Week 10 Weigh-In Result and the 5:2 Diet

Well, I put on 0.6lbs last week, and as of Monday, I weighed 197.2lbs.

So basically, I've made no progress at all in the last five weeks. And to be honest, I haven't really been trying. I've still been logging my food on My Fitness Pal, but I haven't been careful about what I've been eating.

But, this week I started turning it around. I did a little mid-week weigh-in this morning, and I'm back to 195.4, so by Monday hopefully I'll be a little lower and back into Weight Loss Territory.

I know for the last few weeks I've been saying things like 'oh, I'm really determined now' and 'I'M IN HARDCORE WEIGHT LOSS MODE FROM NOW ON', but now I actually am. I started feeling really depressed earlier in the week - not the kind of depressed that makes me want to eat, but the sort that makes me desperate to start making some progress.

I've also started reading a book about emotional eating, and it's helping me to bear a few things in mind when I'm bored/tired/lonely/depressed - and I'm trying to hold back from eating during those times, when I know I'm not actually hungry.

Anyway, here's something I haven't talked about before. After the first couple of weeks of trying to lose weight through Being Sensible, I decided to switch to the 5:2 diet. Obviously, in the last 4-5 weeks I haven't been putting much effort in and I wouldn't say that I've been following the diet at all, hence the stall in weight loss. But in the first few weeks, it worked extremely well for me. If you haven't heard of it, it's a slightly easier version of the Alternate Day Fasting diet (which is when you fast every other day). With the 5:2 diet, you just fast two days a week, and have five 'normal' days, when you're supposed to be able to eat whatever you like - except I usually try to stick between 1500 and 1800 on those days, just as a rough guideline so I don't go completely crazy and eat all the foods.

I should mention that the fasting days aren't proper fasting days - I usually have about 500 calories on those days. For guys, you're supposed to have about 600 on those days. Anyway, for those weeks when I've been following the diet, I've been losing weight very comfortably. It's been more like a 6:1 diet for me - in other words, I've usually just been doing one fasting day, and six normal days - and I've still been losing 1.5-3lbs a week.

I know people might be quick to jump on what sounds like just another faddy diet - which I suppose it is, but I've found it quite easy to stick to - and most importantly, it's been WORKING for me - and so I'm going to keep doing it. For me, I find it easier to just have one slightly more painful day in the week where I don't get to eat much and to have all the other days as normal food days, than to have 7 more restrictive days of calorie counting. It's just something that I find easier to deal with, mentally.

So this week, I'm trying to get through the week doing two fasting days instead of one because I desperately want to see some progress after having spent the last month hovering between 195 and 198lbs. Today is a fasting day. I won't lie, these fasting days suck, but I never do the two fasting days in a row so at the end of a fasting day, at least I know there's always a normal day ahead.

Anyway, I'm not advising anyone to follow this diet - I'm just talking about my own experiences of it so far. And as long as it's helping me achieve my goals, I'm going to stick with it. I mean, I know that restricting calories will always work, however you do it - but I've struggled so long to find a way of doing it that actually works for me, so I'm going to keep going with it.

Of course, I have been slacking off in the last month or so, so what went wrong there? Well, I'm putting it down to my issues with emotional eating. I was stressed with work, so I ate. I'm working on cutting those ties right now. It's something I've never really paid attention to before, I've just accepted it as part of who I am. But I've started to realise that I really need to work on it so that maybe one day, I'll be able to function like a normal person and not have my mood dictate whether or not I pig out.

Well, this has been a long and rambly and not-very-coherent post. Hopefully I'll have a good result to report on Monday for my next weigh-in. I'm hoping to finally be below 195 - watch this space!

Week 8 Weigh-In Result!

Well, it was going to happen sooner or later - I had my first proper binging-and-pigging-out-and-not-caring-about-what-I-ate week.

As a result, I went from 195.0lbs last week to 198.0lbs this week! THREE POUNDS UP!

That's quite horrifying. But as horrible as it is, I know it'll be alright. I am NOT going back over 200. I've had my fun, I've had a nice few days telling myself not to care and to eat whatever I want - so now it's back to work. It's just part of the ups and downs of losing weight. It'll be alright.

So, time to go through my food diary for the latest Food List of Shame:

• Alcoholic beverages (which came to a total of 777 calories in one night - argh!)
• Cake
• One full English hangover breakfast
• 3 course meal at the Loch Fyne Fish Restaurant, also with several large pieces of bread and butter and mixed olives! (This was absolutely delicious though...)
• Half a large Domino's pizza
• Half a box of Domino's Chicken Kickers
• 6 inch Subway meatball marinara
• 1.5 pints of beer

Awful. As you can see from the list, I quite clearly did not give a crap about what I ate this week. Well, that's not strictly true - the first four days of the week went very well and I had everything under control. It was that hangover day that threw me off. I felt so awful that I just started not caring. So, in future, I'd like to avoid getting a hangover and just y'know, drink less the night before. It's not worth feeling that terrible the day after AND having it throw me off my diet completely.

Just to give you an idea how many calories I ate (I managed to track everything all week, even though sometimes I really didn't want to). My total amount of calories for the week was 14778, and the daily average was 2111. Now, some people would tell me that there's no way I should have gained three pounds from that, since 2111 is roughly my TDEE. If they're right, I shouldn't really have gained weight at all. So then what - are we just looking at a lot of food weight that is still in my system (I only ate the pizza about 10 hours ago...). Perhaps a lot of water retention from the increased sodium levels? It's all possible, I suppose. It's reassuring to think that maybe I haven't just gained three pounds of fat back, but I have no idea what's actually going on, really.

But anyway, I've been hovering around last week's weight far too long (195), and now I've just given myself more work to do to just get back to that weight. Not a happy thought. I knew last week was going downhill pretty quickly, but I'd hoped I would be able to maintain or just have a small gain. But anyway, I've had a gain and it's the first gain I've had since September 17th - so that's not too bad. Now for many more weeks of losses!

This week is going to be flawless. I wouldn't normally say that, but I'm really, really determined now!

Week 3 Weigh-In Result!

*drumroll*

I gained 0.4lbs this week. So, my current weight is now 202.8lbs.

But I'm still in the 202s, so that's great! I knew I would have a gain, because I ate so much last week - and I'm glad it was just a small gain. I'm feeling really focused and determined to have a really good week.

Now I know what my ideal calorie intake should be for weight loss (about 1700-1800 for me), I feel much more relaxed about things. Everything's much clearer in my mind now. Before, I had no real idea of how many calories I should actually be eating. I'd always had 1200 on the brain, thinking that it was a nice sensible number because obviously anything below that was too drastic. But now 1200 can just go to hell. I don't want you, 1200!

Of course, I realise that next week I could be writing my next weigh-in post, being super-whiny and feeling really miserable because my magical plan hasn't worked at all and it was stupid of me to think I could lose weight on 1700 a day because that's obviously just an enormous amount of calories. But I hope that won't be the case...

So this week, I'm going to stick to that limit every day, and do about 30 minutes of exercise every day (3 kettlebell workouts, and the other 4 days will just be on the cross-trainer). Hopefully I'll see some results that will take me ever closer to Onederland. Well, I'm pretty much almost there, I'm only a couple of pounds away from it. But I never thought I would struggle this much just to lose 5 pesky pounds to get back under 200, after floating about in the 190s so effortlessly for the last 3 years. Ah well!

Anyway, now I know what the damage is from last week, I can reveal last week's Food List of Shame:

• Tarte tatin
• Too many beers
• Slice of cheesecake and a caramel cream frappuccino from Starbucks
• Half portion of Philly cheese steak with fries (I thought I was being so good at this point, only ordering a half portion!)
• A full portion of Philly cheese steak and fries the following night
• A plate of nachos with everything on it (chili, sour cream, cheese, salsa, guacamole)
• A full English breakfast (called 'The Ultimate English Breakfast'...)
• Burger and fries
• Burger and fries
• Big plate of pasta
• Ice cream, sweets
• McDonalds sausage and egg McMuffin with two hash browns

Wow. I think you'll agree that I outdid myself, there. All that, in five days! I can't believe I only gained 0.4lbs. I was pretty active all week, and it seems to have made the difference. I wonder how much I'd have weighed today if I had done nothing all week instead?

I'm feeling so much happier than I did on Friday night at the end of my week-long binge. And, even though my third weigh-in has been a gain in weight, I feel so good because my head's in the right place and I'm back on track.

I've also started weighing my food. I never thought I'd be one of those people, because it seemed a bit extreme - but I love doing it and knowing exactly how much I've eaten because it makes my food diary on MFP super-accurate. It's been helping me have little revelations, such as "OMG, 40g of cereal is NOTHING!", and so on. That's the standard serving size, according to the size of my cereal box. And it's about a quarter of a bowl. My bowl isn't even that big. My parents have ENORMOUS cereal bowls. If you filled one of those up, you'd probably be looking at 800 calories of cereal! 

Anyway, time to go and waste some more time on MFP. I'm addicted...