Weight loss help

jchristy3
jchristy3 Posts: 4 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I need some advice for weight loss. I have about 10- 15 lbs to lose. I joined a gym almost a year ago and do some pretty intense workouts 5 days a week with a trainer. When I joined the gym I had about 23% body fat. About 5 months ago I joined a weight loss group at the gym and managed to lose 9 pounds. Unfortunately the group ended about 3 months ago but I continue to follow the nutrition guidelines I had learned. I have managed to somehow gain most of the weight back and I am now at 28% body fat. I am not sure how much or exactly what I should be eating at this point. When I was losing weight I was eating about 1600-1700 calories a day, consisting of about 120 grams of protein and 200 grams of complex carbs. I was losing about a pound a week. I have continued to follow this but slowly now the weight is coming back on as well as my body fat percentage increased significantly. I just joined a 60 day challenge at the gym and I really want to be success and reach my goals. Can someone please help?

Replies

  • Afura
    Afura Posts: 2,054 Member
    Eat the foods. Any of the foods. Eat at a calorie deficit. If you're just trying to lose weight, then macros don't matter.
    If you're not already, get a food scale so that you know you're as accurate as possible.
    Double check the entries, as they are user created sometimes they are incorrect (sigh...so frustrating)
    With 10-15lbs to lose, you should be at around .5lb/week loss.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    are you using a food scale?
    are you logging everything you eat?
    are you macro/micro's spot on?
    is your training spot on?

    if you want to be lean/have advanced body composition goals, your training, logging, and macros and micros need to be spot on.
  • jchristy3
    jchristy3 Posts: 4 Member
    Yes, i think everything is spot on. I use a food scale and measure everything. I meal prep ahead of time and log everything I put in my mouth daily. Do you think I could be consuming too many calories? My trainer said a minimum of 1600-1700 calories but I am not sure.
  • Stella3838
    Stella3838 Posts: 439 Member
    Did you enter your stats into your profile on this site and get a calorie target for your loss goals?
  • jchristy3
    jchristy3 Posts: 4 Member
    I did enter my stats. My calorie target says 1200 calories however my trainers says due to the weight lifting I am doing it is not enough. He said my body was not getting enough calories at 1200 and it was stalling my weight loss. I did try just eating 1200 calories for a while and I was always tired, no energy and also was not losing any weight.
  • WorkoutResults21
    WorkoutResults21 Posts: 8 Member
    I would follow what your trainer stated. Sometimes your body needs more calories to start burning calories. It could be that your body is trying to conserve as much as possible, once your body knows there's plenty of food, it'll burn more. If nothing else, you can reduce your calories after two or three weeks if nothing changes. Good Luck.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    jchristy3 wrote: »
    I did enter my stats. My calorie target says 1200 calories however my trainers says due to the weight lifting I am doing it is not enough. He said my body was not getting enough calories at 1200 and it was stalling my weight loss. I did try just eating 1200 calories for a while and I was always tired, no energy and also was not losing any weight.

    Did you choose a goal of 2 lbs per week? With only 15 lbs to lose, your goal here should be set at 0.5 lbs per week, maybe 1 lb if you want to be aggressive. You should also be logging your exercise and eating some of those calories back.

    Having said that, it's hard to say without your stats. If you post your height, CW and activity level it would give us more to work with, and if you are willing to open your diary we might be able to spot something you are missing.

    Just for reference, I would maintain at 1700 cals, I try to eat 1450 to lose half-a-lb per week, and I would be starving at 1200. It's a frustratingly delicate balance sometimes!
  • jchristy3
    jchristy3 Posts: 4 Member
    Thank you Kimny. I am 5'4" and currently weigh 138. I would say my activity level is moderate. I work out 5 days a week lifting weights and doing cardio for about an hour and 15 minutes a day
  • Afura
    Afura Posts: 2,054 Member
    If you're using MFP to calculate your calories, it uses NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis), so if you are moderate WITHOUT exercise, then select that option absolutely, if you normally are not then go through and recalculate. Again, you should be at roughly .5lb/week loss when having MFP calculate your information.
    Any exercise on top of that should be entered into MFP which will give you more calories to consume to ensure that your calorie deficit isn't off the chart, because bigger isn't actually better.

    Your trainer is estimating your calories including your exercise, which is more in line with TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) calculators which automatically include exercise into your deficit to give you the amount of calories, which is why their # is higher than MFP.

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