Anxiety over seeing results
Yoyo_mama
Posts: 2 Member
Hi all, I've recently started up on MFP. I used to use it a good 8 years ago. Today is the year I want to get comfortable in my own skin, but I'm impatient. I have a goal of 1293 cals and I aim to go the gym just a couple of times a week. I want to lose at least a stone but aiming for stone and a half. I get obsessive over how quickly I'll start getting changes and weight loss. I just want some encouragement or stories that reassure me that it will happen and it will work.
Thanks to all 🙏🏻
Thanks to all 🙏🏻
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Replies
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If you stick to it, you will see results. It will work. But you need to be patient. You didn't magically start carrying around an extra stone (+) overnight, so it's not gonna come off overnight either. Trust the process.2
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If a stone is 14 pounds then you don’t have a lot to lose. Set MFP so that you lose at a rate of 0.5 % to no more than 1.0% of your bodyweight each week. This may be slow but will avoid cutting your calories too low and make adherence easier. Also the less you have to lose the slower it will come off so don’t get impatient. We want to lose and maintain weight loss not drop quickly and bounce back up cuz we are too hungry. The slower loss will give you more opportunities to practice and perfect healthy sustainable eating habits for maintenance.
Wishing you success on your health and fitness journey.2 -
What Banx said. Also, if a stone or stone and a half is all you have to lose, you don't want to be losing 2 pounds a week. Losing fast creates extra health risks, among other reasons. Half a pound a week would be a good goal, with only a stone to lose, maybe a pound at a stone and a half, depending on your overall size.
And yes, it'll take time to show up on the scale. It'll play peek-a-boo on the scale with routine daily shifts in water retention and digestive contents on their way to becoming waste. Expect that, plan for that. Don't let it freak you out.
Are you a premenopausal woman? Some in that category only see a new low weight once a month because of larger-than-average hormonal water weight fluctuations, and those happen at different times for different women, so they're hard to predict until you have a personal track record.
But if you set a reasonable calorie target, log accurately, and stick to it, the process will work.
Here's a maybe-reassuring story: I've been in maintenance for 6+ years at a healthy weight, but had let my weight creep up 10-15 pounds within the healthy range over about 4 years, such that my jeans were getting snug. Can't have that: I hate to shop!
I have a good handle on my calorie needs and logging practices, but I didn't have much enthusiasm for a big calorie deficit . . . but I wanted to drop those vanity pounds, no need to do it instantly. I set my loss rate for half a pound a week, but would still put in some over-goal days very occasionally.
Sometimes even my weight trending app thought I wasn't losing fat. I was pretty sure I was, just slowly.
I was right. Here I am, months later, down that 10-15 pounds, completely painlessly.
I'm not saying that you should lose that slowly (it was maybe a pound a month or a little faster!). What I'm saying was that even going that slowly, even when the weight trend app - let alone daily scale weights - suggested otherwise, I was truly losing fat slowly, because I believe in the process and I know how to do it. It works.
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The scale can by a lying liar that lies, especially over periods less than a month, even if losing fat at a meaningful rate. If premenopausal, you want to compare bodyweights at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles, for sure. Even then, a day with more salt than usual will cause a scale jump from water retention, so will a head cold or minor injury, etc.
As an aside, 1293 calories seems really low, unless you're quite petite. Even as a mid-sized woman (5'5", mid-120s pounds, i.e., around 9 stone +/-), age 66, not active outside of exercise, I'd lose pretty darned fast at 1293 calories plus all my exercise calories - too fast. I admit, I'm a mysteriously good li'l ol' calorie burner, but that's a low calorie level for a lot of women (not all).
You might consider getting a weight trending app, if you don't already use one. It's not a crystal ball or magical, it just uses statistics to try to smooth out random changes in weight and guesstimate where your body weight is heading. Some people find them helpful or reassuring. There are several free options, such as Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (you don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others.
You can do this. It will work. Patience and consistency.5 -
I understand your impatience. I was new to MFP this last year and had a stone to lose. I hadn’t calorie counted in 40+ years so it was all pretty new to me.
As soon as I started, all I could think about was food ha ha! However I became a mindful eater and I lost my stone in 3 months. I logged my food, tried not to eat back exercise calories, and it worked! I am pretty sedentary but I took up doing regular walks which I still do.
I weighed daily and that worked for me. Sometimes the weight goes up but you just have to trust in the process and I have a wiggly graph to show it works.
Now, 4 months on from reaching my goal, I am maintaining without logging my food. I do keep an eye on my weight and weigh most days.
I had a 3 week holiday where I gained back some weight. I started to log again but lost impetus as it was dropping off anyway and I’m now back to my goal range.
Good luck on your journey. I found these forums really helpful and particularly from some of the experienced members like Ann above (thank you @AnnPT77 !)4 -
I would suggest focusing on the process and not so much the results. I know, easier said than done The idea is to lose weight AND create habits that will allow you to keep the weight off once you reach your goal. Focusing on the results increases the risk you'll make temporary changes to lose the weight and then 'go back to normal' afterwards and regain the weight you lost.
I focused on logging everything I ate, staying (just) under my calorie goal most of the time and being more active (increasing my step count) and later on exercising and improving my fitness.
I weighed (and still weigh) daily to keep my head in the game and I log my weight in Libra to keep an eye on the trend.
1293 calories sounds very low, I wouldn't be able to do that. Personally, I prefer choosing a slower rate of loss and not going hungry: I lost 70+lbs eating 1700 calories or more.1 -
Guys these responses are amazing and exactly what I was looking for. The advice on more calories initially is beneficial for me because I love food and I'm a hungry person generally 😂
You've encouraged me to take it slow and not be in such a rush as it will be better overall. Thank you all for your wonderful advice and stories 🙏🏻 😊13 -
It will definitely work, but like everyone else has said, I encourage a slow approach! I was on here years ago as well, and lost like 40 pounds in a few months. But guess what, it was not sustainable and all came back. Over the last year, I very slowly lost 19 pounds in a sustainable way and have settled into healthier routines. Taking pictures and measurements is such a good way to be able to see your progress, especially when it’s slow. Best wishes to you!!1
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What is your plan for when you have a bad day or a bad week?
Even with a slow rate of loss (which seems sensible) just water weight fluctuations may set off your anxiety that "It's not working!".
If you don't have one (and bearing in mind your profile name) I'd strongly suggest making that plan now while you are feeling enthusiastic and keen.
If your fallback position when things get difficult could be weight maintenance you can avoid the yoyo effect and consolidate progress made to that point. A weightloss diet doesn't have to linear and the expectation that it will be, or needs to be, can be part of the stress of dieting.
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Show and steady wins the race!!0
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Eat less and move more. That's always the quick sound advice on weight loss . But no one ever adds another crucial element and that is "time." It takes time for the body to shed weight.. adjust.. change.. and get fit. You can't fast track that. Put your anxiety and need to see fast results aside.. it is just a way you could end up sabotaging yourself because things didn't happen as fast was you wished or dreamed. Give it time..and it will happen if you eat less and move more.1
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