Reaching the lowest weight you've ever been - Question for those who are thin for the first time
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There's no set point your body wants to weigh, but the thing is the closer you get to your goal weight the more meticulous you often have to be because you're working with a smaller deficit usually so being a hundred calories off a day even could seriously stall weight loss.
I think a lot of people also make a goal weight without realizing how they would have to eat and/or exercise to maintain that goal weight. It's still CICO. I haven't broken a new low yet, but I have to eat less than I did when I was this size years ago. I'm not nearly as active. I went from a highly active job to a desk job. I work out 5 times a week, but have moderate calorie burns. I could work out harder or longer to eat more, but I'm not really willing to.
Same thing with my goal weight. I just want to be within the normal BMI range and then I will reevaluate whether I can go lower based upon how many calories I could eat at my current activity level because I foresee myself having a desk job for the foreseeable future.1 -
I am so unsure about a "goal" weight. Right now I just want to get to a healthy BMI. I've always been overweight and right now I'm at my lowest weight ever. However, I get so confused about my body sometimes. Lol I am in a size Medium now and when I look in the mirror I'm like "how can I wear such a small size when I still have such a big stomach?" It's weird. I'm short too so that probably affects it too but I am always surprised that the scale keeps going down. I keep expecting it to stop or go back up no matter how diligent I am about my eating and exercise.3
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Set point isn't a real thing. Set point behavior develops because you stay a weight for awhile and eat the same foods and do the same exercise so you think your stuck but really you are not, you are just maintaining!
26 here, 5'3 female.
18yo I was 140lbs and size 8 pants, medium tops.
I gained from 18-21yo and maxed at 168lbs, I was size 12 and stuffing into medium shirts.
I lost down to 130lbs in 2012 at age 22, didn't learn the new healthy maintenance at all and went back to old habits.
I regained and maxed out at 175lbs at 23yo.
I have since lost it all again last year and hit 130 and maintained at 25yo until now, 130-135lbs.
Maintenance is way harder than losing, but worth it!
Currently I'm the lowest I've ever been at 128lbs and dropping. I've never been this thin as an adult and it is incredible! I love my new body and am challenging myself with new fitness goals every day. I'm still losing because for the last year of maintaining I've wanted to see what 120 feels and looks like. I have a petite frame but never saw it due to being overweight. I think it will stick this time because I have gotten over my binge eating and been able to enjoy food without being controlling and hoarding to overeat. I can comfortably say no to sweets and put them off for weeks until I have enough extra calories to really enjoy it. Then I can go right back to eating well and not blink. That to me is the thin mentality, something I could never quite grasp before and why I failed at weight loss the first time.8 -
34, Female, 5'4, and morbidly obese since childhood. Matter of fact I believe when I looked up my BMI for the first time it was off the charts into super morbidly obese range. I started on mfp 3 years ago weighing 268lbs and hit my goal weight about 8 months ago and have been maintaining ever since. Well actually losing very slowly still trying to get my maintenance calories right, currently 125lbs. Definitely the lowest weight I have ever been in my adult life.
I never hit any plateaus or set points along the way, but I also was very accurate with my intake and logging. I would suggest you use a TDEE calculator to get an idea how many calories you would need to maintain at your goal weight of 15lbs less and see if that is a number you are willing to live with. I currently am still losing at 1700 cals per day after losing 143lbs. I'm not willing to eat any less so for me this is the lowest weight I will go. Hope that helps!
@ElvenToad
Wow..I'm 5'4" and weigh 144 and can't really lose on 1700
I see a lot of women with my stats losing on that much and it makes me sad. I know I shouldn't compare myself but man....Are you very active? 0 -
Im 38 and I recently dropped below 200lbs for the first time since I was ~13. So Im smaller than I have been since I was a teen, possible a pre-teen.
First off ... it's not a "lofty goal" so don't look at it like that. Eat Less. Move More. Rinse and repeat daily. In time you will get there, it's basic physics/biology.
