Confused about weight loss. I upped calories?

Anyaaaa11

so I've been struggling to lose about 10lbs or so for the last
Couple months.. I just felt I needed some personal experience. some motivation.
Since trying to lose the weight, like most people I tried the 1200 calories a day diet.
Always ended up losing and gaining back the same 5lbs.
I finally gave up trying to eat the 1200 calories as I felt it was unfair.
Anyway, for the last week and a couple days I've been eating around 2000 & I jumped up from 118lbs to 122 But I think it's finally leveling off. Not sure though. Also, along with the extra calories I've been eating a lot of junk which I'm trying to
Stay away from and eat healthier ..I still exercise and lift 3x a week..& I've heard about people upping calories to lose weight
I'm just a little apprehensive about it. Now I've had a rough couple of years with my weight.
I won't go into it too much but as of now I'm 5'2 /3ish
122lbs and I'm 19. Last year I put on around 17lbs because of
Unhealthy eating patterns..
Have any of you struggled with the same thing? I'm anxious to lose the 10lbs but I know I should take it easy
This time. Any advice would be much appreciated (:
Please help!

Mandarz

I think you went from one extreme to the other- and need to find balance- 1200 calories is the min before your body slows metabolism, and 2000 calories is probably quite above your basal metabolic rate due to your height and weight- You sound like you are in the healthy weight range already- so you may not have a lot to lose, i would focus on healthy foods, and muscle toning- muscle does weigh more then fat, keep that in mind too- you probably will have great success if you continue to work out, ad soem weights in, and eat around 1500-1700 calories a day...

Anyaaaa11

Yea that's what I was thinking to. I bumped my calories
That high in hopes of getting my merabolism going again.. And
Was planning to drop them around 1500-1600. (: thanks for the reply though

Rayman79

That's good advice. You really need to just play around with your calories a bit, set MFP to a 1/2 or 1lb loss each week and see how you feel with those numbers.

Remember to measure as much as you weigh too. If you have been hitting the weights for a while you may weigh the same but with a slowly changing body composition. If you can get someone to check your body fat % that is also a better measure of your progress than the scales.

Remember that the last few are always going to be harder to shift, and you need adequate fuel to be able to keep lifting and exercising. It is a bit of a fine balance at this stage, but you'll get there!

trs86

wann know the key to weightloss?? its really easy, it's all about having a calorie defecit. so work out how many calories your body must have to maintain your weight (there's heaps of online calculators for this). then just be eating less than that amount. compensate with excercise and you'll lose weight...

for example... my maintenance calorie intake was 2800 so what i've done is dropped my calorie intatke to between 1600 & 1800 then I try to burn off between 600 - 800 Calories a day... definately don't eat less than 1200 cals a day though... your body won't like that much, especially if your burning lots with excercise too!!

also, if your doing weight sessions then its quite possible that your building muscle, which means that you may not see a loss in weight, but your probably losing inches and body fat %... just stick with it!!! you'll get there!!

taso42

Find your TDEE, subtract 500 calories, and eat that much.
Or go by MFP numbers and eat back exercise calories which will get you to pretty much the same place.

annameier8706

Use the calculations on this website to find your maintanance cals, then subtract 500 for your "loose 1lb a week" intake number. I just did this recently and it is working fantastically.

Tara4boys

I think you went from one extreme to the other- and need to find balance- 1200 calories is the min before your body slows metabolism, and 2000 calories is probably quite above your basal metabolic rate due to your height and weight- You sound like you are in the healthy weight range already- so you may not have a lot to lose, i would focus on healthy foods, and muscle toning- muscle does weigh more then fat, keep that in mind too- you probably will have great success if you continue to work out, ad soem weights in, and eat around 1500-1700 calories a day...

Great advice. Try changing your settings to 1/2 lb per week.

ashnm88

I'm the same height as yourself and I have 16lbs to lose and I current have a goal of 1430cals a day at a rate of 1lb a week. Maybe try around there.

lisakyle_11

bump

AddA2UDE

Be careful about finding your correct TDEE though. It took me four months to finally figure this out. A few minutes ago, I just went back and Google'd "TDEE Calculator" and found that the top two results had a 1,000 calorie difference for the exact same entry! My problem to start with was that I used too high of a TDEE. I'm 6', 255 lbs and losing at 1,690 calories/day. I'm only counting half of the calories my eliptical machine says I burnt and I quit counting any calories burnt during weight-lifting. I don't know if any of this will work for you or not but it is working for me.....FINALLY! You can do it. The trick is not to give up. I could have easily given up out of frustration a month or two ago. I'm glad I didn't.

