Weight Loss Progression
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fastfoodietofitcutie
Posts: 522 Member
Hi, I'm Sheri. I have 200+ lbs to lose and am a bit frustrated today. I've lost 30 lbs so far but a big chunk of that was water weight right in the beginning. If I eat perfectly I can lose 2 lbs a week which is great for the average person but for someone with so much weight to lose shouldn't it come off faster? My doctor even says I should be losing more and need to eat less carbs. I'm trying to eat around 150g carbs a day because I want this to be a lifestyle change and if I go below that I'll always cheat and binge which I don't want to do.
I know it's not a race but I have some moderate health issues that weight loss would really help with. I don't want weight loss surgery. What has your experience been with weekly weight loss? I appreciate this group because it's hard to find people to relate to this struggle!
I know it's not a race but I have some moderate health issues that weight loss would really help with. I don't want weight loss surgery. What has your experience been with weekly weight loss? I appreciate this group because it's hard to find people to relate to this struggle!
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When I started, I lost on average at a pretty good clip, but I had my up and down weeks. The up and down weeks have gotten more frequent as I lost the weight, and I've actually stalled out for the last month or so.
first, the big thing to understand is that the calculator that predicts your calorie limit for the day is a estimate - so while on average, its close enough for most folks, there are some who might have circumstances where its less accurate for them.
So first, I'd ask how accurate are you in recording your intake? Are you meticulous in counting everything, including condiments, or do you just wing it? Do you weight and measure everything? Are you using the values in the MFP list that match what the product label says or taking the first one that comes up?
If you are measuring, you might want to be sure that you are making everything level and loosely packed. Measuring cups and spoons are notorious for being inaccurate - in some cases, they can be off as much as 50% over from what I've read, depending on how you pack the food item in them. If you want to be very accurate and precise, you're going to need a food scale.
Secondly, since anyone can upload entries into the food database, there are lots of inaccurate duplicates for a lot of things. And sometimes manufacturers revise nutritional information so what's in the database may be out of date. Try to get the most accurate entry you can by either matching your product's label up or looking at the USDA's website or such for the accurate values.
It can be incredibly easy to eat more than you realize, even when you are calorie counting!
Also, definitely go with the method that is most sustainable for you - if going below 150g carbs a day isn't sustainable for you, then its not going to work, and its not necessary to force yourself to use a method that you dislike. So unless you have a special medical reason or health concern that low carb specifically addresses, then its not absolutely vital that you go low carb to achieve weight loss. Low carb results in a lot of water weight loss initially, but long term, studies have shown that the amount of weight lost over time is no better than other methods, so weight loss truly comes down to what works best for you. Now I know that low carb is often a help with type 2 diabetics and those with other medical conditions, and I don't know you personally, so I'm certainly not trying to over-ride your doctor; just realize that most PCPs are general practitioners and not always up to date on the latest standards and research, so don't be afraid to do your own research and work with them on finding the best plan for you - I greatly discourage just taking a doctor's word for it just because they are a doctor and want valid reasons for their recommendation and not just that that was the standard method of care they were taught in medical school 20 years ago (yeah, I've had issues with that before lol)
I'd say try tightening up your logging first, and see if there were things slipping in on you under the radar. It's not a matter of eating perfectly because it truly doesn't matter WHAT you eat (you don't have to be perfectly 'clean' all the time); it truly comes down to HOW MUCH.If that doesn't work after a couple of weeks, revisit your calorie limit. Did you set it for sedentary or lightly active? If you don't have regular weekly exercise going, you may not truly be in the lightly active category, or you might not be burning as many calories as the calculator predicted. So you might try cutting it back to the sedentary level and eating only a portion of your exercise calories back. MFP also acknowledges that the values for exercise can be way over-inflated, so you may not be burning what it says you are, which is why they recommend only consuming back part of that number, so if you are at the sedentary level and have been logging your exercise, try not logging your entire exercise.
If none of that works, then it could be that your CO is actually lower than the statistical estimate provided by MFP, meaning try shaving a little off at a time. I found that I really needed to be somewhere between 50 - 100 calories lower than what MFP's calculator estimated - http://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html was more in line with what I was experiencing in reality. I think this is because I have thyroid issues and PCOS, so my CO isn't as efficient as the average would predict.
And finally, you really do have to give it time. Its not uncommon to find folks who have 3 or 4 weeks of stubborn scale readings, only to suddenly experience a woosh! and lose several pounds at once. The advice most frequently found here is to trust the process and be patient - if you are in a deficit, you WILL lose weight! It just might not happen the way or on the time table that you want it
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I should have said welcome first - sorry! I didn't mean to come out of the dugout swinging
You're in the right place and I do understand your frustration when you're doing everything they recommend and aren't see the results they say you ought to be seeing. And I don't blame you for not wanting WLS!0 -
Welcome!! I don’t think I could add anything that @bmeadows380 didn’t already say so eloquently.
I started at 471 and I’m down to 338. I manage on average 2 - 3 lbs a week on good weeks 1 lb per week on less than good weeks. I have found that the calories that MFP gives me are way to high so I lowered it to 1460 calories/day. Some of this may be because I don’t weigh everything so I may underestimate sometimes. Lowering the calories gave me a bit of a buffer. 0 -
Thank you both. I think I do a pretty good job of weighing, measuring and tracking so I don't think that's the problem. I'm pretty sedentary now so I think my BMR and TDEE are much lower than calculated. The MFP calculations just don't work for bigger folks. I'm currently at 1700 calories a day and may drop a bit. I really want to increase my activity but I have Achilles tendonitis and it's killing me!0
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MFP gives me 1560 calories and I'm 289 currently. I'm not convinced I should eat that many though so i rarely go above 1200 if I'm honest and I never eat my exercise calories back despite putting myself at sedentary. I'm also not always weighing everything. I weigh cheese, butter, pasta and rice anything like that and I'll measure milk or oil but as far as the rest goes I don't worry too much so I like to ensure there's a good buffer in case my guesstimate is wrong. So far it's working so I can only suggest to keep at it. Oh and the only exercise I'm doing is very slow walking on my treadmill.1
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Hey!Here's my info if it helps.
I started at 375ish and mfp gave me: 1900 (and change), set at sedentary, for a 2 lb loss. I've lost 60ish lbs and it's only ticked down to 1820/sedentary/2lbs a wk. I exercise and eat back usually around 1/2 of my calories.
At the beginning i lost a little more quickly, bit, like you, after around the 30 lb mark it started to be more stable and dependent on staying withing the calorie guidelines. So now here i am and i still have a fairly sedentary life, i exercise more, but i dont find it super difficult to stay within my 1820 limit. I'm just plunking along with volume eating most of the time. I have been doing this for 364 days so far, and i took an extended trip to what i try to call "unplanned maintenanceville" between end of aug and around dec.
(You can see in the picture my food events. One week long trip and 2 houseguests. It was rough because i had to get back on track, but now i know how.) I think weighing food is very important as well as staying within your guidelines. I think the numbers can work for larger people, but if they are not working for you, you can just change them! Good luck and i hope you find your number!4 -
i have to lose 200+ as well MVP gives me 2500 calories a day , don't know why I got higher count , but I am doing low carb so it really doesn't matter about calories , but i have stayed under that 2500 easily , I eat maybe 20 carbs a day , no bread or rice or potatoes at all , no sweets . it' s the only way I can do it , if I allow myself a roll , that would be it , i would be off and running eating everything !! I know me , that is how I got into this mess. I just won't cheat this time , even with this stupid cold I have taken NO syrup type cold meds or cough syrup , doc even gave me pills for the cough so I could stay on my diet . Yes it is a life change , but years ago when my husband went to AA they told him , you just can not drink anymore , no matter what !! and he hasn't 10 years he hasn't , so That is how I am thinking , My trigger foods I just can not have, and that is just it.2
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yep - its a learning process for sure! Some things we can learn to let ourselves have in moderation, but other things we just have to avoid because we know we can't stop.
For me, only calorie counting and not eating low carb or keto or even going low sugar on purpose helped me because I didn't have a mental list of "can't have these every again" foods. Anything I was craving was permissible as long as I could fit it into my calorie budget. so instead of telling myself "nope, you can't have that" I can consider it and say, "nah, the calorie cost just isn't worth it today". but if a day comes along that I just really want it, than I can have it. for me, the freedom of that choice really helps me stay in control. Otherwise, my mind just wants to fixate on the no list, craving those items just because they are forbidden, until my will power caves.
But that's the beauty of CICO because it really does boil down to getting calories in to being less than calories out; how we do that is entirely up to us, so we can find the style that works best for us! Some folks do really well on low carb and keto; others do much better if they limit their added sugar intake and stay away from artifical sweeteners. Some folks need less fat but more carbs, and others find eliminating certain food groups or going vegan helps them with that. Thank goodness the process is so adaptable! (cause I know I could never do keto - I feel like I'm starving to death on a low carb style diet!)
Though I hope you don't mind if I make 1 clarification: there's a misconception about low carb where folks think that calories don't matter if you eat low carb. The truth is, calories still matter - you can eat 0 carbs, but if you eat too many calories, you're still going to gain weight. Low carb isn't a magic energy creator in your body. Now what usually happens for people who go low carb and find it helps them is that it helps them feel full faster and longer, so they just don't eat too much - as tammyfranks2 above stated. I just say this because I had a friend argue with me quite vehemently that he could eat a million calories on a low carb diet and lose weight, because he had this misconception as to what ketones were, thinking they were some magic replacement full the body runs on instead of being the waste byproduct of the body converting protein and fats to sugar when it no longer has a ready supply of carbs which convert much easier. The body runs on sugar; where it is adaptable is where it gets that sugar source.1 -
tammyfranks2 wrote: »i have to lose 200+ as well MVP gives me 2500 calories a day , don't know why I got higher count ...
It's all based on start weight, your activity level, and your desired loss rate. You may have it set for .5 lbs or 1 lb a week. I set mine to 2 lbs a week because i dont want to get crazy about being a perfect food measurer so i build in a little buffer.1 -
tammyfranks2 wrote: »i have to lose 200+ as well MVP gives me 2500 calories a day , don't know why I got higher count ...
It's all based on start weight, your activity level, and your desired loss rate. You may have it set for .5 lbs or 1 lb a week. I set mine to 2 lbs a week because i dont want to get crazy about being a perfect food measurer so i build in a little buffer.
When I started MFP was recommending ~3500 calories. That's primarily because MFP is built around the 1-2 pounds a week to be safe metric. However, the safe metric as I understand it is really more so 1% of your body weight/week which means at much higher weights, your safe number/week is higher. For example, at 300 pounds it would be 3lbs/week or at 400, 4lbs/week. This would also mean that you're safer to lower the calories below what MFP recommends.
I experimented for a while at 2000 calories and settled at 1750. For me, that's allowed me to lose about an avg of 5.7lbs per week over the last 5 months. Keep in mind, I started at 603, so that's skewed to my size. Experiment for yourself and find the total that works consistently for you.5 -
@theowlbox Thanks for sharing your weight chart! I was actually feeling pretty discouraged because I haven't been doing well the last few weeks, but seeing that makes me feel like other people struggle with it too and still manage to get back into the swing of things! I guess I'm just trying to say you made me feel like maybe I didn't ruin everything!
@alevans4 That's really interesting about losing 1% of your body weight/week and makes a lot of sense! Where did you learn that?1
