What am I doing wrong?

ATJune

A few days back I had a post and folks gave me good feedback.. but now I am wondering if I am eating the correct number of calories?! Most of the folks stated I should up my calorie intake... Currently this is what I am doing and here are my stats!:)

Calorie intake:1400/day
Height :5.3
Wt:150lbs
Exercise: maybe 2-3 times a week( i am slotting time now everyday:))
Work : Sedentary( in front of a comp day long!!)

What do you think I should do??
Thanks guys for all your feedback!

KarenBorter

I think you may want to re-evaluate your BMR using the tools here. You have lost 6lbs and sometimes that could make the difference. See what that says and manually up your daily calories to that and see if it works. Also, I know you are drinking water but maybe up that a tad too ... Shock that system into losing.

carrieberrie

When I started out it said I needed to eat 1440 calories a day. I did that for 2 weeks and lost nothing. First of all, I sit at work for 8 hours and I hate to exercise but I was walking about 30 min a day. Week 3, I dropped my calories to 1300, stayed with the walking and down 30 lbs. You will need to tweak things here and there and find what works for you. But please stick to it for at least 2 weeks, your body needs to get used to it.

horizonflight

Ok... say your caloric intake is 2000 and you're trying to lose weight. So then you calculate how many calories you should take in depending on how much weight you want to lose so you end up with a total intake of approximately 1200-1500 depending on what your calculations are. Now stop and think about your exercises. If you have decreased your calorie intake to 1200-1500 and exercise additionally then you have to take in the calories you've burned through exercise during the day or through some other means post exercise or pre exercise. If you don't, you may put your body into starvation mode. If that happens, your body will retain what it can get to survive and save the rest for future possible needs.

horizonflight

When I started out it said I needed to eat 1440 calories a day. I did that for 2 weeks and lost nothing. First of all, I sit at work for 8 hours and I hate to exercise but I was walking about 30 min a day. Week 3, I dropped my calories to 1300, stayed with the walking and down 30 lbs. You will need to tweak things here and there and find what works for you. But please stick to it for at least 2 weeks, your body needs to get used to it.

And also please remember that if you try to lose weight and start eating "right" for lack of better words or intake the appropriate calories or nutrition you may see a weight gain between the first 2-4 weeks before seeing a weighloss because your body is getting used to be fed appropriately or regularly, will start storing nutrients, and when it has all its nutrients will not go into starvation mode considering you keep up your eating habits.

ATJune

I started at 1200 and did not see any change ,... then i upped it to 1400... so ... i guess maybe bring it down to 1300??

carrieberrie

Thats what I would do, but you need to stay away from the processed carbs

ATJune

ok:D

LainMac

I peeked at your diary. Here is my one word advice. Vegtables.

Dice them fine and put them in the indian dishes that you list. Cook them up a tad unti they are the texture you like.

More advice. Track fiber. I personally feel better and do better on 25 or more grams a day. You can add more lentils or dal to your indian dishes to up the fiber.

I would agree that "processed carbs" ie "carbs with out natural fiber won't help you fell full. And yeah, drink the water. That is one that I"m still working on.

millerll

I agree with the above poster. Watch the processed foods - boxed cereals are high in sugar. I don't know diddly about Indian food, so I'll leave that alone. Go easy on the candy and chocolate. Swap white bread, rice and pasta for whole wheat and brown rice. It takes a little getting used to, but if you mix it at first and gradually phase out the white carbs, you should learn to like it. Watch the sodium - a couple of days it was pretty high. Nothing will make you retain weight faster than sodium. Try to add more fresh fruits and veggies - they'll help you feel fuller.

All in all, you're making good strides. Keep it up!

SaraTN

I agree fresh veggies and lean proteins. Also, if you have a food scale start measuring and weighing your portions to make sure you are recording them accurately.

Rynatat

I agree with all the above: I picked up a digital scale a few months ago & shocked myself by how much I was "over-proportioning" my foods! So now I weigh & measure everything & noticed a HUGE difference. Please remember that this will take time: you didn't gain overnight so the loss won't happen overnight. I've only lost 13lbs (OK I gained back 2 from last weekend since we ate out & I ate some very rich foods I hadn't had in literally months, but I'm been working out extra hard this week & I think I got rid of the excess)
The biggest key I found for me is exercise, though. I usually am over my calories, but I keep working out, firming up and toning & I now have people at work asking what I'm doing. I used to despise exercise, but now it's my best friend (next to my fiance!:laugh: ). I workout in the mornings before anything else, it took a few months, but my body seems to understand our deal now: it works out well and I feed it well
Also, like someone else mentioned, you have to "tweek" this to find your niche, it may take a couple weeks it could take a couple months, but what ever happens, DON"T GIVE UP! You're here now, there's lots of support & I believe in YOU, you CAN do this :flowerforyou:

ATJune

thanks for the feedback....