Am I being too "aggressive" with my goal?
LW3380
Posts: 118 Member
Hi Everyone,
Just looking for the thoughts of the MFP "gurus" regarding my goal; admittedly I don't have much to lose; I'm 5ft 8" in January I weighed 170lbs, current weight is 164.2lbs and aiming for 154lbs.
My weekly loss is set at 1lb per week this gives me 1340cals a day (my Fitbit shows extra cals gained throughout the day as well as my gym nights) but I've been reading a lot of posts which say that with little to lose 1lb a week might be too aggressive; if I change to 0.5lbs it increases my target to 1560cals which seems like a lot on top of any exercise cals.
I understand it’s going to come off slowly; I’m weighing daily and using Libra to see my trend which is up and down but mostly down.
So should I stick with 1lb or go for the half?
Thanks
Just looking for the thoughts of the MFP "gurus" regarding my goal; admittedly I don't have much to lose; I'm 5ft 8" in January I weighed 170lbs, current weight is 164.2lbs and aiming for 154lbs.
My weekly loss is set at 1lb per week this gives me 1340cals a day (my Fitbit shows extra cals gained throughout the day as well as my gym nights) but I've been reading a lot of posts which say that with little to lose 1lb a week might be too aggressive; if I change to 0.5lbs it increases my target to 1560cals which seems like a lot on top of any exercise cals.
I understand it’s going to come off slowly; I’m weighing daily and using Libra to see my trend which is up and down but mostly down.
So should I stick with 1lb or go for the half?
Thanks
2
Replies
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I'm going against the current here but really, if you're not losing more than 1 lb a week and are satisfied with your calorie goal, I'd stick with that goal for now.
My reasoning is that once *I* started to eat more, my appetite shot up, and it was much harder to stick to my calorie goal. I understand that it's just my personal experience though, but if it's not broken...10 -
Hey, I was/am in a similar boat to you, and a lot of people said the same to me. I however have found that it is doable for myself. I have MFP at losing 1lb a week, and have 1360 calories to eat (used to be 1380 but adjusted for weight loss). I only eat back calories from my fitbit steps, and not from any exercise. Weekly weigh ins every Monday morning show I still lose at least one pound per week, sometimes even 1.5 pounds! If you can do it then do it, but no shame in adjusting to 0.5 lb. I have four more pounds to lose till I want to take the weight loss slower. Good luck!2
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Seems reasonable.0
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1560 really isn't all that much. I average around 1550 gross to lose about 3/4-1 pound a week, and I'm four inches shorter than you, and 35 pounds lighter. So I can entirely see you succeeding -- with accurate logging, of course -- eating that, plus exercise calories.2
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Thanks for all the replies...I guess I'm overthinking things! Reading too many posts on here can you make you question yourself. I'll stick with what I'm doing just now as it seems to be working (so far).
4 -
I'm going against the current here but really, if you're not losing more than 1 lb a week and are satisfied with your calorie goal, I'd stick with that goal for now.
My reasoning is that once *I* started to eat more, my appetite shot up, and it was much harder to stick to my calorie goal. I understand that it's just my personal experience though, but if it's not broken...
I agree. If you can properly nourish yourself on the lower amount, and you know it's for a shortish amount of time, I don't see why not.4 -
I disagree. To me the big reason to lose weight slowly as you approach goal weight is to try to minimize your muscle loss. What’s the point of getting to a certain number on the scale if your body fat/muscle composition got worse in the process? But also losing at 0.5lbs/week starts to feel more like maintenance, in fact I view it as good practice. I would argue that an extra 250 calories per day is meaningful.
Are you eating back ALL of your exercise calories? Maybe a compromise would be to set your goal to 0.5lbs/wk and then eat only 75% or 50% of your calories back. I pick on those calories rather than your base calories because they are so often inappropriately high.3 -
goldthistime wrote: »I disagree. To me the big reason to lose weight slowly as you approach goal weight is to try to minimize your muscle loss. What’s the point of getting to a certain number on the scale if your body fat/muscle composition got worse in the process? But also losing at 0.5lbs/week starts to feel more like maintenance, in fact I view it as good practice. I would argue that an extra 250 calories per day is meaningful.
Are you eating back ALL of your exercise calories? Maybe a compromise would be to set your goal to 0.5lbs/wk and then eat only 75% or 50% of your calories back. I pick on those calories rather than your base calories because they are so often inappropriately high.
Thanks for this, I have always been slightly sceptical of my exercise calories; for example on Saturday I apparently accrued an extra 981 cals (early morning gym visit and walking about during the day) so I quite like the idea of only using 50% -75%.
Normally I aim to eat them all back but some nights after the gym then dinner I'm stuffed and leave the last 400-500 cals.
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hannahsharratt27 wrote: »Hey, I was/am in a similar boat to you, and a lot of people said the same to me. I however have found that it is doable for myself. I have MFP at losing 1lb a week, and have 1360 calories to eat (used to be 1380 but adjusted for weight loss). I only eat back calories from my fitbit steps, and not from any exercise. Weekly weigh ins every Monday morning show I still lose at least one pound per week, sometimes even 1.5 pounds! If you can do it then do it, but no shame in adjusting to 0.5 lb. I have four more pounds to lose till I want to take the weight loss slower. Good luck!
I just really have to address this "no shame" comment. Maybe I'm misinterpreting the intent, but just because someone maintains a larger deficit than .5 lb/week because they "can" doesn't mean they should and doesn't mean they are somehow better and stronger than someone who chooses to lose with a smaller deficit.
There are reasons to have smaller deficits. One reason being maintaining muscle mass, as goldthistime mentioned and to me is very, very important because I already have a higher body fat percentage than I would like due to rapid weight loss at the beginning. Another reason being giving yourself time to develop habits for maintaining, which is also very important as where most people fail is the actual maintenance phase. Not everyone needs that adjustment period, but it can be very helpful. Yet another reason is to ensure one gets enough nutrition, and maybe they want to add some treats in there. Again, not necessary, but maybe someone doesn't want to be absolutely meticulous nutrition-wise with every single choice because they have a small number of calories.
Point being, there is definitely "no shame" in a smaller deficit - there are very valid reasons for choosing a slower rate of loss. And if the only reason is so you can eat more - great! "No shame" in that, either. I would think the goal for most people who to lose weight is to then maintain that weight. So do whatever you need to do that doesn't put your health at risk to do that.
OP - I'm 5'8" and low 140s (weight is a range, not a single number), I lose at about 1700-1900 M-F, usually eating more like 2400 on Saturdays and Sundays.8 -
hannahsharratt27 wrote: »OP - I'm 5'8" and low 140s (weight is a range, not a single number), I lose at about 1700-1900 M-F, usually eating more like 2400 on Saturdays and Sundays.
@veganbaum thank you for your reply, I also tend to take this approach at the weekends, as there is less structure in Saturday and Sunday it helps to have a few more calories to play which (weekdays are cool beans!) and my own though about shifting down to .5lb was that it is closer to my maintenance calorie meaning it'll be a smooth crossover when I reach my goal.
Just another point and something I've noticed on the boards some think it's a merit to only manage on 1200 cals a day, it's like a competition who can survive on the lowest amount of calories. It's the opposite in my book, if I can get to my goal while eating 1350 or more a day then power to me! I'd be yelling from the rooftops...but hey that's just MHO
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I'm 5'2, at my goal weight now, but lost my weight eating b/w 1600-1900 calories and trusting my FitBit adjustments and eating those back completely. You may think 1560 plus exercise calories sounds like a lot, but it's really not - and with only 10 lbs to go till goal - you should be starting to think about transitioning to maintenance. You're nervous about adding 250 cals right now, but if you continue losing 1 lb/week then in about 10 weeks you'd be figuring out how to add 500 calories to your daily routine and will be nervous about that. Better to ease into that transition, it will likely slow down your weight loss a little, but make that transition smoother and more sustainable.
Also, some questions about your FitBit - how many steps do you average, and what activity level have you set in MFP? What does FitBit say your total calorie burn is?6 -
WinoGelato wrote: »I'm 5'2, at my goal weight now, but lost my weight eating b/w 1600-1900 calories and trusting my FitBit adjustments and eating those back completely. You may think 1560 plus exercise calories sounds like a lot, but it's really not - and with only 10 lbs to go till goal - you should be starting to think about transitioning to maintenance. You're nervous about adding 250 cals right now, but if you continue losing 1 lb/week then in about 10 weeks you'd be figuring out how to add 500 calories to your daily routine and will be nervous about that. Better to ease into that transition, it will likely slow down your weight loss a little, but make that transition smoother and more sustainable.
Also, some questions about your FitBit - how many steps do you average, and what activity level have you set in MFP? What does FitBit say your total calorie burn is?
^^ agree @WinoGelato knows things
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WinoGelato wrote: »I'm 5'2, at my goal weight now, but lost my weight eating b/w 1600-1900 calories and trusting my FitBit adjustments and eating those back completely. You may think 1560 plus exercise calories sounds like a lot, but it's really not - and with only 10 lbs to go till goal - you should be starting to think about transitioning to maintenance. You're nervous about adding 250 cals right now, but if you continue losing 1 lb/week then in about 10 weeks you'd be figuring out how to add 500 calories to your daily routine and will be nervous about that. Better to ease into that transition, it will likely slow down your weight loss a little, but make that transition smoother and more sustainable.
Also, some questions about your FitBit - how many steps do you average, and what activity level have you set in MFP? What does FitBit say your total calorie burn is?
@WinoGelato this has been my thinking too...to reply to your questions I've been using my fitbit since the 17th Feb and my 7 day average steps is 9004 (however some of this might be from the warm up run I do at the gym??), my MFP activity setting is sedentary (as I have a desk job) calorie burn for the last 7 days seems to range from 2101 -2823.
Hope that helps?!0 -
If you feel good at 1lbs of loss per week, and you're eating at or above 1200 net calories consistently, I don't see any problem.
Sometimes people like slow and steady, sometimes people just want those damn 10lbs off so they can transition into maintenance faster. Either way is fine, as long as you're staying healthy.1 -
WinoGelato wrote: »I'm 5'2, at my goal weight now, but lost my weight eating b/w 1600-1900 calories and trusting my FitBit adjustments and eating those back completely. You may think 1560 plus exercise calories sounds like a lot, but it's really not - and with only 10 lbs to go till goal - you should be starting to think about transitioning to maintenance. You're nervous about adding 250 cals right now, but if you continue losing 1 lb/week then in about 10 weeks you'd be figuring out how to add 500 calories to your daily routine and will be nervous about that. Better to ease into that transition, it will likely slow down your weight loss a little, but make that transition smoother and more sustainable.
Also, some questions about your FitBit - how many steps do you average, and what activity level have you set in MFP? What does FitBit say your total calorie burn is?
@WinoGelato this has been my thinking too...to reply to your questions I've been using my fitbit since the 17th Feb and my 7 day average steps is 9004 (however some of this might be from the warm up run I do at the gym??), my MPF activity setting is sedentary (as I have a desk job) calorie burn for the last 7 days seems to range from 2101 -2823.
Hope that helps?!
Yep! You sound similar to me, I also had a desk job and was set to Sedentary when I first started on MFP, and I really was. About 6 months into it I got a FitBit and was averaging 8-10K steps/day, and got good advice on these boards that that's not sedentary, no matter what your job is. I changed my setting to lightly active, and my goal to 0.5 lb/week since I was less than 20 lbs from where I wanted to be - and my baseline calorie target went up but my exercise adjustments were smaller and more in line with the actual exercise, and not just the busy life of a working mom of two small kids. I now average 12-15K steps/day and am set to Active.
With regards to your total calorie burn, does your exercise and activity vary quite a bit from day to day? Some days you really exercise and some you take it easy? That's a fairly big range, but that's the good thing about a FitBit synced with MFP, if you enable negative calorie adjustments it takes that all into consideration.
Your calorie burn suggests that if you eat (total) 1800 or more calories, you'd still be losing at the 0.5 lb/week rate. You really should consider trusting those numbers a little more, but I know it's difficult. Start with eating back 75% of the calories, but that's after you've adjusted to the 0.5 lb/week rate of loss.
I've found my FitBit to be invaluable in maintenance, I know that as long as my consumption is at or under the amount that FitBit says I burn, I will not gain back the weight that I lost.
And remember, as a wise rabbit used to say, "the winner is the one who eats the most and still loses the weight".3 -
@WinoGelato this is great advice below is last weeks calorie burn:
I tend to do alterative days at the gym, Mon, Wed, Fri sometimes a Sat or Sun too but I try to keep moving on the days I'm not going (I've worn a path from my desk to the water cooler and ladies toilet!) . Having the Fitbit has definitely made me more aware of my activity and got me moving a lot more.
I have been thinking about adjusting my activity levels but have always been a bit wary in case it has the opposite effect and I start to gain.
On a Sat/Sun I tend to sleep later so I do often wake up with a negative number but that's quickly adjusted once I'm up and moving.
As it's the start of a new week I'm going to heed your advice and change some things round and see how it goes.1 -
@WinoGelato this is great advice below is last weeks calorie burn:
I tend to do alterative days at the gym, Mon, Wed, Fri sometimes a Sat or Sun too but I try to keep moving on the days I'm not going (I've worn a path from my desk to the water cooler and ladies toilet!) . Having the Fitbit has definitely made me more aware of my activity and got me moving a lot more.
I have been thinking about adjusting my activity levels but have always been a bit wary in case it has the opposite effect and I start to gain.
On a Sat/Sun I tend to sleep later so I do often wake up with a negative number but that's quickly adjusted once I'm up and moving.
As it's the start of a new week I'm going to heed your advice and change some things round and see how it goes.
Good plan! Make sure you give it a few weeks and don't panic if you do see a little bump on the scale, it's likely temporary - and will help stave off something similar when you do transition to maintenance ultimately.
