How long until I start losing weight?

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  • sshintaku
    sshintaku Posts: 228 Member
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    So here's my deal: I'm similar, 5'5", started at 140, looking to loose 10-15lbs, fairly active and athletic already.

    I don't have the time or desire to weigh everything out, follow a fit bit or heart rate monitor.

    So, I eat the "1200 calories" MFP gives me, knowing full well that my portions probably even out closer to 1400. I get 30-75 minutes of exercise at least 6x a week, running, horseback riding, power yoga. I eat back most of my exercise calories.

    It's been working for me. Is it sloppy? Hell yes. But I was fairly fit to begin with and just needed to clean up/limit my eating and start working out more.
  • julie_1130
    julie_1130 Posts: 2
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    When I got pregnant with my twins, I gained so much weight. I was 176 lbs then lose a little after a few month due to stress in taking care of the babies. But after a while I started gaining weight again and back to 170 lbs. SO i decided to do something about it. I starve myself most of the time which I know was not really healthy. Despite that and doing exercise I am not losing at all. Not until I adapt the proper diet and regular (not extreme) exercise. I am now at 120 lbs but still aiming to lose another 10 lbs which is my previous weight before getting pregnant. I owe it to my Paleo Diet which is so amazing! This might also help you achieve your goal weight; http://goo.gl/YFnm9W
  • SquidVonBob
    SquidVonBob Posts: 290 Member
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    last nights dinner was black bean and sweet potato lettuce-burritos ~350 cal with mid-climb snack of a sweet and salty nut bar ~170cal and a 2nd dinner of sauteed cauliflower with capers and red onions ~160cal

    Sorry I know this is off topic but lettuce burritos? Like It's wrapped in a large leaf of lettuce instead of a tortilla? Because this is something I need to try topped in enchilada sauce and cheese.
  • acogg
    acogg Posts: 1,870 Member
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    It sounds like you are very athletic, your height and weight are healthy for a grown person.
  • meritage4
    meritage4 Posts: 1,441 Member
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    5'6" and you want to be in the 110 range?
    I'm 5" 6" and look damn good at 142.
    At 120 I couldn't conceive until I went to 125/126.
    At 110 I'd be WAY underweight.
    Have you checked your goal with your doctor? It sounds too low for your height.
  • boxer490
    boxer490 Posts: 10 Member
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    I started exercising and entering my food into MFP 16 days ago. I eat approximately 1400 calories/ day and ate back exercise calories (200-300/day)..I am 5'3" and weight 216 pounds, not a pound has come off in 16 days. I work out 6 days a week, I was doing The Biggest Loser XBox game for a 30 minute workout and also walking my dogs 4-5 days out of the week for a 3km walk. For the last 3 days I have been doing The Biggest Loser at home challenge DVD workout, it has 40 minutes of cardio/strength work and a 5 min warm up and cool down. I still haven't lost any weight. I drink at least 9 - 8oz glasses of water everyday, 3 meals everyday and sometimes an afternoon snack. I looked into eating less today, just wondering if I should be eating less or more? Some stuff I read says I should be eating 1800 calories per day and MFP says 1200 per day. I just want to see some results and have pretty good discipline to be able to do either one!! HELP PLEASE! :cry:
  • acogg
    acogg Posts: 1,870 Member
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    I started exercising and entering my food into MFP 16 days ago. I eat approximately 1400 calories/ day and ate back exercise calories (200-300/day)..I am 5'3" and weight 216 pounds, not a pound has come off in 16 days. I work out 6 days a week, I was doing The Biggest Loser XBox game for a 30 minute workout and also walking my dogs 4-5 days out of the week for a 3km walk. For the last 3 days I have been doing The Biggest Loser at home challenge DVD workout, it has 40 minutes of cardio/strength work and a 5 min warm up and cool down. I still haven't lost any weight. I drink at least 9 - 8oz glasses of water everyday, 3 meals everyday and sometimes an afternoon snack. I looked into eating less today, just wondering if I should be eating less or more? Some stuff I read says I should be eating 1800 calories per day and MFP says 1200 per day. I just want to see some results and have pretty good discipline to be able to do either one!! HELP PLEASE! :cry:

    The most important thing you can do is to keep going! Weight loss is frustrating and there are things that make no sense. I will be happy to share what worked for me and to give you encouragement. Friend me and I will be a good friend. I can't promise anything else, because most of it will be up to you.
  • Ophidion
    Ophidion Posts: 2,065 Member
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    I started exercising and entering my food into MFP 16 days ago. I eat approximately 1400 calories/ day and ate back exercise calories (200-300/day)..I am 5'3" and weight 216 pounds, not a pound has come off in 16 days. I work out 6 days a week, I was doing The Biggest Loser XBox game for a 30 minute workout and also walking my dogs 4-5 days out of the week for a 3km walk. For the last 3 days I have been doing The Biggest Loser at home challenge DVD workout, it has 40 minutes of cardio/strength work and a 5 min warm up and cool down. I still haven't lost any weight. I drink at least 9 - 8oz glasses of water everyday, 3 meals everyday and sometimes an afternoon snack. I looked into eating less today, just wondering if I should be eating less or more? Some stuff I read says I should be eating 1800 calories per day and MFP says 1200 per day. I just want to see some results and have pretty good discipline to be able to do either one!! HELP PLEASE! :cry:
    This link will get you where you want to be if you are disciplined...

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

    Also to reiterate about eating back exercise cals...

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/818082-exercise-calories-again-wtf
  • boxer490
    boxer490 Posts: 10 Member
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    Thank-you, going to give those links a look :-)
  • Ophidion
    Ophidion Posts: 2,065 Member
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    JmmjhyF.jpg

    OP either got what they wanted or did not like the responses.
  • boxer490
    boxer490 Posts: 10 Member
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    Yes, I do have discipline, I was an amateur boxer in my 20's, best work out you could ever do! I ran 10km 6 days a week and boxed 3-4 days a week..I was very active and in awesome shape! I was 135 pounds and solid muscle. Sometimes that makes it harder to accept a no weight loss for 16 days. I am determined to figure it out though..going to try something new this week, hopefully I will find the answer to my weight loss!! Thanks for helping :-)
  • LTKeegan
    LTKeegan Posts: 354 Member
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    Okay, this is gonna be long, i didn't see there were any responses to my post! Sorry!! I'm still getting the hang of things.

    First off, I started crossfit 2 years ago, gained muscle then, decided it was okay and I've been happy-ish since at 140. I put on some weight being stressed this semester and went up to 146 and lost that in the last few weeks of Dec beginning of Jan. and that sparked me to want to actually lose the fat I've been unhappy with in my thighs and butt.
    I'm doing CrossFit (as I stated in my post) which is a lot of strength training-- which just FYI doesn't actually help you lose weight, it just helps you build muscle which is why I'm 140 and looking to lose weight in the first place. I started strength training, put on muscle and didn't lose any fat, so now I just have the same amount of fat and more muscle because I was eating back all of my exercise calories.
    FYI actually not true as weight training is a form of exercise and plenty of people on here myself included have lost plenty of weight just lifting weights....exercise burns calories ergo contributes to weight loss when at a true deficit.

    Besides noob gains you will only build a small amount of muscle when in a calorie deficit, look up catabolic state vs anabolic state.


    I'm not sure what you mean by noob gains. I gained 15lbs of muscle because I started eating more when I started crossfitting (mostly more protein) and I now have arm muscles! woo hooo! But that was 2 years ago and I wasn't dieting then. So I wasn't doing anything on a deficit.

    What I meant by the bolded part was that crossfit didn't actually make me lose any fat, just gain muscle.

