Lose 5 lbs – in a month
CynthiaByrne
Posts: 344 Member
Want to lose weight by New Year's Eve? Me too!
Either you're just above your healthy weight goal, or you just want to try to start off small, whatever your challenge, here's one way to go about it:
1. Commit to 30 minutes of activity every day. Walking is easiest to incorporate.
2. Cut out one or two unhealthy foods you eat every day for the whole month (cream in your coffee? sugary pop? fast-food meals?). Watch food portions at meals.
Helpful tips .....
1. Weigh yourself once a week, at the same time, to keep tabs on your progress.
2. If you fall off the wagon, get right back on. Don't waste your efforts. A bad day is just a bad day.
3. As clothes become too big, remove them from your wardrobe and give them to charity.
4. Drink plenty of liquids, about 6 to 8 glasses a day.
Remember: to keep the weight off, you'll have to continue being physically active and watching your calories.........”Eat Less & Move More!”
Either you're just above your healthy weight goal, or you just want to try to start off small, whatever your challenge, here's one way to go about it:
1. Commit to 30 minutes of activity every day. Walking is easiest to incorporate.
2. Cut out one or two unhealthy foods you eat every day for the whole month (cream in your coffee? sugary pop? fast-food meals?). Watch food portions at meals.
Helpful tips .....
1. Weigh yourself once a week, at the same time, to keep tabs on your progress.
2. If you fall off the wagon, get right back on. Don't waste your efforts. A bad day is just a bad day.
3. As clothes become too big, remove them from your wardrobe and give them to charity.
4. Drink plenty of liquids, about 6 to 8 glasses a day.
Remember: to keep the weight off, you'll have to continue being physically active and watching your calories.........”Eat Less & Move More!”
23
Replies
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My starting weight is 193.0
My goal is to cut out the evening crap. I am a habitual snacker. And I don't snack healthy. I would like to lose 10 pounds by the end of 2018. Hopefully, by changing my bad habits into good habits, I can achieve my goal!
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CynthiaByrne wrote: »Want to lose weight by New Year's Eve? Me too!
Either you're just above your healthy weight goal, or you just want to try to start off small, whatever your challenge, here's one way to go about it:
1. Commit to 30 minutes of activity every day. Walking is easiest to incorporate.
2. Cut out one or two unhealthy foods you eat every day for the whole month (cream in your coffee? sugary pop? fast-food meals?). Watch food portions at meals.
Demonizing food is not necessary. There is nothing wrong with any of these if you choose to fit them in your daily or weekly goals. Unless you are having food with trans fats.
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Poisonedpawn78 wrote: »CynthiaByrne wrote: »Want to lose weight by New Year's Eve? Me too!
Either you're just above your healthy weight goal, or you just want to try to start off small, whatever your challenge, here's one way to go about it:
1. Commit to 30 minutes of activity every day. Walking is easiest to incorporate.
2. Cut out one or two unhealthy foods you eat every day for the whole month (cream in your coffee? sugary pop? fast-food meals?). Watch food portions at meals.
Demonizing food is not necessary. There is nothing wrong with any of these if you choose to fit them in your daily or weekly goals. Unless you are having food with trans fats.
Those foods are "low hanging fruit" for many people. Nothing wrong with those in moderation, but reduction of items low in nutrients and high in calories can be helpful to many for weight loss.17 -
Tbh tho, you don't need to cut out foods, just cut back maybe, if you can fit it in, go for it. If I feel like eating a Madeleine, macaroon, chocolate or whatever, I have it. And I've lost 9 lbs in a lil less than 3 weeks, and I had chocolate cake and Chinese last night.11
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A couple of things jump out to me in this post that I'd like to address.
- Committing to working out while good for your overall health and fitness will have only a minor impact on your weight loss. Weight loss primarily happens in the kitchen.
- Cutting out or eliminating entire foods or food groups isn't necessary to lose weight and is often counterproductive. Willpower runs, you give in to the "evil" food which leading to guilt and bingeing. Weight loss comes from calorie control not demonising foods.
- Weighing once a week can work for some people if that's what they're comfortable with but natural weight fluctuations can mask successful weight loss when done weekly which can be very demotivating and demoralising. Another approach is to weigh daily and use a weight trending app that will show a much more accurate picture of progress. In the end, weigh in frequency is a personal thing.
- Getting back to a calorie deficit when you indulge is smart. But why the judgement? Why the guilt? Why view it as a failure? I demolished a whole bag of peanut M&M's while watching Venom the other week. That wasn't a failure it was a treat and there was nothing bad about that day.
- Giving to charity is always a good thing!
- The drinking 8 glasses of water a day thing is an old wives tale that holds no basis in reality. You just need to stay hydrated and the body has a wonderful mechanism for telling you when you need to hydrate called thirst. So choking down glass of water all day just for the sake of it only achieves more trips to the bathroom. Just drink when you're thirsty.
