How to KEEP LOSING?

Every time I’ve hit the 10lbs lost mark I’ve had to cut calories or increase my workouts to increase my deficit that way

You've done an excellent job managing to change the way you eat several times these past few months and as a consequence of the changes creating the deficit you needed in order to lose weight! Well done!

Forget the artificial time limits (even more so since they are so aggressive) and concentrate instead on the success you've had and the further success you could still go on to have.

It is time you started figuring out how YOU want to eat both now that you're still losing weight and in the future when you will be trying to avoid re-gaining the weight you've lost.

Your ability to manage your caloric balance will determine your success

imsomarilyn wrote: »

Hello, I have been on my weight loss journey since July. I started at 190 and I am now 161. i noticed to continually lose weight I've had to keep switching my way of eating. I went from 10 day smoothie detox to low carb eating, to 10 day smoothie detox to low carb eating with interminent fasting to eating once a day and now keto with interminent fasting. I started with 3 days of cardio 30 min each for the past 2 months Ive been at 5 to 6 days 50 to 60 mins. What more can I do? i have 22lbs left amd my goal was January.

What? ....No.

Weight loss = calorie deficit. PERIOD. Eat fewer calories than your body expends in a day. As you get closer to goal weight loss slows. This is because when you become a smaller person your body uses fewer calories.

With 22 pounds to go 1 pound a week would be an appropriate goal. Eat 500 calories less than maintenance......done. Look up your maintenance here: http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

Scale weight fluctuates wildly. Water weight will go up or down based on hormones, exercise, sodium.

tyrindor wrote: »

imsomarilyn wrote: »

I am already at about 1350 calories or less per day most days I am probably at about 800 because I only get to eat once. I know even that is very low. And I do not starve My body has adjusted to this very well.

If you only have time to eat once a day, you need to rethink your schedule. You can't just eat a single 800-1350 calorie meal once a day... Your body will go in starvation mode throughout the rest of the day. I don't care how "well" you think your body adjusted to this, it hasn't. It's not normal and it's NOT healthy, and is likely why you have to change diets constantly. Your body is not getting everything it wants, unless you change diets regularly.

The best way to lose weight is 5x small meals a day to keep the metabolism going all day. Eating 800 calories a day will likely slow down weight loss because you ARE starving yourself at that point. No adult can sustain themselves off 800 calories/day long term.

Actually, there is no reason you can't only eat once a day AS LONG AS you are meeting calorie and nutrient requirements.... It's called intermittent fasting and can actually have a lot of positive effects on hormone regulation, including insulin.

I can easily eat one meal a day and hit my weight loss calorie goal (1700) . To meet my maintenance calorie goal I eat all of my calories in about a 4 hour window (2500). Meaning one large meal, a snack, and dessert. It works for some people. I actually crave less sugar and have made marked progress in my lifts and strength while losing body fat and increasing muscle mass.

And there is actually no scientific evidence saying 5-6 small meals is better.

I agree tho 800 calories is too few.

MegaMooseEsq wrote: »

tyrindor wrote: »

imsomarilyn wrote: »

I am already at about 1350 calories or less per day most days I am probably at about 800 because I only get to eat once. I know even that is very low. And I do not starve My body has adjusted to this very well.

If you only have time to eat once a day, you need to rethink your schedule. You can't just eat a single 800-1350 calorie meal once a day... Your body will go in starvation mode throughout the rest of the day. I don't care how "well" you think your body adjusted to this, it hasn't. It's not normal and it's NOT healthy, and is likely why you have to change diets constantly. Your body is not getting everything it wants, unless you change diets regularly.

The best way to lose weight is 5x small meals a day to keep the metabolism going all day. Eating 800 calories a day will likely slow down weight loss because you ARE starving yourself at that point. No adult can sustain themselves off 800 calories/day long term.

imsomarilyn wrote: »

My goal is to become very toned. Defined arms, legs and abs. I dont want to build that on top of my current weight which is why I have a lean goal.

I will relax my mental intensity. I am being extremely hard on myself.
THANK YOU!

Becoming lean, then trying to get toned is working in reverse and is incredibly harder than losing the weight the right way and keeping your existing muscle mass.

It's very, very hard to build muscle mass when you are lean. You want to hit the gym, do resistance training, and lift weights throughout the whole weight loss process. Cardio will not make you tone in my experience, it will just make you healthier.

While I agree that a large deficit is not going to help the OP get toned and strength training is very important, the stuff about starvation mode and small meals keeping your metabolism running is nonsense. Your metabolism never stops running unless you are dead. People can fast longer than 24 hours without their body thinking they are dying - adaptive thermogenesis is a real thing, but only after a prolonged period of deficit - weeks or months, not hours. There's nothing normal or abnormal about eating once a day, three times a day, or seven times a day. Some people find meal timing helps keep them in a deficit, that's all.

I have a friend whose like a snake. Eats huge amounts every 2-3 days and thats it. I find it stupid and weird but hes a really healthy guy lol.

imsomarilyn wrote: »

My goal is to become very toned. Defined arms, legs and abs. I dont want to build that on top of my current weight which is why I have a lean goal.

I will relax my mental intensity. I am being extremely hard on myself.
THANK YOU!

When most people say they want to lose a bunch of weight, this is what they really have in mind. However, to get to that point is not weight loss in and of itself. It's fat loss and muscle building. You will find that there are not a lot of people who have been around these forums (or around those that deal with strength training) who are a fan of the words "tone" and "toning". The reason is because there really is no such thing. If you want muscle definition, you need to have two things: muscle and fat reduction. What most people want when they say "toning" is to have a nice physique with perhaps some ab definition. In general you have to remove fat to reveal abs. When you remove fat to reveal abs, you remove fat everywhere too leaving you with more defined muscle in more places than your midsection.

For that muscle to give you a good shape and physique, it has to be built. To the degree that you want definition, it's up to you. You cannot build muscle quickly in a deficit (you can't build the house without bricks and you can't have the bricks unless your body creates them with a caloric surplus). If you are eating in a deficit, preserving muscle mass is what you need to do reveal them.

Ultimately, I'm guessing your weight loss goal has to do with how you want your body to look. What many don't realize, is that weight loss alone is generally not enough. When many people realize that, they then attack cardio workouts so they can "burn more fat". However, when you burn more fat and you are eating in a deficit, you will burn more muscle too. So eventually you find yourself with roughly the same body percentage you had when you started. Yes, you can lose muscle and fat at close to the same rate. When that happens, your body fat percentage doesn't change that much. It looks like, just from your numbers, that you were not extremely obese when you started. In your case, maintaining the muscle when you started would have been your best course of action.

It's still your best course of action - if you want your body to have tone/definition, etc. But to that, you have to do resistance training.

When it comes to definition, cardio is not your friend. Cardio is not bad. But its benefits are often misunderstood. When you do cardio, it improves your endurance, first and foremost, and then helps your heart and lungs be more efficient. It also has the advantage of helping your burn more calories, but! it's not the primary means of fat loss.

So for TL;DR

1. Eat at a deficit for fat loss.
2. Strength train for muscle preservation and body shape.
3. Cardio for endurance and fitness (i.e what you can do, not how you look).

All three for overall health. Eat enough to support your activity (a bigger deficit is not better), even if means your goal is 1/2 pound to 1 pound per week. In other words, eat back at least some portion of what MFP credits you for exercise. If you want all of that, take your time and do all three with the above as your order of priority.