Desperation setting in... and some ??s

sgrbear724 · February 2013

Hi all. I have a question (or two) for you all and it has probably already been asked but I have been reading and reading topics and haven't really gotten any answers.

I started back in January but I have turned into a myfitnesspal MACHINE in the last few months- I workout DAiLY doing aerobics from MyBiggestLoser calorie knockout and I consistently stay BELOW my recommended calories.

I am a 6'0 large-framed 30 year old woman and apparently the "lowest" calories I can go is 1600.

Question 1: How come every other woman can eat just 1200 but I must eat 1600. Seems like I would lose weight faster if I went lower on the calories.

I have lost 14 pounds and now weigh 186 pounds- but I can't seem to move the scale any more. I have weighed this weight for 3- maybe 4 weeks. I know that part of losing weight is being patient but pretty much everyone I love is also losing weight and recording 1 pounds lost or 2 pounds lost a week and I am working JUST as HARD.

In the past I wait and then four pounds drop off- and then i wait some more and a few more pounds drop off-- but I have been waiting a LONG time now.

Question 2: Is this normal? Am I doing something wrong? What should I do differently?

I have 20 more pounds to lose but the most depressing thing is I can't even lose the next six to get into the 70's.

I am SO discouraged. Makes me just want to forget the whole idea. Maybe I am just not supposed to weigh 165 anymore.

axialmeow · February 2013

Every other woman cannot eat 1200 calories a day and get good results. I am your height. I stalled out on 1200 plus lost a ton of hair.

HelenDootson · February 2013

Take your measurements they will be dropping - If you are working out every day, take a rest day once a week! - Mix up your food choices and your exercise choices and be aware that weight loss is not liner and it took time to get you to where you are it will take time to get you where you want to be.
Stick with it and you will win!

elfo · February 2013

Please be careful- if you go too low on cals and are working out- you will stall your metabolism. I try to stay low on cals at ~1400 (I'm 5'4) but it I work out I eat the cals back and go up to 1600 or more. Remember your body needs protein and energy to recover.
The more muscle you gain the more calories your body will burn.

www.me-on-dukan.blogspot.com

ZETAZEN · February 2013

It's because your body has adjusted to your routine. Now you have to switch it up. The body needs confusion in either the food you eat - amount or the work out you're doing. If you keep doing the same thing it won't notice a difference.

ILiftHeavyAcrylics · February 2013

Do you know your BMR? That's the number of calories your body needs just to keep going.

Do you weigh and measure everything you eat or drink? Do you use a food scale?

Do you have Cheat days? If so, do you log them?

Do you eat back your exercise calories?

ashleab37 · February 2013

If you're working as hard as you say you are, you're probably not eating enough.

Nearly no girls should eat 1,200. On 1200 I was sick, tired and the losses were slower than now. Now I eat 2000-2300 (yes you read that right) and have lost 15lb in 7 weeks. I'm 4 inches shorter than you too

Read this : http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/682138-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12?page=10

Showmm · February 2013

I'm 5'6" and the lowest numbers MFP gave me was 1350 or so. I was losing the will to do anything with so little (and this is with a sedentary lifestyle). I bumped it up by 200 calories, had more energy, felt better and still am losing weight.

ChrissieP80 · February 2013

Question 1: How come every other woman can eat just 1200 but I must eat 1600. Seems like I would lose weight faster if I went lower on the calories.

Question 2: Is this normal? Am I doing something wrong? What should I do differently?

1.) There are not really very many women who will eat exactly 1200 and experience a STEADY, HEALTHY weight loss. That's like expecting to choose a shoe sized 8 and expecting all women to be able to walk comfortably in it. You are taller than the average woman, ergo you will need to eat a higher amount of calories. SOME women WILL fit that shoe. Good for them.

2.) Yes it is normal. I suspect that you could be eating at too large a deficit. I recently came out of a 1 month plateau by eating more and exercising less for one week. As your fitness improves it is quite natural and insidious that you start doing more and more exercise (oh yes, I would normally drive to the post office but I'll just put on my runners and run there).

For perspective: I'm 5ft 3, 121lbs, 2 years older than you, I exercise ~5 times per week (but now I know to space out any strength training and I only burn ~200 cals with planned exercise) and I often eat 1500-1600 cals per day.

rduhlir · February 2013

Everyone's BMR is different. Do you honestly think that what a 5'3" person eats could sustain you? Someone who has 9" over them?

People are going to push the road map at you, and some will push MFP at you. Do what you were doing...just because you have stalled on the weight loss that doesn't mean you have plateaued. You very well could be losing the inches. I don't know what size frame you have (small/medium/large) but your ideal weight is between 138 (small) to 179 (large). That being said, if you are a larger frame woman then you really don't have that much to lose in which case the weight will come off much slower.

As far as "muscle confusion"...that is a proven myth. You can do the same exercises for a year and still get the same results as long as you are changing the variables (i.e. adding more weight/resistance).

http://www.hardbodysuccess.com/articles/muscle_confusion.html

Keep doing what you are doing. And start measuring yourself...there are weeks where I go without losing weight but I will lose inches.

sgrbear724 · February 2013

Do you know your BMR? That's the number of calories your body needs just to keep going.

Do you weigh and measure everything you eat or drink? Do you use a food scale?

Do you have Cheat days? If so, do you log them?

Do you eat back your exercise calories?

BMR- just checked it. It is 1661. Wow. I didn't know that.

I do not weigh everything. I have been sticking with the same things. I used a food scale for meat to get an idea of how many oz. chicken is but other than that I stick with "cups".

I record EVERYTHING I eat. Even when I cheat, which is RARE.

