someone tell me I am being silly? pretty please?

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hortensehildegarde
hortensehildegarde Posts: 592 Member
edited September 2015 in Motivation and Support
I've been around MFP long enough to feel like my nagging doubts are silly, but the brain is not always as obedient as we would wish so I am seeking some reinforcements of reason here.

I am an obese 5'5" 38yo female who the scale presently tells me I weigh 207. I started off at a highest scale weight seen of 249 in Jan 2014. By February of this year I think lowest scale weight I had seen was 187, then a slew of issues put me into a tailspin. I stopped tracking but did pretty good all spring staying around the 192 range. A series of summer travels took me out of my eating and activity regimes and by mid August I was up to 202. I returned from my last scheduled trip last week and the scale told me 215.

I guess I am just a little shell-shocked because I went for so many months eating whatever I wanted and of course I gained, but it wasn't so crazy as the last 2 months have been. I could kick myself for not having checked in more frequently so I could not better recreate the uptick.

I think the reality probably is that I am *really* active at home in my normal routine relative to what I do when I get out of that routine. I don't know, but it's one of my projects to figure out.

My question is the way I have my settings (active/ 2 lb per week loss) it puts my calories at 1480. It's wanting to make adjustments upward from my fitbit. Is it stupid of me to just stick to the 1480 for a while and see how things go? I feel like I haven't actually lost any weight, and the fact that I was weighing in at 215 a week ago and 207 now is just a consequence of me having been travelling/on a plane/ drastically cutting my intake this week vs. what it was before and not really substantial loss.

As much as I read on here I always get freaked out about eating too little. How stupid is that? Someone reassure me eating 1480 calories is OK?!? On my most active day my fitbit clocks *maybe* 22,000 steps and that's just from walking around, I am not doing any kind of particular dedicated or strenuous exercise.

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  • mbaker566
    mbaker566 Posts: 11,233 Member
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    I think it's fine to eat about that. i try to eat half back of the added calories.
    eat above 1200 and less than 1480
  • melduf
    melduf Posts: 468 Member
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    I'm 5'1'' and I eat 1550. I started at 198 lbs and I'm now at 154 lbs. I manage to lose 1 lb per week.
    Your sudden loss is probably due to water weight because of your sodium intake.

    As for adjusting your calories, it takes about 3 weeks to see a trend. So you can wait and see, unless you're starving. Either way, when you choose to change your calories, do it by a 100 calories (for example, from 1480 to 1580). Wait at least 2 weeks before switching it again. Good data is important, so make sure to log acurately. Then you'll be able to look back and see what's best.
  • dubird
    dubird Posts: 1,849 Member
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    Your weight loss will fluctuate daily, much less weekly. I have weeks where despite eating less, the number on the scale goes up. It's usually water weight or TOM and it passes. As long as the general TREND of weight is going down, you're fine.

    If you go a month with weighing and logging EVERYTHING and are under or at your goal and still not losing, take about 100 calories off and enter a custom weight. MAKE SURE the calorie goal at MFP and Fitbit are the same, or you may end up with the two of them arguing how much extra you burn during the day. What I do is not enter exercise at all on MFP. I use the exercise mode on my Fitbit and let it determine how much extra I get for the day. Is your Fitbit one with a heart rate monitor? If not, you will need to make adjustments, though for that you'll need to check out the Fitbit group here. Having a constant HRM is going to give you the most accurate daily burn. Also, there is no magic number of calories a step burns. There are so many variables that you can't use that for a burn ration. It's good that you're getting a high number, means you're moving around and being active, but don't use it to account for how many calories you burn.

  • hortensehildegarde
    hortensehildegarde Posts: 592 Member
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    Thank you so much for the comments, I intellectually know all these things but it helps to see someone else say them.

    I'm eating until I am full and eating enough to not be hungry (I hate being hungry!) and trying to keep from lying on the couch all the time. I'll give it a while, I know for sure it's not too much but if it turns out to be too little another week isn't going to kill me or do serious harm.
  • 47Jacqueline
    47Jacqueline Posts: 6,993 Member
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    Mky weight loss progression was very up and down. I took to only weighing myself every other week so I didn't get so frustrated.
  • hortensehildegarde
    hortensehildegarde Posts: 592 Member
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    47Jacqueline wrote: »
    Mky weight loss progression was very up and down. I took to only weighing myself every other week so I didn't get so frustrated.

