Hello Healthi family! Coach Brianna here with a month in review for my weight loss journey.
As a quick refresher, I use the Calorie Command plan with the secondary metric feature turned on and set to macros, as I am macro tracking. I have a 1:1 coach who tells me what all of my numbers are, so I use the manual setting feature on the Healthi app as well.
Since we last talked one major change that has happened in my numbers is that I began carb cycling. This means that my coach took my normal daily numbers (as mentioned in my previous blog post put link to post) and instead of eating the same macros every day, my carbs get cycled, so some days I have lower carbs (so my calories are lower), and other days I have high carbs (and higher calories)
We started my carb cycling adventure with a 6:1 carb cycle, which means I get 1 high carb day (HCD for short) and all 6 other days of the week are low carb days (LCD). When you are carb cycling, it’s important to note that your protein and fat macros stay the same, and it’s only your carbs that change. For example, here were my macros for my 6:1 carb cycle:
LCD (6 days):
- 1799 calories
- 140 p
- 75 f
- 141 c
HCD (1 day)
- 2159 calories
- 140 p
- 75 f
- 231 c
The first week I tried this, I was definitely nowhere near perfect. I did more calorie and fat cycling rather than carb cycling. I don’t know what made it so difficult for me, but since I saw the higher calories I think I was hyper focused on the extra goodies I could eat on my HCD rather than paying close attention to the carb and fat distribution of the foods. The second week I was carb cycling I did better.
After 2 weeks of a 6:1 carb cycle, I was switched to a 5:2 carb cycle, so I got two HCDs, but the total number of carbs per week remained the same, so the HCD numbers were less dramatic (2007 calories and 193 carbs). I seemed to really gel with a 5:2 cycle, but I only have one week under my belt with that so far, so stay tuned for more on that. I look forward to continuing to find my groove as my plan continues to change.
Successes:
- Pretty dramatic loss in my measurements and my photos. I’m down 9.5 inches off of my whole body, even though the scale has barely moved. This is the power of macros and of having more than one method of tracking success. The scale is only ONE tool of several you could use.
- A continued downward trend on the scale. It took until week 5 to really see something that resembled consistent movement downward. This proves that it’s really important to trust the process and have patience. I haven’t seen any dramatic losses at the scale, which has come to be expected when you first start a weight loss plan. Instead, I have remained consistent and while the day to day weigh-ins have been fluctuating up at down, the overall trend appears to be losing about 0.5 lbs per week, which is a great rate, especially for as much food as I’m eating.
- I’m relying less on the excitement of beginning a plan or on motivation, and tracking and working food into my macros is just second nature. Not exciting, but not some horrible, difficult thing I need to do either. This is a great mindset shift because it means that I just do the thing, regardless of if I want to. It’s habit.
Struggles:
- As a woman, it was inevitable that at some point I would experience PMS and my period. While PMS could have gone a lot worse, one thing that happened was for about a week, I was a lot hungrier than normal. I had to implement a few strategies for dealing with hunger, which I will tell you more about in a minute.
- The weight fluctuations sometimes get to me. As time goes on its happening less and less, but it is still slightly infuriating to hit a new low on the scale and then have it pop back up the next day. Note: this is totally normal and to be expected. I’m just admitting that sometimes it still bothers me.
My Hacks for Curbing Hunger:
There are 2 main things I did to fix the hunger problems I was experiencing during PMS. I figured out that my super hungry time was always 1-3 hours before dinner (what a pain!!), so I changed my meal timings and sizes.
I dropped the size of my breakfast and lunch and worked a few extra snacks into my day. Essentially I went from eating 3 meals and a dessert to eating 6 or 7 times a day, all spread out. I’d have a later breakfast because I’m not hungry in the mornings, and then I’d have a small lunch (maybe just a sandwich and a veggie so I can save the sides as a snack for later) and have at least 2 snacks before dinner. This kept me from reaching “ravenous” status and making less than stellar choices due to hunger. Once I ate dinner and had my evening dessert, I was satisfied and could stop eating for the day.
The second thing I did was started enjoying a mid-afternoon flavored sparkling water. My personal favorite is strawberry Waterloo. I find that enjoying the sparkling beverage (which I should note is not something I do daily. I typically only drink coffee, water, and tea) tents to satisfy my mouth and my stomach a little differently thanks to the bubbles. I’ll usually have it with one of my snacks, but it definitely helps a smaller snack feel more satisfying.
Results:
As of the day I’m writing this (mid week into week 6 of weight loss) I have lost 3.5 pounds. When you do the math, that works out to just over 0.5 pounds per week, which is right on track.
?Looking ahead to next month I will be embracing my 5:2 carb cycle and I know my coach plans on dropping my calories just a little more now that we see the ball rolling down the hill and gaining momentum. How exciting!
Of course, I will be keeping you up to date with everything, so come back next month for another update. Until next time, my friends. Stay Healthi!