I'm sure your heart was in the right place but there was just so much misinformation, judgement and guilt tripping in that post that I had to say something.23 -
Thanks for the input. All good points to consider.
Danp : you mention a weight trending app to show progress. Is this available for an iphone and what is it called?1 -
CynthiaByrne wrote: »Thanks for the input. All good points to consider.
Danp : you mention a weight trending app to show progress. Is this available for an iphone and what is it called?
Happy Scale is the app that you can use for that.
For anyone who uses an android phone then it would be Libra.
All the best with your weight loss OP, I will agree with the others who say there's no need to cut out certain foods, they can be eaten but just in moderation. If you are tracking everything you eat and are consistently eating less than you burn you'll see results in time.
Ruth4 -
Thanks Ruth. Portion Control and tracking what you eat. Common sense really. I've been trying to lose the same 10-15 pounds for about 4 years now (with very little success). Maybe I will try it this way.
I just downloaded the Happy Scale app. Thanks for recommending that. It looks easy enough and I do like to weigh myself every day!
I am ready for this.7 -
No problem
The trending app will help you focus on the average trends, weight loss is full of ups and downs but if the average is downwards then all is good.
If you don't already log your food, that would be where to start and log every single thing. Using a food scale also is eye opening. When weight loss stalls its usually because we are eating more than we think.
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Honestly the "weigh yourself once per week" plan always seems like a recipe for failure to me. Do you weigh every Monday, and Sunday you happened to indulge in some salty food? Oops, you may have lost fat, but your weight is up 2 pounds. Repeat the next week, and now your weight is only up 1 pound, but you've invested 2 weeks in this plan without making scale progress... many of us quit right about here.
I weigh myself every day and the weight I log is the lowest one I've ever seen. If a few days later it's lower than that, I log that. I never get bummed about the weight going up if I've been logging, and I can chart it going down every couple days pretty reliably.10 -
I like my wifi logging scale. It stores my weight and graphs it so I can see trends. I can tell yo my weight on any day for the last two years. So happy with that I just got a new blood pressure meter that also logs BP for my wife and I. Doctors are always trying to put her on high blood pressure meds because it is always high at the Dr's office. Now she can show the graph to prove it is normal.1
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Poisonedpawn78 wrote: »CynthiaByrne wrote: »Want to lose weight by New Year's Eve? Me too!
Either you're just above your healthy weight goal, or you just want to try to start off small, whatever your challenge, here's one way to go about it:
1. Commit to 30 minutes of activity every day. Walking is easiest to incorporate.
2. Cut out one or two unhealthy foods you eat every day for the whole month (cream in your coffee? sugary pop? fast-food meals?). Watch food portions at meals.
Demonizing food is not necessary. There is nothing wrong with any of these if you choose to fit them in your daily or weekly goals. Unless you are having food with trans fats.
I used to think that too but there are people who can graze and people who cannot.
For example, it's the difference between the person who can eat three chips and the person who will eat the whole bag. If you're a whole bag person it's better to cut that food out of your diet completely until you've gotten to a point where you're stronger (and you may never get stronger - it depends on your personality).
I think this is something I've struggled with my whole life. I am not a grazer. I cannot eat just one. I have to eat the whole bag. Because of this I've learned I have to cut the 'junk foods' out completely because moderation just isn't something I can do, especially with foods I LOVE.
Carrots, for example. I never eat just one. I'll eat the whole garddang bag! LOL! But that's not as big or bad a deal as eating an entire bag of potato chips.
Anyway, it's not about demonizing food, it's about learning your triggers, learning your personality and then working within those parameters.
(She says as someone who is still obese and still learning her own triggers)19 -
Poisonedpawn78 wrote: »CynthiaByrne wrote: »Want to lose weight by New Year's Eve? Me too!
Either you're just above your healthy weight goal, or you just want to try to start off small, whatever your challenge, here's one way to go about it:
1. Commit to 30 minutes of activity every day. Walking is easiest to incorporate.
2. Cut out one or two unhealthy foods you eat every day for the whole month (cream in your coffee? sugary pop? fast-food meals?). Watch food portions at meals.
Demonizing food is not necessary. There is nothing wrong with any of these if you choose to fit them in your daily or weekly goals. Unless you are having food with trans fats.
I used to think that too but there are people who can graze and people who cannot.
For example, it's the difference between the person who can eat three chips and the person who will eat the whole bag. If you're a whole bag person it's better to cut that food out of your diet completely until you've gotten to a point where you're stronger (and you may never get stronger - it depends on your personality).
I think this is something I've struggled with my whole life. I am not a grazer. I cannot eat just one. I have to eat the whole bag. Because of this I've learned I have to cut the 'junk foods' out completely because moderation just isn't something I can do, especially with foods I LOVE.
Carrots, for example. I never eat just one. I'll eat the whole garddang bag! LOL! But that's not as big or bad a deal as eating an entire bag of potato chips.
Anyway, it's not about demonizing food, it's about learning your triggers, learning your personality and then working within those parameters.
(She says as someone who is still obese and still learning her own triggers)
Agreed! This is why IF works well for me. It’s more psychological rather than physiological.2 -
Poisonedpawn78 wrote: »CynthiaByrne wrote: »Want to lose weight by New Year's Eve? Me too!
Either you're just above your healthy weight goal, or you just want to try to start off small, whatever your challenge, here's one way to go about it:
1. Commit to 30 minutes of activity every day. Walking is easiest to incorporate.
2. Cut out one or two unhealthy foods you eat every day for the whole month (cream in your coffee? sugary pop? fast-food meals?). Watch food portions at meals.
Demonizing food is not necessary. There is nothing wrong with any of these if you choose to fit them in your daily or weekly goals. Unless you are having food with trans fats.
I used to think that too but there are people who can graze and people who cannot.
For example, it's the difference between the person who can eat three chips and the person who will eat the whole bag. If you're a whole bag person it's better to cut that food out of your diet completely until you've gotten to a point where you're stronger (and you may never get stronger - it depends on your personality).
I think this is something I've struggled with my whole life. I am not a grazer. I cannot eat just one. I have to eat the whole bag. Because of this I've learned I have to cut the 'junk foods' out completely because moderation just isn't something I can do, especially with foods I LOVE.
Carrots, for example. I never eat just one. I'll eat the whole garddang bag! LOL! But that's not as big or bad a deal as eating an entire bag of potato chips.
Anyway, it's not about demonizing food, it's about learning your triggers, learning your personality and then working within those parameters.
(She says as someone who is still obese and still learning her own triggers)
There is a difference between not having food because you cannot control yourself with it, And demonizing a food as "bad" or "Evil" or "unhealthy". Foods that are safe to eat are not healthy or unhealthy. just different combinations of things your body needs.
You are crossing the two together which is not the same thing.13 -
I like my wifi logging scale. It stores my weight and graphs it so I can see trends. I can tell yo my weight on any day for the last two years. So happy with that I just got a new blood pressure meter that also logs BP for my wife and I. Doctors are always trying to put her on high blood pressure meds because it is always high at the Dr's office. Now she can show the graph to prove it is normal.
Which BP meter do you have? Like you, I have a wifi scale and love the ease of using it.0 -
I have been on a "Diet" most of my Adult life. I have tried them all. Lose some, gain more back. Yo-yo Dieting.
I am currently a member of TOPS and am now trying to lose the last 20. I am a grazer. I snack constantly all day long. I eat a healthy breakfast, lunch and dinner.....but then I snack between. Cheese & Cherry tomatoes, a Rice Cake with a cuppa tea. Healthy snacks.....Then after dinner, all hell breaks loose! Hubby gets out the chips (etc) and I am done! I cannot enjoy carrots/celery while he's got a bag of chips!!
I log my food here on Myfitnesspal, I have a Garmin Fitness Tracker and get in my 10,000+ steps, I do a 15-20 min work out every morning (yoga or areobic) but I've been stuck in this weight category for about a year now.
My feet & knees hurt. My hips stiffen when I sit to long. My clothes don't fit right, everything is tight. I have closet full of summer dresses that I couldn't wear. How disappointing is that? I am a secretary in a large office, so nice clothes are a must. I am NOT buying a larger size, when all I need to lose is 20 pounds!!!5 -
I used to think that too but there are people who can graze and people who cannot.
For example, it's the difference between the person who can eat three chips and the person who will eat the whole bag. If you're a whole bag person it's better to cut that food out of your diet completely until you've gotten to a point where you're stronger (and you may never get stronger - it depends on your personality).
I think this is something I've struggled with my whole life. I am not a grazer. I cannot eat just one. I have to eat the whole bag. Because of this I've learned I have to cut the 'junk foods' out completely because moderation just isn't something I can do, especially with foods I LOVE.
Carrots, for example. I never eat just one. I'll eat the whole garddang bag! LOL! But that's not as big or bad a deal as eating an entire bag of potato chips.
Anyway, it's not about demonizing food, it's about learning your triggers, learning your personality and then working within those parameters.
(She says as someone who is still obese and still learning her own triggers)
And here is where the problem, as I see it, exists.
You identify "junk foods" and decided that you just can't control yourself so you focus all your energy on denying yourself those "junk foods" that you LOVE. This leads to 3 possible outcomes:
1. You decided that you'll never again, EVER have those "junk foods" again. Those foods you LOVE are forever off limits. That sounds miserable to me.
2. You decide to give up those "junk foods" while you're losing weight. You successfully deny yourself the pleasure of those foods and reach your goal weight. Now that you're not 'on a diet' anymore you go back to those "junk foods", over eat and put the weight back on.