    When I was logging, I had huge daily fluctuations but the consistent trend was downward. I have pretty much always been a daily weigher. Before I started logging again last week I had this oddly irrational fear that if I logged it *wouldn't* drop, but that was 12 lbs ago at this point (water weight for sure, but still for some strange reason I was afraid it wouldn't happen).

    I don't have trouble losing weight, I have trouble feeling like I am losing too much too quickly because of all the crap we've been fed all our lives about "starvation mode" and how it's only safe to lose 2 lbs per week and more than that and horrible things will happen to us.

    I just want to know I'll be ok if I drop 3-4 a week for the first few initial weeks of restarting and I am not harming myself. I believe this to be true, and know that weight loss is typically unusually large the first week or two anyway.

    Now I am still firmly in the obese category, I am sure when I don't have so much to lose it won't come off so easily and I won't have so much water weight to drop off, but for now I just need to keep reassuring myself it is ok if I lose more than 2 lbs per week, same as I won't die if I don't. Just need to observe and keep tweaking my practice to get the results I want.
  • fiddletime
    fiddletime Posts: 1,862 Member
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    As for speed of weight loss and starvation mode, two years ago I wanted to lose twenty pounds. I wasn't using MFP or calorie counting. I just drastically reduced my food intake with a commitment not to plateau. I last twenty pounds in ten weeks to reach my goal of 120 (and then gained it all back and some in 6 months).

    I am rarely sick. I don't get colds or the flu. That ten weeks I was on my "quick weight loss program“ I got multiple colds and felt like my immune system had gone on vacation. It was bad for my body and I was out of balance. This time around I'm going much more slowly, and have my strength and have been healthy. So, lose as quickly as you want but listen to your body. You'll know if you're losing too quickly.
  • hortensehildegarde
    hortensehildegarde Posts: 592 Member
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    fiddletime wrote: »
    As for speed of weight loss and starvation mode, two years ago I wanted to lose twenty pounds. I wasn't using MFP or calorie counting. I just drastically reduced my food intake with a commitment not to plateau. I last twenty pounds in ten weeks to reach my goal of 120 (and then gained it all back and some in 6 months).

    I am rarely sick. I don't get colds or the flu. That ten weeks I was on my "quick weight loss program“ I got multiple colds and felt like my immune system had gone on vacation. It was bad for my body and I was out of balance. This time around I'm going much more slowly, and have my strength and have been healthy. So, lose as quickly as you want but listen to your body. You'll know if you're losing too quickly.

    thank you! I know you are right. I know there is a HUGE difference between losing 3 lbs in a week when you are obese and losing 2 lbs in a week when you are in a healthy weight range. I just need reminding, thank you for your comments!

    I can't wait to get back to being small enough that it makes sense for me to have tiny losses I can't even notice each week!
  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
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    hortensehildegarde wrote: »
    I am a 5'5" 38yo female who weighs 207.

    The way I have my settings (active/ 2 lb per week loss) it puts my calories at 1480. It's wanting to make adjustments upward from my fitbit. Is it stupid of me to just stick to the 1480 for a while and see how things go?

    Your Fitbit burn is TDEE (total daily energy expenditure), the calories necessary to maintain your current weight. Your default MFP calorie goal (1,480) is activity level minus deficit. If you follow these directions (and log everything you eat & drink accurately & honestly), you'll be eating TDEE minus a reasonable deficit for your size.

    Connect your accounts at http://www.myfitnesspal.com/fitbit

    Set your goal to .5 lb. per week for every 25 lbs. you're overweight: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change_goals_guided

    Enable negative calorie adjustments: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

    In the MFP app, go to More (Menu) > Steps and choose Fitbit.

    Ignore your Fitbit calorie goal and follow MFP's, eating back your adjustments. No need to log any step-based activity—your Fitbit is tracking it for you. Log non-step exercise (like swimming or biking) either in Fitbit or in MFP—never both. Exercise logged in MFP overwrites your Fitbit burn during that time.

    You can learn more in the Fitbit Users group: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users

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