Desk Job - Difficult to lose weight

Hello,
I have a office job as well and have lost weight. I started being serious about counting calories on 11/1/2016 I weighed 181lbs as of today I weigh 157lbs so I've lost 24lbs I don't work out at all I have no time. I do have a fitness tracker and I aim to get 6,000 steps a day. I am only 5ft tall so MFP only gives me 1220 calories a day I personally try not to go over 1400 calories my fitbit gives me exercise calories so I am always still in the Green.
I hope this helps and if you have any questions please contact me. also remember this is a life style change!

I'm in an office job. Small office, with very limited space to walk. I find it hard to get 2000 steps most days by the time work is done. I usually will go walk around the local wal-mart or grocery store just to get steps (I leave my wallet in the car.) I am currently tracking my steps on my phone, so that means if I forget my phone or it loses charge, the steps don't "count." I'm looking into an activity tracker though. I am currently working on staying in my calorie limits, and trying to find ways to work out at my desk. I have the back half of a shared office so no one notices if I'm doing desk push ups or stationary lunges.

afrndz17 wrote: »

Hi, I actually do try to fit in some exercise about 1-3x per week doing about 25 min of HIIT. My height is 5'1 I currently weigh 150 pounds and my goal weight is 130 - 135 pounds .. and I am eating about 1,200 calories a day I try not to eat past 7 o clock .. I do have a fit bit but I don't wear it often as I should.. I also get really hungry at night, I sleep it off though, not sure if that is healthy.

How did you decide on 1200? Have you calculated your TDEE and subtracted from that to achieve the rate of loss you're aiming for?

Also, how are you measuring your food? A scale, measuring cups? I'm sorry for all the questions, but they're necessary to find a solution. More often than not, inaccurate logging is the culprit.

afrndz17 wrote: »

Well I just read that the lowest you could go was 1200 and nothing below that I figured it would suit me because I have a sedentary job.. .. if you don't mind me asking what is TDEE? I am measuring all my foods & weighing them at the moment..

You don't have much to lose. Set MFP to 0.5-1 pound a week. Its a reasonable goal that probably won't lead to binging and failure. TDEE = total daily energy expenditure. This is the number of calories needed to survive and what you burn with activity.

I work an office job. I find taking short walks throughout the day helps. Instead of a coffee break, I walk briskly around the outside of the building for 5-10 minutes a couple of times a day, or take a walk at a nearby park my lunch. I also try to do one fitness thing per day after work, even if it's just a 20-30 minute walk or bike ride after dinner. I found a carpet remnant and put that down in my laundry room with a padded bench, and slowly invested in a few cheap free weights and a yoga mat. Now I can do 15-30 minutes of exercise whenever I can squeeze it in, without having to leave the house.

I also do extensive meal planning every week. I do a lot of meal prepping so that I never end up at work without a game plan and the right supplies to get through the day. For example... Last night I made breakfast smoothies before I went to bed. This morning I had my smoothie and half an apple bar (that I baked multiple batches and froze a couple of weeks ago). Today at work I have a morning snack (chia seed pudding), Lunch (veggies and homemade hummus, cheese and Melba toast) and an afternoon snack (apple slices and peanut butter yogurt dip). Then I'll go home and we are having pita pizzas topped with leftover pork loin and veggies from last night's dinner, and a big salad. I also have a plan for the rest of the week, and reminders on my phone each night for what I need to do for tomorrow (take fish out of freezer before I go to bed, chop some veggies for lunch, etc.)

It's a lot of work initially because I needed to get a lot of food prepped and ready in the freezer. Some nights I just don't want to cook, but knowing I have pasta sauce, chili, soup, etc. in the freezer means I always have an easy dinner.

Calorie deficit is important, and I track everything on mfp. Most days I find I'm hitting my calorie targets. I find that working in the little bits of exercise here and there to be really motivating, and it provides a cushion for days when I want to have an indulgence like some chocolate or an extra helping of something with dinner. When I look at my notes and see the progress I'm making, it really helps keep me on track and makes this whole process better.

