Happy Scale Maintenance
Hi Heather, I can’t thank you enough for your very logical and practical approach to weight loss and maintenance. You are an extremely skilled coach and your clients and podcast listeners are so fortunate to have you in our lives. Here’s my question: My maintenance range is about 4 pounds since I have a small frame. When I look at the Happy Scale log sheet, it throws me off a bit to see that arrow pointing up AND pointing down. I have an emotional reaction - unhappy when it’s up, happy when the arrow is down. I know it’s not realistic to see the flat line everyday. How can I curb my emotional response to the arrows. Thank you Heather, Jena
Maintenance vs Losing Weight - Setting Calories
I lost about 15 lbs between January and early April (a little over 1 lb per week on average), then took a month maintenance break while I was travelling in April for almost 4 weeks straight which helped me figure out my maintenance calories (about 2100/2200 calories) and learn how to actually maintain my weight for the first time in.... forever? :) Thanks again for talking about the importance of maintenance and how important it is not to just either lose weight and then hope for the best or simply have a "free for all" period while gaining parts or all back again. Listening to your approach and attitude about weight loss and maintenance has been so, so useful for me!! Anyways, my question is about approach/mindset. In an ideal world, I would like to lose another 15 lbs or so, but much, much slower and in smaller chunks. So, when I restarted taking a deficit in May after the April maintenance break, I set my calorie target to losing about 1/4 lb a week in "Lose It". I tried sticking to it for 2 weeks, but because of many invitations out, visitors, etc., I kept going over by a bit and unintentionally maintained and got very, very frustrated. More important than losing more weight is maintaining what I lost. So, to avoid getting frustrated and quitting tracking etc altogether eventually, I took a step back, set my calorie goal back to maintenance, and.... was able to either stick to maintenance or take a small deficit every week since then. This led to another 1.5 lbs lost in 6 weeks. I know it's not a lot, but it makes me super happy as it's a pace I feel I can sustain even in the summer (with many, many trips, weekends away, visitors, evenings out, etc.). So, basically, my new goal is "maintain or lose a bit" from now through mid-September which is when summer officially ends and normalcy returns here in Italy (where I live). I'd love to hear your thoughts on the strategy of using your maintenance calories basically as a maximum ceiling per week, trying to take a deficit when it doesn't feel too restrictive and otherwise following my minimums (track everything in Lose It & some movement every day). I suspect it's just lower brain chatter, but I sort of wonder if setting maintenance calories and then trying to stay under when possible will somehow be harmful in the long-run.... like.... maybe I'll start seeing being at maintenance calories as not good enough and then get frustrated with that? I think it's just my lower brain looking for a "fault in the system" of how I'm progressing while actually feeling good about it, but maybe not? It's making me a bit nervous. Would love to hear your thoughts on this. Thanks for all you do!
Which food scale to use
Hi Heather! Thank you so much for your show. You give such sensible sustainable advice. You are truly an inspiration. I am having trouble with my good scale- it is digital and just does not seem to give reliable numbers. Which one do you use? What is your recommendation for making sure the weights are accurate? Thanks so much! Amy
"coach sarah" question about pre-planning but logging calories later
I think I missed something, or maybe I'm trying to understand something... Sarah is logging calories later (the next day) rather than in the moment because it's too triggering. I get that. But when she is doing her planning/paper pencil journal, is she also pre-logging those calories to try to plan her days at maintenance or below, and then logging changes to her planned calories later... or is she just planning with the paper/pencil journal, trying to collect stars, and seeing where the calories fall later?
Cancer treatment and weight loss
I have been undergoing some cancer treatments, and those involve taking Letrozole, which has as a side effect “weight changes”, which seemingly can include either gain or loss. I’m trying hard to eat at a deficit because I know that excess fat increases estrogen, which can affect breast cancer cells. How can I structure a diet so that it doesn’t have to be super restrictive (because I will sabotage that) and yet is healthy and at the same time low calorie? My maintenance calories are probably about 1500. I am finding it hard to reconcile all the things I “should” be doing. Any suggestions as to how I might best approach this for the long term? Thanks.