What am I doing wrong?

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Sonyaspringer
Sonyaspringer Posts: 3 Member
in Motivation and Support
I’m 48, 159 and 5’3”. I started MFP 8-2020 eating within C40/P40/F20 macro goal 1500 at first but quickly went to 1350 when I gained as way more than I was eating. Started going to gym do nautilus alt arms/legs, stretch and walk/run for 30-37 min 4 days and 1.5-3 hrs tennis 2-3 days per week. 3/4 -1gal water daily. Lost 7lbs at first but then wt loss stopped for 3 weeks. MD said okay to go to 1100-1200 for my age and post meno status & balanced hormones October 7th. She was shocked cholesterol and labs decreased to normal in just 1.5 months. <3 Encouraged me to keep at it for 1 more month but still not seeing much change in past 2 months and increasing running time from walk 3/run 1min to now walk 1/ run 4min. People say body recomp-pics better but not big change for as hard as I have been working. Are my percentages correct? I hate to reduce calories more than 1000. I increased weights at gym. I’m stuck at 158-160. I get I’m almost 50 but recording all good and don’t count activity calories. Cheat days don’t go over 13-1400 1/week if that. My goal is 135. What else can I do??

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  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,389 Member
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    Patience. You don't have a lot to lose. And are you using a food scale for everything you eat, and make sure you use correct database entries? All the other things you mentioned that you do don't matter much for weightloss. Making sure you actually are in a calorie deficit does. And hey, 7lbs in 3 months or so might not feel like a lot, but you did this!
  • bubus05
    bubus05 Posts: 121 Member
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    I wouldn't reduce calorie intake further down starving is not the way to go. The 40 percent carb a day can be the problem, that is pretty high IMHO. I would try to reduce the carb intake to 10-20 percent and increase the fat/protein to 40 each, I mean if nothing works it is worth a try. A reduced carbo intake alone will lower your insulin level and should help you burn fat more effectively. If you do exercise that's great but I would really push the high intensity type, weight lifting is great, that too will push down insulin level along an increased growth hormone production, all good stuff to help you burn fat. Age shouldn't be a problem I am a 49 year old male myself and been on low carb for months now and do lots of high intensity weight lifting.
  • nanastaci2020
    nanastaci2020 Posts: 1,072 Member
    edited November 2020
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    Look for ways to improve your logging accuracy. As yirara mentioned, you should weigh solids with a food scale. Use cups/spoons ONLY for liquids. Why is a scale useful? Because foods don't have standard weights. A 'large egg' is supposed to be 50 grams, but is often 55-58 grams. I can't tell by sight if a chicken breast is 6 oz or 8 oz raw, or if what I think is a medium banana matches the size of the 'medium banana' in the database. And the differences quickly add up to 15 calories here, 30 calories there: and can whittle a deficit down in the course of a day/week.

    If you often eat food made by other people (friends, family, restaurant) then you have no choice but to estimate about the calorie content. The more you estimate, the more errors can be present in your logging. If you're not happy with your rate of loss, then avoid errors whenever possible. Then track for the next 6-8 weeks.
  • Dogmom1978
    Dogmom1978 Posts: 1,580 Member
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    Weigh and track accurately. Also, with so little to lose, you might have your deficit set too high. If you aren’t weighing and tracking accurately, you won’t even really know how many calories you are eating.

    Additionally, beware of overestimating the calorie burn from your workouts. I see people post some ridiculous numbers as what they burn in 40 minutes of following a cardio video.
  • Sonyaspringer
    Sonyaspringer Posts: 3 Member
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    Thanks for advice. Really appreciate it. Does anybody have a favorite calculator or online website for calculating deficit? I like to double check MFP since they set me too high to start. I see a lot of variation between tutorials & wonder if that may be a contributing factor. I am using a food scale and eat mostly at home so my record is accurate, I do go for verified food items and air on side of overestimating if I’m not sure so I def stay in a deficit. Also I don’t count activities - it’s just extra deficit.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,034 Member
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    Sonyaspringer wrote: »
    Thanks for advice. Really appreciate it. Does anybody have a favorite calculator or online website for calculating deficit? I like to double check MFP since they set me too high to start. I see a lot of variation between tutorials & wonder if that may be a contributing factor. I am using a food scale and eat mostly at home so my record is accurate, I do go for verified food items and air on side of overestimating if I’m not sure so I def stay in a deficit. Also I don’t count activities - it’s just extra deficit.

    Congrats on the great exercise routine - that's got to be good for you!

    Sailrabbit has multiple formulas for estimating BMR & TDEE, plus better and more activity level descriptions than some.

    https://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/

    When comparing to MFP, remember MFP is estimating NEAT (before exercise calories), most others estimate TDEE (includes exercise calories).

    If your logging is accurate **, I'd be concerned that your very extreme deficit is leading to unusually high creeping water retention, from the physical stress of low calories and a substantial exercise routine. No way for me to know, of course.

    How long did you go, observing gain at 1500? How fast was that gain? Had you just started your current exercise routine at the same time? What is "not much change in last 2 months", in specific numbers? How often do you weigh yourself?

    Disagreeing with a PP, I'd observe that carbs aren't some universal bar to losing weight. I lost 50+ pounds in less than a year at age 59-60, while hypothyroid (treated) and of course menopausal, eating close to 50% carbs most days, usually around 150g of them. Now in year 5 of maintenance (5'5", around 126 pounds most days), I typically eat > 200g carbs, even when (as recently) achieving some slow loss (slow by intention).

    Your macro distribution is unlikely to be a problem for weight management. It may still be sub-optimal for health, because those percents on very low calories may not be getting you the number of grams a body your size needs. Personally, I use 0.6-0.8g protein per pound of healthy goal weight as a minimum while losing (so that would be 81-108g for you), and 0.35-0.45g fat minimum per pound (more debate about whether that should be goal weight or current weight, but for you the lowest of those would be 47g daily). I'll underscore that these are just my opinions, based on personal research.

    ** Be aware that the green checks just mean several users have agreed, not that the entry is officially verified in some authoritative way.

    Best wishes!

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