It has been over a week since I last posted; I have remained 100% and managed to lose 9.6lbs in my first week. I decided that I would only weigh once a week - I refuse to let the scales dictate my mood and I refuse to be a slave to them. I must admit that it is rather liberating; I do feel less stressed. Daily weighing has been my downfall and partly responsible for my gain. When the scales are up, despite my efforts to eat well, I enter sabotage mode and comfort eat. I cannot allow little fluctuations to get me so wound up. I have to look at the bigger picture, instead of all those incremental, daily losses.
I have felt rather depressed and tearful this week. I have let my weight get in the way for all these years and I am honestly so fed up. I will not do another VLCD again. Once I reach my goal weight, I will sign up to my local gym and start weight training. I have yo-yoed up and down - that alone must have put so much stress on my body. Yes, being overweight/obese is not healthy but neither is yo-yoing and binging.
I have been reading up on weight training and the more I read, the more I am certain I will incorporate it into my life. It has numerous health benefits: raising metabolic rate, building muscle and strengthening bones. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn and the more you can eat; it also improves the appearance of your body. When I reached goal, some years ago, I was slim, but I was not happy with my body. I loathed it - hated my arms and still had back fat. I want to be toned and decrease my percentage of body fat, and I know weight training will help me to achieve this.
I will also be doing a full metabolic reset to repair my metabolism and get it to function as well as it possibly can. When you diet, your metabolism adjusts to a lower intake and burns calories less efficiently. If you repeatedly yo-yo, your metabolism can adapt to such an extent that you may even appear to be gaining on 1200 calories, making it difficult to diet like 'normal people' i.e. those who have never dieted. Resetting your metabolism involves increasing your calories slowly, week by week, up to the level of calories you burn daily. You then need to continue to eat at that amount for around 6-12 months to repair your metabolism; it can be less, but if you are a typical yo-yo dieter then a longer period of time will be required. You may gain some weight during that time but if you increase calories very slowly, it will be minimal. Once your metabolism has been reset, you will find it easy to lose weight eating 100/200 calories below your daily expenditure.
Sorry for such a long post. I thought some may be interested.