The Last Damned 30

LAWoman72

So...anybody trying to lose the last damned 30?

I am down 60, want to get to low 120s.

I am NOT loving how low I need my calories to be at this point so I'm at a snail's pace.

Anybody else in? It was a lot easier when I was gigantic and could, ya know, eat.

cmriverside

Have you reset your Goals? With 30 to lose, "Lose 1 pound per week" or even 1/2 pound per week is your goal, right? When I was at 30 to-go I was eating at the 1/2 pound per week level. It's the only thing that worked for me. Otherwise I would over-eat and under-eat cyclically.

LAWoman72

cmriverside wrote: »

Have you reset your Goals? With 30 to lose, "Lose 1 pound per week" or even 1/2 pound per week is your goal, right? When I was at 30 to-go I was eating at the 1/2 pound per week level. It's the only thing that worked for me. Otherwise I would over-eat and under-eat cyclically.

Oh yes....to half a pound...calories are 1360...many days I hit that, but being totally honest here, I don't love it.

I try to do my little tricks like eating bulk by using veggies. Maybe I should start having veg with each meal.

cmriverside

Oh, yeah, I have to have vegetables with every meal. My last weight push was at 1300. Really hard, and I almost never hit it unless I exercised. I'm not happy at anything under 1600.

Hang on. Take a break, maybe. 60 pounds is awesome - no reason you can't eat at maintenance for a couple weeks and then come back strong. Long term calorie deficits are really stressful and hard to keep going. Diet Break for the win!

amyepdx

98 lost - 20 to go! I'm also set at 1/2 lb a week but lately I've been going over on the weekends too often. I seem to still be losing 2 lbs a month so I guess it's working. Seems slow after 2 lbs a week, but it's realistic! I'm still hoping to get there by the end of the year, but I'll need to tighten up my logging and up my activity. Hang in there!!

CharlieBeansmomTracey

I have been trying to lose the last 25lbs over a year now(closer to two),the first 44-45lbs took 3+ years to lose. Im set at .5 lb a week to lose. it takes me months to literally lose a lb. Ive taken a few breaks,ate at maintenance for awhile,ate lower calories and so on. I do have a metabolic disorder which I know is still about CICO,but its so damn slow.

I weigh 99% of everything(unless i eat out or have no idea the calories in something and cant find info on it anywhere). I have tried not eating my calories back either and it just messed up my period. so forget that.I am losing fat slowly but surely so that is a plus.

even when my deficit is more than its set to I still lose slowly so dont feel bad. I know there are a lot of days I overeat,but I still usually usually net below my calories most days with exercise. it just gets aggravating when you are trying and its SLOOOOOOOOOWWWWWW.

Evamutt

I have 20 more to go. It put me down to a little over 1200 so I went on maintenance for month & half then put 1/2lb/week which is 1500 & doable. I did lose 2 lbs during maintenance

Rocknut53

Once I lost some weight and got a little tired of the limited calories I was allowed I upped my exercise a lot. That allowed me to increase my intake and the exercise actually decreased my appetite. You've come a long ways, keep it up. You will get there with patience and diligence.

SusanMFindlay

Rocknut53 wrote: »

Once I lost some weight and got a little tired of the limited calories I was allowed I upped my exercise a lot. That allowed me to increase my intake and the exercise actually decreased my appetite. You've come a long ways, keep it up. You will get there with patience and diligence.

This. It doesn't even have to be formal exercise. Raise your NEAT by going for walks, parking farther from the door, etc. Basically, bring yourself up to "lightly active" or even "active". Of course, these need to be real changes and you need to stick to them so that you're not fooling yourself - but they're not that hard to make and they let you eat several hundred calories more.

amyepdx

SusanMFindlay wrote: »

Rocknut53 wrote: »

Once I lost some weight and got a little tired of the limited calories I was allowed I upped my exercise a lot. That allowed me to increase my intake and the exercise actually decreased my appetite. You've come a long ways, keep it up. You will get there with patience and diligence.

This. It doesn't even have to be formal exercise. Raise your NEAT by going for walks, parking farther from the door, etc. Basically, bring yourself up to "lightly active" or even "active". Of course, these need to be real changes and you need to stick to them so that you're not fooling yourself - but they're not that hard to make and they let you eat several hundred calories more.

Great advice - I've also been working on that. I try to get at least 5000 steps during the work day. Good excuse to leave me desk. Then it's not too hard to get the rest when I get home. All things that will go with me into maintenance.

LAWoman72

SusanMFindlay wrote: »

Rocknut53 wrote: »

Once I lost some weight and got a little tired of the limited calories I was allowed I upped my exercise a lot. That allowed me to increase my intake and the exercise actually decreased my appetite. You've come a long ways, keep it up. You will get there with patience and diligence.

