I need some advice.

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Gotrea
Gotrea Posts: 1 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm eating between 1200 and 1500 calories a day but I haven’t really loss much weight over the past three weeks. And yes, I haven't had a perfect diet but I'm trying to improve it bit by bit and I've had a few bad days but I like to think that's normal. (I've opened my diary and I'm 5"9 at 168)

One of the things I'm doing to incorporate a healthy lifestyle is running up stairs at work almost every hour on the hour. (I'm up to 6 floors now! I started at 4.) I've also started to lift weights a few days ago.

Anyway, All this to say, should I reduce my calorie intake or should I increase it? I'm thinking I should do more strength training, less cardio, and less calories. What do you think?

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  • Chrisparadise579
    Chrisparadise579 Posts: 411 Member
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    Hey great job getting started! Sorry you havent lost weight yet but I can help! First instead of picking a calorie range lets just stick with 1500 and make sure you are withing 50 calories of that. Second go ahead and set your macros to 25% fat 40% and 35% carbs. Finally it sounds like you are working out ALOT relax on that a bit, an hour or so 5-6 days a week is plenty. A mix of weightlifting and HIIT workouts is best for fat loss. Looks like you have the motivation to do this just need some fine tuning. Great work!
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,150 Member
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    You lost 20 pounds, so you're obviously doing something right. You're running 6 flights of stairs every hour @ 5 mins?? So 40 minutes of cardio a day, plus weights. Great job. remember that when starting a new exercise program, its normal to retain water. Keep doing what you're doing.
  • pander101
    pander101 Posts: 677 Member
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    So as you get closer to your goal, it's going to be more difficult to lose weight. Or I should say weight loss will slow significantly. I looked at your diary and a lot of the foods you log are the portions that are default for MFP. Start weighing your food, not measuring, weighing. You are probably consuming more than you think. That includes things like peanut butter, mayo, spreads. It makes a big difference.

    I also noticed that you end up going over on a lot of days. While this isn't a problem usually it becomes one if it is frequent and if you don't actually know how much you are consuming. You should stick with the calories that MFP recommends and accurately log.

    As for working out, that is up to you and the goals you want. Weight lifting should be included when losing weight to help reduce muscle loss which will occur when losing weight. One last thing, if you are using the MFP database to calculate calories burned eat about 50%-75% of those calories back. MFP overestimates.

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