Just wondering

sarahclarke122

Ok so before this I have already lost almost 100lbs but I've been stuck in the same general weight for a year .. And then in sept I decided to go back to school and gained about 15 lbs over 6 months. Anywho I noticed I was back to old habits and nipped it in the bud and got back on track. Then got this app to continue to help to be aware of my calorie intake (tracking helps me big time). And it says around 1500 should be my daily intake. I sometimes have trouble eating that much but I don't go under 1200. I've also now incorporated 15-25 mins of high intensity cardio and some arm strengthening exercise. As well I go to the pool once a week. I've been tracking for 27 days and am down four lbs. I'm very big on loosing slowly because It's better for keeping it off. And although loosing weight makes me happy and I wanna be smaller my main goal is to have a healthy lifestyle and for it to become more less like work. So far am I doing this right?

mmcorcoran

Awesome, good for you Sarah!

heybales

You probably wouldn't be surprised that you were eating much more than 1500 when you gained weight back, right?

Just to put that calorie count in perspective. If you can't eat 1500 now, you aren't picking good foods to eat. Perhaps you think low fat is best.

While I'm betting you did lose a fair amount of muscle mass during the 100 lb loss, which lowered your metabolism and daily burn, and made it easier to gain the weight back, you still probably could eat more to be at true maintenance.

Be aware that making wise choices to purposely lose slowly is a good idea, making unwise choices and having your body force it on you is not a good idea. Just because it's slow loss doesn't mean it's good, must be the right reason for the slow.

So, you are in school, how much walking do you get in with that going between classes? Because even people with sedentary desk jobs discover they are not actually Sedentary activity level, but Lightly Active. That's a wise choice, being honest there.

How much did you select to lose weekly? 1 lb is recommended, so MFP will create an automatic deficit in your eating goal to cause that on non-workout days. That's a wise choice.

Are you logging your exercise and eating it back, so you ONLY create a 500 cal deficit for that 1 lb weekly lose? That's another wise choice. Creating a bigger deficit many times isn't better.

Do you have the means to skip the high intensity cardio, and use the time better with some actual fully body strength training exercise, not just the small muscles in the arms that burn hardly any calories? That would be a wise choice, help hold on to muscle mass over the entire body. (this would be logged as strength training, and it does indeed appear like low calorie burn, but it is compared to cardio, but diet is the weight loss, not exercise. Swimming has 2 option, select the correct one to log)

And meet your daily eating goal with above methods applied correctly. 50 over is better than 100 below. Would you get to within 15% of goal weight and say that's good enough, and quit? A goal is to reach, not miss.

Chadomaniac

Stop focusing on body weight so much


Excellent transformation in your display pic