az81 - weekly weigh in

[az81]

Not exactly the result I was hoping for, but I suppose it's something. As you can see, while I didn't go overboard on my calorie intake, it was more than the previous week.

[admin]

Slow and steady wins the race!
Much better than putting on 1.8kg....as long as the direction is down and not up it is all good.
Keep up the good work.
Cheers
Sharrelle

[az81]

I guess so - I just thought that considering I lost over 4 kg in my first week, that I would lose close to that again this week.

Like I said though, my calorie intake was higher this week, even though it didn't go over the limit. I just need to remember to try to keep it a little lower for better results.

[Tams]

Ah-ha! This is what Blitz was talking about...its not all about numbers. And quite common for the body to slow down after a good loss - some people even have a bounce up in the course of things. Just remember this is the start of long-term knowledge as you start to understand your body's trends - and it's the long term trend that matters

[Blitz]

You can bend yourself out of shape chasing a number.
Sometimes the body isn't in the mood to surrender it even though you've busted a gut trying to get it.

That first weekly number you get is a special case anyway and try to repeat it straight up is a hiding to nowhere.
The first week's number is largely made up of fluid.
Before your body goes to your fat reserves it will go to it's "on call" energy reserve which is largely stored in fluid.
Once used up this fluid is expelled. In weight loss this looks impressive but it is not a very solid number.
Unfortunately the diet industry use this quirk to sell many quick fix diets.
The "Lose 10 pounds in 14 days" type of stuff sells well but isn't helpful in the long term.

My first week weigh in number was 2.5kg.
I naively thought that would be the normal sort of result and tote the sums up and figured that I would be finished in 8 months.
I was only six months out!
That first week I did no exercise and only reduced my food intake by about half.
Into my second week I quickly discovered that my daily figures weren't keeping pace with the first week's.
In desperation I concluded that I had to introduce exercise into the weight loss equation.
Even so, my second week only yielded 1.3kg result.
Third week; the exercise kicked in with a 3.4kg weigh in. This was the best weekly figure I ever produced during my journey.
Notice the fluctuating numbers for weeks four to twelve: 2kg; 1.6kg; 1.5kg; 2.9kg; 1.9kg; 3kg; 2kg; 3.1kg; 1.9kg
It may seem like a snails pace but in the twelve weeks it added up to a 27.1kg loss. So progress was being made.

I could never exercise very hard because of my stomach hernia. No weight lifting, press ups, sit ups and the like were possible for me.
All of my exercise was leg based activity. Nevertheless, fitness improved and yet even with increased exercise my progress slowed.
The simple truth of the matter is that big people lose big amounts.
As you get thinner and move closer to the pointy end of your journey it gets a great deal harder to lose weight.
Every gram you lose is fought hard for.
You may turn up your nose at this week's result but there will be a time when you will get half that figure and you'll be over the moon.

You have two excellent week under your belt. Don't kill yourself on them...celebrate the achievement.
During my journey I would target weight numbers ending with 0's or 5's to help me strive forward.
Do you realise that you have now hit one of those sorts of numbers (145kg)?
Congratulations!

Keep it steady and realistic and you'll get there before you know it!

Kim

[az81]

This weeks weigh in has yielded a similar result to last week - an almost identical loss.

After a big initial loss, I believe I have plateaued and will continue along this path until I reach my goal - it will take quite a while, though!

[Blitz]

This weeks weigh in has yielded a similar result to last week - an almost identical loss.

After a big initial loss, I believe I have plateaued and will continue along this path until I reach my goal - it will take quite a while, though!

This is a good result and certainly couldn't be described as a plateau.
A plateau is when you lose nothing (or gain/lose a few grams).
After a very big loss like your first week, it isn't surprising that the body is taking two weeks to swing back.
In any case - anything over one kilo is a very good result.

I know that you are eager to lose weight as quickly as you can but if you attempt to lose it too quickly you will kneecap your chances of long term success. I lost weight quicker than most; having lost 87kg in 60 weeks. That works out about 1.4kg per week.
When people worried about the rate I was losing I would tell them that I was in a bit of a hurry since I was so old.
The truth of the matter is that I had planned to lose it much quicker than I did (a little less than 36 weeks) but my body had other ideas!
I once did a graph to see how I was travelling on my average weekly rate. It was a steady declining line.
At my peek I was losing 10 kilos a month but my last two months were spent trying to shift the last 5 kilos of stubborn fat (thus killing my weekly average rate).

