Changing settings to lose .5/week

ssteinbring677
ssteinbring677 Posts: 158 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I currently weigh between 188-190 and ideally want to get down to 175ish. I am 5'11" and currently eat ~1870 calories a day. I've heard lots of suggestions that when you get within 10-15 pounds of your goal you should change your settings to lose .5 pounds a week. Will it hurt me if I continue to leave it set to lose 1lb a week? I have been stalled for a couple months now. Looking for opinions or advice... thanks!

Replies

  • ssteinbring677
    ssteinbring677 Posts: 158 Member
    Bump. Anyone?
  • EmilyG_84
    EmilyG_84 Posts: 1
    From what I learned from a dietitian I once saw...when you have platued like that then you are just maintaining your weight with the amount of calories you are eating. So either decrease your calorie intake or start a excercise program and it should start up your weight loss again
  • paxbfl
    paxbfl Posts: 391 Member
    Before I answer I'm curious about your workout. Are you doing cardio? How many calories are you burning? What is your net calories per day? Do you eat any of those exercise calories back? What is your BMR and TDEE? Do you know your body fat %? (Where are you getting that 175 number from?) Also, are you lifting at all?
  • XXXMinnieXXX
    XXXMinnieXXX Posts: 3,459 Member
    Looking at your diary. I would just stick with those calories for now. You don't track carbs. Looks like your carbs are high and your sugar certainly is. Start to track the carbs. Cut back to 120ish and keep the sugars to around 30g . Once you look at the quality of your calories and address it the weight should start moving again

    Zara
  • nixirain
    nixirain Posts: 448 Member
    Based on your pictures I would suggest to stop using the scale as way to measure progress. If you are trying to lean out I would suggest to carry a minimal deficit (.5lbs per week would be a good start) and do mostly strength training to drop body fat If you aren't already.
  • ssteinbring677
    ssteinbring677 Posts: 158 Member
    Thanks for the clarifying questions. I typically work out 3-4 times a week, mainly lifting with a short cardio warm up. Calorie burns are different from day to day, but a ballpark figure would be 200-260 cals on work out days. I usually eat about 75% of those calories back. BMR is 1716, TDEE is 2651. I don't know my body fat percentage, and I am aware of the TDEE - 20% cut to determine calories. However, my workouts are not always consistent, so I don't know if it's a safe bet to go by TDEE.
  • paxbfl
    paxbfl Posts: 391 Member
    Based on that, I think your calories are probably in the right ballpark. I'd agree you should try to stay away from sugar and refined carbs (white bread, pasta). Go with lean protein and complex carbs (whole grain) as much as possible.

    On the workouts, I'd like to see you get a really good calorie burn of 400+ calories 3 times a week. I like HIIT (High Intensity Intervals) where you walk for 1 minute, jog for 1 minute, run for 1 minute, sprint for 1 minute and repeat 5 times (6 intervals total) for about 30 minutes total time (including warm-up and cool-down). Then lift for 30 minutes so you have about an hour total. Alternate muscle groups so you're not working the same muscles two days in a row.

    Here's what I was doing as a fat-burning-focused workout:

    Monday - Upper Body lifting, 30-minutes moderate elliptical (500 calorie burn)
    Tuesday - Lower Body Lifting, 30-minutes HIIT treadmill (500 calorie burn)
    Wednesday - Upper Body Lift, 30-min moderate elliptical (500)
    Thursday - Lower Body Lift, 30-mini HIIT treadmill (500)
    Friday - Upper Body Lift, 30-min moderate elliptical (500)
    Sat - Cardio Day - 30-min HIIT treadmill (500) followed by elliptical for 15-30 minutes (250-500 calories), 750-1000 total
    Sunday - Rest/Free Day

    This is admittedly pretty intense but it gives you an idea of the calories I was burning. I was eating around 2100 calories daily, netting to 1600 which was probably too low (BMR=1940). But it worked - I lost 2-3 pounds a week.

    42 pounds later my body fat is now 16% so I've shifted to a muscle-building focused workout. But I still do more cardio than you're currently doing.
  • WendyTerry420
    WendyTerry420 Posts: 13,274 Member
    My goal weight is still over 50 pounds away, but I've been much happier and had more energy since I changed my calorie goal to losing a half pound a week.
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
    Will it hurt you? No, definitely not. People say to slow your weight loss as you get closer to your goals for body comp reasons. If you don't care about that, then there's no big reason to change. Some people may say that it's easier to go into maintenance if you slowly reduce your calorie deficit over time rather than going from a big deficit righ to no deficit.
  • KatLifter
    KatLifter Posts: 1,314 Member
    I'm right about where you are; I'm 5'10", about 185 lbs. and want to lose about 10 more. I've increased my calories to 1600, and 1800 on days that I lift with a 40/30/30 split. My weight has stalled since I started lifting, but I've lost inches and an entire skirt size. Especially when we're lifting and close to goal it is best to increase our calories. :Smile: so happy I've broken out of the 1200 a day mindset!

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