Slow loss with around 100 lbs to lose.

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  • semarsh12
    semarsh12 Posts: 77 Member
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    Hi there,

    So I hear what you're saying about losing weight what you think is slow but I just want to say congrats on the first 20 lbs and DON'T GIVE UP!! It's 20 freaking pounds!!

    I took a look at my weight history to see the rate I was losing and here goes:
    2 months to lose 20 lbs.
    At 4 months I lost 30 lbs
    5 months I lost 36 lbs
    9 months 53 lbs
    1 year 61 lbs

    I am on track to lose 100 lbs or so and the more I lose it seems the slower it gets. But that's okay. Some weeks you might not lose anything but then the next you might lose 2 or 3! Ever since I got to under 200 4 months ago I've only lost 8 lbs. However, it's still 8 lbs and I know I'm healthier than I was those 8 lbs ago. It is DEFINITELY frustrating but just try try try to stay focused. I started out eating about 1900 calories, now I stay 1700 or under but I eat at least half of exercise calories back. I don't follow any particular eating patterns (paleo, clean, fasting, etc), I eat less and move more. At times when I seemed to be stuck I increased my calories and started losing again. It's a process that is always surprising me! Don't give up, 9 months from now you will look back over the year and you will be glad you stuck with it. It might help to make smaller goals. Instead of 100 lbs, my Body Mass Index was in the 40's and my first goal was to get it under 40. Then my next goal was to get to 199. Now, my next goal is to get to 175. I just break it up, then it doesn't seem like such a pain in the butt.

    Good luck, stay focused and DON'T GIVE UP!!
  • DataSeven
    DataSeven Posts: 245 Member
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    I'm in the same boat as you, 30 lbs in 3 months, however I am following what the MFP says I should be eating to lose 2 lbs a week, and that appears to be what I am losing overall.

    I agree with the 1200 calories being way too low for someone our size. There's no way I could stick to that and not lose my mind or go off the rails after a few days. With what MFP says to eat now, I feel satisfied and there's some wiggle room if I want a treat now and then.

    Plus as someone said earlier, losing slower helps preserve muscle and also for a larger person gives your skin a chance to shrink so it's not all loose after you lose so much weight.

    I know it's a cliche, I think slow but steady wins the race with weight loss.
  • Samstan101
    Samstan101 Posts: 699 Member
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    Some great advise already and congrats on your loss to date. You say you can't exercise much because of asthma. Do you have a very active job or walk a lot every day? The reason I ask is your Fitbit burn seems pretty high. I have a Fitbit One and log all my exercise on the Fitbit website with steady state cardio cals logged from my HRM. I work out every day (2 days a week twice a day as do weights in a morning and then running club in an evening). I'm running 20-25 miles a week and my average Fitbit calculated TDEE is 2830 (based on a rolling 8 week average). So if you don't have a very active job or walk a lot then I think your Fitbit is over recording cals and so your deficit isn't as big as you think. I had a Flex for a while and found it overly sensitive - to get it close to accurate I wore it on my non-dominant wrist but had it set as being on my dominant hand. This reduce the sensitivity so it wasn't counting all movement as steps.

    I'm eating an average of an 700 cal deficit now as was finding with the exercise I was doing I was starving with a bigger deficit. The weight loss has slowed but I'm in it for the long haul - its still coming off quicker than it went on!

    Best of luck :flowerforyou:
  • AlmightyAce
    AlmightyAce Posts: 35 Member
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    Thank you all for your replies! I'm actually really proud of YOU all for all of your accomplishments thus far. I guess 20 lbs in 3 months isn't as bad as I thought.
    To the person that asked about my Fitbit burn- I have a Desk job but I am up and running around the office a fair amount during the day. Also I usually have to run by the grocery store after work so I am averaging, according to Fitbit, about 2-2.5 miles a day from that. I wear my Fitbit on my Dominant hand, but had it set for Dominant hand as well; because that's how I thought it went haha. Should I change the settings to Non-Dominant? And if my burn is grossly overestimated, that may be part of the problem too, even though I've been eating around 1700 cals since starting this and before my Fitbit.

