Want to lose 30 lbs by end of Feb

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  • murp4069
    murp4069 Posts: 494 Member
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    Not only do you need your nutritional minimums, but a diet like that (with so little calories) is not sustainable. Sure, you may lose a lot of weight quickly, but you aren't teaching yourself how to eat for long term weight loss and maintenance so once you lost the weight and go back to eating what you'd consider "normally," you'll just gain the weight back again.

    I think a lot of us have been there. I finally broke the pattern in December 2015 and started with MFP. I'm 5'5" and started at 170 lbs. It took me about 7-8 months to lose 35 lbs.
  • suzievv
    suzievv Posts: 410 Member
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    I just want to say that losing 10 pounds since December is really great. Especially considering the holidays. You should be very proud of that accomplishment.

    People are giving good advice (well except the one who recommended 800 calories); you need at least 1200 calories, probably more. Mistakes like this happen.... When I first started, I misunderstood how to properly calculate the calorie goal, and I thought I was supposed to be eating 900 calories a day! Also keep in mind that when you do calculate your calorie goal, it will be under your maintenance calories. So in order to gain weight, you have to consistently eat over your maintenance calories, not your calorie goal. So it would be good to know what your maintenance calories are to have that frame of reference.
  • laur357
    laur357 Posts: 896 Member
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    If you consistently eat below the nutrition minimums (1200 calories/day if you're a female and aren't under say 4'8''-4'10''), you will probably start to experience things like brittle hair and hair loss, dry cracking skin, poor hormonal response or loss of periods, fatigue, loss of tissue and poor organ function or damage. If you do eat less, you need to be closely monitored by a doctor who can help make sure you're getting enough vitamins, minerals, and other stuff your body needs to function. That is why people are telling you 800 calories a day is not enough.

    Someone of your height and weight can safely lose around 1.5-1.8 pounds per week while staying at or above 1200 calories and shouldn't really lose more than 2 per week.

    Things that affect your daily weigh-ins: hormones, sodium, new or increased exercise, not going to the bathroom regularly, time of the month, stress and poor sleep. An increase or staying the same on the scale does not mean you are not loosing fat. You might want to use a tape measure and also look at inches/cm lost - or only weight yourself once per week.

    People very frequently overestimate the amount of calories they eat each day, and careful logging is required as you get closer to your ideal weight. If you find over a few weeks that you are gaining or not losing (not from one day to the next), you don't need to drop under 1200 calories but you might need to be more accurate and weigh portions of food.

    Slow weight loss can be frustrating, absolutely. But you don't want to damage your health while dropping pounds, you want to be around to enjoy the benefits! Exercise can help here - you don't need it to drop pounds, but it can help change the shape of your body more quickly while you're doing it. You might see results (loss of inches or changes in how your clothes fit) more quickly while safely losing weight if you also exercise.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,695 Member
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    Your approach is too aggressive and may compromise your health. Would you be okay with your hair falling out during your 800 calorie intake? Because it can happen when calories are too low.
    Patience and consistency with a moderate deficit will help you lose 30lbs, but it may take 5 months or longer.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
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    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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  • Stella3838
    Stella3838 Posts: 439 Member
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    natashab61 wrote: »
    I want to thank everyone here from the bottom of my heart for all of the great advice. I will bump up my calories to 1200 and even 1300 as recommended by MFP. Thank you all!

    Good luck!! You got this!
  • SadDolt
    SadDolt Posts: 173 Member
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    youre setting yourself up for failure.
  • CarboShannon
    CarboShannon Posts: 9 Member
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    TDEE calculator it will get you on the path you need. With info you put in the results will tell you how many calories you should be eating. You can google TDEE calculator. You might be surprised how many calories you should be eating. Good luck! You'll get the hang of it!!!!
  • DarrelBirkett
    DarrelBirkett Posts: 221 Member
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    natashab61 wrote: »
    Hi all,

    I currently weigh 200 lbs and am 5 ft 4.75 in. Since December I have lost about 10 lbs but my progress seems slow. I first decided to try the ketogenic diet and intermittent fasting. They helped but I am a sicker for sugar and carbs and not a big fan of fat. So I decided to switch into a calorie deficient diet. I aim to eat about 800 calories but usually am over it some days into the 1200 calories. I know in weight loss we have to be patient but when I don't see a change in my weight on the scale for 2 days in a row I feel discouraged. Do you guys think I am on the right path?

