I need help

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  • lizziebeth1028
    lizziebeth1028 Posts: 3,602 Member
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    According to your profile, you're ~200 pounds and 35 years old. Assuming you're an average height (5'4) your BMR is about 1660.

    That means your sedentary TDEE is right around 2000 calories.

    You log exercise such as Hip Hop Abs and "shopping" into MFP.

    In other words: your calorie goal is set to maintenance.

    You need to drop your calorie goal. Set it to 1600 for a start and roll with that for a few weeks. Meet the goal every day while being realistic about your calorie burns (this means either ignore the HRM or cut the number by a third).


    Ladies!!!....shopping is NOT an exercise!!
  • jonnythan
    jonnythan Posts: 10,161 Member
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    Read my original post....my Doctor told me to eat 2,000 calories per day or more to start losing again. I know that seems like a lot that is why I am putting myself out there.

    Your doctor doesn't know what he's talking about.
  • bfbooty
    bfbooty Posts: 189 Member
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    Eat less, move more. Stop whining. Be patient. It's a journey and a lifestyle, not a sprint. Take a look in the mirror and an even closer look at your diary. Get a digital scale, weigh everything, stop cheating more than once a month, and make those cheat meals, not cheat days.

    No whining just sick of this. No crap its a lifestyle change....2 years of watching it has made me give up.....the crappy eating going over.....I have a scale and do weigh everything. How long have u been at this? I would have thought after 2 years I would have lost more than 50lbs. I am 5'6 1/2 BTW....little above average height. I got a HRM because MFP seemed way off for calorie burns. So I should go by their calculations then?

    don't give up and stop being so negative, based on what we can see it's obvious you are just eating too much you need to cut it back, i know it's hard it's very hard but it's so worth it, you need to think possitive, come up with a plan a propper plan and put it in place, as suggested already cut your cals, back add in strength training and keep going your health is so important and you can do this if you really want to, it seems like you are disheartened so making excuses instead of facing reality you need to eat at a deficit and you're not eating at a deficit

    keep the chin up and keep trying you can and will get there if it's what you really want, i think what you want though is for someone to say 'ah feck it girl just give up' well no one on here is going to do that so come on now change your mindset and your lifestyle you can do this!!!!!1
  • poesch77
    poesch77 Posts: 1,005 Member
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    [quote


    Ladies!!!....shopping is NOT an exercise!!
    [/quote]

    It was just an all around general calorie burn walking and chasing a 2 year old...not really "shopping" entirely.
  • poesch77
    poesch77 Posts: 1,005 Member
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    I do what to lose more.....and yes, I have gotten discouraged severely.
  • Just_Scott
    Just_Scott Posts: 1,766 Member
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    Pardon me for saying this but, screw your doctor; not literally though. Not all doctors are 100% correct with their recommendations. Drop your calories and give your next change a month. Two years and a lot of progress would be wasted if you give up now. I agree, your calorie count can be lowered, but you need patience--one month with a small change and you'll lose a couple of pounds--remmeber, this is long term and two years is a long time. Just keep going--your body will thank you 20 years from now.
  • kimberg75
    kimberg75 Posts: 412 Member
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    Whatever you do girl~ DO NOT GIVE UP!!! This place just wouldn't be the same without you! You have been my friend on here since the beginning...2 long years and I'm only down 45 lbs. but I'm still determined to keep at it and kick this extra weight to the curb. I know it can be discouraging and you work so hard at it but giving up isn't the answer. Be proud that you have at least lost what you have and have faith that you will eventually get to your goal weight.
    As for some changes that may help~ I think that trying to lower your calorie goal for a bit might help. I think that 1700 would be a good start and then try eating just half of your exercise calories each day. I was on a plateau for awhile as you know...and I lowered my cals a bit and have been eating only half of my exercise cals and it has the scale moving again (so far down 4 this month...it's a start!) Good luck Stacey! You're not a quitter so I know you aren't about to give up!!! :happy:
  • jazzyfeisty
    jazzyfeisty Posts: 13
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    I downed my calorie intake to 1050 a day, because apparently 1200 is way too much. If you look at a print out of my 'progress', I started out at 126lbs. I'm currently somehwere between 122 and 123. There were points were I was as low as 116 but it was mostly due to illness. Even adding 3 days of gym workouts to the dogwalking I do is not helping me lose any weight. If anything, I'm gaining... muscle from the gym? ANy ideas how to stop gaining and start losing again?
  • shmoony
    shmoony Posts: 237 Member
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    Eat less, move more. Stop whining. Be patient. It's a journey and a lifestyle, not a sprint. Take a look in the mirror and an even closer look at your diary. Get a digital scale, weigh everything, stop cheating more than once a month, and make those cheat meals, not cheat days.

    No whining just sick of this. No crap its a lifestyle change....2 years of watching it has made me give up.....the crappy eating going over.....I have a scale and do weigh everything. How long have u been at this? I would have thought after 2 years I would have lost more than 50lbs. I am 5'6 1/2 BTW....little above average height. I got a HRM because MFP seemed way off for calorie burns. So I should go by their calculations then?

    50 pounds in 2 years is 1/2 a week, which is more than acceptable. At that rate you will be at your goal weight (as long as you stay on track) in 2 more years, correct? What is wrong with that? Keep in mind, the closer you get to your goal weight, the harder it gets.
    The bottom line is that people spout a bunch of different crap about when to eat, what to eat, blah, blah, blah, but the failure to lose weight usually comes down to one thing: eating too damn much. Just eat less. Don't starve yourself. Drop 100 a day. See how that works. If it doesn't, drop another 100. Keep going down til you find your sweet spot.
  • MsPudding
    MsPudding Posts: 562 Member
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    Doctors often aren't experts on losing weight unfortunately.

