Not "overweight" but certainly doughy

How do you count your calories? Do you measure everything? Weigh everything? Estimate? Do you log every bite you eat?

Weight loss is mostly about diet.

It's definitely achievable for you to lose weight. Your metabolism is not dormant. If your weight is not changing, this means that you have a perfect balance of calories in vs calories out at the moment. To lose weight, you would need to eat less calories, or do more exercise (or a combination of both.

It can feel like a struggle to lose those last 10-15 pounds, but that is ONLY because it can require a much more careful look at your diet, since you don't have as much room for error as people carrying a lot more weight. So to lose weight, I would really encourage you to weigh all your solid foods with a food scale, and you might be surprised to see how 'off' estimating can be. And the packaging is almost always off! Haha, don't get me started on that; it took me a long while to realize that. For example, one serving of bread might be listed as 1 slice (with a measurement in grams written there too). Actually weighing the slices of bread showed me that I was eating 10% more calories than I thought for each piece of bread, because they were all slightly heavier. Think how much that can add up in a whole weeks' worth of foods. When we don't have much weight to lose, those little errors can totally wipe out the 250 calorie per day deficit that we should be aiming for.

lizkerns wrote: »

I log through this app. I double check if the nutritional info looks off. I was a chef/baker for years so I feel that those experiences gave me a good grasp on accurate measurements. I even log the sugar and cream I use in my daily cup of coffee.

I get that, but obviously what you are currently doing isn't working, right?
You don't have to do it forever, but even just using the scale for a couple of weeks will give you an idea of where you are really starting from.

I am now 43, 5'5" 130 lbs, and I eat 1800 cals per day to maintain my weight, and use the food scale every day because it makes my life easier and removed the need to worry about whether I ate to much or not.

I found out my 1 slice of bread was really 150, not 130 cal. My "1/2 cup of oatmeal was 180 cals, not 150. My one serving of chicken was actually 5 oz, not 4 oz, so another 50 calories there. It all ads up.

Whatever you decide, best of luck!

lizkerns wrote: »

Kimny72 good advice... I regurlarly eat avocado, eggs and raw nuts. Maybe too often. I live with 2 celiacs so I don't get much wheat. Just not sure what the sweet spot is for my healthy daily caloric intake.

Yep, nuts can be a stinker calorie wise, I always weigh them! Everyone is different, but I'm currently maintaining until the weather warms up and I'm eating @ 1800 cals to maintain. Which makes sense, since I was eating @ 1500-1600 to lose one-half lb per week.

You need to lift weights if you want to be firm. Only way.

badassbeaver wrote: »

Avocados are also high fat, high calories.

True. But that doesn't make them bad to eat, as long as she starts weighing the avocado she eats so that she knows how many calories she's consuming and can plan accordingly.

lizkerns wrote: »

Super ammo7! got out my food scale... Let's see how much I'm really consuming

That's great
Good luck with your weight loss journey. Have patience and know that if you stick with your calorie goal to lose 0.5 lb per week, you really will lose those seemingly stubborn pounds. And don't be disheartened if you don't lose weight every single week - weight loss often happens not at all and then in big wooshes.

A few things to ponder.

There is no emergency, so taking a few days to figure things out will not hurt anything.

Just log what you are eating... only better measured... to find out your current level of calories in.

Log your weight in a trending weight app. When you are playing with the small weight differences you are interested in, due to water weight variations your daily scale weight in will not give you the info your require to figure out whether you are losing or gaining weight.

Between October and now, I am 7lbs down. Nothing earth shattering; but that is just about all you're interested in. The important concept here is that if you had asked me how I am doing every day during the past 120 days, on 30 I would have said losing, on 60 I would have said maintaining, or a bit up, and on 30 I would have said gaining.

most people lose muscle with age because they are actually less active. It really does sound as if you are currently doing a body recomposition...in the wrong direction.

You may want to do a body recomp... in the correct direction. So your biggest benefit might come from a bit of strength training, while eating at a very small deficit

Other than that. If you are anywhere below 2000 in terms of your total daily energy expenditure (which maintaining at ~1400 to ~1800 *at a guess* would certain argue is the case for you), you are looking at -250 as the correct deficit to chose, cause anything else would be way more than a 20% deficit.

However, as mentioned, I would not go for a 20% deficit, but, arguably, I would suggest a small 10% deficit while adding strength training. This ensures minimal loss of lean mass.

In fact, in the presence of enough available fat, a relatively small deficit, and with strength training being a new activity for you, you might even increase lean mass.

And then you won't be pudgy

Food scale. Food scale. Food scale. It really is eye-opening.

And YES. Strength training will make you less doughy. I weigh more than I have in a long time (yeah, fell off the wagon), but I lifted while I was overeating, and I didn't get nearly as fluffy as I otherwise would have. Now that I am back to losing, I am positive that I will be better for having lifted the whole time I was in my "I don't want to count calories" phase.