Advice needed

tracek1ng

Hi

I'm 45 and weight 14stone 1lb - I gave up smoking in January after a gall bladder op and then i weight 12st 5lb's since then i have been piling on the weight even though i'm not eating anymore - i put it down to giving up smoking??

Anyway i started counting calories about 7 weeks ago allowing myself 1200 cals per day and i began doing kettleworx 6 week kettlebell program which is 20mins 3 x a week each session burns on average 300 cals plus on i do HIIT 2 days a week!

Now my problem is in 7 weeks of being real strict with diet i have lost 1lb??? Surely this cant be right? It really is getting me down I have friends with less to loose than me who are losing on average 1-2lb's a week and these are the girls having biscuits and choc cake at work whilst i'm the one who says "no i'm on a diet" ;o(

End of last week i was advised to up my calorie intake so i retook the questionairre at the beginning changing how much exercise i did a week to light and MFP came out with 1330 cals - so for a week I've been sticking to that plus only eating back about half my exercise points and today i weighed and I have stayed the same?

I drink on average 8 glasses of water a day and cant work out where i am going wrong?

Pleas please someone help.

~Thanks in advance
T

bethhyg

I had the same problem when I was eating 1200 calories a day. It was fine as long as I was not exercising. When I started exercising I quit losing the weight and actually gained. I then followed the advice that was given me. I upped my calories to 1500 calories a day. And I started to losing again. I have been losing 1 pound a week for the past 8 weeks now. I lose every week and I am very happy with my loss. I also eat back almost all of my exercise calories. I hope that this helps out a bit. Sometimes our bodies just need a few weeks to adjust to more calories and then it starts to lose.

tracek1ng

Thanks Bethy

I will try increasing to 1500 for a week and see what happens ;o) thanks ever so much for taking the time to reply!

rmac18

I went through a similar issue where I hit a plateau and couldn't lose weight for awhile and was being strict with the diet and working out regularly. I increased my calories per day by about 300 and then l gained a pound the first week and then started lost 3 lbs the next week and since have been losing 2-3 lbs per week. I think there is a balance and if you are burning calories with exercise then you need to eat more to keep your metabolism up. It seems crazy that you can eat more and weigh less but it certainly has worked for me, it's just about finding the right balance. If you keep up the workouts and eat right then you'll get results. Good luck!

tracek1ng

Thanks Mac i'm deffo going to up my cals by 200 per day for first week and see how i go - need to work out how to change my cals on MFP now ;oO

chrisb75

If only there was a thread about this somewhere

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/586298-if-you-are-scared-to-increase-calories

fenwaysgirl

youre probably building muscle which weighs more than fat.....forget the scale for a while..and go to a mmeasuring tape...measure yourself ever couple of weeks. either that or change up your routine.

Gilbrod

Wait......you're 45?! Congrats. As for the weight loss....I'm no expert. All I can say is to eat a lot of veggies, drink a lot of water, and do cardio and lifting on the same days. Lots of it. It's what worked for me. Might not work for you. Good luck!

auntiebabs

What worked best for me was giving myself a range:

ROCK BOTTOM: 1200 cal
TARGET: MFP Calories for lose 1 lb a week (when that hit 1200 I changed to lose 1/2 lb per week)
TOP OF RANGE: Maintain Calories for my GOAL Weight.

---

(SAFETY VALVE: Maintain Calories for CURRENT Weight - remember to keep updating this number as you lose)

---

I naturally tended to do 2-4 days between 1200-1300 cal then a day at about 1500-1600 cal then back to the 1200-1300 cal.

--As long as I stayed under the top of my range I should continue to lose, even if it is at a slower rate.
--As long as I don't go past my safety valve I shouldn't gain.

BUT... The closer you get to your goal the smaller your range. (frustrating)

megg0616

Up the calorie intake to 1500 and eat back to at least 1200 on workout days. Also I highly recommend taking measurements. Imy scale stopped moving for a while but I was loosing inches. Keep at it you will get there it just takes time and patience.

rmac18

Thanks Mac i'm deffo going to up my cals by 200 per day for first week and see how i go - need to work out how to change my cals on MFP now ;oO

You can go to Settings and change your weekly goal if you want. Personally I just don't worry about anything but the net calories and even then I really only look at the average for the week. If you up the calories and keep up the exercise then you'll be fine. Give it a couple of weeks though to see results. Also the advice on here about taking measurements is great as sometimes you can lose inches but not weight, especially if you are working out.