Weight Loss- I need guidance.

Sheseeksstrength

Hi Community,
I really need a simple breakdown of what to do to lose weight. I do workout (for stress and for fun) about 5 days a week. I elliptical, run, do weights (like once a week), and sometimes yoga or pilates. I recently have gained about 5-10 lbs. It may not seem like much but on a 5'3" person (and 22), I have gained too much. I am currently 130 lbs. and would like to get down to 115 lbs. I need practical and realistic advice on how to get there and what to do.
Any suggestions would be helpful. How do I start? What do I do? I am worried about cutting down my food intake and feeling starved.

futuremanda

Tell MFP you want to lose 0.5 lb per week. Log your exercises, and eat back 50% to 75% of the burn that MFP says. (It'll add 100% of the calories onto your target for the day, after you log the exercise.)

Log ALL your food. Use a kitchen scale to weigh solids. Measure liquids. It sounds tedious but honestly you get used to it quite quickly. And it avoids a lot of problems.

Keep enjoying your workouts. Try not to stress. Weight doesn't always come off via the scale when we think, so expect weeks of no loss, or even gains. Fluctuations in weight on the scale are normal.

Read some of the stickies around here.

atypicalsmith

It's hard, but doable. Keep going!

BeHealthyBeHappy23

Consider consuming 1200-1300 calories a day and make adjustments as necessary. If you are hungry beyond your 1200 calorie intake then just make sure the food you consume is healthy such as fruit or veggies and hummus, don't eat 2-3 hours before bed, drink lots of water. Also if you do any muscle building exercises that may be the cause of some weight gain since muscle weighs more then fat. Continue what you are doing exercise wise but make sure you switch up your exercise routine every few weeks to keep your body from hitting a plateau and to keep you from getting bored. Just eat healthy, don't starve yourself, treat yourself in moderation but avoid constant snacking, make out a meal plan for the week of meals and snacks so you are prepared and you can use it as a guide. A good way to keep track of progress is to take pictures of your figure and you can compare them over time and definitely see a difference even though you may not see a difference on the scale, also you can measure to see if you lose inches. Good luck.

hedwardsb

You're probably going to need to add in more low calorie foods in order to avoid feeling hungry--e.g. more fresh veggies. That was what helped me keep within calories when I first tried to count.

SergeantSausage

One word is all you need : deficit.

Caloric deficit.

Eat less than you burn. Burn more than you eat.

Deficit.

It is both necessary ... and sufficient.

You need nothing more. Nothing less.

Deficit.

sodakat

futuremanda wrote: »

Tell MFP you want to lose 0.5 lb per week. Log your exercises, and eat back 50% to 75% of the burn that MFP says. (It'll add 100% of the calories onto your target for the day, after you log the exercise.)

Log ALL your food. Use a kitchen scale to weigh solids. Measure liquids. It sounds tedious but honestly you get used to it quite quickly. And it avoids a lot of problems.

Keep enjoying your workouts. Try not to stress. Weight doesn't always come off via the scale when we think, so expect weeks of no loss, or even gains. Fluctuations in weight on the scale are normal.

Read some of the stickies around here.

Good solid advice. Here's a link to a page with a TDEE calculator and a chart below that has a bunch of exercise variables that may affect your caloric needs. When my browser hits the page it seems to be in the middle, so you may have to first scroll up to see the calculator. I find this page interesting because of all the "for instances" it gives that correspond with how active you are combined with how much exercise you do.

http://calorieline.com/tools/tdee#tdee