Obese.. weight loss help?!
chloerunkee1
Posts: 3 Member
Hello! I'm looking for some help and advice. I I'm a 5'2, 20 year old female. In January, I weighed over 300lbs, then began walking everywhere and restricting calories, to around 1000 a day. Around 2 months ago, I restricted calories further to around 600. I'm now at 238lbs. My weight loss seems to have slowed dramatically, and I get incredibly tired, dizzy and shaky. However if I increase my calories any more I will regain the weight.
Any advice on how to keep shifting the weight? Thanks
Any advice on how to keep shifting the weight? Thanks
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Replies
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The tired/dizzy/shaky is a clear indication that you are not eating enough. You can do damage to your body if you keep this up.
Put in your stats here, with a goal to lose 1.5 pounds per week. It will probably give you a goal to eat around 1500-1750 calories. Eat that daily, making an effort to get protein, complex carbs, and healthy fats each day. Log your food honestly & accurately. Drink plenty of water. Walk and do strength exercises. But do NOT eat so little that you continue to damage to your body.5 -
PS you will not regain weight by increasing to 1500-1700. Maybe in the first 1-2 weeks as your body retains water to recover some of the damage done, but then you'll bounce back and lose weight at a healthy pace.
Edited to add: your body uses about 1800 calories per day just to keep you alive. For things like pumping blood thru your body, for your heart/lungs/brain/kidneys/etc. to function, to maintain your body temperature. Then, if sedentary you use another 360-540 calories to move thru your daily routine. Walking, sitting, running errands, etc. uses energy. So if your body uses 2250 on average (split the difference between 360 and 540 as I don't know your activity level) then eating 1500-1750 will create a reasonable deficit even before exercise.
Your weight loss has slowed/stopped because you're eating so little that your body can't function properly.3 -
You're not eating enough. 600 calories a day is a ridiculous and unnecessary low amount of calories. Up your calories to at least 1200 if not more depending what your TDEE. There is no reason to be this irresponsible with your health and well being. You're setting yourself up for failure and yo-yoing with this kind of behaviour.2
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Your not eating enough!
You will retain fat if you continue to eat less than 1200 calories.
Try setting your nutrition goal to:
50% protein
30% carbs
20% fat (good fat)
Log your meals before you eat to make sure your meeting the nutrition goal.
Water, water and water!!!!'
You've lost a substantial amount of weight!
Maybe too quickly. I know you want it to go away today, me too, but, it's better to lose .5 to 2 pounds a week.
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Why the hell are you eating so little? Losing weight isn't about starving yourself, but eating as much as you can while still losing weight. Yes, you'll gain when you go to eating more because your body needs those calories to do little things like keep you alive.
If gaining the weight in big chunks bothers you, try adding 100 calories each week (reverse dieting). Change your settings to 1# a week and eat back about half your exercise calories (if you exercise). Trust me, you don't need to eat 600 calories to lose weight when you weigh 238#. MFP works.4 -
I disagree w/ zyxst here. Eating @ 600 and suffering ill effects: up your calories immediately. Adding 100/week means your body is still at a dangerously low level for another 6+ weeks. Up your calories and stay off the scale for a month. Then weigh in, and use that weight as your new starting point.3
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I'm struggling quite a bit with appetite and body image. I really don't fancy gaining any weight, if I upped my calories by 100 each week, would I see weight loss?
Thanks0 -
600 calories? I weigh 227 and am 5'5. I'm losing nicely on an average of 1700 calories a day. I clock 12-14k steps working every day and 4 days a week another few thousand on walks.
You can continue on as you are, do serious and possibly permanent damage to organs including your heart, but by golly you'll see 8lbs a week (of muscle, organ tissue mostly) fall off the scale. Seriously, you need medical help at this point. 600 calories...my 15lb dog eats that many calories a day! He's 15lbs! Not 200+!1 -
You are starving yourself. That is incredibly dangerous and unhealthy. You have to eat! Just entering your stats listed here it says you can lose 1lb per week eating 1800 calories. I would not drop it below 1500 calories per day and definitely not below 1200 if you are doing a lot of walking.0
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chloerunkee1 wrote: »I'm struggling quite a bit with appetite and body image. I really don't fancy gaining any weight, if I upped my calories by 100 each week, would I see weight loss?
Thanks
Trust everyone here when they say you are going down a dangerous path. You can take their advice, or end up in the hospital. How you're feeling now can only get worse if you stay on this path.
As far as the scale goes, it sounds like you just need to avoid it all together for a few months until you've changed your mindset about this whole thing. Do you really think you can eat 600 calories for the rest of your life? People that have lost weight and kept it off are not eating so little. Think about it.1 -
chloerunkee1 wrote: »I'm struggling quite a bit with appetite and body image. I really don't fancy gaining any weight, if I upped my calories by 100 each week, would I see weight loss?
Thanks
At this point what you're losing is muscle, not fat. Your body is sending you signals that it is "starvation mode". You'll certainly continue to lose weight quickly but your body will start to cannibalize your muscles because it wants to save your fat until the last. So what will end up happening is you'll lower your metabolism even more because lean muscle mass adds to how many calories you burn just resting. So eating so little is making it even harder for you to lose weight in the long run.0 -
Under 1,000 calories your body can go into self-canabilization.
That means it starts eating itself for nutrition.
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First off, you've done incredibly well to lose as much as you have, but you need to eat more so that you can adequately fuel your body. As someone else noted, you will have weight go back on, BUT it will only be water and not fat, just as your body replenishes itself, and then the loss will start again.
You need to keep your eyes on the prize - being healthy in the longer term, and to be able to enjoy that future, you need to fuel your body now.1 -
I have been around 238 for about a year (240+ on a Monday / 235 on a Friday), and started losing (slowly) during the last 6 months.
Im also 5'2 (closer to 5'1 really
)
Ive spent a lot of time fiddling with my calories, and I have found that I maintain at 1500 - gain at anything over 1500, and Ive been losing consistently at around 1300-1500 - about a pound a week.
Im considered sedentary - no exercise
Personally, I do think you will gain weight at the advise of 1500-1700 - The calculators dont take into account short people.....
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Actually, they do. Caloric need is based on mass, not height, and 200 pounds is 200 pounds, no matter how tall you are.MissCaroline71 wrote: »I have been around 238 for about a year (240+ on a Monday / 235 on a Friday), and started losing (slowly) during the last 6 months.
Im also 5'2 (closer to 5'1 really )
Ive spent a lot of time fiddling with my calories, and I have found that I maintain at 1500 - gain at anything over 1500, and Ive been losing consistently at around 1300-1500 - about a pound a week.
Im considered sedentary - no exercise
Personally, I do think you will gain weight at the advise of 1500-1700 - The calculators dont take into account short people.....
Now, the "1200 calorie minimum" and short people is something I question. I have a problem believing that a 6' woman has the same minimum calorie requirements as a 5' woman. But that's a matter to take up with a nutritionist.
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MissCaroline71 wrote: »I have been around 238 for about a year (240+ on a Monday / 235 on a Friday), and started losing (slowly) during the last 6 months.
Im also 5'2 (closer to 5'1 really )
Ive spent a lot of time fiddling with my calories, and I have found that I maintain at 1500 - gain at anything over 1500, and Ive been losing consistently at around 1300-1500 - about a pound a week.
Im considered sedentary - no exercise
Personally, I do think you will gain weight at the advise of 1500-1700 - The calculators dont take into account short people.....
You're clearly not counting your calories properly if you lose 1lb a week as 1300-1500 but anything over 1500 = weight gain. You need to eat 500 calories a day OVER your TDEE to gain 1lb a week, so to have such a tiny margin between lose and gain literally makes 0 sense scientifically.
Please don't confuse people because of something you don't seem to understand
And the calculators absolutely so take into account height, it's their second main factor in the calculation.
I'm 4'9 and don't gain at 1600 sedentary because that is my sedentary TDEE. You cannot and should not be confusing people with your misinformation when you don't even know their TDEEs and blindly state what they will gain at.
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chloerunkee1 wrote: »I'm struggling quite a bit with appetite and body image. I really don't fancy gaining any weight, if I upped my calories by 100 each week, would I see weight loss?
Thanks
Any weight you gain from upping your calories to at least 1200 will not be fat, it will be temporary fluid retention.
it's clear from this post you're not interested in listening to the overwhelming advice and instead only want to listen to advice that closest resembles your current calorific intake (Which is stupid and dangerous).
So feel free to keep on down the road you're going, but you're only going to end up making yourself more unhealthy and causing yourself more pain and heartache and in the end causing your own failure, than if you just had a little patience and followed advice from the majority of us who actually care and know what is best.
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chloerunkee1 wrote: »Hello! I'm looking for some help and advice. I I'm a 5'2, 20 year old female. In January, I weighed over 300lbs, then began walking everywhere and restricting calories, to around 1000 a day. Around 2 months ago, I restricted calories further to around 600. I'm now at 238lbs. My weight loss seems to have slowed dramatically, and I get incredibly tired, dizzy and shaky. However if I increase my calories any more I will regain the weight.
Any advice on how to keep shifting the weight? Thanks
1
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