Secondly, throw the idea of a "set point" right out the window. Barring some illness or disease, your metabolic rate will change daily. You can down-regulate your thyroid function by eating less, then up-regulate it by slowly eating more. Basically, metabolic rate can be tied to consumption. Mind you there are upper and lower finite limits to this. Eat too much, and you're going to gain, regardless of metabolism. Eat too low, and you can take your metabolism (metabolic syndrome). So eat enough, stay in a small deficit, and you WILL lose ... no set point to worry about.
As for ladies vs guys. I will admit there is some hormonal hurdles that ladies have versus men, but a hurdle is made to jump over.
I don't put my current weight into MFP until I have stabilized at that weight for a day or two, sometimes I will fluctuate up the next day after a new low. But, with that being said, this morning I weighed in at 196.4 ... that is 211.2lbs lost total (instead of the 209 the ticker shows). No surgery, no supplements, no Dr. Oz nonsense, no medicines, no pills ... just honest hard work and time. Don't question whether you can, instead focus on what you want to do when you DO make it.
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34, Female, 5'4, and morbidly obese since childhood. Matter of fact I believe when I looked up my BMI for the first time it was off the charts into super morbidly obese range. I started on mfp 3 years ago weighing 268lbs and hit my goal weight about 8 months ago and have been maintaining ever since. Well actually losing very slowly still trying to get my maintenance calories right, currently 125lbs. Definitely the lowest weight I have ever been in my adult life.
I never hit any plateaus or set points along the way, but I also was very accurate with my intake and logging. I would suggest you use a TDEE calculator to get an idea how many calories you would need to maintain at your goal weight of 15lbs less and see if that is a number you are willing to live with. I currently am still losing at 1700 cals per day after losing 143lbs. I'm not willing to eat any less so for me this is the lowest weight I will go. Hope that helps!
@ElvenToad
Wow..I'm 5'4" and weigh 144 and can't really lose on 1700 I see a lot of women with my stats losing on that much and it makes me sad. I know I shouldn't compare myself but man....Are you very active?
I jog in place for 35 min twice per day as that is the only exercise that I've found that is sustainable for me. Get my video game time in while burning a few calories
Outside of that I'm fairly sedentary but I *try* not to be.0 -
That is such an accomplishment. Please tell us how you overcame bing eating? It must be a lot of fun to discover the changes in your new level of loss. Congrats!Mini_Medic wrote: »Set point isn't a real thing. Set point behavior develops because you stay a weight for awhile and eat the same foods and do the same exercise so you think your stuck but really you are not, you are just maintaining!
26 here, 5'3 female.
18yo I was 140lbs and size 8 pants, medium tops.
I gained from 18-21yo and maxed at 168lbs, I was size 12 and stuffing into medium shirts.
I lost down to 130lbs in 2012 at age 22, didn't learn the new healthy maintenance at all and went back to old habits.
I regained and maxed out at 175lbs at 23yo.
I have since lost it all again last year and hit 130 and maintained at 25yo until now, 130-135lbs.
Maintenance is way harder than losing, but worth it!
Currently I'm the lowest I've ever been at 128lbs and dropping. I've never been this thin as an adult and it is incredible! I love my new body and am challenging myself with new fitness goals every day. I'm still losing because for the last year of maintaining I've wanted to see what 120 feels and looks like. I have a petite frame but never saw it due to being overweight. I think it will stick this time because I have gotten over my binge eating and been able to enjoy food without being controlling and hoarding to overeat. I can comfortably say no to sweets and put them off for weeks until I have enough extra calories to really enjoy it. Then I can go right back to eating well and not blink. That to me is the thin mentality, something I could never quite grasp before and why I failed at weight loss the first time.
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I am now around 120, with a goal of 105-110. I see 118 sometimes, but bounce up.
As a teenager, I remember being in the high 130s. In my 20's, I was in the mid-120's, but a thinner than I am now (46 yo).
