oversized shirts! I bought a shirt one size small last week, so fitting into that is my main goal right now. Going down a belt hole is always a small victory as well. Dividing your goal into multiple, smaller goals may help. Losing 10-15 pounds will take a lot less time and give yourself a reason to be proud!
It may also help to focus on other things along with your weight loss. Since you're studying abroad right now, keep up the weight loss but also immerse yourself in the culture! Being busy gives you less time to think about how slow you're losing. The time will fly by, and you'll continue to lose weight. Sometimes I feel a little impatient, but I just remember, the year or two it might take will be nothing compared to all of my adult life I have ahead of me!2 -
I use a weight trending app, I use Happy Scale for iPhone but there is also Libra for Android or Trendweight for desktop. This does show me the trend over time, see when I should hit certain goals, and validates that this is working!
Even if it takes 10 weeks to lose 15-20 pounds, in the big picture that is a short timeframe and at the end of those 10 weeks you will be that far ahead of where you would be had you not really started by thinking it was too slow.
I also think about how losing at a slower rate overall helps reduce loss of lean mass (retain more muscle), allows skin to recover better (less loose skin or wrinkles), and more likely to maintain once hitting goal when compared to crash or yo-yo dieting.0 -
Sometimes I think about how much weight I would have lost by now and what my weight would be if I had started on X day. It helps.2
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Not focusing only on the number on the scale has made me more patient.
I don't know what your starting point is like but I was in pain, had trouble walking far, was out of breath climbing stairs, had trouble sleeping. My reason to lose weight is primarily to be healthier and improve the quality of my life. I didn't set a deadline. 1 lb a week was fine. Every week seemed an improvement even if the scale didn't go down.
The day I noticed I was easily walking beside my family instead of struggling 5 feet behind them was a bigger reward than seeing the number on the scale change.
Congrats on the loss!
I'm not actually overweight right now so I sort of doubt that my health is going to improve, but I'll try to pay attention.
I don't even have a scale right now so I don't have to worry about getting too caught up in the numbers.
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Ask yourself: "Am I doing what's necessary to be (slimmer, fitter, stronger)?"
If the answer is "Yes", keep doing it.
If the answer is "No", start doing it.
If you'd rather ask the cosmos, "Why aren't I satisfied?", simply return to the self and ask, "Am I doing what's necessary to be satisfied?"
If the answer is "Yes", keep doing it.
If the answer is "No", start doing it.3 -
I had this in the beginning of my journey. I think it's because you're just so exited about finally doing something about it that you want it to be as fast as possible. By now things have slowed down but I'm also seeing a lot of changes. Every new change is a NSV, and I tend to look forward to fitting into certain clothes or doing a certain workout with more ease.0
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Read the success stories forum of people who had to lose more than you and took even longer. This helped me.
Sometimes we have to choose which voices and which tapes in our head we give credibility to. We need to fix the way we think about this. So play some new tapes and start believing some new outlooks. Easier said than done, but essential for long term success!1 -
The great Charlie Munger had a quote that i keep in my head.. this personally kept me going when i felt that i wasnt getting anywhere
"Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up. Discharge your duties faithfully and well. Step by step you get ahead, but not necessarily in fast spurts. But you build discipline by preparing for fast spurts.... Slug it out one inch at a time, day by day. At the end of the day--if you live long enough--most people get what they deserve."1 -
I feel like I'm the opposite... to me, 1 or 2 lbs per week is GREAT progress! I've lost 4.2 lbs so far, over almost a month, and I can already fit better into my jeans and shorts. That's incredible!0
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I decided, at the very beginning, that this whole endeavor was something that was going to be a life-long process, and that the losing phase was just the beginning.
With that mindset, I've been able to make adjustments to different challenges along the way and keep a fresh outlook, even if it takes some time for my brain to catch up with the needs of what the scale/my body is doing.
My life hasn't ended, so my patience and effort hasn't ended. It's all ongoing. It's worth it to me.5 -
It has taken me longer to lose 22lb this time around than it did to lose over 80lb the first time I lost the weight. My patience has definitely been tested. How I've dealt with it is by finding other measurable goals and accomplishments to track so when the scale doesn't move I still see progress.
Measurements, body fat %, strength gains, being able to run longer without feeling like I'm dying, old clothes fitting again - the last few months I only dropped 2-3lb but saw progress in all of these areas. I still want to lose a few more pounds but as long as I keep progressing towards better health and fitness I don't care how long that takes anymore4 -
Work on your fitness. The incremental improvements are far more dramatic than the weight loss youll see in the mirror or on the scales. As you lose weight you will FEEL better and more capable, if that doesnt help you to enjoy the journey then im lost.
If life is a journey then death is the end of it... enjoy the journey and stop thinking about the end3 -
My goal is to be healthy, not (just) thin. Losing too fast risks health, so why would I do it? I want the best odds possible of keeping my muscle mass and strength, the integrity of my bones, energy to enjoy life, and more. Fast loss creates risk in all those areas.
If, unlike me, your goals are appearance oriented, consider that fast loss risks thinning, lackluster hair; brittle, breaking nails; sallow complexion; a lack of attractive vivacity; a "skinny fat" rather than "toned looking" future; and more.
Weight loss is practice for weight maintenance, a time to learn how to move and eat forever in order to stay at a healthy weight for life. Why waste that learning opportunity by doing something extreme for fast loss?
You mention restricting now feeling easy. That's great! It should make the process easier. Did you realize that another risk of fast loss is a higher degree of "adaptive thermogenesis", something that could mean you'd need to eat substantially less long term to maintain your goal weight compared to someone who's always been that weight?
I've been on MFP for over 2 years now, while losing about a third of my body weight in just less than a year, down to a healthy weight, which I've maintained for about a year and a half.
It's not a universal truth, but it seems to me that the people who are most likely to succeed here with weight loss and then maintenance are those who take a consistent, moderate approach, and stick to it the overwhelming majority of the time. I've seen quite a few people come out of the gate at a gallop, restricting severely, losing fast . . . then stumble, over-eat, feel guilty, maybe get in binge/restrict cycles, maybe give up and regain some pounds, etc. They sometimes do reach goal . . . but no faster than the moderate people overall, and with more guilt, stress and unhappiness along the way. Isn't true for all, of course, but pretty common.
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What is the alternative to staying patient? Giving up and staying overweight and risking my health? Or using unhealthy quick fix methods that come with their own set of problems?
I have a healthy goal and game plan and it comes with a time line. I am progressing exactly as I should. I can't make it go any faster so I just keeping doing the next thing right.1 -
I think about how I would feel now if I hadn't started when I did.
Don't stress about a goal taking a long time to achieve - the time will pass anyway. What matters is what you've achieved during it.0 -
I like Earl Nightingales quote, "Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyways."
The time will pass no matter what path you chose to follow or fall off of. Might as well chose to use that time to improve upon you.3
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