Weight loss slow

pippa_10

My aim was to lose 2lb per week but even though I never go over my 1240 daily calorie goal I’m stuck at 1lb per week. I’ve changed my goal to lose 1.5lb and it’s increased my calorie intake……..I’m worried I’ll lose even less this way?

cmriverside

How much weight do you have to lose to be in a healthy BMI range?

AnnPT77

How long have you been stuck? It usually takes 4-6 weeks to figure out whether a new regimen is working or not, and how well. Earlier than that, perfectly normal water weight fluctuations can create a scale weight roller coaster that my obscure perfectly reasonable fat loss.

If an adult female not yet in menopause, compare weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles, not random weeks. (Some women see multi-pound water retention shifts at different points in their cycle, sometimes to the point of only seeing a new low weight once a month, though that's an unusual extreme.)

How often do you weigh yourself? Various people use different strategies, and that's fine, but if weighing weekly (say), it's possible to hit a lower water retention day at the start, then a higher retention day the next time, and think fat loss hasn't happened when there were days in between of a lower weight.

There will always be water fluctuations. Our bodies are 60%+ water. Water retention changes are part of how a healthy body stays healthy. IMO, the best strategy is to understand them, and learn to live with them.

This article is really useful, if you haven't already read it:

https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations

If you're new to food logging and calorie counting, that can also be part of the picture. That's not a dig at you: It's a skill that takes time to accomplish, and some of the subtleties of accuracy aren't obvious until they're obvious, y'know? Your diary isn't open; if it were, even temporarily, some of the MFP old hands might take a look and see if anything that jumps out. Not saying you must do that, saying it's one option to get more advice.

Best wishes!

cwolfman13

2 Lbs per week is a 1000 calorie daily deficit from maintenance. Unless you're obese or very active it's possible that you don't have a TDEE large enough to support a 2 Lb per week rate of loss in a healthy manner. Beyond that, losing weight isn't a linear thing where you lose exactly X Lbs per week...it's a long term trend where you need to look at averages over time.

I tend to lose weight in chunks and have a lot of fluctuations up and down...if I look at my weigh ins for January in a vacuum of individual data points, it doesn't look like much is happening point to point with ups and downs and normal fluctuations...but if I look at the data in totality and use a weight trend app it is readily apparent that I've lost about 4-5 Lbs in the last 5 weeks...so in the neighborhood of 1 Lb per week on average, though it is not that exact amount week to week.

It is a process and you have to trust the process and stick with it and be consistent...and also realize that losing weight is just slow...that's how it is...you can't sprint a marathon.

yirara

Oh yeah, what cwolfman13 said. I'm a whoosher. I constantly lose weight, but my body somehow balances this by storing more water. And this continues for about two weeks with no loss on the scale, and then I have this night where I have to go to the loo three times. And the next morning I've lost the weight I'd expected to lose over the past two weeks in one go. That's totally an option as well. The conclusion is: bodies are weird.

elisa123gal

We all want to lose more and faster; but the point is.. you are losing a pound a week and getting smaller and smaller. That's really good. Cut yourself a break and look at it with a positive outlook. I'm losing slow right now too.. but. I'm still losing. That's how I'm looking at it.. and I really don't want to eat less or over exercise or do anything radical. Eventually we will get there.

CrunchyDad

2lbs a week is not healthy or sustainable. Your body will adapt to the calorie deficit and metabolism will suffer. You will not just be losing fat, but muscle and bone mass as well.

Calculate your TDEE, and aim for a 300-500 calorie deficit from there. Make sure to exercise but do not give yourself more calories because of it. Eat 30% calories from protein. Fat loss takes time but if you want it to be sustainable and be healthier overall, you have to be consistent and patient.

AnnPT77

CrunchyDad wrote: »

2lbs a week is not healthy or sustainable. Your body will adapt to the calorie deficit and metabolism will suffer. You will not just be losing fat, but muscle and bone mass as well.

I admit, I'm skeptical about whether 2 pounds a week is a sensible goal for OP . . . but
we don't know how big OP is now, do we? Or much of anything else, either?

If she's very obese, especially if to the point where body weight itself is a significant health risk, then 2 pounds a week may be an appropriate goal. It also matters how much she has to lose in total, to be at a healthy weight. A woman who's well over 200 pounds, who has well over 50 pounds to lose, and who doesn't have other major stressors (physical or psychological) in her life, may be OK with a 2 pound weekly loss rate, for a bit.

Calculate your TDEE, and aim for a 300-500 calorie deficit from there. Make sure to exercise but do not give yourself more calories because of it.

Using TDEE is fine, and if a TDEE goal is used with MFP one shouldn't add exercise on top of that (unless coming from a good fitness tracker synched with MFP, with negative calorie adjustment enabled). But that's not how MFP is designed.

If I tried to use TDEE, it wouldn't be helpful. My main exercise is weather dependent, seasonal, and therefore somewhat unpredictable. I lost weight fine, class 1 obese to healthy weight in less than a year, eating all my carefully-estimated exercise calories, and have maintained a healthy weight for 6+ years since, doing exactly the same thing.

300-500 calorie deficit would be tiny for a very large person with plenty to lose, arguably excessive for someone petite with a few vanity pounds left.

Eat 30% calories from protein.

For me, that would be an absurd and unnecessary amount of protein, as a minimum: Grams would be about 125% of my bodyweight in pounds, maybe 165% of LBM in pounds. That wouldn't be injuriously high, but it's certainly not necessary.

Fat loss takes time but if you want it to be sustainable and be healthier overall, you have to be consistent and patient.

We agree about that, for sure!