Anne_145's Journal, 05 Nov 16

Nearly there  

I always seem to be nearly there, never quite make it (or not for long, anyway!)  

Hi Bunty - hopefully I'm not being too nosy but one thing I'd suggest (and I base this only on how I noticed that my Fitbit's calorie burn aligned with Fatsecret's "estimated" calorie burn only when I left out all activity counts (that is to say, not recording housework, deskwork, driving, etc). Especially as you don't have much to lose at all, it's quite possible that the number being recorded for activity cals burned is just high enough to knock out your deficit. Just my 2c/2p, of course. Otherwise I can vouch for the super-slow loss at lower weights, it eventually did come off, but it was like 2 months of deficit suddenly fell off overnight. I thought I would lose my mind. :P Anyway again, hopefully not too nosy and in any case, wish you all the best of luck! 

Hi real Thanks for your interest and input, not nosy at all! I use my polar heart monitor for my exercise calorie burn and think it is fairly accurate. I think my problem is that I just eat too much BECAUSE I have so little to lose and because I exercise a lot I think I can get away with it!  

Hehe, ooh I do understand that one! :-D  

I have had a look at your exercise diary and can see what you mean. Your daily calories burned are a lot less than mine. But then so are your calories consumed! Your weight loss has been steady and super successful so you are doing it right. I know I can lose weight when I restrict calories in, regardless of exercise, but sometimes it is just too much effort to eat so little!!  

Well, I'll say this if it helps at all - for much of the time, I ate -500 less per day than I burned, you'd have to go earlier months to see much of that.... but eventually I did have to drop to -250, because (as you can maybe guess,) I'm rather short, plus I'm 50, so even on an active day my daily burn isn't exceptionally high, so -500 a day for me now would be a bit tight, calorically, in terms of what I find sustainable/comfortable for a long period of time. But you'll also see days where I eat 1700-1800 now and then, usually on a workout day and/or a day where I was just more active than normal! So I just adapt to how the day goes. Office-work-from-home for me is pretty low! But...honestly, 1200-1500 per day has been just fine, but with a catch - I cook almost everything I eat, and meals out, we try to stick to places where they provide the info, or I can get the info by asking! For me, the whole point of consistency was also to see how accurate everything is - or isn't. I've actually lost a bit slower than I "should" have, going strictly by numbers, but there is always a 10% margin for error or so that you have to figure into it. And what I found is, if I go by Fitbit cals burned, Fatsecret's "burn" only really came close if I only counted exercise/walking. If I'm just active around the house all day, I just use "moderate" walking to match Fitbit's total. Otherwise, honestly, Fatsecret would just be too high for me! Anyway - sorry this is so long, hehe. I get quite passionate about this whole thing and also want to help when I can. :-D 

It is great to hear the passion in your posts. So many people just moan about diet (me!!) and exercise. I am the same age as you but I am tall and athletic and even on my non exercise days I am out with the dog. I live in the city centre so generally walk everywhere too, so probably can eat a bit more than you. If I ate 1700-1800 a day I would lose weight for sure, and keep it off! But, I would say I eat 2000-2200 on average and that maintains that cheeky extra kilo or two I am always trying to shift. I know what to do but don't seem to be able to do it. I need to notch my intake down a bit. Consistency is the key and you seem to have worked out your constant.  

Ah, what I would not give for a wee bit of your height! :-) But yes, I will definitely say consistency pays/paid off most of all...the thing is, as it went down, it got so much more erratic. I'd go WEEKS with no change, despite that consistent counting/logging - and had I not been consistent, I'd have fallen into doubt and maybe gone off the rails despite my better judgement. (And even being consistent, sometimes that bad thinking would sneak in there...). But if nothing else, the number game eventually proved itself to be true. It would suddenly catch itself back up again, making up for weeks of deficit in some cases (the other day with that sudden .9 drop was a good example, I thought I was still eating too much - but no, I just needed to wait)! :-) 

excellent commitment and determination form real_gone_girl. Inspiring me! 

Great advice here. Cheers Bunty and RGG for this dialogue. Must say .. I'm impressed with you two. I've retired and not so active. I'm a busy bod though. Cheers xx 

being busy is a great way to keep the metabolism ticking over! I enjoyed my chat with RGG too. My motivation is low just now so this helps preventing it spiraling downwards.  

Big smile over here. :-)