Weight loss and weight management catch-all!

ccesarano wrote:

Nekkid Monday Weigh-In: 302.6

I skipped this Monday because I made a poor choice and had a cheeseburger with a friend close to midnight after the Super Bowl. I couldn't sleep due to excitement and decided it was as good a time as any to celebrate. In the morning I knew it'd screw with my weigh-in and so delayed to this morning.

294.8

....huh...that's....that's a big difference...

I didn't actually weigh myself every-other-day as I had said, so no clue how much my weight is fluctuating day-by-day. However, I might want to now just to get a better read.

As stated, I did screw up Sunday and made an excuse to indulge in something, but otherwise I've been able to maintain portion control, have been appetizer/mozzarella stick free for a month, and am still exercising. The cravings are beginning to subside a bit as well. I'm hoping this means I'm passed the first major hurdle that frequently causes me to trip up, but I'm not free just yet.

Given my frustration/depression/whatever last week, and some of its persistence into this week, I'm beginning to wonder if the weights aren't having the same positive impact they ought to. I'm still not as lethargic as I'd be without it, but the euphoria from exercising is no longer seeming to carry over. Either my body has adjusted to the chemical flow to my brain, or perhaps it is time to up the ante. I noticed this week some of the weights are no longer as much of a struggle, and I can easily do two sets of 15 reps without exhausting too much. I know I don't want to overwork myself, but I think I want to at least up it 10 lbs. on those specific machines.

I've been focusing on upper body as well, seeing as my calves and thighs are already monstrous. However, I decided on Monday to try an abdomen machine which is sort of like a weighted crunch/sit-up, and another two that are supposed to work on glutes (I'm a fat man with no ass, so... I mean... maybe a good idea?). I immediately started to cramp up in my abdomen as I cleaned the machine off (nothing too bad, it went away as quickly as it came on but was still enough to scare me into thinking I did something dumb), and one of the glute machines requires I spread my thighs further apart than I feel physically capable of in order to use it effectively. In regards to the cramp, I figure I just need to look up some abdomen stretches to do. I haven't felt anything yesterday or today like aches in that area, so I'm tempted to give it another try. Just... smarter, this time.

Regardless, I know the exercise isn't going to really contribute to weight loss, but it feels like a crucial step. This is also the first time I've really taken to heart how easy it is to overwrite any caloric burn with a single sandwich. Hell, the 200 calories I burn on the treadmill was already spent on breakfast this morning. However, by having a somewhat active lifestyle I feel.... better. I cannot help but believe exercise is imperative to my weight-loss, even if it's not directly impacting my weight specifically.

On weigh-in strategy, obviously you should go with whatever works for you, but I find it useful to try to weigh myself every morning. That way I get a better sense of how the numbers may fluctuate and what kind of trends I'm seeing and, most importantly for me, it helps me avoid putting all my hopes and fears into one weekly weigh-in. When I've tried to weigh myself less frequently, it can be really demoralizing to think I've done a great job for the week and step on the scale and find little change. I find it less frustrating to see the same number on the scale 7 days in a row than I do to step on the scale a week later and see no change. I can certainly imagine someone else being more annoyed seeing their ups and downs over the week, but I find it reassuring to have more data points so that any one data point matters less.

Well I had a doctor visit yesterday so since they weigh you, I got a new check in. Down 18 pounds since Thanksgiving.

I'm sure progress will be slower the rest of the year. But making so many diet and exercise changes got me a quick start.

Now to stay healthy. 6 days with no soft drinks. I think I might have finally kicked that habit.

My weigh-in this morning was up to 305lb. so honestly I'm on the spectrum of maybe weigh myself once a month. Surely that'll be a more reliable data point.

Spoiler:

I'm only half serious.

Bummer. How old is your scale? Your weight is going to fluctuate from day to day, but a 10 pound difference means at least one of those measurements must've been just way wrong. 2-3 pounds, sure, maybe it's just the time of day, amount of food in your body, way you happened to lean slightly, whatever. If your future weigh-ins become more consistent, maybe it was just a weird aberration, otherwise I'd consider getting a new scale.

I just got it a week or so ago.

I tend to like weighing myself once a week, same time of day, so I'll try for that from now on.

My digital scale can sometimes give pretty different readings, so i usually give it three tries to make sure I'm getting a consistent number.

ccesarano wrote:

My weigh-in this morning was up to 305lb. so honestly I'm on the spectrum of maybe weigh myself once a month. Surely that'll be a more reliable data point.

Spoiler:

I'm only half serious.

If you actually want reliable data, weight daily, first thing in the morning after you get out of bed and use the toilet.

More importantly, plot that data. If your work has you in front of a computer all day, put that spreadsheet on your desktop.

