I lost weight over Christmas new year - You don't have to starve yourself to lose!

Kim55555 · January 2016

A bit of background about me. I'm female 5'2 and 42 years old. Currently weigh 59.8 kg (132 lbs) Ive lost 6.2 kg (14 lbs) since September 7 2015. So the 6 kg I've lost has taken 4 months which I'm happy with.

I want to get back to 57 kg. I run intensely (short and middle distance training) 3 days per week, lift heavy 1-2 times per week. Walk to and from work 30 mins there, 45 mins back 3-4 times a week. Desk job sit on bum all day long.

The last few kg's usually take a while to come off and I'm happy with a 1/2 kg - 1 kg loss every 4-6 weeks.

I'm eating at id say somewhere between a 10-20 % defecit. I believe my average weekly gross TDEE is somewhere between 2200-2350 weekly. But I'm not 100 % sure as it could be a tad higher. I know that when I eat 2600 gross calories I gain 1 kg per month as I've tested this.

So since December 13 (3 & 1/2 weeks ago) I've lost 600 grams (1.3 lbs)

Here are my calorie stats. Look how much I ate! and I lost 600 grams (1.3 lbs) And I didn't kill myself with heaps of cardio either AND this loss occurred over the Christmas new year period!! Awesome hey!! I would have been happy to maintain over the Christmas period and I was striving for that. I did even better!

Most of the time I didn't go hungry. Sometimes I do but I'd say around 90 % of the time im not hungry when in defecit. And yeah I still find it a challenge not to have that extra snack after dinner as it would be nice and but I remind myself of my goal.

I was a bit down for a while because the scale hadn't moved but I took note of the positive changes in my body. I'm starting to see definition in my arms and when I run my fingers over my arm I feel the angle and they are feeling hard. My tummy fat I can see is disappearing. My clothes are fitting looser.

My gross weekly calorie stats

December 14 - 20
1951 gross calories

December 21 - December 27
2119 gross calories

December 28 - January 3
2024

January 4 - January 8
1912

Anyone else manage to lose over Christmas new year?

Anyone else eating the amount im able to eat and lose fat at a nice rate?

Eat up! You don't have to starve yourself to lose the weight. Work out your TDEE and take a cut off that.

Kim55555 · January 2016

Not even 1 reply? Not even a good on you or anything!

Is it jealousy that I'm able to eat so much as a short female and lose a nice amount!?

Or you think I'm showing off.

I eat more than a lot of men on here even..... some who are over 6 feet. Craaazy!

You don't have to go so low in calories to lose.

middlehaitch · January 2016

Well done. For your height, weight, age, and activity level you are losing at an appropriate rate, under 1lb a week, for your calorie goal.

Cheers, h.

oolou · January 2016

Well done on your weight loss. I think you'd have got more replies if you'd posted in the success stories forum rather than the forum where people are seeking help.

WendyLaubach · January 2016

I started here in November, right before the holiday season. I, too, lost steadily right through New Year's Day--and now ironically I'm stalled! But you're right, the holiday season is like any other season: if you control your calories, you can lose weight. I, too, found that I didn't feel hungry in deficit, or not often. My stomach adjusted within a surprisingly few days.

Kim55555 · January 2016

middlehaitch wrote: »

Well done. For your height, weight, age, and activity level you are losing at an appropriate rate, under 1lb a week, for your calorie goal.

Cheers, h.

Thanks. Slowly but surely getting there.

Kim55555 · January 2016

oolou wrote: »

Well done on your weight loss. I think you'd have got more replies if you'd posted in the success stories forum rather than the forum where people are seeking help.

Ohhhh good point

Pawsforme · January 2016

I lost weight during the holidays. From 12/9 until this morning I'm down 2.8 pounds. And I've been working on finding my maintenance calories during that time. Apparently I'm not much good at that.