When I started (230s), I thought 170 would be amazing. Then 150 seemed was impossible. Then my goal became 125. It really is a head game, sometimes. I used to think my body just didn't work right, that I'd never be able to get to the weight I wanted -- something I remember believing as a teenager, too.
120 lbs is pretty great now, and it would be easy to just stop here. But, I'm committed to being fit / thin / having the experience of being muscular / toned, which requires continued loss. So, I just keep going. What works for me is continually setting the next mini-goal as I work towards the ultimate one. And, I learned my body is pretty amazing.3 -
34, Female, 5'4, and morbidly obese since childhood. Matter of fact I believe when I looked up my BMI for the first time it was off the charts into super morbidly obese range. I started on mfp 3 years ago weighing 268lbs and hit my goal weight about 8 months ago and have been maintaining ever since. Well actually losing very slowly still trying to get my maintenance calories right, currently 125lbs. Definitely the lowest weight I have ever been in my adult life.
I never hit any plateaus or set points along the way, but I also was very accurate with my intake and logging. I would suggest you use a TDEE calculator to get an idea how many calories you would need to maintain at your goal weight of 15lbs less and see if that is a number you are willing to live with. I currently am still losing at 1700 cals per day after losing 143lbs. I'm not willing to eat any less so for me this is the lowest weight I will go. Hope that helps!
@ElvenToad
Wow..I'm 5'4" and weigh 144 and can't really lose on 1700 I see a lot of women with my stats losing on that much and it makes me sad. I know I shouldn't compare myself but man....Are you very active?
I jog in place for 35 min twice per day as that is the only exercise that I've found that is sustainable for me. Get my video game time in while burning a few calories
Outside of that I'm fairly sedentary but I *try* not to be.
Hm...Guess I just got the crap end of the stick0 -
I'm 5'9". 61 so a bit older, but I think my experience might still be relevant.
I went from 204 to 141 from July2015 to October 2016.
I don't remember weighing 141 in my entire adult life.
But it was too low. I was too thin. I began less cardio, but running instead 4 days a week (right now a 5k in about 36 min) and added an average of 25 min of weight training 4 days a week. I also play pickleball, a sort of easy tennis, three or four times a week for 2 -3 hours at a time. The running is new for me and I'm going to focus on farther and faster over the next year.
I've gained about 8 pounds but I look less gaunt and more rounded. I've finally got muscles! My clothes still fit so I'm trying to avoid lamenting about the weight gain. I do monitor regularly because I don't want to be fluffy ever again. I'm hoping my running goal helps with this....2 -
I'm 5'5 and started out at 165. I'm now down to 132 and seem to be maintaining that weight at the moment, but I'm losing inches from weight lifting. My goal is/was 125, but I'm going for looks now and not so much weight. It's definitely something you can achieve if you try for it.1
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34, Female, 5'4, and morbidly obese since childhood. Matter of fact I believe when I looked up my BMI for the first time it was off the charts into super morbidly obese range. I started on mfp 3 years ago weighing 268lbs and hit my goal weight about 8 months ago and have been maintaining ever since. Well actually losing very slowly still trying to get my maintenance calories right, currently 125lbs. Definitely the lowest weight I have ever been in my adult life.
I never hit any plateaus or set points along the way, but I also was very accurate with my intake and logging. I would suggest you use a TDEE calculator to get an idea how many calories you would need to maintain at your goal weight of 15lbs less and see if that is a number you are willing to live with. I currently am still losing at 1700 cals per day after losing 143lbs. I'm not willing to eat any less so for me this is the lowest weight I will go. Hope that helps!
@ElvenToad
Wow..I'm 5'4" and weigh 144 and can't really lose on 1700 I see a lot of women with my stats losing on that much and it makes me sad. I know I shouldn't compare myself but man....Are you very active?
I jog in place for 35 min twice per day as that is the only exercise that I've found that is sustainable for me. Get my video game time in while burning a few calories
Outside of that I'm fairly sedentary but I *try* not to be.
