I'm confused.

bettersusan

I noticed that when I set the setting to lose 1 pound a week, 1 1/2 pounds a week, or 2 pounds a week, it still won't ALLOW me to lose more than 1.4 pounds a week because it already has me at 1200 a day. Does this mean I cannot lose any faster? I thought it was healthy to lose up to 2 pounds a week. Could this be a reason for my slowed weight loss in recent weeks? What can I do? Do I just increase my activity? If I add exercise though, it just gives me more calories. Am I just missing something? I'm really confused.

Thanks!

Susan


Created by MyFitnessPal.com - Free Calorie Counter

Buzzkitty1

What's the rush?! It took me a long time to put weight on, and I don't expect to lose it overnight. There are a lot of very important informational posts on this subject all around the site. Believe it or not (and I do) you need to eat to lose weight. You have to give your body the fuel it needs. If you don't, your body will hang on to every bit that it can, thinking you are starving.
I have my weight loss set to 1 pound per week, and most weeks I lose more than that. And I'm big, so I get a lot of daily calories. I eat them. If I exercise, I eat those. From 12/14 until last Saturday (my last weigh in) I had lost 12 pounds. That was a steady 2# per week loss. I did it by eating MORE, not less, and working out 4-5 times per week.
I also lost 4" from my hips and 2" from my waist from 1/8 until today. Which is the REAL story, not what the scale says.
I encourage you to do a lot of reading here. There is a lot to learn. It may sound counter intuitive that you have to eat more to lose weight, but it is sound science.
It's working for me! Good luck.

AnneElise

Hi. I am pretty sure that 1 lb to loose is healthy. You didn't gain all the weight quickly. It will take some time to loose.

bettersusan

I'm not trying to set any records. I've only lost 9.5 pounds in the past three months. I haven't even been losing 1 pound a week. I'm just curious about the settings.

drvvork

Yes, losing 1 pound a week gives your body a chance to adjust to the weight-loss - meaning the skin has time to bounce back faster and there will be less sagging.

Crunchytxmama

It's harder when you have less to lose. When I was heavy, I could eat 1500-1800 cals a day and eat whatever I wanted on the weekend, and still lose weight.

I'm also at the point where I'm at 1200 calories a day, and that has me losing 1.4-ish lbs. per week (assuming I eat my exercise calories). The baseline that MFP has you at is 1200. It won't ever set you below that because it's not considered healthy to eat less than that. That doesn't mean that you have to eat back any of your exercise calories. That's where your extra calorie deficit can come from. In theory, if you can have an additional deficit at the end of the week of 2000 calories or so (from exercise), you would lose two lbs. that week. I know for me, I have 1-2 workouts a week where I burn 800 calories (running, spinning, circuit training). Sometimes I'll just choose to not eat back those calories. They really add up over the week.

CassieSeymour

Sometimes our bodies hit a plateau and it sounds like to me that you are there right now. The point of this is to not give up because although your body is refusing to shed weight at a fast rate right now, it is at least going down and that is the point of a weight loss plan. This is very typical and you should feel encouraged that according to your ticker you have lost 27 lbs and you are looking at a weight in the high 150s/ low 160s! Most people in the United States would be overjoyed to only weigh that much!

If you are looking for a way to give your body a kick start again try changing something in your diet or exercise routine. If you eat the same thing for breakfast every day change whatever that is. Try a lower carb diet for 1 - 2 week and then gradually introduce complex carbohydrates back into your life. If you like your diet then change your exercise. Try a different workout dvd, maybe you haven't been doing any strength training or if you really want a kick in the pants try introducing the Windsor Pilates 20 minute video 2 - 3 times a week along with your aerobic exercise.

I hope I gave you some encouragement, keep up the great work!

buggaboo73

As for the settings I guess my advice would be, just look at the numbers. At first I tended to get very focused on how many cals MFP says I have left, or OMG I overdid my sugar, or I worked out today but I feel guilty eating 400 extra calories. I got over that by conditioning myself not to just look at those bottom line numbers.

For example, if my sugar is 3 grams over, but my fiber is 7 grams over, and my protein is 5 grams over then I know I still came out ahead, because fiber and protein are positives and sugar is a negative. So over all I was 12 grams / points whatever......OVER which is good, but I was only 3 grams over on sugar which is bad. In the big picture, I was still nutritionally where I want to be, because I'm focusing on calories and low gi.

Exercise is similiar. I look at my total calories now, that I have eaten, not what MFP says I have left. To me, if I eat 1400-1450 cals and I know I pushed myself in workout and had a good sweat, then I'm ok with it. If I skipped the gym but lugged laundry up the stairs all night and took the kids out to play etc and that night I'm hungry at bedtime, I'll go up to 1300 or 1350. I just don't look at the number saying I'm over, I know I'm not over, because I'm looking at what I consumed and I know what I did that day. On the other hand, if I didn't go to the gym and I worked at my desk all day, then I pay strict attention to my 1200 calories.

Maybe I'm rambling but you get the point, I wouldn't focus on those bottom numbers so much, I'd work with the diary and look at what you consumed and find the level that gets you moving again. You may be surprised to find it's higher than what you expected, or that you just need to tweak the kinds of food you eat, but just because mfp offers to 'think' for us, doesn't mean we can't still be in control. But I agree with others, I wouldn't go below 1200 in any case.

tayner

it is because it is not healthy to eat less than 1200 calories a day... because you wont get enough of the nutrition your body needs... that is why when you get closer to your goal it goes slower, because you need to eat 1200 calories.