Why does it take so long to lose weight?

AutumnPhade

Female
5'8
20yrs old.
175 pounds
1200 calorie daily limit
Exercise 5x a week.

I noticed some people can easily lose 20 pounds in 2 months while others take 5 or 6 months to lose 20 and I was wondering why it is more difficult for someone to lose weight as opposed to someone else of similiar goals/weight/calorie limit?

I stay at a 1200 calorie daily limit, I exercise 5 times a week and I eat fairly healthy through-out the entire day. MFP says I SHOULD be losing two pounds a week but I find I'm only losing 1 pound or .5 pound a week.

I've been logging and using MFP daily for the past 2 months and I admit that I've had some "Cheat Days" (birthdays/ holidays etc) but I've had more ON days then OFF. But I've only lost about 7 pounds.

Is there something more I can do to start losing the 2 pounds a week without lowering my calorie limit?

Maleficent0241

So many variables. Age, gender, height, starting weight, medical conditions, etc. A person starting out at 300 lbs will be able to lose a lot faster than someone starting at 200.

With the amount you have to lose, 2 lbs a week is simply not realistic. I know hard it is to be patient, but it is the way it is. You have been losing close to a pound per week (~.82) which is a great rate. Also, depending on how much you go over on those rare days, you may be wiping out quite a bit of your calorie deficit. With less to lose, there is less wiggle room. It's up to you whether you prefer to be stricter with calorie intake and lose a tiny bit faster or allow yourself those days and lose at a slower rate. 1200, IMO, is already being really strict and may be hard to keep up with in the long run.

skittlesnhoney

It didn't come on in a day and it will take more than a day to come off. From the research I've been doing, stick with .5 lb to a lb a week loss. Too fast, and it will just come back on. Also, a low calorie diet with high cardio exercise will have you lose 6 lbs. of muscle mass for every 13 lbs. lost. That's almost half. When you gain the weight back, you will gain it back all in fat. Set your goals to a lb. of week, commit to logging your food as accurately as possible every day and give yourself time to lose it! Your body will thank you!

TheSageMage

Are you not logging breakfast or are you skipping it? Looking back in your log I noticed that you seem to eat larger meals late in the day, which is not recommended, but rather you should eat larger meals in the early day.

I also noticed you were eating large meals, try cutting down on meal size and snacking through out the day. It takes a lot for your body to digest food, some people have noticed that snacking rather than eating big meals can help them.

I also noticed you have a lot of carbs/sodium in your diet. Try cutting back on these are getting more health fat and protein in your diet. There's a lot of talk around carbs being good/not good for you, but I've noticed for my weight loss that when I do go lower carb intake, I seem to lose more weight.

Play around with your diet a little bit, see if you get better results.

Xingy01

In general, men lose weight faster than women. Bigger people lose weight faster than smaller people. Even two people with similar stats will lose weight at different rates because of differences in digestion, lean body mass, water retention, etc. You can't change how efficient or inefficient your body is at digesting food. When most people lose weight rapidly, it's just water weight. They eat less, drink more water, deplete their glycogen stores, and as a result they lose massive amounts of water very quickly. They gain all of that back when they return to eating normally.

Your bmr is probably around 1500 calories. 300 calorie deficit = 0.6 lbs lost per week. You say you're losing .5 to 1 lb per week. There's no problem here. As much as we'd like to lose weight overnight, it's impossible. It took years to gain weight and it can take months or years to lose it.

felonebeats

So many variables. Age, gender, height, starting weight, medical conditions, etc. A person starting out at 300 lbs will be able to lose a lot faster than someone starting at 200.

With the amount you have to lose, 2 lbs a week is simply not realistic. I know hard it is to be patient, but it is the way it is. You have been losing close to a pound per week (~.82) which is a great rate. Also, depending on how much you go over on those rare days, you may be wiping out quite a bit of your calorie deficit. With less to lose, there is less wiggle room. It's up to you whether you prefer to be stricter with calorie intake and lose a tiny bit faster or allow yourself those days and lose at a slower rate. 1200, IMO, is already being really strict and may be hard to keep up with in the long run.

Spot on,the more overweight you are the quicker it comes off.When you don't have as much to lose it comes off slower

la_te_ra_lus

If your working out 5x a week I would highly encourage you to eat a bit more.. 1200 cals seems really low for being that active. Be patient and the results will come.

defauIt

It depends entirely on the level of deficit you're running. Some people have a lot to lose and can healthily run deficits of ~1000 calories per day, allowing them to drop 8-10 pounds a month. Some people don't have a lot to lose and can only run deficits of 250 calories per day, allowing them to drop 2-2.5 pounds a month.

My first 60 pounds came off in 6 months, my next 20 came off in 4 months and my last 15 came off over a year and a half (mainly due to several months of maintenance eating, but the point still stands).

