Help me out with slow down please.

jsa_mason
jsa_mason Posts: 17 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So I've been pretty successful, I'm down 41 pounds after 152 days. I went from 238 to 197.2, which is a pretty good weight for me, but I'm going for perfection here. The lightest I have been in my adult life was 175 lbs when I was in the Army, I want to beat that. The max "healthy" weight for my BMI is 174 lbs so I made that my goal.

My question is how do I lose weight faster now that I'm closer to my goal? My calorie goal is 1630 set to lightly active because I work pretty hard at my job. I met that goal today and MFP says at this rate you'll weight 196.2 in 5 weeks, which is only 1 pound of loss in 5 weeks! At that rate I wouldn't hit my goal for years lol. Any advice? Am I doing something wrong? In the past that script was pretty accurate, which is why I'm second guessing myself now.

Thanks friends.

Replies

  • HutchA12
    HutchA12 Posts: 279 Member
    You can Start to exercise to create a larger deficit. Just be sure to still eat 1500-1630 still to be sure you can get a balanced diet. Otherwise that's it. As you lose weight your energy expenditure drops because there is less of you to keep going. It get slower to loser the closer you get to your goal.
  • jsa_mason
    jsa_mason Posts: 17 Member
    So work out frequently and eat the same amount?
  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,486 Member
    You should eat back a portion of your exercise calories. Just good for you health wise- you need extra to perform well exercising and to stop being inefficient and grouchy in life.

    The exercise, especially if you incorporate some strength training, will help sculpt your body.

    Cheers, h.
  • HutchA12
    HutchA12 Posts: 279 Member
    Yep. The only way to lose faster is have a larger deficit. 1500 cal is the min amount recommended for men to have proper nutrition. That's why MFP will lock it there unless you force it lower. Exercise will help you create a larger deficit by burning more calories from working out while still eating enough for proper nutrition. Obviously you don't want to go to crazy with it and some people recommend eating some back but that's up to how you feel.

    Some people have maintenance calories of 1200-1300 so this is the way people in that situation would lose weight.

    In the end though getting closer to perfect is going to take time and the progress will take longer. You will get there.
  • cafeaulait7
    cafeaulait7 Posts: 2,459 Member
    Those stats for calories don't sound right. How tall are you?

    Or just use Scooby's:

    http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/

    There is a chart to the right in the results that will tell you how much you'll lose over a week or month, etc. He does his in percentages off TDEE, so exercise is included in activity. To see any lbs stats you have to guess the percent they would be first. TDEE-20% is pretty common for weight loss, so maybe start there with his.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,092 Member
    That sounds like the 5-week prediction is glitchy. I wouldn't base decisions on how long it's going to take to lose the weight according to the MFP 5-week prediction. What has your actual weight loss been lately, assuming you've been meeting you calories goal?

    Also, as cafeaulait7 said, that calorie goal seems awfully low for someone who weighs 197 lbs and has a pretty active job. I'm a woman in my 50s, I weigh 20 lbs less than you, and I work a desk job, and I lose a pound a week (not a pound in five weeks) on 1900 calories a day net (as in, if I exercise, I eat more than 1900 calories).

    In general, though, you want to lose weight slower as you get close to goal, not faster, so that you can better preserve muscle (losing weight faster requires a bigger deficit, and after you've lost all that weight, you have less body fat to fuel the deficit, and your body can only recover so much energy per pound of fat per day).
  • jsa_mason
    jsa_mason Posts: 17 Member
    Thanks for the help, my height is 70 inches and I have my goal set to 2 lbs a week at lightly active. MFP set me at 1630 calories per day. Within the last 2 months I have been averaging about 1.8 lbs per week of loss.
  • jsa_mason
    jsa_mason Posts: 17 Member
    After considering everything, I think it's just an inaccurate prediction. I don't see why I would go from a rate of loss close to 2lbs a week down to a rate of loss of one pound a month that suddenly. There are other things that are glitched in my account (like the thing that say lbs. lost, mine still says 1.8 pounds gained) so it would make sense that it's simply another glitch.
  • jdleanna
    jdleanna Posts: 141 Member
    MFP has been glitchy for me lately by not including my exercise calories when it predicts my weight in 5 weeks - so for example the other day I ate my base calories and half my earned exercise calories, and MFP said I'd gain weight in 5 weeks. Even though I was actually in a net calorie deficit. If you really ate 1630, you'll lose weight pretty quickly. Ignore MFP's prediction, make sure you're weighing your food as much as possible so that you're able to log accurately, keep exercising, and ignore MFP'S prediction.

    And yes, you can probably eat far more than 1630 plus exercise calories and lose weight. Slowing your weight loss to a pound a week is a good idea at this point, so that you don't lose too much muscle as you get closer to your goal weight.
  • jsa_mason
    jsa_mason Posts: 17 Member
    Thanks jdleanna
  • macgurlnet
    macgurlnet Posts: 1,946 Member
    jsa_mason wrote: »
    After considering everything, I think it's just an inaccurate prediction. I don't see why I would go from a rate of loss close to 2lbs a week down to a rate of loss of one pound a month that suddenly. There are other things that are glitched in my account (like the thing that say lbs. lost, mine still says 1.8 pounds gained) so it would make sense that it's simply another glitch.

    The 5 week prediction is supposed to simply do the math based on your diary that day and predict your weight 5 weeks later.

    Sounds to me like it's busted for you. I never bother completing my diary entry and never see it.

    Use your actual results to make choices - it sounds like you're just about dead on for how you should be losing, so keep doing what you're doing and you'll get where you want to be in time :)

    ~Lyssa
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,626 Member
    (1)nothing and no one is perfect

    (2) the less weight you have to lose, the LONGER it takes

    be patient. its not a race.

Categories