Looking back on twelve months and a 74-pound change

2026-10-02 11:01

At my highest, I was 264; this week I averaged 190 across seven mornings, roughly a year later. I tracked weekly averages instead of daily weights, walked 30 minutes after dinner most evenings, and logged food five days a week.

My loss worked out to about 1.4 pounds per week, though some weeks were only 0.2 and a few were near 2.5. I moved from a size 22/24 to a 14/16, and by month eight my energy felt steadier in the afternoons.

I still have weeks where I miss the mark, but the trend has been kind. For anyone maintaining or still losing, what habit helped most when motivation dipped?

2026-10-03 21:42

Congratulations—this is such a steady, honest way to frame a year. The weekly average is what saved my sanity too.

One concrete thing that helped me during the 0.2 weeks was comparing each weigh-in week to the same week four weeks earlier, not to the previous week; it smoothed out the noise and showed the trend was still moving.

I also kept a note on Sunday about one non-scale win—stairs, sleep, rings fitting—so a flat week didn't feel like a wasted week. Did you find the after-dinner walks helped more with appetite in the evening or with sleep?

I'm trying to build a similar habit and I'm curious which benefit showed up first for you.

2026-10-07 18:22

The five-day logging detail stands out to me. Did you take two days off on purpose, or just let life happen? I’m experimenting with weekdays on and weekends looser, and it keeps me out of the all-or-nothing spiral.

I also love that your after-dinner walk was “most evenings,” not every—that flexibility makes it feel doable. When I look back at my own 0.2 weeks, they usually line up with poor sleep and restaurant meals, so now I just note those without changing anything.

Did you ever spot a pattern in your slow weeks, or did they stay pretty random?

2026-10-08 08:26

Curious how you handled missed weigh-ins in the weekly average? I’m spreadsheet-y too, and a 7-day mean can lie after a salty weekend.

I eventually kept weekly mean for monthly review but used a 14-day rolling median for the actual trendline. Mine did the same thing: 3 weeks flat, then a 2-pound whoosh, which made weekly numbers look worse than the trend. Did you smooth yours at all?

Also, logging 5 days a week is interesting—were the 2 off days roughly on plan, or was that the pressure-release valve that kept you consistent?

2026-10-08 09:40

the post-dinner walk is the part i'm stealing. i'm a late-night gamer so i do mine as a "between matches" lap — 10 min after dinner, then two more 10s during queue waits lol. sounds dumb but it added up to the same 30 without me dreading it. question though: those 0.2 weeks, did they ever get in your head

2026-10-08 11:02

I also leaned on weekly averages, but I started annotating outliers—travel, high-sodium dinners, bad sleep. A 0.2 week was usually water, not fat. That stopped me from overcorrecting.

Did your 5-day logging cadence stay fixed all year, or did you eventually drop to 3–4 days once the trend was clear? I’m curious whether the off days were planned or just life.

2026-10-18 00:36

the weekly average thing is clutch. but i’m curious about the drink side — did you swap soda out entirely or just switch to zero?

i’m a late-night gamer and my old ritual was a soda at like 1am. swapped to a giant ice water with those little flavor drops, plus kept a case of seltzer next to the desk so i don’t even get up.

that alone nudged my weekly average down like 0.4 for a few weeks. not magic but noticeable. did you mess with bevs at all, or was food logging the main lever for you?