Help me figure out what I am doing wrong?

You aren't doing anything wrong except not being patient enough.

The above poster is right, you could probably stand to raise your calorie level considering how active you are.

But you don't have a ton of weight to lose, and the less fat you have, the harder it is to get off. When I was officially overweight, the weight came off at close to 2lbs a week.....now that I am not overweight anymore, it comes off at about .5 a week. It sounds like you actually have a decent pace going. Stick with it.

Try changing up your exercises and eat more protein over carbs...id do 40-35-25..
leaner meats, more veggies...little starch

lift heavy instead of busting out cardio for an hour

To stay your current weight you would need to eat 1889 calories a day or a week total of 13,223 calories. Knowing this is important because there will be days you are going to go over your allotment, and as long as you don't go over 13,223 for the week you won't be gaining any weight (at your current weight. But as the weight decreases, so will your total calories allowed each week).

I am getting my information (below) from http://calorieline.com/tools/tdee so when we are done here, go to that website and check your new numbers in about a week.

"Your current Resting Energy Expenditure (REE) is approximately 1574 calories per day. If you were to lay in bed all day, and you ate about 1574 calories each day, your weight would stay right where it is.

If you stayed in bed all day and ate about 1415 calories, your weight would drift towards and eventually settle at 120 pounds, your target weight. In other words, 1415 is what your REE would be at your target weight."

The values below provided as rough guideline for what your caloric and exercise goals should be to hit your target weight of 120 pounds. Take a line in the chart most similar to a level of exercise and caloric intake that you feel you can maintain, and use the values on our goals page. More explanation below the chart.

You can either eat 1415 and just live life, or you can eat one of the below amounts and reach 1415 net calories by the end of the day (or 9905 calories for the week). If you eat over your allotted calories you will not hit your target weight; if you eat under your allotted calories, then you are starving your body and you will be causing your body to suffer from your insufficient diet.


Work: Sedentary // Exercise: none.
You burn some calories just being up and about.
Calories burned = 283 Calories to eat = 1698 (Net calories 1415)

Work: Sedentary // Exercise: casual one hour walk 3 times per week.
Calories burned = 373 Calories to ea t = 1788 (Net calories 1415)

Also, there are some really important things to think about as far as your diet is concerned. I'm no doctor or expert, but the following is what I believe to be true: Eating over 1500mg of sodium is only going to keep you hungry the entire day. Eating less than 3000mg of potassium is going to dehydrate you and cause muscle weakness (before you work out). Eating too much sugar is going to cause your insulin levels to stay high most of the day causing less fat to be burned through diet and a higher need for exercise. And most people will talk to you about protein levels and if you are exercising, have it be 1.2g of protein per kilogram body scale weight; but if you aren't exercising (just dieting) then you should eat 0.8g of protein per kilogram weight and eat more varied veggies to fill your calories.

My last piece of advice: Never estimate servings. Buy a food scale and measure it! I thought I was eating a 4 oz. fillet of salmon and when I weighed it, it was only 2 oz. And I thought I was only eating a 100g fuji apple but when I weighed it, it was 145g. A digit food scale is about $30.

Good Luck with reaching your goal. :flowerforyou:

I just wanted to post something about what to expect during the phases of weight loss.

Overview (why I'm posting this)
Over the course of about 7 months on here, I have seen many people suceed, I have also seen some drop off the map. I expect this is because some succumb to the demon that is temptation, and some to the devil that is dissapointment. I wanted to give a few "heads up"s to both new commers and vetrans to the site. Some may know already, some may not. But either way, if this helps anyone to set more realistic goals in their own head, I feel like it has done it's job.

Phase 1. The start of a brand new day! (or week, or month, or year)
Expectations are sky high, usually so is motivation and intentions. This is where most people lose the most weight. At the start it's not uncommon to see 4 to 8 lb losses per week. The reasons for this are mostly (sorry to disappoint) water weight. You drop excess water quickly, and you can have up to 5 lbs of water weight. The next biggest reason is the fat that is right next to the blood vessels, the stuff that you put on in the last month or three, it will melt like butter usually.

