Daily calories are too much!! HELP!
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magdilinab wrote: »I chose active, since I go to university every week day and I walk there (5km walk). I'm trying to get from 234lbs to 170lbs. And calories are 1900.magdilinab wrote: »I have been on the bigger side my whole life, but ive been eating healthy for the last couple of years and all I've lost is 20lbs. And with my activeness I still can't seem to shake it. I am 5ft 10, so quite tall too.
Oh @magdilinab, you don't need to starve yourself! I'm 5'10" too, my highest was 183lbs and I don't tend to eat much below 1700-1800 cals. I am 165lbs now, and losing (aiming for the low 150s). On my active days I am more likely to eat 2000-2200 calories.
Feel free to add me and peruse my food diary. Honestly, I eat crap when I fancy it (within reason, of course) and still lose. Life's too short to go without!
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magdilinab wrote: »I had 1 cup of non- fat Greek Yoghurt for breakfast.
A salad with 4eggs, half a tomato and Cucumber, Lettuce and lemon juice for lunch.
And boiled mix veg and pan fried chicken breast for dinner.
I have been on the bigger side my whole life, but ive been eating healthy for the last couple of years and all I've lost is 20lbs. And with my activeness I still can't seem to shake it. I am 5ft 10, so quite tall too.
Its seems like you are not eating enough food for your weight and height. Although you need to be in a calorie deficit to lose weight sometimes if your daily calories are too low this can cause issues and prevent you from losing weight. I would always ensure I am eating the amount recommended by the app. It may seem high but it is taking into consideration your activity aswell and as you said you do 5km walks which will burn a lot of calories which you will need to replenish.19 -
Great suggestions!0
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900 calories is not sufficient to sustain health in a woman our size. (I am 5'10" too). Your weight goal is healthy, but I think your body has gone into calorie-conserving starvation mode. Try INcreasing your calories to 1200/day (I would suggest 1500/day) to see if you start losing weight that way. Your eating looks very healthy but you may be getting too little fat, which is important to your health because certain vitamins are fat-soluble, which means without fat you aren't digesting them but just passing them on through. There are many healthy fats such as olive oil and avocado, to name two - google it.34
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900 calories is not sufficient to sustain health in a woman our size. (I am 5'10" too). Your weight goal is healthy, but I think your body has gone into calorie-conserving starvation mode. Try INcreasing your calories to 1200/day (I would suggest 1500/day) to see if you start losing weight that way. Your eating looks very healthy but you may be getting too little fat, which is important to your health because certain vitamins are fat-soluble, which means without fat you aren't digesting them but just passing them on through. There are many healthy fats such as olive oil and avocado, to name two - google it.
Starvation mode is a myth.33 -
You are not eating enough honey - you need to have your calories as your metabolism will not be working at optimum level. make sure you are scanning labels where possible or using the verified entries (green ticks) as this will be more accurate. Always weigh things, even dressings, etc. based on your numbers (weight etc) 1900 is about right and should give you steady loss of 1-2lb a week, if not more with your activity levels11
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Eat more food if you are positive you are tracking properly. I'm guessing you aren't otherwise you wouldn't be on this site.1
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Maybe try meeting with a nutritionist to change up your food intake. If you eat like that everyday you will lose muscle tone and energy. You probably need more carbs and protein. When you are active your body needs more protein for muscle mass and carbs for energy. Is your diary open? I will send you a friend request. I had weightloss surgery sleeve and eat about 1200 calories a day with losing about 1.5 to 2 pounds a week.2
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Try adding a protein shake as they're not too filling and boost your calories and protein in one hit!5
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On the contrary, if you are eating that little, consistently, it could be that the reason you're not losing is because your body is in starvation mode (the threshold for this is about 1200 calories for most people) and it's bringing your metabolism to a screeching halt. Are you doing keto? I don't see any carbs in there. Keto is great for taking off an initial few pounds but worse at continuing loss long term, and it's bad for your brain and your kidneys. I suggest using the paid My Fitness Pal or a similar program (I don't work for them) that lets you track macro and micro-nutrients. See your healthcare provider and check with him/her, but the best recommendation for most people is to eat a balance of whole-grain carbs, lean proteins, low-fat dairy, and plenty of whole fruits and vegetables to get you to a calorie range that is calculated to help you lose weight, combined with aerobic exercise at least a few times a week. You might also get your thyroid checked, if you haven't lately. Hypothyroidism can make it very difficult to budge your weight, and if you're truly not feeling hungry on a 900-calorie diet that's another hypothyroid sign.
Source: I'm a registered nurse but not a dietician. See your provider for medical advice, which this isn't. Your mileage may vary.48 -
rachelg1974 wrote: »On the contrary, if you are eating that little, consistently, it could be that the reason you're not losing is because your body is in starvation mode (the threshold for this is about 1200 calories for most people) and it's bringing your metabolism to a screeching halt. Are you doing keto? I don't see any carbs in there. Keto is great for taking off an initial few pounds but worse at continuing loss long term, and it's bad for your brain and your kidneys. I suggest using the paid My Fitness Pal or a similar program (I don't work for them) that lets you track macro and micro-nutrients. See your healthcare provider and check with him/her, but the best recommendation for most people is to eat a balance of whole-grain carbs, lean proteins, low-fat dairy, and plenty of whole fruits and vegetables to get you to a calorie range that is calculated to help you lose weight, combined with aerobic exercise at least a few times a week. You might also get your thyroid checked, if you haven't lately. Hypothyroidism can make it very difficult to budge your weight, and if you're truly not feeling hungry on a 900-calorie diet that's another hypothyroid sign.
Source: I'm a registered nurse but not a dietician. See your provider for medical advice, which this isn't. Your mileage may vary.
Checking with your doctor before starting a diet is probably a good idea.
Starvation mode as you describe it doesn't exist. This thread goes over it in some detail.
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/761810/the-starvation-mode-myth-again/p1
Where are you getting that keto is bad for your brain and kidneys (assuming you have no medical issues that it would adversely effect)?
OP - read the stickies at the top of each forum. There is tons of great information about how to use MFP and there is no need to pay for premium - look at the Success Forum. Lots of people have lost weight using the free MFP.17 -
OP, it sounds like you have taken the right advice to heart (yay!) but just in case, I wanted to highlight a couple of things since your thread has started to wander
- Starvation mode is a myth, specifically in the short term. If you were to substantially undereat for months, losing weight quickly, your body would over time slowly adapt and reduce your metabolic rate, it's called adaptive thermogenesis. But this doesn't happen in a few days or weeks, and it would only slow down your rate of loss, not stop it, otherwise no one would ever waste away from starving.
- When I started, I would've sworn I was eating 1400 cals per day, active, and couldn't lose a lb. When I got a Fitbit, I realized I was barely getting 4000 steps a day, and when I started using a food scale for all solid foods and really tightened up my logging, I realized I was eating more like 1800 cals per day. Locking down your logging will be eye-opening
and I wouldn't jump to any other conclusions before making sure the data you are laying down is accurate. - Macros don't affect your ability to lose/gain weight. They can affect satiety, body comp, and health so figuring out the best macros for you personally can be important, but they don't directly affect weight loss.
Commit to 2 weeks of super accurate, food scale using, database entry double checking logging, and let us know what turns up!31 -
[*] When I started, I would've sworn I was eating 1400 cals per day, active, and couldn't lose a lb. When I got a Fitbit, I realized I was barely getting 4000 steps a day, and when I started using a food scale for all solid foods and really tightened up my logging, I realized I was eating more like 1800 cals per day. Locking down your logging will be eye-opening and I wouldn't jump to any other conclusions before making sure the data you are laying down is accurate.
I second the idea of an activity tracker with HR monitor, it has helped me immensely. I have set my MFP calorie goal to my BMR (based on my height and weight just over 1500 cals) and enabled calorie adjustments. So as I move more I get given more calories to consume, within the deficit I have set up (lose 0.5lbs/wk).
