hiya *waves*

honeynutcows

honeynutcows

New member
hi i'm laura, i'm from the uk and i'm now 8 months (wow it's been a while) into my weight loss I started off at almost 200 pounds and a size 16 i'm now 33lbs down...and a size 16 *sigh*. It's got to that stage now where every pound clings to me and refuses to budge, so i thought i'd join you guys and kick my way back into that inspired phase.
Look forward to getting to know you all in the coming months :)
 
Welcome! What are you doing as far as changing your eating habits? What type of workouts are you engaging in?
 
well with my eating it's changed every month because my body seems to stop losing after a while on one plan.

At the minute i'm doing the normal 1200 cal a day diet,
3 meals a day, mostly lean meats and veg with a mix up of either bread at lunch or potatos to give me some carbs.

Most days i stick to 200 for brekkie 400 for lunch and 600 for tea.
i also give myself a little cheat once a week still sticking to 1200 but having the odd choccie bar or plate of oven chips.

i usually spin between 1200 a day and slimming world.

my exercise has been.. well lax to say the least of late, but i'm booking in for yoga and aikido (when the centre finally answer their phone) to get me back into the swing of things.
 
1200 calories is a little low for you. Why did you pick that particular number?

I'd say you should be eating more around 1500 calories, and making sure you're getting a good balance of carbs, protein, and healthy fats.

I suspect the reason your loss has slowed is that you're eating too little and your metabolism has slowed to compensate.
 
I certainly agree with Kara that your calories are a bit low. I dont believe that I could hit my nutritional targets on 1200 calories a day. If you dont give your body enough fuel it cannot be a surprise if your exercise levels have been a bit lax lately.

I think that this is the root of your problem. I think that you need to start exercising now. You do not need a specific centre to answer their phone or start running a specific course in order to put on your shoes and go out for a long walk. It may not sound exciting - but anything that gets you moving is going to help you to lose weight. It is also going to help you to go down in clothes sizes.

Once you are doing some form of activity regularly - and there is nothing wrong with being active every day if we are talking stuff like walking - you can hone things so that you are doing things that appeal more - you do not have to stick to one thing through your project. Once you take up sports and active hobbies / start going to gyms - you can stagger in rest days if appropriate for the type of activity you are doing.

I am intrigued in your statement that you normally spin between 1200 calories a day and Slimming World...

How did that work out - you say that you have almost changed things every month - were you already doing 1200 calories a day?
How long had you been doing that before joining SW?
How long did you go to SW for?
Did you lose weight with SW? - because if you dont you can claim your money back...
Did you log your food and keep to the agreed syns level
Did you discuss your weight loss with your leader before finishing and did she have any suggestions (e.g. focusing on speed/superspeed foods, cutting syns, looking for tweaks, body magic - which is their term for exercise)?
Were you mainly doing red, green or extra easy (or one of the others)?

Did you check that you fully understood the program? (I have known people believe that they could have healthy Bs from each section every day!!!)
 
Last edited:
Omega said:
I certainly agree with Kara that your calories are a bit low. I dont believe that I could hit my nutritional targets on 1200 calories a day. If you dont give your body enough fuel it cannot be a surprise if your exercise levels have been a bit lax lately.

I think that this is the root of your problem. I think that you need to start exercising now. You do not need a specific centre to answer their phone or start running a specific course in order to put on your shoes and go out for a long walk. It may not sound exciting - but anything that gets you moving is going to help you to lose weight. It is also going to help you to go down in clothes sizes.

Once you are doing some form of activity regularly - and there is nothing wrong with being active every day if we are talking stuff like walking - you can hone things so that you are doing things that appeal more - you do not have to stick to one thing through your project. Once you take up sports and active hobbies / start going to gyms - you can stagger in rest days if appropriate for the type of activity you are doing.

I am intrigued in your statement that you normally spin between 1200 calories a day and Slimming World...

How did that work out - you say that you have almost changed things every month - were you already doing 1200 calories a day?
How long had you been doing that before joining SW?
How long did you go to SW for?
Did you lose weight with SW? - because if you dont you can claim your money back...
Did you log your food and keep to the agreed syns level
Did you discuss your weight loss with your leader before finishing and did she have any suggestions (e.g. focusing on speed/superspeed foods, cutting syns, looking for tweaks, body magic - which is their term for exercise)?
Were you mainly doing red, green or extra easy (or one of the others)?

Did you check that you fully understood the program? (I have known people believe that they could have healthy Bs from each section every day!!!)
Click to expand...

gah so many questions, right let me take them one at a time.

I was originally on 1500 but after a while I just stopped losing weight, so I cut it down to 1400 then 1300 then 1200 and well I ended up where i am now. Trust me if I could get away with more food I would, god knows I’m quite the greedy b**tard.

