Am I doing this right?

shelleysykeskeene
shelleysykeskeene Posts: 110 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi all, I really need help!

I am 38 years old, female.
Current weight 90.6
Goal weight 69
Height 5 foot 3

I am a housewife - not much exercise except cleaning the house and walking. I try to walk 5-7 days a week and usually manage to walk about an average of 17 kilometers a week (30 - 45 min a day). Being so poverweight, I cannot run or jog yet and most HIIT classes will just cause me to injure myself!

I have an autoimmune disease called hashimoto's thyroiditis (immune system attacks the thyroid causing underactive thyroid) I take eltroxin for this.

According to my BMI I am obese. It's really difficult to say that. My calories are 1200 per day and I only eat back half if my exercise calories. Is 1200 too low to start? Don't I need to lower it as I lose? I'm really confused here!

What should I set my macros at for weight loss? I don't do well with low carb like keto - my kidneys can't take it!

Exercise :

Right now I'm only doing walking and I enjoy it. I want to add weight training but have to be careful as I have a hiatal hernia and have been told not to lift heavy weights. When should I start and what exercises are safe to start with?

Can anyone assist me here?

Replies

  • BarbaraHelen2013
    BarbaraHelen2013 Posts: 1,940 Member
    Don’t worry about the exercise part, at least for now. Your walking will be fine, especially if you have health issues to deal with.

    Did MFP give you the 1200 calorie goal or is it just a number you’ve seen commonly given for a ‘diet’? Are you able to stick to it easily or are you having problems staying within that number? If you’re struggling to eat within that then maybe change your weight loss goal to 1lb (0.5kg) a week which should give you another 250 cals or so to play with. You should never eat less than 1200 a day as that’s considered the minimum for women for long term sustainability and health. As you lose weight you’ll have to accept that your progress may slow down a little since you can’t drop to fewer calories. On the other hand, as you get lighter you’ll find moving around easier so more activity may well balance it out anyway!

    There’s no need to worry about your macros either for weight loss. Just use the MFP defaults. What’s most important is simply eating less than you burn through daily life. Macros are important long term for health but keeping them balanced won’t effect actual weight loss.

    Is there a reason your hiatus hernia has not been repaired, or is that maybe one of the reasons you’re trying to lose weight, to give the surgery a better chance of success?
  • fairytale_babe
    fairytale_babe Posts: 391 Member
    Just keeping in a calorie deficit should be good with your walking. Try to keep active. If you've been sitting for a certain amount of time get up find something to do. Even just walk around the yard picking out weeds. Don't stress too much about strength at the moment just concentrate on being active within a calorie deficit 1400 be a good place to start. Strength could be in the form of upper body for now. Until your hernia is sorted.
  • Pearl4686
    Pearl4686 Posts: 918 Member
    I have very similar stats to you (38, also with underactive thyroid, was 96kg, now 80kg)
    I don't know where you got 1200 from but that sounds way too low to me. Unlikely to be sustainable long term and a high chance of binging.
    I lost 16 kg on 1700 calories per day and I'm still losing consistently when I stick to 1500 (lowered recently to accommodate a smaller me)
    So please think about this carefully.
    Read the stickies at the top of the getting started thread, they are really helpful and follow the guidelines. Put your stats into MFP and select a reasonable weigh loss goal (0.5-1kg max) and follow MFP's guidelines.
    1200 calories is the lowest recommended calorie goal for very small ladies with little to no weight to lose.
    Just my 2 cents ...

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