Looking to lose 20 lbs in 10 weeks

[MikeVincent]

Hi,

I weigh in at about 100kg - with a BMI in the obese-ii category. I'm looking to lose weight and have set my goal at 20 lbs in 10 weeks.

3 weeks ago I was at 105kgs, so I have made a reasonable start, but I think it is likely to get harder.

My approach is this: exercise more and eat better and less.

I have started walking rather than driving and am averaging about 6000 steps a day.

In terms of food, I have quit takeaways and ready meals and have started cooking fresh food. Lots of veg - onions, peppers, carrots, parsnips etc. and fish.

I'm weighing myself daily in the morning, and weekly at a weight loss support group. The daily reading goes up and down quite a lot, but the trend is downwards.

The eat less exercise more is pretty common to all diets, but what are the differences or complications when someone with diabetes tries to lose weight? Are there more things I should be doing or doing differently?

Thanks for your help,

Mike

 

[Paul_PC]

Mike, good luck with your goal but I'd suggest that daily weigh-ins are a bit extreme. I weigh every Sunday morning first thing without fail. It helps my motivation to see a larger weekly loss - currently 3-4lbs - than watch it creep down very slowly. Plus, if I fall off the wagon for a day, I don't have to beat myself up, I just adjust the next day!

 

[mo1905]

I agree with Paul. Daily weigh-ins seem too much. Your weight can fluctuate a lot in 24 hrs. 2lb a week is a good sensible target though. Good luck and keep us informed with your progress.


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[Yorksman]

I weigh myself 3 or 4 times a day. I find it interesting to see the up and down pattern. Overall it goes down in steps.

Whenever I hit a new low, it always bounces back up and remains 1kg higher for a few days and then creeps down and then a big fall and the process is then repeated. It is so predicatable that I don't care when it goes up or when I get stuck, I just want to know which part of the cycle I am in. But it is a definite cycle of weight loss, stabilisation, shape changing, consolidation and then weight loss again.

If BG monitor strips weren't so expensive, I'd try to correlate this cycle with BG levels.

 

[DaveNN]

I've found a decent supplier on eBay for my iBGStar.
They cost me about £25 for 100, as opposed to £54 with Boots.
They are sealed and appear to have the right marking and are not clones.
That said, I'm running out of lancets ... and may see if there is anything better out there.

Whist the weight loss is excellent, I suspect that the carrots are not helping with the blood glucose levels.


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[MikeVincent]

Thanks for the replies.

Regarding the daily weighs - I'll see if I can post a graph of my progress so far. Despite the fluctuation, I'm finding it useful. The weekly weigh is the one I'm most interested in - that's the one my friends see and judge me on.

I had a huge daily dip last week - it went from about 101 kg to 98kg in a day, then the next day was up at 102 kg. Assuming my scales read consistently, that is a huge variation in a short space of time. If the weekly weigh in occurs at either the high point or the low point of that cycle I could be falsely elated or discouraged.

Carrots - are they not advisable?

 

[Paul_c]

raw carrots are fine... it's well cooked carrots that give me problems...

I've dumped potatoes and use celeriac instead (celeriac has zero net carbs). They can be roasted, mashed or chipped just like potatoes can (cooking time is different though, just experiment to find what works with your cooker). I've also taken to using grated celeriac or grated cauliflour instead of rice and also use Shirataki noodles for stir-frys and as a pasta substitute (they have no carbs in them at all). Spaghetti squash also makes a great pasta substitute when you can get it.

 

[MikeVincent]

I love roasted carrots! Didn't occur to me that they'd be dodgy.

Does the same advice go for parsnip and swede, too?

Thanks,

Mike

 

[LemonTree]

Hi Mike

It sounds like you're doing really well and looking at it very positively. I think you will lose 20lbs in that time at the rate you're going. I weigh myself daily too, I think it helps as a constant reminder of what you want to achieve and only really a problem if you're border line anorexic or if you're struggling to lose weight and getting depressed.

Good luck!

Sent from my GT-I9100 using DCUK Forum mobile app

 

[MikeVincent]

Thanks, LemonTree.

Mike

 

[DaveNN]

Hi,
My new, limited but expanding knowledge on DM..but not Atkins..is that root vegetables contain more carbs ( gram per gram) than veg that grows above ground.
I'm not saying that they are bad for you but if you are watching carbs, then pls consider is.
I tend to eat sprouts and such like, usually but I'm low carbing and avoiding all veg for the time being.


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[viviennem]

Hi,
My new, limited but expanding knowledge on DM..but not Atkins..is that root vegetables contain more carbs ( gram per gram) than veg that grows above ground.
I'm not saying that they are bad for you but if you are watching carbs, then pls consider is.
I tend to eat sprouts and such like, usually but I'm low carbing and avoiding all veg for the time being.


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In general root veg do contain more carbs than above-ground ones, but there are exceptions to both. I think turnips may be okay, and I can cope with a few carrots, but parsnips are out for me (even rolled in parmesan and oven-roasted - I have a few at Christmas :crazy: )

Get yourself a carb counter book - Collins do a very handy one in their Gem series, though it does contain a few howlers! Then you can check on the carb content of the foods you eat/are eating.

Have a look at Viv's Modified Atkins Diet, which is a Sticky Thread on the Low-carb Diet section of the forum. It works for me. At the very least you'll get a list of low-carb foods that are safe to eat in satisfying quantities. I don't use insulin myself, so you'll maybe need a bit of advice from an insulin-using low-carber, but I do know that very-low-carb can be used, eg by Type 1s.

