Seems impossible to lose more than 10 lbs
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bambusa
Posts: 6 Member
My weight is 174. It will fluctuate lower than this, but I can rarely get below 159. I exercise at least 5 days per week and measure and count my calories. Any recommendations on how to get to 140 or so? Seems like I'd have to practically starve myself.
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Replies
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Tighten up your logging. This may mean any of the following: ensuring that every single item that passes your lips gets logged, weighing all solids on a food scale and measuring all liquids, double-checking the accuracy of the items in the database, utilizing the recipe builder over "homemade" or "generic" entries, and being mindful of the number of exercise calories burned/eaten back.8
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Agree with @malibu927 - Tighten the logging, you might not think it but you have to be eating more than you think or you would be losing.
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It sounds like 174 might be a comfortable weight for your lifestyle and that you have a hard time making and maintaining changes that let you get away from there for long. Is 174 close to a healthy BMI for your height? Once you get down to those lower numbers, it's much harder to make the changes needed to sustain weight loss. Forget what you may or may not know about dieting and try coming at this from a different angle (I'm making assumptions here about what you've done in the past, so if I'm way off, ignore me!).
I'd recommend taking at least a week to log your normal eating and exercise habits, and see where you might have excess calories you'd be happy cutting out of your diet for the rest of your life. This is important because in order to maintain your weight at 140 lbs, you'll need to eat about 300-400 calories less every day then you are eating at 174 or else the weight will come back. If you can get to that level comfortably, you'll start slowly losing weight until you reach your 140 goal. If you want to get there faster, you'll need to reduce your calories even further, or increase your exercise, but this change will be temporarily and shouldn't be too large that you can't keep it up until you hit your goal. See if you can go down another 100-200 calories - this should put you at a 1 pound a week deficit, which may or may not be sustainable but is a solid place to start. If you're starving all the time, or binging and erasing your progress, you may need to back off even further.
You can lose weight quicker on lower calories, but it will be harder to sustain since you'll be hungrier. Plus, you're not going to notice the changes on the scale very quickly - water weight may disguise any weight loss for weeks, leading you to think it's futile and give up. Think of this as a long-term project and be patient - you can do this!5 -
Get a food scale. Check out this thread. It has several videos/visuals on why a food scale is such a powerful weight loss tool.
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10634517/you-dont-use-a-food-scale/p1
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How y’all are you?3
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MegaMooseEsq wrote: »It sounds like 174 might be a comfortable weight for your lifestyle and that you have a hard time making and maintaining changes that let you get away from there for long. Is 174 close to a healthy BMI for your height? Once you get down to those lower numbers, it's much harder to make the changes needed to sustain weight loss. Forget what you may or may not know about dieting and try coming at this from a different angle (I'm making assumptions here about what you've done in the past, so if I'm way off, ignore me!).
This is very important. How tall are you and where are you on the BMI charts.
The closer you are to normal weight, and moreso the closer you are to the bottom half of normal, the harder and slower your weight loss will be.0 -
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In order to get lower, and stay lower, you may also need to take a closer look at what you eat, not just the calories. CICO is a good starting point, and the easiest thing to change and control, but there is a lot more that goes into how our bodies actually process and use food. Doesn't mean you can't have foods, but you may need to limit some things more than you historically have.
I'm not a proponent of any particular diet, as you have to find what works for your body and your lifestyle. Going through life hungry just isn't sustainable IMO.5 -
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autumnblade75 wrote: »
Bless your heart8 -
lkndaniels wrote: »
Yes. But I also now want to know how y'all I am. Like, since I live in Idaho, I'm not very y'all, but someone who lives in Georgia is super y'all?!?12 -
Big combo reply: I have a food scale and I do measure. I eat mostly whole foods. Right now I'm averaging about 1200 per day (calories).
I am 47 years old
CICO is what I do. Not doing keto or anything like that. I eat mainly like a core foods plan.
I'm 5'60 -
Big combo reply: I have a food scale and I do measure. I eat mostly whole foods. Right now I'm averaging about 1200 per day (calories).
I am 47 years old
CICO is what I do. Not doing keto or anything like that. I eat mainly like a core foods plan.
I'm 5'6
Maybe by making your food diary public we could offer better ideas?0 -
Also, I do strength training at least 3 times per week/boxing/elliptical or walking
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Big combo reply: I have a food scale and I do measure. I eat mostly whole foods. Right now I'm averaging about 1200 per day (calories).
I am 47 years old
CICO is what I do. Not doing keto or anything like that. I eat mainly like a core foods plan.
I'm 5'6
I'm older than you and I lose at 1700 - don't know why you are trying to eat so little.
I'm 142 at 5'7" - the last 15 pounds took about nine months because it DOES require discipline and eating very close to the least amount I can reasonably eat and still function.
Open up your food page for us to look at...go to FOOD settings and click Public (at the bottom.)
The fact you sayI'm averaging about 1200 per day
probably means something . . .else.
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quiksylver296 wrote: »lkndaniels wrote: »
Yes. But I also now want to know how y'all I am. Like, since I live in Idaho, I'm not very y'all, but someone who lives in Georgia is super y'all?!?
I think this needs a spinoff thread, because I'm also curious.5 -
Have at it
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Looking at your diary it only seems to go back about 10 days so I think it's just a case of patience. You will be retaining water weight if you have recently increased your exercise (your muscles retain water for repair, perfectly natural you can't do anything about it) you're probably looking at a month before things start going as expected loss wise and since you don't have a lot to lose 1 pound a week is considered good progress xxx Good luck.
Edit. Other tips also try to use digital scales over cups, cup measurements should only be used for liquids and sauces, and for things like rice try to get the dry weight. x Also don't forget to include hidden things like oil for cooking or beverages, it all adds up.
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Big combo reply: I have a food scale and I do measure. I eat mostly whole foods. Right now I'm averaging about 1200 per day (calories).
I am 47 years old
CICO is what I do. Not doing keto or anything like that. I eat mainly like a core foods plan.
I'm 5'6
Do you eat exercise calories back?
how do you calculate cals burned?
Make sure you are picking the proper database entry (weigh all solid foods and measure liquids)
If all the above is "by the book", then you may want to get some blood tests done to determine if there is a thyroid issue.0
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