Losing too fast and need some insight

cnbbnc
cnbbnc Posts: 1,267 Member
edited November 24 in Health and Weight Loss
I'll try to keep it short, but first off...I made my very first thread about how my weight loss had stalled completely. Thanks to everyone here who told me to buy a gram scale. It's helped tremendously, and I have been losing again.

My issue is....the app has had me set to eat 1350cals/day. Admittedly some days I haven't been eating quite that high, but if I didn't hit it, I came close. This past week I have been eating it all though. I have myself set to "lightly active" as most of my activity is walking, 4-5 days strength training, and 3 days of 15-20min cardio sessions. Since walking and weight training really don't burn calories, I haven't been eating anything back.

Last week I lost 2lbs and this week I'm down another 3, so I'm not doing something right as I have myself set to lose 1lb/week.

I guess my error is in not eating any calories back, but my question are...i have 11lbs left to lose, so should I reset myself to losing .5lbs/week? If so, will the app lower my calories more then because clearly I'm not eating enough as it is now.

Will resetting to .5lbs/week AND eating back some exercise calories slow down my loss??? I love how the scale has gone down, but I know it isn't right.... :/

Replies

  • TheopolisAmbroiseIII
    TheopolisAmbroiseIII Posts: 197 Member
    You often lose more than listed at first. You've adjusted your eating habits and your body is shuffling materials around (primarily water) to compensate. Use MFP's recommended settings for your desired loss for 2-3 months and then see if you need to adjust. Losing 2-3lbs a week won't hurt you, but if you continue at that rate and are concerned about it, try adjusting to a lower loss level, and ensure you are logging and eating at least part of your exercise calories

  • Azuriaz
    Azuriaz Posts: 785 Member
    edited September 2015
    Assuming you aren't taking any supplement or prescription that might mask fatigue, how do you feel? Are you workouts good? Are you feeling energetic and happy during the day and sleeping fine at night? If so, I wouldn't stress faster weight loss if it were me. I'd just be happy.

    Also, walking and weight training do burn calories.
  • queenliz99
    queenliz99 Posts: 15,317 Member
    Eat back your calories burned and set your goal to .5 per week. :)
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    You did not stall forever and these lovely losses won't continue either. Weight loss isn't linear. I'd add a hundred calories a day and see what happens.
  • michelle7673
    michelle7673 Posts: 370 Member
    Azuriaz wrote: »
    Assuming you aren't taking any supplement or prescription that might mask fatigue, how do you feel? Are you workouts good? Are you feeling energetic and happy during the day and sleeping fine at night? If so, I wouldn't stress faster weight loss if it were me. I'd just be happy.

    Also, walking and weight training do burn calories.

    This. I think you're probably more like "moderately active" if you count it that way (no adding and subtracting exercise calories).

    I'm reminded that ALL of these calculations (TDEE, exercise burn, even calories in any given food) are nothing but predictions and averages. ALL of them. The laboratory is your own body. If you're losing at that rate in a consistent way (and I'd agree two weeks isn't necessarily enough data to know) -- then your deficit is more than the way you look at the numbers comes out to. Weight loss is definitely NOT linear. So long as you are not hungry, give it another 1-2 weeks and see if it continues. If you are hungry and you feel like you're cutting it close to the bone, add 100 calories for 2 weeks and see what happens.

  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    jgnatca wrote: »
    You did not stall forever and these lovely losses won't continue either. Weight loss isn't linear. I'd add a hundred calories a day and see what happens.

    This is what I'd do as well.
  • nordlead2005
    nordlead2005 Posts: 1,303 Member
    edited September 2015
    Well, for starters, weight lifting and walking burn plenty of calories. They just pale in comparison to running for the equivalent amount of time. Walking 1 mile burns anywhere from 70-100 calories for a person, and I typically walk anywhere from 3-4mph, so if I burn 300 calories in an hour of walking that might be half of what I burn running, but it is still significant if I do it every day. Also, 2 weeks does not determine a weight loss trend. 6-8 weeks is better.

    If you want to lose 0.5lb/week, then set the app to 0.5lb/week and log all exercise and eat back most of those calories (note that activity level excludes exercise, so choose that based on everything else you do). 2-3lb/week is too much, but we don't know if that is what you actually lost or if it is water weight flucations. 0.5-1lb/week should be fine.

    And of course, targeting a 0.5lb/week loss will slow down your rate of loss compared to 2-3lb/week, there is no question there.
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  • Ashtoretet
    Ashtoretet Posts: 378 Member
    You are underestimating your activity level, you need to put it to moderate. Weight training is what dictates that activity level setting since your muscles will start taking more energy the bigger you grow them.
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