Eating back calories? I am not sure. This is what I do- my goal is 1600 and I usually go over by a bit. I exercise to get back down to 1600. If I "cheat", I have to exercise longer to get back down to my goal. If I don't, I can just exercise one circuit (15 minutes). Regardless, I often get myself to the 1500's with exercise.

ILiftHeavyAcrylics · February 2013

Do you know your BMR? That's the number of calories your body needs just to keep going.

Do you weigh and measure everything you eat or drink? Do you use a food scale?

Do you have Cheat days? If so, do you log them?

Do you eat back your exercise calories?

BMR- just checked it. It is 1661. Wow. I didn't know that.

I do not weigh everything. I have been sticking with the same things. I used a food scale for meat to get an idea of how many oz. chicken is but other than that I stick with "cups".

I record EVERYTHING I eat. Even when I cheat, which is RARE.

Eating back calories? I am not sure. This is what I do- my goal is 1600 and I usually go over by a bit. I exercise to get back down to 1600. If I "cheat", I have to exercise longer to get back down to my goal. If I don't, I can just exercise one circuit (15 minutes). Regardless, I often get myself to the 1500's with exercise.

Ok that's good, your calorie goal is appropriate. You want to net your BMR (60 calories is so close as to not make that much difference). I'd suggest that you start weighing everything that can be weighed. I use measuring spoons for liquids, but for solids I use weight. There can be a pretty big difference. Watch this to see what I mean:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjWPclrWVY (hopefully the typos don't make you twitchy)

I'd try eating back half of your exercise calories if you're using MFP to calculate them. That's because MFP can overestimate. So if you ate 1600 but worked off 400, then you only netted 1200. In general you want to net your BMR. I'd suggest eating 1800 in that scenario just in case you didn't quite burn 400. If you have a hrm and are getting an accurate calorie burn then you can eat back more of them, although personally I'd still leave a margin of error.

It sounds like you're kind of doing that already-- just in reverse. I'm not sure if you mean that's always what you do or not.

The last thing is just to be patient. Sometimes stalls happen, but you're not doing anything wrong so just tighten up on your accuracy with logging and stick it out. Also check out this group if you have questions:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/10118-eat-train-progress

sgrbear724 · February 2013

Everyone's BMR is different. Do you honestly think that what a 5'3" person eats could sustain you? Someone who has 9" over them?

No-but when things aren't working for you, it is really hard not to think about what the other people are doing (that is working for them) and to second guess yourself.

ravengirl1611 · February 2013

1200 cals is a general number that rarely fits anyone - regardless of who tries to eat at that amount - for me I had to understand and be able to figure out what a good quantity of calories would be for me right now and into the future (I re-evaluate every 5lbs lost or so) When I started on MFP I found this link and it did a really good job of explaining the how to figure out my cals / day - dont eat back exercise cals unless you drop below BMR then just eat enough to bring you back up to BMR -

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

also you might want to check out

www.marksdailyapple.com or www.robwolf.com

both are full of extremely excellent information - especially if you're like me and want to understand more of the science part of weight gain / loss

leighdiane91 · February 2013

I am 5'6, don't work out as much as you, but i eat and lose consistently eating 1800 a day us there a reason you picked 1600?

sgrbear724 · February 2013

I am 5'6, don't work out as much as you, but i eat and lose consistently eating 1800 a day us there a reason you picked 1600?

MFP made that number up for me when I plugged in my measurements and goals,

sgrbear724 · February 2013

Thanks for all the input everyone. Really made me feel much better. And gave me new focus. I think it was me not eating enough calories- that might also explain me not getting my period anymore (without being pregnant) and my hair looking terrible/falling out.

I really appreciate everyones' feedback. I'll up my calories and keep chugging away...

savithny · February 2013

I am a 6'0 large-framed 30 year old woman and apparently the "lowest" calories I can go is 1600.

Question 1: How come every other woman can eat just 1200 but I must eat 1600. Seems like I would lose weight faster if I went lower on the calories.

Question 2: Is this normal? Am I doing something wrong? What should I do differently?

Because every other woman is not 6 feet tall. BMR is not some flat number for women and another for men and that's the be-all and end-all.

You are a bigger human being. there is just more of you. And there always will be.
AND THAT IS ABSOLUTELY NORMAL.

What is not normal is one-size-fits-all approaches to women's health and nutrition, based on some mythical average "woman."

Think about it. At 6 feet, can you wear "one size fits all" clothes? With a big frame, do all those "One size" women's hats fit you? They don't fit me.

Us tall women have to look past all the teeny chicks bragging on their 1200 calorie diets. We have to look past the people gasping in horror at a woman who is eating more than 1500 calories a day.

We don't try to wear their little tiny shoes and pantyhose. Why do we think their diets will fit?

concordancia · February 2013

Add strength training or at the very least try put a new workout DVD.

Remember that you have reached the normal category for your weight - any additional weight loss will likely require great care in eating enough to fuel your life, without overeating. If you are genuinely large framed, this might be the right wight for you. Adding in strength training will help you be happier with your body composition.

Samifer · February 2013

You may just need to switch up things for your body. It's good you found your BMR and honestly, you can probably go below that 100 calories or so. Maybe seeing a dietician would help?

What I've found is that switching up the calorie intake can help break a plateau, either by have a weekly calorie goal and making sure the days aren't uniform (check here: http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm and scroll down after filling out the form to see the "zig zag" option) or by adding a 24 hour fasting period (http://richmondfitness.net/is-intermittent-fasting-the-key-to-successful-weight-loss/) -- but with fasting, you can't exercise in time period you fast- you would be asking for trouble with that.

sgrbear724 · February 2013

Thank you. I won't give up. (yet.) :happy:

Unknown · February 2013

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Desperation setting in... and some ??s

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