Slow weight lost. Please share your experience.

I started CC 2.5 months ago and so far I only lost about 5 pounds. Currently I weigh 149lbs and my height is 5 foot 6. I only do a mental count of my calorie intake and I do 3-4 times a week exercise (aerobics, running) for an hour each time. I do watch what I eat but am not that strict or diligent. I would like to be 130lbs but not in a hurry at all. Anyone similar and if so, how much did you lose and how long did it take you?

Hi Merlinawang! I'm loosing slowly too. I started CC in Jan @ 155 and now I am 139 so 16 pounds in 6 months (I'm 5'4). I usually do really good for a month or so then maintain for a bit, then get back on track and loose some more.  Right now I am on "loosing mode" till my brother's wedding in Aug, then I will probably maintain for a bit before I re-start loosing. My goal is 125 by the end of the year. I work out 30-60 min 5-6x a week doing a combination of cardio/weights and yoga. When I am on "loosing mode" I eat 1200-1400 cal a day. When I'm maintaining I don't really watch what I eat but I continue my work outs.

I started well over 2 yrs ago and have lost 65 lbs so far, so about 28 months = a bit over 2 lbs per month.

I don't see a reason to go at weight loss half-heartedly, I personally just spent a lot of time plateauing and experimenting to get around those plateaus. I'm extremely careful about monitoring intake and do 2 lifting days, 2 HIIT days and 4-5 cardio days per week. It's hard to lose the last few lbs if you're not being strict.

The good thing about losing weight slowly like you are is that you're setting up a lifestyle that will help you maintain your weightloss.  By the time you've reached your goals, you're used to living like that, and can easily sustain it.

So I'd say to keep it up! :)

Clint

lmfair9: Thanks for sharing. I'll be glad if I can loose 16lbs in 6 pounds - at that rate it is approx 2.7 lbs per month.

Ibez: Thanks for the advice. You're right. I need to be more committed if I want this to work.

I lost my weight slowly too. I'm 5"7. A year ago I was about 163 pounds (6 months post pregnancy).

By Feb I was 147 pounds. I lost 16 pounds in 8 months (so about 2 pounds a month). On Feb 15 I decided to get serious to lose the last 17 pounds. I started an 18 pound in 18 week challenge (I was actually 148 the day before I set the challenge)! 18 weeks (or 4 months and one week) later I was 132 pounds. So I lost 15 pounds (0.83 pounds a week). Not quite 17/18 pounds, but in the end the dates didn't matter so long as I kept losing and got closer to my goal. It gets frustrating at times, esp when I hit a plateau! I just practiced exercising my patience (need to these days anyway with a handful of a toddler around) counting down days and weeks (one took three weeks to break to my disgust!)and eventually the scale started moving steadily down again.

Another week on I am 131, one more pound to go! However, I've decided to lose a bit more, so I am aiming for 125-126 now and then I'll re-evaluate. I truly feel that I've come this far changing my lifestyle with regards to eating, I'm confident that I can be any weight I want to be - albeit inside the healthy zone.  I do however look forward to being able to maintain so I can eat more! Geesh, I won't know myself being able to eat more....this will be weird, but great cos then I can eat more chocolate and chips lol!

BTW, I have lost all my weight doing minimal exercise, although I wouldn't call myself sedentary with a busy toddler around! I think eating is 90% of the struggle. I should have exercised more though as I would probably look better (with muscle weighing the same pound for pound as fat but denser and tighter), but I figure I can still work on this and it's probably easier when I stop the deficit as exercising makes me very hungry! and calculating your burn rate becomes more difficult. In terms of food, I  eat anywhere between 1200 - 1600 calories a day with an average of about 1350, which is the deficit CC calculated for me. I'm not the healthiest foody in the world,CC gives me a B average, and I'm happy with that.  I still have my pizza, fries and occasional takeaway hamburger. I just chose the healthier pizza - low carb chicken and eat smaller serves. I keep my carbs between 100-150 a day (average 135) and I eat a lot of eggs, fish, soups, lean meat or chicken and vegie dinners, and a ton of tomatoes and mushrooms.

Anyway that's my story! Good luck with everyones weight loss goals!

WOW! Good job! You inspire me!!

I am the in the exact same boat, almost. 1 year post-preg, 5'7" 160lbs. I started to exercise 4x's/week and major diet changes and have lost 4lbs in 1 month. My goal is to get to my pre-preg weight of 145, but after reading your success story, maybe I should aim to be 135lbs or less. I just don't know if it is possible, I have never been that light! I have definatley reached a halt. Any advice for how to get out of a plateau???

