Does this diet/exercise plan sound effective?
danielleg0094
Posts: 38 Member
So I lost 80 lbs around 2 years ago and have maintained the weight loss. I wear the same size clothes, however, I do look bigger since my weight loss back in 2018. I guess muscle turned to fat? I use weight watchers/MFP to track calories on a daily basis, I aim for usually around 1200 calories per day. So my goal is to get fit & if I’m lucky, lose some pounds. My diet has been the same for the past two years, around 1200 per day, now I want to incorporate exercise 3-4 times a week. I usually aim for cardio at 30 minutes on the days that I work out. So I’m sticking to the same caloric intake but now decide to exercise regularly, would I have a chance of losing inches & looking more slim?
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Replies
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Muscle doesn't literally turn to fat, though we can lose muscle and gain fat.
If you currently have a material amount of body fat, then continuing a calorie level that's kept you weight stable, and adding exercise, is likely to result in fat loss, which would result in losing inches and looking more slim.
If your body weight is already in a sensible range for your height and body configuration, recomposition (gradually adding muscle, gradually losing fat, to stay at constant weight) might be a better option. That also has the potential for losing inches and looking more slim, but will work best with increased strength exercise rather than increased cardio. Much more about recomposition here:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177803/recomposition-maintaining-weight-while-losing-fat9 -
First, congrats on losing the 80 pounds. That's around how much I've lost so I well know how difficult it is to do that. Also, maintaining an 80 lb loss is something very few people do - supposedly less than 15 % of dieters keep the weight off, and it might be much less than that in the 80+ pounds territory, as we've all seen from Biggest Loser and such. You're obviously doing something right.
You are probably going to get many responses to your question along the lines of "You are supposed to eat back all your exercise calories, and since 1200 is the rock-bottom minimum any person can safely eat, you are already at the bare-bones minimum caloric level and it is MANDATORY that you eat back your exercise calories."
I just wanted to say that I pre-agree with all the people who are about to write that. Don't even think about eating 1200 and then working out without eating back those exercise calories. That would put your net calories under 1,000, which is unsafe for your long-term health. If you add resistance training and eat some more food to cover those workouts, you will tone up, and the 1200 calories already produces weight loss, so you will be good to go as far as trimming and toning goes.2 -
Muscle doesn't literally turn to fat, though we can lose muscle and gain fat.
If you currently have a material amount of body fat, then continuing a calorie level that's kept you weight stable, and adding exercise, is likely to result in fat loss, which would result in losing inches and looking more slim.
If your body weight is already in a sensible range for your height and body configuration, recomposition (gradually adding muscle, gradually losing fat, to stay at constant weight) might be a better option. That also has the potential for losing inches and looking more slim, but will work best with increased strength exercise rather than increased cardio. Much more about recomposition here:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177803/recomposition-maintaining-weight-while-losing-fat
Im 5’7 and around 180, I wear a 10-12. Which option is a better choice?1 -
5'7 and 180, but you've been eating 1200 calories a day for two years and are maintaining? Something doesn't add up. You are likely eating more than you think, because your maintenance calories should be much higher. Do you weigh everything with a food scale?9
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5'7 and 180, but you've been eating 1200 calories a day for two years and are maintaining? Something doesn't add up. You are likely eating more than you think, because your maintenance calories should be much higher. Do you weigh everything with a food scale?
I don’t, so you’re saying that I should weigh less if I eat 1200 a day?2 -
danielleg0094 wrote: »5'7 and 180, but you've been eating 1200 calories a day for two years and are maintaining? Something doesn't add up. You are likely eating more than you think, because your maintenance calories should be much higher. Do you weigh everything with a food scale?
I don’t, so you’re saying that I should weigh less if I eat 1200 a day?
Yes, at your height and weight, a 1200 calorie per day intake should result in weight loss, not maintenance.3 -
danielleg0094 wrote: »5'7 and 180, but you've been eating 1200 calories a day for two years and are maintaining? Something doesn't add up. You are likely eating more than you think, because your maintenance calories should be much higher. Do you weigh everything with a food scale?
I don’t, so you’re saying that I should weigh less if I eat 1200 a day?
Yes, at your height and weight, a 1200 calorie per day intake should result in weight loss, not maintenance.
Maybe it’s a bit more then, 1200-15000 -
danielleg0094 wrote: »danielleg0094 wrote: »5'7 and 180, but you've been eating 1200 calories a day for two years and are maintaining? Something doesn't add up. You are likely eating more than you think, because your maintenance calories should be much higher. Do you weigh everything with a food scale?
I don’t, so you’re saying that I should weigh less if I eat 1200 a day?
Yes, at your height and weight, a 1200 calorie per day intake should result in weight loss, not maintenance.
Maybe it’s a bit more then, 1200-1500
Even at 1500 you should be losing weight at your current height and weight. 1500 calories is not maintenance for some 5'7" and 180 lbs.5 -
I'm also 5'7 and if change my weight to 180 and set it at sedentary my TDEE for maintenance is 1841 calories.2
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danielleg0094 wrote: »
I am a female. Current weight is 189. Pants size 16-18.2 -
danielleg0094 wrote: »Muscle doesn't literally turn to fat, though we can lose muscle and gain fat.
If you currently have a material amount of body fat, then continuing a calorie level that's kept you weight stable, and adding exercise, is likely to result in fat loss, which would result in losing inches and looking more slim.
