Having trouble sticking to my deficit within 10 pounds of goal?

peachvine29

I am 26F, 5’7”, and 137.2 lbs.

My highest weight was 200 lbs. and I started my journey in February 2018 at 190 lbs. I reached 137 lbs in April of this year and have been maintaining unintentionally. I am trying to still lose weight but I guess I’ve gotten a bit complacent and hungry and have been giving into cravings.

I want to be around 130 lbs I believe, I definitely still have a fat midsection, although everywhere else I’m fairly lean. If you saw my stomach you would understand, I have a couple inch thick fat rolls, love handles, back fat etc.

Tracking loosely and going a little over calories worked for me up until this point. I’m not even totally sure after this long what my exact maintenance level is but I believe it is around 1,750 and I have been trying to cut at 1,500. I’ve been aiming for that but this week decreased it to 1,400 because I’m tired of being the same weight. I know I need to buckle down. I know reducing my stress would help too probably.

Any tips? Would anyone want to look at my diary and give some insight? (I binged on some dark chocolate tonight and I'm kinda embarrassed but I guess I'll be honest...lol.) I feel I should maybe be eating more veggies or something to try and fill me up. Or maybe I just need to willpower it through to goal. I really want to lose the rest of this fat. I’m so close.

corinasue1143

Congratulations on losing so much! I bet you look great! I have no tips, but you’ve been doing something right to get this far!

peachvine29

corinasue1143 wrote: »

Congratulations on losing so much! I bet you look great! I have no tips, but you’ve been doing something right to get this far!

Thank you! I know. I've learned so much and changed a lot of my habits but some are still lingering (emotional eating). I guess I know what I have to do but trying to lose weight for this long is mentally exhausting lol. I have taken a diet break and basically have for 3 months unintentionally. I know I'll get there.

NovusDies

You say you are struggling to stay within your calories what exactly does that mean? Are you too hungry or just generally dissatisfied?

I don't personally trust any plan that involves the word willpower. If I am fighting with myself because I am miserable and hungry I believe my will to eat will win enough of the time for me to slow or stall my progress.

peachvine29

NovusDies wrote: »

You say you are struggling to stay within your calories what exactly does that mean? Are you too hungry or just generally dissatisfied?

I don't personally trust any plan that involves the word willpower. If I am fighting with myself because I am miserable and hungry I believe my will to eat will win enough of the time for me to slow or stall my progress.

I meant that my calorie goal is 1,500 which should be about a 250 calorie deficit. I'm having trouble not going over 1,500 every day. I guess I'm just wanting that full feeling that I'm not getting at 1,500 net calories. I just want to keep eating.

Yeah I don't want to rely on willpower either. Maybe I should start eating more non-calorie dense foods (veggies and such) to give volume but less calories...

NovusDies

peachvine29 wrote: »

NovusDies wrote: »

You say you are struggling to stay within your calories what exactly does that mean? Are you too hungry or just generally dissatisfied?

I don't personally trust any plan that involves the word willpower. If I am fighting with myself because I am miserable and hungry I believe my will to eat will win enough of the time for me to slow or stall my progress.

I meant that my calorie goal is 1,500 which should be about a 250 calorie deficit. I'm having trouble not going over 1,500 every day. I guess I'm just wanting that full feeling that I'm not getting at 1,500 net calories. I just want to keep eating.

Yeah I don't want to rely on willpower either. Maybe I should start eating more non-calorie dense foods (veggies and such) to give volume but less calories...

I notice there are some days you eat higher calorie snacks than other days which drops your ability to have bigger meals.

It also appears you don't use a food scale which might make maintaining a 250 calorie deficit easier to verify.

Volume eating definitely works for me. Achieving that almost more than comfortable full feeling really makes me appreciate the lower calorie items.

Cahgetsfit

see, this is when i start to find the MFP way of calculating things too fluctuating for my liking. Each day dependent on exercise you can eat from like 1500 on one day to 2000 on another (I had a quick flick through your diary).

I prefer, personally, to work out my TDEE using a calculator such as tdeecalculator.net and getting my maintenance, then subtracting a number of calories from that - whether it be 25%, or even just 200.

This way I know exactly how much I can eat per day. It also gives me the option to work out, for example, a whole week's worth of caloric budget so that I can eat less from Monday to Friday and a bit more on the weekends - like a "bank" to allow for extras. All within the overall deficit.

When you get to the last few kilos it becomes much harder to lose the weight so you really need to watch intake more closely.

MikePTY

I know I've recommended this to you before in your other threads, but based on you being already at a fairly low BMI for your height, and you struggling with a low calorie goal, I think a recomp would be a lot more beneficial to you now than continuing to try to lose.