I'm soooo glad I'm not the only one doing things like this! I do 2-5 minutes every hour (depends on how long I can get away with being away from my desk at work
) when I go to the restrooms. 0 -
I was always somewhere between chubby and overweight growing up. Somewhere in my 20's I managed to get down to 143 at 5'8" and was about a size 10. I figured I was just a large framed person and that I could never be smaller. Fast forward a bit and at 27 for the first time in my life I got into a good workout routine. I dropped to 135 and was so happy - size 6 and finally got rid of those pesky under bra back rolls . I stopped thinking about my weight in general in fact. I felt so much healthier mentally. Then I accidentally lost another 7 lbs (I swear all off my chest! Lol) and was a size 4 and my collar bones stuck out and I could wear string bikinis. I swear I never thought I would see the day when I was too skinny! Now I'm at 180 (SW was 215!) And I keep wishing I had skinny pics so that I could remember that it was actually me that was that size. Now looking back, I think 127 was too small for me. My nutrition was bad back then (I didn't know anything about healthy levels and I think I wasn't even eating 1000 calories a day and then burning quite a lot through exercise). Now I would be happy to get back to 140. The moral of the story (to me anyhow) is to not limit yourself. You really won't know what your best is until you are there so just keep going and don't get too tied to a number.1
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ladyreva78 wrote: »34, Female, 5'4, and morbidly obese since childhood. Matter of fact I believe when I looked up my BMI for the first time it was off the charts into super morbidly obese range. I started on mfp 3 years ago weighing 268lbs and hit my goal weight about 8 months ago and have been maintaining ever since. Well actually losing very slowly still trying to get my maintenance calories right, currently 125lbs. Definitely the lowest weight I have ever been in my adult life.
I never hit any plateaus or set points along the way, but I also was very accurate with my intake and logging. I would suggest you use a TDEE calculator to get an idea how many calories you would need to maintain at your goal weight of 15lbs less and see if that is a number you are willing to live with. I currently am still losing at 1700 cals per day after losing 143lbs. I'm not willing to eat any less so for me this is the lowest weight I will go. Hope that helps!
@ElvenToad
Wow..I'm 5'4" and weigh 144 and can't really lose on 1700 I see a lot of women with my stats losing on that much and it makes me sad. I know I shouldn't compare myself but man....Are you very active?
I jog in place for 35 min twice per day as that is the only exercise that I've found that is sustainable for me. Get my video game time in while burning a few calories
Outside of that I'm fairly sedentary but I *try* not to be.
I'm soooo glad I'm not the only one doing things like this! I do 2-5 minutes every hour (depends on how long I can get away with being away from my desk at work ) when I go to the restrooms.
When I started here 3 years ago I was doing the Leslie Sansone walk at home videos and I figured hey why can't I do this without actually watching her video every day? So walking in place got way too easy after a while and then I started jogging and never looked back. If my son needs something I just hit pause on my watch and take care of him, then right back to it. I can easily fit it into any part of my day and I know it helps keep my back pain in check. (17 years of living with a bulged disk).
I love it and never would have been able to stick to this process without it, all movement counts!
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Hi, I'm 37 (older than your specific demographic sadly- even though I'm 22 in my head... does that count?)
I am currently around 130 and wear a U.K. 8-10 I haven't been this size since I was 22. I spent my 20s being pregnant with my 3 kids and my early 30s working out how to juggle children and work. I totally lost my identity and didn't care about myself, I was so busy with the kids that I didn't eat right or exercise. I reached 168lbs and felt awful. I avoided the camera, I constantly felt fat amongst my friends. I hated getting undressed in front of anyone- even my husband.
Fast forward to 2 years ago- I discovered running and cycling. I learned how to eat right, I crave healthy stuff and get cranky if I don't run for a while. I have lost 3 stone in total and feel much healthier.
