WGOM Fitness

WGOM Fitness: 13 March 2013, lbs vs. lps

28 Comments

I've been at this healthier living stuff, seriously, for a little more than 2 months now.   I've probably worked out about half of those days, maybe a little more.  I haven't had a soda for a month (well, a 28 day month).  I haven't eaten out for that long either.  I've been paying attention to (though not diligently counting) calories.  I've been better about taking my thyroid medication.  Things are heading the right direction.

I've still only lost about 5 pounds.  I have plenty of weight to lose, but the needle isn't moving quickly.  It's hard to hear about other people dropping more weight when it isn't really coming off for me.  I know I need to work out for a longer period of time, and that as that happens everything else I'm doing is going to make things progress more quickly.  But still.

On the other hand, I put on my belt yesterday and slid naturally down to the smallest loop.  I'm only down 5 pounds, but I'm also down 3 loops.  Heck, 4 loops from where I was at my absolute worst (which isn't where I was when I started).  So there is real progress.  Maybe the weight thing is because muscle weighs more and I've been lifting too?  (It's a nice thing to tell myself, at least.)  Maybe it's because I've been on a slow upward climb with my weight for 10 years, and it's just naturally going to be a slow climb down too?  I don't know.

I might not be doing much better than a stalemate in the battle of the lbs, but I'm winning the battle of the lps.  I'm happy with keeping my sights on the good stuff, though I'll still have an eye on the total weight too.

28 thoughts on “WGOM Fitness: 13 March 2013, lbs vs. lps”

  1. The weight hasn't come off from me either. I thought I had a breakthrough, but it seemed to be a temporary blip. Still, I feel much stronger and healthier.

  2. I think you need to diligently start counting calories. When I did my weight loss, I had many of the same issues you described above. Only when I actually (and honestly) listed every single thing that I ate with the corresponding calories, did I drop lbs.

    For me it was important for two reasons: (a) The act of having to actually write down and note what I had to eat shamed me into not eating (and thus noting) bad foods. (b) writing what you ate and the calories really helps to show where you can cut back on what you eat. Forever I would take to work leftovers for my lunch. I found out then that my lunch was some 800 calories or so, about half my daily goal. Eliminating eating leftovers was a huge part in my weight loss. It's amazing to find out that the bag of chips you had at 9:00 watching a game was 240 calories, or that the bagel with cream cheese at an office meeting was 500 calories.

    1. One of my biggest hangups is that I eat a whole lot of food that doesn't easily lend itself to calorie counting, so then I have to go through the hassle of looking stuff up and measuring stuff out, etc. I'm also already pretty aware of what I can cut out (soda and eating out = things that have been cut, late-night eating needs to go still).

      You're not wrong that the honesty/shaming part of things is important though. I need to start shaming myself into not eating those late-night snacks.

      1. The nice thing is, you only have to look up an item once. Plus there are tons of apps out there that will do this for you. It took about a week or so of intensive calorie counting to get a good database of what foods I ate were how many calories. Believe me it was worth the effort.

        1. I hate remembering things, so I'd probably just keep looking stuff up. If I had said app though...

          I should get a smart phone. That's the reason I'm fat. I don't have a smart phone.

          1. What about just having a sheet of paper with a list of commonly consumed foods? If you use a spreadsheet, then it's even easier to keep a list of common foods.

            1. You guys are doing way too much problem solving here. I just want my complaints to be heard, I'm not looking for actual help.

                    1. Actually I do, it's the lunch's you are missing. My typical lunch is 1 or 2 pieces of fruit, a handful of veggies (baby carrots, pea pods or sweet peppers) and a skim milk mozzarella cheese stick and maybe some almonds: 200-250 calories for lunch. That's been the key to my weight loss and maintaining it now for almost five years.

    3. Counting calories is the most important factor in losing weight. A year and a half ago, I started exercising regularly for a couple of months. No appreciable weight loss. Got discouraged and quit. I only started losing weight when I got serious about calorie counting. I've linked to my diet before, but here it is again. That was the primary driver toward my ~80 pounds of weight loss.

      I have added about 400 calories a day to my diet, primarily by eating more of what is in the diet. I've been maintaining my weight for about a month. I would like to get down a little more, but I'm just not really feeling it right now, so I'll maintain for a while.

    3. I don't think that's going to end well, if you catch my drift.

      also, anyone who does not enjoy eating good food is a communist.

      1. People may giggle when I say I poop a lot less
        Sounds like it goes out with a whimper.

    4. I like the part about how if he had a girlfriend he'd probably eat more meals. Chicken and egg dude. Chicken and egg.

  4. A 1 pound/week weight loss is an extremely good rate of weight loss. You typically don't want to lose more than 1% of your body weight in a week, so 1 pound is great for most people.

    Of course, I recommend deciding that running is extremely awesome and committing to trying to run a race which is a distance further than you can run now. Then do a longer one, and so forth. Racing has become such an important part of my life that I don't know what I'd do without it.

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