Phase 2. Reality setting in.
At about week 3 to a month or so, people suddenly realize that they are no longer dropping 8, 6, or even 4 lbs a week. This is a crutial phase in your journey. Expect this, it is natural. You have shocked your body by changing both eating habits and exercise routine. Now it has had a little while to become used to the new lifestyle, it's going to compensate. Your body still doesn't believe it's permenant yet, so it will still try to store some fat, so now that it knows how to regulate it's new metabolic levels, it tryies to store fat in earnest. It's not uncommon for people to hit a wall here, no loss for weeks. Expect this as well.

Phase 3. The routine.
At about 2 months or so, your routine is pretty much set, your body is beginning to believe that you really want to STAY the way you are going now. You will start to see more consistant (but lower, usually 1 to 2 lbs a week) loss, also, you should start seeing some muscle tone (depending on how much you had to lose in the first place). If you stop to think, you should realize that you have improved dramatically in your exercise levels. If you do cardio, you should notice how much longer and harder you can work. This is important to realize as it is just as big of an indicator as weight loss. Also, by now you may notice that your clothes no longer fit right. This is also very important. The weight may not be falling off anymore, but you are becomming a smaller person. Weight is arbitrary, if you are building muscle (which your body is doing at a furious pace by now) you won't notice huge losses, but you will notice wholesale changes in the mirror!

Phase 4. Really digging in.
This is where the second wall can happen. You're probably at between 3 and 4 months by now, and if you have gone this far, you feel like you have already suceeded. This is where many people stumble. they are tired of the routine, tired of eating different things from all their friends, limiting their alcohol intake. Basically the shine has worn off. this is when your really need to plant your feet. Maybe change up your exercise routine, make a concentrated effort to find different, but still nutritional food. Talk to people. And examine how far you have come. At this point, no matter how much external motivation you receive, it's all about believing in yourself!

Phase 5. End game.
5 or 6 months in you are probably working on that "last 10 pounds". This can be discouraging for many as it is a slow burn. Remember, your body probably feels like it is where it needs to be, your brain might think you need to lose 10 more, but your body is quite proud of itself now, it feels like it has "Done enough" and it wants to stay RIGHT HERE. The body LIKES to have a little fat around just in case, especially for the ladies (sorry girls, it's just human physiology). If you feel like you still need to lose it, prepare yourself for some guerrila warfare against your body. Design an exercise regimen that is very dynamic, forget the "same thing every day". Make a plan that challenges you both physically and mentally. Make sure you give yourself a day off here and there to just veg. And by all means, remember, muscle burns fat at rest. So get some weight or resistance training involved.
The last 10 may take 3 to 6 months to lose. I know nobody wants to hear that, but it's true. And forget the idea of increasing your calorie deficite, healthy bodies need good nutrition, your body no longer has the fat reserves to handle the large deficites you could when you were 30 40 or 50 pounds overweight. Better to make it a 3 or 400 calorie deficite (NET, please count your exercise calories too!). It may take a bit longer, but your body will like you for it. Plus it feeds those new muscles and keeps them burning fat, keeps your skin healthy (elasticity is important when you want those places that were stretched out to "snap back") and keeps you from getting head aches and depressed.

Conclusion:

This is what I have learned, not just from my journey, but from others as well on here. It saddens me sometimes to see people hit one of these stages and not recognize it for what it is, a part of the process. If we all can have realistic expectations, then we are more prone to win the fight and stay healthy in the long run. Note that some people will hit these stages harder then others, some may take longer, but for the most part, this is the rule that the exceptions will come from."

I realize that ultimately I cannot change her mind, but I would like to help a young person (oh gosh, I sound old) life a healthy life, and I question if her goal is sustainable in the long run.

As for you, EccentricDad, obviously I don't know you from Adam, what your personal goals are or what your training is like, but my recommendation for you if you feel you are "heavy" in some places, is not to try to lose more scale weight, but rather build muscle through lifting heavy. It's really the best way to achieve fat loss and sculpt the body you're after.

Just my opinion (whether or not you asked for it).... :flowerforyou: