still losing weight after coming off diet!

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dragthewaters
dragthewaters Posts: 62 Member
edited January 2015 in Goal: Maintaining Weight
Hello all,

I began dieting the beginning of October and stopped at the end of December. I went from around 130 pounds to 120. I originally started out at 1600 calories a day, then increased to 1700, then at the end increased to 1800. I ended my diet December 30th after reaching 120 pounds (this was weighed either first thing in the morning, or in the evening before eating dinner).

I was surprised how easy the weight was to lose given that I had many days when I was over my calories, and there were many days when I didn't track everything. I was actually losing weight at a much faster rate than MFP said I would (I had it set for half a pound a week). Honestly for most of the last half of December, I was eating 1900-2200 calories a day and yet I still lost 2 pounds. I estimate that when I gained the weight in the first place I was eating about 2100 calories a day. I started my maintenance calories at 1900 since I felt the MFP estimate of 1,810 was low. I also weighed everything out using a food scale or measuring cups to make sure it was as accurate as possible.

Well I have still been losing weight...last night I weighed myself and was 117.5 pounds! I haven't reached a weight that low in 3.5 years. This was at 10 PM after I hadn't eaten since 12 PM, so it's probably a low estimate, but I weighed myself today a couple of hours after eating a fairly large meal and I was between 119 and 119.5. Two weeks ago I would have been about 121 a couple of hours after eating.

I am female, 23 years old, only 5'4" and don't have a very active lifestyle (I don't usually work out, my job requires a lot of walking around and I also walk about a mile a day)...I can't imagine myself needing more than 1900 calories a day? I do get pretty hungry by dinnertime but that was the case even before I went on a diet. And as I said I think I was eating around 2100 calories a day originally.

I'm just kind of scared honestly that maybe going on a diet activated some trigger in my metabolism or something and now I'm just going to keep losing weight and nothing will stop it. Or that I have an underlying health problem that I don't know about. In the next few days I am going to eat as much as possible just so I can make sure I have the ability to still gain weight.

Has anyone else experienced this? Could I really require that many calories a day even though MFP says only 1810?

By the way I have no other known health problems, and feel pretty good in general (much better than when I started dieting), no sign of anything else being wrong that I know of.

Replies

  • ILiftHeavyAcrylics
    ILiftHeavyAcrylics Posts: 27,732 Member
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    I think you're fine, just keep increasing calories until you stop losing. Keep in mind that weight fluctuates though, so don't freak out if you suddenly "gain" 3 lbs or something.

    I'm 5'4" 125 lbs and I have a sedentary job. I maintain on about 1900 calories. If you do a lot of walking for yours it makes sense that you would need more than I would. You're also younger.
  • clyn27
    clyn27 Posts: 102 Member
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    Females can gain and lose 5 lbs all the time just from your menstrual cycle. Don't panic, add another 100-150 calories this week and see how it goes. I know my weight fluctuates drastically just in one day during different times of the month. When I woke up this morning I was at 144.3, I ate a very light breakfast and had a cup of coffee and now 5 hours later I am at 148.9. I just started my monthly today.
  • ahoy_m8
    ahoy_m8 Posts: 3,053 Member
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    Weight fluctuates hourly and daily and (for women) monthly based on more factors than it is possible to track accurately. If you are interested in tracking your scale weight, and not everyone cares about scale weight, try weighing immediately after waking & using restroom. Log it in a spreadsheet (or app), and only concern yourself with the 7-day trailing average. If your weight fluctuates noticeably with menstrual cycle, look at the trailing average over 28 days (or whatever the average length of your cycle is). Good job losing the weight!
  • YAYJules
    YAYJules Posts: 282 Member
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    I'd watch it for a longer time line, if you find after several weeks at maintenance calories you are still losing weight, check in with your doctor. One incidence can be chalked up to fluctuation, but if it's a pattern, look at other variables.
  • maxit
    maxit Posts: 880 Member
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    I'd watch it for a longer time line, if you find after several weeks at maintenance calories you are still losing weight, check in with your doctor. One incidence can be chalked up to fluctuation, but if it's a pattern, look at other variables.

    I totally agree with that.
  • JoRocka
    JoRocka Posts: 17,525 Member
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    I wait 2-3 weeks before making a change.

    then if it's still going in a direction I don't like- I make a change.

