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At my wits end!

Saurfang514
Saurfang514 Posts: 5 Member
edited February 2 in Health and Weight Loss
I'm 36(m) and have pretty much spent my life eating whatever I like. Before starting my diet a month ago I was living on ready meals, crisps and chocolate. I'm 6ft and weigh 222lbs (15st7) now. I've been limiting my calories to around 1,500-1,700 per day for the last month and have been eating home cooked meals with the occasional pack of crisps or a chocolate bar (all inside my calorie budget) but have lost 3lbs....that's all. I'm shocked to be honest as it's been very hard for me to stick to this as rigidly as I have and to see practically no results is so disheartening.

I'm wondering what I'm doing wrong? I'm eating a good amount of protein with veggies and am eating 3 times a day. I'm not exercising as I honestly find it very hard at my current weight. Could I be eating too few calories? I just want to steadily lose 2lbs a week and having nothing shift at all after eating so few calories doesn't really make sense to me.

If anyone could offer any advice, I'd be very grateful as I've read tonnes of internet articles but there's so much conflicting information out there that it's hard to know what to listen to.

Thanks in advance!

Replies

  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,462 Member
    You'll get all kinds of conflicting ideas here, too.

    Are you weighing all your food and logging everything? Are you taking days "off" on your plan?

    Are you male or female? 1500 is very low for someone your height. Though it's not going to stop you from losing weight it will be very difficult to stay at that low level and it's not necessary.

    I lost almost all my weight (from 190 to 140) on 1500...but I'm a little old lady and retired.

    Eating too little won't stop you from losing weight...so, tighten up your logging.
  • Saurfang514
    Saurfang514 Posts: 5 Member
    L1zardQueen wrote: »
    Weight loss takes time. Do you use a food scale? How do you figure how many calories are in the home cooked meals? Do you use the recipe builder?
    Hey, I have this app where you can scan food barcodes and it'll give you the calories if you enter the weight of the food (which I measure on my scale) I add my calories up with it. I haven't used any recipe builders, I've just picked meals that I know I like and made them about 450-500 calories each

  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,462 Member
    edited February 2021
    Saurfang514 wrote: »
    L1zardQueen wrote: »
    Weight loss takes time. Do you use a food scale? How do you figure how many calories are in the home cooked meals? Do you use the recipe builder?
    Hey, I have this app where you can scan food barcodes and it'll give you the calories if you enter the weight of the food (which I measure on my scale) I add my calories up with it. I haven't used any recipe builders, I've just picked meals that I know I like and made them about 450-500 calories each

    If you aren't already, you'll need to check those scanned items against the labels when you enter them here. Many of them are just flat wrong and can be adding hundreds of calories unintentionally.

    The homemade guesses will cause problems, too.
  • Saurfang514
    Saurfang514 Posts: 5 Member
    cmriverside wrote: »
    You'll get all kinds of conflicting ideas here, too.

    Are you weighing all your food and logging everything? Are you taking days "off" on your plan?

    Are you male or female? 1500 is very low for someone your height. Though it's not going to stop you from losing weight it will be very difficult to stay at that low level and it's not necessary.

    I lost almost all my weight (from 190 to 140) on 1500...but I'm a little old lady and retired.

    Eating too little won't stop you from losing weight...so, tighten up your logging.

    Hey, I'm a male. I entered my height/weight/age on various sites and a few came out with 1,500 as a good calorie amount. I did think it seemed low as my gf is also dieting and is on only a bit less than that. I'm pretty careful at logging everything, a bit OCD haha
  • Saurfang514
    Saurfang514 Posts: 5 Member
    cmriverside wrote: »
    Saurfang514 wrote: »
    L1zardQueen wrote: »
    Weight loss takes time. Do you use a food scale? How do you figure how many calories are in the home cooked meals? Do you use the recipe builder?
    Hey, I have this app where you can scan food barcodes and it'll give you the calories if you enter the weight of the food (which I measure on my scale) I add my calories up with it. I haven't used any recipe builders, I've just picked meals that I know I like and made them about 450-500 calories each

    If you aren't already, you'll need to check those scanned items against the labels when you enter them here. Many of them are just flat wrong and can be adding hundreds of calories unintentionally.

    The homemade guesses will cause problems, too.

    I will, I know they can get it wrong sometimes and I'm trying to make sure they're as close to the truth as possible. I'm thinking of trying 1,700 miniumum per day just in case I'm eating too little. It's all so confusing!

  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,462 Member
    Saurfang514 wrote: »
    cmriverside wrote: »
    You'll get all kinds of conflicting ideas here, too.

    Are you weighing all your food and logging everything? Are you taking days "off" on your plan?

