Need help figuring out my caloric deficit

mercadespatras1991
mercadespatras1991 Posts: 3 Member
edited December 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
So I read that eating 1200 calories a day will help you lose weight and that it is the lowest a person can go. So that’s what I’ve been doing since March 4 2019. I started at 290lbs I’ve lost 38 lbs but I’m not losing weight anymore. I do exercise everyday I walk at my local park or do cardio workouts at home. 30 minutes to an hour a day. I’ve gone online and used calorie calculators to figure out how much I should be eating to lose weight but they all say something different. My question to all of you is if I up my calories and continue to exercise as always will I still lose weight? or have I messed up how my body burns fat please help I’m at a lost.

Replies

  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,897 Member
    Yeah, if you were actually eating only 1200 calories and you weigh around 250, you'd be rapidly losing weight.

    You're eating more than you think:

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10012907/logging-accuracy-consistency-and-youre-probably-eating-more-than-you-think/p1
  • mercadespatras1991
    mercadespatras1991 Posts: 3 Member
    I weigh all of my food I log everything I currently weigh 252.8 I am 5’3. And I was rapidly losing weight but it’s slowed down. I also read that 1200 calories isn’t something I should stick with forever so how do I find the right caloric deficit to ensure I’m doing this properly.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    mercadespatras1991 wrote: »
    I weigh all of my food I log everything I currently weigh 252.8 I am 5’3. And I was rapidly losing weight but it’s slowed down. I also read that 1200 calories isn’t something I should stick with forever so how do I find the right caloric deficit to ensure I’m doing this properly.

    How much weight have you lost in the last month?

    Would you be willing to temporarily make your food log public?
  • mercadespatras1991
    mercadespatras1991 Posts: 3 Member
    I only lost 1 lb. slgd75wsknai.jpeg
    This is what it usually looks like.
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
    cmriverside wrote: »
    Open your FOOD log by going to FOOD > Settings (on the web version) scroll down and click "Public" and Save Changes.

    We can't be of much help if you say you're using your food scale but we can't see your food entries.

    If you have lost 1 pound in a month, you're eating more than you think or there is some other thing going on with you.

    Until we can take a peek at your food log, we assume it is some error in logging, since that's the most common problem.

    Based on the screenshot, I'd guess she's not actually logging here.

    OP, did you ask this question on the fora where you are logging? The systems are a bit different, although weight loss itself works the same.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    edited September 2019
    So if were not going to be able to see your daily logging and you don't want to get more specific, this is all I can tell:

    Based on your stats, your TDEE should be at least 2500 cals. If you were eating 1200 cals daily for the last 6 months, that would be a daily deficit of well over 1000 cals, so you should've been losing over 2 lbs per week, or more than 50 lbs in the last 6 months.

    There are 2 possibilities:
    1. You are eating more than you think. This is by far the most likely.
    2. You have a medical condition that is serious enough that it has severely reduced your TDEE.

    I would suggest setting up your profile here and taking a refeed diet break as discussed in this thread:

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks/p1

    Then commit to a couple of weeks of super accurate logging here. Put every food possible on the food scale: whole foods, packaged foods, single serve, cheat meals, everything. Double check that each entry you are choosing has accurate calories by comparing it to the package or USDA published info. Log everything: beverages, condiments, cooking oil, midnight snacks. If you aren't sure if you're doing it right, come back here and we'll be happy to help. This should show you where you are missing calories.

    And if you haven't gotten a checkup with bloodwork recently, schedule one to make sure you aren't dealing with any obvious issue that might be making it more difficult.

    Accurate logging is a skill that doesn't come naturally to most, and many of us really stunk at it in the beginning and learned as we went. Not knowing the spcifics of where you are logging, it's hard to tell much else.

    Good luck!
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