losing 20lbs by May, doable?

If you work hard and stick to an appropriate nutrition plan, 20 lbs by May is doable. You'll have to be dedicated though. I see you're doing mostly cardio. I would recommend that you add in a bunch of hard resistance/strength workouts. Really do your best. They are great for burning through a ton of calories, protect your muscle mass, and keep your metabolism up.

If we only consider the numbers then yes, losing 20lbs by May is a reasonable (perhaps slightly aggressive) target.

If you are using MFP the way it is intended though, you should consider eating back a portion of your exercise calories. I've written about that here:


http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818082/exercise-calories-again-wtf

I think you're doing an amazing job, you seem really on top of it. If you're tracking and following this schedule, I don't think that there's much more that you can do, other than to stay positive, not get discouraged if you don;t have good days/weeks and remember that you'll be building muscle as well, so if the scale isn't shifting, it may be because you're toning up and building muscle!

When I went to weight watchers they told me to eat back at least SOME of my exercise calories. Although not eating back the exercise calories worked for me when I was younger, since menopause I actually CAN NOT lose weight if I do not eat enough of my calories back.

All that exercise on 1300 calories per day, at 5'6" and 175, and without eating back exercise calories? Nuh-uh, NOT healthy, no way, no how. That's just a recipe for yo-yo dieting -- you may lose it all by May but you'll probably gain it back by June.

Take a step back from what you're doing. Re-evaluate your goals. You want to aim for slow and steady loss -- that's the ideal.

With your stats, if you're not eating back exercise calories (i.e. if you're using the TDEE method), I'd recommend aiming to eat no less than 1900 calories, minimum. Your TDEE is probably in the neighbourhood of 2400 or maybe higher, so that would correspond to about a 1lb/week rate of loss.

Obviously, it could be less or more; you have to try it for a bit and adjust. But I'd say that'd be a good starting point.

1300 calories per day is not healthy for a person with your stats.

SideSteel wrote: »

If we only consider the numbers then yes, losing 20lbs by May is a reasonable (perhaps slightly aggressive) target.

If you are using MFP the way it is intended though, you should consider eating back a portion of your exercise calories. I've written about that here:


http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818082/exercise-calories-again-wtf

Nothing else needs to be said.

dimasj wrote: »

I am weighing and measuring food. My calories are around 1300 per day.

Assuming you're eating near that target (which is not necessarily an accurate assumption) you are likely going to have substantial adherence/performance problems with an intake that low.

I would suspect you'll get much better results eating back some exercise calories which will raise your average intake. Not for "starvation mode" nonsense, but for behavioral reasons that will make a long term impact on your progress.

It's definitely doable, but considering you don't have a ton of weight to lose it might be a little aggressive. Strictly scientifically speaking it's possible but I don't want you to be disappointed if that doesn't happen. I'm 5'0" and 165 pounds, and I don't lose more than a pound a week. I don't expect to lose more than 15 pounds by May.

dimasj wrote: »

I just read you post about the exercise calories to eat or not to eat and it has some great points! I will re-evaluate and look at eating back some of the exercise calories. Thank you

That's great! Remember that there's no race to the finish line here. Slower is better.