Are you not logging breakfast or are you skipping it? Looking back in your log I noticed that you seem to eat larger meals late in the day, which is not recommended, but rather you should eat larger meals in the early day.

Not recommended by whom?

When you eat your calories is 100% dependent on when you want to eat your calories. Meal timing has no direct impact on weight loss.

If you find meal timing has an indirect impact on weight loss (less cranky if you eat breakfast, more energetic if you snack, etc.) that's perfectly fine for you but it doesn't apply to everyone. I find no difference in energy levels or satiety if I eat breakfast and then I struggle feeling hungry after dinner so skipping breakfast and saving for a larger dinner is what works for me personally.

You can eat your calories whenever you feel like eating your calories.

susannamarie

Does MFP actually say you're set to lose 2lbs/week? I'm guessing you clicked 2lbs/week but it won't actually set you below 1200/day. If you go to home/goals it will tell you what your actual deficit is.

I looked at your diary for the last month. I don't see logging on Mar 30 or Apr 6, incomplete (hopefully) logging on Apr 5, 7, 13, and 20. This is more than once a week with some significant calories unaccounted for. If those are 'cheat days', it is quite possible that you're eating enough on those cheat days to counterbalance a large part of your deficit through the week and this is why your weight loss is slower than you would like

brevislux

Did you put on the weight in one day? Probably not. It takes time to lose and takes time to gain.
Also, people who lose quickly usually have much more to lose. You don't have much, so it takes longer.

SLLRunner

Weight loss is not linear. 7 pounds in 2 months is excellent progress. If you have no medical issues causing you to hold weight, the most likely reason you are losing weight slower than you set your goals is because you are underestimating calories in and overestimating calorie burns.

Weight all your food and log everything that you eat. If you use MFP, internet, or gym machine numbers for your calorie estimates, be sure to eat only 50-75% of your exercise calories back.

Aaron_K123

Whenever someone complains about how they only managed to lose 10 pounds in 5 months I like to point out that chances are it took them a lot longer to put that weight on so they are successfully losing faster than they put the weight on in the first place.

I put on 30 pounds of flab over 3 years, that is less than 1 pound a month. Am I really going to gripe about it if it takes me 9 months to lose that same 30 pounds? Probably, everyone loves a good gripe...but I try to keep that perspective.

thavoice

Whenever someone complains about how they only managed to lose 10 pounds in 5 months I like to point out that chances are it took them a lot longer to put that weight on so they are successfully losing faster than they put the weight on in the first place.

I put on 30 pounds of flab over 3 years, that is less than 1 pound a month. Am I really going to gripe about it if it takes me 9 months to lose that same 30 pounds? Probably, everyone loves a good gripe...but I try to keep that perspective.

Exactly.

It took time to put on that extra weight, and will take time to take it off. It will take more time to take it off because of simple math.

It is much easier to eat a surplus of calories than it is to have that same amount of a deficit.

lemonsnowdrop

Are you not logging breakfast or are you skipping it? Looking back in your log I noticed that you seem to eat larger meals late in the day, which is not recommended, but rather you should eat larger meals in the early day.

I also noticed you were eating large meals, try cutting down on meal size and snacking through out the day. It takes a lot for your body to digest food, some people have noticed that snacking rather than eating big meals can help them.

I also noticed you have a lot of carbs/sodium in your diet. Try cutting back on these are getting more health fat and protein in your diet. There's a lot of talk around carbs being good/not good for you, but I've noticed for my weight loss that when I do go lower carb intake, I seem to lose more weight.

Play around with your diet a little bit, see if you get better results.

No to all of this.

kbmnurse

If it was easy everyone would do it. But, look around obviously that is not the case.

Branstin

You shouldn’t be comparing yourself to other people. More importantly, you shouldn’t be rushing weight loss. Take the time to learn to do this correctly so you will be able to keep the weight off. The 1200 calorie daily limit is not offsetting your exercise. Consider eating back at least half of your exercise calories. Here is a great place to start understanding the facts behind a healthy and successful weight loss journey:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

aubyshortcake

First of all, 1200 calories net for your activity level seems very low, I would definitely eat more, especially considering how active you are. But as a side note, I really want to add this:

If you have a cheat day here and there or just go over your calories sometimes then you have to average your weekly caloric intake to see what you're really eating. The weekly reports on MFP are very helpful for this.

For example, I currently have my calories set at 1660. Lets say report for last week on MFP says I'm 2,500 calories over my goal. My goal, 1660 per day x 7 days per week = 11,620 (my goal intake for 1 week), then I have to add in the calories I went over, so 11,620 + 2,500 = 14,120, which is the actual number of calories I ate during that 7 day period. Divide that number by 7 days, and I actually ate an average of 2,017 calories per day.

I hope that at least sort of made sense, lol.