Losing 10 to 15 pounds With limitations and so overwhelmed

NicoleLBye

I want/need to lose 10 - 15 pounds that I gained doing hormone therapy I had to do. I count my calories and don't deprive myself but I have changed my eating a lot. Adding in a lot more veggies then Ive ever really eaten. I very strictly tracked all I was eating. Im 5'1 and weigh 126.7 as of yesterday. Almost 3 weeks of calorie counting and cutting out most treats as well as I added in green coffee been extract, garcinia extract, white kidney bean extract to help my motabalisim out. I ended up gaining almost 4 pounds. I can't really workout because of a major heart condition. Im so frustrated. I may have been eating to little 1500-1600 calories a day so maybe my body went into start mode, as I've never had to watch what I was eating. What is the best amount of calories for 31 year old thats 5'1 and what tips do you have. I've read and been told that the less you have to lose the harder it is. So please help before I totally give up and end up feeling worse about myself before I already do. Please

rushfive

When I put in your numbers I got for fat loss a daily calorie at 1255. maintain at 1475.
31 female, 5'1", 127. low activity (desk job). set for 1/2pd loss per week.
The shorter we are the less calories we get.
Really watch what you eat and be accurate/honest when counting calories. which it sounds like you are doing.
Good luck !
ps. there is no such thing as "starvation mode". please do not eat more to lose weight.

4legsRbetterthan2

I got similar numbers, TDEE about 1600 according to Scooby (http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/)

TDEE is total daily energy expenditure, how many calories you burn in a a day. You would want to create your deficit from that. Since you only have 10-15 lbs to lose you would want to shoot for about 0.5 lbs/week, which requires 250 calories deficit every day. So that would give you 1350 for a calorie goal.

If you can exercise at all even just walking at a slower pace and not increasing heart rate much can burn you more calories and give you more room to create a deficit. However, I don't know the details of your heart condition so definitly follow the instrucitons of your doctor if they say no exercise at all.

The less you have to lose the harder is true in a way. The system is all the same, but you require less calories when you are smaller so it give you less room to make the deficit. Smaller deficits are also easy to accidently erase with error. You can do this, it will just be slow and take some attention to detail. I believe there is a group for people with smaller goals so that might be a good place for you to hear some stories and get some encouragement. Unfortunately, in one of the updates the messed up the ability to search groups in MFP but if you google "MFP groups small weight loss goals" or something like that it should get you there.

I like to give these posts to anyone starting out, I think they have alot of great info in them and great tips for logging accurately, thats the most important part starting out.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1234699/logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide#latest

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

Hope that helped some

~Best wishes

NicoleLBye

Thanks so much!