Is it true

le6676
le6676 Posts: 30 Member
edited September 28 in Health and Weight Loss
Hello, I was wondering if its a myth that, the more overweight you are, the quicker it is to loose weight.

I am 5'3 and I weigh 121lb. For my age and height I am in the healthy range, but i'd like to loose but 6lb to get under 8 and a half stone. These past few weeks I have been working out like crazy and eating alot less.

I am supposed to be eating 2070calories to maintain my weight but I am eating at around 1400calories.

Is it true that other people are loosing weight quicker because they have more unnecessary weight, or am I just doing something wrong because I have lost nearly nothing. Less than 1lb!

Thank-you!

Replies

  • meinco
    meinco Posts: 62 Member
    If you have 20% body fat and another woman has 54% body fat and you both follow the exact same diet - yes the one with the higher body fat % will lose faster than you. The closer you are to your ideal weight/body fat, the less your body wants let it go.

    I believe that they say, when you have that little to lose that you should only aim for .5/lb per week or 1-2lbs per month.

    Make sure you are drinking a ton of water. Water actually helps flush fat from our system (or something like that) and helps it release any you are holding on to due to extra sodium.

    Good luck!
  • le6676
    le6676 Posts: 30 Member
    If you have 20% body fat and another woman has 54% body fat and you both follow the exact same diet - yes the one with the higher body fat % will lose faster than you. The closer you are to your ideal weight/body fat, the less your body wants let it go.

    I believe that they say, when you have that little to lose that you should only aim for .5/lb per week or 1-2lbs per month.

    Make sure you are drinking a ton of water. Water actually helps flush fat from our system (or something like that) and helps it release any you are holding on to due to extra sodium.

    Good luck!


    True, i should drink more water, I tend to get more hungry rather than thirsty, thankyou :)
  • hummzz
    hummzz Posts: 385 Member
    I don't know if its a fact or not, but I was 280 when I started and I dropped 20 pounds in one month. I think it does have to do with if you have more to lose or not.
  • ChitownFoodie
    ChitownFoodie Posts: 1,562 Member
    It is very true! I only burn about .3 pounds a week.
  • lindsaylove07
    lindsaylove07 Posts: 444 Member
    True, i should drink more water, I tend to get more hungry rather than thirsty, thankyou :)

    I was this way too! But I find that if I drink some BEFORE I eat, I eat less!
  • meinco
    meinco Posts: 62 Member
    Water is hard for me too but my two tricks are

    a) I can't stand ice cold water (weird I know) so I get my water bottle and leave the water out for awhile until it becomes lukecool. I can drink a lot more that way.

    b) I keep key limes in the fridge, sliced into quarters. I squeeze one into every bottle of water and while my water is losing it's cool, it gets flavored too! Sliced strawberries, nectarines ect...all work great too.

    Flavorful, all natural and helps me drink 120oz. per day!
  • ladybug1620
    ladybug1620 Posts: 1,136 Member
    Yep, fact. You burn less calories the smaller you are. Since you have so little to lose, you shouldn't aim for more than about a half lb per week.
  • Keefypoos
    Keefypoos Posts: 231 Member
    not really sure
    a more over weight person needs more calories per day to maintain weight and burns more doing the same exercise by virtue of the greater excess weigh. so if they both eat the same calories a day and do the same exercise then the more overweight person will lose more weight

    I think :-)
  • mrsclc
    mrsclc Posts: 73
    You may need to eat some more calories. If you are working out a lot, your body needs more energy. It may be going into starvation mode.
  • BethanyMasters
    BethanyMasters Posts: 519 Member
    It's all about the calorie deficit you create.

    For example when I was 220 pounds my bmr (assuming Im sedentary) was 2168.4.
    That's how much I would have to eat to maintain 220 pounds.
    So if I ate 1500 calories a day my deficit would be 668.4 per day and I would lose approx 1.3 pounds per week assuming I was completely sedentary.

    Now that I'm down to 155ish my bmr is 1831.77 again assuming I was sedentary)
    I still eat 1500 calories a day but my deficit would now be 331.77 which is half of what it was.

    That's just an example of course you'd end up having to figure in your exercise and what not. I personally eat 1500 per day instead of 1200 to account for my somewhat active job. And when I exercise I create a larger deficit (though i always maintain and intake of 1200).
  • le6676
    le6676 Posts: 30 Member
    It is very true! I only burn about .3 pounds a week.


    your so slim how can you lose 3lb a week?!
  • BethanyMasters
    BethanyMasters Posts: 519 Member
    It is very true! I only burn about .3 pounds a week.


    your so slim how can you lose 3lb a week?!

    That's .3
    point 3
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,427 MFP Moderator
    Hello, I was wondering if its a myth that, the more overweight you are, the quicker it is to loose weight.

    I am 5'3 and I weigh 121lb. For my age and height I am in the healthy range, but i'd like to loose but 6lb to get under 8 and a half stone. These past few weeks I have been working out like crazy and eating alot less.

    I am supposed to be eating 2070calories to maintain my weight but I am eating at around 1400calories.

    Is it true that other people are loosing weight quicker because they have more unnecessary weight, or am I just doing something wrong because I have lost nearly nothing. Less than 1lb!

    Thank-you!

    It's true. The closer you are to your goal, the hard it is. Also, generally, the closer to your goal, the MORE you have to eat. Also keep in mind, the more muscle you have, the higher your BMR will be. In fact, I would start looking at body fat instead of weight. Most people would rather have a sculpted body than weigh less. Would you rather weigh 120 with a skinny look or 130 with abs? Just to let you know, I am in my last "ten lbs" and every time i plateau with my weight, I have to add 200 more calories to keep the weight to come off. I eat 2600 calories a day. If i start doing really crazy workouts that number goes well above 3000 calories. In 90 days, I lost 3% body fat (@ 12% now) but only lost 5 lbs and also lost 6" just around my hips, waist and ab area. All other area's were about the same.

    Also, it is very important to look at what food you are eating. If you can make your diary public it will be helpful. My biggest advice, start doing weight training if you don't already. In fact, you should do heavy weight lifting and cardio 3x a week each. Pretty much switch off each day.

    Summary

    You may have to eat more
    Start measuring inches and bodyfat
    Realizing weight is just a number.


    Here is a quote from kndlindsey that helps put things in perspective... http://www.myfitnesspal.com/post/new/269212-weight-loss-vs-muscle-gain?quote=3558466

    do you only care about the number on the scale or are you more concerned with how you look than the number? Lifting will affect the number on the scale but it will also affect how you look. When I lost all my weight I weighed 135 and was a size 4. I started lifting seriously and went up to 145 and was.........a size 4. So I added 10lbs and stayed the same "size" in jeans, but my body looked a whole lot better at 145 with muscle than it did at 135 without.
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