Too Confused!

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andreabrabham
andreabrabham Posts: 116 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I am 24y/o 5'3 and 144-148lbs. I tred the TDEE and I gained weight. I went to 1200 calories and I am always hungry. I dont know what to do because I am ready to lose. I have been trying to lose weight for the last 2 months but all I have done is gained weight. This is so frustrating especially when I c other people losing. When will it happen for me. Its bad because im starting to become obsessed. Grrr. So frustrating.

Replies

  • Phrick
    Phrick Posts: 2,765 Member
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    How long did you "try the TDEE?" It's very common to gain the first week or two weeks of that method as your body adjusts but after that you start to see the losses. If you didn't give it a minimum of 4-6 weeks you didn't give it a fair shot.
  • herblackwings39
    herblackwings39 Posts: 3,930 Member
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    I am 24y/o 5'3 and 144-148lbs. I tred the TDEE and I gained weight. I went to 1200 calories and I am always hungry. I dont know what to do because I am ready to lose. I have been trying to lose weight for the last 2 months but all I have done is gained weight. This is so frustrating especially when I c other people losing. When will it happen for me. Its bad because im starting to become obsessed. Grrr. So frustrating.

    How long did you give TDEE and what % cut did you take? Is your exercise consistent? I can't do TDEE because I lack consistency and find that going with MFP settings and eating back calories when I earn them works best for me at this time. What's your goal weight? Depending on how much you need to lose the cut might have been too aggressive. It's like setting MFP to lose 2 lbs a week when you only have 10 lbs to go. It's not always realistic and usually doesn't pan out.
  • andreabrabham
    andreabrabham Posts: 116 Member
    Options
    How long did you "try the TDEE?" It's very common to gain the first week or two weeks of that method as your body adjusts but after that you start to see the losses. If you didn't give it a minimum of 4-6 weeks you didn't give it a fair shot.

    I did it for about 3 weeks or so.
  • Phrick
    Phrick Posts: 2,765 Member
    Options
    How long did you "try the TDEE?" It's very common to gain the first week or two weeks of that method as your body adjusts but after that you start to see the losses. If you didn't give it a minimum of 4-6 weeks you didn't give it a fair shot.

    I did it for about 3 weeks or so.
  • andreabrabham
    andreabrabham Posts: 116 Member
    Options
    I am 24y/o 5'3 and 144-148lbs. I tred the TDEE and I gained weight. I went to 1200 calories and I am always hungry. I dont know what to do because I am ready to lose. I have been trying to lose weight for the last 2 months but all I have done is gained weight. This is so frustrating especially when I c other people losing. When will it happen for me. Its bad because im starting to become obsessed. Grrr. So frustrating.

    How long did you give TDEE and what % cut did you take? Is your exercise consistent? I can't do TDEE because I lack consistency and find that going with MFP settings and eating back calories when I earn them works best for me at this time. What's your goal weight? Depending on how much you need to lose the cut might have been too aggressive. It's like setting MFP to lose 2 lbs a week when you only have 10 lbs to go. It's not always realistic and usually doesn't pan out.

    I did the TDEE for about 3 weeks but I think I am going to try the MFP way for a while. I cut back 20%.I am trying to get down to 125 or so. I lack consistency as well. I have noticed that the MFP works for a lot of people so I think I will give it a shot. I am planning on burning 1000 calories 5days a week. I know that's a lot but I really think it will be good for me. but I'm not going to eat all of those calories back but I will eat most.
  • ilikejam33
    ilikejam33 Posts: 252 Member
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    Perhaps you are creating the confusion by overthinking it. The key to any program is to stick with it as it was designed.

    Try the MFP way, its here becasue it works for the majority of people. And by try it I mean actually do it the way its laid out, do not make changes, just log everything, and eat back all the calories you expend.

    If you do this you will see changes, if after 6 weeks you can say you really did it 100% and still want to make changes then you can as you will have a good reference of what you were eating and what may need to change.

    Keep in mind that as you lose you may need to change things up and possibly lower calories or excersice more to get off a plateau, starting out too low can make this very difficult later.

    I know it can be frustrating, but slow, steady progress is what you should aim for. I was a crazy fad and yo-yo dieter for years, and now with MFP I have found great success. Yes it has been slow at times, but I have lost about 20lbs and kept it off for over a year. If you put in the effort you will get the results, it just takes time.

