What Keeps You Motivated?

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RisaLee

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Hi all,


I've started dieting about a month ago and I was really committed to it; no cheating, exercising, drinking a lot of water, no alcohol. Everything went smoothly the first two weeks, but then I stopped losing weight.


Nothing really changed in my diet, I tried working out even more, but still not losing weight anymore, it's really frustrating and my motivation is slowly fading away. I get up on the scale after every meal, I weight myself in the morning, after exercising, before I go to bed, I'm literally obsessing over it and I realize it's not good for me.


If you could please tell me what I'm doing wrong and why I stopped losing weight, since I try to eat less calories that when I first started dieting. Also, has anyone heard of a quantum scale? It's supposed to be a scale that doesn't show you your weight, just records it and tells you your progress from the first day. Anyone used it? I'm thinking it would help me break this unhealthy habit of weighting myself 20 times/day. I'm starting to lose motivation to go on dieting because of it and it also irritates people around me.


Any kind of advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!
 
Just stick with it! I know it's really frustrating. Maybe you aren't exercising as intensely or not eating the right low-calorie foods? I say sign up to an exercise class like cycling or zumba or get a personal trainer for one session to give you more exercise ideas.
 
It's hard to know without more information. Are you tracking your calories? As in, every bite that goes in your mouth? Most likely the problem is that you aren't burning more calories than you are eating, but I hesitate to tell you to eat less without knowing more about you.


If you are willing to share your age, gender, height, weight, weight loss goals, calorie intake and how much you exercise, I'd be able to tell you a little more. Without that, if you eat a lot of sodium (cheese, prepackaged foods, etc) it could be water retention. Or if you are female it could be a time of month thing. I doubt it's a plateau this early in the game.


But, you are right that weighing yourself 20 times a day is not only frustrating, it's unhealthy. Your weight can fluctuate 2 pounds morning to night, it does no good to keep looking at the scale. And it creates a focus on the number on the scale and that's not really a good way to judge your progress. I'd recommend weighing once a week, tops. If you find that hard, put your scale somewhere where it's kind of hard to get to until your weigh day.
 
Hi,


I would agree with the last two posters that a little more info is needed - and definitely stop obsessing over the scale - although do also track results weekly so you know what works and what does not. If I might add another tidbit or two -


- What have you done to harness your internal motivation to change? What's in it for you and why do you want to change? I find an awful lot of people skip this step and it's key to have in place when the going gets tough - which it always does!


- Similarly, it's not rocket science, but numbers do matter. Calories burned must be greater than calories ingested - and the calories that do go in matter. Focus on highly nutritious, whole food as much as possible. Increasing the amount of calories burned through cardio type exercise is the single best way to lose weight (mostly fat!) - along with a measured diet, of course.


- Stop thinking about it as a "diet". This implies that it's temporary and that you are being deprived. The most successful folks realize that gradual change to their lifestyle is required vs. "going on a diet". Also, with the proper changes you should not be hungry, nor feel deprived.


- Last, but not least, make sure you have some sort of accountability. It's huge in sticking with change. Find a workout partner or other coach to help guide you.



Hope that helps a little,


Greg
 
first of all you don't have to start or stop without a permission of your doct. and it's not necessary that you only take care of food and exercise so you lose your weigh, you have to also be carefull about your complete sleep and mental stress.
 
Thank you all for your replies, it means a lot that you took your time to write.

Here's a bit more information about myself: I'm 5'3, my weight is around 160 pounds (it depends on what time of the day I'm weighing myself) and I'm 25 years old. At my height, I should probably weigh around 120 pounds, but I remember when I was that, back in high school, I still looked a bit chubby. Since I wrote here I lost about 1.5 pounds, which isn't great and it's hard to stay motivated when your hard work doesn't pay off. I try to keep my daily calorie intake at around 1600-1700. I also try to do an intense workout 3 times a week (heavy aerobics in the morning and pilates in the evening) and try to do my 50 minutes of cardio daily.


I really appreciate your encouragement and support!
 
Hi,


Just checking back on this. Based on your info I suspect the issue why you may not be making as much progress as you would like is that your calorie consumption may be too high for a woman who is 5'3". Try cutting it 10-20% for a week or two and see if you get better results. You may need to find a few substitutions if you are eating high calorie foods now, although you should not be hungry as there are plenty of food choices that will fill you up at that level of calories.


Greg
 
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