Just need some help in understanding this please

mehreen_xo

Hey everyone. I’m 5’3 female and a couple years ago I lost 50 pounds by eating 1200 calories a day and running everyday. I lost this weight in around 5 months. However, I have gained around half of this weight back I am wanting to start losing again and I wish to again follow my 1200 calorie diet plan as I feel it’s the only thing that works for me. I feel when I eat more than that I lose weight incredibly slow? My question is; a lot of people have advised against this, they say a quick fix will only make you gain the weight back as you have already seen. However, if I have 1200 calories during my weight loss and then when I hit the weight I want to be I switch to maintenence calories and STICK TO MAINTENANCE and not go over (the mistake I made last time was I lost and then never tracked maintenance calories) will I gain weight back? If I slowly increase calories to maintenance after weight loss? Also is it true that I may have lost a bit of muscle last time I lost weight? Because I find that now when I try to lose it’s harder and slower, could I have lost a lot of muscle too?

Thank you all

sijomial

Hey everyone. I’m 5’3 female and a couple years ago I lost 50 pounds by eating 1200 calories a day and running everyday.
You should have been adding your exercise calories then and you should now.

I lost this weight in around 5 months.
Most likely that was too fast - especially as you closed on goal weight.

I wish to again follow my 1200 calorie diet plan as I feel it’s the only thing that works for me. I feel when I eat more than that I lose weight incredibly slow?
Think you should have a serious think about how you define "work". There's a whole range of numbers between maintenance calories and losing weight quickly at 1200 and think you need to look far further ahead than the next few months.

My question is; a lot of people have advised against this, they say a quick fix will only make you gain the weight back as you have already seen.
It's why people talk about using your weight loss period to build sustainable habits. Eating 1200 and not accounting for exercise isn't sustainable long term.

....when I hit the weight I want to be I switch to maintenance calories and STICK TO MAINTENANCE and not go over (the mistake I made last time was I lost and then never tracked maintenance calories) will I gain weight back?
How would you gain weight back if you are eating at your true maintenance calories? How would that be possible?

If I slowly increase calories to maintenance after weight loss?
You should have been increasing calories a long time before you got to goal weight last time to slow your rate of loss.

Also is it true that I may have lost a bit of muscle last time I lost weight?
Under eating, rapid weight loss, no mention of strength training - yes very possible.

Because I find that now when I try to lose it’s harder and slower, could I have lost a lot of muscle too?
Maybe. Don't risk repeating the same mistakes - rapid loss and weight gain cycles can be very damaging to body composition. That's why you shouldn't define success purely by the weight lost - let alone losing at the quickest speed possible.
Did you do anything at goal weight or while regaining your weight to try to rebuild or build new muscle?
Are you planning on doing anything during your next period of weight loss to actively maintain muscle? (Three big factors are: appropriate rate of weight loss, strength/resistance training, higher protein levels.)

AnnPT77

Listen to @sijomial.

Also, since you appear to be a fairly young woman (compared to me now at age 64), I'd like to add a perspective via a quote from something I wrote on another thread last year (below). I'd encourage you to think about how you want your long-term future to look, how you want the next decades of your life to roll out, and that sort of thing.

Extreme diets get you somewhere, maybe; and may be fast so rewarding in the moment. But do they get you where you really need to be, for your current and future self's best long-term results?

It's not as hard work if you take it slower, lose at a weight that tends to preserve more muscle mass and daily energy, and use the weight loss process as a time to experiment and learn a way of eating that will keep you at a healthy weight permanently.

Look, I'm old (63). I have various friends who have yo-yo dieted for years. (Me, I was obese for years, but mostly didn't yo-yo. Now, I've been at a healthy weight for over 4 years, after literally decades of obesity.)

For my yo-yo dieting friends, the usual picture is that they cut calories really low while dieting, to lose weight fast. Often, they added plenty of cardio exercise to make the weight drop even faster. (They rarely got solid strength exercise because back in the day, women thought it would make them "look bulky".) They focused on very low calorie foods while dieting, often lots of green salads, not enough protein, minimum carbs, insufficient healthy fats. They lost fat fast, plus an unnecessarily large amount of lean tissue alongside it (through the combination of losing too fast, not working on strength exercise, not getting adequate program).

After a while, maybe they'd lost a few pounds, but it all just became too much, and they'd "fall off the wagon". Typically, they'd stop exercise, and start eating freely, often eating lots of foods with carbs/fat (pastries, breads, pastas, deep fried things, sugar-sweetened coffee drinks or soda pop, etc.), but still often not very much protein. (For some reason, a lot of women in my generation act like they find meat "not womanly"?) What usually resulted was regain, often past the previous high weight, the regain almost entirely fat, because they dropped exercise and still didn't get enough protein.

If a person repeats that kind of cycle over and over, they are in a down-spiral: Lose fat + muscle, regain fat. Lose more fat + muscle, regain fat. Every time one does that, one's daily calorie requirement drops (poor body composition), and reduced activity (exercise and daily life) becomes more normal because of under-nutrition and poor body composition/fitness. Those changes make each subsequent round of "dieting" harder to produce results. On top of that, one gets weaker, and bones also get weaker, increasing chances of late-life osteopenia or osteoporosis, which then increases risk of health- and life-threatening bone breaks.

The usual long-term outcome of this cycle, repeated lots of times by the time a woman gets to around 60 or so, is an obese body with multiple health problems, poor muscle tone, and depressed energy level. There are more health problems, more drugs needed (with drug interaction side effects), slower recovery from more frequent diseases and surgeries, and eventually a long, slow decline into earlier-than-necessary assisted living and earlier-than-necessary death.

I'm not making this up. I hang around with two groups of people, artists and athletes (because I enjoy both activities). I love both groups of friends, and value them as people. Way too many of the artists have fallen into that yo-yo, regain, long-term obesity, ill health scenario, and it makes me very sad.

Maybe this has not happened to you, and I sincerely hope it never will. But you're increasing the risk.

You don't have to yo-yo over and over. Try to lose half a pound to a pound a week, over a long period of time, eating foods you enjoy, but trying to find a good balance of proper calorie level, satiation, nutrition, tastiness, and weight management. It will be much easier, relatively speaking. Take very occasional breaks to indulge at special events, or just to get past a period of burnout, but get back on your healthy routine as soon as practical. Learn new eating habits you can keep permanently, including how to work special treats into your eating.

If you choose, you can do this. It will be easier. It will work better than the yo-yos. It will have better long term results.

Think about it.

Best wishes!

At 5'5" and around 154 pounds, when I joined MFP in 2015 at age 60, 1200 calories plus all my exercise calories was too few for me. (I didn't stay there long, fixed it as soon as I realized I was losing too fast for that then-current weight, but still had negative consequences).

Is 1200 too few for you? Only you know for sure, but it's unnecessarily few for many people (not everyone). Here's another source to consider:

https://www.aworkoutroutine.com/1200-calorie-diet/

Best wishes for good long-term results!

acooperm

I don't think you said what your starting weight was? I'm 5'3 and starting weight of 147.5 in January. I've been sticking to 1200 calories on most days and am down 14 lbs. I was on vacation for a week and didn't count calories that week and gained a few lbs which have since come off. I exercise 3-5 days/week (walking, elliptical or kettlebell tapes) but nothing too intense. My point is that 1200 calories seems to work just fine for me and I'm not losing a lot of weight too quickly. You need to find a calorie balance that works best for you and your lifestyle. Wishing you good luck on your weight loss journey!