Weight Loss slowing and motivation needed.........

[luisa71]

Hi all, Just need a little bit of advice and motivation please.

Have been doing SW since beginning of March and to date have lost 29 pounds. I'm really pleased with that loss but have found the past few weeks I'm losing one week and gaining the next - yet I'm still completely on plan. I'm about 7lbs behind where I wanted to be now and after weigh in last night and a half lb gain, I just felt really disheartened. I know I will lose that next week along with another 1lb or more but I'm getting fed up of this pattern of loss - gain. I'm also a little fed up with group, I've still not got my 2 stone award, (petty but important to me) and each week is so repetative it's getting harder to want to stay. I guess my question is, does SW, for some people just stop working? I only do EE but I'm starting to consider maybe trying red or green because I still have another 3 stone of weight to loose.

Sorry to rant but I'm just feeling completely flat about it all today.

 

[Superfree Princess]

Sorry to hear your feeling disheartened but well done on your great weight loss. Are you still writing everything down? Do you still check up on syns? Its easy to get a little complacent with the plan or a little bored? Maybe read your books again, mix it up vary days between plans, look at the inspirational stories here too. You've done really well, don't give up

Sent from my GT-I9195 using MiniMins.com mobile app

 

[lougalx]

You could also try success express for a couple of days and maybe try to up your exercise if possible. I'm sure everyone will go through spells like this but I think you should be really proud of yourself for what you've achieved so far. Don't give up!

 

[luisa71]

Thanks for your kind replies. No, I wont give up, I've worked too damn hard to get that 2 stone off to give up! I did spend last night going through my books, especially the little red and green one. I'm going back to writing everything down and trying a week of red and green. Thanks again!

 

[Elvisfan4life]

Just keep plugging away it will come off

 

[glittermonkey]

Just think- the you that started in march would never believe that you would be TWO STONE lighter in just a few small months. who knows what weight you would have put on had you not joined. remember thats 28 packs of butter, you would be so fed up carrying those around every day! don't give up, maybe change around the types of food your eating and see if that gives you a little boost?

 

[MollyMolly]

Hi and congratulations on your 29lb lost so far!!

Here's my take on things ... one of my 'gripes' with SW is the lack of portion control education. When we first start (especially those of us with a lot to lose) then EE with it's 'Free Food' and 'Eat as much as you want' works just fine.... However, as we lose weight, our basal metabolic rate (the number of calories our bodies need just to keep us breathing lol) drops, and thus so do our overall calorie needs - so if we keep eating the same quantities of the same kind of foods as we started SW doing, then our losses will slow down.

When this happened to me I started to use myfitnesspal to log what I was eating on SW, just to get an idea of how many calories I was actually eating - and it was frankly quite revealing! Even though I was 100% 'on plan', the calories involved in pasta/protein/rice/potatoes/pulses were taking me quite close to my basal metabolic rate needs (ideally, to lose weight a calorie deficit of around 600 per day is needed), so it was no wonder my losses were slow.

Now I don't mind being hungry particularly (especially before meal times), but I do like to feel full after a meal - and I'm used to big portions. Cutting back on overall meal sizes therefore leads to me feeling deprived - which obviously isn't a good thing. So I started to play around with WHAT I was eating, rather than overall meal size and discovered that if I substituted starchy carbs for superfree veg cooked in lots of different and yummy ways (curried vegetables, mashed or baked butternut squash, ratatouille, roasted vegetables with balsamic vinegar, courgette ribbons etc, etc) then I could still feel full and happy but while taking in fewer calories.

That kick started my losses, and I've just carried on doing more of the same ... eventually, as I've come closer and closer to target, I have had to reduce my portion sizes to some extent, but I've done it very gradually, so it's not been an issue.

Sorry for the essay LOL - hope it might help

 

[Elvisfan4life]

The longer you have been on SW the less you crave food my portion sizes are reducing slowly naturally

 

[jogirl]

Yes to everything MollyMolly said! When I started SW I was eating huge plates of pasta/rice based meals, with not much superfree, and the weight fell off. As I got nearer to target, my losses slowed down, so I started to think about what I was eating, and realised that my huge portions were more habit than anything else. I cut back on the amount of carbs/free food and upped the superfree. The weight started shifting again, and I still don't feel deprived.

 

[Ponytales]

I've had a couple of weeks where I have only lost a lb, or half a lb, despite being on plan. I know most people will say a 1lb a week is great, but this early in my weight loss (I'm on week 6) I did start to lose motivation.

I have done two things to try and crank up my losses and remotivate myself..

1 - up the body magic (see my thread ref the 30 day shred!)
2 - I know this weekend is going to be one of over indulgence, so I did a very lo cal day yesterday - only 600 cals all day. It wasn't too bad. I just ate lots of really low cal stuff like celery stick dipped in quark and a tin of WW chicken noodle soup. I'm thinking of doing one day a week of this as I prefer just to deny myself one day and then my normal slimming world days seems like a nice treat of eating all day

Different stuff works for different people I guess.

I guess you could also try other portion control tricks such as using a smaller plates, eating slower etc.

 

[luisa71]

Thanks again for replies. Yes Mollymolly I think you are spot on with portion control. I've heard many say that SW stops working after a while and I do think that carrying on eating unrestricted portions of certain foods, especially carbs, is the reason why. I've really watched my portions this week, have weighed my carbs and cut back the fruit and ff yogurt but still eating enough to feel satisfied. Hopefully it will show on the scales this week at group.