What's your mental block weight number?

(cheryl) #1

What is it about a certain weight number that can play mental games with you.

I am about to hit what I’m probably making more of a significant milestone in my head… and approaching it always has been a struggle in the past and is proving to be a struggle now. (Below 200)

I think perhaps that this number makes me feel like a failure. I’ve hit this number in the past and have not been able to maintain staying under it.
Self-doubt creeps in. Will I be able to stay under that number this time?

We have been conditioned to equate weight loss with success and weight gain with failure. Especially for women. That message I have seen everywhere growing up and even now in the media. sigh

My weight has bounced up and down in this range for the past 3 weeks. However, one trend I’m noticing is that my body fat % number keeps going down. Slowly but surely, so I am confident that I am still losing weight even if the scale is not reflecting it.

I have had such success and feel great in my clothes (I’ve lost over 40 lbs) so I know I’m not a failure.

My daily mantra must be Keep calm and keto on … I’ll get there - just not maybe as fast as I would like.

So What’s your mental block number? And how did get through it?

(Pete A) #2

My number is 143. That’s what I weigh now and I like it. But in the months and months it took to lose 75 pounds, my number in my head was 180, then 165, then oh what the hell!

Things change as we change, so I wouldn’t put too much stock in that any number, like in your case when your body is burning it’s own fat!

The self-doubt will always be there for me, but being I can’t predict the future, I’ll take things one Keto-day at a time. :grinning:

(Rob) #3

When I could only get to 230 before some form of bounce back (CICO) I always said… “let’s see what I look like at 200! I bet it’s good… I’m big boned, everyone says so”.

I’m now staring 200 in the face for the first time since the early 90’s and it’s still “Fat Rob”, not body dysmorphic Rob, just Rob with a big overhanging belly and MOST importantly not yet healthy.

I don’t really have a number any more, at least not one measured in lbs. I’m guessing that I am not as big boned as I once thought and I probably need to get down to 160-165 to be (probably) happiest with my appearance, though I’m sure I’ll have a significant “apron” of loose skin from leaving it far too long. A few years of fasting may help that. :grin: Most of this is just mental vanity.

The main thing is that whatever weight I get to, I will be healthy by key medical measures, blood sugar, CAC, RHR, etc. If that is 185 and still soft around the middle, so be it. Weight shouldn’t really be the arbiter of success since as we’ve all learned (or should have learned) from keto, weight is just a symptom of metabolic health, not a driver.

(karen) #4

I overshot my happy number by about 10% a few years ago and it was strange, I still didn’t look emaciated or even waif-like by any means, but I started to feel very fragile and delicate and weak. So I know what too far feels like. This time around I’m listening to my body, not my number - although I do enjoy seeing myself get closer, both in the mirror and on the scale.

(cheryl) #5

That’s great… I’m not talking about a “Happy number” … The number I am talking about is one that you have a mental block is what I’m referring to. Trust me, 200 is not a happy number for me by any means…

(karen) #6

Ah. I don’t know about a mental block, but I certainly have a number that has refused to budge for two years and keto is finally moving it. Maybe it was a mental block, I’d get just close and then whoosh, somehow I’d manage to lose it again. About three four pounds below it now, and determined to keep going.

(KCKO, KCFO 🥥) #7

Mine used to be 150. Fasting blew that out of the water for me. Been in maintenance for over a year now at a few lbs. under my goal weight. IFng and occasional EX keeps me well below my goal number.