I have also got a bit of a warped body image. I don't see a difference in myself to how I did 3 stone ago. If it weren't for the fact that my jeans say "8" and not "14" I wouldn't believe I have lost weight. I have fat days (today is a fat day, I even weighed myself this morning thinking I must be about a stone heavier somehow but the scales still say 130). I described myself as fat the other day, and my friend told me off because I am not fat. I am slim but I can't see it.
There are good days though, and days when I feel better about myself (these days are great and I don't mind getting my clothes off in front of the hubby!!!- they are not the norm though)
I don't know how to fix my head into catching up with my body. But I'm told it's quite a normal problem.
Maybe it's because my problem wasn't my weight all along... maybe I just need to learn to love ME. I'll get there.
That magic number is a great target to have but your perception of yourself may not change. Learn to love yourself at every stage.3 -
I'm lower now (115 lbs) than I was in high school, and have a lower body fat percentage (have really gotten into lifting along with my cardio), so I also look much smaller. I never thought I could get below 130 because other times I dieted, that's where I got and plateaued. My goal was 130, I got there, and thought "I want to see if I can do better", so I kept plugging away at it. Partly I think it was that I wasn't crash dieting. I set out to lose 45 lbs and make a lifestyle change, so it was a slow loss. I found exercises I enjoyed, and liked the results, found things I enjoyed cooking and eating, so I wasn't eager at all to go back to eating out and sitting around. I think being confident and not as worried about the scale helped me. Not feeling like the way I was eating and exercising was a chore helped. The final 15 lbs came off slowly, but because I wasn't focused on losing them, just continuing to do what I was doing, the pace didn't bother me. Now I still, 6 months into maintaining, look at myself and am so surprised and proud. I never thought I could be this fit.4
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I'm 33, 5'11 and started using MFP at 13st12lb (88kg). My heaviest weight at the start of the year was around 14st. I remember when I was 18 I weighed 10st7lb (66kg!) but I don't think I'll ever get back to that weight. At 22 I think I was around 11st7lb (73kg) which still seems like an unacheivable target. UGW for me is around 75-78kg.0
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I'm only 20, and 5' 4.5". Also had always been chunky. I got to my lowest weight last year, partly because I was working an active job, and worried by life, so not eating much. I was 123, down from 160. I'm now 133, after a year of working a sedetary job. Hoping to get down to 120 this time, but working more on body comp than strictly weight.0
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In college (early 20s) -- I got down to 140-145. I'm 5'7" and I looked pretty bony at that weight. I could wear a size 7 pant and all of my t-shirts were smalls.
I got to that weight in an abnormal way. First I had an extremely active lifestyle -- I had no car, my classes were spread all over campus, I had "walking dates" with guys/friends where we would just walk all over the place for no reason (we were broke students, remember?) -- like I was always moving. I also didn't eat much -- I was more socially and mentally stimulated than I ever was in my whole life, and it's like I lived off of that. So I dropped down to about 150-160. Then I got sick with a strep-throat like illness, and I didn't eat anything but grapes and apple juice for a whole week, which dropped the pounds down to 140.
Oddly enough, once that unintended fast ended, I was able to keep that weight off for a whole year. However, when I did slip back into my old habits and got a sedentary job, the weight crept back on quickly. I was at my heaviest about two years ago -- 192. I am working to get down to 150 -- looking back on old pictures, 140 was a little too skinny for what I'm going for.1 -
I'm 45 years old and hit an all-time low weight of 135 pounds in 2012. My starting weight when I joined MFP was 205 and my initial UGW was 155. I hit that goal and wasn't happy, so I continued to lose.
I hadn't weighed 135 pounds since I was a child (maybe 14 years old). My adult weight ranged anywhere from 145 lbs all the way up to 235 pounds.
I'm 5'9", so anywhere from 125-169 pounds is considered "normal weight" for me. I like to weigh around 137, but my doctor prefers me to stay between 145-150.
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