Low Card Or Calorie Counting?!

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Replies

  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,122 Member
    Ok so go through the guided set up again, set yourself to Active and choose 1lb per week loss. Log your 20 min workout as exercise and eat those calories back. That should feel far more doable than what you're currently doing. Your weight loss won't be quicker than it was (and shouldn't be really) but you'll find it easier to stick to long term.
  • leighs96
    leighs96 Posts: 14 Member
    sijomial wrote: »
    leighs96 wrote: »
    2lbs per week is a pretty high rate of loss, the only thing that is the issue is your expectations.

    Why do you need to burn 650 calories per day? Your calorie deficit is already factored into your calorie goal. Also if you're going 10000 steps per day, have you set yourself as Active when choosing your activity level?


    i thought in order to lose weight you have to burn more calories than you’re eating? i saw that on tik tok

    You are burning calories every second of every day, just being alive is the biggest component of your daily calorie needs. All the organs in your body burn calories to function.

    Exercise also isn't supposed to be used to boost the rate of weight loss if you use this site as designed - the idea is to reinforce a bit of a life lesson in that the more you do, the more you eat. And also of course the less you do the less you should eat. Your daily calorie goal is only intended to be for a day when no purposeful exercise.

    So my daily calorie at 1,310 is good? & my min workout i do daily?
  • leighs96
    leighs96 Posts: 14 Member
    Ok so go through the guided set up again, set yourself to Active and choose 1lb per week loss. Log your 20 min workout as exercise and eat those calories back. That should feel far more doable than what you're currently doing. Your weight loss won't be quicker than it was (and shouldn't be really) but you'll find it easier to stick to long term.

    How do i log my exercise, i have my apple watch Automatically log it it’s connected to the app
  • leighs96
    leighs96 Posts: 14 Member
    leighs96 wrote: »
    sijomial wrote: »
    How much weight have you lost and how much do you have to lose?
    Less than four weeks also isn't very long for a young woman to judge a trend.


    My start weight was 169, & as of monday i’m at 161 my goal is to get to 125.
    also i just feel the counting calories isn’t working for me bc i eat about 1,300 a day & im having a hard time burning 650 calories a day. i workout (lightly) as i have just started for about 20 mins & walk for about 40 mins & always get my 10 k steps in. idk. i’m just struggling.

    So you've lost 8lbs in less than 4 weeks? What exactly isn't working?

    I just wasn’t sure if that was right? everybody around me is saying i should be losing more 😭
  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,122 Member
    leighs96 wrote: »
    Ok so go through the guided set up again, set yourself to Active and choose 1lb per week loss. Log your 20 min workout as exercise and eat those calories back. That should feel far more doable than what you're currently doing. Your weight loss won't be quicker than it was (and shouldn't be really) but you'll find it easier to stick to long term.

    How do i log my exercise, i have my apple watch Automatically log it it’s connected to the app

    If you have a tracker synced then it will adjust for your steps and your exercise already, so just be sure to eat back those calories.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
    leighs96 wrote: »
    sijomial wrote: »
    leighs96 wrote: »
    2lbs per week is a pretty high rate of loss, the only thing that is the issue is your expectations.

    Why do you need to burn 650 calories per day? Your calorie deficit is already factored into your calorie goal. Also if you're going 10000 steps per day, have you set yourself as Active when choosing your activity level?


    i thought in order to lose weight you have to burn more calories than you’re eating? i saw that on tik tok

    You are burning calories every second of every day, just being alive is the biggest component of your daily calorie needs. All the organs in your body burn calories to function.

    Exercise also isn't supposed to be used to boost the rate of weight loss if you use this site as designed - the idea is to reinforce a bit of a life lesson in that the more you do, the more you eat. And also of course the less you do the less you should eat. Your daily calorie goal is only intended to be for a day when no purposeful exercise.

    So my daily calorie at 1,310 is good? & my min workout i do daily?

    Hard to tell if 1310 is good or aggressive rate of loss as I don't know what rate of loss you picked when you did your goal setup. But the meaning of that 1310 is in fact 1310 + exercise calories to keep at the calorie deficit/rate of loss you picked
  • MarziPanda95
    MarziPanda95 Posts: 1,326 Member
    Don't listen to everyone around you. 2lb a week is the maximum recommended loss per week unless someone is very overweight - and in that case they ought to be overseen by a doctor. Even 2lbs a week is a lot for someone who doesn't have much to lose. Patience is important.
  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,122 Member
    edited February 2021
    leighs96 wrote: »
    leighs96 wrote: »
    sijomial wrote: »
    How much weight have you lost and how much do you have to lose?
    Less than four weeks also isn't very long for a young woman to judge a trend.