I've been working on this for a while, but I've been serious and focused for a little over a month and I'm down 4 pounds over 4 weeks, which is exactly the pace I'm working for. Before that I was just saying "I want to eat better" and "I hate being fat" and "I hate feeling tired all the time". But I wasn't doing anything about it. When my husband and I decided to get serious, we started planning and supporting each other through the process. I do most of the food prep, but he follows me around washing dishes, or does other household stuff like cleaning and laundry while I'm banging around in the kitchen. If you have someone in your life, get them on board if you can. It makes a world of difference.

afrndz17 wrote: »

Well I just read that the lowest you could go was 1200 and nothing below that I figured it would suit me because I have a sedentary job.. .. if you don't mind me asking what is TDEE? I am measuring all my foods & weighing them at the moment..

I've lost 58 lbs and I have a sedentary job. For the past 4 months I've been even more sedentary at work than normal because I'm covering the phone line and can't get up to walk around every so often like I used to. I do exercise after work and on the weekends some but not on a regular basis. The most important thing, like others have said, is to make sure you're weighing your food and logging accurately. And I've never had my calorie goal set lower than 1400 per day. 1200 calories is really only right for very petite women who really don't move much. Trust the number that MFP gives you when you set your goal to .5 or 1 lb per week.

jemhh wrote: »

1. Be sure that you are eating in a deficit. Weigh your solid foods with a digital kitchen scale. Measure your liquids with measuring cups/spoons. Log the calories using verifiable nutrition info based on those measurements.
2. Understand that losing a half pound is losing weight. Many people claim not to be losing and then admit that they are losing, just not as fast as they'd like.
3. Measure weight loss over the long term. Compare this month to next month, not today to tomorrow and even today to next Tuesday.
4. Be patient. A twenty pound loss at your size may take six months to a year. If it comes off sooner that is fantastic but should not be expected.

This^ how long has it been since you started and how much if anything have you lost so far, also if the HIIT is a relatively new routine you will be retaining water weight for DOMS recovery (delayed onset muscle soreness) and that could be masking your fat loss. for example you may have lost a couple of pounds in fat weight but retained the same in water (which is totally natural and unavoidable before you reach for the health shop diuretics) usually handy to log your tape measurements and see how you're clothes are fitting differently when you start a new intense routine.

Also are you weighing everything with a digital scale, you're not very big so being off a couple of hundred calories could mess with your loss. Also how are you tracking your workout cals and are you eating them all back?

Wow, this sounds like the same question I asked several times over the past year. I always thought that losing weight had a lot to do with exercise . And yes, we all know that exercise is healthy for us but as far as losing weight its all about what you are eating. Making healthier choices, less calories (really, honestly keeping a diary of the calories you eat...down to the sugar in your coffee) Watch the sodium too. I still have cake or ice cream sometimes, just smaller amounts of it that I savor and appreciate all the more. Start looking really hard at what you are eating. Get up and move as much as possible. I wish you the best of luck and success.

I lost 70. I started first with my employer's 6-month Weight Watchers discount and lost 20 pounds. Then I switched to MFP. I bring my own lunch 90% of the time. I don't drink drinks with a lot of calories. I track my food and stay under my goal. I have go-to restaurant lunches I like and can occasionally switch up my day to dine out with coworkers or hit up happy hour. (I've been doing this for a long time and losing slowly, so my goal varies from maintenance to 1.8 pound loss per week) I get up and walk during my lunch or offer to pick up mail at our other building.

I have periods where I exercise - sometimes I sign up for a series of group classes right after work. Sometimes I get in the habit of running a few miles 4 times a week (yay summer!) and do some yoga or body weight exercise.

Consistency, planning, habit-building, and careful tracking are critical when I'm actively losing weight. I'm 5'3" and do 1200-1300 if I'm not exercising a lot, 1500 if I'm running. Like others mentioned, you don't have a lot to lose. So you can go slow, and shouldn't expect a huge drop each week.