    Hey there. Sorry for being lazy in my reply, but I put a post together that might help:

    Read this

    Basically though, well done! 10lb not far off your first stone and thats excellent. Its progress and working :)

    Understand that you burn calories sitting still and sleeping. Your body needs basic energy to function. Eat too little, then you will get lethargic and feel poorly. Skin/hair damage and so on. This is why its sensible to eat around 75% minimum or your calorie needs. Check my link anyway, feel free to ask me in DM or quote on here (so I see it) for pointers :)
  • itspronouncedbouquet
    itspronouncedbouquet Posts: 6 Member
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    Maybe you should get a scale that is accurate to the .1 pound. That way you can see even very small progress and it will keep you motivated. I don't know if 5 pounds a week is realistic. Maybe 2-3 since you are overweight but I wouldn't go below around 1200 calories a day because you're going to hit a point where you can't stand it anymore and you will binge. Let yourself have the things you like in normal portions and just track it. That way you feel happy and satisfied and you can keep going for longer.
  • SymbolismNZ
    SymbolismNZ Posts: 190 Member
    edited January 2017
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    It's possible, but not in a healthy way. When you hear of people that "lose 40lbs in two months", what you're actually hearing is that they've dropped a lot of water from their body and have fluid retention as one of their issues due to their diet; they're effectively dehydrating themselves.

    In order to -truly- lose 30lbs within eight weeks and it not just be massive volumes of water weight, you've effectively got a starting intake of 600 calories a day according to the LSU Pennington Calculator; versus according to your metrics, your body would be trying to burn as much as 2100 calories a day, so you're talking a deficit of 1500 calories.


  • jjalbertt
    jjalbertt Posts: 98 Member
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    natashab61 wrote: »
    Sorry I am new to this so in follow up why is going below 1200 calories considered unhealthy/bad?

    From what I learned in biology class, going below 1200 calories all the time for long periods of time can force your body to become malnourished. This can create long term health problems and doesn't give the proper energy needed for basic bodily functions.
    Hope this helps
  • savithny
    savithny Posts: 1,200 Member
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    itspronouncedbouquet wrote: »
    Maybe you should get a scale that is accurate to the .1 pound. That way you can see even very small progress and it will keep you motivated. I don't know if 5 pounds a week is realistic. Maybe 2-3 since you are overweight but I wouldn't go below around 1200 calories a day because you're going to hit a point where you can't stand it anymore and you will binge. Let yourself have the things you like in normal portions and just track it. That way you feel happy and satisfied and you can keep going for longer.

    Scales that give measurements to the 0.1 pound are not necessarily *accurate* to 0.1 pound. The vast majority of scales you can buy to have in your home are not that accurate even if they *look* like they are, and a 0.1 pound change day to day, as I said above, is totally meaningless. If you are "motivated" by a 0.1 decrease on one day, you're going to despair over the 0.2 *increase* the following day.

    You'll spend all your time analyzing each individual tree and not understand the type of forest you're in.

    There's nothing *wrong* with daily weighing, but getting obsessed over whether the scale ticks down in fractions of a pound is pretty much useless.
    http://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2458-13-1194
    (article found that home scales were "quite accurate" in that they consistently measured within a half-kilogram of a known weight. Meaning that "very accurate" scales had a margin of error of about a pound.)

    The article also points out:
    "It is also within the ~0.5 kg fluctuation in body weight considered as normal daily variation in healthy adults [22, 23]."
    Which means that normal variation in weight can be up to a half-kilogram (again, about a pound) across a day and between days, without representing a "real" loss or gain.
  • elizabethhare1
    elizabethhare1 Posts: 2 Member
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    natashab61 wrote: »
    Sorry I am new to this so in follow up why is going below 1200 calories considered unhealthy/bad?

