Tetris
Gold Member
Soph - Me over-think things?! Never!Haha, I'm the complete QUEEN of over-thinking so totally understand where you're coming from! Sometimes this whole process is *soooo* confusing! I'd just about learnt from experience not to stress out about one bad week, because the next week is always a decent loss, then I get a -0.5 and a -1 two weeks in a row and start freaking out again! Plus it's at the beginning of Jan where I've decided I'm 'going for it' and cut out the weekly takeaway, the odd meal out etc and go super strict in an effort to lose weight faster. It's like my body is rebelling against it.
* week STILL hasn't turned up, about 10 days late now. I was so freaked out the other day that (despite contraception) I took a pregnancy test, I knew it'd be negative and thankfully it was, but my * week has never been so out of whack before. It can vary by a few days, but not 10!
I'm starting to think by not eating as much as I was before Jan that I've put my body into mild 'starvation mode'. Though I don't really know enough about it to say for sure. Like you say, surely the SW books would give some kind of warning, although they seem too concerned with telling us to eat unlimited portions of 'free' food!
You're right, I'm not gonna have great losses every week, like you I definitely have that post * week big loss, which is great. Except this month it looks like * week has buggered off totally!
I'll be honest, I know absolutely ZERO about fasting, will have to have a read into it. I've tried the Cambridge diet before (550 calories) and it was bloody horrible, felt sooo weak all the time! Although that's totally different from the odd fast day I guess. With the high/low days I'm kinda doing my own version of 5:2 in a way, except it's more like 4:3 with higher calories!
Even Chris has told me off this week for obsessing so you're not the only one. I just need to get on with life and stop over-analysing the food thing. A decent loss at next WI (I'd even be over the moon with 2lbs!) and I'm sure I'll feel loads better. I really hope I can stop over-analysing stuff, time wise I've still got over a year of losing weight ahead of me, I want to enjoy it instead of getting obsessed!
I can totally TOTALLY relate to over-thinking/obsessing
I mean, you've seen it all on my diary too LOL! So please don't take my comments here as bossy/hypocritical- I totally get that I do it too but support from others has helped me see it, y'know? Anyway, I read the 5:2 book yesterday (the whole thing) and it's enlightened me a lot! I'm not suggesting you do 5:2- SW seems to suit you really well! I'm not even sure I'll be doing it but I'm giving it a go today to see how I feel; I am really REALLY sh*t scared that once I get to my final target I'll get complacent and put it all back on, so I'm trying 5:2 to see if it's something I could do later that can allow me to have naughty days and then cleanse them out, if that makes sense? I realised over xmas/Paris that I don't have much self control once I start being 'half' off plan, suddenly it became MUCH harder- even after the festive period! So 5:2 could help me there- we'll see!
Buuut (got side tracked lol!) what I wanted to share was something I read in that book about 'starvation mode' - it seems that a LOT of people think it is a total myth (that the body starts eating muscle when metabolism is slowed down from not having a proper breakfast etc) but in the book they say that this is something that doesn't occur until over 72hrs of not eating
LOL! All this time I've been worried about not having a proper breakfast will stop my metabolism...I was talking to Cheekychinchilla (a friend on my diary) about this as she just had to undertake a 3 day fast as part of a (quite horrific!) series of tests in hospital. She is usually an INCREDIBLY slow loser- like 1lb off a month if she's lucky (from 100% on plan SW!) and she lost 5lbs from the 3 day fast! So it just goes to show that undereating is not going to result in an STS! Clearly it didn't slow down her metabolism enough to prevent weight loss. She also got a 2lb loss the next week after two 5:2 days! So basically- eat what you need to, don't stress about the calories being too low some days as it's been working for you all along and no risk of going into starvation mode
The 5:2 book is all about these 500cal/600cal days etc (though actually to work out your cal allowance it is based on your BMR so 500cal/woman is based on a standard woman- I'm allowed 606cal!) and they talk about how a lot of people do alternate day fasting and lose a lot of weight that way. I'm not trying to get you to do 5:2, dont worry
just explaining that from all this research- it's bonkers to blame slow losses on UNDER eating As I said before- I totally get the impatience thing- it's so hard to sit there waiting for stuff to happen when you've just realised that making this simple life change can get you the weight loss you want! It's like "Well, if I made THAT step towards losing weight, then what else can I do!?" it's totally understandable to think like this, but sometimes it's best to just step back and look at the big picture and relax yourself. You have SO much going on with uni interviews and work and all, try not to stress about food too
you'll get your loss!I had a *week scare around November or something where it was 2 weeks late and I was freaking out! I have always been quite irregular though. Weight loss can make our body act weirdly though... It could well be that you're retaining due to the build up though.
5.5lbs in 3 weeks is right on track if you get a 1.5lb for the 4th week- but I'm betting you'll get a bigger one! But yeah, it's good to step back and look at the chart and realising that the fluctations make it a real mind f*ck but it IS coming off at the same pace as before
I switched to entirely Red days in the summer when I realised EE and Green weren't really doing it for me anymore... I had about a 6 week plateau of gaining, STS, losing the gain- it was a real b*tch! That's when I switched to just Red, and now I see non red days as naughty
but anyway, you're still doing great so don't worry about that yet!x