    5'6" and you want to be in the 110 range?
    I'm 5" 6" and look damn good at 142.
    At 120 I couldn't conceive until I went to 125/126.
    At 110 I'd be WAY underweight.
    Have you checked your goal with your doctor? It sounds too low for your height.
    Before I started crossfit I was 110-120 (basically for my whole adult life) I was still crazy active (rock climbing, backpacking, etc) so I think I can be healthy and in the 120s. And yes, I've had doctors tell me I'm healthy and my doctor told me I could lose the weight if it made me feel better, but it wasn't medically necessary. I don't doubt you look good, I look good too, I want to lose weight to feel better and climb harder.

    EDIT: I'm also not hooked on a number, If I get to 130 and I feel better and look better and my clothes fit better and I climb better, then I'll be happy and quit
    last nights dinner was black bean and sweet potato lettuce-burritos ~350 cal with mid-climb snack of a sweet and salty nut bar ~170cal and a 2nd dinner of sauteed cauliflower with capers and red onions ~160cal

    Sorry I know this is off topic but lettuce burritos? Like It's wrapped in a large leaf of lettuce instead of a tortilla? Because this is something I need to try topped in enchilada sauce and cheese.

    Yes, its amazing, but a giant mess. Stuff goops out all sides.

    with any fitness routine a good rule of thumb is to do your workouts for three weeks and then assess whether you are losing weight or not.

    I've been on the same fitness routine for 2 years. So I'm pretty certain I'm not losing.


    I really can't recommend weighing your food enough …

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjWPclrWVY

    I started doing this (just the last 2 days) and I've been basically spot on. Off by about 20-30cal per day. Which *COULD* be the difference, but doubtful. I am trying to weigh things, but I know doing this will not ever be a lifestyle change, which is not good for keeping long term goals.



    I measure using cups and tablespoons and whatnot. I have an obsessive personality and if I started weighing my food I would get crazy, fast.

    Also, I think its important to note that before I started dieting, I ate under 2,000 calories and gained weight from lifting, so I know a lot of the excess weight on me is muscle, but I didn't lose fat when I started lifting, so I just got bigger in size while still having a lot of excess fat in my thighs and butt.

    if you gained weight and kept the fat, you were eating in surplus to your TDEE. Now, with measuring being your method rather than weighing, it was more than 2000 probably, you really have no idea how far off your logging is.

    But whether it was a sloppy under 2000, or a actual really accurate 2400 - it was in excess.

    So you cut out a sloppy 250 calories, or an accurate 250 calories - either way it'll let you see if you can reach point of no gain or loss - that's your maintenance.

    Then cut another 250.

    At some points the actual numbers don't matter if you are sloppy or accurate - you'll cut more calories out.

    So while it might look bad telling others the number, in reality with sloppy logging you are in reality eating more.


    I think this was unclear. Before 14 days ago I have never been on a diet in my life. I eat healthy "clean" foods as much as possible and treat myself with homemade baked goods once in a blue moon. This plus crossfit has kept me at 140 for 2ish years. I can't say for sure, but I probably was eating more than 2000 calories when I first started crossfit. Back then I thought I was going to die of hunger after ever time I did a WOD. But that was 2 years ago and I was not tracking then so I can't tell you anything for certain.

    As of 14 days ago, I started measuring with cups and spoons and what not and logging everything. Since then, I've lost the 6lbs I put on being stressed last semester and I'm back at my magically stuck number of 140. As of 2 days ago, I started measuring things with the scale, and so far, I've been pretty accurate.
  • LTKeegan
    LTKeegan Posts: 354 Member
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    I also think I might have found the answer elsewhere. But I appreciate everyone's help and I'd love comments on this.


    Doing some research and talking with some sports nutrition type people, I think my big issues is where my calories come from.

    I've determined that if you mostly eat fruits/veggies/nuts/seeds/tofu/fish and you exercise 3-5days per week 1-4 hours each time, and you are a healthy weight but just want to drop some weight, it is really hard. And not because I can't do a giant deficit. But because your nutritional needs become very specific.

    So I can't go out and eat 1200 calories of twinkies and expect to lose weight just because its a deficit. And my reasoning for saying this is because eating all sugar and no real food (all "empty" calories) I'm requiring insulin and its a fat storage hormone, so I think what I've found out is that I'm eating too much sugar and therefore my body isn't getting the calories of protein and fat it needs, its mostly getting sugar, which is triggering insulin (since I'm healthy) and that insulin is saying to my body to store all the extra sugar as fat. THUS leading to me not being able to lose weight even though I'm eating at a deficit.


    Edit: I don't think you can lose weight without a deficit, but I think you can have a deficit and not lose weight.


    Now, before everyone jumps down my throat about how a calorie is a calorie and a deficit is weight loss, I would like to say that I've read plenty of posts in other spots and I don't believe you that it is always that simple. BUT I am always up for links to scientific papers (I'm a biologist, so pub med is basically my BFF)
  • swbabe33
    swbabe33 Posts: 21 Member
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    If you are active you may have to adjust your profile to a higher activity level. I had to do that and then I had to drop my calories from 1600 which my doctor gave me, to 1200 if I didn't exercise that day. I didn't lose at 1600 calories for three weeks, because I was not doing enough exercise to compensate for the calories I was consuming. I also have to watch the kind of foods that make up my calories. I assumed that since I had a lot of weight to lose, I didn't have to be too careful about the kind of food. My 1200+ calories can't be bad food or I actually gain weight and I still have a lot to use. I also take medication and steroids from time to time which slows down my ability to exercise or lose weight.
  • swbabe33
    swbabe33 Posts: 21 Member
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    Hard to believe, but you might not be eating enough for the exercise you are doing.
  • Lesliemollett
    Lesliemollett Posts: 25
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    im stuck also i live in a motel so how do i eat proper to lose weight. i have lost like 3.5 in 2 weeks and i work out to jillian michaels and leslie sansone every other day. i have a small fridge and a microwave so any suggestions
  • LTKeegan
    LTKeegan Posts: 354 Member
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    If you are active you may have to adjust your profile to a higher activity level. I had to do that and then I had to drop my calories from 1600 which my doctor gave me, to 1200 if I didn't exercise that day. I didn't lose at 1600 calories for three weeks, because I was not doing enough exercise to compensate for the calories I was consuming. I also have to watch the kind of foods that make up my calories. I assumed that since I had a lot of weight to lose, I didn't have to be too careful about the kind of food. My 1200+ calories can't be bad food or I actually gain weight and I still have a lot to use. I also take medication and steroids from time to time which slows down my ability to exercise or lose weight.

    I was worried about this so my plan is: tell the TDEE calculator I'm "lightly active/desk job" and then eat back 50% of my exercise calories. I'm certain that MFP is overestimating them, but I'm too poor (grad student here) to afford a $50 heart rate monitor. :(

    So on days that I exercise I'll eat more like 1600 and I've upped my rest day to 1350 so that I dont eat less than my BMR
  • LTKeegan
    LTKeegan Posts: 354 Member
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    im stuck also i live in a motel so how do i eat proper to lose weight. i have lost like 3.5 in 2 weeks and i work out to jillian michaels and leslie sansone every other day. i have a small fridge and a microwave so any suggestions

    I'd be happy with 3.5 lbs in 2 weeks. You should keep going :D
  • Lesliemollett
    Lesliemollett Posts: 25
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    thanks but what about my diet its hard bc of my living conditions. i have shake mix and all but never have enough milk to put in it but its says i can use water. any suggestions ON WHAT I CAN EAT THATS I CAN KEEP IN MY ROOM. I WAS THINKING SOUP AND SOME SPECIAL K THINGS WITH MY DIET SHAKES ANY HELP OUT THERE WOULD BE NICE AND IM LOOKING FOR FRIENDS IN THE CANTON AREA

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