Created an account, because finally, something I can speak about from firsthand knowledge!
For a quantitative person it’s helpful to check your weight on a regular schedule. For me it’s every morning after waking up, before consuming anything (water, food). It’s the most consistent time. This gives a reward for your work immediately, especially because the first week or two you may lose water weight as glycogen stores deplete (each 1 gram of glycogen lost also gives up 4 grams of water, you may lose ~1lb of glycogen). Sure it’s just water loss, but you look better, and fit into your pants better, and it’s encouraging.
The part where diets fail is in maintaining the weight loss. This is where weighing yourself regularly becomes even more important: Have a target weight that you actually can hit and strive to maintain without excessive willpower (say 170). Once you’re below 170 you can eat more freely within reason. But always have an “action weight” (say 175) where if you go above, you start watching what you eat more carefully until you’re below 170 again.
Created an account, because finally, something I can speak about from firsthand knowledge!
For a quantitative person it’s helpful to check your weight on a regular schedule. For me it’s every morning after waking up, before consuming anything (water, food). It’s the most consistent time. This gives a reward for your work immediately, especially because the first week or two you may lose water weight as glycogen stores deplete (each 1 gram of glycogen lost also gives up 4 grams of water, you may lose ~1lb of glycogen). Sure it’s just water loss, but you look better, and fit into your pants better, and it’s encouraging.
The part where diets fail is in maintaining the weight loss. This is where weighing yourself regularly becomes even more important: Have a target weight that you actually can hit and strive to maintain without excessive willpower (say 170). Once you’re below 170 you can eat more freely within reason. But always have an “action weight” (say 175) where if you go above, you start watching what you eat more carefully until you’re below 170 again.
It’s not “weight loss” it’s weight maintenance.