What should I do?

hopeandgloryy

Hello! I've been in the process of losing weight since january 2009 when I weighed 230lbs. Currently at 155lbs and standing at 5'2''. I'm 19 years old and a girl. For the past year I've only managed to lose 8lbs and I figured that I've been undereating + binging and put my metabolism through hell and back. I've eaten anything from 1100 calories to 1500 - all below my BMR which is set to 1580 or somewhere close to that.

Thing is, the past month I followed a low carb diet which meant I ate about 2500 calories for 4 weeks straight. Does this count as a reset of sorts or do I need to make a real reset?

My BMR, as I said, is just below 1600 calories and my TDEE is around 2100 (I dont have the exact numbers, I lost out on the website lol). If I eat 1700-1800 calories, will I be able to see changes and, most importantly, is that healthy?

rosied915

First of all, CONGRATULATIONS on losing SEVENTY FIVE POUNDS!!! :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:

THAT IS AMAZING!!:drinker: :drinker: :drinker:

It looks like you did this at a very nice & gentle pace which might not have been TOO hard on your body. Following a low carb diet for a month at 2500 cals a day might not have been the BEST thing you could have done for yourself.

Here's the theory we're following:

Your TDEE is your Total Daily Expenditure (of calories) and includes your activity level AND is the amount you would eat to MAINTAIN your current weight.
We eat at TDEE during a RESET.
A RESET is a period of 6 weeks (and more) of eating at your TDEE to RESET your METABOLISM if you have been doing a VLCD for an extended period of time.

OK, so it looks like you have done some VLCD for around 3+years and that MAY require you to do a RESET before moving on to a "CUT".

I say "may" because I did some math on your weight loss: you lost 75 pds in over 3 years~ 44 months to be exact~ that's a rate of 1.7 pds per MONTH~ not too fast in my opinion~ which I why I mentioned that you did it gently.

One reason you might want to do a RESET is because it's been 44 months of VLCD and yeah, your metabolism NEEDS to be RESET to get to losing again.
The RESET has to be longer than 4 weeks~ 6 weeks at a MINIMUM.
And you must know your exact numbers to do it.
Read the Stickies here and use the link to go to ScoobysWorkshop to get your numbers.

SO, not certain that you need a RESET, but maybe (leaning towards "probably")......I'll let the very knowlegable members here add their thoughts.

Welcome Sweetie and again CONGRATULATIONS!!

hopeandgloryy

Thank you so much for the nice words!

I'm unsure of what activity level I am. I go for a 30-40 minute walk every day and I do some cardio + strength training at home too (dancing, jumping jacks, jump rope, push ups, planks, squats, lunges etc). Does this make me light or moderately active?

If I plug in my stats on the scooby calculator using light exercise and 15% reduction I get:

BMR: 1520
TDEE: 2090
Calories: 1776

If I choose moderate activity I get:

BMR: 1520
TDEE: 2356
Calories. 2002

Could I try to eat my calories (1776 or 2002 depending on what activity level you'd say I'm at) for two or three weeks and if I see no loss/progress, I could always start eating my TDEE after that?

rosied915

OK, so your activity level on Scooby is based on the number of HOURS PER WEEK that you exercise and if you walk the 30 minutes per day, you've got over 3 HOURS PER WEEK of just walking. If you add the other home workouts that you do, you might be in the 4-5 HOURS PER WEEK category which I believe is Moderate.

Do you, by any chance have a HRM or any other measuring device that could give your "Calories Burned" with some accuracy?
For me, there's walking (strolling) and then there's WALKING~ gettin' a little huffy and puffy and maybe workin' up a sweat~ and of course each one will burn different calories which DIRECTLY affects the amount of calories you will EAT.

Eventually you may want to think about getting a HRM (I have a Polar FT7 which cost $75 on Amazon)~ it's the BEST thing I ever did for myself.

So, what to do......

Your activity level looks like Moderate to me so I would go with those numbers.

That's easier said than done and this is why:

You have been eating pretty Low Cal for quite a while and going UP in cals is MOST LIKELY going to put some weight back on. You will probably find this hard to take like a LOT of us. I just want you to prepare yourself for this and remember that you are trying to HEAL your body and that it's probably going to feel like an uphill battle at times.

I also want you to remember that the EM2WL method is VERY, VERY SLOW and you should NOT expect weekly results and sometimes not even MONTHLY results from doing this. This is a PLAN FOR LIFE and there is NO time limit.

I'll tell you this: I WISH this method was known when I was your age (I'm 51 now)~ I could have saved myself from a lifetime of starving myself and other non-healthy methods to lose weight!

We can talk more if you want~ think about what I've said~ it'll be hard but soooo worth it!!

hopeandgloryy

I don't have a HRM but I'll look into getting one! As far as my walks are concerned, I guess they're somewhere inbetween strolling and working up a sweat. I definitely get my pulse up but it's not like I maximize things!

I'm prepared to, possibly, gaining some weight in the beginning. I'm planning on staying away from the scale for a longer period of time though, so at least I won't be struck hard with the numbers in case I do gain initially.

After I've struggled to lose the weight for such a long period of time I'm prepared to do the right thing; I'd rather eat close to 2000 calories per day in hope of losing weight instead of eating 1400 calories and knowing it's not going to make a change.

Thank you so much for replies, they've been very helpful!

ETA: I browsed through old posts on another weight loss forum where I posted about how I started eating more (from around 1300 calories to 1900 calories for a week or two) and lost 4lbs... Why I didn't continue eating more, I'll never understand.. ugh.

rosied915

OK, sounds like you've got the right attitude!!:flowerforyou:

Go forth and conquer this thing!!!:drinker: :drinker: :drinker: