advice on how much i should be eating! starting to lose fait

Sinope82

I was wondering if anyone can offer me some advice on wether im eating to much / to little. I've lost alot of weight several times before but always by eating very little. Normally i've cut my calories to no more than 1000 per day and increased my exercise and not eaten any more to compensate. This has mean't that although i've lost alot of weight eventually i've reached a point where i stopped losing unless i cut what i was eating to virtually nothing and i have made myself very i'll doing this in the past. This time i've tried to be more sensible and for the most part it's worked. I've had a couple of wobbles where i got disheartened and dropped my calories again. I know that what i was eating a day is not enough and with the help of my partner i've been working to slowly increase my intake and i've got it from an average of just under 600 per day a few months ago to now trying to eat 1390 plus any extra from exercise.

The problem is that over the last few weeks i've stopped losing weight. I know i should be patient but it's so hard! I'm a total control freak and i'm not afraid of hard work so making myself exercise and not over eating is not an issue for me. My problem is that the longer this goes on the harder it's getting not to start losing control and dropping what i eat again! Most people don't believe me when i tell them how much i struggle to make myself eat enough because at the end of the day i'm still overweight although i'm fit because i exercise so much. Ive noticed myself 'forgetting' to record exercise ive done again and it scares me. My partner is fabulous and is helping me so much checking i'm eating enough etc but he can't be there all the time.

I'm about at breaking point and i wanted to check if i'm eating the right amount to so i can try i make a sensible decision about what to do next. My BMR is about 1499 according to MFP although it comes back higher most other places. I'm 5' 6" and currently about 168 lb and would like to lose another 14-21lb. If the 1390 kcals i'm trying to eat is to much i can drop it im just desperate not to make a snap decision in a moment of madness and get myself in a mess again.

Any help anyone can give me would be greatly appreciated, how much would you aim to eat? How much weight should i be trying to lose per week? I know there are hundreds of you out there who have been successful without getting in a mess and i'd love it if a few of you could help me.

dcyr009

You're doing just fine. I went through a few weeks where I stopped loosing too. All the sudden I lost 3 pounds in four days. Don't decrease your food. Just be patient and wait it out. This also happened to me a few months ago and I felt the same way you're feeling. Don't pantic focus on something else and you'll get through it.

childofbodom123

Hello!

Firstly, I have just checked your BMR and it is around 1,555 calories per day. However you have not said your activity level, so here is the calories based on your details plus activity level -

sedentary (little or no exercise) Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2 = 1,866 calories

lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.375 = 2,138 calories

moderatetely active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.55 = 2,410 calories

very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.725 = 2,682 calories

extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.9 = 2,954 calories

Now, let 's say you are lightly active. To maintain your current weight you need to eat around 2,138 calories per day.

Giving that you only need to lose 21 pounds, I would recommend losing no more than 1 pound per week.

Now, 1 pound = 3,500 calories. Over the course of a week you need to eat 3,500 calories less. That is 500 calories less per day. If you are lightly active that means you need to eat around 1,638 calories plus any extra from specific exercise.

I would say your weight loss is stalling due to not enough food, could be plenty of other things like water weight but I would say it may be lack of food. I know another 300 calories per day is quite a lot however do try to get at least another couple of hundred calories per day.

Whatever your activity level is, take 500 calories off the total and that is what you should be eating per day to help you lose weight as otherwise your body may feel it is in starvation mode and it will fight against you rather than with you!

Hope this helps

olong

Do I understand things right? Your goal was to lose 101lbs and you have 21lbs to go, meaning you've lost 80 laready?!?!? That is a FANTASTIC job. It seems that on the whole you know what you're doing. You probably also know that these last pounds are definitely harder to lose than the first pounds. Play with calories a bit to keep your body from guessing. Instead of trying to hit your calorie goals on a daily basis, hit them on a weekly basis, but eat 2-3 day with higher calorie numbers and 2-3 days with lower calorie numbers. OR try to eat 7-8 meals a couple days a week. OR spend a weekend day exercising several times for short durations, eg 4-5 times of 20-30 minutes a time.

Your body may be in a "rut" for lack of a better word. Change things up! Also, look up "strategic overeating", read about leptin and "tricking" the body's metabolism. ALSO look up on MFP various discussions on Eating More to Lose More -- there's a Group by that name and many message boards where members chat about this concept. (It's working for me at the moment.)

You have done a wonderful job so far, have fun with this challenge of the last 20 lbs.

Sinope82

Thankyou so much for your advice, it's ok reading the information as to what i should do be hearing it from people who have proved it works is so much better (o:

If anyone else has any advice please share, the more help i can get the better at the minute )o:

katysmelly

I'd agree with the poster above: if you've lost 4/5 of the weight, you're going to see a slow-down. You need to be patient with yourself. There's nothing magical about the number of pounds you have chosen as your goal. You are already much healthier than you were 80lbs ago.

I like the advice about playing with the calories a bit. Why not just give your body a little time to catch up? To maybe reset the metabolism? If you don't eat more than the maintenance level, you won't gain weight... right? So, don't be afraid to eat that much.

I am not sure what you mean by struggling to eat enough. Do you mean that you physically struggle to ingest that much food, or that you mentally struggle to allow yourself to eat that much?

If it's physical, then maybe do the opposite of what a lot of other people do, which is to say, look for the calorie-dense foods. If you're OK with dairy, then adding cheese and butter to something may help. Or olive oil - dip bread in it, drizzle some on salad. Nuts are very calorie-dense, as well. A handful of cashews is over 300 calories. It also may help to eat these richer foods before bedtime so that you have a fast of several hours before you need to eat again.