Petite Women Weight Loss???

PaigeWilson3

Hello,

I'm feeling really lost right now, I started losing weight just over a year ago and went from 155ish to 130. I intermittently dieted and exercised but never really had a plan it just kinda came off. Now that I am back down to my High School weight I am stuck at 130, this is where I normally plateau. So I decided that I would take up a dieting regime of 1200 cal, to reach my end goal of 115 (hopefully by my third wedding anniversary 8/22 but its ok if I just get close) . Today is day 9 with no change, so I am planning on kicking up my exercise and plan to attempt to burn half of all calories consumed. But I still feel so lost because it is SO MUCH HARDER to lose when when you are short like I am. I want to get some of your guyses input; what have you learned about losing weight when you are petite, what have you done thats worked, what diets have you tried, etc etc. Thanks love yeah! (I should also mention I'm 5'2")

malibu927

Now that you're in the home stretch it's going to be slow going. You should only be aiming for about half a pound a week to preserve as much muscle mass as possible. And because it's a smaller deficit, you have to be as accurate as possible with your logging. If you don't have one yet, I would suggest purchasing a food scale to weigh all solids on.

PaigeWilson3

Oh, I am girlfriend! That scale gets a daily workout, I even try to give myself a berth of 75-100 cal for mistakes.

apullum

malibu927 wrote: »

Now that you're in the home stretch it's going to be slow going. You should only be aiming for about half a pound a week to preserve as much muscle mass as possible. And because it's a smaller deficit, you have to be as accurate as possible with your logging. If you don't have one yet, I would suggest purchasing a food scale to weigh all solids on.

This is all excellent advice. I really want to reiterate that when you are short and you don't have much weight to lose, your calorie deficit is VERY small. You have to be meticulously accurate with weighing and logging all your food. Even a few errors here and there can take you out of a deficit. Weigh all food that can possibly be weighed.

You also have to be much more patient. I am just under 5 feet tall, lost 100 pounds, and am now maintaining at 110-115 lb. It took me about 10 months to lose the last 15 pounds. You shouldn't expect to see dramatic results in nine days. You are almost certainly not going to lose 15 pounds in two months. This is not a healthy or realistic goal.

You should absolutely not be trying to burn half the calories you eat. You are going to black out if you do this. Eat the number of calories MFP tells you to eat. Do not go below 1200 calories net per day. If you exercise AND you are very confident that your exercise calories are calculated accurately, then eat back your exercise calories. If you don't know how accurate your exercise calorie calculation is (i.e., you're relying on gym equipment or a database to tell you), then start by eating half your exercise calories back.

PaigeWilson3

I can get behind not getting to my goal by August, it for me is a best case "that would be so awesome but if not thats ok" scenario. It just hard being hungry and knowing that its making no progress towards my goals, in theory I should have lost at least .25 lbs and Im not seeing anything. It makes me feel like I am doing something wrong, so I'm just looking for abit of support/ideas to get me in more of the right direction. And thank you for your story, its nice to know at least I am not alone in my struggle.

estherdragonbat

I'm 5'3 and also in the home stretch. It seems to be baby steps backwards and then... WHOOSH. Like 4 weeks of losing 0.2 lbs... going up 0.4, then stay the same, then down 0.6... and then in week 5? 2.2lb loss.

I'm currently on 1400 calories before exercise, but I'm thinking I need a diet break. After those 2 weeks at maintenance, I've got a feeling that MFP is going to shave 40-60 calories off that target. I'm not looking forward to that. But if I want to keep losing, I guess I'll have to.

(Note that I generally do burn about 600-800 calories through long brisk walks. I eat back half of those, so I really eat around 1700/1800 calories most days. But I have '1400' fixed in my mind as "this is what I get if I don't get off my posterior and start moving." Anything else is a bonus.

kimny72

When you're dealing with a 0.5lb rate, it is very easy for it to hide behind water weight and other normal daily fluctuations. It's simply not realistic to think you will clearly see a 0.25lb loss on the scale. Many of them probably aren't even calibrated that accurately.

When I was losing my last 10 lbs, I would see nothing for 3-4 weeks, then a lb would drop off. You just have to trust the process and be patient!

Please don't try to net 600 calories, that would be very dangerous.

mnbvcxzlkjhgfdsa12

I’m 5ft 2ins and 129Ib. Lost about 8Ibs in the last 4 weeks, goal is to hit 115Ib. Been there before for a long time but changed jobs lost, focus and drank too much wine!

My goal is 1200 cals a day, but am happy if I hit somewhere between 1000-1200. I don’t eat back my exercise calories unless I do a crazy amount of exercise, like go out cycling for the day, when I have a 500 cup cake treat ( a rare occasion!).

I find my weight loss is horribly slow- pretty much unnoticeable week on week at 1200 with no exercise - being short makes loosing weight no fun! Keep at it though they wright will come off, it’ll just be slow going.

Wendyanneroberts

Weight loss, doesn't always show on a regular basis, as others have explained. Just wanted to add a little about my personal experience, to explain how it affected me.

As I got closer to goal, my aim was to hit my calorie target and expect a 0.5lb a week weight loss. Time passed and no loss, at first I was fraustrated, but then accepted that this may be my new maintenance. Kept going as my usual routine, with accurate weighing and logging of all foods. At this point checking that my weight remained stable. But in reality I was still losing, but that loss was being masked. My persistence and hard work was finally reflected on the scale.