    Your metabolism will readjust if you go super low and then that will set you up for weight gain when you go back to eating normally - as you will have to as below 1200 is not sustainable in the long term. This is why all the biggest loser style contestants put the weight right back on again. You have lost 10lbs in a month - that is excellent. Your goal should be 8lbs ideally. Don't get discouraged. It might not seem like much, but over 6 months that is 48lbs. Get a calendar and write your goal weight on it every Friday for the upcoming 6 months til June. Every week decrease it by 2lbs. Maybe have goal weight and then actual weight? If you are 200lbs now you could be 152lbs by then. It is motivating to see small weekly decreases as part of a bigger picture. Importantly, if you fall off the wagon, don't give up. Get back on track as soon as you can. If you plateau, don't give up and panic.

  • MelanieCN77
    MelanieCN77 Posts: 4,047 Member
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    HaleCry wrote: »
    I'm actually a little in shock with some of the comments on here... I was in OP position when I first joined MFP, as I'm sure some of you were too. I didn't know anything about calorie counting or losing weight the 'healthy' way. I believed all the fads about detoxes and cutting carbs and sugar.. it's what you read about and what the medial falsely advertises.

    A pat on the back for the people giving this woman helpful advice and explaining why what she was doing was wrong, but the others? "Your diet plan is stupid", "You're setting yourself up for failure"... how rude! I get what you mean, we get these posts a lot and it's annoying knowing someone is going about weight loss the unhealthy way, but why not explain why it's unhealthy? Or tell them what they should be doing instead? We're meant to be helping and motivating each other, not scaring people off or judging them about what they 'think' is right.

    Rant over :neutral:

    Thank you. There's an "old guard" here that seem only to exist to smugly beat down newcomers who ask about CICO, exercise calories, diets, cleanses, and etc. "You're stupid" never inspired anyone to open up and be receptive to input.
  • SadDolt
    SadDolt Posts: 173 Member
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    HaleCry wrote: »
    I'm actually a little in shock with some of the comments on here... I was in OP position when I first joined MFP, as I'm sure some of you were too. I didn't know anything about calorie counting or losing weight the 'healthy' way. I believed all the fads about detoxes and cutting carbs and sugar.. it's what you read about and what the medial falsely advertises.

    A pat on the back for the people giving this woman helpful advice and explaining why what she was doing was wrong, but the others? "Your diet plan is stupid", "You're setting yourself up for failure"... how rude! I get what you mean, we get these posts a lot and it's annoying knowing someone is going about weight loss the unhealthy way, but why not explain why it's unhealthy? Or tell them what they should be doing instead? We're meant to be helping and motivating each other, not scaring people off or judging them about what they 'think' is right.

    Rant over :neutral:

    wasting your time ranting when you could have used your energy to help. she is setting herself up to fail, and i'm 100% positive this isn't her first time trying to do this and failing.

  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,399 Member
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    MelanieCN77 wrote: »
    HaleCry wrote: »
    I'm actually a little in shock with some of the comments on here... I was in OP position when I first joined MFP, as I'm sure some of you were too. I didn't know anything about calorie counting or losing weight the 'healthy' way. I believed all the fads about detoxes and cutting carbs and sugar.. it's what you read about and what the medial falsely advertises.

    A pat on the back for the people giving this woman helpful advice and explaining why what she was doing was wrong, but the others? "Your diet plan is stupid", "You're setting yourself up for failure"... how rude! I get what you mean, we get these posts a lot and it's annoying knowing someone is going about weight loss the unhealthy way, but why not explain why it's unhealthy? Or tell them what they should be doing instead? We're meant to be helping and motivating each other, not scaring people off or judging them about what they 'think' is right.

    Rant over :neutral:

    Thank you. There's an "old guard" here that seem only to exist to smugly beat down newcomers who ask about CICO, exercise calories, diets, cleanses, and etc. "You're stupid" never inspired anyone to open up and be receptive to input.

    This is old--did you miss where the OP thanked everyone for their good advice? Sometimes people need a shock to change the path they're on. The OP was on a dangerous path too--good work MFP community!

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