HEELPPP I’m eating 1400 calories as a calorie deficit

nizethdivina_20
nizethdivina_20 Posts: 1 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
My maintenance is 1,700 calories I want lo lose weight I’m currently at 61kg and my height is 1.54 meters, I’m wondering if that deficit is to low or is good because I have heard that I have to drop it like 500 below my maintenance but is to low I’m not gonna eat 1,200 calories, I go to the gym 3 time a week and I’m doing calisthenics 2 time a week, please help me:(

Answers

  • spiriteagle99
    spiriteagle99 Posts: 3,731 Member
    Because your deficit is fairly small and you don't have a lot to lose, your weight loss will be slow. Give it time. Be consistent for at least 4-6 weeks and see how you are doing. Are you weighing everything you eat? Being careful about the entries in the data base that you use? When the deficit is small, you really have to be careful to be accurate about what you are eating. The exercise you are doing is likely causing some temporary water weight gain, especially if it is new. Over time that will even out, so don't worry about it.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 33,784 Member
    edited July 18
    For other USA-ians like me, you're about 5' even, and 134.2 pounds. That's BMI 25.7, just slightly into the overweight range (in a statistical sense, since BMI is imperfect and body composition matters).

    With relatively little to lose, the loss of around 0.27 kg (just a bit over half a pound) per week from the 300 calorie daily deficit is really ideal, especially since you're an active person and I'm sure would want to fuel your activity to make fitness gains.

    I'm concerned about you, though, because you seem rather stressed about this. I think you have a sensible plan, and should have confidence in it. I'm with Spiriteagle: Go with that for 4-6 weeks (whole menstrual cycles to compare weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different cycles, if you have cycles). Then you can compare your average weekly results to your intentions, and adjust if necessary.

    Stress is optional, and feels icky (IMO). To me, it's just a fun, productive science fair experiment, y'know? :)

    Two things:

    1. I went through a period of intentional slow loss myself, after my weight had slowly crept up a little during maintenance, and I wanted to creep it back down. Usually, my data would show that slow loss on a monthly-average basis, but there were a couple of 4-6 weeks periods where it didn't show up on schedule. A couple of weeks further down the road, and there was a sudden bigger drop, and I was on point with average loss again.

    With slow loss, don't panic if you don't see it right away. If the results are ambiguous, I'd recommend staying the course for another couple of weeks or so. IMO, one of the common dysfunctional things people do in pursuit of weight loss is over-react much too quickly, tweak calorie level too soon, and never figure out what their own body actually needs. (Cutting too far is a bad plan, and over-reacting can lead there.) Patience and perseverance tend to be rewarded.

    I did find a weight trending app useful during slow loss, making it easier to see the trend through the random daily weight fluctuations . . . but even my weight trending app thought I was maintaining or gaining during one 4-6 week period of slow loss, when I was pretty sure I was still losing. Shortly down the road, it was obvious I'd been right.

    (If you don't know about weight trending apps: You put in your daily weight (or whatever) and it uses statistical techniques to estimate fat loss that may be happening amidst the noise of water fluctuations and digestive contents changes. They're not a magic crystal ball! Some examples are Libra for Android, Happy Scale for Apple/iOS, Trendweight (requires a free Fitbit account but not a device), Weightgrapher, and probably others. They're mostly free (ad supported).)

    2. Since you do work out, you may find you lose a bit faster than targeted. That can be OK, if it's not extreme. Keep in mind that MFP and other sources are also giving you a statistical average calorie need for people demographically similar to you. You're an individual, so you may vary from average. It can be normal to feel a bit peckish for a couple of weeks when changing eating habits. But after that, if you seem to be losing faster than expected, plus start feeling weak or fatigued for otherwise unexplained reasons, I'd suggest upping calories a little.

    Best wishes: Come back to this thread in a few weeks and let us know how it goes, if you feel up to it?

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