Losing weight slow-going?

Elizabethgulick93

What does everyone think about subtracting calories? I just put mine down not long ago, but it's very hard for me to see a number and stay under by a lot. I was thinking if I put my calories down about 60 calories, I would be more likely to stay under? I told the app I wanted to lose 2 pounds a week, and I've only been losing 1.5. I hardly go over my calories by much, so I'm confused. I also have PCOS, which can make it harder to lose weight. Any thoughts/suggestions?

BigGuy47

Change your settings to lose 1.5 lbs. a week. The app will adjust the calories.

lolwtfisthis

If you think you've reached a plateau, keep going for a week and weigh yourself again. If you've lost weight you're still at a deficit, if you've gained or are at the same weight you can lower the amount of calories manually.

Keep in mind that the recommended calories on here are just very general approximations, they might not be applicable to you depending a wealth of factors, so you have test and re-test as you go along.

kgeyser

You're not supposed to stay under by a lot, you're supposed to eat your calorie goal. Losing 1.5 a week is awesome, especially if you have PCOS.

Remember your targeted loss (2 lb per week) is an average. Some weeks you'll lose more, some weeks you'll lose less, some weeks you'll lose nothing, some weeks the scale will show a gain. Weight loss isn't linear, it's the downward trend that matters.

My only advice from creeping your diary is that you might want to ask your doctor about carb intake and PCOS. I know there are people here with PCOS who have had success by cutting back on carbs - not all the way to a low carb diet, but reducing their carb intake and increasing the fat and protein in the diet. Not knowing your medical history, I don't know if that would be a good fit for you, but it's something you could ask about that might help.

Ninkyou

kgeyser wrote: »

You're not supposed to stay under by a lot, you're supposed to eat your calorie goal. Losing 1.5 a week is awesome, especially if you have PCOS.

Remember your targeted loss (2 lb per week) is an average. Some weeks you'll lose more, some weeks you'll lose less, some weeks you'll lose nothing, some weeks the scale will show a gain. Weight loss isn't linear, it's the downward trend that matters.

My only advice from creeping your diary is that you might want to ask your doctor about carb intake and PCOS. I know there are people here with PCOS who have had success by cutting back on carbs - not all the way to a low carb diet, but reducing their carb intake and increasing the fat and protein in the diet. Not knowing your medical history, I don't know if that would be a good fit for you, but it's something you could ask about that might help.

+1

I wouldn't call 1.5 lbs/week slow at all. Perhaps it's not as much as the 2 lbs/week you're targeting, and that may be from the PCOS or from not weighing your food on a scale (or both), but it's still a really good HEALTHY loss.

Eat to your goal. Your deficit is already worked out for you, so there's no need to try and create a larger one.

hortensehildegarde

Going over by 60 calories is not going to make you lose .5 per week less.

I think you are being too technical about it and not developing the kind of thinking that is going to make you able to incorporate the changes you need into the long term. But if you are ok with the 1.5 and just want to try a little trick with the numbers to make you feel better, I think adjusting like that may be fine. Just so long as you don't think some trick with the MFP numbers is going to be a magic cure all. There is nothing that cures obesity but patience and eating less than you expend over time. Once you make peace with that it gets easier (at least it did for me).

I think everyone's metabolism (and therefore BMR/TDEE) is a little different and MFP is just using guesses off of averages, so if over time you determine YOUR personal numbers are lower, you can adjust but I wouldn't adjust much below 1200. If you are morbidly/severely obese enough that your doctor wants to put you on a VLCD then do that under their supervision and follow what they tell you to do. If you can't lose 2 per week by eating 1200 and exercising as much as you can than that may just be too fast for you.

Is you PCOS "under control"? I don't have it so not sure what that means but have seen a number of PCOS sufferers say their weight loss got easier once they got PCOS "under control". I think there may be a PCOS group on here that might be worth joining? From what I know of it losing 1.5 per week sounds like a grand accomplishment, it seems to make losing quite difficult.

Cortneyrenee04

I agree - that's a wonderful loss! You don't want to stay under your goal, you want to hit your goal. Sure, some days may be under or over, but the weekly average should be at your goal.

chicacherry666

1.5 a week is good but if you want you could lower your calorie allowance by 100 and maybe that would work for you

Elizabethgulick93

Thanks, everyone!

TimothyFish

To do what you suggest, you would need to reduce your goal by 250 calories per day to account for the half pound. As long as your good at keeping close to your goal, I can see where that could work, since it would make up for any errors in calorie estimation that might be resulting in your weight loss not matching your goals.

999tigger

1.5 as they said is a significant loss. Your post gives me the impression you should spend more time figuring how weight loss and MFP work especially the significance of a deficit.

If 1lb = 3500 calories, then 60 calories a day less would take just under 60 days to achieve for a 1lb loss. The accuracy of a significnat portion of peoples calorie counting will have a large degree of variation. Probably why you are losing less than you want becaise your data is inaccurate and you are eating more than you think. You should be weighing everything if you want accuracy.

If it were me then id spend more time focusing on making sure my plan was realistic, safe and sustainable, so I got to target. You can also look at supporting your diet with exercise.

Liftng4Lis

You're losing 1.5 pounds a week and you think this is slow??? I think its fantastic! Remember, you can't walk 5 miles into the woods and expect to get out in 1.

Sued0nim

Weight loss simply isn't linear

It isn't a straight mathematical calculation

But you're doing really well - and 1.5lbs a week so far is great - keep going

Elizabethgulick93

Thanks, everyone! And yes, 1.5 pounds a week is pretty good, I guess I'm just an impatient person. Lol.