186 lbs and 5'4".. anyone similar?

My starting weight in October 2012 was 198 (first picture)

At my last weigh in 2/13/2013 I was 186.5 lbs. I weigh once a week. I am 5'0" and am a couple of months away from turning 53 years old.

I have been a yo-yo dieter in the past and 2 years ago went on an insanely low calorie diet. I lost weight....oh yeah...to the tune of 35 lbs. in 3 months, but naturally, a lot of it was muscle. As I gained back the weight I found myself a pant size larger at 15 lbs. less than I had formerly been. A cautionary tale if ever there was one!

Fast forward to January 2013. I tipped the scale at 198 lbs. and freaked! I looked and felt like a sloppy mess. I started by simply cleaning up my eating habits, making sure I was eating breakfast with protein, 2 servings of fresh fruit and 3 servings of fresh veggies every day. Also very little sugar and virtually no refined foods. I was keeping a written food diary, not really too concerned about calories, and managed to loose 5 lbs in 3 weeks. My daughter had set up an account for me with MFP so that we could encourage one another, but I don't have internet service so I wasn't logging on. Then I discovered that Blackberry had an app for MFP and I started logging about a week ago.

I wanted to loose a pound a week and the recommendation by MFP was 1200 calories a day so for a week that's what I was sticking to pretty closely. Then I read an informative post last night in Community that made me change my approach (http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/865024-1200-and-why-it-won-t-work ). I have decided to increase my calories to 1470 a day and adjust my goal to 0.5 lbs. a week. If that works I will experiment with how many calories it actually takes for me to loose a pound a week. I want to eat the maximum amount possible so as to have some wiggle room to decrease my calories in case I hit a plateau, without going below 1200. Using online calculators for both BMR and TDEE , my present caloric reuirement to maintain my weight is 1800 calories. I am quite sedentary with diminished muscle mass. I know that as I loose weight I will want to be more active, but for now, "it is what it is".

I hope you find some of this information useful. I will be posting a photo soon to help track my progress.

All the best !

Bump.

I am 5'2" and I started back in June of 2012 at 219. I have lost 70 pounds and currently down to 149. My goal weight is currently set at 135 so I have about 14 pounds to go, although I may lower it a little bit further. It can be done if you just stick with it. I never miss a day of logging into this site for motivation.

I am 5'4" and 178 pounds, I had a baby in August 2012 and topped out at 230 I came to MFP in November (signed up before I got pregnant and never used it)) and started logging at 197 pounds. 20lbs in almost 100 days (3 more days till I've logged in for 100 days straight!) is slow, but I feel I will be able to maintain it easier. I recently finished losing the baby weight and and now am working on the weight I gained quitting smoking before getting pregnant, and then an extra bit on top of that to get to my wedding weight. I started C25K, but decided I hate running on a treadmill, so need to get back to that and doing it outside. I'm also currently in the middle of 30DS.

I am 5'3" and currently weigh 189.0. I started out at 209 last year. I can totally understand about the exercise thing. Take the steps one at a time and you will get there. I currently eat 1200 calories on MFP however I try to exercise 3 times a week. I have also been doing a Dietbet challenge. A website where you put money into a pot to win if you lose 4% of your body weight during the 28 day challenge. I'm loving it because it is keeping things in perspective for me. You can become overwhelmed with the amount of weight you need to lose. Losing 6-8 pounds a month is a better way to to accomplish it. I know you don't want to exercise right now, but just try getting out and walking a few times a week and stick to the calories. I bet you will see it start moving again. Good luck!