Weight Loss Journey

cfayebell

Hi everyone,

My name is Carolyn. I am 50 years old, 5'6 and currently weigh 161 (according to scale this morning). I have been logging on faithfully counting my calories, trying to eat healthy and increase my protein. Stepped up my exercising; 5 day a week for 45min a day to include strength and cardio. Try to get at least 8000 steps a day, usually average 10,000. The lowest I can get the scale to go is 158. Been out of town on business for last week and a half is why now 161.

What am I doing wrong. Fitness pal set me at 1200 and although I gain some back from excercising, I still try not to go over 1400.

This is very frustrating and I don't know what to do. Losing 10lbs shold not be this hard.

I appreciate any insight anyone has.

jwat90

Be sure you are drinking plenty of water. When the scale stops for me, that's usually the reason, I'm not drinking enough.

tinkerbellang83

cfayebell wrote: »

Hi everyone,

My name is Carolyn. I am 50 years old, 5'6 and currently weigh 161 (according to scale this morning). I have been logging on faithfully counting my calories, trying to eat healthy and increase my protein. Stepped up my exercising; 5 day a week for 45min a day to include strength and cardio. Try to get at least 8000 steps a day, usually average 10,000. The lowest I can get the scale to go is 158. Been out of town on business for last week and a half is why now 161.

What am I doing wrong. Fitness pal set me at 1200 and although I gain some back from excercising, I still try not to go over 1400.

This is very frustrating and I don't know what to do. Losing 10lbs shold not be this hard.

I appreciate any insight anyone has.

1200 calories is the minimum cut off for MFP regardless of what rate of loss you choose. If you're getting in around 8000 steps per day, set your account to Lightly Active if you haven't already and change your rate of loss to 0.5-albs per week (this is more suitable for someone looking to lose under 20lbs).

Your NEAT should then be around 1900 for maintenance , so you should get an allowance of 1400-1650 depending on whether you go for 0.5lb or 1lb.

Ensure your logging is accurate, you have a smaller margin of error than someone with a lot to lose, and really need to knuckle down, if you don't have a food scale, get one.

Try eating only 50% of exercise calories and reviewing after 1 month to see how accurate the calorie burns are.

Be aware your weight will fluctuate from day-to-day by a couple of pounds, so you really need to have a range to aim for rather than a fixed amount, and you also need to bear in mind that this can mask weight loss in the first couple of weeks, and can also be caused by many things including the following:

• changes in macros
• sodium intake
• new or increased intensity of exercise
• hormonal changes
• medication