if you were me...

mom2ava07 · February 2015

I am 29 years old, female, 5'5, starting weight 167, current weight is 154.4. I began on January 4th , so roughly 5.5 weeks ago.

I originally set to lose 2 lbs per week, and put that I am sedentary because I have a desk job. I do usually do 45 min to an hour 5 times per week on the treadmill, and usually eat very few of those calories back.

My question is, if I'm only wanting to lose 9 more pounds, should I up my calories? I was doing great. Wasn't hungry and had energy, but it's as if the more I lose the worse I feel. I am tired, ill, hungry a lot more, and my muscles feel sore after every workout.

I like quick results is the only thing holding me back. I have lost an average of 2 lbs per week, but most was in the first couple weeks.

So if you were me me what would you be doing?

Lasmartchika · February 2015

0.5 loss/ week

Laurend224 · February 2015

I would drop your goal down to .5 -1 lb/ week and see how that affects your loss, you will have more energy to fuel your workouts.

_Zardoz_ · February 2015

You really should be aiming for around half a pound a week with that little to lose. So yes I'd up your calories. Listen to your body it's obviously trying to tell you something

Sued0nim · February 2015

9lbs to lose your goal should be set at 0.5lb a week

and you should eat those calories plus 50% of the calories

your aim is to head comfortably towards maintenance with as much muscle as possible

also this bit " was doing great. Wasn't hungry and had energy, but it's as if the more I lose the worse I feel. I am tired, ill, hungry a lot more, and my muscles feel sore after every workout." is simply because you aren't fuelling your body properly - eating more calories, and trying to aim for 0.8-1g of protein for 1lb of LBM will help .. and quite quickly

find your balance for long-term success

you've got this

Ooci · February 2015

Most definitely I would up the calories. 9 is a small amount and a half a pound per week loss would be the most kind way to yourself. At your height and with the workouts I would certainly be wanting 1800 cals per day at least, particularly if you aren't eating back the exercise calories.

The body doesn't like reducing in my experience, it's happy at first if you're very overweight but as you get smaller it gets much harder. Slow and steady really is the best way.

TavistockToad · February 2015

Lasmartchika wrote: »

0.5 loss/ week

this!

PeachyCarol · February 2015

I'd definitely up the calories and set my goal to around .5 pounds a week and see how it goes.

SwankyTomato · February 2015

If I could go back and talk to my 29yo self, I would tell myself to start a heavy lifting program with a trainer at a gym and stick with it for life.

As far as your question, I would change my loss/week to .5/week and up my calories.

mom2ava07 · February 2015

Thanks everyone!

It's tough to sCale back the rate of loss, but I find myself daydreaming of food and lots of it lately. It's clear my body is telling me something, but I just needed to hear it from others.

TimothyFish · February 2015

I don't agree that you should set your weight loss rate based on how much you have to go, but if your calorie deficit is making you ill, then you should eat more.

MelodyandBarbells · February 2015

TimothyFish wrote: »

I don't agree that you should set your weight loss rate based on how much you have to go, but if your calorie deficit is making you ill, then you should eat more.

Just curious, have you had experience with sub ten lbs to lose? I wonder because Higher rates of loss require bigger deficits (regardless of weight left to lose), and smaller people typically don't have the body mass or body fat to create these deficits easily

TavistockToad · February 2015

TimothyFish wrote: »

I don't agree that you should set your weight loss rate based on how much you have to go, but if your calorie deficit is making you ill, then you should eat more.

dare i ask why?

mom2ava07 · February 2015

So, if I change my goals up it hardly increases my daily calories. If I go from a 2 lb per week loss to 1 lb, I only get 1290 calories. A .5 per week loss jumps me up to 1500 (which is plenty). I just struggle with if I truly am sedentary.

I have a desk job, but my office is upstairs and I make several trips up and down the stairs. When I get home in the evening I spend most of the night on my feet (roughly 3 hours) cooking, cleaning up, and getting my kids bathed amd ready for bed. Then I walk on the treadmill for 45 minutes to an hour.

I went with sedentary just to be safe, but wonder if that's correct.

tephanies1234 · February 2015

Ok I pretty much have the same stats (5'5" and 27 and desk job, no kids,4x workouts some cardio and lifting heavy) and I started at 159lbs just over 3 months ago and have only lost a total of 12 lbs in this time eating 1300-1400 cals per rest day and eating back 100-150 cals extra per workout day which looks like its averaged out to 0.8lbs per week for the last 13ish weeks. I also have been having one maintenance day on the weekend for sanity purposes since the beginning of January.

So it looks like you've lost pretty quickly and since you said it happened in the first week, it's mostly water weight. I wouldn't stress out that it's "slowed down" because it was water weight dropping so fast to begin with. Take measurements of yourself and/or pics and track real progress in the fat loss department. You will be much happier. My own plan is to lose the next 8lbs at the same rate I'm going and slow down even more to 0.5lbs/week OR completely take a maintenance break once I hit 139lbs and that's another 10 weeks out for me for a total of 23ish weeks dieting to lose 20lbs. But if you are not recovering from your workouts and feel ill than you should definitely bump up your calories especially since you have not been eating back any exercise calories which would put you under 1200/day which is not good. Some people take maintenance breaks along the way which help a lot; I did this past week. So that's my two cents since we have the same stats.

higgins8283801 · February 2015

yes you need to raise your calorie goal and reduce the amount of weight per week to lose. 0.5lbs or less is ideal.

blankiefinder · February 2015

mom2ava07 wrote: »

So, if I change my goals up it hardly increases my daily calories. If I go from a 2 lb per week loss to 1 lb, I only get 1290 calories. A .5 per week loss jumps me up to 1500 (which is plenty). I just struggle with if I truly am sedentary.

I have a desk job, but my office is upstairs and I make several trips up and down the stairs. When I get home in the evening I spend most of the night on my feet (roughly 3 hours) cooking, cleaning up, and getting my kids bathed amd ready for bed. Then I walk on the treadmill for 45 minutes to an hour.

I went with sedentary just to be safe, but wonder if that's correct.

That is because MFP won't allow your recommended calories to go below a certain point. So you can tell it to set you to lose 2 lbs per week, but it will only drop your calories to a certain point. So you weren't actually set for losing 2 lbs per week, if you can follow my illness fuddled logic.

Every 1/2 lb per week is ~250 calories per day. so if 1 lb per week gives you 1290, then to achieve 2 lbs per week you would have only 790 calories net per day, which is not healthy or sustainable.

if you were me...

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