Weight loss slower

sandymurph3 · January 2021

I have been using my fitness pal since June 2020. I am 4lb off my goal weight and I am finding it really hard to lose it. Eating the same food but more walking and only lost 1lb compared to 4lb the previous week, so disheartening getting on the scales each week. 😣 Has anyone any advice?

tinkerbellang83 · January 2021

With only 4lb to go, you should only be expecting to lose around 0.5lbs per week, just gotta be patient, accurate and consistent. You're also more likely to find that any water retention masks weight loss.

ETA, you're 4lbs from goal, regardless of the number on the scale, I bet you feel pretty damn good about that, if you don't - you should!

mtaratoot · January 2021

The last few pounds can be utter frustration. Down one, up 1.5. Down 1.5, up one. Yeah.

My advice is to try not to get too frustrated because when you get to that goal, you'll need to transition to maintenance. That's at least as frustrating. You no longer get the "reward" of the scale going down, and you still have to do essentially what you've been doing, albeit with a few extra calories allowed.

Here's a totally crazy idea. Make yourself an eight-pound maintenance range; your goal plus or minus four. Then, step back for a moment, and maybe even sit down because..... YOU ARE IN YOUR MAINTENANCE RANGE!!!!!

Slowly start to reset your idea of how to treat your journey and get used to the up and down seesaw. It's going to happen. So accept it, and look at the long term.

Oh, and congratulations! You made it to... the beginning!

sandymurph3 · January 2021

Thank you both for your advice. Will definitely take suggestions on board.
After 3 stone down I do feel great, but I still have another stone to lose as the 4lb is to my first goal. I know I'll get there but it's a really slow process now.

quiksylver296 · January 2021

If you don’t currently use a food scale, start.

callsitlikeiseeit · January 2021

with only 4 pounds to go, you should target a half a pound per week. and it wont be linear. it will be a zig zag of up and down. Also, weighing EVERYTHING on a food scale and meticulous logging is needed. every bit of oil, every gram of anything.

mtaratoot · January 2021

sandymurph3 wrote: »

Thank you both for your advice. Will definitely take suggestions on board.
After 3 stone down I do feel great, but I still have another stone to lose as the 4lb is to my first goal. I know I'll get there but it's a really slow process now.

Ah. I see. The four pounds to go is an intermediate goal. Well, congratulations for setting intermediate goals so you have little mini success stories.

One other thing that helped me, and still does, is to use a weight trending graph. You can do it yourself or use an app. The one that I like best for graphics is TrendWeight. The thing I don't like is you have to enter your data on a different site unless you have a Fitbit device or a Fitbit scale.

Another one I use is Weight Grapher. It has a feature you can turn on that also shows your weight trend from 28 days ago to help eliminate the stress from monthly cycles if you are a woman that has them.

The idea is that your day-to-day mass will go up and down a LOT and will mask what's really going on. The trends use a special kind of averaging that actually do give a higher importance to more recent data that ten-day-old data; it's called a weighted moving average. More information about this, if you're interested, is in The Hacker's Diet. Specifically the section on signal `and noise.

Theo166 · January 2021

how is 5 lbs in two weeks not something to be happy with?
Don't be so hard on yourself.

Weight loss slower

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