Opinions of those who have succeded to goal weight...

holderh1

Hello! first of all congratulations to all of you who have gotten to your goal weight!

A little back ground info. I have lost and gained many times through my life the closest I have gotten to my goal is 140 pounds. This go around I am currently at 143 and I am 5 " 1. I started back on this weight loss journey on January 1st of this year so it has taken me almost 10 months to loose 23 pounds. I started out on Weight watchers which always works for me however I have stalled and I didnt want to keep paying a membership fee while I am stuck. I Am a stay at home mom and I am usually active throughout the day so I feel that I am lightly active. I try to eat healthy as much as possible but I do not eat clean. I work out usually 4 -5 hours a week with excercises such as zumba, resistance training with weights (as heavy as I can do with 10 reps at a time) p90x Yoga, Horseback riding, walking, running, hiking, Eliptical and any other various classes. I have my settings on 1500 calories per day with eating back exercise calories only if I feel I am hungry for them which sometimes means I net below 1200 calores. It usually evens out however during the week on days that I dont workout sometimes I go over the 1500 but usually not to the point to where I should gain. I have a polar ft60 hrm that I always use and I go by what it tells me I burned. Since I have been stalled since the first of August I have been slacking so I know I must do something different to lose this last 13 pounds. I have thought about trying the TDEE method but I am afraid to as I dont always get to go to the gym or workout so I like the idea of only adding in the exercise calories when I earn them. However many posts about people saying hrm not being accurate on some activities has me worried I may be over estimating calories burned. I have also thought about eating at maintance for the goal weight that I want to be and see if that changes things a bit. What are your suggestions for how you got to your goal weight. I appologise as I am sure this has been asked many of times but I have searched the boards and have not found exactly what I am looking for. Thanks!

Sixel

I'd eat at maintenance for the goal weight for a week or two and eat back exercise calories, then lower calorie intake again. If you're stalled, you might as well enjoy eating a little more. :-)

I definitely would not lower your daily calorie goal.

pkw58

The last 10 pounds came off in about the same amount of time the first 36 came off... which is a-ok with me. I have maintained (between 126 and 134) for the last 15 months.. most weeks the scale is hovering at 128. The longer it takes, the more the daily discipline habits remain.

I think the big difference for me is striving for 40% protein in my macros and just saying no to potatos, bread, rice and pasta. I get plenty of carbs otherwise, trust me. I do limit fruit from zero to two servings a day.

Another thing - if you can get to a good sports or performing arts doctor, they are experts at measuring you for frame size, understanding how active you will/want to be, and giving you a healthy weight range. It has been easier to maintain my current low end of the insurance charts "healthy weight range".. my sister is 5'4", I am 5'8', and she is medium / large frame (big wrists) and I am small frame (small wrists) and our doctors gave us the same weight range independent of each other!!

holderh1

Thanks for your responses! I will try maintanace for a little while I think to give myself a mental break as well as make sure I am getting in more protien.

Mikedemarco10

Hi im a little self conscious. I need oppionions of what you feel i look like. I feel too skinny sometimes. I workout 5 days a week for about 4 years now. My goal now is too lose ten lbs and get to 170 and have a lower body fat %. Im at 9 now id like to be 5-6. Do you think i am to skinny now? Would i look worse ten lbs lighter? Ive been told by people that im in great shape. And ive also been told i was skinny but they said it jokingly so i wasnt sure if they were serious. If you could click on my profile and get back to me it would be great thanks!

marianneread

I'm 4'10" and joined MFP primarily to maintain a 35 pound weight loss I'd achieved over many years of manual food tracking. If I don't track what I eat, the little cheats add up and I gain. MFP works well for me when I am honest with my food diary and I lost another five pounds.

I find that MFP underestimates my calories burned from exercise, but my HRM overestimates. I usually average the two and that works for me. Also, I don't know about your HRM, but some provide gross calories burned, which includes the calories you would have burned during that time without exercise. Since MFP already accounts for your daily burn without exercise, you need to make sure you're using the net calories burned from exercise.

If you are not losing weight, it's probably one of three things: You are underestimating the calories you eat (log EVERYTHING), overestimating the calories burned (see HRM comment above), or by not eating back your exercise calories, you're not eating enough to fuel your body. Make small adjustments to how you track/calculate until you find something that works for you. Good luck!