Question about weight loss and maintenance

terlywerly

Hi, well as you can see from my sig I started at 178lb back in March or April, and over the months have managed to get to my current weight, just 1lb from 10 stone. Inintially I was calorie counting and monitoring what I ate very closely, and I started the Couch to 5k programme also.
I plateau'd for a while at 150lb, before I started losing another bit albeit slowly. I haven't calorie counted for a while but I still keep a record of what I eat and I did a rough add up and it would normally be around 1700-1800kcal a day currently versus around 1300kcal when I was actively counting.
What I'm wondering is, how exactly can you figure what you need to do to stay around that 10 stone mark? I haven't had the best eating habits for the last few weeks yet I have still lost a lb or two here and there. My food wasn't great at all last week and this morning I weighed myself and have lost 2lb. I drink around 2l of water every day pretty consistently, and I haven't done much exercising lately, but I'm hoping to get back into it a bit again.
This is probably a really silly question but I'm just wondering how I could lose 2lb over a very unhealthy week food and drink wise, yet when I had more weight to lose at the beginning, I found it hard to lose 2lb on a much healthier diet.
Any help/tips/advice would be great, and sorry this is so long!

rocky

Healthy or unhealthy, a calorie is a calorie. Unless you know exactly how much you eat, your estimation may be off by a few hundred calories a day.

My guess: you ate less than your maintenance without realizing it.

huskerdu

I agree with the post above.
Also, if you are fitter and more active now, you are probably burning more calories per day.

Take it as a good thing that you can maintain your weight without having to be obsessive about counting calories.

Keep up the good work.

terlywerly

That's the thing. I haven't been more active lately. If anything I've been much less. And I know even not counting exact calories that I'm taking in a whole lot more of them in the past few weeks than I had been months before. Back when I started trying to lose weight I never ate crisps, chocolate, takeaways etc and I've had my fair share of them the past few weeks, along with more carby things like pasta that I absolutely never ate at the beginning. That's why I found it a bit odd. Its like losing weight without trying, and although that sounds great to a lot of people, I don't wanna lose too much weight either...

metamorphosis

This is my opinion and my past experience - for a good while, while losing weight, you were regimented to an extent in eating. This 'let loose' phase may have been a little shock to your body and thus, it didn't really know how to react and may have given it a kick so to speak. Thing is, and from my past experience, it will all catch up without realization. The whys and hows dont really matter.you know yourself the importance of cutting back on the ****e food soon.

Its as simple as eating whole foods again and getting rid of the majority of the junk.

Congrats on the loss by the way

Catari Jaguar

terlywerly wrote: »

That's the thing. I haven't been more active lately. If anything I've been much less. And I know even not counting exact calories that I'm taking in a whole lot more of them in the past few weeks than I had been months before. Back when I started trying to lose weight I never ate crisps, chocolate, takeaways etc and I've had my fair share of them the past few weeks, along with more carby things like pasta that I absolutely never ate at the beginning. That's why I found it a bit odd. Its like losing weight without trying, and although that sounds great to a lot of people, I don't wanna lose too much weight either...

You could have been bloated for a while (PMS) and lost a lb previous but when you lost the water weight it looked like 2 lbs of fat in a week?

Or maybe because you fecked about with your diet it's doing wonders for your metabolism? I've read that when you plateau you should alter your diet because your body is too used to it.

terlywerly

ULstudent wrote: »

This is my opinion and my past experience - for a good while, while losing weight, you were regimented to an extent in eating. This 'let loose' phase may have been a little shock to your body and thus, it didn't really know how to react and may have given it a kick so to speak. Thing is, and from my past experience, it will all catch up without realization. The whys and hows dont really matter.you know yourself the importance of cutting back on the ****e food soon.

Its as simple as eating whole foods again and getting rid of the majority of the junk.

Congrats on the loss by the way

Yeah, maybe its the confused reaction that's a confused terlywerly smiley. I know definitely I have to curb some of the bad stuff again quickly. Biscuits are starting to make a reappearance, as are crisps and bread. And I don't really want them, I think its just a boredom thing.

cherub rock wrote: »

You could have been bloated for a while (PMS) and lost a lb previous but when you lost the water weight it looked like 2 lbs of fat in a week?

Or maybe because you fecked about with your diet it's doing wonders for your metabolism? I've read that when you plateau you should alter your diet because your body is too used to it.

I looked back there over my food log and maybe you're right about TOTM playing a part. The week before TOTM I lost 1lb, the week of TOTM I lost nothing, and then the following week (which was my weight this Monday) I lost 2lb. Though I didn't feel bloated and there are months when I'm very bad and up about 4lb with water weight.
Its just my metabolism really confuses me sometimes. I'm definitely making a point now again to cut back on the rubbish, I think it was just when I finally started seeing sub 150lb numbers on the scale I thought 'Feck that, I'll enjoy myself now' and that was a fair few weeks back I'll be doing a bit more exercise now too with my new trampoline and hopefully a bike soon (courtesy of OH). Would love to take up classes for something but am broke so thats out for now.
Thanks guys! I never thought I'd be grumbling about weight loss