I joined this group to get help...
jennagoogles13
Posts: 266
Hello everyone! I'm a female, 5'6" and I weigh 140 pounds. My goal weight is 130 pounds by summer. Currently, I'm eating about 1100 calories a day, and I hate to admit it. I've been consistently losing 2 pounds a week by lowering my calorie intake by about 100 every week, and now I'm here. I want to start fresh, and find out how many calories I really should be eating, if I'm burning about 400 a day. I've experimented with different calorie intakes, and I've discovered that I don't lose weight when I eat back the calories I've burned. How many would you all suggest I eat in order to continue to lose at least a pound a week?
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Im glad you have chosen to join the group here . The problem with lowering your calories that severly is that it WILL damage your metabolism. meaning your body will require less calories to run. I'm sure you know this already but i would start by increasing your calories to at least 1200. Then add 100 each week until you are at 1400. you may gain a little at first but that is inevieable unless you an maintain 1100 calories forever . Trust me i wa a 1000-1200 girl for a good chunk of time. I was starving all the time and am so glad i can eat more now. It is worth it0
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Been losing 2 lbs of what exactly? Fat, water, muscle?
With that little left to lose, and eating that little, I'll give you 3 guesses what easily half that weight was, if not more.
And guess why you'll regret that later.
How long did you hold to actually eating back exercise calories to know if it works or not? Or did you not lose first few days so said screw it?
So I'll bet the BMR estimate using age, height, and weight is inflated now, because you've burned off muscle mass. So sadly that means you'll always be eating less.
In addition to that loss of calories you could have been eating, you've also slowed your system down - that part can be repaired.
Sadly not the muscle part, because that would mean eating in surplus and being willing to gain some fat along with muscle, and I know that ain't going to fly.
But at least retain what you got left and don't make it worse. Keep doing it wrong, you could not only finish losing that 10 lbs by summer, but also gain it and more right back again, and have a harder time next go-around.
So if you read through anything in this group yet, hopefully you've read the stickies.
You eat what now, less than 1000 calories, daily total?
You burn say 300-400 almost daily, right off the top, just as energy to make you move in your exercise, that's it.
That leaves your body with 600-700 calories for the functions of life, never mind desired functions like immune system, growing skin, hair, nails, and forget the higher functions of repairing what you damaged in workouts, and really forget making improvements beyond newbie gains from the workouts.
What would your body like to burn daily if you slept all day? What is your BMR?
Now - what do you think you are doing to your poor body?
While it's true your mind can give up before your legs do, it really doesn't matter if your body has nothing to give your legs to work with. You can be as mentally strong as you desire, if the legs got nothing, you ain't moving.
Use this to help you.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/813720-spreadsheet-bmr-tdee-deficit-macro-calcs-hrm-zones0 -
Wow.. I'd actually like to thank you for scaring the crap out of me! Haha! But seriously, I feel like your post was a massive eye opener, because I hadn't really thought long term, other than wth am I to do when I eat the maintenance calories for my goal weight, and I end up gaining a ton instead? I'm immediately going to start upping my calories, and with any luck, I will only maintain instead of gain. In order for me to maintain I would need to eat about 1900 calories a day, so I don't understand why I would gain if I were to eat, say, 1600. I'll give it a couple weeks and hopefully I'll be able to do this the right way this time around!0
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Wow.. I'd actually like to thank you for scaring the crap out of me! Haha! But seriously, I feel like your post was a massive eye opener, because I hadn't really thought long term, other than wth am I to do when I eat the maintenance calories for my goal weight, and I end up gaining a ton instead? I'm immediately going to start upping my calories, and with any luck, I will only maintain instead of gain. In order for me to maintain I would need to eat about 1900 calories a day, so I don't understand why I would gain if I were to eat, say, 1600. I'll give it a couple weeks and hopefully I'll be able to do this the right way this time around!
So always keep the math in mind.
1 lb of fat is 3500 calories.
If you gained 2 lbs in 2 days - was that fat? Did you eat 3500 calories each day over TDEE (maintenance)?
It would take eating 250 more than maintenance daily for 2 weeks to add up to 1 lb of fat, if not doing some heavy lifting that would make use of that extra food first.
If you gain fast, it was just like the fast weight loss when you started to diet - water weight. You were going to gain that back eventually when you went to maintenance anyway.
But that also proves, why would you gain water weight?
Glucose stores, in the muscle, with water.
If there was anything left to top off, why wasn't the current diet doing so? Because it was too little for level of activity done.
So you likely will gain water weight. And that will prove how underfed you were.
And then with your exercise, your body is finally going to have extra to do something with, to make improvements.
Exercise usually asked the body to make improvements, those improvements rarely have weight loss as an effect, but gain.
Measure in many spots, like the BF% calcs in the spreadsheet take.0 -
After the initial weight gain, how long do you think it will take to lose some more weight (I'm talking fat not lean body mass)?0
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You can have success here but EM2WL is not a quick fix to weight loss. Yes many have had success, but it takes time, especially if someone has been on a low calorie diet, which you have. ( So have i!) With a 1100 calorie diet you can only lose more by eating less and less. Which is very dangerous! Scale weight measures fat, bones, muscle, water etc! So when the scale goes down you are losing more than just fat. I would suggest you increase your calories. You said you're 5'6 140lb ( no age). Burning about 400 calories a day, 5 days a week? ? That's moderate activity. Your true maintanence is probably 2232 (I didn't know your age) a reset for about 8 weeks is what is recommended . This will repair your system and metabolism. Ater the 8 weeks, then you can cut 15% from your TDEE. Yes gains will happen, but in the long run this is the healthier way to reach your goal. You have to be patient. After your intial reset The time it takes to lose varies.0
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yes yes yes
You can have success here but EM2WL is not a quick fix to weight loss. Yes many have had success, but it takes time, especially if someone has been on a low calorie diet, which you have. ( So have i!) With a 1100 calorie diet you can only lose more by eating less and less. Which is very dangerous! Scale weight measures fat, bones, muscle, water etc! So when the scale goes down you are losing more than just fat. I would suggest you increase your calories. You said you're 5'6 140lb ( no age). Burning about 400 calories a day, 5 days a week? ? That's moderate activity. Your true maintanence is probably 2232 (I didn't know your age) a reset for about 8 weeks is what is recommended . This will repair your system and metabolism. Ater the 8 weeks, then you can cut 15% from your TDEE. Yes gains will happen, but in the long run this is the healthier way to reach your goal. You have to be patient. After your intial reset The time it takes to lose varies.0 -
After reviewing your profile I see that you're 18 years old and you've only got 10 lbs. to lose. You should be able to easily lose 1/2 to 1 lb. per week by summer. You can probably eat at least 2000 a day (good healthy calories). What were your maintenance calories before you started this diet? Any idea at all? Just take 300-500 of those and you'll be losing weight at a steady clip.
What's the rush to lose so quickly? Your lean body mass and metabolism are being seriously compromised and once you reach goal weight you'll have a pretty tough time keeping it off without constant restriction. Not trying to be a bummer, just telling you how it is. Get yourself out of this trap ASAP. If you really want to love yourself unconditionally and show "the haters" how it's done - treat your body well! You can have the last laugh, just don't hurt yourself in the process.
Read the stickies, educate yourself and listen to heybales!0 -
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