Very small deficit, Success stories?

Addictead wrote: »

I have at least 5 pounds, but probably closer to 9 to lose, and honestly want it to be as painless as possible. Theoretically I know it's possible to lose 0.25/0.5 pounds a week but I've always done 1or 2 pounds a week which works well albeit hard to keep up especially at a lower weight(Keep trying to do 1200 and end up at maintenance most days lately).

I know what my maintenance is by heart and I know that eating 250-100 under that will work but it seems impossibly slow to see any progress right away which kind of discourages me. So how does losing a little bit a week go for you guys? Does it take a month or two to finally show up? Is it fairly sustainable for a very long time?

I've been doing it for about a year, averaging somewhere around a pound a month - super slow. It is indeed quite painless, but IMO, you really need to trust the process. Maybe that's extra true for me because I tend to eat at about a 250 deficit most days, but throw in a random indulgent day here in there that brings it back to average half that (-ish) . . . but also creates crazy daily-weight peaks (water weight, digestive contents) that throw the trend off for several days.

There was one whole month when Libra (set at default 7 day smoothing/forecast) thought I was maintaining or even gaining, and other multi-week periods shorter than that that were misleading. Over the long haul, though, if you know your numbers, it can work.

Last October, I was sitting somewhere mid to high 130s. Now I'm pretty firmly in the mid-120s. (I'm being vague because when one is losing this slowly, the random daily fluctuations are bigger than a month or more of fat loss! My Libra trend on 10/1/2019 was 137.3; on 10/1/2020, 126.7, so just less than a pound a month in trend at that one-year point.)

Super easy to live with, though.

Whether this is going to work psychologically depends (I think) on how much you trust your process, whether you can be patient, and whether you need the faster loss for motivation (vs. enjoying the extra calories more). I'm "team patient hedonism" all the way. 😆

Calorie counting example was losing 6 lbs in 6 months as part of a deliberate recomp while I fine-tuned my maintenance weight. Wasn't difficult at all as I was coming off a period of losing 1lb/week so felt far easier with a bigger calorie allowance. Wasn't discouraging as that was exactly what I set out to do and I didn't expect a short term linear loss on the scales - setting realistic expectations prevents discouragement. If you mean "show up" as resulting in visible changes yes it did result in seeing body comp changes as I was at a level of body fat where small increases in muscle / losses of fat made differences in muscle definition and vascularity obvious. Tracking tape measurements also helped to judge progress.

Most years I lose weight slowly without calorie counting as I transition from my winter weight down to my preferred weight for cycling for Spring. I don't feel any need to cut calories either daily or even weekly - I just effectively cut calories with either small adjustments or sometimes take some bigger chunks of calories off when it suits me. Majority of my days would be around maintenance, some days would be over maintenance - dieting doesn't take over my life!

Hope you realise you don't need to micro-manage a same every day deficit or even cut calories every week to achieve your aim?
Bigger deficits for short periods don't have the same negative implications as big deficits for an extended period of time - you could cut harder for a couple of weeks and revert to maintenance if you need to see a drop to keep you motivated. Pick a safe and sensible option that suits you, make the process as easy as possible.

Longer comment from me appears earlier in the thread, but in case it matters to anyone, this is what slow loss (around a pound a month, maybe a bit slower) looked like in Libra, with a 250-ish deficit and some high days bringing the average deficit to around half that (now holding steady for a while in Nov/Dec):


That's about the longest view I can give you and still have the little vertical lines that connect daily weights to the trend line. Those show you the high days. 😉 The down trend started higher in the 130s in late 2019, and was kind of level just before the March pandemic restaurant limitations took hold. (I have weaknesses . . . 😆.) People who need positive feedback routinely from the bodyweight scale might be better served by losing a pound or two more quickly, taking a break, losing another pound or two, etc. For those preferring tiny deficit, not so scale focused, this may be good.

ETA: In July, I started weight training regularly again, after a long hiatus. That led to a month-long "plateau", because I always add a couple of pounds of water weight when I re-start weight training, and hang onto it until I stop again. That bigger drop in the first half of August is where the continuing ultra-slow fat loss finally starts emerging from behind the cloud of persisting water weight.

I started my weight loss journey - at a BMI of 34 - by selecting a weight loss rate of 0.5lbs per week. In reality I did often stay below my calorie goal, so probably a daily deficit of around 400-450 calories at the beginning, gradually going down.
Then last August, one year after I started my weight loss (44lbs down) I switched my calorie goal to maintenance, but aiming for a small deficit (anywhere between between 250 and 0). It's definitely a waiting game at that kind of deficit. I find it helpful to focus on other goals such as running further/faster, lifting heavier weights etc. But looking

Aside from the trend app Libra, I also keep track of my weight in an Excel spreadsheet. The chart below shows my daily weigh-ins (in kg), each line representing a month. You can see the lines getting closer together these last few months, and even crossing occasionally, but still clearly a losing trend.