Feel like I have to starve to lose weight
I am almost 60, active (truly-I live in CO-lots of walking, hiking, gardening, and I do treadmill and strength training, too). I cook 95% of my meals (80% healthy). I am 5' 3.5" tall and weigh 150 (mostly around my belly). The only way I can lose anything is to limit my calories to 1000 per day (or less). I work in a medical field and know this is not healthy. I would really like to lose about 25 lbs and I find this frustrating. I would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks!
Replies
-
How fast are you trying to lose weight?
Sometimes our expectations are unrealistically high. There’s a post elsewhere by a user complaining that they’re not losing 1.5-2 pounds a day.
That’s madness.
Most people here will tell you the last 20 are the hardest to lose. You’re very close to that already.
Make sure you’re setting a realistic loss goal. Towards the end, I was happy with half a pound a week or a pound a month. It takes a lot of whittling and accuracy to lose those last few pounds, so weighing accurately and logging every bite is critical.
So many of us tried “eyeballing” or guesstimating, only to realize in truth, we were eating a lot more than we thought.
And how long have you been trying to lose, using MFP? The first month or even two will be very yo-yo til you settle in, and til your body becomes accustomed to change.
0 -
I have no specific time limit on losing the 25 pounds. I would be happy if I could lose it in the next year! Thank you for you suggestions!
1 -
Also, I've been using diet trackers for years. So far I am liking MFP. It's simple compared to WW and Cronometer.
0 -
There is a chance you’re eating more calories than you think - do you use a food scale and weigh absolutely everything? To use the old example, a “tablespoon” of peanut butter should be 15g. Yet if I actually grab a spoonful then weigh it, it will be closer to 45g - that’s a significant difference. I’m in the UK so we don’t use cups as measuring units, but I’ve seen a lot of US based posters on here saying cups are also really unreliable. The only way to be sure is using a digital scale and weighing every single bit of cooking oil, every taste when cooking, every bite, every gram of milk in your tea or coffee, every sweet (it’s amazing how many calories I can eat when I’ve only had “one or two” sweets a day), and you need to pick accurate food entries on MFP. It’s great that you eat healthily, but others on here will tell you that they were very overweight even on healthy food.
There are some outliers who need fewer calories - and if you are one, then picking a really slow rate of loss so that you can still consume adequate nutrients will be key.
3 -
Thank you for your suggestions. I have recently starting paying attention to portions as that is the one thing I really haven't done. I don't feel like I go overboard with food, but as you say, "estimating" generally means eating more than you think! I will try actually measuring my portions to see if that helps. If that doesn't help, then actual weighing. Thanks, again!
1 -
Yes, this! It's super difficult to burn enough calories to create a meaningful calorie deficit. The only way however to lose weight is to be in a calorie deficit. If you are active but eating at maintenance you won't lose weight. Be active because it's good for health, but also make sure you do have a calorie deficit. There's no reason to starve yourself. Be realistic, measure your food intake properly, eat enough to feel full and happy.
1 -
i also recommend using a digital food scale for more accuracy.
1 -
Besides carefully weighing or measuring everything you eat, pay attention to the data entries you use. They are user entered, and some are really off. Sometimes that is because the recipe for the product has changed (i.e. bread: my usual ww bread went from 100 calories a slice to 120 or even 130.) Some are also pretty vague: how big is a medium banana? Those extra calories add up. Also, if you are eating back your exercise calories, those may be inflated if you are getting the numbers from a machine or even from this site. Try eating back half the calories estimated for a while and see if that makes a difference.
2 -
I assume you are a woman. I agree with the other replies. Also checkout this post menopause thread.
I included a reply in that thread with some conclusions I’ve made from research earlier this year.
0 -
Here's a viewpoint to consider: Weighing isn't just more accurate than measuring, it's also quicker and easier once you know the tricks.
Yes, I could measure out a level tablespoon of peanut butter, scrape the top flat with a knife for measurement accuracy, scrape the peanut butter out of the spoon onto my Ezekiel pita, spread it with the knife, maybe lick the spoon and knife, then wash the spoon and knife.
Slightly more accurate, but much quicker and easier: Put the jar of peanut butter on the scale, take off the lid. Tare/zero the scale. Dip out some peanut butter with whatever you'll use to spread it. Read the negative number on the scale - that's the amount you took out. Log that. Then spread the PB, lick the utensil, and wash it.
I do that with things in chunks, too, like a hunk of cheese: Put it on the scale, zero, cut off an amount I want to eat, read/log the negative number.
Making a salad or sandwich: Put the plate on the scale. Zero. Put the bread on the plate. Log the weight, zero the scale. Put the mayo on the bread, log/zero. Put the cheese on the may, log/zero. And so forth. I do the same thing when putting ingredients in a pan that will all cook at once: Put the pan on the scale, add each item, log then zero.
A lot of people expect weighing to be more fussy and time-consuming. I think it's the opposite. Plus a scale costs less than a decent pizza.
If eyeballing/estimating works for a person, that's probably the least effort. If going for more precision, scale is less effort and more accurate than cups/spoons.
2 -
hello, I am sending support your way! I feel the same way and it is a daily struggle. I drink a protein shake when I am feeling hungry and can’t afford anymore calories for the day. Or I grab a bowl of grapes. Not sure if it’s helpful but I am here with you ❤️
0 -
as an aside, and as an American if the “OMG! metric?!!!” era, changing to metric has rocked my cooking world.
I was from the “a little more is always better” school of thought, so used heaping everything.
Metric is sooo much more accurate for cooking and baking, plus fewer implements to clean afterwards.
I threw out all my measuring cups and spoons.
It wasn’t hard to change at all, once I got down a few basic concepts.
Man, when I was in school, they made it seem so incredibly confusing and difficult. Now, meters, kilometers, I do struggle with those. Got into an argument with a bunch of Brits when we were eyeballing the size of a rug. They were trying to say that a room size rug was 1x2 meters, and I’m still calling BS on that one!
0 -
If someone already said this, apologies.
1000 calories a day might be what you need if you were just sitting on the couch all day but if you have any kind of job at all or even if you are taking care of family or a house, that's not reasonable.
Enter your stats into the Goals. You have a job so choose an, "Activity Level," that seems reasonable. Don't choose, "Sedentary," that's not the truth. Choose, "Lose 1/2 pound per week." With 20 pounds to lose, that's about where you need to be.
Log your food. Use a food scale. Do that for a month. See how it goes. I'd bet my breakfast that you'll be given way more than 1000 as a base. If you exercise, eat more on those days by entering the exercise into the Exercise tab and eating whatever it tells you.
Here's the official explanation:
1
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 398.2K Introduce Yourself
- 44.6K Getting Started
- 261K Health and Weight Loss
- 176.4K Food and Nutrition
- 47.7K Recipes
- 233K Fitness and Exercise
- 462 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.5K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.7K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 153.5K Motivation and Support
- 8.4K Challenges
- 1.4K Debate Club
- 96.5K Chit-Chat
- 2.6K Fun and Games
- 4.7K MyFitnessPal Information
- 16 News and Announcements
- 20 MyFitnessPal Academy
- 1.5K Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 3.1K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions