I was discouraged until...

bananabeannn

Hi everyone!

I have been frustrated that I'm seemingly not losing *any* weight. So, I decided to wear my HR charge to see how many calories I burn and carefully weigh and measure my food. It was been about 2-3 weeks and I barely see any movement on the scale. I was feeling discouraged until I crunched some numbers.

I'm averaging 1648 calories intake.
I burn aveerage of 1800 calories a day.

1800-1648 = 152 cal/day deficit.

152 x 30 days in a month = 4650 deficit Cals a month.

4650/3500 (calories in a pound of fat) = 1.3lbs. A MONTH.

That is slow as molasses but I have little to lose. So...if the math is right...and this is how I want to continue eating, just have to be patient.

Restricting more makes me miserable, but I can definitely increase the exercise. An hour of cardio 3x a week could help burn 400 calories a session, which is about 3600 calories a month.

So, adding exercise could help me lose 2.3LBS per month instead of 1.3.

There you have it. That's the math. How do YOU add up? Are your expectations realistic? What are you willing to cut/add...for now, I will add a serving of patience!

BB

pinggolfer96

Or you could eat less calories, the increased exercise might increase appetite, but it's up to you and your preference(:

JeromeBarry1

I haven't been through the "discouraged" phase in my 6 months of journeying, but I have spent a month tracking calories and burns. My calorie deficit is several thousand calories each week. I don't have anything like a HR Charge. I was tracking the calorie burns from mfp, the calories in from mfp, and my monthly deficit in those numbers worked out to 12.4 lb. In reality, I lost 8.4 lb that month. Calorie totals, even on an HR Charge, don't account for the variety of issues that can change measured weight, such as sodium, stress, tissue injury, and for women, menses.

middlehaitch

Well done @bananabeannn for doing the maths.
I did a similar thing years ago, when I was losing, worked out my average hourly exercise burn too.
It has given me a good base of numbers to work from, with a few adjustments as weight dropped, for over 6 years.

Cheers, h.

1shedev

Well done on the calculations