Calorie counting no longer working as well

SteveMFP123

I've been losing weight purely through calorie counting for about 8 months and I pretty much always hit my 2lbs a week goal by eating what MFP told me but for the past two months I only lose 1lb a week while eating the calories for 2lbs a week. I've lost 63lbs with about 25lbs to go, have I just hit the point where my body can't lose more than that a week? And should I just bump my calories up to 1/1.5lbs a week levels?

usmcmp

As you get closer to your goal weight loss usually slows. Some of this is hormonal and that can be fixed by increasing your calories. With about 25 pounds to go should consider switching to half a pound or pound per week.

What sort of exercise do you do?

PeachyCarol

Have you readjusted your goals? As you get down closer to goal, your rate of loss is going to slow down because your TDEE is lower. Smaller body = Lower TDEE = Less of a deficit created eating the same calories you've been consuming.

With just 25 pounds to go, definitely go in and redo the goals aiming for just 1 pound a week.

kindrabbit

Have you updated your profile with your current weight? Perhaps you need to re calculate for the new, 63lb lighter, you? I'm not sure as I haven't got that far yet but it's worth a try. Also, it is harder to loose as you get closer to your goal as it's a smaller percentage of your total body weight.

SteveMFP123

usmcmp wrote: »

As you get closer to your goal weight loss usually slows. Some of this is hormonal and that can be fixed by increasing your calories. With about 25 pounds to go should consider switching to half a pound or pound per week.

What sort of exercise do you do?

Right now no exercise at all really. For the first 4 months I worked out every day and I got totally burned out to the point I'd dread waking up and having to do it. I can honestly say it had no affect on my weight loss, my numbers stayed the same. I know I should exercise for fitness and toning but as you're all aware if your heart and mind aren't into it you won't do it, it's the same with weight loss in general, until I will 100% ready to change my eating habits I couldn't do it. I'm hoping for a second wind one day, though!

MrM27 wrote: »

You have less weight to lose.
You burn less calories now that you are smaller.

It's normal for weight loss to slow down as you have less to loss. There is no need to eat less just to keep hitting 2 lbs per week. 1 lb is fine. Your body is only going to be able to oxidize a certain amount of fat per day and past that you're losing stuff you don't want.

I just changed my target to 1.5lbs instead of 2lbs which gives me 200 more calories, plus my target goal was 14lbs higher than my new goal so I corrected that as well.

mamapeach910 wrote: »

Have you readjusted your goals? As you get down closer to goal, your rate of loss is going to slow down because your TDEE is lower. Smaller body = Lower TDEE = Less of a deficit created eating the same calories you've been consuming.

With just 25 pounds to go, definitely go in and redo the goals aiming for just 1 pound a week.

That's what I just did, but I set it to 1.5lbs a week, that gives me about 200 more calories a day, 1lb a week bumps me up to 2100 calories a day which at this point just seems too much for me. I'll see how 1.5lbs goes for a few weeks and adjust if needed.

I did notice my goal weight was my old goal weight though, so I've corrected that. Originally I wanted to get down to 224lbs, but I have since changed that to 210lbs which made a small difference to the calories allotted.

Karen_libert wrote: »

Have you updated your profile with your current weight? Perhaps you need to re calculate for the new, 63lb lighter, you? I'm not sure as I haven't got that far yet but it's worth a try. Also, it is harder to loose as you get closer to your goal as it's a smaller percentage of your total body weight.

Yeah I have, I update my weight weekly.

Thanks all, I think if I aim for 1 - 1.5lbs and hit it I'll be happier than eating and aiming for 2lbs a week and never hitting it so that's what I'll do.

Mr_Knight

I don't understand...for most of the time you lost 2 lbs/week you exercised, for all of the time you are losing less than that, you aren't exercising...but you state exercise has "no affect" on your weight loss.

Seems to me that's an assumption worth revisiting...

SLLRunner

SteveMFP123 wrote: »

I've been losing weight purely through calorie counting for about 8 months and I pretty much always hit my 2lbs a week goal by eating what MFP told me but for the past two months I only lose 1lb a week while eating the calories for 2lbs a week. I've lost 63lbs with about 25lbs to go, have I just hit the point where my body can't lose more than that a week? And should I just bump my calories up to 1/1.5lbs a week levels?

Congratulations on your incredible weight loss, Steve.

Be patient. As you get smaller, you need less calories and any remaining weight will come off slower.

Have you adjusted your calories on MFP with all that weight lost? You should adjust every ten pounds.

usmcmp

The problem is that as you have lost the weight through diet alone you've lost lean mass as well. Since your deficit was roughly 1000 calories per day that could easily mean that 20% of your weight lost was lean mass. Combine a loss of lean mass with the shift in cortisol and leptin while dieting, that would slow weight loss down.

I think you should reconsider adding in some form of resistance training. It isn't meant to make you lose faster, it's meant to keep your BMR from dropping and give you better body composition when you reach your goal.