Not losing weight

allthatjas515

I have posted previously & having the same issue. I lost 10 lbs. in about 10 months. I am 70, 5'1", top weight was 146, got down to 136. In Nov. I was diagnosed with breast cancer, had surgery & just finished radiation treatment. I am anxious to go back to the gym. I have started lifting light hand weights at home & I walk about 20 min per day. Here's the issue. I saw a dietician who helped me with macros. She wants me @ 1200-1500 calories per day. I cannot seem to do it. I eat clean, 3 meals, 2 snacks - 2 fruits & at leas 3 vegetables, lean chicken(skinless), salmon, shrimp, tuna, eggs. Whole grain bread bought at a from scratch bakery, no preservatives. No matter what I do, I end up around 1100 & I find myself eating to meet a number when I am NOT hungry. It is stressing me out. My BMR is about 1250 & since my activity level is light to moderate, my estimated TDEE is 1550-1750 so if I take off 500 calories per day, I end up with 1050-1250. I have a limited food list due to health reasons so I do not eat beans, soy, dairy, shakes etc. If I am feel satisfied with my food intake, why do I need to hit the magic number of 1200? How do you eat when you are not hungry? Thanks in advance.

csplatt

I’m curious about how much your body has been through recently and how that intersects with your goal to get below 136!

allthatjas515

I am 5'1". I need to get down to 128

yirara

A family member went through surgery and radiation, and they also were not hungry. It might be a side effect of it. However, I'm sure your body is still healing and I wonder whether eating too little and trying to lose weight is actually beneficial at the moment if you've just finished treatment. What does your cancer doctor say? If you can't eat more than have a look at food high in calories, like a handful of nuts and almonds a few times per day. Dates are also very calorie dense as they contain less water than most fruits.

allthatjas515

My cancer doctor does not think I need to lose weight. She's nuts. I should be at 128 or below. I appreciate your thoughts but I've had problems getting to 1200 calories before the cancer. I just don't know how to make the numbers work - total calories & not go over on macros. If I intentionally add more foods I cannot eat them all. It's making me crazy. I am going back to dietician next week & I brought a "sample" day where I had 3 satisfying meals & 2 snacks & my total was 1065

csplatt

How do you calculate those numbers? Do you eyeball your servings? Use a digital food scale? That’s so little food (1065) that to not be hungry I am wondering if you should use a digital food scale to test the accuracy there. It can seem like overkill to some, but I use it when I need to lose weight so I can enter my grapes, peanut butter, cheese, dry pasta, proteins, nuts, etc by grams.

AnnPT77

I'm unclear about your timeline and details. You mention having just finished radiation. (I hope you weren't trying to lose weight during treatment.)

How long have you been eating at your current calorie level? How much weight, if any, have you lost during that time? That's what matters.

Many-weeks average loss rate defines our actual deficit; some calorie calculator's estimated deficit doesn't define our loss rate.

As long as you're not actually losing more than around half a percent of current weight per week, that may be fine, as long as you're truly fully recovered from cancer and treatment.

Post treatment, and after the acute phase of post-treatment healing and strength/ energy recovery, I can understand striving to be at a light but still healthy weight, especially if your tumor was ER/PR+. I also understand wanting to put the whole diagnosis/treatment situation firmly in the past and get on with regular life.

Given diagnosis in November, I'm assuming your cancer was caught at a relatively early stage?

Even so, to be brutally honest, if I were in your shoes, I'd first be thinking more like "I need to heal/recover fully", "I need to be optimally nourished to return to full energy and strength", "I need to minimize risk of metastatic or even new-primary recurrence" and less about "I need to weigh 128" (i.e. lose 8 pounds, if 8 pounds is still all there is).

In, other words, I'd be listening to the dietitian and doctor, for at least the next few months. But that's just me. Maybe I'm biased by having had breast cancer myself, but a pretty advanced stage of it (24 years ago).

A close friend got an early stage diagnosis a few months before you did, rushed back into her previous routine post treatment, not realizing her immune system was still compromised, and ended up with multiple infections that required more than one course of more than one antibiotic, including some by IV. Obviously, that won't happen to everyone, but it's a cautionary story, I think.

But all of that is your call, not mine.

If weight loss is now your most urgent or only personal priority, then the answer is to keep the 500 calorie or more deficit that would be somewhat on the aggressive side for a young, robustly healthy woman with so little weight left to lose. Sure, maximize nutrition while you do it, that's always a good plan.

But my generic advice to any woman with around 8 pounds to lose would be to do it slowly, like a 250 calorie daily deficit. Coincidentally, that's what I choose to target myself when within single digit pounds of goal weight. I think the slowness ïs even more important with recovery potentially still in the picture. YMMV.

Whatever path you choose, I wish you thriving good health from here on out!

allthatjas515

@csplatt

I weight all chicken, fish on food scale. I count all individual things like nuts, grapes, I measure peanut butter. I use MFP for calorie content.

allthatjas515

@AnnPT77 I appreciate your thoughts but since I started MFP last May, when I plan for let's say 1300 calories, I either cannot eat all of it or I force myself and feel like crap. So this began long before the cancer. During radiation my appetite varied from day to day so I stopped tracking but now I am trying to lose again, exercise more, get back to life. My doctors tell me I have no restrictions. For 30 years, I followed Weight Watchers so I was dealing with points, was lifetime member @ goal weight. Major changes to the program caused me to leave. I suspect the calorie content of my points was about 1150 (rough estimate). I eat healthy, I rarely get sick & I take no meds. Being overweight & belly fat are risks for breast cancer so I need to take this very seriously. Perhaps it is time to try something else because this is not working. I cannot eat when I am not hungry & I am not going to add calories to meet a number. Maybe it is just time to listen to my body. Thanks you again