If your body weight is already in a sensible range for your height and body configuration, recomposition (gradually adding muscle, gradually losing fat, to stay at constant weight) might be a better option. That also has the potential for losing inches and looking more slim, but will work best with increased strength exercise rather than increased cardio. Much more about recomposition here:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177803/recomposition-maintaining-weight-while-losing-fat
Im 5’7 and around 180, I wear a 10-12. Which option is a better choice?
Without knowing more about your build (skeletal configuation, current amount of body fat & muscle) and your preferences, I don't know.
Normally, I'd guess that 180 at 5'7" would still suggest you could lose some fat and get slimmer (at 5'5" and 180 I was still over-fat, and that's not a huge height difference). On the other hand, I assume you mean size 10-12 US since your profile says you're in Florida, which is a lot smaller than I was at a similar weight (which might suggest recomp as a more viable option).
If you still have fat to lose, I'd suggest strength training with a good program, eating at a small calorie deficit, getting good nutrition (especiallly protein), and filling in remaining time you can happily devote to exercise with some cardio you enjoy. If the deficit is small, and you strength train consistently/progressively and get good nutrition, you might even see some muscle gain if you're a strength training beginner, though there are no guarantees of that in a deficit. At worst you'd lose some fat slowly, get stronger, and probably see some fitness-related appearance improvements.
Imma let the others argue with you about calories. They're right, if you were really eating at 1200-1500, it seems *extremely* likely that you would've been losing weight. Since you're vague about calorie level, I'm going to guess you haven't been logging/tracking calories with precision, i.e., are kind of guessing in some way.
However you've been eating, if your weight hasn't dropped at all in 2 years, you're eating maintenance calories. Your odds of successful fat loss or recomposition would go up if you tracked more accurately, but if you can eat at your current level (maintenance) and add exercise without creating portion creep (more intake because of exercise-related appetite), you should lose fat because more activity at the same intake will result in a calorie deficit.5 -
If you are really eating 1200 cals/day and maintaining that weight, then you have a really slow metabolism. Either way, focus on eating healthy whole foods and up the calories or get a more accurate measurement. For fitness, cardio is fine but resistance training is more important as it will help you to build muscle which will increase your metabolism. Intermittent fasting can also help increase metabolism. Make sure and take measurements as you can start building some muscle and changing your body composition without moving the scale a lot.1
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1200 is a starvation diet. My guess would be that you have been estimating your calories. If you want get get fit and lose a few pounds it should be enough to start exercising regularly and eating slightly less than maintenance. Ie round 1600-1800depending on activity levels.
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Just an FYI, I'm 5'3"/128lbs and my maintenance calorie goal is 1500....so yours *should be higher than that - at least I've maintained my weight for ~3 weeks eating that much. You should definitely be weighing/measuring everything you eat and get a handle on whether you're really eating what your think you're eating.
I used a website to calculate your Total Daily Energy Expenditure and it was around 1800/1900 --- I don't know how old you are which is a factor...but I tried it with age 25 and 30 and it wasn't far off. And this is just an ESTIMATE so it might not be exactly right.
So, the idea is if you have a sedentary lifestyle (sedentary job) then that's the calories per day you'd have to eat to maintain your current weight. So if you want to lose weight --- you could subtract some calories from that (say, shoot for eating 1500 calories per day) and then log your workout calorie burn and I'd suggest eating back 50% of those calories since the calorie estimates for MFP can range from being accurate to really far off. If you have something else that estimates calories burn (like a HRM or fitbit) then you can use that estimate.
Basically you want to eat somewhere above your BMR, but below your TDEE --- do that for a month or so and then weight yourself and make adjustments from there because all of this is estimates.1 -
If you aren’t weighing your foods, you really have NO IDEA how many calories you are eating and I’m surprised that you managed to lose so much and keep it off (especially since you have been overeating for some time). Not trying to be mean, but as others said if you were eating 1200 a day you would still be losing, not maintaining.
Get a food scale; they’re cheap. Weigh your foods, figure out how many calories you actually eat a day, and then you can plan your fat/weight loss.6 -
westrich20940 wrote: »Just an FYI, I'm 5'3"/128lbs and my maintenance calorie goal is 1500....so yours *should be higher than that - at least I've maintained my weight for ~3 weeks eating that much. You should definitely be weighing/measuring everything you eat and get a handle on whether you're really eating what your think you're eating.
I used a website to calculate your Total Daily Energy Expenditure and it was around 1800/1900 --- I don't know how old you are which is a factor...but I tried it with age 25 and 30 and it wasn't far off. And this is just an ESTIMATE so it might not be exactly right.
So, the idea is if you have a sedentary lifestyle (sedentary job) then that's the calories per day you'd have to eat to maintain your current weight. So if you want to lose weight --- you could subtract some calories from that (say, shoot for eating 1500 calories per day) and then log your workout calorie burn and I'd suggest eating back 50% of those calories since the calorie estimates for MFP can range from being accurate to really far off. If you have something else that estimates calories burn (like a HRM or fitbit) then you can use that estimate.
Basically you want to eat somewhere above your BMR, but below your TDEE --- do that for a month or so and then weight yourself and make adjustments from there because all of this is estimates.
Which website did you use to calculate TDEE
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