As for the centre, I chose it as its very small and out of my area, I’m quite agoraphobic (and due to a few very long stories I won't go into) feel extremely uncomfortable around my estate.

I used to jog (up until around a month ago) at around 1am when I knew no’ one would be around, but the burn the cold air would make on the back of my throat put me off and I ended up walking shorter and shorter distances to stop it.

(I tried the scarf around the mouth thing and I felt like a suffocating mugger)

as for slimming world it has been great, I started in January and that’s how I started my weight loss. The thing is after a month or so of being on SW my weight would stop and i'd maintain or gain around half a pound.


I had my food diaries checked and I was doing everything right so I couldn't understand it, after two weeks of cursing the scale I tried two weeks on slim fast (I know now the best idea) I lost 2lbs a week for those two weeks then when i went back on the SW plan again i carried on losing 1 1/2 to 2lb a week.

Again though after a month my weight loss stopped, so I changed my diet again to 1500 a day I soon figured out that my body needed a change every once in a while to keep chugging along with weight loss so that’s what i’ve been doing.

How long had you been doing that before joining SW?
I hadn’t started dieting before SW

How long did you go to SW for?

I joined Jan 15th for my new year’s resolution. I stopped a few weeks back because I was running a bit low on cash, but am rejoining mid September when the student loan comes through.

Did you log your food and keep to the agreed syns level?
Mmhmm some days I would go into the 12 15 syn mark but i usually stayed around 7 to 10syns

Did you discuss your weight loss with your leader before finishing and did she have any suggestions (e.g. focusing on speed/superspeed foods, cutting syns, looking for tweaks, body magic - which is their term for exercise)?

Since i’m still partially on the diet and will only be gone for a month or so we didn’t really have a leaving chat

Were you mainly doing red, green or extra easy (or one of the others)?

red mostly, on green days i din’t seem to lose (which is my own fault i had a habit of living on jacket potatos and beans.


Did you check that you fully understood the program? (I have known people believe that they could have healthy Bs from each section every day!!!)

I’ve been on it for eight months and had my food diarys checked each week so i think I’m fine with it, I’ve had the odd slip ups where I’ve had beans on a red day or counted syns in tablespoons instead of teaspoons but who hasn’t had a bad day.

I hope i got everything in there god it’s like an essay.

p.s as for the size thing, the thing that bugs is that i've lost 7 inchs around my stomach, eight around my ass and 6 around my waist, and have gone from ooh 16's just fit, to ooh i can squeeze into big 14's. When clothes sizes are meant to have a two inch diffrence per size.
 
Last edited:
The thing is that it looks like you took your calories too low for your weight.

Lots of people cut things too low when they really should be increasing things.

I do think that you need to get exercise back into your program. It neednt be a case of jogging or nothing. Walking is a lot better than nothing... If you do not like being outside the house then try doing an exercise DVD. There are lots of people that swear by the Wii Fit concept for getting exercise in the home too.

=====

Now (for benefit of people looking in to help you that may not be up on SW) - with SW you are not really counting calories at all - it is all done on low GL principles - i.e. GI per portion size. Basically a load of stuff is classed as free - fruit, veg, quorn, eggs, fat free dairy. On top of that people are encouraged to have a measured portion of dairy ("healthy A") and a measured portion of what is termed "healthy B" which are basically cereal/bread and healthy stuff not above or tied to the days plan type.
Red days have as much lean meat/fish/poultry as you can eat.
Green days have as much starchy veg/pasta/rice as you can eat.
Extra easy have as much both green and red stuff as you can eat but the trade off is that you get only 1 serving of healthy A and one serving of healthy B instead of 2.

Treats, sauces etc all come out of a syns allowance - most people will lose weight on between 5 and 15 syns a day.

=====

So were you counting calories for the time that you were on SW (when you may have been having a totally different amount of calories)?

Did you try focussing on speed / superspeed foods. Most leaders will suggest that you try that. These are foods that are classed as extra low in energy density compared to others in the group.

I know from my own experience that people liable to retain water can have problems with the SW program. There is nothing stopping you have having some foods which can have a comparitively high sodium content. Indeed vecon and stock cubes can mean that soups for instance are high in sodium while being angelic on their plan. I would look out for that if I were you - track using and look out for sodium levels going over 2400mg per day. I similarly became unstuck by getting burgers and sausages at the Slimming World butcher. The meat was totally lean with no added cereal so had a low syn on red / extra easy but I didnt think about the sodium content until I saw the gain at the scales...

Quite a few people I know find that they lose better on red or extra easy.

Its good that you are seeing some changes in your clothes size.

I actually asked the questions because I was trying to help you. I am sorry that you found it a bit of an onerous task.
 
