I'm losing faster than predicted, Do I need to add more calories?
Paindeme
Posts: 11 Member
After a month of eating what was supposed to be 1 lbs a week according to mfp in reality I lost close to 1.5 pounds a week after fluctuations. My question is do I just stick with this calorie goal and it'll even out once I'm smaller or is it better to add in a extra few hundred every day?
If it helps I'm only a couple pounds overweight now (140 at 5'2 started at 146) so I'm looking to only lose 10 or 15 more
If it helps I'm only a couple pounds overweight now (140 at 5'2 started at 146) so I'm looking to only lose 10 or 15 more
1
Replies
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IMO, add some calories. That’s a benefit of tracking, learning what works for you 😊2
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Sometimes people lose water weight at the start alongside the fat loss. If this quicker rate is still going on the past 2 weeks, yes, I would recommend increasing your calorie goal. MFP gives a calorie goal based on population averages: adjusting based on real life results is definitely the best strategy, since we're all individuals.
Losing too fast carries the risk of losing muscle mass. Losing more slowly: no risk except requiring more patience 🙂4 -
Aside from MFP and any TDEE calc being a guess, are you correctly estimating net workout calories, and eating those back?0
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Like stated above, probably some initial water weight dropped, and your rate will probably slow down, but if you aren’t hungry and looking for a reason to eat more, I’d just enjoy the little bit of accelerated loss!0
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Retroguy2000 wrote: »Aside from MFP and any TDEE calc being a guess, are you correctly estimating net workout calories, and eating those back?
If the end result is going to be the same (that OP should be eating a couple hundred calories more each day), does it really matter how they get there (just boosting base calories versus logging more exercise cslories)?1 -
lynn_glenmont wrote: »If the end result is going to be the same (that OP should be eating a couple hundred calories more each day), does it really matter how they get there (just boosting base calories versus logging more exercise cslories)?1
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250 more calories is like 10 almonds per day, not much imo. If you are lighter from a month ago your body requires less calories. IMO, adding calories when I’m doing well is a recipe for failure. I would continue what your doing and maintain my current calorie intake. 1.5 lbs per week is a very reasonable goal or result.0
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Thank you for the input! I'm pretty sure I'm past the beginning water woosh because I've been at it for over a month and the last 2 weeks have been pretty consistent.
I also don't do any workouts but I think in my daily life I'm closer to lightly active than sedentary so I changed my settings to light activity and now I'm eating to the amount MFP gave me. I guess I'll see in another month how it goes haha5 -
Jupiterballs wrote: »Thank you for the input! I'm pretty sure I'm past the beginning water woosh because I've been at it for over a month and the last 2 weeks have been pretty consistent.
I also don't do any workouts but I think in my daily life I'm closer to lightly active than sedentary so I changed my settings to light activity and now I'm eating to the amount MFP gave me. I guess I'll see in another month how it goes haha
Good plan2 -
Jupiterballs wrote: »Thank you for the input! I'm pretty sure I'm past the beginning water woosh because I've been at it for over a month and the last 2 weeks have been pretty consistent.
I also don't do any workouts but I think in my daily life I'm closer to lightly active than sedentary so I changed my settings to light activity and now I'm eating to the amount MFP gave me. I guess I'll see in another month how it goes haha
Sounds good.
I would continue on this amount for another month - that month will be data past the initial water weight loss that often happens in the very beginning.
If your loss rate is still more than 1 lb per week, on average, (given the smallish amount of weight you have to lose) then I would slightly increase your calories for the next month.
Or slightly decrease them if the rate is significantly less than a pound per week.
However even half pound per week would be good rate in your circumstances.
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