Pros:

  • The trendline will be visually obvious on the plot. Don't just write down the numbers, make a chart.
  • You'll be able to pick the signal out of the noise where a weekly or less often weigh-in won’t. If you’re looking at +/- 5 lb fluctuations on any given day (which based on your last two weigh-ins, doesn’t seem out of the question), then your weekly weigh in’s are going to lose the signal until it becomes large enough to overcome that noise. A daily plot will bounce around a lot, sure, but you'll capture the trendline much sooner, which (a) provides excellent positive feedback, and (b) minimizes the negative feedback of seeing a 10 lb swing week-to-week that is purely an artifact of the noise.

Cons:

  • You have to do something every day
Jonman wrote:

If you actually want reliable data, weight daily, first thing in the morning after you get out of bed and use the toilet.

More importantly, plot that data. If your work has you in front of a computer all day, put that spreadsheet on your desktop.

This. Weighing weekly (or less) is madness to me. Weight fluctuates. A LOT. The chances of any given weigh in being off of a statistical norm are pretty high and if you're only collecting data points infrequently it can take a long time to get enough reliable points to really map a trend. You've seen this with your drastic shifts one week to the next.. chances are neither the high nor the low number are true representations of your weight, but you don't have enough data points to really know where you stand or if you're going up or down.

Weighing in daily and plotting that to produce an actual trend line is a perfect solution to this. Psychologically, ignore the numbers, watch the slope of the line.

Weight loss is all about numbers. If you're not accurately and consistently tracking the data on your food and your body, you're doing little more than guessing and it's hard to make progress that way.

Or just pull out the old Wii with Wii Fit. That thing charts for you and is fairly accurate.

Grr. After losing six pounds over the first two weeks of being very dedicated and healthy, I have made zero progress in the two weeks since, even though I have remained a very healthy eater (and have miraculously continued my no Diet Coke policy!). I'm doing my best to be patient and hope that this little plateau will pass, reminding myself that losing six pounds over four weeks is still not bad, but I am frustrated! It's hard not to feel like this effort is wasted when nothing changes.

I might just do the once-a-month weigh-in. I decided to follow beanman's suggestion and weighed myself thrice, getting 301.4, 304.4, and 299. I'm going with 302 as a middle-point for now, but I feel like if I weigh daily, and maybe even weekly, I'll become obsessed with numbers as progress and given how slowly the numbers move I'll find myself let down because I'm an impatient mother f*cker. Weighing myself once-a-month could introduce factors of rationalizing "cheats" or "treats" because it's "just one day", but if I'm focusing more on establishing habits and developing a willpower day-to-day regardless of progress then that might not matter too much anyway.

If the goal is "lose weight no matter how long it takes", then daily weigh-ins put pressure on returns.

I dunno. I feel like there's no clear way to communicate it, but rarely weighing myself might just make it easier.

Speaking of easier, going to the gym has not been a fight for a while, even on days where I'm feeling depressed and grouchy. Perhaps more surprising is I honestly think I like going alone better than with my friend, on whom I relied on to keep me going. So at the very least I enjoy going because it's a time I can be by myself with my thoughts. After all, no one at the gym is interested in pestering me. So it acts as a positive escape.

ccesarano wrote:

I might just do the once-a-month weigh-in. I decided to follow beanman's suggestion and weighed myself thrice, getting 301.4, 304.4, and 299. I'm going with 302 as a middle-point for now, but I feel like if I weigh daily, and maybe even weekly, I'll become obsessed with numbers as progress and given how slowly the numbers move I'll find myself let down because I'm an impatient mother f*cker. Weighing myself once-a-month could introduce factors of rationalizing "cheats" or "treats" because it's "just one day", but if I'm focusing more on establishing habits and developing a willpower day-to-day regardless of progress then that might not matter too much anyway.

If the goal is "lose weight no matter how long it takes", then daily weigh-ins put pressure on returns.

I dunno. I feel like there's no clear way to communicate it, but rarely weighing myself might just make it easier.

Well weight loss is personal and not every approach works for everyone, so if you can indeed make that work my hat's off to you.

But consider how it will feel to go a month where you feel you've done well, and then step on the scale to find out you're a few lbs heavier and because your feedback is spaced so far apart you've several weeks of no progress when you could have been making adjustments.

mrlogical wrote:

Grr. After losing six pounds over the first two weeks of being very dedicated and healthy, I have made zero progress in the two weeks since, even though I have remained a very healthy eater (and have miraculously continued my no Diet Coke policy!). I'm doing my best to be patient and hope that this little plateau will pass, reminding myself that losing six pounds over four weeks is still not bad, but I am frustrated! It's hard not to feel like this effort is wasted when nothing changes.

Plateaus are pretty common. If your diet and caloric intake is on point I would expect that one day soon you'll equalize a bit and a fairly large and fairly rapid drop. 2 weeks is a bit long though... triple check your diet and make sure you haven't had anything extra sneak back in and maybe try dropping your intake slightly for a few days and see if that spurs anything.

