Need advice

shyannar1133
shyannar1133 Posts: 2 Member
edited December 2024 in Motivation and Support
I know using a trainer or nutritionist is best but I don't have the option.
I'm trying to loose weight I gained in college. I currently weigh 180lbs, 5ft 5 and 20yr old female. Goal weight is 17p to start and I'm eating 1,500-1,600 calories a day. I exercise 4-5 days a week for 40-60mins. I'm focusing more on strength training then cardio and recently got 10lbs weights. I used them for a week and my weight went to 182. Ive been doing tne calories for 20days, before I was going off my fitbit calories. Not sure if I should stick with this, if it's too little and I need to add 200 calories, etc.
I have more to my fitness journey background if that may help providing advice.

Replies

  • FitAsaFalafel
    FitAsaFalafel Posts: 17 Member
    edited August 2020
    Hello! I’ll put my two cents in.

    First, I weigh all my home cooked food to make sure it’s input correctly into the counter/tracker.

    Like you, I’m a fan of weights while in a calorie deficit...after all I want to lose fat and not muscle mass. There’s a billion online articles about this so I’ll just leave it at that.

    I’m a 6’3” male so my daily calorie count for losing 1.5 lbs per week is around 1700...I average about 1400 per day tho.

    Lastly, weight will undulate up and down...it’s the trend that’s important to me...chech out my last 30 days of weigh-ins for an example.

    I’ll attach my average calorie count and scale screenshots as examples of what’s happening with my journey.

    So make sure your calorie counts are accurate and keep up the routine and trust the process would be my...errr...three cents

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,760 Member
    FWIW, I'm 5'5", started out here at 183lbs. I'm older than you (way older, 59 when losing, now 64). I lost most of 50 pounds eating 1400-1600 plus all (carefully estimated) exercise calories. I'm mysteriously a good li'l ol' calorie burner for some reason, but even so I think it's too soon for you to worry about increasing or decreasing calories per se.

    Where did your calorie goal come from? If it was from MFP, and you set activity level (per instructions) based on before-exercise activity level, you should be logging the exercise, and eating back at least a chunk of those calories, too. Since you sound like you have athletic goals, I'd suggest not trying to lose any faster than a pound a week. That's slow, but muscle-sparing. Get enough protein, plus generally good overall nutrition. That's also muscle-sparing.

    At 20, I'm assuming you have monthly cycles. In that scenario, you want to be comparing your weights at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles. Hormone-related water weight cycling is very real, can be several pounds (I've seen women say up to 10!), and happens at differnt points for different women. Over time, if you're tracking, you'll understand how your body behaves. (Even then, it can change . . . !)

    With respect to the 180 to 182 thing recently, for you: That's *exactly* what I'd expect, with an increase in exercise, especially strength exercise. A healthy body tends to hold onto some extra water weight for muscle repair. For me personally, it's usually in that couple of pounds range (but it can also vary by person).

    You really need 4-6 consistent weeks on a new routine (in whole menstrual cycles, in your case) to know the real effect of that routine. In the shorter run, water and digestive contents fluctuations can hide fat loss on the bathroom scale. In a multi-week setting, the fat loss results will show up. (Realistically, muscle gain is much slower. It may affect the scale over more like months, especially in women. It's not going to obscure any satisfying rate of fat loss, though. It's water weight/digestive contents that does that.)

    Believe me, I understand how frustrating this "slow and steady, be consistent" is. But it really is the best and healthiest route to improved fitness and healthy bodyweight.

    Wishing you much success!

    P.S. If you haven't read the article linked below, I think you might find it helpful/informative:

    https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
  • shyannar1133
    shyannar1133 Posts: 2 Member
    edited August 2020
    The calories goal came from here. And I put sedentary activity level (desk job) being a college student doing virtual classes. Should I keep it at this level or move up one to the lightly active?
    Also thanks for the article. I haven't read that one before. Maybe I should keep this calorie range up for a few more weeks but take progress pics instead and or daily weigh ins. I'm leaving against the daily weigh ins, unless that's what I should do
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