Your weekly numbers are far better than anything I was able to do when I was at your weight.
This is what I did:
start: 153.7kg
1st week: 151.2kg
2nd week: 149.9kg
3rd week: 146.5kg
4th week: 144.5kg
5th week: 142.9kg
As you can see; what took you 3 weeks took me nearly 4 weeks to achieve.
My weeks included my biggest loss during my journey (3.4kg in the 3rd week)...so you can see how really well you are going!

Enjoy the results while you can. Make hay while the sun shines because there will come a time at the pointy end of the journey where it really does get hard to shift a gram or two. Those last weeks are the character building weeks!

Kim

[az81]

Another 1.5 kg down, 42 to go!

[Blitz]

Excellent result again!
You've done 9 kilos in 4 weeks...very good work.

I like the way you rattled off "Another 1.5kg down, 42 to go!" It reminded me of myself when I was losing weight.
People would ask me how much I had lost and I would reply (for example); "I've lost 45kg but I've got 42kg to go!"
Proud of what I had achieved but still very conscious of what the task at hand was.

Keep up your efforts and success will be yours - before you know it!

Kim

[az81]

I like the way you rattled off "Another 1.5kg down, 42 to go!" It reminded me of myself when I was losing weight.
People would ask me how much I had lost and I would reply (for example); "I've lost 45kg but I've got 42kg to go!"
Proud of what I had achieved but still very conscious of what the task at hand was.

I'm not even really focusing on how much I've lost anymore, I prefer to look at what I've got left and work on getting it down to zero!

[Blitz]

I'm not even really focusing on how much I've lost anymore, I prefer to look at what I've got left and work on getting it down to zero!

Fair enough!
But I liked to use all the numbers I can to motivate me forward.
Whilst my ultimate goal was always to lose 87 kilos - I used short term goals to drive me onwards.
For example, I would use the fact of losing 9 kilos as a marker to make it an even 10 kilos in the days to come.
I always tried to have some sort of goal that I could reach within the next day or three.
To that end I would try to figure out 'meaningful' numbers to aim for.
I would convert my weight to pounds (ie 150 lbs lost which meant weighing in at 85.7kg ), factions (ie one third lost which worked out to be 29kg), percentages (ie 50% which meant weighing in at 76.85kg) and try for 5 and 10 kilos markers.
I would use both numbers lost and 'to go' in order to find a number one or two kilos close enough for me to shoot for.

Kim

[az81]

100 grams shy of the same result from the past 2 weeks - and those 100 grams will drive me mad!

[Blitz]

100 grams shy of the same result from the past 2 weeks - and those 100 grams will drive me mad!

That's the way it always is. Like Stanley in "On the Waterfront"..."I could have been a contender!"
We always feel that greatest has just slipped from our finger tips.
It's okay to feel this way. It is a great motivator in pressing our next week's weigh in.
But what you have to watch out for is making sure that regret doesn't kneecap that motivation.
We must always remember that like Scarlet O'Hara in "Gone With the Wind" that there's "always a tomorrow".

You posted another good result. Excellent job - keep it up!

Kim

[az81]

I was disappointed last week that I'd only lost 1.4kg, as opposed to the 1.5kg (3kg combined) I'd lost over the previous 2 weeks. The slight OCD tendencies in me hated seeing a loss of pattern - 1.5, 1.5, 1.4...it bugged me!

Not only that, I knew I could round it up if I worked a little harder. So for this past week, I set out to work a little harder in order to lose 1.6kg to even things out. Well, it seems that I have succeeded beyond my wildest dreams...

[az81]

Back to another smaller loss this week, still more than the recommended weekly rate, though.

Next week should be an interesting weigh in, I recently partook in a night of indulgence with my partner that featured a buffet breakfast and dinner. I decided that I had earned a reward after losing 15 kg in 7 weeks, so ate more than I probably should and didn't count any calories. Try as I might, however, I don't feel guilty. Probably because I now know that I can do what's necessary to lose the weight.

Either way, I have no regrets