*Well, time to get back in here...

Starting weight: 430.0
Current Weight: 349.5
Weekly Change: - 1.5
Overall Change: - 80.5

I have been losing a great deal of weight, and I have been eating better. I need to get back to the gym, but I have been trying to be more active in my everyday life.

*All weights in lbs, because 'Murica!

ccesarano wrote:

Speaking of easier, going to the gym has not been a fight for a while, even on days where I'm feeling depressed and grouchy. Perhaps more surprising is I honestly think I like going alone better than with my friend, on whom I relied on to keep me going. So at the very least I enjoy going because it's a time I can be by myself with my thoughts. After all, no one at the gym is interested in pestering me. So it acts as a positive escape.

Mostly the same here. My workout partner quit going with me last week. We both still go just not together. Not sure what happened there, but I'm still going and now that I've started the habit I enjoy it.

I’m looking for some new breakfast ideas. I like where I’m at, calorie- and nutrient-wise, but I’d like to add some variety.

My current routine is: coffee, English muffin with peanut butter, and 3 hard-boiled eggs.

Side note: I’m not going keto, but I do try to keep my carbs on the low end, and my protein on the high end, if possible.

Thanks, in advance—

I don't come into the "Everything Else" forum very often, but when I do I like to read this thread. There have been a lot of you that have made great progress - some by losing weight, some establishing and sticking with healthier habits, and some both. Congrats!

It's been a while since I posted. I had my yearly physical coming up and was starting to get nervous because last year my fasting blood sugar went over 100 for the first time. The vast majority of the time since then I've eaten way too many sweets, chips, etc... Almost all of my meals are healthy - whole grains, fruit, vegetables, proteins but I overindulge with sweets. It isn't unusual for me to eat 3 donuts, eat 16 servings of Lindt truffles over the span of 2-3 days, etc... Over the past year I've fluctuated between being about 25-42 pounds overweight.

Well about a week ago I decided to cut the garbage out. I can have a normal (moderate) serving of a treat each day instead of the 3-5 I've probably been averaging. I've only had 1 normal serving size of chips, which I may let myself do 1-2 times a week.

I've also been walking much more. I started having edema last year from sitting and standing in the same position for too long, so now every hour or so I get up and walk for 5-15 minutes very briskly. I also try to get a more intense cardio workout in 3-5 times a week (which I haven't done for 3 weeks since I pulled my back). I'm also drinking more water.

Well, a week from Monday I weighed 214 (I usually weigh myself each morning first thing). I didn't for a couple days and was 210. I thought, cool I'm probably carrying less food in my system since I'm eating less, maybe lost some water weight from less salt. Since then, I've been losing about a pound a day and was 205.6 pounds this morning. This is the lowest I've weighed in 6-10 years.

My edema has also been better. My guess is that by cutting out salt and sugar my body is retaining less water, and therefor I have less edema. I read that excess insulin in the blood from eating too much sugar causes more sodium to be retained, which causes more water retention. Still, I was concerned by dropping 9 pounds in just over a week without sweating out a ton of water.

I had my physical yesterday and got the results of my blood test. My doctor had added some tests because he was somewhat concerned with the rapid weight loss and a couple other symptoms I've had during the past year. Luckily they all came back normal and my blood sugar was the lowest it has been in 8 years at 93. Since that is supposed to represent the 90 average, I'm hoping that if I stick with this I can drop it down more. In addition to cutting out sweets, I'm trying to be more aware of which "normal" foods have too much sugar and salt in them.

Sorry for the long post, but I was pretty excited not to be moving towards diabetes. I've been worried about that. I feel excited and motivated to stick with my change in eating habits and hope it lasts this time. I haven't seen the less than 200 pound mark in over 10 years for sure and now I'm so close.

Good job robc!

Great job. I've been doing the Real Appeal program through my company and it helps with accountability which is always a big part of losing weight. Down 13 lbs since the start of the year.

ALSO, doing fitbit workweek challenges with other GWJers has been pretty awesome. The last few weeks I have been pushing past my typical 10k daily goal to maybe get a bit closer to being #1. Obviously, no one is pressuring me to get that number one spot but I'll take an extra lap during my work day to get a bit closer!

Last week was a bit weird because I was traveling and didn't weigh in. The week prior my in-laws were in town, so there was a lot more eating it than I prefer.

Still, over the past two weeks, I've lost 1.4 pounds.

Because of the travel, I was also a week behind on the weight loss program from work. I started that last night. There are some parts of it I'm not buying. Some feels like either pseudo-science or (hopefully) dumbing it down like you see in elementary school.

The premise seems solid. At the end of the day, it's techniques and tactics to support portion control. I'm going to do my best to adhere to the program and see where it takes me.