But I can't eat as much as you, even though it sounds like I'm probably more active. But I'm also older than you, smaller than you (height and weight) and hypothyroid.

choppie70 · January 2016

I was at a 2 1/2 month stall where the scale did not move at all. The number finally went down on Dec. 28th and I have lost over a lb. since. I just made more healthy choices. I did eat a bit more than I had been, but I kept to my exercise routine and hung out at the veggie tray instead of the dessert tray over the holidays.

katzenfluff · January 2016

Lost 3 pounds from Dec 6. I enjoyed 6 holiday meals by eating small portions of things I really wanted. Except for New Years Eve ... Mass quantities of snow crab clusters. And I don't regret a single crab leg.

allaboutthecake · January 2016

Kim55555 wrote: »

My gross weekly calorie stats

December 14 - 20
1951 gross calories

December 21 - December 27
2119 gross calories

December 28 - January 3
2024

January 4 - January 8
1912

OP, either your #s are off or this is a DAILY not a WEEKLY gross total? Otherwise, you're actually consuming less than 300k/cal a day. ?

callsitlikeiseeit · January 2016

i didnt lose over the holidays but i wasnt trying to, either. i ate around maintenance.

lost over 70 pounds last year.

zandrathesweetheart · January 2016

I didn't lose weight over Christmas, but I did over thanksgiving. I didn't eat a lot on thanksgiving. lol

Sabine_Stroehm · January 2016

Kim55555 wrote: »

Not even 1 reply? Not even a good on you or anything!

Is it jealousy that I'm able to eat so much as a short female and lose a nice amount!?

Or you think I'm showing off.

I eat more than a lot of men on here even..... some who are over 6 feet. Craaazy!

You don't have to go so low in calories to lose.

Hmm, I'll speak for me:

No, I'm not jealous of you. I'm not sure why I would be.

I didn't think you were showing off, because, well, I didn't see the post.

I didn't reply because it was Friday night at 8pm and I was spending time with my family.

It's now saturday morning and I'm replying.

Hope that's okay.

Mouse_Potato · January 2016

I think I ate around 3000 calories a day during Christmas week. I lost track between the cheese fondue and appletinis. I gained a few pounds. I regret nothing.

MindyBruno · January 2016

I lost 4.5 pounds in December. I didn't deprive my self and ate lots of yummy stuff.

lorrpb · January 2016

I've lost 5.8 lb in the last 30 days. It was my plan to continue weight loss during the holidays. I enjoyed pie, wine, and other things I don't usually have, in moderation. I went to all my workouts except when the classes were cancelled on Christmas Eve and NY Eve. My health and fitness goals are more important to me right now than eating treats!

kgirlhart · January 2016

I'm sure some lost and some gained. My weight fluctuations were pretty typical over the holidays. Up some days and down some days. But overall I have lost 21 pounds since I started logging on September 25 so I am happy with that. I enjoyed the holidays and didn't deprive myself of the things I usually only have once a year and still managed to loose.

frankiesgirlie · January 2016

Kim55555 wrote: »

A bit of background about me. I'm female 5'2 and 42 years old. Currently weigh 59.8 kg (132 lbs) Ive lost 6.2 kg (14 lbs) since September 7 2015. So the 6 kg I've lost has taken 4 months which I'm happy with.

I want to get back to 57 kg. I run intensely (short and middle distance training) 3 days per week, lift heavy 1-2 times per week. Walk to and from work 30 mins there, 45 mins back 3-4 times a week. Desk job sit on bum all day long.

The last few kg's usually take a while to come off and I'm happy with a 1/2 kg - 1 kg loss every 4-6 weeks.

I'm eating at id say somewhere between a 10-20 % defecit. I believe my average weekly gross TDEE is somewhere between 2200-2350 weekly. But I'm not 100 % sure as it could be a tad higher. I know that when I eat 2600 gross calories I gain 1 kg per month as I've tested this.

So since December 13 (3 & 1/2 weeks ago) I've lost 600 grams (1.3 lbs)

Here are my calorie stats. Look how much I ate! and I lost 600 grams (1.3 lbs) And I didn't kill myself with heaps of cardio either AND this loss occurred over the Christmas new year period!! Awesome hey!! I would have been happy to maintain over the Christmas period and I was striving for that. I did even better!

Most of the time I didn't go hungry. Sometimes I do but I'd say around 90 % of the time im not hungry when in defecit. And yeah I still find it a challenge not to have that extra snack after dinner as it would be nice and but I remind myself of my goal.

