But I have to remind myself of a few simple facts. 500g-1kg loss a week is healthy. It means I'm not starving myself, but I have enough of a calorie deficit every day to lose weight. And after only a week, I reduced my body fat by .5%. It's not an enormous amount, but I'm still easing into it. I'm not killing myself yet, in the gym, but I've raised my activity level from sedantary all day to 40-60min active. And I did that 5 days straight.
I'm well on my way to my goals, at this rate.
So I thought today I'd analyse the expectation of big weight loss. We all expect it, but we also understand that big loss is unhealthy. My husband does it all the time. He drops the bundle when he realises that he isn't losing what he expected, but every time I remind him that it's the measurements that matter. If anything is smaller, it's because he's put on muscle. Or ask him if he's been perfect on his diet. His biggest problem is sweets. He loves them, and they are readily available to him every day of the week at work. So he justifies eating it because he's done a big workout in the morning and doing another at night. We're not dogs. We do not deserve a treat because we were good. That sugar gets burned before fat does, and so all he is doing is negating his workout.
But on top of that, modern television makes it seem you can lose big weight in a short period of time. Biggest Loser is a TV show that pretty much perpetuates that. But also just watch ads. You have diet pills, soup maker soup diets, Ninja or Bullet smoothie diets, etc. They all report massive weight loss in short periods of time. But how much of that is actually true? Cracked.com had a story last year about the men and women that were paid to loss that weight very quickly. For the most part, these people did things unassociated with whatever they were advertising because they would help them get better results. The before pictures are generally years ago or before said people already started getting their health in check. There are no regulations for advertising for these companies, but they create a false perception.
Working out and eating right are the only safe ways to lose weight. Sure, you can use supplements to help the process along, and every now and then you can have a big week, like 2kg, but for the most part, that 500g to 1kg is fantastic.
This week I'm adding breakfast back into my diet (was having protein shakes), which has increased my saturated fat for each day. But I've also increased my water consumption. I had just 2.5lt yesterday, which is about 1lt more than usual. And I did two workouts. A high intensity cardio one (seriously, who gives themselves burpees... oh right. Me.) and a casual 4.5km walk. In total I burned 750 calories, consumed 1320, so I had an 800 calorie deficit for the day. I will probably not maintain that this week, as my dinners cost less or more depending on what they are. But if I maintained that, I will likely lose around 1kg this week.
The trick is that I will not weigh in this week. Every other week. That way I can see proper numbers and can't get too disappointed again.
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