Omega said:
I actually asked the questions because I was trying to help you. I am sorry that you found it a bit of an onerous task.
Click to expand...

oh no i didn't i really appreciate advice and help, i just didn't want you to have to read through an essay of my ramblings.

and thank you for the info, i am terrible with salt i'll add salt to foods already salt packed, i knew it was bad for me but i didn't know about water retention. On slimming world i don't count calories, i admit i'd often go for chicken instead of beefs and pork, and leafy greens instead of carrots, not many bananas etc etc, but i just graze throughout the day i don't packet scan.

the odd thing about my weight is it seems to go up on Sundays and Mondays then go back down again. I've gained anything up to 3 pounds over a Sunday night (from Sunday morning to Monday morning not weighing more at night) just to have it disappear the next day, i don't feel bloated or any bigger and i stick to my diet through weekends so that confuses me a little.

Is there such a thing as routine bloating ?

edit: as for the exercise i am one of those people who need motivation(in other words lazy). Ii tried the dvd thing and halfway through i'd get bored and go play fallout *cringe*. In a class you get that rush that makes you feel you're really making a difference, doing something good for your body.( plus you can't really say screw it and have a quick nap in the middle in the community hall lol)
 
Last edited:
Ok so here's my best guess on what's going on with you. :)

I was originally on 1500 but after a while I just stopped losing weight, so I cut it down to 1400 then 1300 then 1200 and well I ended up where i am now.
Click to expand...
The concept behind cutting calories should be to cut the *minimum* number of calories you can while still losing weight. Here's the explanation: When you cut calories, your metabolism slows to compensate. Also as you lose weight you need fewer calories. So between your metabolism slowing and your inherent need for fewer calories at a lower weight .. your weight loss slows down. Make sense so far?

So ... when you cut calories you want to cut as FEW calories as possible so that you have room to cut again when your weight loss slows down.

If you cut too many at the very beginning, then you slow your metabolism down faster and you don't have any more to cut when your weight loss stalls.

So when you first started at 200 lbs, you could have cut your calories down to 2000 and still lost weight quite nicely. But you cut down to 1500, and so your metabolism took a dive. And then you cut more and more and more down to 1200 and now you have no where else to go.

What I would say is that you need to raise your calories - and yes, you might gain back a few pounds, but you need to get those calories up so that you can get some proper nutrition in.

Make sure you're getting plenty of protein and healthy fats and lots of veg.


I'm not familiar with the rest of your workout program ... so I can't entirely comment there. I would definitely say that you need to be lifting weights or doing body resistance to help build/maintain muscle - which will help you raise your metabolism.

Hope that gives you something to work with!
 
My best advice is to get a free account with and start straight away logging your food and activity. I would do this whether you are following the SW plan or simply counting calories. Consider it a way of tuning the nutrition that the SW plan points you towards selecting. There is much to be said for getting used to making low GL selections which is the way SW works.

You really want to be watching the sodium in your food because it could be really magnifying your weight up. Frankly - I gain weight so easily and it can be pounds at a time. The thing is that so much of what we eat contains sodium that you can exceed the recommended maximum while never sprinkling salt on food or into the cooking. Logging food and evaluating the nutrition can really open your eyes to what we put into our bodies.

Many women gain weight around the time of their period too. This is also due to water retention. At SW meetings this is normally referred to as being "star week".

I also agree with Kara about raising your calorie level - which you will see in fitday... Dont just eat for the sake of it - read the sections on nutrition and aim to hit your nutritional targets for protein, calcium, fibre - also make sure that you are having some healthy fats. Use those extra calories wisely.

Many of us started off as not the most likely of athletes... It really is so helpful in helping us change our shapes and keep our new shapes when we get there. Not only does it help us burn calories (which gives us weight loss) but builds muscles so that we burn more calories into the future plus gives our bodies a more toned appearance. The rewards are such that it can turn even the most lazy of folk into exercise fiends...

No-one would have ever put me into "I love exercise" category. I spent over 20 years as a very big person. At my heaviest I was 21 stone and at 5ft3 that is pretty big... I hit goal at 9 stone - having gone from UK size 32 to now wearing either size 8 or size 10 jeans... My avatar is the cover of my SW book and you can just make out my "target" award and the higher awards going up to 12 stone (the green side has my other awards)... I now walk every day - although I do mix in some other forms of exercise too. I am actually a fair bit thinner than the 9 stone would imply since I was so big that I still carry a fair bit of loose skin.

If that doesnt motivate you to believe that the rewards are there for the taking and regular exercise maybe isnt quite as boring as it seems (if it brings that kind of reward) I dont know what will. I cant encourage you enough to bring some sort of exercise back into your program asap. As the weeks go by you can rearrange your program to incorporate the classes that you fancy as they start up. Naps in the corner or fallout never brought that kind of reward.
 
