Need help figuring things out

7aneena

Before I list my stats and tell my story I have a question
Does this method of weight loss work for someone who is sedentary and does not exercise?

Stats
Female, ~5 feet tall (60.2 inches, 153 cm)
Wight fluctuates between 160-162 lbs
Goal weight 125-130
I am currently on a 1200 calorie meal plan of daily delivered fresh food consisting of veggies, fruit and lean proteins. I lost 2 lbs the first week and my weight fluctuated 0.5 lbs for two weeks, then dropped another half and as of today (5 weeks from start I am netting 2 lbs loss)

My BMR on iifym, scooby, and @heybales spreadsheet averages 1470

I have been pretty sedentary for the past couple of months and will probably continue to be for the next 6 weeks. My TDEE average is 1760


I am wondering why I am not losing closer 1 lb/week with my deficit being 500 below TDEE?
Also, am I stalling my weight loss by eating below my BMR?

I am wondering if I should stop eating at 1200 and increase my calorie intake
Is there a safe and sustainable weigh to allow me to lose closer to 1.5 lbs/week?

What would the numbers be? can it be done with food alone?
If not how many calories burned from exercise would I need?

sorry for the long post, thanks in advance

heybales

Reasonable deficit for amount to lose and exercise done always works, even if no exercise.

At least what's better here is encouraging just fat loss, so you don't lose fat and muscle, and end up a smaller version of current self.
Which many call skinny fat and hate the results.

Reasonable deficit, enough protein, and resistance training - the 3 things that help retain muscle mass during a diet.
- 2 outta 3 ain't bad!

Being short, and sedentary though - you are going to have very small margin for error to still see success, or to cause undesired effects.

And no - you don't have the weight to lose nor the energy burn to attempt more than 15% deficit.

So weigh all food eaten, and meet your daily goal.

Also, you might as well just use MFP the way it was designed - merely take a reasonable deficit.
Set activity level to sedentary, set weight loss goal to 250 cal, exercise goal to nothing it sounds like, and meet the goals that are given.
Just attempt to eat more protein than is recommended, while allowing carbs to drop.

The only thing that might help is if you've been doing a diet for a while with no exercise and already lost some muscle mass, the standard BMR formula may be no good.

Did you get the BF calculation and use the average BF% in the spreadsheet? That could change the BMR and TDEE enough that the eating needs to go one way or the other.

You aren't eating really small or low calorie, not for your size, but the body still does benefit from eating at maintenance every 6-8 weeks for a week.
Sounds like it's time for a week.

Just setup MFP as given above, and eat 250 more.

And yes, it is slow weight loss. But unless you are able to burn more daily in general - you'll always be eating less.
It's your curse for being short.

7aneena

Thanks @heybales for the reponse
regarding the BF% I just entered the value I know from the caliper test

Regarding setting MFP, do you mean to increase calories intake to 1450 (250 higher than now) ? That should result in 0.5 lb/week correct?
I am still puzzled why my current deficit of 500 is giving results of 250. I think the two possibilities that make the most sense are I either underestimated my intake during "cheat days" or my TDEE is lower than estimated

heybales

I meant what I said. 15% deficit for you is almost exactly a 250 cal deficit since your TDEE is so low.

So set MFP to 1/2 lb weekly loss (0.5 lbs) - which happens to be 250 deficit.

Whatever that happens to set MFP to for eating goal, meet it.

As to why current deficit is not causing expected weight loss.
Body's first response to undereating stress is to slow down what it burns daily.
So while you could have had a 500 cal deficit, for your little amount to eat, body slowed down and it's only 250 now.

And yeah, if eating so low is causing cheat days that push your average badly higher, then obviously going that low doesn't work.

Plan your days with meals out better too, if not already.
Eat smaller other meals in prep, of very exact logging.
And then try to estimate what you are eating out.
Or skip eating out for 2 weeks and see if that is the problem. Eating out is so inaccurate.
Again, you have little margin for error - so you'll have to decide what is important to you.