    Looking back over this month - 3 weeks worth of diaries, you seem to be averaging:

    Week 1 - 2529 calories a day
    Week 2 - 1990 calories a day
    Week 3 - 2025 calories a day

    You say you do 3 days exercise a week. So pulling up a TDEE calculator, running your stats through it and setting it to 'lightly active' gives you a *maintenance* calorie goal of 2349 a day. If you take 20% off that to lose weight then you're looking at averaging 1879 a day and from the weeks above you're over that.

    So why not try cutting back to that and not eating back your exercise calories for a couple of weeks? I'm heavier than you, older and shorter and I can tell you for an absolute *fact* that I would not lose weight averaging what you are a day - I'm averaging around 1,750-1,800 (net) for a 1lb weight loss so far.

    Best of luck...and don't give up; you've done so well!
  • poesch77
    poesch77 Posts: 1,005 Member
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    Alright.....thanks everyone for all your input. Gonna drop my calories ONCE AGAIN and see what happens....still gonna let up on working out......5-6 days per week was stressing me out.
  • cebreisch
    cebreisch Posts: 1,340 Member
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    I think it comes down to how "real" you're being with tracking things. My husband has done Insanity workouts and P90X, and I don't think he's ever burned 600 calories doing it - I don't know, maybe he has, but I don't remember seeing numbers that high. Usually his numbers were about half that. I agree with the reply you got on cutting that burn in half and seeing how it affects things. Personally, I'd not work out for a week and be a logging fiend on the food journal (I mean even count the ketchup!) to see what happens. I've lost my weight without doing much in the way of exercise at all.

    Usually when I gain or plateau, it's because of my logging being not entirely accurate.
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
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    Read my original post....my Doctor told me to eat 2,000 calories per day or more to start losing again. I know that seems like a lot that is why I am putting myself out there.

    It does seem like a lot. I am an advocate of following doctor's orders, but if it's clearly not working it might be time to tweak that advice on your own or schedule another visit for updated advice.

    I'm sure some women can lose on 2000 calories, but it sounds like you are not one of them. There really is no more accurate test than trial and error.
  • happycauseIride
    happycauseIride Posts: 536 Member
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    I didn't look at your diary. There are enough other posts about that, but I will agree that 2000 calories is probably too much. I would cut back to 1500 good quality calories. Nothing packaged or out of a box. Eat whole foods and get plenty of protein. Also make sure you are drinking water. It will help with the pooping issue. Don't eat anything with artificial sweeteners in them and don't drink pop.

    Now this second part is something I learned from personal experience. I started losing weight in August of last year. I was doing well, dropping about 10 pounds a month until December. Then I hit a plateau in November after losing about 40 pounds. I tried upping my calories, lowering my calories, upping my workouts. I went from walking on my treadmill to running every day. I made it to week 7 of C25K and then I developed tendonitis in my ankle. I was working out so much, I hurt myself and the whole time I lost only 6 pounds in three months. I took 3 weeks off of exercise completely. I did none at all. I ate right, stayed within my calories and started slowly walking again at the beginning of this month and started back on strength training. I work out at home so I do squats, planks stuff like that. But guess what? I have lost 7 pounds since the 1st of this month!! I believe that that break that I took was what my body needed to start losing again. And to top it off, I am still only walking on my treadmill. I still can't run without pain.

    Morale of this story is that you may have overworked your body and it's time to give it a break. But you have to get the eating under control. Eat good foods as much as you can. Lord knows I'm not perfect and the 7 pounds this month would probably be 12 if I was. :) Keep trying. You can do this, if you believe you can.
  • mamaomefo
    mamaomefo Posts: 418 Member
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    I would suggest not weighing so often. When we weigh every day we tend to let it upset us if there is a gain. Our weight fluctuates daily due to sodium, water intake...BTW drink lots of water...etc. so, I would suggest weighing every two weeks.
  • poesch77
    poesch77 Posts: 1,005 Member
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    I wish I loved water but I dont and am rarely thirsty. I hardly ever drink pop. I struggle to get the recommended 8 glasses per day......
  • hilldiggity
    hilldiggity Posts: 166 Member
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    I wish I loved water but I dont and am rarely thirsty. I hardly ever drink pop. I struggle to get the recommended 8 glasses per day......

    I used to hate drinking water, until I started adding fresh lemon to it. I'd just drop a slice right into my mug. Eventually I didn't need the lemon anymore and now I can drink water fine. But there are also alternatives. I don't know what the MFP consensus is about adding flavors to your water, but what about some Crystal Light? Or something like it? Just my 2 cents.
  • jsd_135
    jsd_135 Posts: 291 Member
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    I would suggest not weighing so often. When we weigh every day we tend to let it upset us if there is a gain. Our weight fluctuates daily due to sodium, water intake...BTW drink lots of water...etc. so, I would suggest weighing every two weeks.

    I would agree with this. I weigh every Friday morning, somewhere between 9 and 10 a.m. I also don't own a scale; I weigh myself on the same scale at my gym.
  • jsd_135
    jsd_135 Posts: 291 Member
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    One suggestion: I see you have two young (very cute) children. One of the biggest things I've cut out of my diet are my kids' leftovers--you know, those yummy PB&J sandwich crusts they don't eat, rest of the slice of pizza, the piece of cake or pie not finished. If I do eat them, I log them. This morning my daughter didn't finish her dish of yogurt and fruit. I hadn't had my snack yet, so I decided to finish it. It wasn't a lot of food, but after I logged it, it was 100 calories. If you do enough of that in the course of a day/week, it adds up to real consequences.

    Just a thought. It may not apply to you. I personally hate wasting food, but I'm no longer serving as our living disposal.

    Good luck. Your family, you included, is gorgeous.

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