Help!! Are my calories right?

natajane · December 2015

Helpppp!

I'm 29, 160cm tall and weigh 225lbs.

Exercises wise I've been slowly walking for 30 mins twice a week with the pushchair, maybe an hour on a weekend and then 3 x a week I'm doing a starter dumbell routine. I'll do that for another 3 weeks to prep and then I'll start to lift heavy (5x5). Other than that I'm pretty sedentary. I don't want to up my exercise right now, I'm focusing on food mainly and don't want to overwhelm myself.

I've been eating around 1600 calories each day. I do that every day, I never go over 1650. Sometimes I'm closer to 1500.

I aim for 40% carb, 30% fat and 30% protein. I'm managing that about 60% of the time, the other 40% of the time I get 45% carb, 35% fat and 20% protein.

My first week I lost 6lbs and 1cm all over. (I think a lot of this was water weight as I'd come off my period). This week I've lost nothing lb wise, but 1cm all over.

So that's all my stats for you there!

If I was a few weeks in, then a week at the same weight wouldn't worry me but because I've just started and I'm so overweight surely I should have seen 2lbs?

Is 1600 cals too much when I'm so sedentary?

malovafarms · December 2015

1600 is where Im at at lower weight (172 ) and it feels healthy... decreasing the cals to much sends the body into starvation mode and might work great short short term but ultimately lowers you metabolism not to mention encourages binge..I see way to many on here trying to huff it through 1300 and under cals and it doesn't look like the right route esp when the meals end up to be snackbars instead of whole foods. I like to stay at an attainable comfortable calorie where I feel nourished not to self punishing and on a slow but steady weight loss.. think about how much you were eating before the 1600 and tracking to give yourself a good idea of how it relates if you mainly focusing on food.. your exercise is a great start.. good luck ..slow and steady!! but this is just advice

you know u best

natajane · December 2015

Yeah, I agree. If I go any lower than 1500 I just know I'll pack it all in!

Food wise for breakfast I'm eating mostly things like yoghurt and oats and berries, or Weetabix and milk, or egg on toast, or I have a big breakfast and small lunch with beans, mushroom, egg, bacon, toast for breakfast. Lunch is salad or soup with tuna or chicken slices (processed though) and a pitta bread with low fat soft cheese. Dinner is lots of veg with fish or chicken and a little carb if my macros allow. I've stopped having sugar in my teas and cut out all cake and chocolate.

I've only eaten what I've planned the night before, and I check calories on and weigh 90% of my food as I make most of it at home.

I reckon I was eating 2200 calories before?

I do have a couple of Christmas functions to go to this weekend where I just can't avoid eating so I'll have 2 days at 1800-1900 calories. I guess if my body is freaking out at the drop in calories then I'll see some loss after this weekend? Is that how it works?

I guess I'm disappointed as I've never stuck to something so well (or thought I had!). I just want to get it right this time.

RodaRose · December 2015

This takes patience. You are on the right path.

Whitezombiegirl · December 2015

Statation mode is where your bodys procesess start to shut down and physical activity is reduced to absolute minimum to conserve calories- when you are actually in a starvation situation.

We are talking about adaptive thermogenesis which is a tightening up of the energy used in processes for normal functioning. It takes months of under eating and the effect is minimal. Its not something to be concerned about.

Yi5hedr3 · December 2015

Cut carbs and protein, increase healthy fat.

natajane · December 2015

Thanks everyone! I've weighed this morning and I've lost 3lbs now?!

Think I have learnt some things here -

- I need to stop weighing mid week!! I'll stick to 1 x Saturday mornings.

- I need to walk more. I was going to focus just on weight lifting but I think a bit of cardio helps my body processes. I've employed the use a Fitbit!

vespiquenn · December 2015

Starvation mode does not exist. If it's something you believe in, I really reccomend researching peer reviewed studies on the matter. It is literally the biggest piece of misinformation that exists here.

Anyways, weightloss is not linear. Some weeks you will lose, some you will not, and some you may gain. I suggest using trendweight.com to watch the overall trend of your weightloss. That way, you can better evaluate if you are eating too much or not instead of using what could essentially be fluctuations.

rankinsect · December 2015

natajane wrote: »

Thanks everyone! I've weighed this morning and I've lost 3lbs now?!

Think I have learnt some things here -

- I need to stop weighing mid week!! I'll stick to 1 x Saturday mornings.

- I need to walk more. I was going to focus just on weight lifting but I think a bit of cardio helps my body processes. I've employed the use a Fitbit!

If you can manage it psychologically, weighing daily will give you a much more reliable trend than weighing only once per week. Every day, your weight fluctuates mainly because of the water content of your body - you consume something around five to eight pounds of liquid per day and you don't always eliminate it immediately, particularly when things (exercise, sodium, hormones, sometimes even fat loss) can cause you to retain some extra water.

Now, it's somewhat counterintuitive, but when you weigh daily, your individual data points are not very reliable because of the fluctuations, but trends in the data become much more reliable. When you weigh weekly you can often see no progress just because you took one reading on a "low" day and the subsequent reading on a "high" day, but you don't have enough data to actually know that occurred.

natajane · December 2015

Thanks for the daily weighing suggestion - I've found an app called happy scales and i'm using that now. I'm quite happy to weigh daily but it always confuses me because of the water/hormonal changes etc.

This is really interesting and motivating though! I love that the graph shows me an average, and that it gives me an estimated end date (which doesn't feel too far away either!). Makes me plod on.

Help!! Are my calories right?

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