This. It doesn't even have to be formal exercise. Raise your NEAT by going for walks, parking farther from the door, etc. Basically, bring yourself up to "lightly active" or even "active". Of course, these need to be real changes and you need to stick to them so that you're not fooling yourself - but they're not that hard to make and they let you eat several hundred calories more.

I actually do already walk daily, plus work out.

When I eat back my exercise calories I tend to stop losing.

I mostly work out to keep my body in a decent shape, I mean the literal shape, tighter and a more defined waist.

tomteboda

I think it depends on what level of body leanness you are at now vs what you desire, not just the strict number. Are you already a healthy weight or are you still overweight? Is your body fat currently healthy but you just want it lower, or is it high? It concerns me that you find you maintain your current weight on <1400 calories a day, despite being physically active. Have you talked to your physician or a dietician about this?

graydreams

Oh how low are your calories then?

VintageFeline

This is me at the moment, had strong first quarter of the year, then some life stuff and a holiday (planned, knew I would eat more but ended up less active while away than anticipated) and back to some life stuff has made nearly two months of a bit of a reversal. This week is the first time I've actually maintained close to my full deficit for more than a day in a while!

I have 10lbs or so to healthy BMI then maybe another 10 to be where I want to switch to recomp. Dang so I have to have a lot of words with myself at the moment.

I have increased my NEAT recently though, probably only by a little but we'll see what it might be over time, could be completely insignificant! Playing with a kitten for some 5 hours a day has been my "lifestyle" change, heh.

Rocknut53

LAWoman72 wrote: »

SusanMFindlay wrote: »

Rocknut53 wrote: »

Once I lost some weight and got a little tired of the limited calories I was allowed I upped my exercise a lot. That allowed me to increase my intake and the exercise actually decreased my appetite. You've come a long ways, keep it up. You will get there with patience and diligence.

This. It doesn't even have to be formal exercise. Raise your NEAT by going for walks, parking farther from the door, etc. Basically, bring yourself up to "lightly active" or even "active". Of course, these need to be real changes and you need to stick to them so that you're not fooling yourself - but they're not that hard to make and they let you eat several hundred calories more.

I actually do already walk daily, plus work out.

When I eat back my exercise calories I tend to stop losing.

I mostly work out to keep my body in a decent shape, I mean the literal shape, tighter and a more defined waist.

Don't eat back all of your exercise calories. I typically eat back around half. MFP gives me ridiculous amounts of calories for my hikes. For example, yesterday I hiked for 4.5 hours and it gave me 2235 calories. No way would I eat all of those back. Because you want your deficit to occur over time you will get a feel for how much you can eat back on a given day. You are doing everything right, you just need to fine tune your CICO.

LAWoman72

Thanks, everybody.

Re: some of the questions -

I am at 1360 calories.

I am very overweight still - 5'1" and 153 lbs.

I already don't eat back my exercise calories - That's what I was saying: that I'm hungry going this low and that I can't eat back my exercise calories or I stop losing. I do sometimes eat just a few back, like 30 calories or something - that is about my max before just stalling out. I'm set on sedentary and exercise is added to that. I'm not literally chained to a desk all day and I get up and do things but again, if I were to go to lightly active to add calories, well....since I'm not losing on more calories, I already know that won't work...you know?

I appreciate how supportive people are being! And for the insights. I may go to maintenance for a couple of weeks and then go to a very small deficit and however long that takes, it takes. I mean it's not as if I'm gross right now, nor morbidly obese. I'm not where I want to be but my weight is not an actual crisis. I don't want to be miserable over this anymore.

Rocknut53

LAWoman72 wrote: »

Thanks, everybody.

Re: some of the questions -

I am at 1360 calories.

I am very overweight still - 5'1" and 153 lbs.

I already don't eat back my exercise calories - That's what I was saying: that I'm hungry going this low and that I can't eat back my exercise calories or I stop losing. I do sometimes eat just a few back, like 30 calories or something - that is about my max before just stalling out. I'm set on sedentary and exercise is added to that. I'm not literally chained to a desk all day and I get up and do things but again, if I were to go to lightly active to add calories, well....since I'm not losing on more calories, I already know that won't work...you know?

I appreciate how supportive people are being! And for the insights. I may go to maintenance for a couple of weeks and then go to a very small deficit and however long that takes, it takes. I mean it's not as if I'm gross right now, nor morbidly obese. I'm not where I want to be but my weight is not an actual crisis. I don't want to be miserable over this anymore.

This whole process has become a science experiment for me. I actually enjoy playing with the numbers to determine how my body responds. My maintenance at lightly active only gives 1580 (I'm old). I've found I can occasionally go over, but not on a regular basis. And I'm thankful I am able to exercise a lot. Being old and retired has it's benefits.

SusanMFindlay

LAWoman72 wrote: »

I already don't eat back my exercise calories - That's what I was saying: that I'm hungry going this low and that I can't eat back my exercise calories or I stop losing.

