Do you eat all your exercise calories?

I think you're doing fine, you cant expect to be losing lots of weight at the your current size. It's all relative, keep that in mind. I think you're right on track. You'll find its going to be pretty hard to drop weight, but nothing good is easy.

Your calorie intake is not too high, if anything it seems too low to me, based on her height and current weight, I think you are probably taking in too little calorie and probably have placed your body in starvation mode,

You may want to up your calories a bit. what is your goal weight, because at your weight and height you sound like you are at a healthy weight to me.

Goodluck

I'm 5'3 also... I'd say that's definitely too many calories. I eat some of my exercise calories, but not all... I usually try to net to 1100-1200... hope that helps!

why do you want to lose maybe just do some toning, im 5'2 and 151i need to lose, but maybe just do some strenth training and toning up.

Hmm topic of debate here..

When I first started my calorie goal was set at 1260 for a 2 lb a week loss (I'm 5'1 and was 203 lb then,197 lb now), and I was eating half to all of my exercise calories, and was losing half a lb a week, if that, so I don't believe it worked for me. So I worked out my BMR and changed my goal to that, and I don't eat my exercise calories now, and am losing 1.5 lb + a week. Everyone is different, you just have to play around and see what works for you.

Good luck :flowerforyou:

NOO, NOO! You want to have a deficit. To have a maint. day or to lose little or nothing, you would eat your exercise calories. Sooo, the goal is to have 500 - 1,000 calorie deficit to have a 1-2lb loss per week.

Well, the 1200 *IS* a deficit for her. It's just that at her height/weight/age it isn't a super large deficit, so the weight will come off slower than for someone who weighs a lot more or is a lot taller.

What I have heard about losing those "last few" pounds is that you do NOT want to drop your calories too low (don't NET lower than your BMR). I'm taking Jillian Michael's basic advice and eating at my BMR (1400). This alone should get me about .5 lb loss/week based upon my normal lifestyle activity level. Then, I put in 20-40 minutes of very intense circuit training 5-6 times per week. I eat back all but about 250 calories of that. So, if I burn 400, I would eat back 150, but not all of it. This, in theory, should create another .5 lb loss/week. The difference between what I am doing and just dropping my calories down to 1200 and eating them back is that even on the days I do not workout, I still eat 1400 calories. I've lost 3 lbs in the past 2 weeks.

*Ducking from those who are going to yell at me for not eating my calories back.*

I am netting at least 1200/day and I am a shorter person with not that much to lose (5'3 131lbs). I'm not under eating. If I stall out, I fully intend to add MORE food, not decrease my calories.

Hi Everyone! I am new as well. I just deleted an account I had been using for just about a year and started using this one because it seems to be more user friendly and I like the format much better.

My BMR is 1274 and like always, I have a really hard time eating all of those calories without exercise! When I run (3 times a week) it is virtually impossible for me eat the extra exercise calories. On the other site I never lost a pound and actually gained about 1.5 pounds per week until I reached 10 and was scared to death!

As I understand it, it seems to be OK if I don't eat ALL the exercise calories back. So it is OK to eat most of them back and I will continue to lose? :bigsmile:

Oh, thanks guys - I see this is a topic of debate! I checked the Mayo Clinic website, and given my activity level (30 mins of cardio on the elliptical trainer 6 times a week), and my weight and age (44), I should be eating 1,850 to maintain. So to lose a pound a week, I need to generate a 500-calorie per day deficit, which would be 1,350, even while having that level of activity. Since I am consuming about 1,450, the pounds are coming off really slowly, and the slightest little water weight shift or dinner at a restaurant can completely erase any loss for the week. It's REALLY frustrating.

I know it's good to lose weight slowly, but because I only want to lose 5 pounds (they do seem to be the hardest to lose), I am going to try to go with 1,350 -- meaning I will be eating less than half my exercise calories. That seems reasonable, doesn't it?

That first link was helpful. It said that if you don't drop more than 1,000 calories under your maintenance weight, you won't slip into starvation mode.

I think that sounds reasonable. I also think that you might want to consider mixing up your exercise a little more. Our bodies can get used to doing the same things over and over and that can result in fewer calories being burned because your body is more efficient. If you aren't already, consider integrating some high intensity intervals into your elliptical routine (so, this is where you would crank up the intensity and go at full blast for 45-90 seconds and then go back down to an easier state for a short period and repeat). Also, think about incorporating some weight training type of workouts to make sure that you maintain the muscle that you have. 30 Day Shred is an approachable one that a lot of people (myself included) really like. I think switching things up might also help you loose those last few pounds.