Those negative adjustments are a great safety net. I've been less active this winter due to weather and a busy situation at work. I haven't changed my activity level from my previous "active" setting, but there have been days where I haven't met my minimum step count to get a positive adjustment. The negative cals makes sure you don't over eat on days when you are resting, or too busy, or on a road trip, or sick, or whatever to get the baseline activity in.
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If you're ok with the calorie allowance feel free to stick with it. The "too aggressive" will show itself if you are always hungry, resentful of your reduced allowance or if you find yourself wanting to binge due to over-restriction to meet the low goal. I personally reduced my loss plan at about the point you are at now as those cals were too low for me to deal with.2
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WinoGelato wrote: »@WinoGelato this is great advice below is last weeks calorie burn:
I tend to do alterative days at the gym, Mon, Wed, Fri sometimes a Sat or Sun too but I try to keep moving on the days I'm not going (I've worn a path from my desk to the water cooler and ladies toilet!) . Having the Fitbit has definitely made me more aware of my activity and got me moving a lot more.
I have been thinking about adjusting my activity levels but have always been a bit wary in case it has the opposite effect and I start to gain.
On a Sat/Sun I tend to sleep later so I do often wake up with a negative number but that's quickly adjusted once I'm up and moving.
As it's the start of a new week I'm going to heed your advice and change some things round and see how it goes.
Good plan! Make sure you give it a few weeks and don't panic if you do see a little bump on the scale, it's likely temporary - and will help stave off something similar when you do transition to maintenance ultimately.
Those negative adjustments are a great safety net. I've been less active this winter due to weather and a busy situation at work. I haven't changed my activity level from my previous "active" setting, but there have been days where I haven't met my minimum step count to get a positive adjustment. The negative cals makes sure you don't over eat on days when you are resting, or too busy, or on a road trip, or sick, or whatever to get the baseline activity in.
@WinoGelato To be fair next week is my TOM so I'm expecting the scales to go up and down a bit over the next few days...but definitely going to try out the advice you've given me. Thank you for taking the time to reply!
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hannahsharratt27 wrote: »Hey, I was/am in a similar boat to you, and a lot of people said the same to me. I however have found that it is doable for myself. I have MFP at losing 1lb a week, and have 1360 calories to eat (used to be 1380 but adjusted for weight loss). I only eat back calories from my fitbit steps, and not from any exercise. Weekly weigh ins every Monday morning show I still lose at least one pound per week, sometimes even 1.5 pounds! If you can do it then do it, but no shame in adjusting to 0.5 lb. I have four more pounds to lose till I want to take the weight loss slower. Good luck!
I just really have to address this "no shame" comment. Maybe I'm misinterpreting the intent, but just because someone maintains a larger deficit than .5 lb/week because they "can" doesn't mean they should and doesn't mean they are somehow better and stronger than someone who chooses to lose with a smaller deficit.
There are reasons to have smaller deficits. One reason being maintaining muscle mass, as goldthistime mentioned and to me is very, very important because I already have a higher body fat percentage than I would like due to rapid weight loss at the beginning. Another reason being giving yourself time to develop habits for maintaining, which is also very important as where most people fail is the actual maintenance phase. Not everyone needs that adjustment period, but it can be very helpful. Yet another reason is to ensure one gets enough nutrition, and maybe they want to add some treats in there. Again, not necessary, but maybe someone doesn't want to be absolutely meticulous nutrition-wise with every single choice because they have a small number of calories.
Point being, there is definitely "no shame" in a smaller deficit - there are very valid reasons for choosing a slower rate of loss. And if the only reason is so you can eat more - great! "No shame" in that, either. I would think the goal for most people who to lose weight is to then maintain that weight. So do whatever you need to do that doesn't put your health at risk to do that.
OP - I'm 5'8" and low 140s (weight is a range, not a single number), I lose at about 1700-1900 M-F, usually eating more like 2400 on Saturdays and Sundays.
This. Frankly, I find the idea of "shame" associated with a smaller deficit to be absolutely appalling. There's also no shame in eating at maintenance if that's what someone wants (not the case here, but that's where this slippery slope leads us).
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Maybe split the difference and transition to a 0.75 per week loss 1
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OP, when in January did you weigh 170? Have you actually been losing 1 lb a week?
I don't see where everyone got that idea that there could be shame in eating more. A small deficit definitely has its advantages (less muscle loss, although it shouldn't be such a big deal as long as you strength train and eat enough protein), but it also leaves less room for error (inaccurate Fitbit calorie burn, inaccurate logging) and it's so much easier to wipe a weekly deficit in one day, lol! But I agree that you can minimize muscle loss with a smaller deficit too... it's just not been that black and white in my experience, but again, my experience includes a lot of last minute things that I can't plan for or save the calories for.2
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