Weighty matters

[puddingcat]

This SparkPeople diety thingy...

Well, I've lost my water weight; 4lbs of it. What comes off now *should*, in theory, be fat.

Usually when I diet, I go all out - much as I do for anything else. I'm either in it to win, or I don't try at all. I lose 7-14lbs, then stop & go back to old habits - which keep me at a steady weight, so I don't put any back on. I do gain it back next time a stresspatch hits me & I start comfort eating.

This Spark thingy is making me start slowly, which feels strange. I'm not *supposed* to be counting calories yet; only keeping track of what I eat so I know where I most need to make changes (although it has given me a target daily intake - I assume so I know whether I'm miles or feet out).

I know I can't expect to wake up tomorrow and be thin. It's taken me 16 months to get this size, from when I broke my wrist, and I can't expect it to come off again in a few weeks. I also know that muscle weighs more than fat, and so what the scales say isn't the end of the world. With those things in mind:

I'd been going to the gym 3 times a week & burning off 300-400 Calories a time for a month or so before I started this thing.

Without changing anything, I'm fluctuating between eating 1400 and 1900 Calories a day.

Even allowing for my (lack of) height meaning that I need slightly less than the "average" 2000 Cals/day, that means I should have been getting thinner over the last month. Not much; maybe just enough that some trousers aren't tight any more; but I should have seen a difference somewhere, either on the scales or in the fit of my clothes.

And I haven't.

If this was just the first week of a normal diet, I wouldn't mind. It's the fact that it's after five weeks of a fairly rigorous exercise plan, combined with sensible eating, that's making me disillusioned. I don't like the way I look or feel, and I want to know what I'm doing wrong.

Bah.

Comments

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

What makes you think you're doing anything wrong?

[puddingcat.livejournal.com]

Er - because nobody else is holding me down & shoving lard down my throat?

Ordinarily, my energy in slightly exceeds my calories expended. With the addition of exercise, I should have reversed that enough by now to see a difference somewhere. I'm not dieting as such yet, so I shouldn't be damaging my metabolism at all.

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but on 1400-1900 calories a day you aren't shoving lard down your throat either :)

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Maybe some fat is being replaced by muscle, but in the bits where clothes feel like they fit or not, so it makes little difference to the size or the weight.