HELP, middle age slump.

michellekicks

245.6 this morning.

At 43 years old, 5'9" and 245 lbs, your BMR is estimated at 1835 calories daily. That's how many calories your body burns to keep all your organs functioning without any body movement whatsoever. If you never exercise, just work a desk job and barely move, your TDEE is estimated at roughly 2200 calories daily... your maintenance calories without exercise.

Your goal of 1300 calories/day is well below your BMR, which means in order to keep you alive AND moving around on 1300 calories, your body has to break down muscle mass and skimp on other processes like cellular repair (think hair and nails, skin) and slow your metabolism to match your intake. A goal of 1300 calories would be, in essence, creating a 900 calorie daily deficit until your metabolism slows to match your intake, at which point there will be very little deficit, thus stalling your weight loss.

Your best bet is to exercise moderately for 3-5 hours a week. e.g. walking briskly, weight lifting and whatever other activities you enjoy. If you do, your estimated TDEE will jump up to 2845 calories daily. Then, if you eat 1850 calories daily you should still see a 2 lbs/week loss and you'll be eating above your BMR.

If in addition, you get in over 100g protein daily - even up to about 150g - you will see better retention of lean body mass (the muscles are what burn the calories in the end) so that your maintenance calories at your goal weight will be higher/normal rather than suppressed from dieting.

So my advice is this:

Exercise for 3-5 hours a week moderately
Eat 1850 (at least) calories every day of the week without adding back exercise calories
(or, eat your 1300 calories daily and add your exercise calories, but this makes rest days suck)
Aim for 100g protein daily
If you are hungry and/or lethargic and/or unable to stick to 1850, eat more knowing anything under 2850 is still at a deficit.

Start there. Don't worry about fat/carbs... just aim for protein to start and eat whatever you want to the tune of 1850 calories/day.

I promise the weight will come off.

Hildy_J

So my advice is this:

Exercise for 3-5 hours a week moderately
Eat 1850 calories every day of the week without adding back exercise calories

EXCELLENT advice, to be followed to the letter.

To which I will merely add - well done on starting to turn things around.

This time next year you won't be feeling middle-aged you'll be all yummy mummy. :flowerforyou:

supermodelchic

I looked at your diary and it is clear , you are not eating the right kinds of food. You are eating food that is high in sugar( oatmeal, yogurt ect, or high in sodium ect(bacon), clean up your food , with continued exercise and you will see results, if you want you can add me I am on here everyday and at 49 , I am doing good. Be happy to give you tips ect..

lmlmrn

This post has made me rethink my own weight loss stall and I may not be eating enough calories. I have not seen any loss in 8 months or more. I workout on the treadmill 5 days a week an hour a shot, and my calorie intake is between 1100 and 1400 a day.

Thanks for all the info!

tjsoccermom

You are definitely not eating enough. You need lots more protein, try greek yogurt, almonds, lean meats, tuna, cottage cheese. Look at your macros and how much you have left each day. And your calorie goal needs to be set higher. Figure out your TDEE ( http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ ) and go from there. You will stall yourself this way. I have hit plateaus and have gotten over them by changing up my type of exercise and eating more. Good luck!

Totals 1,037 175 19 62 2,109 13
srhelm Daily Goal 2,262 311 74 85 2,500 35
Remaining 1,225 136 55 23 391 22
Calories Carbs Fat Protein Sodium Fiber

silken555

Arg...its not letting me paste the link...grrr.

Search the forums for In place of a road map. There's a short n sweet version.

Follow the instructions. You won't regret it!
Good luck!

DiosMom

So true. I have no patience with myself, either, but if you're going to look at this as a lifestyle change rather than a DIET, which it has to be, you need to learn to develop patience. :happy:

gigglesinthesun

may I also just mention the MFP frequently overestimates cals burned in exercise?

one day (Wednesday) you logged Moving boxes upstairs for 20 min and it says that that burned 339 cals, the previous Sat it was cleaning mod effort, then the Friday before that it was moving boxes upstairs for 30 min and it said that that burned a massive 517 cal (are you running up and down the stairs carrying 40lbs boxes???)

I am not having a go or anything and you don't seem to eat those cals back anyways, but it might just be better not to log those kind of things or use a HRM to get a more accurate measurement.

RM10003

Agreed on the more protein. It also seems you're eating very little fat, so I'd suggest getting more healthy fats like peanut butter, avocado, olive oil, fatty fish, etc. You need some fat in your diet for a variety of health reasons, and I think this is particularly true as we get older--who wants to be that dried up looking older woman?

Francl27

So my advice is this:

Exercise for 3-5 hours a week moderately
Eat 1850 calories every day of the week without adding back exercise calories

EXCELLENT advice, to be followed to the letter.

To which I will merely add - well done on starting to turn things around.

This time next year you won't be feeling middle-aged you'll be all yummy mummy. :flowerforyou:

I agree also.