A Little Confused

janalo55

Good evening. I am not really new to MFP, but I don't think I have ever introduced myself. I started on here a long time ago and have had success when I follow my plan, and gained when I didn't. Since July, I have been following it strictly and have lost 72#. My question has to do with the calories MFP says I should eat, and what it adds for exercise. I started at 305# and about 1600 calories. It has steadily gone down to where it is now giving me 1290. Since I am only halfway there, I am a little confused because it says I shouldn't go below 1200, so it seems really odd that at 232# I would only get 1290. Does it just quit going down? If it goes down at the same rate it has so far, I will be at that 1200 in just a few pounds. My other question is on the exercise calories. I do water aerobics every weekday, for at least an hour in my class and often a half hour beforehand. This is what I am wondering about. Should I subtract warm up time and stretching from the time I am in there, or is that figured in? My weight loss has slowed considerably. I lost 60 in 6 months, but I'm now just over 8 months and I've only lost 12 more. I am eating many of the same foods in the same amounts, and not eating very many of my exercise calories because I feel MFP, or I, am overestimating. I know I should be more active and in my regular life and not just in my class, but I have bad knees and it is difficult. TIA

seska422

Smaller bodies take less energy to run and have fewer fat reserves from which to draw energy. That's a double-whammy for weight loss. You burn fewer calories moving your body and you can't create as large of a deficit.

There are two things to keep in mind: your caloric intake and your rate of loss. What you've done up to this point is keep reducing your caloric intake in order to try to keep the rate of loss the same. Once you reach the lowest healthy caloric intake, you'll switch over to lowering your rate of loss.

What I did was find a comfortable calorie intake amount (mine was 1350) and stayed there. My weight loss rate got slower over time as I got smaller without me having to make any adjustment to MFP.

As for your exercise calories, I'd count them however you are counting them now because that seems to be working for you.

estherdragonbat

janalo55 wrote: »

Good evening. I am not really new to MFP, but I don't think I have ever introduced myself. I started on here a long time ago and have had success when I follow my plan, and gained when I didn't. Since July, I have been following it strictly and have lost 72#. My question has to do with the calories MFP says I should eat, and what it adds for exercise. I started at 305# and about 1600 calories. It has steadily gone down to where it is now giving me 1290. Since I am only halfway there, I am a little confused because it says I shouldn't go below 1200, so it seems really odd that at 232# I would only get 1290. Does it just quit going down? If it goes down at the same rate it has so far, I will be at that 1200 in just a few pounds. My other question is on the exercise calories. I do water aerobics every weekday, for at least an hour in my class and often a half hour beforehand. This is what I am wondering about. Should I subtract warm up time and stretching from the time I am in there, or is that figured in? My weight loss has slowed considerably. I lost 60 in 6 months, but I'm now just over 8 months and I've only lost 12 more. I am eating many of the same foods in the same amounts, and not eating very many of my exercise calories because I feel MFP, or I, am overestimating. I know I should be more active and in my regular life and not just in my class, but I have bad knees and it is difficult. TIA

How much are you trying to lose per week? Once you have less than 75lbs to goal, 2lb/week is too aggressive.

Pound per week goals
75+ lbs set to lose 2 lb range
Between 40 - 75 lbs set to lose 1.5 lb range
Between 25-40 lbs set to lose 1 lb range
Between 15-25 lbs set to lose 1 -.50 lb range
Less than 15 lbs set to lose 0.5 lbs range

How are you measuring your food intake?

janalo55

Thank you. I changed my weekly goal to 1.5 some time ago because I was having difficulty staying within the calories at 2#. I measure and weigh (mostly weigh) my food and try to use logic when choosing from the data base. When I cook, I enter my recipe a and calculate values. I do eyeball when dividing into the serving size.