Weight - quick on but sloooow off - why??

[PinkFizz]

Is there a reason why you can put on a few pounds(or more) really quickly but when it comes to losing it ,it comes off so slowly??

I have been sooooo good for the last 3 weeks and have lost just 5 lb,yet I know full well that if I went back to my old habits this weekend,ate what I liked,then I could quite realistically put about 3 of them back on.

Why??? lol

[mnko]

sods law pinky stop eating the cola cubes. i've been eating good for 8 days now lost 12lb and feeling mighty fine woooo hooooo

[Octavius]

Your body's metabolism gets confused. Every time you lose weight and gain it back, your metabolism changes and adjusts in such a way that it becomes more difficult to lose weight the next time around. Starving yourself of the appropriate nutrients tells your body to store foods as fat.

The key to weight-loss success lies, if you must, in using the fad diet for initial weight loss only, then immediately switching to a more sensible, low-calorie eating plan that is both safe and enjoyable for long-term use and combine this with some regular exercise.

[crete]

pink stop being so hard on yourself, eat a healthy diet and stop weighing yourself, : )

[PinkFizz]

All I have been doing is eating sensibly - fruit,veg,lean meat and fish,yoghurt,and I have cut out all rubbish.

[mnko]

if u dont mind me asking how much r u looking to lose overall?
just if its only a small amount it does take a bit longer. gl hun

[Panic Button]

Well don't look at me, I ain't gonna tell you what to do.

[ummmm1]

Pink....I've been banned :-(

I don't the answer to your question though...sorry

[PinkFizz]

Ideally 2 stone - Iam not looking to lose it overnight but would like to lose it by June.

[zipadeedodah]

Pink they're always saying that it's much better to lose weight slowly - more likely to keep it off. So 5lb in 3 weeks sounds fine really! Just keep eating sensibly, and slowly but surely the weight should come off.

Out of interest, does anyone know if weight tends to come off a particular part of the body first? Or is it totally different for different people?

[whiskeysheri]

Hi, babe!

Are you counting calories at all? It's the only way I can lose weight as I found I always under-estimated how many I was actually having.

I'm just emailing you, honey. x

[Octavius]

Metabolism is a complicated chemical process, so we tend to think of it simply as something that influences how easily our bodies gain or lose weight. That's where calories come in as they measure how much energy (fuel) a particular food provides to our body.

Just as a car will store petrol in the tank until it is needed to fuel the engine, the body stores calories - primarily as fat. If you overfill the tank, it spills over. Likewise, if you eat too many calories they "spill over" in the form of excess fat on the body. Where this fat goes is dependant on the individual. For women it can be hips, thighs, bums or tums. For men it is more often on the belly and face. Men generally have a higher metabolism than women.

The number of calories a person burns in a day is affected by how much that person exercises, the amount of fat and muscle in his or her body, and the person's basal metabolic rate (look up BMR). Your BMR is usually inherited and depends on your body composition, but you can effect change by exercise and healthy eating. People with more muscle and less fat have higher BMRs.

Low calorie diets can slow down metabolism, hence a healthy balance combined with exercise is recommended over a fair period of time to allow your body, and metabolism to get used to the idea of regulated supply & demand. Generally though, whatever your metabolism rate and dietary intake, the usual suspect for not losing excess weight is a lack of exercise or working out (weights etc), which can increase metabolism.

[PinkFizz]

I am not counting calories at all as I have found in the past that psychologically when I got to my daily limit I then wanted to eat more. I m just eating very healthy and trying to not anything with more than 5% fat in it. I do feel much better healthwise though. My doctor said my underactive thyroid certainly isnt helping and I have just had a blood test today to see if my medication needs raising. Im just impatient!! lol

But I know crash diets are not the way,and have no intention of doing that. : )

[IggyB]

evolution plays a very big role in this phenomenon - it is only fairly recently in terms of human evolution that the ability to shed excess fat has become advantageous, in our development it would have been a distinct disadvantage to very effectively store fats when food was plentiful and to only use these deposits slowly when food was in short supply e.g. an individual with a very high metabolism would be more likely to pass on its genes as it would be less appealing to breeding and ran the risk of staring when short of food.

[maggie01]

I think it is best not to look at it as a diet to loose weight. More a change in eating habits. I joined weight watchers in March and lost a bit of weight and then decided to do it on my own. It has been really hard at times but I have lost over 3stone. I still have about 4lbs to loose but I am not getting stressed about that. If you think about being on a diet, then as soon as you start to eat normal (what ever that is) then the weight starts to go back on. Everything in moderation when you reach your ideal weight is probably the answer. Stick with it,, it will go.

[curlyfilm]

its just the little things that help fizz, cutting down fat, its hidden in lots of foods, if you try too eat food with less than 3% fat, that is in total, you'll notice the difference, and remember a pint off water weighs 1lb and a 1/4, thats a good wee, also some cardio vascular exercise helps, and dont starve yourself as you body just holds onto everthing

ps if you need some cardio vascular exercise, i can help!................lol