Have you tried playing around with your macronutrient balance? Satiation varies widely from person to person, but the nutrients that tend to lead to less hunger are protein, fat and fibre. (Most volume eaters get a lot of fibre by definition since most high volume low calorie foods are things like non-starchy vegetables.)

I wasn't able to see your food diary, but you may want to take a good hard look at the kinds of foods you're eating. How many grams of protein do you typically get in a day? If below 100 g (very rough ballpark figure), you might want to experiment with raising it. How many grams of fat do you typically get in a day? If below 60 g, you definitely want to raise it (since you need about 0.4 g fat per pound of body weight to be healthy) - but even at higher levels you could play with it a bit. Could you increase the volume of food you eat by replacing some starches with nonstarchy vegetables or replacing some of the higher calorie vegetables with lower calorie ones? And, all that said, some people need starch for satiation, so if the last proposal backfires, be willing to undo it.

The "magic" macro ratio to minimize hunger is different for everyone, but it might be worth investing some time in finding yours.

kksmom1789

LAWoman72 wrote: »

Thanks, everybody.

Re: some of the questions -

I am at 1360 calories.

I am very overweight still - 5'1" and 153 lbs.

I already don't eat back my exercise calories - That's what I was saying: that I'm hungry going this low and that I can't eat back my exercise calories or I stop losing. I do sometimes eat just a few back, like 30 calories or something - that is about my max before just stalling out. I'm set on sedentary and exercise is added to that. I'm not literally chained to a desk all day and I get up and do things but again, if I were to go to lightly active to add calories, well....since I'm not losing on more calories, I already know that won't work...you know?

I appreciate how supportive people are being! And for the insights. I may go to maintenance for a couple of weeks and then go to a very small deficit and however long that takes, it takes. I mean it's not as if I'm gross right now, nor morbidly obese. I'm not where I want to be but my weight is not an actual crisis. I don't want to be miserable over this anymore.

just wanted to say I am 5ft nothing and I weight 153lbs so 28lbs to my goal of 125lbs and I also have a very little calorie goal I have a fitbit and it gives me extra exercise calories just for my day to day life because I don't exercise at all but try to walk in my back yard as often as I can and it seems to be working but I have noticed the smaller i get the longer its going to take

LAWoman72

Hi again, folks.

I try to eat the old "diabetic" way - I'm not diabetic, it just for some reason works for me. This entailed eating a little less than 50% of protein grams per carbohydrate grams. Don't ask me why but this really worked out for me. The reason I discovered it was in The Carbohydrate Addict's Diet (book). I don't follow that anymore - there's a degree of woo to it and I don't know, it's just awkward at times and in the end it's still down to calorie restriction, which for sure was not automatically happening for me on CAD. But that's where I found out that eating this way is the best way of keeping my appetite within reasonable limits. (VLC is out for me as I experience horrific depression that way.)

I'll have to look and see how I have my percentages set but I know I usually get about 75 grams of protein in a given day. 100 would be a lot for me...wow. And honestly, I've tried high protein before and didn't really notice a difference. I guess I could play with that again.

Again, haven't taken note of the actual percentage (I'm bad with stuff like that) but I am seeing my fat as on the high side (I never restrict it) - averaging around 60 grams/day. Once again, this is not purposeful. It just seems to work out that way based on my simply not noting nor restricting it.

LAWoman72

kksmom1789 wrote: »

LAWoman72 wrote: »

Thanks, everybody.

Re: some of the questions -

I am at 1360 calories.

I am very overweight still - 5'1" and 153 lbs.

I already don't eat back my exercise calories - That's what I was saying: that I'm hungry going this low and that I can't eat back my exercise calories or I stop losing. I do sometimes eat just a few back, like 30 calories or something - that is about my max before just stalling out. I'm set on sedentary and exercise is added to that. I'm not literally chained to a desk all day and I get up and do things but again, if I were to go to lightly active to add calories, well....since I'm not losing on more calories, I already know that won't work...you know?

I appreciate how supportive people are being! And for the insights. I may go to maintenance for a couple of weeks and then go to a very small deficit and however long that takes, it takes. I mean it's not as if I'm gross right now, nor morbidly obese. I'm not where I want to be but my weight is not an actual crisis. I don't want to be miserable over this anymore.

just wanted to say I am 5ft nothing and I weight 153lbs so 28lbs to my goal of 125lbs and I also have a very little calorie goal I have a fitbit and it gives me extra exercise calories just for my day to day life because I don't exercise at all but try to walk in my back yard as often as I can and it seems to be working but I have noticed the smaller i get the longer its going to take

About how many calories a day are you eating? (Total, not netting out exercise calories?) If you don't mind my asking?

Are you saying you eat back your exercise calories?