And yes, a food scale is key.
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DanSanthomes wrote: »OP - try changing to 'Sedentary' and actually logging your daily walks separately under the Exercise tab. With correct food and exercise logging (CI and CO) your figures might start to balance out. (I log as Sedentary but am not as I walk, cycle, lift regularly. However, knowing how much I've actually burnt that day rather than it be pre-calculated as a given by MFP means that if I have a couple of off days, my food allowance is lower.)
Hope that makes sense.
I second what everyone else says about retentive logging/food scale :-)
Hi! It is frustrating when the scale isn't moving and you are weighing all the things. I was going to recommend the same thing as Dan -- change to sedentary. Even though you are walking to school, school is not active. See if that helps! Good luck. You gots this.3 -
Hi magdilinab, I'm in a similar boat as you: 5'10", trying to get from 241 to 160. I'm down 23 lbs since mid/late October, thanks to a combo of strict(ish) adherence and gaming the system.magdilinab wrote: »I chose active, since I go to university every week day and I walk there (5km walk). I'm trying to get from 234lbs to 170lbs. And calories are 1900.
Strict(ish) adherence
I log everything almost every day. More often than not I log breakfast & lunch the night before, to be sure I stick to the plan and so I know how to construct my dinner. I've gone off the rails a few days and didn't log, and I didn't even try to log the Food Holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas), but I only miss a day every other week or so, and the others are as accurate as I can make them. Scale, measuring cups, rigorous honesty, entering every recipe into MFP, blah blah blah.
Gaming the system
I list myself as sedentary, which gives me a calorie total of just north of 1,200 for a 2lb/week loss. The sedentary is pretty much true (desk job), but in December I started rowing daily, anywhere from 1,000 to 12,000 meters, usually around 6,000m (30 min at a moderate pace). I don't log any of that activity. (Well, not on on MFP. I've logged every. single. meter. for the past 18 years on the Concept 2 website. Log it, or it didn't happen.) I also don't freak out when I go over my daily total by a bit, especially for a good cause like a few glasses of wine with friends.
Other things, which nobody asked for but now I'm on a roll:
I eat a moderately low-carb diet: 25% carb, 25% protein, 50% fat. I moderate carb intake only because it's the best way to get the hunger monkey off my back. I downloaded a net-carbs script for MFP to properly track those macros, and I'm usually at or under my carb target. I'm a dairy fangirl, and I ALWAYS eat full fat. Life is too short for less-than foods.
I weigh daily. I told myself from the start that I'd only mind the trend, not the daily fluctuations, and I've stuck to that. I made a calendar back in October with weekly targets, and I log my daily weight there as well as on MFP. I fell off pace after Thanksgiving, and was 3lb off the back at the start of the year. Now I'm just 1.6lb behind. Daily weighing drives some people crazy, but I feel like it gives me more control.
I've lost just under 2lb/week doing all of the above. <<< That's aggressive, and likely not sustainable all the way down to 160. I'm fine adjusting as I go along. Also fine hitting it hard before Antigua in April and our 25th anniversary in June.
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magdilinab wrote: »My calories for the day are 1900, but after I logged what I had eaten, I still had a 1000 calorie deficit.
You have to net over 1000 calories or you will get that message. The 1900 goal is realistic. Be wise about using those calories though, choose healthy fats to get the count up. I know that if I net less than 1300, I don't lose. (my goal is 1560). Those numbers are based on science... Do a google search for TDEE and it will explain the math to you. 8 -
Hi magdilinab, I'm in a similar boat as you: 5'10", trying to get from 241 to 160. I'm down 23 lbs since mid/late October, thanks to a combo of strict(ish) adherence and gaming the system.magdilinab wrote: »I chose active, since I go to university every week day and I walk there (5km walk). I'm trying to get from 234lbs to 170lbs. And calories are 1900.
