40lbs in 4 months... Possible?

Open your diary.

If you only have 40lbs to lose, then no, 40lbs in 4 months (2.5lbs per week) is not doable unless your TDEE is at least 2450 calories. What is your TDEE (current maintenance calories)? Even losing 2lb per week isn't a doable goal for someone with 40lbs to lose... 1lb a week is a much healthier goal to shoot for, sorry...

1200 is the lowest mfp will go. What is your TDEE?

Looking at your diary. You need to start logging more accurately by using a food scale for all foods. I see lots of "half", "piece", "cups", "Spoons"... these are quite inaccurate ways to measure your food. You need a food scale to weigh everything that you do not drink ( as well as stocks). Weigh oils, mayo and butters and weigh prepackaged pre-weighed foods as they can be off by around 20% legally.

At your weight, that sounds dangerous to me personally...I know you want to reach your goal weight by your wedding (I completely understand that!), but maybe just aim for toning up instead? Weight isn't everything, because muscle does weigh more than fat. I'm sure regardless, you will look stunning on your big day!

CassondraKennedy wrote: »

I'm relatively new to MFP, but would like to get serious about becoming healthier. I'm graduating in May and want to be at a healthy 130lbs by then. I've been good about logging calories, but I tend to give up by the end of the day if I'm at my goal and still hungry... Any suggestions about how to stay under calorie goals and avoid going way over at the end of the day?

Exercise is also a struggle as I am not sure where to start. I walk to and from work, but that only amounts to about 40 minutes of walking per day which hasn't seemed to help my weight... Can anyone share some good at-home exercises that burn fat?

Any input is appreciated!

Of course it's possible! You're just likely to have to sacrifice being pretty, strong, healthy, and/or energetic in order to achieve it.

Seriously, as others have said, set more modest goals. I'd recommend against a timeline at all - just start eating consistently at a moderate deficit (per your MFP set-up), get some fun activity in your life at a sustainable level, eat nutritiously, and continue that until you achieve your health and body composition goals. It's not a race.

Guaranteed, you'd look better at your graduation if you do this, than if you starve yourself skinny. Moreover, over-restricting tends to trigger compensatory binges, so extreme dieters often lose less weight than those with more sustainable moderate goals.

About your hunger problem: If you're trying to lose two pounds a week, switch to 1 pound a week If you're trying to lose 1 pound a week, switch to 0.5 pound a week. You want a goal you can actually achieve. You can always increase it a little bit, later, once you get on a steadier course (but don't try to lose more than 1% of your body weight per week, ever, as a rule of thumb - very obese people might be able to lose a bit more, but you don't have that much to lose).

Also, satiation differs by person. Experiment with the timing & composition of your eating, within a healthy range, to see what works for you.

Some people do better with 3 even-sized meals, some need 3 smaller meals plus 2 snacks, some do better skipping breakfast, some do better with a big breakfast, some need to save calories for evening snacks, and more. None of these things are weight-loss magic: They're good if they help you feel more satiated more often, that's all.

Many people find protein satiating (and many people, perhaps especially women, get too little protein). Others find fat satiating (you need fat; it isn't da debbil, so eat some, preferably from healthy sources like fish, nuts, avocados, olive oil, etc., when you can). Some people need to eat high-volume low-calorie foods in quantity to feel full - these are usually high-fiber veggies. So, experiment with what you eat, to see what makes you feel most satisfied, and keeps you feeling that way.

So, try a different approach to eating for a couple of days. Maybe eat a big high-protein breakfast (or, if you don't much like eating in the morning, skip breakfast altogether), Did that work better? If yes, keep it in your routine. If it's the same or worse, try another alternative. Keep experimenting until you find what works for you.

Use your diary as a tool: Review it regularly, see what foods you ate that had relatively high calories, but that don't seem work their "cost" in calories. Replace some/all of those foods with others you like that give you a better payoff in nutrition, tastiness or satiation for that number of calories. Keep doing this until you get to an overall way of eating that you like.

While you're reviewing your diary, think about other variations in your day that may've contributed to hunger or eating problems: Got too little sleep? Didn't drink enough water or other good liquids? Had a lot of stress leading to emotional eating? Had a slow day leading to bored eating? Went into social situations without a plan and overate? Figure out your triggers, write yourself a new script for handling them, and practice that new script. Keep adjusting until something works.