If 25g/daily is too low for you, add on the extra carbs, as you have been doing, by adding extra low-carb veg.

First time I tried this diet I lost 50lb in the first 6 months. You should easily be able to achieve your goal using it, even wih a few more carbs. I start putting weight on again if I go over about 50g daily , - I don't get on with carbs . Two slices of oat bread toast yesterday confirmed this :shock: - as if I didn't know it already :roll:

Good luck - let us know how you get on.

Viv 8)

 

[MikeVincent]

Thanks, Viv, very useful.

 

[Chris P]

Thing I would say is keep at it.
Don't be disheartened by ups and downs on the weight readings but keep at it.
I was told I was pre-diabetic - i.e. diet to control Type II in April 2011 and was 260 llbs.
By the end of 2011 I was down to 235.
2012 was a bad year - work wise, mum's dementia, partner's depression etc...
So 2012 remained constant with a bit of creeping up to 240 by the end of the year.
I need to do better but its good to have lost the weight and kept it off.
Back on the wagon now.
I would daily weigh and still do at times If I'm having a very virtuous or bad week.
Just accept that weight will change -for whatever reason - on a daily basis.
What matters is the direction in which it is moving (so Sunday morning is my official record day and time) - my latest move is to have an average graph of my weight to see trends - and over last year it went up at times of holiday (having to eat out etc), being away for work/pleasure (again having to eat out etc) and Birthday and Christmas.
Keep at the mutual support if you can and every bit helps - if not today, then tomorrow etc.
Chris

 

[elviscole]

im in a similar boat, aiming to lose 25 lb by end of march, started jan 2 and so far have lost 12.1 lb, stopped eating bread, potatoes, rice, eating more meat, cheese, veg and drinking full cream milk (4%) instead of semi skimmed, so sort of low carbing :thumbup:
my starting weight was 105.4kg and now at 99.8kg,

 

[MikeVincent]

You are in a very similar position to me, elviscole. And you're doing better than me.

My daily weight reading was bad this morning, but I did over do things on friday night My weekly weigh-in is tonight. I wonder if I have lost anything this week.

What is the benefit of going to full cream milk? Does the 2% make any difference? (I suppose that question can be asked either way).

Mike

 

[Chris P]

(SNIP)
My daily weight reading was bad this morning, but I did over do things on friday night My weekly weigh-in is tonight. I wonder if I have lost anything this week.
Mike

So then Mike, what was the result of the weigh in?
If you over did things on Friday then I hope it was in a good cause (celebration, party etc).
If you have a bad day then just accept it and try and be better the next day and the day after that.
I've been all over the place since Christmas on the "official" Sunday weigh ins - the cold weather plus January blues hasn't helped:
6/1 - 239.8 lbs
13/1 - 240.6 lbs
20/1 - 238.8 lbs
27/1 - 242.7 ;bs
3/2 - 238.2 lbs
Aside from my weekly record, I also have a 5 weekly "moving average" that I graph (easy to set up in Excel) and we're on the downslope after a Christmas Spike.

Just keep at it, and keep chipping away at the weight. Changed (but healthy) eating patterns are also I feel the only way that one will ultimately keep the weight off in the long run.

Chris

 

[MikeVincent]

(SNIP)
My daily weight reading was bad this morning, but I did over do things on friday night My weekly weigh-in is tonight. I wonder if I have lost anything this week.
Mike

So then Mike, what was the result of the weigh in?
If you over did things on Friday then I hope it was in a good cause (celebration, party etc).

Thanks for asking, Chris. I lost a small amount, but a loss is a loss.

If you have a bad day then just accept it and try and be better the next day and the day after that.
I've been all over the place since Christmas on the "official" Sunday weigh ins - the cold weather plus January blues hasn't helped:
6/1 - 239.8 lbs
13/1 - 240.6 lbs
20/1 - 238.8 lbs
27/1 - 242.7 ;bs
3/2 - 238.2 lbs
Aside from my weekly record, I also have a 5 weekly "moving average" that I graph (easy to set up in Excel) and we're on the downslope after a Christmas Spike.

Just keep at it, and keep chipping away at the weight. Changed (but healthy) eating patterns are also I feel the only way that one will ultimately keep the weight off in the long run.

Chris

I use an android app on my tablet to keep track of my weight changes. It has some sort of smoothing which I believe to be based on a weighted moving average. It also plots a straight line to my goal weight. I'm pretty close to my goal which is 2lb a week. I've lost about 10lbs, but not quite. Its proving difficult to pass the 10lbs!

I've lost waist, though. My trousers keep falling down - nowhere embarrassing yet, though

Regards,

Mike

 

[MikeVincent]

Here's my weigh chart. The blue line represents the actual daily weights, the yellow line is the trend and the dashed line is my 2lb a week goal. The green line is my 10 week target.

I started at 105 kg and am about 100 now, so half way

The daily variations can be quite dramatic - I've learned not to be too concerned over the day to day weighs.

http://i50.tinypic.com/345hgr6.jpg

 

[viviennem]

Day-to-day variations mainly reflect fluid retention, I believe. Once a week at the same time gives a truer picture.

I believe that in hospitals they used to weigh patients first thing in the morning or at 16:00 hours - apparently the times when you're lightest! This may well be an old wives' tale. I weigh once a week straight after my shower and preferably after emptying my bowels. That can really make a difference :shock:

Viv 8)

(serial dieter for 50 years)