Opening my diary for assistance

harlequin0318

Stats: 5'3"
Weight: 139
GW: 125

BMR according to MFP is 1360

I lift heavy 3 days a week, and only do about 30-45 minutes of cardio on the Stairmaster each week.

MFP put me at 1200 calories...which I try to make work

Currently - I do not weigh my food on a scale --> but I'm buying one next week because I'm frustrated that I am not losing weight, and after reading all of the threads that are stickied I decided that I must be overeating and underestimating my caloric intake

How I have been distributing food; I take the total weight of the meat I buy and divide it into meals - ex. 1lb of ground turkey split into 4 should be 4oz each. Not a bad method since I usually don't log my entire length in exercise.

So I guess my questions are - Am I eating too little? Too much? Or just being impatient? What can I do differently (besides the food scale - because that's definitely going to be my first change)

Thanks in advance!

RAinWA

Good for you for buying a scale - takes a lot of guess work out of tracking your food.

I don't know your age, but your suggested intake seems really low. You should never eat below your BMR - that's the basic calories you need to just survive if you did absolutely nothing all day. I really think you could eat a lot more and still see results. For example, I'm 52, 5"1' and 132 lbs and maintain on between 1600 and 1700 before any exercise. (for full disclosure, I have lost 125 lbs, not all on MFP, and have been maintaining for 6 months so still playing with figuring out my range of calories to keep it off.)

Finally, what do you have your amount to lose each week set at? With so little left to lose you might want to consider setting your goal at .5 lbs per week

ETA: Duh, just looked and you're considerably younger than I am. You should be able to eat more and still lose .5 lbs a week. Double check your settings/goal to make sure you input the numbers correctly.

harlequin0318

Age 22 - forgot to put that, thank you.

Also, I'm not even sure what I set my weight loss per week at. I thought I just put in my goal weight and MFP gave me 1200 cals. Where do I change that?

I was hoping 1200 was too low because I definitely want to eat more than that

ETA: found how to change it - setting my goal to .5 per week now. gives me 1450 calories

harlequin0318

my "projected weight loss" is 1lb per week

RAinWA

I'd ignore the "projected weight loss." It really never was accurate for me. Try the 1450 for a couple of weeks, eat back 1/2 your exercise calories if you want and see how it goes. It's all just estimates and you may have to tweak your calories and macros a bit to suit you and your lifestyle. Good luck!

harlequin0318

Thank you!

TheTiagooo

The scale and your mind can make you feel like there's little progress happening, but those can mislead. As weird as it sounds, I find taking a new photo of yourself every 10-15 days helps better put things into context when you compare them to previous ones.

I think you're eating well. I have a similar calorie allowance, and so long as you don't spend several days in a row with very low calories, you should be getting fitter at the fastest healthy rate.

harlequin0318

I was going to wait 30 days before the next progress picture...but I don't know if I can hold out that long

Patttience

I admit i always have a problem with interpreting what americans put into their food diaries because it hardly ever looks like food at all to me. Its always a branded thing and i don't know what's in it.

Can i just say that in the long term if you try to increase your whole food consumption and reduce your processed food consumption, you will be able to take fewer supplements and enjoy your food more and maintain a good healthy weight.

Also as you are lifting and trying to build muscle, you need to keep your protein up. This does not really mean you need to consume protein shakes if you are a meat eater. You can eat eggs, cheese, fish, milk and yoghurt, chickpeas, beans, lentils and there's even protein in just about everything else as well. It all adds up. But the great thing about these foods is that they are not high in salt.

Processed foods are high in salt and so they will cause more water retention and long term possibly health problems of other kinds.

I didn't say anything about your original question because i think the other posters have already helped you figure it out, But i will say this, personally i find using a TDEE calculator and then reducing your calories from there is a simpler less confusing method than the mfp way. I've used mfp successfully but that's only because my lifestyle is sedentary and i never had to factor in anything else but i've seen so many people struggle with it. And of course at your weight, a modest weight loss is achievable. Maybe even less than half a pound a week. It just does naturally slow down at the lower end of the scale, especially when you are building muscle at the same time.

Patttience

I should have added what might be more important for you than weight is body fat percentage which you can find calculators for and a tape measure will sort it out for you.

harlequin0318

Patttience wrote: »

I should have added what might be more important for you than weight is body fat percentage which you can find calculators for and a tape measure will sort it out for you.

Ouch - I kind of thought my whole food consumption was pretty good, probably sitting at about 70-80% whole. The only thing I have in my freezer is chicken, turkey, and frozen veggies which I buy in bulk because I meal prep every 3-4 days.

In regards to body fat percentage - I heard the online calculators aren't concise - in which case if I do figure out my BF%, should I balance my macros differently? (which is a whole different topic, but I can jack my own thread right)

Liftng4Lis

With that little to lose, you should have your goal set at a half a pound a week. How are you calculating things like turkey meatloaf? Is this homemade? These things add up and this is where the scale becomes essential. To change this go to goals, change goals, custom.

peachyfuzzle

It looks like your TDEE is between 1800 - 2000 for your age, height, weight, and activity level, so eating in the mid-1000's range would be good. 1200 seems to be a little below even your BMR which is not good because you're not giving your body even enough calories to sustain itself. You'll lose weight this way, sure... but you might also be so lethargic that you refuse to even get off the couch.

The food scale is definitely awesome, and that will help immensely. SO many people don't weigh their food, therefore inadvertently eat too much, and then ask why they're not losing, or even gaining.

Unless you're very new to lifting though, or very obese (which you most certainly are not), don't expect to gain much in the way of muscle mass when you're losing weight. You'll gain strength, and keep your body from eating your current muscle as much as possible, but you're not going to beef up unless you're in a calorie surplus.

harlequin0318

Liftng4Lis wrote: »

With that little to lose, you should have your goal set at a half a pound a week. How are you calculating things like turkey meatloaf? Is this homemade? These things add up and this is where the scale becomes essential. To change this go to goals, change goals, custom.

Yes those are my homemade recipes (turkey meatballs/meatloaf etc) that I use the recipe builder on here for- so I don't end up logging all ingredients each time -
The only thing lacking is accuracy. Definitely going to incorporate the food scale to fix this

harlequin0318

peachyfuzzle wrote: »

It looks like your TDEE is between 1800 - 2000 for your age, height, weight, and activity level, so eating in the mid-1000's range would be good. 1200 seems to be a little below even your BMR which is not good because you're not giving your body even enough calories to sustain itself. You'll lose weight this way, sure... but you might also be so lethargic that you refuse to even get off the couch.

The food scale is definitely awesome, and that will help immensely. SO many people don't weigh their food, therefore inadvertently eat too much, and then ask why they're not losing, or even gaining.

Unless you're very new to lifting though, or very obese (which you most certainly are not), don't expect to gain much in the way of muscle mass when you're losing weight. You'll gain strength, and keep your body from eating your current muscle as much as possible, but you're not going to beef up unless you're in a calorie surplus.

Yes I've been reading a lot about deficits and trying to maintain as much lean muscle as possible - ultimate goal; lift ALL the weights and eat ALL the food, because i love food


Thank you everyone for sharing knowledge- I greatly appreciate