Last edited:
No-one would have ever put me into "I love exercise" category. I spent over 20 years as a very big person.
Click to expand...
This is me as well. In fact from the time I was in high school on .. even my parents discouraged me from being athletic. Looking back, I can now clearly see all the times that my parents encouraged my brother to try out for track, try out for football, try out for basketball, play volleyball at the lake, etc. He was the son, the manchild, the one who would carry my father's football star banner.

Me? My mom used to tease me about how "grace" should have been my middle name. They'd say it was ok that I wasn't athletic - I was the artist of the family. I was the reader, the thinker, the photographer. I was cute, but klutzy. And that was great when I was a skinny kid - but then I grew into a fat adult. And I never thought I *could* be athletic. I really didn't. I envied people who were so carelessly physcial - oh we're going rollerblading this weekend or hey let's go catch a game of frisbee golf or whatever. I really did envy them and honestly thought "god, I wish I could do that."

And I'm not blaming my parents either - they were never cruel about it. They were just from a different time. My mom's idea of exercise was doing 20 mins of exercises in the privacy of her bedroom after my dad left for work - some situps, some yoga stretches, and maybe a jumping jack or two. Of course she was blessed with the tall/skinny genes that my brother got, too! :)

All of that to say this: almost 3 years ago I started going to the gym (in fact it was November of 2006) on a regular basis. And I always thought that it would be something I hated and something I had to force myself to do. And you know what ... while I don't always want to go to the gym, now I LOVE .... FREAKING LOVE ... the way I look and feel from exercising. I'm the person who just bought a bicycle ... just because. I dug out my old rollerblades and got out there and made a fool of myself in front of the 12 and 13 year olds in the parking lot at my townhouse complex because it was FUN. I crave movement now. If I sit around too long I get edgy and I *need* to go outside and do something. The days I skip the gym I feel bad - not just guilty or mentally but physically.

It's really true - the more you move, the more you feel like moving. And one day you wake up and you realize that you ARE athletic. That you love the way you feel after a workout - even if you dread the workout itself.

I still don't always like going to the gym. But I LOVE the way I feel. I love being the type of person who isn't afraid to say "sure - let's go do something and get sweaty and move!"

God, ok, I sound like some kind of evangelist, I know. But really ... it's so amazing to me after 20+ years of being the fat person who couldn't even touch her toes - to be able to do all of this and enjoy it.

So ... yeah. :D What Omega said. :)
 
Thankyou so much guys *hugs*, you don't know much more motivated i feel just talking to you guys.

i've signed up for the site, it's a little confusing but i'll sort it when i'm not about to go to bed, from what i've read it seems verrry useful. i've also been looking into gyms, i have a membership now but the gyms just to big for me i never feel comfortable. I've found a small womens only gym near me so i''m going to check that out.
 
Cancel the membership of the gym that is too big and you dont want to use. Spending the money at the women's only gym sounds a much better idea. I tried to lose weight far too many times and failed without that exercise factor. I am convinced that without the exercise - this project would have been abandoned two years ago and I would have been back up to my start weight or above it by now...

No-one that knew the old me would imagine that I would love aerobics. I adore how energized that I feel as I get into (and how exhausted I can feel at the end of a high impact session)... I describe myself as feeling like a human jumping bean!!!!!

I have just noticed that you wrote that you kept cutting calories because your weight loss stopped or you had a gain about every month!!!!!! Did no-one suspect that it may be the star-week gain that almost every woman experiences... Mine can last about 12 days long.... I know because I am a terrible person for weighing every day (against all the best advice - but I really am happier to weigh and know where I am) - and I have records going back to Feb 2007 now - the pattern is obvious.... When you start off as a really big size (as I did) it can just mean that you lose less weight for a spell - but for someone starting at UK size 16 (equiv to US size 12) as you did a gain is pretty likely... I can gain 3 to 4 pounds at that time. If I am not in the lower part of my SW zone before it hits it can take me above my SW zone. Learn to anticipate such annoyances and *know* that it is water retention pure and simple if you are sticking to plan - not fat which is what you care about... Keep working hard and you see any further loss earned at this time as the water disappears.
 
Oh gosh yeah ... the thing about your period is so true. I weigh daily as well (every morning) and I ALWAYS gain anywhere from 4-10 lbs of water weight that sticks around for a few days. In fact I can predict my time now from my weight fluctuations more than anything else.

And like Omega said, when you're heavy, 4-5 lbs isn't nearly as noticeable ... but when you start getting closer to a reasonable weight, suddenly 4-5 lbs can be the difference between buttoning your jeans comfortably or not. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top