Confused with myself

nerdatworklike123
nerdatworklike123 Posts: 5 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm a female. I'm 5'6 and currently weigh 134 pounds. I want to weigh between 124 and 126 pounds by April-ish.
I go to school full time so I barely have any time to do any intense workouts. Having said that, what should I focus on in reaching my goal?

I'm currently going for the 1200 calories per day routine but I feel as if it's so easy to go slightly over. For example, yesterday I went up to about 1300 calories. Is this going to have a major effect? And even for my carbs, I've been having around 180 for the past few days.

Is this okay? or do I need to make a change?

Replies

  • Tachyonic
    Tachyonic Posts: 64 Member
    In order to lose 10 pounds in a month, you need to cut/burn an extra 8,750 calories per week from your resting caloric burn (the amount of calories you'd burn if you ate just enough food for your body to burn it and nothing more each day--called Basal Metabolic Rate or BMR). This means you have to burn an extra 1,250 calories a day.

    Depending on your height & weight (and level of activity), your resting weight will vary.

    Here is a basic BMR calculator: http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

    With your height & weight, your BMR is probably around 1500 calories. If you cut 200-300 calories from your diet (NEVER go under 1,200 calories of food per day, otherwise your body could go into starvation mode, which is bad for your health and for weight loss), you would need to burn an extra 1,000 to 900 calories out of exercise each day. This is pretty intense, but you could do it by making small changes in your daily activity (walking/biking to school instead of driving, using the stairs instead of the elevator, taking a walk on your lunch break instead of sitting after your meal), and by going to the gym for some intense exercise for about an hour. If you work hard, it's possible to burn 600 or 700 calories from an hour at the gym. You'll be exhausted, but it will make a big dent.

    However, just exercise and cutting calories won't quite do it. Make sure that you are eating a well-balanced diet, and not putting too many processed foods in your system. Drink a lot of water, too.

    *I'm not a health professional in any way, by the way! These are just some facts that I've learned along the way. I hope that they help! If you aren't able to lose the whole 10 pounds in a month, don't worry. It takes a LOT of work to do that, and I'm sure that you can make a significant dent in a month, 7 or 8 pounds would probably be extremely reasonable.
  • nerdatworklike123
    nerdatworklike123 Posts: 5 Member
    Thanks for the help :D!
  • Tachyonic
    Tachyonic Posts: 64 Member
    You're welcome! I hope that huge block of text helps. Haha. I know it can be really daunting at first. Make sure you don't get stressed if you don't see an immediate change. It'll take a week or two to REALLY kick in. Your hard work will pay off, though. Just stick to it!
  • nkyjennifer
    nkyjennifer Posts: 135 Member
    The closer you are to your optimum weight, the harder it is to lose. I would recommend you set your MFP setting to lose 1lb a week, eat back your exercise calories, and focus on changing the composition of your body rather than just focus on the scale.

    There are some great threads with before and after pictures of people who've done program like 30 Day Shred. The scale might barely change, but you can *see* huge changes in body composition.
  • lunnay
    lunnay Posts: 66 Member
    If you cut 200-300 calories from your diet (NEVER go under 1,200 calories of food per day, otherwise your body could go into starvation mode,

    Your body doesn't go into starvation mode unless you're on a very low calorie diet (VLCD: 500-600 NET or lower) for a long time (few months). This is a myth. Your metabolism may slow down though, and cause your BMR/TDEE to lower, meaning if you eat your old TDEE you'll gain weight until it adapts again.


    DON'T eat 1,200 calories a day and then burn off 500-600! You'd be netting around 600 calories a day which IS A VLCD. That's just crazy, unhealthy, and it's not going to do you any favors.

    At your weight, you cannot lose 10 pounds a month healthily. The closer you are to your goal (and 10 pounds is very close), the slower you have to lose. Aim for half a pound a week, calculate your BMR and TDEE, and always NET within the two: if your BMR is 1500 and you exercise 500 away, eat 2000 that day.

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