Calorie Intake

amyteacake
amyteacake Posts: 768 Member
edited November 19 in Health and Weight Loss
I've been losing weight for over two years so of course my progress has started to slow down. Right now I'm not entirely sure what to make my calorie intake. MFP tells me to have it at 1230, when I started I was around 1700 and slowly lowered it until I stopped at around 1400. It wasn't until recently that I went through my settings and it came up with those calories for me.

My weight fluctuates between 3 pounds recently. I get close to one of my goal weights and then manage to put on a few more pounds. I don't look any bigger or different now when I put on the weight now, I do weight training so not entirely sure if it's muscle or water weight.

I usually weigh my food, eat quite a few vegetarian options when I can, I watch my carbs as well. I just keep fluctuating between it and I'm not sure why.

So yeah, just wondering what my calories should be and what I should do to get over this little hurdle that's in my way. Any suggestions for workouts would be great as well!

Replies

  • snickerscharlie
    snickerscharlie Posts: 8,578 Member
    edited June 2017
    How tall are you, what's your goal weight and current weight, and what activity level have you set on here?

    Vegetarian foods, in and of themselves, do not guarantee weight loss. Neither does 'eating clean,' paleo, keto or any other 'diet.' It's literally all about the calories. If you're eating too many of them (regardless of what food they came from) your weight loss will stall or reverse.

    Also, as a woman, we retain water due to hormones, so depending on where you are in your cycle, that could easily account for the weight fluctuations. :)

    Edited to add: And if you're eating at a deficit, it's not likely that you're gaining much (if any) weight from added muscle.
  • amyteacake
    amyteacake Posts: 768 Member
    snickerscharlie wrote: »
    How tall are you, what's your goal weight and current weight, and what activity level have you set on here?

    Vegetarian foods, in and of themselves, do not guarantee weight loss. Neither does 'eating clean,' paleo, keto or any other 'diet.' It's literally all about the calories. If you're eating too many of them (regardless of what food they came from) your weight loss will stall or reverse.

    Also, as a woman, we retain water due to hormones, so depending on where you are in your cycle, that could easily account for the weight fluctuations. :)

    Edited to add: And if you're eating at a deficit, it's not likely that you're gaining much (if any) weight from added muscle.

    I'm 5ft 4, my goal weight is between 112lbs - 126lbs. I workout 3 times a week and I'm usually on my feet serving food but some days I can be stuck in an office.

    I know vegetarian foods doesn't guarantee weight loss, I prefer eating vegetarian meals throughout the day since I'm not a huge fan of red meat. I wasn't eating it purely to lose weight.

    I have the implant in so I usually don't have much in the terms of a cycle. Some months I do, some months I don't. My deficit has been all over the place recently. I hear one thing then I hear another and I wasn't sure what to do.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,422 Member
    Well, since your FOOD diary is not available for public view all I can offer is:

    You're eating too much and/OR you are miscalculating your calories in or out.

    If you've been logging food for two years you should already know how much - exactly - you need to eat. So adjust something.
  • amyteacake
    amyteacake Posts: 768 Member
    cmriverside wrote: »
    Well, since your FOOD diary is not available for public view all I can offer is:

    You're eating too much and/OR you are miscalculating your calories in or out.

    If you've been logging food for two years you should already know how much - exactly - you need to eat. So adjust something.

    I only started logging food last year after I got a personal trainer. When I was working out with him he told me not to go below 1300-1400 calories yet I'm sitting at 1230 at the moment and that doesn't feel right to me.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,422 Member
    amyteacake wrote: »
    cmriverside wrote: »
    Well, since your FOOD diary is not available for public view all I can offer is:

    You're eating too much and/OR you are miscalculating your calories in or out.

    If you've been logging food for two years you should already know how much - exactly - you need to eat. So adjust something.

    I only started logging food last year after I got a personal trainer. When I was working out with him he told me not to go below 1300-1400 calories yet I'm sitting at 1230 at the moment and that doesn't feel right to me.

    You don't say how much weight you still want to lose, and that makes a big difference.

    If you have less than 50 pounds to lose, set your Goal to "lose 1 pound per week."
    If you have less than 25 pounds to lose, set it to "lose 0.5 pound per week."

    As a server, set your Activity Level accordingly, you're not Sedentary, and you're not Lightly Active. Pick a higher activity level and use it for a month. If you do some purposeful exercise above your daily work, log that and eat a few hundred more (or whatever it says. I use a flat 300 per hour of purposeful moderate exercise. YMMV.)

    Do that for a month. Keep good records and you'll know how much to adjust.

  • amyteacake
    amyteacake Posts: 768 Member
    cmriverside wrote: »
    amyteacake wrote: »
    cmriverside wrote: »
    Well, since your FOOD diary is not available for public view all I can offer is:

    You're eating too much and/OR you are miscalculating your calories in or out.

    If you've been logging food for two years you should already know how much - exactly - you need to eat. So adjust something.

    I only started logging food last year after I got a personal trainer. When I was working out with him he told me not to go below 1300-1400 calories yet I'm sitting at 1230 at the moment and that doesn't feel right to me.

    You don't say how much weight you still want to lose, and that makes a big difference.

    If you have less than 50 pounds to lose, set your Goal to "lose 1 pound per week."
    If you have less than 25 pounds to lose, set it to "lose 0.5 pound per week."

    As a server, set your Activity Level accordingly, you're not Sedentary, and you're not Lightly Active. Pick a higher activity level and use it for a month. If you do some purposeful exercise above your daily work, log that and eat a few hundred more (or whatever it says. I use a flat 300 per hour of purposeful moderate exercise. YMMV.)

    Do that for a month. Keep good records and you'll know how much to adjust.

    I still have 33lbs to lose.

    I'm a server but most days I spend just standing on my feet doing nothing since I mostly work the till. But I usually walk most of the day, to and from the train station, to the gym and then walk home. I try my best to log my workouts after I do them.

    I might try that, thank you.
  • iamhylian
    iamhylian Posts: 13 Member
    Don't drop calories to low and add more HIIT cardio.
  • amyteacake
    amyteacake Posts: 768 Member
    iamhylian wrote: »
    Don't drop calories to low and add more HIIT cardio.

    I've put it back to 1500 just to see how that will work. When I was on 1230 I was so hungry, could barely fit anything into my meals but even if I had low calorie foods for breakfast/lunch it ate into my calories and I was left with barely anything and barley ate.

    I'm trying to add more HIIT cardio, I'm getting bored with the ones I'm doing at the moment and I'm looking for any recommendations that anyone has!
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