hi can anyone explain to me

saynow111 · April 2021

hi
can anyone explain to me
the mindset of losing weight slowly
i know well losing 1 kg per week and more
but cant understand how someone could lose weight slowly 0.5 kg and not lose passion
and dont lose control
losing weight slowly mean more time
mean more chances of bad eating more eagerness to food
and as you know one meal can increase weight very much
thank you

yirara · April 2021

Going slowly means
* preserving muscles, which, especially as a woman are very difficult to get back
* getting enough nutrients
* reducing the risk of binging from running a too big deficit
* too much stress from eating too little, and too little energy for being happy
* eating enough and enjoying ones food, including snacks
* probably lots of other reasons

Lietchi · April 2021

You need to think beyond the process of losing weight and also think about maintaining that weight loss afterwards.
I don't need 'passion' to lose weight, I just need consistency and habit. Just like how, when we've achieved our desired weight loss, the process of maintaining it is also quite 'boring'.

"More chances of bad eating, more eagerness to food": this seems to imply you're restricting what you can eat temporarily, to achieve weight loss? Or being very restrictive as regards to how much you are allowing yourself to eat? Losing weight more slowly allows you to eat more while losing weight, making it easier to stick to your calorie goal. Furthermore, you don't need to restrict 'bad' foods, except to make sure you stay within your allowed calories.
If you're making temporary changes (especially ones that are difficult, such as eating very little and cutting out foods you like) you're more likely to regain the weight afterwards, as you return to your old habits.

Also "one meal can increase weight very much" isn't strictly true: it can increase your scale weight because of water retention (from more salt intake for example) and more food waste in your body. But you need to look at your weight trend over time, not at daily fluctuations. You need to eat 3500 calories above maintenance level to gain a lb of fat. Short-term fluctuations are not fat gain/loss, but changes in water weight and food waste in your system.

I started out 20 months ago, at a BMI of 34. And from the start, I chose the slowest weight loss rate. The result: I'm down 27kg from when I started and it was easy. I didn't feel like I was starving and I was still eating all the foods I like, just in smaller portions. Over time I also modified my dietary habits slightly and gradually (for example increasing protein intake) and created exercise habits that will serve me well for the future. When I eventually switch from weight loss to maintaining my weight, I'll just have a bit more calories to work with, but nothing else will change since I've already created good habits. Passion didn't carry me through these 20 months, consistency did.
I didn't need passion and I didn't worry about losing control, since I made the process of losing weight as easy as possible.

BarbaraHelen2013 · April 2021

The idea of losing slowly should mean that ‘control’ in the way you mean is not actually necessary. Therefore there is no control to lose!

If you eat at a level that provides a small deficit, and you take care to ensure balanced, adequate nutrition then you needn’t feel deprived. A feeling of deprivation is what prompts ‘going off the rails’.

For the last YEAR I’ve lost at the rate of about 1lb per month. That’s a tiny amount per week! But as an older, very short woman who is very light already it’s wholly appropriate and, most importantly, sustainable for me.

Overly restricting food in order to lose more per week would lead to my body rebelling and compelling me to eat anything and everything! Your body is an organism, not a machine. There are co-dependencies between body and brain that will force an override if you restrict intake too much! Resulting in the loss of ‘control’ you refer to.

The trick is to find a balance where you are content with how you are eating yet remain in a small calorie deficit. That means you can eat that way indefinitely without feeling deprived and lose safely and steadily, if slowly.

callsitlikeiseeit · April 2021

you did not gain weight fast? why expect to loe it fast?

all of your examples seem to be issues you personally have, and are not facts set in stone.

people who lose weight fast have the tendency to GAIN it back, or burn out long before reaching their goal, due to a too heavily restricted diet or calorie limit.

dragon_girl26 · April 2021

So what if it means more time? What's the rush? Good health is a lifelong journey, and hopefully you're thinking about the quality of your health, too, and not strictly just the number on the scale. As someone said above, you need to think beyond the weight loss process. Some people think that's the hard part, but really the harder part is maintaining that weight loss. If you go slowly, especially towards the end, you have plenty of time to figure out what works for you, as opposed to just hustling to the finish line and going back to "normal". "Normal" is what puts the weight back on. You have to keep doing what you're doing to keep the weight off. So if what you're doing is causing you to want to do "bad eating", maybe examine your strategy rather than worrying about how much time it takes to lose 5 lbs or whatever. If you're having that problem now, then those urges won't just magically go away when you hit maintenance.

janejellyroll · April 2021

Most people seem to find they're more successful with their long term weight management when they use their weight loss period as a time to figure out what works well for them in terms of their preferences and lifestyle. It's basically learning how to consistently choose foods and portion sizes that work well for you.

