Do I up my calories or just continue on 1200 calories daily

caittroy1234

Hi I'm 50 years old and I'm 5ft3 weigh 10st 5 (65.7k) I have spent the morning assessing my loss since start of year in which I've lost 1st5 but in the last month my weight loss has been almost non existent.
I'm on 1200 calories daily and walk an hour daily, 5 days of week. I read somewhere that I should up calories and I adjusted my weight loss to 1lb daily on MFP and it upped my calorie uptake to just short of 1500 daily.That seems a huge increase daily and I'm afraid. I would like to lose another stone. Has anyone else encountered this. Please help.

Pastaprincess1978

Sounds like a plateau - suggestions include weighing your food carefully to make sure you are eating what you think you are (in terms of calories)....someone else will chime in soon I am sure. I understand why you would be reluctant to up your intake when you want to lose more. Upping is generally for maintenance.

missKmorgan

Following this post as a I am in a similar situation. In my fifties, successfully dropped 60 pounds and have come to a standstill at current weight of 147. Interested in learning and reading what others have to offer here.

JaydedMiss

Not much time to say anything i will say if you were on 1200 youd be losing so check your food carefully its very easy to consume to much ...And ill say no one ever didnt lose because they ate to little. The solution to not losing is never to eat more

edit: its also possible since you said "almost non existent" your just being impatient comparing your current losses to your begginners losses your not very big you cant expect to lose super fast

RuNaRoUnDaFiEld

How much have you lost in the last four weeks?

CMNVA

I would definitely try to ascertain whether you are correctly assessing your caloric intake. It is SO easy to get it wrong. I'm in my 50s also, with only about 10 lbs to lose and it's incredibly hard. Maintenance calories for me is about 1600 hundred so I *have* to get my 1410 calories right or no weight loss.

caittroy1234

I've lost 2lbs last month which I suppose looking at my age and how much I want to lose is not bad half a 1lb a week.

JaydedMiss

caittroy1234 wrote: »

I've lost 2lbs last month which I suppose looking at my age and how much I want to lose is not bad half a 1lb a week.

thats about exactly what you can expect with so little to lose, Your right on track congrats

Chunkahlunkah

2 pounds a month is really good, especially as a female with not much to lose. Going slow and steady also means it’s more likely that a higher percentage of that loss is fat (rather than lean muscle). That’s great for both appearance and health. I know the pace can get frustrating but the truth is you’re doing really well!

TonyB0588

missKmorgan wrote: »

Following this post as a I am in a similar situation. In my fifties, successfully dropped 60 pounds and have come to a standstill at current weight of 147. Interested in learning and reading what others have to offer here.

147 is not very high. Are you the same height as the original poster. Otherwise you need to consider the difference relative to the additional inches of height.

RuNaRoUnDaFiEld

caittroy1234 wrote: »

I've lost 2lbs last month which I suppose looking at my age and how much I want to lose is not bad half a 1lb a week.

That's perfect, I wouldn't change anything.

RoxieDawn

The difference between 1200 and 1500 gives you a little over .5 a week rate of loss, this is actually in line with what you should be doing.

While maybe you want to keep losing faster this is not the better or healthier. Your potential for minimizing muscle loss is diminished and your body will be responding better for further weight loss and when you reach goal, maintenance will be a much better transition.

Chunkahlunkah

(I’d like to apologize to myself for using the phrase “lean muscle” since that’s one of my pet peeves. I just meant muscle!)