Desperately Need Some Help

K

Kat771

New member
Hello all! I'm new to this forum and nice to 'meet' you all. I desperately need some help/advice/tips regarding weight loss.

I'm 5'1 and currently 12st1 - which is really bad! Body fat: 42%.
Over the last 6-8 weeks, I've been trying to lose weight. This is everything I've been doing:
  • Monitored portion sizes
  • Stopped eating chocolate & crisps (which I used to do almost daily)
  • Added more protein and cut down on sugar & carbs
  • Added regular exercise - combo of cardio, yoga and strength
  • Using My Fitness Pal to keep a record of food and exercise
  • Added a lot more fresh fruit & veg to my diet
  • Cut out all fizzy & energy drinks and replaced with water
  • Haven't drank any alcohol in this time
Every day, I am in a calorie deficit with never going above 1200. In the last 6 weeks, I've only lost about 4lbs and I've lost nothing in the last week. Not even a single ounce. My body fat % has decreased but it's getting so frustrating and depressing not losing any weight when I'm trying so hard.

If anyone has any advice, info or help to offer I'd really appreciate it. :)
 
Hi Kat and welcome to the forum! Sounds like you made some awesome strides toward being healthier in the past 6 weeks. If you're in a caloric deficit (which you are) and the scale refuses to budge you're usually retaining water. Be it due to eating more fiber, doing unaccustomed exercise, hormones, high-sodium food, drinking more diet soda, lack of sleep, or hot weather, water is heavy and it can really mess with the scale. Have you been weighing yourself under the same conditions every time? Time of day, state of dress, and relative fullness of your bladder and bowels can add up to several pounds of difference within a day. I say if your bodyfat percentage is going down you must be doing something right.
 
Welcome to the forum.

You are doing really well and have made some excellent changes. If your body fat is going down - that is really all that matters...

Your body fat dictates how you look... Remember - no-one goes around with their weight tattooed on their forehead... The only person that knows what you weigh is you (or people you mention it to here). You don't really need to care what number is on the scales - if everyone thinks that you have a healthy shape.

You do not mention your age - but is it possible that it is about the time of your period - as that causes water retention and a gain in pounds on the scale?

As Maria said - monitoring your sodium intake and ensuring that you are not having too much could help too.
 
I also suggest that you start a diary and visit other people in their diaries - cheer them on and see what they are doing in the hope that they will visit your diary and cheer you on. (They need support too!) Check out challenges and clubs - and maybe join one or two - I have always found that they can be a good way of staying on track.
 
Hey Kat, welcome!! You are off to a very impressive start with your diet and exercise, very impressive. Weight loss is just one metric, and not one that is always a dependable measure in the short run. Too many other variables can effect weight, water is a big one. What matters is that you are losing fat, do that and in the long run the weight will come off, it has to.

I weigh quite often, usually several times a day,, and it has taught me a lot about short term fluctuations. For my "official" weight I use as kind of 3 day rolling average, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I only use my weight first thing out of bed in the morning in bedclothes and shoes or slippers. Doing that has helped keep some of the ups and downs out, but not all.

As Margaret says starting a diary would be a good thing, I suggest you look at the page https://weight-loss.fitness.com/forums/weight-loss-diary.9/ and give it some thought.

Best of luck to you!
 
it is very common to see little to no weight loss in the first few weeks of an extreme diet change.
weight can also fluctuate up to 4-5 lbs within a day; reminder... a pint of water weighs 1 lb.

i intermittent fast, and while that is another type of dieting, it also has some inherent qualities that could benefit any diet. that is, to give your digestive system a rest occasionally. a minimal intermittent fast is about 14-16 hours of fasting over a 24 hour period, but on a daily basis if you can go even 12 hours without ingesting any calories, it will help any diet. what this interval does is drop your insulin level to a point where you body can burn fat. exercise also does this, but through a slightly different bio-mechanism.

probably the easiest way to do this is to work those hours around the time you sleep. as i always used to eat a late breakfast, my personal challenge was to roll back late night snacking. if you can quit eating at 8pm (or earlier) and not eat breakfast until at least 8am... there you go, that's 12+ hours right there.
 
Hi, Kat. As you can see there are helpful folk here. Come join us in the diary section as Rob suggests. Let your diary be whatever you want it to be. I love the support I get in mine.
 
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