When people white knuckle their way through weight loss, it's sometimes harder for them to sustain it long term because they didn't take advantage of using that weight loss period to learn practical and sustainable ways to eat. If you're relying on pure "passion" to lose weight, how do you plan to sustain that for the rest of your life? Most of us need more than just passion to maintain our weight loss.

Also, just so you know, one meal can't increase your weight very much. That's not how this works. Weight management is about the totality of your day to day decisions, not just one good or bad meal. One meal isn't going to reduce your weight. One meal isn't going to increase your weight, other than in a temporary way.

littlegreenparrot1 · April 2021

I didn't gain it that quick, so I'm not going to lose it that quick.

I could try cutting out all bread/potatoes/cake etc and only eat vegetable soup for a few weeks. No doubt it would happen faster, but I would be miserable - impossible to work or live with, and eventually would cave and scoff everything I could find for days. Entirely counter productive.

I'm training for running events, no way do I get to complete an ultra if I don't fuel myself properly. I don't want to just be skinny, I want to be a strong, fit, healthy badass. They are not the same.

Those are my personal reasons for going slowly, I am baffled by those who seem to think they can lose it all very quickly.

saynow111 · April 2021

thank you for all these great responses
i really appreciate your responses and experiences
you definitely have greater experience and i really need it cause i always fail against my body in losing weight game i dont know why

thank you

janejellyroll · April 2021

saynow111 wrote: »

thank you for all these great responses
i really appreciate your responses and experiences
you definitely have greater experience and i really need it cause i always fail against my body in losing weight game i dont know why

thank you

Sometimes when people fail repeatedly in their weight management efforts, it is because they're trying to go too hard/too quick. It might be worth adopting a more moderate calorie goal to see if it works better for you. I know that everything changed for me when I began looking at this as a long term way of living instead of a short and miserable diet followed by a return to "normal."

ajlmfp22 · April 2021

Just speaking for myself, I've come to terms with the fact that weight loss and getting in better shape is a long-term commitment that requires discipline. Even if you set an aggressive 1200 cal balance and 2 lbs/wk loss rate for yourself, it's still going to take time to see any sort of meaningful change.

hipari · April 2021

Here’s one way of looking at it: weight loss is not the goal, it’s a side effect that happens while you learn the habits and lifestyle changes necessary to support staying in your goal weight and living your desired lifestyle.

PAV8888 · April 2021

Eat, drink, and move the same way you plan to continue to eat, drink, and move over the next five years.

Losing weight for most of the people who discover MFP is not a one time effort for a few months and then back to normal we go.

It requires ongoing effort and commitment, creating helpful habits that will continue into the future, and continuing to be willing to intervene and act when things change

You probably will not be able to achieve all that if you're just making yourself miserabe using tools you neither enjoy nor plan to use long term.

Some light reading: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5764193/

The key point (for me) there is not that you need all that in order to succeed; but that you should be using your time while losing weight to **gradually** make changes in your life that will support your future weight maintenance.

Also, anecdotally, the AT that Dr. Hall eludes to often seems to become much less of an issue by year three of maintenance. For many much sooner than that. And for some, I am sure, it persists for longer. So minimizing AT was always one of my initial goals. And that too is achieved by reasonable deficits and diet breaks and not by whiteknuckle till you drop strategies

nanastaci2020 · April 2021

If you're asking about how to stay motivated, that will depend on the person.

For me: I kept looking to the next 5#. For example, I originally started a little above180. So when I got under180 for the first time, it was exciting. THen when I got under 175, I was thrilled. I kept going in this way, always looking forward to the next 5# 'milestone'. For me the time it took was never important. I did not focus on the days or weeks. My goal was a healthier, more active rest of my life. When thinking about the rest of my life, whether I hit goal in 6 months or 9 did not matter.

wunderkindking · April 2021

For me? It isn't about losing weight. It is about my weight reflecting the lifestyle changes I make. It's not a thing with a beginning, middle and end. It is a series of changes made that I want to continue indefinitely and simply allowing my body time to reflect those changes.

I MIGHT prefer 'go hard for a couple of weeks and get it done then come back to maintain that' if I only had a little to loose (which I do now and it's a possibility) buuuut with a lot of loss? Like where I started as obese? It just wasn't feasible. If I had looked at it as a thing I was doing short term (ie: a 'diet') then I'd have quit. Too daunting, too many changes required at once.

