The last thirty pounds!

jh4qnk5chx

Hello all! I’m Jane, and I’m trying to lose about 35 lbs, as a final push.

I started my weight loss journey in early 2024 at 200lbs, and it seemed so easy in the beginning. I lost nearly twenty pounds just drinking diet drinks instead of full sugar Dr Pepper. And then I was eating fish, rice, and vegetables once per day, with a few snacks in between. I did not count calories, but still dropped around fifty pounds over the course of a year.

In December of 2024, I moved across the country and started neglecting my health. I’m in a city now, so I’m a lot more active than I was (sedentary to walking over 5 miles a day) and began eating more to compensate. I’ve only gained back around ten pounds, but my original goal was to reach 120 lbs (I’m 5’1 F, 25 years old, and starting back at around 155lbs). So here I am, starting to count calories. Any advice would be appreciated, and I’m excited to embark on the final push of my journey with you all!

AnnPT77

Hello, Jane!

For me, calorie counting was the perfect tool. I hope it'll help you, too. (I lost around 50 pounds nearly 10 years ago using MFP, have been maintaining a healthy weight since.)

My advice would be to make a relatively easy-to-follow personalized plan. It's OK if it takes some experimenting to find that plan, even if there are some oops moments during the experiments.

Too many people arrive here with the intention to "lose weight fast", shoot for an aggressive weight loss rate, impose a bunch of restrictive eating rules (maybe in the form of a trendy named diet), then sometimes even stack a punitively intense daily exercise schedule on top of that. That usually doesn't end well, but it does typically end quickly. It's Just. Too. Hard. Cue the weight yo-yo roller coaster!

Better idea, IMO: Focus on finding new, routine eating and activity habits that gradually lead to a healthy weight. That's a very different mindset. It's easier to consistently stick with long enough to lose a meaningful amount of weight, plus it helps us find and practice the habits we'll need to stay at a healthy weight long term.

I admit, it's slower; but it's generally how a lot of people who've succeeded long term with MFP have done it. The big downside? It's kind of boring, so we can't brag to our friends about how we're doing the cool new diet, losing gazillions of pounds in days 😉, blah blah blah. (Honestly, I think it's best not to talk much to people about weight loss who aren't themselves serious-minded about losing weight. Often, chatting about it seems to draw lots of trendy advice parrotted from the blogosphere (but not successfully followed by the person chatting about it) or disputation about the validity of our goals ("you're not fat", "you're getting too skinny", etc.).)

I'm a big advocate of a "remodel your eating" method: Log what you eat now, use diary review to find easy calorie cuts and substitutions that preserve reasonable overall nutrition. Gradually work your way to calorie goal, eating foods you actually like, find affordable and practical, and that add up to reasonable overall nutrition. Include a few treats in reasonable portions/frequencies, anything you can successfully moderate, just for joy. Focus on your eating habits, the patterns you repeat day in and day out most of the time. Those are the power tools for weight loss.

That one day when I eat too much cake or work out for 5 hours? That's a drop in the ocean. My routine daily habits, the things on autopilot repeat, those are the ocean. The majority of my days determine the majority of my results.

On the exercise front, look for ways to add movement that are ideally fun, but at minimum are tolerable and practical. Fun exercise we actually do because we like it is 100% more beneficial than some theoretically perfect thing we procrastinate, skip at the slightest excuse, and eventually give up altogether. Here again, routine habits are key.

So: Simple plan, personalized to your preferences, strengths, challenges and lifestyle. It's doable.

Wishing you success!

jh4qnk5chx

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48817740#Comment_48817740

Thank you for the advice! I’m totally fine with taking it slow and steady, especially to be able to maintain the loss after! I went through this last week and calculated without restriction what I’ve been eating, and I average about 2,000 calories a day (highest day 2,124, lowest 1,739). MFP suggests I cut to between 1,220 and 1,450, and I think I’ll aim towards the higher side to prevent getting sick.

I really want to do this the healthy and appropriate way, more as a lifestyle change than anything else. I really appreciate your advice on everything, and am really looking forward to looking and feeling my best. I know it only gets more difficult to lose and maintain the older I get, and while obviously a good chunk of my motivation comes from aesthetics, I mostly just want to feel good in my own skin, internally too.

AnnPT77

That's great!

A common rule of thumb around here is to shoot to lose something in the range of 0.5%-1% of current weight per week, with the upper end of that reserved for people who are severely obese and perhaps even under medical supervision for nutritional deficiencies or health complications. For someone with less weight to lose, something close to the 0.5% tends to be more sustainable.

Another way to look at it - different rule of thumb - is to avoid cutting more than about 25% from TDEE (total daily energy expenditure, a.k.a. maintenance calories).

If you're wanting to lose around 35 pounds to reach 120, I'm assuming you currently weigh around 155. (I was around that weight when I first joined MFP, BTW - already about 25-30 pounds down from my recent high weight.) 0.5% of that would be about 3/4 pound, which would be roughly a 375 calorie deficit, so 1600-ish calories daily to eat. 25% discount from TDEE would be 1500.

On that basis, I think you're wise to shoot for the higher calorie level of the range you mention, at minimum. 1200-ish tends to be too low for many women, even though it's a popular target. (It was too low for me, even after adding exercise calories . . . and I'm more than twice your age.)

Best wishes!