Feeling really demotivated
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amyglover57
Posts: 9 Member
Hey everyone! So I've been burning around 400cal a day and eating 1200 for the last week and a half, and I'm ok with what I'm eating and can handle the exercise. I lost 5lb in two days in the first week though, and the scales haven't budged since. Not only that, but while I can see some improvements in the areas that were ok already, my "problem" areas (stomach and arms) still look the same to me, and I've just reached a point of wondering why I bother and why I shouldn't just eat crap and sleep like I used to lol. Anyone have any advice/words of wisdom?
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Replies
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You're expecting too much too quickly, and making the process harder on yourself by netting only 800 calories a day. Eat more, slow it down. Weight loss is a long process.5
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You are being much, much, much too impatient. Settle in. Work the program the way it's supposed to work, including eating back your exercise calories, and it will happen. But it won't happen tomorrow, or even in two weeks. I'm still working on the body I want, four years later.
Also, take photographs. Because even if you can see the changes, the camera will.7 -
Words of wisdom: patience and consistency. As already stated, a week and a half is WAY too short of a time to see a difference. This is the hard part - getting started. Do not give up! Keep going and in a month or so it will start to pay off.3
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Overall advice: Have some patience. I'm sure it took longer than 10 days to gain whatever weight you're wanting to lose; it's going to take longer to lose. Weight loss isn't linear, trust the process. If you stay consistent with your input (calories in the correct range) you'll see the desired output over the long haul.
You're certainly not alone hitting a "why bother?" point after only a short time but I think it's likely there's opportunity to be more efficient with what you're doing to make the process feel like less of a burden and more sustainable.
Questions:
- are you certain 1200 calories is appropriate for you and how much weight you have to lose? If it is, 1200 net calories should be considered a minimum to ensure you don't endure any negative health effects.
- How are you tracking your calories and exercise burn? You should be using a food scale to verify serving sizes and estimating and even some devices that "track" exercise calories are only so accurate.
- What sort of exercise are you doing? Does this match the type of physique that you ultimately want to achieve?1 -
Thanks guys, I know I'm being really impatient and I'm aware it's too soon to see anything amazing-- it's an emotional response really, not a logical one, thanks for bringing me back down0
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You always drop weight quickly in the beginning... and most of it is water. Like everyone said, losing weight isn't easy, you have to work it a bit. Take measurements. Drink LOTS of water. Weigh and measure your food, don't guesstimate. When you read about people dropping tons of weight quickly... remember, they might weigh much more than you do. The higher your initial weight, the easier it is to see the scale play nice in the beginning. ALWAYS eat your minimum calories. I'm not one that's big on eating your exercise calories, personally, but do remember... the site will overestimate your calorie burn, so if you do eat them, watch it closely. And hang in there, you can do this!!!0
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Your body isn’t going to look different in 1 week...you’ll do better and have more sanity if you re-adjust your expectations.
You need to stick with this for the long run.
Ps are you fed up cause your already feeling drained, starved and fed up of eating so few calories? 1200 is very low, are you very short and very slim already?
I’m 5ft1 and anything else than 1600 and i want to punch everyone in sight
Are you trying to change everything at once? Better off adding small changes one by one for more sustainability.
You can still eat some ‘crap’ you know
i eat crisps, chocolate, ice cream...
Please be kind to your body1 -
RunForPizza88 wrote: »Your body isn’t going to look different in 1 week...you’ll do better and have more sanity if you re-adjust your expectations.
You need to stick with this for the long run.
Ps are you fed up cause your already feeling drained, starved and fed up of eating so few calories? 1200 is very low, are you very short and very slim already?
I’m 5ft1 and anything else than 1600 and i want to punch everyone in sight
Are you trying to change everything at once? Better off adding small changes one by one for more sustainability.
You can still eat some ‘crap’ you know i eat crisps, chocolate, ice cream...
Please be kind to your body
Hey, so I'm 5'7.5" and 182lb, which is over two stone overweight so it's definitely not the case that I'm trying to lose weight I don't need to! I think I'm more fed up not because I hate what I'm eating or how I'm exercising, but because I feel like I'm putting effort into something that's failing. I know one week is wayyyy too short lol I'm just tired of this body X Thanks for the kind words and advice0 -
amyglover57 wrote: »RunForPizza88 wrote: »Your body isn’t going to look different in 1 week...you’ll do better and have more sanity if you re-adjust your expectations.
You need to stick with this for the long run.
Ps are you fed up cause your already feeling drained, starved and fed up of eating so few calories? 1200 is very low, are you very short and very slim already?
I’m 5ft1 and anything else than 1600 and i want to punch everyone in sight
Are you trying to change everything at once? Better off adding small changes one by one for more sustainability.
You can still eat some ‘crap’ you know i eat crisps, chocolate, ice cream...
