Taking steps in the right direction

[eechristmas]

I'm on week 4 as of today and ever since joining the site I've been hovering at the same general weight, and I've added in activity and tried to maintain my WW tracking and points, but I know I've been using more points in the last 2 weeks than I was before, and so I'm taking steps.

I've set myself a challenge. I will stick entirely to my daily and activity points. I am allotted 26pp per day and 49 weekly points, but I'm going to attempt a full week without using weeklies. 1 day down, 6 to go. I earned 3 extra points through doing 50 minutes of yoga, though, and they were a delicious apple w/ 2 tsp peanut butter post yoga and 1/2 cup skim milk w/ decaf coffee before bed

I've also pre-planned all my workouts for the week, alternating jogging with swimming on cardio days and slotting in yoga and other body weight strength as well.

Hopefully I've just been unfocussed and lax in my eating, and I'm not really just stuck here at 75kg. If eating this number of calories and doing this amount of activity makes my body chug along at this weight then I don't know what's wrong with it. Something is going to change.

[bunblebeaz]

Well done on assessing your diet and exercise. Sometimes you think you are doing the right thing but you cheat and try and pretend it doesn't happen (done it myself!)

I hope you've found something that you like with the swimming, and good luck for this week

[eechristmas]

I used to swim all the time, actually. Was practically a fish as a child, and last summer would swim regularly, but today was my first time in the pool in about 8 months and I could barely swim 1km! Will have to build it back up, but it's definitely a workout I feel way more than anything else.

[suzybenj]

Weight loss is a baffling and frustrating issue. I know very keen and fit sports people who don't lose weight. I think we sometimes over estimate how much exercise gives us in weight loss. My own experience,(such as it is - one step forward - four back) is that initially it is about what you eat and being very disiplined. When I get to the holy grail of a weight I want to be be ( not seen for a few years) excercise helps to maintain that. I don't allow for exercise in my calories count and stick to my daily allowance - and still it is painfully slow in coming off.

Best of luck next week.xx

[Hidden]

Hi suzybenj,

I kind of agree with you insofar as, really, it's about changing your eating habits and your activity/exercise habits.

And, that does take some degree of discipline, though I'd prefer to use the term commitment.

Basically, if your old eating habits led you to become overweight, then unless you change them, the overweightness (is there such a word?) isn't going to change either!

Or to put it another way around, keep doing the same old things = keep being overweight!

Except, of course - and here's the real crunch - if you don't change your habits ... Well, generally, overweight people will become more overweight. You see, your body gets used to your too much food / not enough activity regime and will actually encourage you to keep eating like that. And it will continue storing the excess as fat.

So, despite having eaten plenty, you still believe you're absolutely starving, 'I could eat a horse', you say - well that's not just coincidence. It's a result of how your body has adapted to being overweight/obese and that's inclined to be the way that hormones work in overweight people.

Overweight people tend to feel they need to eat more - until they retrain themselves to know that they don't.