Is it possible I'm eating too few calories?

SuperHero_Girl

Before I elaborate, you'll all be happy to know that I have my daily calorie goal [manually] set for 1500 cals/day. When I re-committed to MFP in July 2013, I weighed in at 250.4 pounds and set my goal for losing 2 pounds/week, and MFP automatically allotted me 1530 cals/day. This worked as intended and weight was lost. Once I lost more than 10 pounds, MFP asked me to re-evaluate my goals. I wanted to continue to lose 2lbs/week, so my calorie goal was reduced to 1460, (if I'm not mistaken). I followed these guidelines and continued to lose weight.

The next time MFP prompted me to re-evaluate my goals, I initially kept it at a loss of 2lbs/week, and it assigned me 1380 cals/day. I found it too difficult to sustain so little calories and my weight loss actually stalled, so I changed my goal to a loss of 1.5lbs/week and it increased my daily calories to just over 1600 cals/day, which, seeing as I started out at 1530 cals/day seemed to be a tad too high, so, as mentioned above, I manually set my goal to 1500 cals/day. This has been working pretty well until this past week where my weight loss seems to have stalled again, (and just before I'm about to get out of the 200s!)

The thing is, if I go to re-evaluate my goals now, it assigns me 1540 cals/day to lose 2lbs/week, and 1780 cals/day to lose 1.5lbs/week. If I'm going to be honest, I think that, with as much weight as I've lost so far, losing 2lbs/week is a little too ambitious and aggressive, but 1.5lbs/week is much more realistic.

All that being said, I have a few questions:
1. Have I set myself up for failure, at least in the short-term, because I manually set my daily calorie goal too low?
2. If I were to aim to lose 2lbs/week, (which I'm not), why are my calories set for about the same as when I first re-committed to MFP when, not too long ago, it was telling me to consume 1380 cals/day to continue losing 2lbs/week?
3. Would it benefit me to increase my daily calories at this point, thus decreasing my weekly loss?
4. Would following MFP guidelines to increase my calories be likely to break out of this stall of progress?

Sometimes the science behind weight loss can be so confusing when there are so many individual factors. Thanks in advance to those who reply and can offer insight and input!

PinkCoconut

First of all, congrats on the weight lost so far! You're kicking some major butt!

Secondly, sometimes you gotta throw the "science" away and just experiment (albeit in a healthy manner obviously). This is how I was able to figure out what was working for me and what wasn't just like you're starting to realize. Don't worry about eating "too much" if you're consuming less than 2,000 calories and are working out (are you working out? I don't think you mentioned it). There's nothing wrong with manually adjusting your own calories and giving it a shot for a week or two and see how it works for you. If you start losing again, GREAT! If not, go 100 or 200 calories more or less and see what happens. There's nothing wrong with aiming for 2 lbs per week but my opinion is that as long as you're heading downwards in size you're on the right track, know what I mean? 2 lbs is the max you'll want to aim for during a week so anything between .01 and 2 lbs is something!

Feel free to friend me!

Greenrun99

Hey I looked at your diary.. Looks to me like your overestimating your exercise calories... eat half of them for about 2 weeks and see if anything changes.. Also try to increase your protein at the expense of your carbs.

WalkingAlong

All that being said, I have a few questions:
1. Have I set myself up for failure, at least in the short-term, because I manually set my daily calorie goal too low?
2. If I were to aim to lose 2lbs/week, (which I'm not), why are my calories set for about the same as when I first re-committed to MFP when, not too long ago, it was telling me to consume 1380 cals/day to continue losing 2lbs/week?
3. Would it benefit me to increase my daily calories at this point, thus decreasing my weekly loss?
4. Would following MFP guidelines to increase my calories be likely to break out of this stall of progress?

Sometimes the science behind weight loss can be so confusing when there are so many individual factors. Thanks in advance to those who reply and can offer insight and input!

1- No. Eating 1500 isn't harmful.
2- No idea.
3- It might. Would the slower losses demotivate you? Would the higher intake be more comfortable?
4- Stalls just happen. Sometimes changing something breaks them, sometimes not. If you keep going, it will inevitable break, at any intake level below 1800 or so, in my opinion.

Mischievous_Rascal

What are your workouts like? And your protein looks uber low. I lose the best when my macros are at 40C/30F/30P.

I've stalled on the scale for months at a time. Make sure you're taking progress pics and measuring yourself once a month.

MercyOxendine

Hi, just want to say what an awesome accomplishment! :happy: I'm not sure why mfp seems to be so up and down with you cal. I know I was at 286lbs when I first began with mfp and it set my calories at 1330 per day to lose 2lbs a week. Mine is set low because I put that I don't exercise. Actually I know I should but at the moment my day consist of sitting at a desk all day and helping with homework at night. Check your exercise if you have not already and perhaps that calculation has something to do with it. With the understanding I have, as long as you don't drop below 1200 cal. a day and don't go over 1500 you should still lose weight, amount per week of course is dependant upon intake. Would love to add you to my friend list, hope you have a wonderful day!

ElliottTN

Hey I looked at your diary.. Looks to me like your overestimating your exercise calories... eat half of them for about 2 weeks and see if anything changes.. Also try to increase your protein at the expense of your carbs.

Agreed. There is your problem right there. You can get away with those wild overestimates when you have a good deal more to loose but as your coming down in weight not so much anymore.

SuperHero_Girl

Whoa, sorry that I made this post and then went MIA, but last I checked this post, no one had yet commented.

(are you working out? I don't think you mentioned it).

Yes I am! I go to the gym at least 3 times a week, (on my days off from work), and do a half hour of cardio and a half hour of strength training, (either weight machines or personal training). I vary my cardio between the cross training machine, elliptical, stationary bike and I recently added in the treadmill. On the days I work, I spend anywhere from 8-10 hours on my feet and moving around. I walk an intentionally fast pace between the train station and work, so I track those walks. Once a week, I go for a 20+ minute speed walk to a doctor's appointment and I track those too. I don't track my movement at work, because that would just be overkill.

Hey I looked at your diary.. Looks to me like your overestimating your exercise calories... eat half of them for about 2 weeks and see if anything changes.. Also try to increase your protein at the expense of your carbs.

Really? When I first started out, I know that my exercise calories were wildly overestimated because I was using a wristwatch HRM that required me to press and hold a button to get a reading and, once I let go of that button, the reading would stop, so I was measuring my heart rate every 5 minutes when exercising. I have since upgraded to a Polar FT7 with chest strap and, while I know it's not 100% accurate, it gives me much more reasonable readings. In fact, the readings tend to be significantly lower than the readings on whichever machine I'm on. I have trouble believing I'm overestimating exercise calories enough for it to make a huge difference.

FTR, when I started out, I was getting readings of 800-1000+ calorie burns per one hour workout, so that's why I think the readings I'm getting now are far more realistic.

What are your workouts like? And your protein looks uber low. I lose the best when my macros are at 40C/30F/30P.

I'm going to guess those numbers are percentages? I always try to eat over the protein macro that MFP assigned me, (and the fiber one too). I've been pretty much going with what MFP calculated because, until recently, it was working really well for me.

For what it's worth, I recently dropped my weekly weight loss goal to 1.5bs/week, which increased my cals/day to 1790. I did this yesterday and ate at the new, higher level and woke up this morning to a 1.4lb loss, leaving me at an even 200lbs. Now, I hardly think that one single day of this change caused this, or that the 1.4lbs was all fat, (for all I know, it was all water weight), but it's nice to have apparently broken this plateau, (if it even was one?). I think I'll keep the higher calorie level for now and see where this goes. I can always decrease my calories again, no problem.