    Are you male or female? 1500 is very low for someone your height. Though it's not going to stop you from losing weight it will be very difficult to stay at that low level and it's not necessary.

    I lost almost all my weight (from 190 to 140) on 1500...but I'm a little old lady and retired.

    Eating too little won't stop you from losing weight...so, tighten up your logging.

    Hey, I'm a male. I entered my height/weight/age on various sites and a few came out with 1,500 as a good calorie amount. I did think it seemed low as my gf is also dieting and is on only a bit less than that. I'm pretty careful at logging everything, a bit OCD haha

    Thing is you don't have that much weight to lose and 1500 is the minimum amount any reputable site would give a man.


    Try going to Goals, set your daily activity honestly. Set your Weight Loss Goal at, "Lose 1 pound per week," MAX. I would even suggest you use, "Lose 1/2 pound per week," at your height and current weight.

    When you exercise add it to the Exercise tab and eat more on those days.


    I have trouble on 1500 and like I said I'm a little old lady who sits around twiddling my thumbs most of the day.

    At 142 pounds and 5'7" I lose weight on 1800-1900.
  • Saurfang514
    Saurfang514 Posts: 5 Member
    cmriverside wrote: »
    Saurfang514 wrote: »
    cmriverside wrote: »
    You'll get all kinds of conflicting ideas here, too.

    Are you weighing all your food and logging everything? Are you taking days "off" on your plan?

    Are you male or female? 1500 is very low for someone your height. Though it's not going to stop you from losing weight it will be very difficult to stay at that low level and it's not necessary.

    I lost almost all my weight (from 190 to 140) on 1500...but I'm a little old lady and retired.

    Eating too little won't stop you from losing weight...so, tighten up your logging.

    Hey, I'm a male. I entered my height/weight/age on various sites and a few came out with 1,500 as a good calorie amount. I did think it seemed low as my gf is also dieting and is on only a bit less than that. I'm pretty careful at logging everything, a bit OCD haha

    Thing is you don't have that much weight to lose and 1500 is the minimum amount any reputable site would give a man.


    Try going to Goals, set your daily activity honestly. Set your Weight Loss Goal at, "Lose 1 pound per week," MAX. I would even suggest you use, "Lose 1/2 pound per week," at your height and current weight.

    When you exercise add it to the Exercise tab and eat more on those days.


    I have trouble on 1500 and like I said I'm a little old lady who sits around twiddling my thumbs most of the day.

    At 142 pounds and 5'7" I lose weight on 1800-1900.

    Ok I will do, I'll try for more calories and to move a bit! I know I'm being impatient but I did expect at least something after a whole month.

  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,399 Member
    Also, do think about using a food scale and learning to use the recipe builder. I'll bet you'll be surprised at the calories in your meals. Good luck.
  • mrmota70
    mrmota70 Posts: 533 Member
    I am your height and I weigh 230. I jog for 15 mins, elliptical for 15 and row for 10 mins daily. Start easy just do some walking. I did that for 6 months. I increased speed, distance, incline over time. I've lost a considerable amount of weight and trying to slow the drop now. Shooting for 195-200 and then pack on maybe 10-15lbs of muscle. Your progress also may be impacted when you are eating. I typically don't eat past 8 in the evening and don't eat until next morning about 7-8. I've increased my cals to 2k-2.5k(that's still low but I already feel full by the time I'm getting close to 2k daily cals) and am still dropping so I make sure I'm doing as good a job with hitting targets of carbs, proteins, fats etc. 3lbs is a nice drop for long term success. I had a lot more weight than most to loose and it needed to come off after I was hospitalized for what started as a low grade fever, to very low sat. oxygen and full blown pneumonia in all lobes of both lungs...( hmm yeah sounds like rona but I waited a bit long to check and after months tests are inconclusive). Keep at it. But yeah 1500 seems a bit low. I was able to do that for a few months, but some folks usually cannot maintain that level without affecting mind and body health. I've worked off the weight by counting calories and knowing what is going in and then just doing a little bit of work to improve my overall health. I'm 50(51 this June) my resting heart rate is between 45-50 bpm(yes not exaggerating). I was in a prediabetic state, was on minimal amount of bp meds and now I take 0 meds and my BP is usually 117-120/65-78. My A1C is now 5.2 instead of the 6.0 it was before. Just stick to something you feel comfortable with, but don't try to make it all about just loosing weight. I just decided that the party had gone on long enough. By the way according to BMI #s I'm still considered obese( ha ha what you going to do)....
  • csplatt
    csplatt Posts: 1,267 Member
    edited February 2021
    Deleted (you had already answered my question)
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,055 Member
    What's your goal weight?

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This discussion has been closed.

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