At the end of a 5 month (20 week) period, with accurate data, I realised that I had gone 9 weeks with no more scale loss, then week 10, a 5lb drop. Another 9 weeks and no further loss, then week 10, another 5lb loss.

At the end of this period; 20 weeks + 10lb loss = 0.5lb per week loss, as an average. Bang on my target after all!

dramacat21

Thanks for starting this thread. I joined MFP recently and am 5'2". I do not have much experience to share yet, of course, but I'm encouraged by everyone's responses and guidance here.

cinnabondelights

I'm 5'1'' and at around 110 lbs, gained 10 lbs because I moved to Japan and Japanese food is literally the best thing lmao.

My starting weight around 3-4 years ago was 151, losing about 1 lb per week over the next 2 years and I plateaued for 2 months before I reached my goal weight of 100 lbs because I lose weight slowly and I probably wasn't exercising hard enough.

The last few pounds are always the hardest to lose, but don't give up- you'll get there with persistence. (:

nooshi713

Hi. I am 5'0". My highest starting weight in April was 145 lbs. I am currently at 133 lbs. My goal weight is 115-120 lbs. I have been occasionally eating 1300 calories on sedentary days. I eat 1500 on more active days.

KiwiGirl91

I’m 5’2 and it allllll shows on me! I’ve recently started my weight loss healthy me journey! My goal is to lose 60kgs cause then I’ll be in the right weight category for my height

jovannadahling

I am 4’11 and 65 yrs old.Im at 132 lbs now and my best weight for yrs was 102 lbs. I have not been able to lose weight. Now I quit drinking and try to ride my bike about 50 miles a week. Hoping this will work

jovannadahling

What is the calories I need to lose?

kimny72

jovannadahling wrote: »

What is the calories I need to lose?

Make sure you set up your profile correctly and choose a goal to lose 1 lb per week. MFP will give you a calorie goal.

Candyspun

jovannadahling wrote: »

I am 4’11 and 65 yrs old.Im at 132 lbs now and my best weight for yrs was 102 lbs. I have not been able to lose weight. Now I quit drinking and try to ride my bike about 50 miles a week. Hoping this will work

I'm 5'1, I started my weight loss program at 67.7kg and I'm 44 years old. I was given 1,200 calories by My Fitness Pal. It doesn't matter what I set it to, it gives me 1,200 calories if I want to lose weight. I eat back exercise calories when I can exercise. I'm SO looking forward to maintenance!

theknitpicker

Do you use a trending weight app like Libra or Happy Scale? I'm 5' SW 136, CW 113 (which is my body's "happy weight"), GW 105ish. Without the trending app I would have gotten so frustrated, because when you're small, losing slow & steady, its hard to see the little changes - I'm at .5/week rate. But I like seeing that while the day-to-day numbers all look about the same, the trend is slowly still creeping the way I want. I also eat back pretty much all my exercise cals, it just makes me and my body happier.
My 2 other "tricks" are:
Strength training: It's been life-saver. Because when the scale doesn't budge, its nice to see other things changing, like my lifts improving, or the weight "hanging" better on my body
BF%: I use the body fat analyzer on my scale weekly. It's not accurate - I'm sure lots of people will jump in and say that after me - but again, I use it consistently, and its nice to have something reiterate that while the weight might not change, my BF% might

lesdarts180

I'm 5'1" and 67 years old. That means my BMR is only 800, so I cannot lose weight on 1200 cals per day unless I were to do do an impossible amount of exercise. I try to stick to well under 1,000 cals most days so that I can have an occasional day off, or relax on holiday. I'm retired so I do have a lot of holidays and days out. You can find a BMR calculator online and decide for yourself what to do. I find mfp does not accommodate smaller or older people.

I put on about 14 Kg (30 lb) in the 3 years after retiring and started a weight loss/ fitness improvement journey about 7 weeks ago and so far I have lost 5 kg.

kimny72

lesdarts180 wrote: »

I'm 5'1" and 67 years old. That means my BMR is only 800, so I cannot lose weight on 1200 cals per day unless I were to do do an impossible amount of exercise. I try to stick to well under 1,000 cals most days so that I can have an occasional day off, or relax on holiday. I'm retired so I do have a lot of holidays and days out. You can find a BMR calculator online and decide for yourself what to do. I find mfp does not accommodate smaller or older people.

I put on about 14 Kg (30 lb) in the 3 years after retiring and started a weight loss/ fitness improvement journey about 7 weeks ago and so far I have lost 5 kg.

I'm sure your BMR is low, but I have to put into a calculator that a 5'1 woman is 75lbs and 100yrs old to have that low a BMR.

Not picking at you, just don't want lurkers to think numbers that low are typical. If your BMR is truly that low, you must have some major untreated medical conditions factoring in. 5'1 is not that short. And well under 1000 calories is not recommendable to healthy women.

I suspect your BMR/TDEE and your calories in are both higher than you think. But regardless, congrats on your success so far. Please make sure you are getting enough protein, fat, and nutrition in your diet.

lesdarts180

Hey, you know, you're right, kimny, I just recalculated my BMR and it came out at around 1,000. Thanks.
Don't know what happened before, I must have made an error somewhere. But my goal weight is around 50 kg, by which time I will be 68, so those last few lbs will be very difficult.

However, my point remains that mfp doesn't work very well for older / smaller folk. It also doesn't allow for averaging your calories over a week or a month. I make sure all my calories are healthy choices and balance my food intake over a period of time.