    In your case- eat more- adda bout 100-150 calories.

    wait another 3 weeks.
    still losing? eat more
    not losing- you're good
    gaining- drop it back down by 100 calories.
  • orchidee1987
    orchidee1987 Posts: 97 Member
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    Are you are talking 1900 calories NET ? 2400ish calories gross sounds good regarding your age, activity level etc. 1900 gross sems definitely low (i'd lose at this amount). Weigh yourself in a few weeks and see
  • dragthewaters
    dragthewaters Posts: 62 Member
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    orchidee1987 wrote: »
    Are you are talking 1900 calories NET ? 2400ish calories gross sounds good regarding your age, activity level etc. 1900 gross sems definitely low (i'd lose at this amount). Weigh yourself in a few weeks and see

    1900 calories a day total. I don't generally do cardio (would like to get back into it at some point, but I'm naturally lazy and busy with other things right now) and I don't enter it into the "cardio" section when I do my normal walking to/from the train station or going up and down the stairs and around my workplace. Since I consider that to be part of my normal "everyday activity level." Also MFP doesn't count strength training or conditioning (ie. lunges) as burning calories, although I feel like it should count because I get out of breath while doing those things.

    Thanks for your responses everyone. I calculated about how many calories a day my body needs, based on the rate at which I lost weight, and estimated it was between 2000 and 2100 calories. Still it's kind of strange that MFP's estimate was off by so much.

    I ate 2100 calories on Wednesday, 2200 on Thursday and not sure how many I had today (since I went out to a restaurant) but I ate whenever I was hungry. So we'll see what happens by the end of the weekend when I get back from vacation.

    I guess I just got kind of freaked out because the last time I was 117 pounds it was because I had health problems (really bad anxiety that gave me digestive problems and made me barely able to eat anything for a couple of months). So to me getting that low is a bad sign.
  • mymodernbabylon
    mymodernbabylon Posts: 1,038 Member
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    dragthewaters wrote: »
    orchidee1987 wrote: »
    Are you are talking 1900 calories NET ? 2400ish calories gross sounds good regarding your age, activity level etc. 1900 gross sems definitely low (i'd lose at this amount). Weigh yourself in a few weeks and see

    1900 calories a day total. I don't generally do cardio (would like to get back into it at some point, but I'm naturally lazy and busy with other things right now) and I don't enter it into the "cardio" section when I do my normal walking to/from the train station or going up and down the stairs and around my workplace. Since I consider that to be part of my normal "everyday activity level." Also MFP doesn't count strength training or conditioning (ie. lunges) as burning calories, although I feel like it should count because I get out of breath while doing those things.

    Actually if you go under cardio to 'strength training' it does have a calorie amount. And you should count it anyway toward your maintenance number.
  • bwogilvie
    bwogilvie Posts: 2,130 Member
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    As others have said, the best time to weigh yourself is first thing in the morning, after visiting the bathroom and before eating or drinking anything. Using an exponentially smoothed moving average is a good way to even out daily fluctuations. See the chapters on "Signal and Noise" and "Perfect Weight Forever" in John Walker, The Hacker's Diet.

    It doesn't really matter whether you track your exercise or not, if it's consistent; just keep increasing your daily calories by 100-150 every 2-3 weeks until you level off, as @JoRocka‌ advises.
  • Aviva92
    Aviva92 Posts: 2,333 Member
    edited January 2015
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    I think you're fine. My guess is that your 2100 estimate for what you were eating before is off and you were actually eating more. I'm assuming that estimate was when you weren't tracking. You're pretty young and said you have a job where you're active during the day. Maybe your maintenance is higher. Could be 2500 calories.

    I also had something similar happen to me. Also 5'4". I started out at 140 and my goal was to lose 20 pounds. The 20 pounds came off and I just kept losing weight. I bottomed out at around 101 and gained some since then. Now I'm 107 a year and a half later. 107 isn't unheard of for me since that was around my high school weight and what I weighed throughout much of my 20's. I'm 40 now. I don't have a lot of muscles so it's probably okay for me.

    I got a little concerned that something was wrong, but I felt fine, so figured why question it? Then I started feeling not so fine, so I asked the doctor to test my thyroid. That came back normal and so did all the other blood work. My issues turned out to probably be acid reflux and completely unrelated to my weight. i was just paranoid because of the weight. I think my new normal might be just to eat less and that's why my weight is low now. I also made a point to move more by walking 5 miles round trip to work every day.

    Unless you actually feel sick in some way, my guess is that you just completely underestimated your calorie requirements.
  • dancinginrain
    dancinginrain Posts: 24 Member
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    so sorry but ahhh I wish I had this problem
  • amunet07
    amunet07 Posts: 1,245 Member
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    sounds like you got some pretty sound and supportive advice, so not much more I can add other than I'm willing to take on your additional weight loss for you. ;)

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