It's forever. There is no stopping. At the end of things when you switch from losing to maintaining you gain maybe 500 calories back if you're going really really hard - and probably more like 250. Because once you're not as heavy you have less of a deficit. Gaining 250 calories a day isn't a big deal. So if you go 'yay, I'm done' and revert to old habits? You're going to regain

Poobah1972 · April 2021

This is how I thought about it moments ago.

Through this journey I am fully committed. I spend a great deal of time researching my WOE, planning my dietary choices each day, spreadsheeting my macro's and even some blood indicators. Not to mention all the cooking and baking and let's not forget being active with MFP friends. My brain is actively thinking about all the various processes related to my new way of life. It boils down to straight brain mechanics.

The more time you sit and ponder anything the more connections your neurons make in the brain strengthening that thought process. So the more you put in the more it becomes physical reality in your brain and in every day reality. That's is so Huge, it's basically the win.

If you concentrate solely on losing the most weight you can, without putting in ample thought to nutrition, health and the key life changes that will make weight loss and maintenance enjoyable for the long haul. You essentially don't learn anything, and sooner or later when you dropped all the weight/health be damned. Your brain won't have acquired those real physical pathways and tools that result in Habit, and actual life style changes.

Taking it slow, especially as you near goal... Trains your brains, allows you time to find what works for you... It creates reality.

ChickenKillerPuppy · April 2021

saynow111 wrote: »

thank you for all these great responses i really appreciate your responses and experiences
you definitely have greater experience and i really need it cause i always fail against my body in losing weight game i dont know why thank you

May I suggest you have failed in the past because, as you indicated in your initial post, you seem to be thinking of losing weight as a "diet" that you just want to get over with so you can be thinner and then go back to enjoying your life. But if you just you go back to your life, I'm guessing your regain the weight, because you are doing the same habits that caused you to be overweight in the first place.

I know this can sound like a bummer, but if your definition of successful weight loss means losing weight and keeping it off, then you have to create a lifestyle that will allow you to maintain your weight - meaning balancing calories in and calories out - basically for the rest of your life. Maintaining weight isn't that different than losing weight, with an additional hundred calories here and there over the week. This doesn't mean you never indulge or go on vacation or eat more than maintenance calories, but it does mean that you need a lifestyle to support your the weight you want to maintain. There is no finish line.

Losing slowly (a) allows you to start to develop and learn the habits that will support you when you lose motivation and excitement and all that (because believe me, motivation will come and go), and (b) allows you to develop habits that you are actually able to maintain, which means eating at a level that is sustainable (not starving yourself). I could lose weight a lot faster if I ate 1300 calories a day, but I would be so miserable I would quit, and they idea is to create a life I like so I won't quit.

Keeping weight off is where the real work is, so I would say don't make any changes you are not willing to stick with for the rest of your life.

briscogun · April 2021

If you were in a car going downhill, would you want to go down a very steep hill really fast and put yourself in a bad situation where you might have trouble putting the breaks on and could be dangerous, or would you rather go down a nice gentle slope that was easy to control and not stress out you or your vehicle?

That's the difference to me.

riffraff2112 · April 2021

Other than the instant gratification of seeing the weight peel off, I can't really think of any other reason why losing weight quickly is desirable. IMO the closer your weight loss path is to maintenance, the better.

joanna_82 · April 2021

I lost 14lbs over a year. Sounds like not very much but has made a huge difference to how I look and feel. Doing it this slowly allowed me to make manageable, lasting changes to my lifestyle. To eat enough, to not be hungry, to fuel my activity and to enjoy food and cooking. I didn’t have a huge amount of weight to lose hence the v slow rate but still. It’s not really been difficult but I’ve seen results. You just have to commit to it and see it for the long term. Good luck.

marcyschlosser · April 2021

My husband and I both had (have) weight to lose. He remembered from years ago how healthy New Zealanders were and the time of day they ate their main meal. We did some research and discovered the "Intermittent Fasting" program. (Has probably been around for eons, but was new to us.) Since Jan. 1, we've been doing the 16/8 program. We eat in an 8 hr. window (8 a.m. - 4 p.m. basically) and fast for 16 hrs. (4 p.m. - 8 a.m.). MFP has been a God-send for me. I religiously weigh and log in everything I eat. We have both lost 20#. This has been the easiest, most fun weight loss program for us. (We've tried MANY things in the past.) At times I'm amazed at the calorie range in MFP library for a certain food. It can be frustrating at times as I'm trying to map out my food/calories for the day. But I do LOVE MFP app!!!! Wishing happy success to you all!!!!

hi can anyone explain to me

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