Thanks Stele and karmajay!

karmajay, nice job on that 13 pounds! It feels so good when we get to measure the progress. Even when we don't we all need to remember that eating healthy and being active is still a good move, regardless of what the scale says. I have a Polar MH400 to track my activity, so I can't do fitbit challenges. I used to have one, and then it died after about a year. I like the MH400 for the GPS to track my outdoor runs (when it is warmer outside).

Using MyFitnessPay also will get the activity from the MH400 too (like I think it does with Fitbit), so that is also a plus. Fitbit sure had a nice site though and I liked the fact you could go back and say, "that acitivty was from driving on a bumpy road, not me moving".

I'm looking to get back in the swing of weighing-in and logging my food in MyFP. Please add me "h0rnguy" with a zero, if you'd like a weigh-in buddy!

I let myself indulge with the family yesterday for Valentines Day - too much cheese fonue with Canadien bacon, naan bread, apples. Then I had several cupcakes. I felt a little guilty, but then I though:
1- It's better than I would have done before.
2- As long as 98% of my days are like what I have been doing, then celebrating with the family and indulging on stuff won't set me back.

I had over 4000mg of sodium and double the sugar I should of had, but with my exercise I only ate 370 more than my goal (which is a 500 calorie deficit) so all in all not that bad. I expected to have been a couple pounds heavier this morning due to some water retention (I drank a lot of it) from the salt, but I was less than a pound heavier. I guess it may need to shake out over a couple days.

So, I just wanted to post this to say if there is an exception and you eat worse than you should have, don't beat yourself up. Don't use it as an excuse to eat bad for multiple days. Shake it off, exercise and eat well.

MrMetonymy wrote:

I’m looking for some new breakfast ideas. I like where I’m at, calorie- and nutrient-wise, but I’d like to add some variety.

My current routine is: coffee, English muffin with peanut butter, and 3 hard-boiled eggs.

Side note: I’m not going keto, but I do try to keep my carbs on the low end, and my protein on the high end, if possible.

Thanks, in advance—

I enjoy fruit breakfast protein shakes. basically frozen fruit, powder as you like, almond or other milk/water substitute. Add PB if you want, flax, and or oats if you want a thicker heartier breakfast.

Starting weight: 430.0
Current Weight: 349.0
Weekly Change: - 0.5
Overall Change: - 81.0

*All weights in lbs, because 'Murica!

I don't know how I lost a half pound. It was a bad week, with multiple trips to McDonalds, a rich Valentine's day dinner, and I ate about half of a red velvet cake that I baked for my wife. But I will take it, as there are plenty of weeks where I did good and gained weight.

This weeks challenges:

1) Getting back on the wagon: Like I said, last week was bad, and I need to do better this week.
2) Black Panther: I am going to see it this week, and I need to avoid the popcorn, soda, and candy at the theatre.

81 pounds is awesome!

Maybe eat a healthy meal just before going to the theater so the popcorn isn't as tempting?

Yeah we went out for a light lunch before Black Panther on Sunday.

I had a half bag of Skittles during the movie. So not a total win, but not bad.

So far this weight loss program through work is going well.

It's been pretty easy to follow. I haven't felt hungry (except right before I eat, which is the intent... Eat when you're hungry, don't when you're not).

I'm not eating breakfast because once I've had some coffee and some water, I'm not actually hungry in the morning. It's usually 3-4 hours after I wake up that I actually get hungry.

By far the hardest part is syncing up with others' schedules (particularly my wife). I'm not eating based on clock time or perceived meal times, but based on cues from my body. Which is tough when your significant other wants to eat a meal, or has prepared a meal. Fortunately, it's worked out fairly well so far.

I'm down almost 2 pounds this week and over 5 since I started the program.

I'm down 7 in the 7 weeks this year for a... carry the 1... 1 pound per week average. At this rate, I'll hit my goal of 195 (100 pounds... Probably closer to 120, but I didn't start tracking at my all-time high) in mid October and would break the 200 barrier in mid September.

I realized this week I seem more akin to a recovering alcoholic instead of someone who likes to eat too much. I bought some of the GH Cretors Cheese and Carmel Popcorn because I had been doing so well about not eating garbage and I hadn't had it in a long time. I figured I could limit myself to no more than a serving of it a day as a treat. I was wrong. 3 days later and the bag is done, and it was a Sam's Club sized bag.

Lesson learned. Don't even bring it into the house because I'm not ready to manage it yet. Maybe I never will be.

I made sure I burned over 1000 calories today exercising to help make up for it, but I still ate 1100 calories over my net goal.

I'm coming to a similar realization. We got some Valentine's Day chocolate, and rather than stretching it out over a week like I intended, it was devoured in 3 days. We were given a big tin of caramel chocolate popcorn for Thanksgiving, and it barely lasted a week. I can't yet resist the call of sweets when they're just sitting in my pantry.