    Good Luck
  • HeidiCooksSupper
    HeidiCooksSupper Posts: 3,831 Member
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    I took your stats and used the Fitness Frog calculator to get a TDEE for you of 1761. There are several different methods to calculate TDEE and lots of TDEE calculators on the web. The figures are just an estimate anyway of how many calories you consume each day, just living your life. I assumed in using the form that you have a desk job and so 1761 would be an estimate of your TDEE before exercise.

    To lose a pound a week, you need to consume 3500 fewer calories than your TDEE for the week or 500 fewer calories per day. Your daily TDEE minus 500 is about 1260.

    So, let's say you aim your calorie consumption on a day with no exercise to 1260 calories. If you were to eat at this rate you are likely to lose, on average, over several weeks, 1 pound a week, which is a healthy weight loss.

    If you exercise, you have some choices to make. Many folks on MFP choose to eat back their exercise calories to maintain a healthy weight loss rate. If you exercise a great deal and do not eat back those calories, you may lose weight faster but you will feel worse and be more likely to quit your regimen and gain back the weight you lost or more.

    The only way to make sure you are eating 1260 calories per day is to weigh and measure your food and keep track of it in a food diary. It is very easy to estimate wrong and eat extra calories if you eyeball your quantities and don't keep track of everything you consume.

    So, with that in mind, when you say you used TDEE for three weeks, were you doing as I just described or something else? The reason I went into this much detail is because you said you were confused and I want to be helpful.

    Enjoy your day.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    Options
    I am 24y/o 5'3 and 144-148lbs. I tred the TDEE and I gained weight. I went to 1200 calories and I am always hungry. I dont know what to do because I am ready to lose. I have been trying to lose weight for the last 2 months but all I have done is gained weight. This is so frustrating especially when I c other people losing. When will it happen for me. Its bad because im starting to become obsessed. Grrr. So frustrating.

    How long did you give TDEE and what % cut did you take? Is your exercise consistent? I can't do TDEE because I lack consistency and find that going with MFP settings and eating back calories when I earn them works best for me at this time. What's your goal weight? Depending on how much you need to lose the cut might have been too aggressive. It's like setting MFP to lose 2 lbs a week when you only have 10 lbs to go. It's not always realistic and usually doesn't pan out.

    I did the TDEE for about 3 weeks but I think I am going to try the MFP way for a while. I cut back 20%.I am trying to get down to 125 or so. I lack consistency as well. I have noticed that the MFP works for a lot of people so I think I will give it a shot. I am planning on burning 1000 calories 5days a week. I know that's a lot but I really think it will be good for me. but I'm not going to eat all of those calories back but I will eat most.

    three weeks is not long enough for any change. It takes your body a minimum of four to six weeks to adjust to any change in diet, exercise regimen etc...then it takes another two to three weeks for those changes to start to show...

    whatever change you make ..stick with it for four to six weeks...
  • andreabrabham
    andreabrabham Posts: 116 Member
    Options
    I took your stats and used the Fitness Frog calculator to get a TDEE for you of 1761. There are several different methods to calculate TDEE and lots of TDEE calculators on the web. The figures are just an estimate anyway of how many calories you consume each day, just living your life. I assumed in using the form that you have a desk job and so 1761 would be an estimate of your TDEE before exercise.

    To lose a pound a week, you need to consume 3500 fewer calories than your TDEE for the week or 500 fewer calories per day. Your daily TDEE minus 500 is about 1260.

    So, let's say you aim your calorie consumption on a day with no exercise to 1260 calories. If you were to eat at this rate you are likely to lose, on average, over several weeks, 1 pound a week, which is a healthy weight loss.

    If you exercise, you have some choices to make. Many folks on MFP choose to eat back their exercise calories to maintain a healthy weight loss rate. If you exercise a great deal and do not eat back those calories, you may lose weight faster but you will feel worse and be more likely to quit your regimen and gain back the weight you lost or more.

    The only way to make sure you are eating 1260 calories per day is to weigh and measure your food and keep track of it in a food diary. It is very easy to estimate wrong and eat extra calories if you eyeball your quantities and don't keep track of everything you consume.

    So, with that in mind, when you say you used TDEE for three weeks, were you doing as I just described or something else? The reason I went into this much detail is because you said you were confused and I want to be helpful.

    Enjoy your day.

    I try to work out 5 days a week but have only done 3 days for the last 2 weeks. I was eating about 1808 calories. Im going to start eating my calories back because I want to exercise pretty hard now. Thanks for breaking it down.

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