Disappointing first week loss! Increase calories?

kirstinx1

Hi
I started on 2nd Jan at 130lbs, then last saturday I was at 129.4lbs and 3 days ago that dropped to 129lbs and has stayed the same since. I've been eating 1000-1100 calories, doing the 30 day shred and 300 cals on the cross trainer every night, therefore net calories per day was 600-700 on average and really was expecting to lose at least 1lb over the last week, 0.4lbs is rather disappointing. However, I did lose on the inches side - 0.5inch off the waist, 1inch off the hips and 0.5inch off my arms.

I actually want to up the exercise as my prime goal (other than losing 9lbs in 5 weeks) is to improve fitness.

I was just wondering what you all would do in this situation? Continue on, increase the exercise or increase the calories to the 1200 MFP keeps telling me to?

Daysednconfused

I found this helpful. Maybe you will too.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

when you go there, click on the original post on page 1

bdamaster60

my guess. You've crashed too fast. By that I mean your metabolism.

aliciab307

Not sure of your stats but netting 600-700 is not sustainable neither will you lose much with your deficit being that large and having under 10lbs to lose. Set mfp goal to losing 0.5lb/week, choose mod activity if you're fairly active(exercising 3-5 hours/week). This should at least bring your cals to 1500-1700.

BurtHuttz

Yes.

Fozzi43

If you are working out, you need to eat more.

Catlady87

That's way too few calories! Your body needs more going in it to get the best need it of your workouts, and too few calories will put your body into starvation mode. Less than 1200 calories can do that!

brynnsmom

I agree, you should eat more. I'm pretty small and I actually do better on 1400-1500 net calories a day than I would on 1000-1200. And I don't exercise heavily at all.

lilpoindexter

You should start doing deadlifts and squats.

UncleRiotous

You don't sound to me like you're eating enough.

For me I need a goal that I feel is a challenge or I just don't keep going, other people I know need to set something that isn't too hard or they'll give up, neither is better but it depends on the type of person you are. If you're goal driven then I'd say go for 2lb a week weight loss (you won't always hit it), if you can do it more sensibly without giving up then set it at 1lb a week, I'd suggest at the moment you're aiming for about 4lb a week and that just won't work.

As far as exercise goes you can either set your lifestyle to count your exercise or set your lifestyle to what you normally do and log your exercise separately. For me I sit in front of a PC most of my life but about 4-5 times a week I cycle and burn about 1,500-2000 calories so rather than set my lifestyle as active I've picked sedentary and then I log my exercise as and when I ride.

Key thing though is to eat back most if not all (depends on how accurate your calorie calculation is) of the calories you've burned doing exercise. Aside from anything else if you don't you won't have the energy to do the exercise and you'll find it difficult to keep going.

I lost nearly 50lb from last summer to this December and I'm now logging to ensure that I don't bounce back. I'm eating on average around 3300 calories a day so that I can exercise the way I want to and I'm not gaining any weight.

One last thing, I'd suggest weighing yourself first thing in the morning (before eating or drinking anything). You'll still get fluctuations of a couple of pound depending on what is in your digestive tract but it's the best way to minimise that.

Mokey41

You probably aren't eating enough but you didn't crash your metabolism. When you only have a little to lose you won't see big numbers happening. Your body doesn't have a lot to let go of so it takes much longer. Exercise is great for fitness and as you've seen losing inches but you won't burn off huge amounts of weight doing it. Back off on some of the exercise and eat a bit more and be patient.

dakitten2

I did lose 10 pounds my first week and was eating 1500 calories a day and swimming. But the difference between you and myself is that I weighed 290 pounds at the time and most of it was water weight. I weigh 168 now and only lose a pound about every 7-10 days.

I looked at your profile and you have your goal to lose 11 pounds, so like many of us, the closer we get to our goals the weight loss slows down. If you are only netting 600 calories a day, you do need to eat more.

I've not reached it yet but a lot of people say that the last 10 pounds are the hardest to lose. But dont give up after just starting. All of our bodies are different and will react in a different way.

Maybe see a dietician. I did and have seen her every month since I started to modify calories etc. I wish you luck in your journey to a healthier and more fit you!

neanderthin

Stop weighing yourself, and net more, otherwise your going to be complaining you still feel fat.

fmouco

Bump

vbarrient

You are not eating enough.

deksgrl

You need to eat 1,200 PLUS your exercise calories for NET 1,200.

kirstinx1

Thanks everyone, will up the calories.

elsinora

It's not healthy to eat so little calories, but for the first week of actively cutting calories to speed weight loss, you will lose weight - which you have.

Don't forget you're not huge, you aren't going to drop half a stone like those that need or want to, so 0.4 is decent.

Again, not healthy to do so and not recommended, but it's a tiring notion on here that "starvation mode" suddenly cuts in after 7 days or something *facepalm*

You should up your calories for health and sustainability of weight loss, but again, the smaller you are, the less weight you will drop. 0.5 lbs a week is a good guide for you, but as you said, you've lost inches and that's A LOT more important.

I've always said, I couldn't give a fig if I was 200lbs, but if I was a UK size 10 (US size 6) then I wouldn't care.

Numbers on the scale mean nothing in the grand scheme of things. It's health, strength and happiness that does.

wlkszzq

I found this helpful. Maybe you will too.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

when you go there, click on the original post on page 1

THANK YOU.
OMG, thank you.

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evileen99

Good God, you need to eat! You're starving yourself, and your body is desperately trying to hang on to every ounce of fat it has to sustain you. At a minimum, your NET calories should be 1200--that's eaten calories minus exercise calories.

cwolfman13

I found this helpful. Maybe you will too.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

when you go there, click on the original post on page 1

This^^^

OP...you have to also understand how MFP works. You already have a deficit built into that 1200 calories...that is bare minimum and also could be below your BMR. You need to friggin eat. When you exercise, you need to eat those calories back...so if you can't manage to fuel your body for those exercises, you need to stop them. You need to, at minimum, net to your BMR for healthy weight loss. Eating below your BMR for a significant amount of time wreaks havoc on you body...honestly, metabolic stall will be the least of your problems if you continue down this path.

Netting to 800 calories or whatever is extremely dangerous and completely and utterly unhealthy.