    And DataSteven- For Sedentary to lose 2lb a week on MFP, it's only 1320 cals. To lose 1.5 it's 1,570. Even that stretches it for me sadly. 1lb a week would be 1,820. So I have it set to 1700 to lose a little over a pound a week, which I just haven't been seeing sadly.

    Again, thank you all for your replies. :flowerforyou:
  • omma_to_3
    omma_to_3 Posts: 3,265 Member
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    Maybe that's it....the goal seems SO bloody far off that its discouraging. What was your calorie intake at that weight, khoshgeleh16? Do you recall?

    At your weight (and I'm shorter - only 5'4") I was eating around 1460, not exercising, and losing about the same amount as you. I lost 8 lbs the first month than 5 to 6 a month after that. I think your loss is exactly where it should be.

    I would advise you to change your goal. Don't look at 150. StArt by shooting for losing 20 lbs. when you hit that, look to be under 200. Once there, aim to get out of the obese range. Then shoot for that final goal of 150. It's too overwhelming to look at the ultimate goal so set smaller ones so you can enjoy your success!
  • Samstan101
    Samstan101 Posts: 699 Member
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    Thank you all for your replies! I'm actually really proud of YOU all for all of your accomplishments thus far. I guess 20 lbs in 3 months isn't as bad as I thought.
    To the person that asked about my Fitbit burn- I have a Desk job but I am up and running around the office a fair amount during the day. Also I usually have to run by the grocery store after work so I am averaging, according to Fitbit, about 2-2.5 miles a day from that. I wear my Fitbit on my Dominant hand, but had it set for Dominant hand as well; because that's how I thought it went haha. Should I change the settings to Non-Dominant? And if my burn is grossly overestimated, that may be part of the problem too, even though I've been eating around 1700 cals since starting this and before my Fitbit.

    And DataSteven- For Sedentary to lose 2lb a week on MFP, it's only 1320 cals. To lose 1.5 it's 1,570. Even that stretches it for me sadly. 1lb a week would be 1,820. So I have it set to 1700 to lose a little over a pound a week, which I just haven't been seeing sadly.

    Again, thank you all for your replies. :flowerforyou:

    Based on this I'd say your Fitbit is giving you too higher burn. As a comparison (I'm 5'6" 195lbs 41yo female with a walking stride of 2' 5", I also have an office job that sounds similar to yours) on an average day when I was the same weight as you I was taking around 9k steps, walking 4 miles and burning 2900 cals a day and that included 30mins on the elliptical trainer burning 400 cals. So if you're not doing the exercise then I'd expect a lower burn (nearer 2400-2500) depending on your height & age of course.

    Make sure you set your walking and running stride length in the Fitbit settings. Personally I'd wear it on your non-dominant hand but leave it set to dominant and see how that goes.

    That all said you're doing great! Its just a case of tweaking things a bit so you're losing slowly and steadily developing eating habits you can sustain. You don't want to cut your calories really low now as a)who wants to be hungry all the time?! It only leads to binging for most of us and b)you may need a little wiggle room when you near target.
  • khoshgeleh16
    khoshgeleh16 Posts: 150 Member
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    Maybe that's it....the goal seems SO bloody far off that its discouraging. What was your calorie intake at that weight, khoshgeleh16? Do you recall?

    Sorry, haven't been around much the last few days and didn't see this! I think early on I was netting around 1900 calories, down to 1840 by the third month (I'm now netting 1600) but I usually ate at least 2200-2400. My current intake is usually somewhere in that range, occasionally up to 2800 depending on my exercise calories - I'm about 230 right now, so I still get pretty big burns, and I do a LOT of exercise - though being active has never been my problem! ;-)
  • bellevie86
    bellevie86 Posts: 301 Member
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    I agree with all the people saying it seems like a reasonable loss. When I started I was losing bout 6 a month but of course that slowed down after a while. There's no method to the madness sometimes, some weeks I can eat way over and not gain. Whereas sometimes I had a period with no loss or lost at a quicker rate than I had set. Sometimes it has advantages. I've been (not meaning to) in maintenance while 3 days a week going over my TDEE. So I'd say, you're doing fine, I think my body was happy to lose at a slower rate, and has helped me to maintain a little easier, or so it seems. Keep going!

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