The Week 1 weigh-in

[Anonymous]

A week ago (more like 8-9 days), I started counting and limiting calories. I'm getting between 1100-1200 calories a day, and being pretty strict and honest about it. For me, this meant pretty severe portion control, cutting out (cold turkey) 2+ sodas a day, and cutting back my wine consumption by more than half. I'm doing fine with it, don't feel too hungry or deprived, but I definitely feel that I have made a BIG change.

In addition, I've increased my exercise from walking two miles a day to walking five miles a day. Every day.

And today, on day 8 (or 9) of this regime, I stepped on the scale for the first time. NO CHANGE. Not an ounce.

What gives? Words of encouragement?

[Anonymous]

It's just a number. My weight fluctuates throughout the day and the week. What I weigh at 9:30 at night will be very different than what I weigh tomorrow morning.

We have no idea what time you weighed yourself before and after. How much weight do you need to lose--7lbs or 70lbs? Did you just eat? Have salty food in the last few days?

Keep up with the good eating and exercise. Write down your number with the day and time. Weigh yourself again at the same time and day in a week. Be patient.

[Anonymous]

I weigh 145. I want to lose at least 10 pounds, or if it's easy, as much as 20 pounds. Definitely no more. A woman needs a little flesh on her bones.

[Anonymous]

Ditch the wine completely.

I would never do that, of course. I'd rather be fat. But ditching the wine will get you going.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I weigh 145. I want to lose at least 10 pounds, or if it's easy, as much as 20 pounds. Definitely no more. A woman needs a little flesh on her bones.

And your height?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I weigh 145. I want to lose at least 10 pounds, or if it's easy, as much as 20 pounds. Definitely no more. A woman needs a little flesh on her bones.

And your height?

5'6.75"... in the morning.

Yeah, I'm 5'6".

[Anonymous]

For me I don't lose weight unless I cut out the carbs. Cutting calories alone just doesn't do it. Or it may, but last year when I did what you were doing it took 6 months to lose 4 lbs. Would rather cut the carbs and lose faster.

[Anonymous]

I'd give yourself at least a few weeks before drawing any conclusions. I could stand to lose about ten pounds. I've been focusing on eating a bit better and have ramped up my exercise in the past three weeks (I'm training for a race). The first week, the scale showed I actually gained weight. Last week, I was about where I started. This morning, I was down 3 pounds. I think you need to take the long view on these things. My weight fluctuates a lot just based on how hydrated I am, how close I am to my period, etc. When I'm treating my body well, I try to feel good about that in it's own right - I have more energy, feel stronger, etc. Ultimately focusing on that will help you stay on track and provide more inspiration than evaluating progress by numbers on the scale.

[Anonymous]

See if you can figure out your metabolic rate on a website or something. If you are walking 5 miles a day that is probably about 500 calories burned. There are 3500 calories in a pound so you can lose a pound a week if you eat rest of your calories equal to metabolic rate. A lot of people have trouble if they eat too little, as their metabolism slows way down. A typical metabolic rate for a woman of 145 lbs seems to be about 1400 calories, so if you are getting 1100 calories and burning 1900 or more, that could be happening. I use myfitnesspal.com and think it has been working for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:See if you can figure out your metabolic rate on a website or something. If you are walking 5 miles a day that is probably about 500 calories burned. There are 3500 calories in a pound so you can lose a pound a week if you eat rest of your calories equal to metabolic rate. A lot of people have trouble if they eat too little, as their metabolism slows way down. A typical metabolic rate for a woman of 145 lbs seems to be about 1400 calories, so if you are getting 1100 calories and burning 1900 or more, that could be happening. I use myfitnesspal.com and think it has been working for me.

OP, pay no attention to this drivel. Keep doing what you're doing, maybe even cut your calories back more, or (egads!) drop the wine completely. You WILL lose the weight!

[Anonymous]

OP, I tend to lose weight in small increments. The scale will annoyingly be stuck at one number for several days/a week and then all of the sudden drop 2-3 pounds. Don't know why but these seems to be the way either my body or scale works! It's hard to not get discouraged but keep at it!

[Anonymous]

I feel your pain. Everytime I've gotten back into counting calories and working out, I'm slow to get going. I don't do weigh-ins too regulary b/c it's not helpful with the motivation. I find it normally takes a month for my clothes to start fitting better. Then it's more steady progress. You will make progress - just stick with it! You may want to add resistance/weight lifting to your routine.

[Anonymous]

This is counter to what most people say but I find a daily weigh-in (right before my shower) is the best for me.

For example, over a 2 week period it may look like this:

3/1 -153.4
3/2 - 153.4
3/3 - 151.0
3/4 - 151.2
3/5 - 151.0
3/6 - 153.0
3/7 - 151.5
3/8 - 153.2
3/9 - 151.0
3/10 - 152.5
3/11 - 152.0
3/12 - 151.8
3/13 - 151.6
3/14 - 152.2

based on all of this, I would conclude I've dropped about 1.5 pounds over the 2 weeks. But if you just isolated weekly weigh in-dates it can be misleading.

Keep at it! I sometimes find myself motivated to keep eating healthy and working out even when I don't see changes on the scale by telling myself what I'm doing is only helping -- it would be worse without the working out!