Struggling Newbie begging for help

MGreensides

I realize there are a lot of post each day of people asking for help so I will try to make this as short and to the point as possible. I'm one month in (15 days on MFP) and have only lost 2lbs. I'm NOT expecting a miracle but I'm worried I'm not on the right path. I've read every thread about calories and numbers. MFP has me at 1350 before exercise, and Scooby is saying the same. So that's what I'm doing (and eating back exercise calories), and run for 50mins 5 or 6 days per week (training for my first 5k). I'm:

32 yo female (stay at home mom)
5'3.5"
SW: 175
CW: 173
GW: 130

Any recommendations or insight would be helpful, the 2lbs that I did manage to lose was in week 2 and it's been stuck for the past 2 wks. I thought the beginning was when you lost weight fairly quickly!!

flitabout

First things first that is way to low for your calories your BMR is 1553.25. Your TDEE is 2399. If you do the -15% of your TDEE is would be 2039 calories a day that you should be getting. I sounds like you may be in starvation mode Try eating more I know it sounds really screwy but I was doing the same thing as you and I am about the same size at you and I couldn't lose no matter how little I ate. I upped my calories and I lost 3 lbs in 1 week! You can go as low as -20% of you TDEE that is what I do and recalutate is every 5 lbs and the weight should continue to come off at a steady rate. Maybe not extremely fast but it will continue to come off.

P.S. your -20% TDEE is 1919 calories a day

MGreensides

Thank you!!! I'm going to bump up my net calories to 1550 (with my exercise that would be just shy of 2000) and try that for a bit. I just need to find what's best for my body I guess.

MGreensides

Anyone else have any advice or suggestions for me??

suejonestx

I looked at the last 2 weeks of your diary and would recommend adding (a lot) more fruits and vegetables. I do see banana and apples, but how about adding berries, oranges, pears, etc? As for veggies, there were 2 entries with corn and only one other veggie entry in the last 2 weeks. One idea is steaming or grilling fresh vegetables, or just eat them raw (i.e. carrots or broccoli). They're inexpensive (mostly), low-cal, easy to prepare and delicious! You should be having at least 4 servings of fruit and vegetables every day, which means with every meal (IMO)!

Good luck and congrats on the 2 pounds.

MGreensides

Thank you for taking the time to look through my diary and you're totally right, especially about the veggies. And ironically while I read your response I'm nibbling on baby carrots with light ranch lol. I grew up a meat and potatoes kind of gal and I'm going to make an effort to incorporate more fruits and veggie's. Again...big thanks!!