I started Monday at 5ft5 and 13.5 stone. I’ve already lost 4 pounds and was wondering how much I can expect to lose in my first week and or month? I need inspiration to keep going and would love to here from those that’s been at it a bit longer than me. Tia.

Hi Heidio, well done on your loss so far – I would have thought that would be inspiration enough to keep going!

But, for the record, when I started 14 months ago (Jan 17) I was aiming at losing 2st and, as requested, here are my losses for the first 4 weeks:-
Week 1 – 8lbs
Week 2 – 3lbs
Week 3 – 2lbs
Week 4 – 5lbs
So a total of 18lbs in the first 4 weeks. I then hit a very frustrating stall, losing nothing at all for the next 2 weeks. However, the lovely people on this forum kept me going, and by the end of the 8 weeks I had lost 28lbs so, almost at goal, I lowered my target weight and decided to go for another round of 8 weeks to see where that would take me – I hit 2 more serious stalls, but by the end of that 2nd round of 8 weeks I had lost a total of 3st. I then entered maintenance, using reverse dieting, and continued to lose another 7lbs over the course of the next few weeks. Another few pounds then dropped off during maintenance. Since then, I have stabilised and I maintain at 8st +/- a pound (started at 11st 11lbs)

I hope this helps. I was VERY strict with myself, and not once did I exceed 800 calories 50g carbs a day. Please remember that everyone is different and lose at different rates, and weight loss is most definitely not linear. You will hit “stalls” but you need to just power on through and it will work. Good luck, and keep updating.

Hi Heidio79 – I’m a slow loser and I lost 7lb in the first four weeks, which included a stall of approx. 10days, when nothing shifted one way or another. It’s important to be aware that stalls and plateau are common, especially in the early weeks of the BSD. These are just the body adjusting to the new regime. If it happens to you, try not to lose heart and just keep drinking plenty, weighing, measuring and recording all your cals and carbs and things will start moving again. But do use the forum to vent your frustration and gain some encouragement, as this will help to carry you through – it certainly got me to my end goal and I know for sure I wouldn’t have managed without the support of the folks here.

A good way to keep motivated, is to set yourself mini-goals – there’s a thread somewhere for these, which you could revive. Mini-goals help to give you a sense of achievement when you hit them. They don’t even need to be directly weight related – could be something like comfortably fitting into a garment that has had to be side lined, or being able to walk a certain distance without being too out of breath to talk. Equally it could be dropping into the next stone bracket or losing a few pounds before a particular event – be creative with it to keep it fun and achievable.

Another thing to help keep motivation up, is joining the current 4wk challenge thread – think this month the title is something about Starch in March. These really help to make you accountable and so help to spur you along.

Best of luck to you for continued steady weight loss and we’ll look forward to reading of your progress.

Thanks for the detailed and thoughtful responses. I am strict, intermittent fast 20:4 and stick to 20 carbs or under as I’ve been doing keto for months but stalled. 🤞

I’m going to join the March thread, thanks x

Hello, Heidio, and welcome! Theodora is absolutely right in
recommending that you don’t compare your results to others.
It’s a natural instinct to “project” into the future, but the human
body is a complex and confounding mechanism. It gives up the
weight in fits and starts sometimes. If you are doing everything
right, lots of water, low carbs, etc., there will be times when there
is nothing to do but power through it. Try to just trust in the
process. All the support you could imagine is waiting here for
you, you have only to ask, and one of us will be along to offer advice
and a tip or two to get you past the rough spots 🙂 We have all
been where you are, and many of us in maintenance remain
on the boards to share what we have learned.
Best wishes, and update us on your journey!

Allie

Hi Heidio79.

I agree with Alliecat about not judging yourself based on others. We all carry our weight in different parts of the body and have different life styles and personal lives which will make the journey unique for each of us.
One thing I have found helpful is coming up with targets which are small steps, getting in the next ‘stone’ band, next Kg band, finding a piece of work easier, inch loss, all give you encouragement. Sometimes the inches drop but the scales don’t change, sometimes the scales change and the inches don’t. There is a phrase on these forums NSV = None Scale Victories = positive experiences which are just as worthy of celebrations as the reading on the scales.

Thanks. I know everyone is different but love hearing success stories anyway 😊

Hey, JGwen! Earlier in the day while having my first morning
cup of coffee in chilly New England, I read your snail post.
How it made me laugh! Particularly your comment on how
to determine if the “slime” was evenly distributed 🙂 I couldn’t
even begin to explain to o/h how unique and delightful your
special take on interpreting research results is to these forums!
What a perfect way to begin my day…Thanks so much 🙂

Allie

Hi Heidio7, good on you for starting! And that is a very impressive start. I am just about at the end of my weight loss phase 78.3 down to 60.4 today. This is week 16 (and my last) so you can see from that I have been a moderate to slow rate loser. First two weeks were astonishing 2.2kg and 2.1kg. It then settled into around 1 kg a week give or take. Not only do the rates differ between us, the patterns of loss also differ. My pattern quickly set into staying at the same weight for 3 or 4 days and then two days of modest drops. I also hit a couple of longer stalls and you really just have to tough these out. Take lots of measurements, waist, hips, thighs, bust etc. as during these stall these are more often than not reducing! Go figure that one but can be extra motivation and a boost. Often my weight woukd not be budging but my clothes woukd be more comfortable, looser and eventually rediculously baggy.

Anyway, it all starts to feel normal after a little while. It is a big investment in your future health and wellbeing so worth a big effort. The best approach for me was to be unfailingly strict about the calories, food types and low carbs – no exceptions. Have fun.