Strict(ish) adherence
I log everything almost every day. More often than not I log breakfast & lunch the night before, to be sure I stick to the plan and so I know how to construct my dinner. I've gone off the rails a few days and didn't log, and I didn't even try to log the Food Holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas), but I only miss a day every other week or so, and the others are damned accurate. Scale, measuring cups, enter every recipe into MFP, blah blah blah.
Gaming the system
I list myself as sedentary, which gives me a calorie total of just north of 1,200 for a 2lb/week loss. The sedentary is pretty much true (desk job), but in December I started rowing daily, anywhere from 1,000 to 12,000 meters, usually around 6,000m (30 min at a moderate pace). I don't log any of that activity. (Well, not on on MFP. I've logged every. single. meter. for the past 18 years on the Concept 2 website. Log it, or it didn't happen.) I also don't freak out when I go over my daily total by a bit, especially for a good cause like a few glasses of wine with friends.
Other things, which nobody asked for but now I'm on a roll:
I eat a moderately low-carb diet: 25% carb, 25% protein, 50% fat. I moderate carb intake only because it's the best way to get the hunger monkey off my back. I downloaded a net-carbs script for MFP to properly track those macros, and I'm usually at or under my carb target. I'm a dairy fangirl, and I ALWAYS eat full fat. Life is too short for less-than foods.
I weigh daily. I told myself from the start that I'd only mind the trend, not the daily fluctuations, and I've stuck to that. I made a calendar back in October with weekly targets, and I log my daily weight there as well as on MFP. I fell off pace after Thanksgiving, and was 3lb off the back at the start of the year. Now I'm just 1.6lb behind. Daily weighing drives some people crazy, but I feel like it gives me more control.
I've lost just under 2lb/week doing all of the above. <<< That's aggressive, and likely not sustainable all the way down to 160. I'm fine adjusting as I go along. Also fine hitting it hard before Antigua in April and our 25th anniversary in June.
Why do you need to game the system? MFP is designed to provide a calorie target without purposeful exercise, so that when you do work out you are meant to log and eat back some of those calories. By not doing that, you risk underfueling your body and your activity level and isn’t really “gaming the system” so much as not understanding and following the system as it’s intended to be used.20 -
I don't NEED to do anything. And I'm not advocating my approach, just offering up a case study for consideration — and the inevitable critique.WinoGelato wrote: »Why do you need to game the system?
My erg tells me a 6,000m row at my casual pace burns about 330 calories — but that count includes 150 calories just for sitting on the seat. I could correct for that... or I could not worry about the 180 calories I actually burned during my row, and not fret if I go over my calorie count by a bit.
You read that as not understanding the system. I read it as an unfussy method that's netted me a 1.8lb/week loss for the past 13 weeks, and great results in BP and cholesterol, particularly triglycerides.
*shrug* I'll take it.8 -
Not knowing your plan, what you want to lose (or gain), it sounds like your planned calories are set to high. I am at 2,000 for the day. I might suggest talking to your doctor, form a plan, and adjust your calories accordingly. You can do this manually in your settings.
Again, not knowing your objective, but I would think your planned calories should be around 1,400-1,500. I am not a doctor, so please take this advice as someone wanting to help, and not from a medical point of view.
I would like to look at your logging, and help you adjust.
Dave10 -
I don't NEED to do anything. And I'm not advocating my approach, just offering up a case study for consideration — and the inevitable critique.WinoGelato wrote: »Why do you need to game the system?
My erg tells me a 6,000m row at my casual pace burns about 330 calories — but that count includes 150 calories just for sitting on the seat. I could correct for that... or I could not worry about the 180 calories I actually burned during my row, and not fret if I go over my calorie count by a bit.
You read that as not understanding the system. I read it as an unfussy method that's netted me a 1.8lb/week loss for the past 13 weeks, and great results in BP and cholesterol, particularly triglycerides.
*shrug* I'll take it.
Yeah, this works until it doesn't
Pretty much any changes you make when there is a lot of weight to lose will result in weight loss.
As you get closer to a healthy weight, expect this game to stop working.13
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