Thanks!! M.

I totally agree that 90% of it is what you put in your mouth, and it is such a huge struggle!

Original Post by muchaboo:

WOW! Good job! You inspire me!!

I am the in the exact same boat, almost. 1 year post-preg, 5'7" 160lbs. I started to exercise 4x's/week and major diet changes and have lost 4lbs in 1 month. My goal is to get to my pre-preg weight of 145, but after reading your success story, maybe I should aim to be 135lbs or less. I just don't know if it is possible, I have never been that light! I have definatley reached a halt. Any advice for how to get out of a plateau???

Thanks!! M.

 Thanks Muchaboo!

Hey...well done on the 4lbs...that's an awesome start! Great that you're exercising also, you will see the benefits a lot sooner than I did.

Yeah those darn plateaus. There is an evolutionary theory around this that makes sense. Basically for "survival purposes" our bodies can get use to the routine exercises and diet we place on it. If the body could speak it would say something like "hey, I can't keep burning off all this fat, because then I will starve and shutdown and ultimately die", so it gets very efficient and starts to use the lower amount of calories we give it more effectively in an attempt to avoid this happening. In terms of exercise, the more you work out the stronger and fitter you are, so it takes more and more to get the same results, e.g. you start off running for 20, you increase it to 30, then to 40 to get the same result.

Basically the way to get around this, is to "trick the heck out of your body". Instead of eating the same amount of deficit day in and day out, eat more, YES MORE for a few days, then eat at deficit for a couple or just under (NB going under 1200 a day is not recommended by most health experts, but prior to CC I would go slightly under for the occasional day here and there and don't see the harm for the purposes of trying to break a plateau). This is what's called "reverse cycling". You're total deficit of calories for the week is the same, but you change it day to day so that your body doesn't get use to the same amount you give it, and thinks "great...I have more food I can use up, if not today, I will tommorow, I'm not going to starve, so therefore it's okay if I let some of this unnecessary fat take a hike!"

Alternatively, be patient (one of the hardest things about weight loss) and just give yourself a break for a week or two. Most plateaus will break through without changing anything within a couple of weeks to a month from what I've read, as ultimately a deficit means your body will have to burn again eventually. You can use the plateau as a good excuse (turn it into a positive!) to splurge a bit and so long as you don't go over maintainance you shouldn't gain weight (unless you gain muscle which can happen when dieting is combined with exercising).

Honestly, this is what I did in the end for one plateau  that lasted 3 whole darn weeks, I ate more! Then after the three weeks were up, to my delight the scales just keeped steadily going down and down!

As for the exercising plateau part, I haven't had personal experience on this, but I have heard a lot about HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) being the way to go here. Again it is about changing things around to keep your body on it's toes and not get use to your level of fitness. Not quite sure how it goes for timing etc, but if say using a treadmill you might run hard out for 4 mins, walk for 4, take on an incline for 4, jog for 4 etc etc. A lot of people swear by this method of cardio as having faster results in a shorter amount of time then say running at the same pace for an hour. It makes sense that you can get to a level of fitness where it can be effortless to run at the same pace and intensity for an hour, whereas if you throw in some nasty inclines and sprints to get your heart pumping, you will really feel it. A fair bit of pain/work does seem necessary for more gain in cardio unfortunately. But hey...I'm not an expert on this one...I'm sure there are a lot of posts around on HIIT if you wanted to check this out further.

Hope this helps. Feel free to send me a message/add me. I'm more than happy to help where I can, or if you just need a support buddy. All good!

All the best! And...YES you can do it! Just stay committed to making the necessary changes and try to be patient...and it will happen!

Ohhh...a couple more things. I know I've taken up too much of this post already, sorry!

Don't be too hard on yourself, we are only human, not perfect. If you slip, just keep picking yourself back up again... stay focused!

And....treat every half a pound/pound lost as a victory. It is a victory! However small, it means you are heading in the right direction! And the slower you lose, the less likely you will be to put it back on - that's the other great part!

I lost a lot my first week- 8 pounds, and my second week I only lost like a pound and a half, and the third week, nothing =/  I think I was in starvation mode, though, so I've upped my calories to between 1300-1400ish and I feel better now.. a lot less weak.  Hopefully I can drop another 10-15 in July.  I'm going to start a low carb vegetarian diet this weekend.  Hopefully it'll bring me better results!