MrsFusion

I'm the same height as you and I weigh 133 right now with 8 to go. I eat around 1450/day.

lin7604

I am the same height and i am currently 132. I was at 1200 a day too and always ate back my exercise calories. I was losing slowly, maybe .5 lbs a week. My goal was to loose 10 lbs in 2 month. i lost 5. my second goal was to hit 125 by march 20th and i doubt i will see that either. I upped my calories about 2 weeks ago and i have lost 1.5 lbs already, the mos ti have ever lost in that peroid of time. I changed mfp from 1 lb loss a week to .5 ( since that was all i was loosing anyway) and it gave me 1310 calories a day. i still eat back my exercise calories as i make sure i net 1200. if i don't exercise i will always make sure i eat 1252 calories as that is my BMR. I won't eat under that! to maintain my weight right now i would need to consume 1500 cals a day, so i make sure i don't go over that unless it's eating back my exercise calories.

Anyaaaa11

Thank you.. All great posts. (:
I think I've decided to drop cals to 1500-1600 and probably
Eat some of my exercise calories back..
Getting all the math right, is definitely the hard part.
I'm in it for the long run!

Nuggy13

Some other handy hints apart from just looking at it from a total calories perspective is:

1) Are you eating breakfast? - This is essential to kickstarting your metabolism for the day

2) How frequently through the day are you eating? - If you have 5-6 smaller meals spread throughout the day you will burn much more energy without even trying, instead of 2 or 3 big meals (speeds up metabolism)

3) Start your day with more carby options but taper off so that by dinner you're not having many carbs and vice versa for protein. Increase the amount of protein you have towards the end of the day.

4) Into your FOOD settings add in the SUGAR and SODIUM categories to track. If you're having too much sugar it means you need to find better carbs to eat and too much sodium (salt) can often mean you're eating too much processed food and need more natural options such as fresh fruit and veg, lean meats etc

Hope that helps : )

Anyaaaa11

I am the same height and i am currently 132. I was at 1200 a day too and always ate back my exercise calories. I was losing slowly, maybe .5 lbs a week. My goal was to loose 10 lbs in 2 month. i lost 5. my second goal was to hit 125 by march 20th and i doubt i will see that either. I upped my calories about 2 weeks ago and i have lost 1.5 lbs already, the mos ti have ever lost in that peroid of time. I changed mfp from 1 lb loss a week to .5 ( since that was all i was loosing anyway) and it gave me 1310 calories a day. i still eat back my exercise calories as i make sure i net 1200. if i don't exercise i will always make sure i eat 1252 calories as that is my BMR. I won't eat under that! to maintain my weight right now i would need to consume 1500 cals a day, so i make sure i don't go over that unless it's eating back my exercise calories.

Similar situations. I'm glad upping cals helped for you(:
This was the exact post I was looking for. Sheds some light on my situation.
I never last long on 1200 cals anyway

lin7604

no me either especially when i don't exercise, it's so hard to only eat 1200 calories...

Rayman79

Some other handy hints apart from just looking at it from a total calories perspective is:

1) Are you eating breakfast? - This is essential to kickstarting your metabolism for the day

2) How frequently through the day are you eating? - If you have 5-6 smaller meals spread throughout the day you will burn much more energy without even trying, instead of 2 or 3 big meals (speeds up metabolism)

3) Start your day with more carby options but taper off so that by dinner you're not having many carbs and vice versa for protein. Increase the amount of protein you have towards the end of the day.

4) Into your FOOD settings add in the SUGAR and SODIUM categories to track. If you're having too much sugar it means you need to find better carbs to eat and too much sodium (salt) can often mean you're eating too much processed food and need more natural options such as fresh fruit and veg, lean meats etc

Hope that helps : )

I am sure you have the best of intentions, but no, this doesn't help actually. You have just spouted a lot of broscience and myth. Point 4 is the only thing you have contributes that has any merit here. Please take the time to do some real research before trying to 'educate' others here. Thank you. :drinker:

1) Are you eating breakfast? - This is essential to kickstarting your metabolism for the day
FALSE

2) How frequently through the day are you eating? - If you have 5-6 smaller meals spread throughout the day you will burn much more energy without even trying, instead of 2 or 3 big meals (speeds up metabolism)
FALSE

3) Start your day with more carby options but taper off so that by dinner you're not having many carbs and vice versa for protein. Increase the amount of protein you have towards the end of the day.
FALSE

4) Into your FOOD settings add in the SUGAR and SODIUM categories to track. If you're having too much sugar it means you need to find better carbs to eat
MAY BE TRUE FROM AN OVERALL HEALTH PERSPECTIVE BUT HAS NO BEARING ON WEIGHTLOSS

and too much sodium (salt) can often mean you're eating too much processed food and need more natural options such as fresh fruit and veg, lean meats etc
MAY BE TRUE (DEPENDING ON INDIVIDUAL SUDIUM REQUIREMENTS AND TOLERANCE). YOU ARE CORRECT THAT IT IS OFTEN SYPTOMATIC OF A DIET RICH IN OVER PROCESSED FOOD, BUT HIGH SODIUM INTAKE IS NOT ALWAYS A HINDERANCE TO FAT LOSS