I was a bit down for a while because the scale hadn't moved but I took note of the positive changes in my body. I'm starting to see definition in my arms and when I run my fingers over my arm I feel the angle and they are feeling hard. My tummy fat I can see is disappearing. My clothes are fitting looser.

My gross weekly calorie stats

December 14 - 20
1951 gross calories

December 21 - December 27
2119 gross calories

December 28 - January 3
2024

January 4 - January 8
1912

Anyone else manage to lose over Christmas new year?

Anyone else eating the amount im able to eat and lose fat at a nice rate?

Eat up! You don't have to starve yourself to lose the weight. Work out your TDEE and take a cut off that.

I saw your post late last night but just now found the time to post. I personally don't feel you are bragging, what I feel is you are providing a public service by posting this.
I am particularly interested in the subject of eating at TDEE with a deficit because I was just advised by a personal trainer family member that I should do it.
I started on MFP with 12 lbs to lose,back in August, and like a lot of people set my goal too high at 1 lb loss per week. The first 2 weeks I lost a lb per week, and then preceded to gain the 2 lbs back the 3rd week. A smart lady on these boards @middlehaitch told me with my activity level (I was doing several HIIT workouts per week) and being that I had so little to lose I should up change my goal to 1/2 lb a week loss which brought me from a calorie allowance of 1200 calories to 1400 calories per day. I steadily started to lose about 1/2 lb per week,
But then I messed up, I upped my exercise from about 4 hours a week total to about 8 hours a week, because I was enjoying how exercise made me feel and I was Loving the changes to my body, but I didn't up my calorie consumption.I steadily gained weight after that,
My trainer tells me that I am not eating enough to fuel my body and workouts,and has moved me from eating 1400 calories per day to 1800 calories per day. I'm 54, female, 5' 9" , 148 lbs.
I've only been on 1800 calories for one week( since New Year's Day) so I don't have much time for results yet but I am hopeful.
It took some mental adjustment to "allow" myself to eat. I'm still getting used to it and slowly getting over the fear of blimping out.
My Fitbit says my TDEE is between 1800(on a day I was in my car all day) to 2500 on an active day.
Only time will tell, but I hope to be writing this same type of post very soon!!
Good for you OP!! Great post!!

middlehaitch · January 2016

@frankiesgirlie if the jump to 1800 in a little daunting, do it gradually over a month. It helps the mind and body adjust.
You will probably get a little weight gain, it is water. Don't panic it will even out in a few of weeks.
Your PT is probably correct upping you 100 cals for each extra hour of exercise.
If you are a consistent exerciser going to TDEE is probably good for you. It spreads your 3-6 days of exercise over 7 days.
It doesn't work as well for intermittent exercisers as they can end up over eating on a low exercise week- that is where MFP's NEAT method works best.

Put your numbers in either of these calculators for your TDEE.
IIFYM tends to give a lower calorie. It works well for me.
Others, knowledgable, frequent posters, prefer the other by Scooby's Workshop.
It is a little trial and error finding the correct calories for TDEE but worth it.
You can also extrapolate it from your MFP data.

Thanks for the complement, h.
Sorry for the detour folks.

http://www.iifym.com/iifym-calculator/

http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

frankiesgirlie · January 2016

@middlehaitch...thank you for the reply. I really appreciate it. I have been on Scooby and I have my TDEE from my Fitbit charge HR that I've used since December 23rd. My average TDEE is 2150 with Fitbit. I suspect my trainer started conservatively with me at 1800 calories because of my reaction when he initially said 1800-2000.
I dove right in and am eating 1800. I weighed 3 days in even though I hadn't planned to and had went down a couple ounces, but Im trying to wait and weigh this Monday. I'll try not to freak out if I've gained water weight. I'm quite active and exercise for an hour daily and when I take a day off , like today, I did yard work for 4 hours. I generally get 10k steps in per day also outside of workouts.
Thank you again and I'm going to check out the other site you mentioned.
Cheers!

