Sarahs Weightloss Blog

One of the things that makes losing weight really hard, particularly if like me you’re in it for the long haul, are what I call ‘blips’.  These ‘blips’ refer to the times when for a week or two you either stop losing weight, or even put a little on.  These blips can be a bit soul destroying, but I’ve found that although they do happen, over time you do still keep losing weight.  I’ve also found for us girls that rate of weight loss/gain can change over the course of a month.  Anyway here are some tips for staying strong when you encounter a ‘blip’ and some really ridiculous rumours I’ve heard about these ‘blips’.

1. The ‘Weight Loss Plateau’ myth

I heard about this before I started dieting, (from an NHS information booklet no less!) and it really worried me.  Apparently if you are aiming to lose weight – particularly a large amount of weight – you will eventually reach a point where, despite your diet and exercise, you cannot lose any more weight!  Thus when I encountered my first ‘blip’ I thought ‘thats it! I’m not losing anymore! *sob* I’m going to be obese forever!’.  What a load of rubbish though – I asked my personal trainer and he said not to worry since 1. it could be due to my increase in strength and thus muscle mass offsetting the loss in body fat 2. it could be the time of month since in women weight varies anyway in this way and 3. even if I did reach the ‘plateau’ it just means I need to take the regime to the next level – a little less food or a bit more exercise – as your body is adapting to the food and exercise you give it, by getting fitter.  You are also lighter, and thus burn less calories since you are carrying less weight. 

So an alternative read into these blips is that you are getting lighter, fitter and healthier, and thus able to do more – so instead of despairing take it as a good sign of progress and step up to the new plate!  To keep the weightloss up I replaced walking with jogging and starting exercising 4-5, rather than 2-3 times a week and hey presto! I was losing 0.5-1kg/wk again – PHEW!

2. Don’t Panic!

This should be on the front cover of every weight loss manual I think But yes, the important thing to remember when encountering a ‘blip’ is not to panic. People do all sorts of things when they encounter these, like not eating at all for a day, purging or not drinking water to get the weight back down.  Don’t bother doing any of that, it’s pointless.  The fact is I’ve found that sometimes I have put on a few pounds, but then the next week my weight would be what I expected it to be for that week before the ‘blip’ – sometimes weight just fluctuates.

3. Motivators

If you’re fighting the demotivation of encountering a ‘blip’ that won’t shift after a few weeks, then you need something or someone to help you through it – my personal trainer has always been a great pillar for this, but you can also do something else. Like keep a picture of what you used to look like as a reminder of how far you’ve come and to help keep you going.  Also the graphs in shapeup club are great for this since you can see for yourself that the ‘blips’ become just that, but overall you have still lost weight.  Also the more you lose, the smaller these ‘blips’ seem on the graphs.

4. Weight isn’t everything

The first thing my mum told me when I started dieting was – ‘don’t become obsessed with the scales, sometimes the scales won’t shift, even if you haven’t cheated once that week and you did loads of exercise and ran faster than you ever did.  A much better indicator of your progress is your fitness, how healthy you feel and your dress size’ – great advice mum!  Sometimes weight doesn’t change but your body does – measure everything: arms, chest, legs, bum, waist and compare this over time. My PT measures all those things before and after the 7 week block of training sessions and hearing the results is a really great motivational booster.  Use dress size as a goal rather than weight perhaps.  Also record your achievements at the gym – if I reduced my 5km running time at the gym by 2 minutes, but didn’t lose weight – so what! I am still fitter and healthier than I have ever been, even when I was a healthy weight! 

5. My Motivators

Thought I would share these with you, (although I am still embarrassed and ashamed at how large I was, and to a certain extent still am ) and I would recommend you do the same.  Take some head on shots (which I haven’t done unfortunately) so you can see the change a bit more.  But I hope you get the general idea.

Me Summer 2008 - size 20-22 before the new regime began

Me June 28th 2009 - size 18, 1 month after the start of my new lifestyle

Me 31st August 2009 - size 16-18

Me 12th Sep 2009 - size 16

Me 11th October 2009 - size 16 trousers getting baggy!

I’m down now to 85kgs – 10 more kgs till next target! However it does feel like it is taking FOREVER to get down to a size 14.  The size 16s are baggy, but the size 14 trousers are still way too small! Its like – hey I’m losing weight, but I’m not getting any smaller – *sobs* – but then I look at these photos and I think, actually I am a lot smaller than I was, I actually have a figure for one!  So eventually I will be a size 14, then a size 12, it is achievable, it will just take some time and some hard work, but I’m having fun so its not that bad really

Till next time folks . . .