How to get back on track quickly ?

lavendah
lavendah Posts: 126 Member
in Motivation and Support
I weighed 172 pounds back in beginning of 2014 and over the next 1 year, had lost 45 pounds and came down to 127 pounds. I maintained that weight for a while but stopped tracking my eating habits after some months. As a result, I have been regaining the weight slowly but steadily over these years. I weigh 148 pounds now.
It has suddenly dawned on me that I have wasted so much of the hardwork of that time. I want to get back to eating good and less but I just can't do it. I cut out the junk food to some extent but I can't even get near to my calorie goal. I should be eating less than 1400, and I end up eating around 2000 everyday.
How to get back on track quickly.

Replies

  • livingleanlivingclean
    livingleanlivingclean Posts: 11,751 Member
    Your weight took years to put on, but it seems like your expectation to lose it is quite fast... Perhaps having more realistic goals for you rate of loss will make life easier for you, giving you more calories.

    Start by tracking everything. Tweak where appropriate - pre logging may help, and realising that to achieve your goal you have to make sacrifices.
  • lavendah
    lavendah Posts: 126 Member
    1+ year since then and still not back on track. :(
    Weighing 155 lbs now. But trying to be better again.
  • itsclobberintime
    itsclobberintime Posts: 164 Member
    As the first post said, start by tracking everything. I also recommend meal prepping and weighing everything to give you the most accurate number for your calories and macros. Meal prepping for the week really takes the guesswork out of "what to eat" when you can just pop your already prepared and measured container into the microwave. It also shows you where you have flexibility for snacks if you find yourself hungry or snacking at certain times of the day.
  • elisa123gal
    elisa123gal Posts: 4,324 Member
    Just do what you did before when you lost the weight. Go back and think of your habits and routines, the meals you ate. Just try to get back in that groove. Go grocery shopping, get the food you'll need and throw any junk out of the fridge and cupboards and set yourself up for success. You can do it!!!
  • 88olds
    88olds Posts: 4,534 Member
    Agree with the above- food diary.

    Can I dissuade you from trying to do this, or anything in weight loss quickly? Will it matter how long it takes to get a handle on this if you can find an effective strategy? Solving any particular problem takes exactly as long as it takes, no more, no less.

    What is your maintenance number at 155 lbs? How did you get the target of 1400? If 1400 is the number for a weekly loss of 2 lbs, calculate the numbers for 1 lb and .5.

    If you have a couple of weeks of your food diary, where are the excess calories between your maintenance number and what you are actually eating coming from? What can you do without, what can you modify to make plan friendly? What indulgences can you fit into your plan on a limited basis? After you establish that you can hit your maintenance number, take on the .5lb loss number.

    If you can hit the .5 lb number and want to cut further, try it if you want to. Or if you can establish a downward trend of .5 lbs per week, you can just ride the trend. Beware of the time issue in weight loss. Time is a plan killer. If you get back to GW and stay there this time, you will soon forget about how long it took you to get there.

    I made goal weight and kept tracking for 5 years before I could go long stretches without it. But if I see the scale ticking up more than a couple of lbs over GW, I go right back to it. Just how it is for me. I’m not going back. I notice a lot of folks make GW and then get unhelpful ideas about staying there. I’ve heard a lot of people say they want to be “normal” and not think about calories. Well, normal for me is 285 lbs and I sure don’t want that. So mindful eating and calorie counting and tracking when necessary is just how it is. Hope this helps you. Good luck.

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