Back again. How many calories to lose weight this time around?

sam33a
sam33a Posts: 31 Member
Hi,

I was on here a couple of years ago and lost around 60 lbs. But sadly, I have regained 35 lbs and want to get back to what I was. The last time it took me around 1.5 years to lose the weight and I did it only through changing my diet. I was eating around 1000-1300 calories but trying to eat that less now is just too difficult and the weight loss is very slow. I may stay at the same weight for 4 weeks and then drop a pound in week 5. Then gain 0.2 lb back the next week and so on.

This time around I am planning on exercising too, around 5 days a week. I have put my calories to 1400 which is the amount recommended by the NHS. Does this sound like a good amount for someone 5'2 and 142 lbs? I reckon my bf% is very high, guessing it's around 40%. The TDEE calculators all tell me vastly different amounts and so it's difficult to know what amount will allow me to lose weight.

I also plan on staying off the scale for the first 3-4 months as I obsess over it too much. If I don't lose weight for a few weeks then I just end up binge eating out of frustration.

Replies

  • Panini911
    Panini911 Posts: 2,325 Member
    do the goal set up in mfp and select a rate of 1lb/week.
    eat all those calories PLUS a reasonable estimate of your exercise calories

    use a food scale for all foods and carefully select diary food entries. use recipe builder for stuff you cookz
  • sam33a
    sam33a Posts: 31 Member
    Panini911 wrote: »
    do the goal set up in mfp and select a rate of 1lb/week.
    eat all those calories PLUS a reasonable estimate of your exercise calories

    use a food scale for all foods and carefully select diary food entries. use recipe builder for stuff you cookz

    Thanks for your reply. I've been using a food scale for years and the recipe builder so that's not a problem. I have absolutely no idea about calorie burn and I don't like that on non-exercise days I'll only get 1200 calories. I just feel very hungry at that amount now. I think I'll stick to around 1400 for now.
  • TBaebs
    TBaebs Posts: 10 Member
    Exercise note. You don’t need to go to the gym and go at it full force. Make your mind up to walk only for 30 minutes.
  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,481 Member
    sam33a wrote: »
    Panini911 wrote: »
    do the goal set up in mfp and select a rate of 1lb/week.
    eat all those calories PLUS a reasonable estimate of your exercise calories

    use a food scale for all foods and carefully select diary food entries. use recipe builder for stuff you cookz

    Thanks for your reply. I've been using a food scale for years and the recipe builder so that's not a problem. I have absolutely no idea about calorie burn and I don't like that on non-exercise days I'll only get 1200 calories. I just feel very hungry at that amount now. I think I'll stick to around 1400 for now.

    Depending on the type and duration of your exercise 1400 calories sounds reasonable.

    After 6-ish weeks if you are losing faster than 1lbs a week, or feeling lethargic, or too hungry, up your cals by 50-100 and see how you go.

    (When I started I was 5’1 and 130. MFP gave me 1200 to lose about a pound a week (then less as my weight dropped), and I ate back my exercise calories of 200 5x a week.)

    If working with your TDEE makes it easier, roll with it.

    Cheers, h.
  • apullum
    apullum Posts: 4,838 Member
    sam33a wrote: »
    Panini911 wrote: »
    do the goal set up in mfp and select a rate of 1lb/week.
    eat all those calories PLUS a reasonable estimate of your exercise calories

    use a food scale for all foods and carefully select diary food entries. use recipe builder for stuff you cookz

    Thanks for your reply. I've been using a food scale for years and the recipe builder so that's not a problem. I have absolutely no idea about calorie burn and I don't like that on non-exercise days I'll only get 1200 calories. I just feel very hungry at that amount now. I think I'll stick to around 1400 for now.

    If MFP is giving someone a 1200 calorie allowance, then one or more of the following things is going on:
    - they don't have much to lose
    - they are very short
    - they are older and/or sedentary
    - they entered a rate of weight loss that's too rapid for their stats

    The first one is true for you. At 142 pounds, you are only 6 pounds above the optimal BMI range for your height. You're also on the shorter side (although I'm under 5 feet, so I'm not one to judge).

    The process you describe of seeing the scale go down only a small amount every few weeks is completely normal and expected when you don't have much to lose. You shouldn't be surprised if you only see a pound or two decrease every 4-6 weeks. When you're very close to your goal, weight loss is very slow and is easily masked on the scale by normal weight fluctuations.