Kim55555 · January 2016

frankiesgirlie wrote: »

I saw your post late last night but just now found the time to post. I personally don't feel you are bragging, what I feel is you are providing a public service by posting this.
I am particularly interested in the subject of eating at TDEE with a deficit because I was just advised by a personal trainer family member that I should do it.
I started on MFP with 12 lbs to lose,back in August, and like a lot of people set my goal too high at 1 lb loss per week. The first 2 weeks I lost a lb per week, and then preceded to gain the 2 lbs back the 3rd week. A smart lady on these boards @middlehaitch told me with my activity level (I was doing several HIIT workouts per week) and being that I had so little to lose I should up change my goal to 1/2 lb a week loss which brought me from a calorie allowance of 1200 calories to 1400 calories per day. I steadily started to lose about 1/2 lb per week,
But then I messed up, I upped my exercise from about 4 hours a week total to about 8 hours a week, because I was enjoying how exercise made me feel and I was Loving the changes to my body, but I didn't up my calorie consumption.I steadily gained weight after that,
My trainer tells me that I am not eating enough to fuel my body and workouts,and has moved me from eating 1400 calories per day to 1800 calories per day. I'm 54, female, 5' 9" , 148 lbs.
I've only been on 1800 calories for one week( since New Year's Day) so I don't have much time for results yet but I am hopeful.
It took some mental adjustment to "allow" myself to eat. I'm still getting used to it and slowly getting over the fear of blimping out.
My Fitbit says my TDEE is between 1800(on a day I was in my car all day) to 2500 on an active day.
Only time will tell, but I hope to be writing this same type of post very soon!!
Good for you OP!! Great post!!

Thanks

Good on you for fueling your body properly for the training you do! And for listening to family and the smart ones here on mfp. 1800 is a sensible amount. Youd do well on 1900 too. When you only have something like 10 pounds (for instance) to lose you want to make sure you do it at a pace that is not too fast to enure you maintain good body composition, retain muscle mass and maintain your RMR by the end of it. No point in going on a crash diet losing fast if half of the tissue you lose is muscle!

I get frustrated sometimes when I read those 1200 calorie threads so every now and then I'll create a topic. One lady said she was eating 1200 calories and her tdee according to her fit bit was 2200. That's way too big a defecit!! Nesrly a 50 % defecit. In that scenario if she is eating 1200 gross calories with a tdee of 2200 she will lose a heap of muscle and actually have a very high body fat % at the end of it. Resting metabolism would go down the toilet, meaning she'll have to eat smaller amount of food at maintenance.

Kim55555 · January 2016

Kim55555 wrote: »

So since December 13 (3 & 1/2 weeks ago) I've lost 600 grams (1.3 lbs)

Here are my calorie stats. Look how much I ate! and I lost 600 grams (1.3 lbs) And I didn't kill myself with heaps of cardio either AND this loss occurred over the Christmas new year period!! Awesome hey!! I would have been happy to maintain over the Christmas period and I was striving for that. I did even better! .

I lost another 300 grams over night

So that's a total of nearly a 1 kg (2.2lb) loss in 4 weeks

Eating a nice amount of food

Im now not even sure what scale number I'll end up at as I'm losing at a pretty decent rate. Ill just keep eating at defecit until I'm happy with my look and whatever the number ends up at it ends up at. I'm more interested in body fat % but still curious what number the scale will end up at as in the past I have always stopped when I got to 57 kg and ate at maintenance.

Wetcoaster · January 2016

I lost weight over Christmas new year......and I am 57. I felt no need to make a post about it.

Orphia · January 2016

Nice OP! Sorry it got missed in the New Year rush.

You and I do nearly the same sort of exercise and eat similar amounts, and both lost about the same amount during that period.

It's nice to see a post about this instead of all the ones from people that seem to think it's compulsory to pig out.

Kim55555 · January 2016

Wetcoaster wrote: »

I lost weight over Christmas new year......and I am 57. I felt no need to make a post about it.

G'day. I think you missed the point of the thread. The thread is to do with not having to starve yourself whilst losing weight by making a sensible cut from your tdee!

Kim55555 · January 2016

Orphia wrote: »

Nice OP! Sorry it got missed in the New Year rush.

You and I do nearly the same sort of exercise and eat similar amounts, and both lost about the same amount during that period.

It's nice to see a post about this instead of all the ones from people that seem to think it's compulsory to pig out.

Cool good work!

I lost weight over Christmas new year - You don't have to starve yourself to lose!

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