Please be kind to your body
Hey, so I'm 5'7.5" and 182lb, which is over two stone overweight so it's definitely not the case that I'm trying to lose weight I don't need to! I think I'm more fed up not because I hate what I'm eating or how I'm exercising, but because I feel like I'm putting effort into something that's failing. I know one week is wayyyy too short lol I'm just tired of this body X Thanks for the kind words and advice
Okay with those stats you should be eating much more than 1200 then...please!
Also as I suspected classic mistake of doing too much too soon. Why are you eating foods that you hate ? You need to find foods you enjoy that fit within your calories to create a deficit to loose weight. It’s as simple as that. Start there. You don’t need to feel guilty eating any foods.
Then, as you progress you can begin adding in more healthy foods and swapping out high calorie foods which you may soon realise you no longer want to waste calories on.
Same for exercise, you need to do something you enjoy. Do you enjoy walking, find a nice park or trail and start there?
There is literally no point in what you are doing now as you can see it’s not sustainable as after a week you already want to give up.
You need to add in changes to your life that you can continue after the ‘diet’ is over. When you reach goal weight is your plan to just go back to sleeping and eating crap? It has to be a lifestyle otherwise you’ll be yo-yo dieting forever on end...
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I think anyone who says they’re netting 800 calories and feels fine is netting considerably more than 800 calories. If you don’t use a food scale, that would be a good place to start.0
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RunForPizza88 wrote: »amyglover57 wrote: »RunForPizza88 wrote: »Your body isn’t going to look different in 1 week...you’ll do better and have more sanity if you re-adjust your expectations.
You need to stick with this for the long run.
Ps are you fed up cause your already feeling drained, starved and fed up of eating so few calories? 1200 is very low, are you very short and very slim already?
I’m 5ft1 and anything else than 1600 and i want to punch everyone in sight
Are you trying to change everything at once? Better off adding small changes one by one for more sustainability.
You can still eat some ‘crap’ you know i eat crisps, chocolate, ice cream...
Please be kind to your body
Hey, so I'm 5'7.5" and 182lb, which is over two stone overweight so it's definitely not the case that I'm trying to lose weight I don't need to! I think I'm more fed up not because I hate what I'm eating or how I'm exercising, but because I feel like I'm putting effort into something that's failing. I know one week is wayyyy too short lol I'm just tired of this body X Thanks for the kind words and advice
Okay with those stats you should be eating much more than 1200 then...please!
Also as I suspected classic mistake of doing too much too soon. Why are you eating foods that you hate ? You need to find foods you enjoy that fit within your calories to create a deficit to loose weight. It’s as simple as that. Start there. You don’t need to feel guilty eating any foods.
Then, as you progress you can begin adding in more healthy foods and swapping out high calorie foods which you may soon realise you no longer want to waste calories on.
Same for exercise, you need to do something you enjoy. Do you enjoy walking, find a nice park or trail and start there?
There is literally no point in what you are doing now as you can see it’s not sustainable as after a week you already want to give up.
You need to add in changes to your life that you can continue after the ‘diet’ is over. When you reach goal weight is your plan to just go back to sleeping and eating crap? It has to be a lifestyle otherwise you’ll be yo-yo dieting forever on end...
Sorry I must have miscommunicated, when I said "not because I'm eating food that I hate" I meant that my food isn't what's bothering me, I really like what I'm eating, it's the frustration. Anyway I take your point I'll look into it, thanks0 -
@amyglover57 I am 43 years old, 5'9, and 180ish pounds. I can lose (slowly) on 2000 calories a day, 0.5 lbs per week. You need to eat more if you are going to sustain this weight loss.
I will freak out and binge after about a week if I try to stick to 1200 calories. 800 and I would probably commit homicide for a cheeseburger.
Do this the smart way, not the fast way. The fast way never works out.1 -
Lots of folks feel the way you do at the beginning. First off you likely aren't eating enough which everyone has already told you. Second don't listen to all the nonsense out there about diets where you lose 4 or 5 pounds of fat a week. That only works for folks who are in the 500 pound range. The awful truth is that if your BMR is 2000 and you ate nothing at all you might lose 4 pounds but you would likelyl lose muscle as well as fat risking heart health and lots of other issues and you can't keep that up forever anyway. If you want to lose 2 stone (28 lbs) you should probably shoot for about .5 to 1 pound per week. I know that is slow but it's well worth it. The difference between quick weight loss and slow weight loss is twofold. One, quick weight loss requires you to follow a program you probably can't sustain and the second thing is that if you lose muscle you lower your BMR requiring you to eat less for life unless you rebuild that muscle which isn't as easy as it sounds. In addition you won't learn anything to help you keep the weight off as you will spend all your time wanting to finish so you can go back to "normal" which of course was not working for you before. Trust me take the time you need to lose slowly and healthfully and learn new ways of eating that you can live with for life.1
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Ah yes sorry my mistake, I misread
If your enjoying what you eat then that’s great.
Keep at it and you’ll get there!!
One week is way too short to expect results. It took me 3 months to start seeing noticeable changes and lots of times the scale didn't move for a week or more.0
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