3. You decide to give up those "junk foods" because you just can't control yourself, but eventually the cravings hit, your willpower gives out and you end up overeating those foods anyway and set back your weight loss efforts.
Option 1 is the only viable, long term solution but not one that I would ever consider. I think a far better idea is to take all the willpower and effort and energy that you were going to apply to denying yourself those foods and use it to learn to limit and moderate your intake of those foods.
Instead of "I'm going to deny myself potato chips" try "I'm gonna make room in my calorie target so I can weigh out a sensible portion of chips into a bowl to have after dinner tonight".6 -
Honestly the "weigh yourself once per week" plan always seems like a recipe for failure to me. Do you weigh every Monday, and Sunday you happened to indulge in some salty food? Oops, you may have lost fat, but your weight is up 2 pounds. Repeat the next week, and now your weight is only up 1 pound, but you've invested 2 weeks in this plan without making scale progress... many of us quit right about here.
I weigh myself every day and the weight I log is the lowest one I've ever seen. If a few days later it's lower than that, I log that. I never get bummed about the weight going up if I've been logging, and I can chart it going down every couple days pretty reliably.
There isn't a right or wrong way on this - but presenting the other side of the coin.....
Weekly weighing works for me and many others.
I weigh once a week and yes of course weight loss is not linear so there will still be fluctuations . As long as trend is downward
Scale progress doesn't mean continual linear drop. People understand that with weekly weighing too.
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I am slowly learning to use my willpower for good. I usually use poor willpower as an excuse....as in "I don't have any willpower therefore I can't control myself".
I'm loving the Happy Scale app, and I ask myself "would you rather have that cookie, or see a dip in the scale". So far the dip in the scale has won for the past 3 nights. I know I can't hold off forever, but maybe, by eating a small portion, a couple times a week, it will stop the binge that we all know will hit.
We are all different, and what works for you might not work for me (and vise versa), but all the handy hints are definitely helpful and that's what it's all about. Helping one another get through a tough time! I appreciate all the input you've provided. Some of it is standard common sense, and I just needed to hear it again and some of it was new information with an App to boot! Thank you.4 -
I am in to loose 5 pounds
Starting weight 167.5 lb0 -
CynthiaByrne wrote: »Thanks Ruth. Portion Control and tracking what you eat. Common sense really. I've been trying to lose the same 10-15 pounds for about 4 years now (with very little success). Maybe I will try it this way.
So these tips haven’t actually worked for you?
Incidentally, walking for half an hour at a brisk pace burns less than 150 kcal for me. That’s not going to make much difference to weight (though of course it’s good for you in other respects).
My tips:
Weigh everything.
If you have to estimate, try to overestimate a little on the food and underestimate a little on the exercise. This applies to selecting appropriate DB entries too.
If you really want a particular food, then for the sake of all the gods have some. This isn’t meant to be a punishment for being fat. Just make it fit your calorie allowance.
Distraction, distraction, distraction. If you find you’re really hungry when you ‘shouldn’t’ be, then get into a task or out of the house and see if the ‘hunger’ goes away.4 -
CynthiaByrne wrote: »I am slowly learning to use my willpower for good. I usually use poor
I'm loving the Happy Scale app, and I ask myself "would you rather have that cookie, or see a dip in the scale". So far the dip in the scale has won for the past 3 nights.
Experiment and see how your body reacts. Chances are you can eat the cookie and still have the scales move in the right direction without depriving yourself of the enjoyment. Maybe you can even have two cookies depending on how many calories you have left over on that day
. Try and see. Who knows it might even be 4 or 5 cookies before the scales start to move in the wrong direction. Then the question changes from one of depriving to one of moderation and you'll be asking yourself "Would you rather have 4 cookies or just 1 cookie AND a dip in the scale".
Remember too that weight loss and calories work on a time scale longer than 24 hours. Calories can be averaged over a week period. That means that if your calorie target is say 1500, then eating 1700 one day, 1400 the next, 1300 the day after and 1600 the day after that is just as effective as sticking strictly to 1500 calories every day. Flexibility can be liberating and lots of people here have been successful only sticking to weekly calorie targets. Something to consider. 3 -
Thanks for all your helpful tips. I really think I am ready for this. I have picked up some really good advice.
1) Portion Control (weigh & measure everything)
2) Log or Journal
3) Exercise - get out there and move!
4) Moderation - enjoy my favorite foods.....all in moderation
5) Weigh myself every morning (Happy Scale)
I actually look forward to getting weighed now. I've always weighed myself everyday, but I kept track on a calendar on my bedside table. This App is so much more fun!2 -
I adjusted my meals for the week, using my 5 points from above and I lost a pound. I know this won't happen every week, but it's a happy start and should keep me going!
1
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