    You should be targeting a 0.5 lb/week rate of loss, but your actual rate may be slower than that. Eat the number of calories MFP gives you for that rate. Weigh ALL your food. At this point, a few logging errors can add up to wipe out your deficit. If you aren't confident that your exercise calories are calculated accurately, then eat half of your estimated exercise calories to account for possible overestimates.
  • J72FIT
    J72FIT Posts: 5,958 Member
    Depending on how active you are, I get a range for you at 1335 - 1885.

    As said above, check the scale, (take measurements too), see how you feel and adjust as you go...
  • sam33a
    sam33a Posts: 31 Member
    apullum wrote: »
    sam33a wrote: »
    Panini911 wrote: »
    do the goal set up in mfp and select a rate of 1lb/week.
    eat all those calories PLUS a reasonable estimate of your exercise calories

    use a food scale for all foods and carefully select diary food entries. use recipe builder for stuff you cookz

    Thanks for your reply. I've been using a food scale for years and the recipe builder so that's not a problem. I have absolutely no idea about calorie burn and I don't like that on non-exercise days I'll only get 1200 calories. I just feel very hungry at that amount now. I think I'll stick to around 1400 for now.

    If MFP is giving someone a 1200 calorie allowance, then one or more of the following things is going on:
    - they don't have much to lose
    - they are very short
    - they are older and/or sedentary
    - they entered a rate of weight loss that's too rapid for their stats

    The first one is true for you. At 142 pounds, you are only 6 pounds above the optimal BMI range for your height. You're also on the shorter side (although I'm under 5 feet, so I'm not one to judge).

    The process you describe of seeing the scale go down only a small amount every few weeks is completely normal and expected when you don't have much to lose. You shouldn't be surprised if you only see a pound or two decrease every 4-6 weeks. When you're very close to your goal, weight loss is very slow and is easily masked on the scale by normal weight fluctuations.

    You should be targeting a 0.5 lb/week rate of loss, but your actual rate may be slower than that. Eat the number of calories MFP gives you for that rate. Weigh ALL your food. At this point, a few logging errors can add up to wipe out your deficit. If you aren't confident that your exercise calories are calculated accurately, then eat half of your estimated exercise calories to account for possible overestimates.

    That's disappointing. I hope I can lose 1 lb a week. I gained the 35 lbs very quickly, from November to March and I'd like to get the weight back to what I was beginning of November. I've been around the same weight since March. I'm staying off the scale, as I said, for the first few months because the fluctuations are very demotivating and make me want to give up. As for weighing all my food, I'm used to that, even spices, milk in my tea/coffee. Everything is weighed. Can you tell me how I can figure out my exercise calories, please? I'm still tempted to use the TDEE method and stick to 1400 daily as it's just easier and I don't have to eat just 1200 on rest days. Thanks.
  • sam33a
    sam33a Posts: 31 Member
    sam33a wrote: »
    Panini911 wrote: »
    do the goal set up in mfp and select a rate of 1lb/week.
    eat all those calories PLUS a reasonable estimate of your exercise calories

    use a food scale for all foods and carefully select diary food entries. use recipe builder for stuff you cookz

    Thanks for your reply. I've been using a food scale for years and the recipe builder so that's not a problem. I have absolutely no idea about calorie burn and I don't like that on non-exercise days I'll only get 1200 calories. I just feel very hungry at that amount now. I think I'll stick to around 1400 for now.

    Depending on the type and duration of your exercise 1400 calories sounds reasonable.

    After 6-ish weeks if you are losing faster than 1lbs a week, or feeling lethargic, or too hungry, up your cals by 50-100 and see how you go.

    (When I started I was 5’1 and 130. MFP gave me 1200 to lose about a pound a week (then less as my weight dropped), and I ate back my exercise calories of 200 5x a week.)

    If working with your TDEE makes it easier, roll with it.

    Cheers, h.

    I am planning on going to the gym for around 5 days per week. Doing 45 minutes of cardio 5 days and additionally, around 20-30 minutes on strength machines/free weights on 3 days. According to most TDEE calculators, I should lose on 1400, fingers crossed! Think I'll stick to that for now and adjust later if needed. Thanks.
  • apullum
    apullum Posts: 4,838 Member
    sam33a wrote: »
    apullum wrote: »
    sam33a wrote: »
    Panini911 wrote: »
    do the goal set up in mfp and select a rate of 1lb/week.
    eat all those calories PLUS a reasonable estimate of your exercise calories

    use a food scale for all foods and carefully select diary food entries. use recipe builder for stuff you cookz

    Thanks for your reply. I've been using a food scale for years and the recipe builder so that's not a problem. I have absolutely no idea about calorie burn and I don't like that on non-exercise days I'll only get 1200 calories. I just feel very hungry at that amount now. I think I'll stick to around 1400 for now.

    If MFP is giving someone a 1200 calorie allowance, then one or more of the following things is going on:
    - they don't have much to lose
    - they are very short
    - they are older and/or sedentary
    - they entered a rate of weight loss that's too rapid for their stats

    The first one is true for you. At 142 pounds, you are only 6 pounds above the optimal BMI range for your height. You're also on the shorter side (although I'm under 5 feet, so I'm not one to judge).

    The process you describe of seeing the scale go down only a small amount every few weeks is completely normal and expected when you don't have much to lose. You shouldn't be surprised if you only see a pound or two decrease every 4-6 weeks. When you're very close to your goal, weight loss is very slow and is easily masked on the scale by normal weight fluctuations.

    You should be targeting a 0.5 lb/week rate of loss, but your actual rate may be slower than that. Eat the number of calories MFP gives you for that rate. Weigh ALL your food. At this point, a few logging errors can add up to wipe out your deficit. If you aren't confident that your exercise calories are calculated accurately, then eat half of your estimated exercise calories to account for possible overestimates.

    That's disappointing. I hope I can lose 1 lb a week. I gained the 35 lbs very quickly, from November to March and I'd like to get the weight back to what I was beginning of November. I've been around the same weight since March. I'm staying off the scale, as I said, for the first few months because the fluctuations are very demotivating and make me want to give up. As for weighing all my food, I'm used to that, even spices, milk in my tea/coffee. Everything is weighed. Can you tell me how I can figure out my exercise calories, please? I'm still tempted to use the TDEE method and stick to 1400 daily as it's just easier and I don't have to eat just 1200 on rest days. Thanks.

    Calculating exercise calories depends on what type of exercise you do. Some activities, like walking and running, can be calculated pretty accurately. Others, like taking a class at the gym, are more variable. Strength training is tough because it doesn't burn a lot of calories, relatively speaking (but it's still really important for fitness). If you're doing an activity that's hard to calculate, then the usual solution is to take your best estimate, eat half those calories, and adjust accordingly based on what your weight does. However, if you're not weighing regularly, then it becomes hard to follow that method.

    TDEE should still give you roughly the same calorie goal as MFP once exercise is taken into account. They won't be exactly the same, but they should be reasonably close. If your exercise routine is consistent and your activity level in your TDEE calculator describes it correctly, then TDEE should work well. If you don't have a consistent routine, then TDEE may not account for your activity accurately.

    Another thing you can do is to follow a weekly calorie goal in MFP rather than a daily one. Many people do this by "saving" calories during the week and then eating more on the weekend. It all works out the same way as long as your average calorie intake for the week is on target.

    I agree that it would be great if weight loss could be done both quickly and safely. Unfortunately, with the exception of initial water weight loss that some people experience, that's not the case when you don't have much to lose.

    Your goal weight will put you toward the low end of your optimal BMI range. If you weigh 107, you'll be six pounds from being underweight. Losing weight while within one's healthy BMI range is very difficult and requires meticulous logging, since you can't safely create a very large deficit at that point.

    The first thing I would do is to visit the doctor if you think a medical condition may have caused you to gain 35 pounds in four months. That kind of rapid gain is worth getting checked out unless you're certain that you were eating a lot more than usual during that time.

    If everything checks out, I think it's worth evaluating whether you're willing to maintain at such a low weight once you get there. Your maintenance calorie goal isn't going to be much higher than your weight loss calories, and you might find that maintaining at 107 doesn't allow you to eat enough to be satisfied.

    You do have the option of losing fat until you're within a healthy BMI range for your height, and then going into recomp to build muscle and reduce fat. That makes most people happier with their appearance, and is generally a good option for people who are at a healthy weight but don't like how their body looks. Since you wouldn't be losing all the way to the bottom of your BMI range, you'd get to maintain on more calories.