when should i move my goal from 1lb loss/wk to 0.5lb loss/wk?

moosey2011

i have about 10-15 more pounds i would like to lose. i'm at 140 (if the scale was right this week) and i'd like to end at about 125-130. i lost about 15lbs over the summer, but now that i'm back in school full-time, i'm having a lot of difficulty with sticking to the 1290 calories/day that MFP has set for me. however, i'm afraid that if I set to lose 0.5lbs/wk too early, that i'll somehow end up gaining my weight back (irrational fear, i know). i'm happy with where i am at, but i'm afraid to gain the 15lbs i lost back. thanks for any guidance!

jemhh

I would do it now.

RoxieDawn

moosey2011 wrote: »

i have about 10-15 more pounds i would like to lose. i'm at 140 (if the scale was right this week) and i'd like to end at about 125-130. i lost about 15lbs over the summer, but now that i'm back in school full-time, i'm having a lot of difficulty with sticking to the 1290 calories/day that MFP has set for me. however, i'm afraid that if I set to lose 0.5lbs/wk too early, that i'll somehow end up gaining my weight back (irrational fear, i know). i'm happy with where i am at, but i'm afraid to gain the 15lbs i lost back. thanks for any guidance!

You can't gain weight back like that. Even if you up the calories to decrease the deficit from 500 to 250, you are still in a calorie deficit.

And change that to .5 when ever you want according to your preference. BUT you are having trouble sticking to the larger deficit now, why not change it to something more comfortable for you now?

moosey2011

Ok, thanks. I guess I just needed the validation to know that it's ok for me to set my goal to lose weight at a slower pace and that I won't stop losing weight or gain weight by decreasing my deficit.

koslowkj

I changed it when MFP changed my calorie goal to below 1300. I tried it for a couple of weeks and ended up binging at the end of the week because I was hungry. Even if you change it to 0.5 lb/week remember that there is nothing saying you have to eat every last one of those extra 250 calories. If you feel satisfied and have some calories left at the end of the day, we'll then maybe you'll just lose 0.75lbs that week and not feel like you starved yourself to stick to a goal that wasn't reasonable for you.