As far as the exercise, 40 minutes of walking is a good start. Weight loss is mostly about how you eat. The exercise is mostly about staying strong and healthy while you lose weight. Sure, it earns you a few more calories to eat, too, but the big value is in other areas of health. If you can, add some kind of resistance exercise to your walking, if you can fit it in. Weight lifting is one common type, but bodyweight exercises work, among other things. But there's no reason for weight loss to put inconvenient amounts of time into exercise (I'm assuming you're pretty busy with school). Do some, for muscle preservation and energy while you're losing weight, though.

+1 to the "weigh your food" idea, too. It's easier and quicker than you'd guess, and a scale only costs $15-20 in most places.`

cerise_noir wrote: »

CassondraKennedy wrote: »

cerise_noir wrote: »

If you only have 40lbs to lose, then no, 40lbs in 4 months (2.5lbs per week) is not doable unless your TDEE is at least 2450 calories. What is your TDEE (current maintenance calories)? Even losing 2lb per week isn't a doable goal for someone with 40lbs to lose... 1lb a week is a much healthier goal to shoot for, sorry...

1200 is the lowest mfp will go. What is your TDEE?

Looking at your diary. You need to start logging more accurately by using a food scale for all foods. I see lots of "half", "piece", "cups", "Spoons"... these are quite inaccurate ways to measure your food. You need a food scale to weigh everything that you do not drink ( as well as stocks). Weigh oils, mayo and butters and weigh prepackaged pre-weighed foods as they can be off by around 20% legally.

My apparent TDEE (same as BMR?) is 1896... And yes, I only have 40lbs to lose. Does this mean that I will lose weight more slowly? Not sure how it ties in. If I stay under 1200 calories (measuring more accurately as you noted), will that be enough to lose weight?

In one of my posts, I mentioned not going below 1200. 1200 is low enough for you already. You need to polish up on your logging (choosing correct food entries that reflect the food packaging of the food that you're eating) as well as not using cups and spoons for anything that isn't a liquid (it even helps to weigh cooking oils, peanut butters, mayo and the like).

You cannot lose 2lbs per week (no, BMR and TDEE are different. BMR is the calories you'd need to stay alive/the same weight if you were in a coma, and TDEE is your personal maintenance calories). If your TDEE is 1896, 1200 will not cause you to lose 2lb, but less. Please increase your calories to lose 1lb per week which will give you 1396 and start weighing ALL your food that isn't pure liquid. No going below 1200...that is unsafe. You want to look fabulous and thinner, not just thinner and run down for your special day.

Yes to everything cerise_noir said there.

Oh, and just as a data point: At 5'5", it took me 10-11 months to lose 63 pounds, from 183 to 120. I lost at 2 pounds a week for a while, then switched to 1.5-1 pound a week at 150-something, then to 0.5 pounds a week at around 10 pounds to go, and as goal got close, started gradually increasing daily calories to coast into it. Maintaining now for about a year.

From your diary this past week I see a lot of fast food and the like. While you can lose weight if you really track those things well, it's still counter productive for your overall health. Those foods won't give you the energy you need for your day and for your workouts. And they are the reason why you still feel hungry when you really shouldn't. I'm not sure what your daily life style is like, I know you walk to work and such, but if possible start cooking your own meals. Track portions and if you can, use a food scale to get a better idea of what actual serving sizes are.

As far as working out goes, borrow P90X or any of the various other at home programs you likely will read about on here. Or even likely some free ones available on Youtube or elsewhere on the internet. If your weather is tolerable go for a jog/long walk. Also be careful with eating back your workout calories. There really isn't a solid way to know what you burned during a work out and the estimates on here are just that, estimates. Most people will recommend allowing you to eat back about half of those work out calories if you're finding yourself really starving or feeling weak. You can adjust that depending on how you're losing weight and how you feel.

Finally, 40 lbs might be a stretch in only 4 months. Consistently losing 2 lbs per week, which is still in the "healthy" weight loss range would barely net you 30 lbs if you really nailed it during that time. And you also have to take into consideration that weight loss will slow as you get closer to your goal weight. Your body will require less calories per day and thus the difference between your TDEE and 1200 a day will get smaller and smaller.

In any case, congrats on graduating and best of luck with your fitness journey