    My start weight was 169, & as of monday i’m at 161 my goal is to get to 125.
    also i just feel the counting calories isn’t working for me bc i eat about 1,300 a day & im having a hard time burning 650 calories a day. i workout (lightly) as i have just started for about 20 mins & walk for about 40 mins & always get my 10 k steps in. idk. i’m just struggling.

    So you've lost 8lbs in less than 4 weeks? What exactly isn't working?

    I just wasn’t sure if that was right? everybody around me is saying i should be losing more 😭

    You can thank the media/diet industry for that, it's why so many people quit and chase ridiculous fad diets that promise quick results. Fast unsustainable weight loss plans usually fail for 1 of 2 reasons - burnout or misery, you end up chasing the same quick results again and again, losing the same 5-10lbs repeatedly instead of taking it slower, fitting in some of the foods you enjoy and sticking at it for longer than a few weeks.
  • goal06082021
    goal06082021 Posts: 2,130 Member
    edited February 2021
    leighs96 wrote: »
    leighs96 wrote: »
    sijomial wrote: »
    How much weight have you lost and how much do you have to lose?
    Less than four weeks also isn't very long for a young woman to judge a trend.


    My start weight was 169, & as of monday i’m at 161 my goal is to get to 125.
    also i just feel the counting calories isn’t working for me bc i eat about 1,300 a day & im having a hard time burning 650 calories a day. i workout (lightly) as i have just started for about 20 mins & walk for about 40 mins & always get my 10 k steps in. idk. i’m just struggling.

    So you've lost 8lbs in less than 4 weeks? What exactly isn't working?

    I just wasn’t sure if that was right? everybody around me is saying i should be losing more 😭

    At 160 lbs, the absolute most you should expect to lose if you're doing this in a safe and sustainable way is 1.6 lbs per week, that's 1% of your body mass. 1.6 lbs isn't a GOAL, mind you, it's a LIMIT. Like I said, there's a huge industry dedicated to telling you that you should be able to shed pounds as easily as taking off a winter coat, and that's bulls***. Count your calories, stick to your budget, eat back your exercise calories and you will see the weight come off.
  • 4legsRbetterthan2
    4legsRbetterthan2 Posts: 19,590 MFP Moderator
    Dear posters,

    Please keep the focused on the questions of the OP.

    Sincerely,
    4legs
    MFP volunteer moderator
  • rterm
    rterm Posts: 13 Member
    The way I lose weight is to count calories, exercise, and weigh myself daily. MFP gave me a reasonable calorie count to stay under for my gender, weight and activity level, and since using it, I went from 185 lbs to 178 in the space of 4 weeks. The MFP calorie count helps me make better choices during the day, since I enter breakfast and lunch totals, and then project what I'm having for dinner, and can cut back on the amount I eat, depending on how close I am to the desired total. I also find that weighing myself correlates with whether I went over or stayed under my calorie goal, and causes me to make corrections daily so I can get to my goal (173 lbs). But it does take discipline to not eat as much as I'd like, and to exercise, even when I don't feel like it.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 31,717 Member
    leighs96 wrote: »
    sijomial wrote: »
    How much weight have you lost and how much do you have to lose?
    Less than four weeks also isn't very long for a young woman to judge a trend.

    My start weight was 169, & as of monday i’m at 161 my goal is to get to 125.
    also i just feel the counting calories isn’t working for me bc i eat about 1,300 a day & im having a hard time burning 650 calories a day. i workout (lightly) as i have just started for about 20 mins & walk for about 40 mins & always get my 10 k steps in. idk. i’m just struggling.

    Yes, what they said: 2 pounds a week is too fast. You're risking stuff like thinning hair, if you stick with that. (That's a thing most young women care about, and it doesn't show up until weeks after the too-low calories, typically . . . by then, it's too late to adjust. And that's a minor bad effect, in the whole universe of things that increase in proability if undereating. Guaranteed bad outcome? No, but increased risk, for sure.)

    Look, I started heavier than you (183), and I'm at about your goal weight (125-point-something this morning). I've been at a healthy weight for 5+ years now, after losing. I lost too fast at first, by accident. It was bad (got weak and fatigued, took several weeks to get back to normal, though I adjusted quickly).

    Listen to the people above, saying you should lose slowly (it's going to take many weeks, regardless: Might as well make them easier and more pleasant weeks, use them to learn more about how you can eat/exercise to stay at a good weigh permanently).

    Women my age (I'm 65 now) who have done the "diet as a fast project" routine, yo-yoing many times over many years, are not generally in a great health condition now, and many/most are obese besides.

    You're young. Figure out now how to reach and *stay* at a healthy weight. You future self will benefit.
  • SYS15
    SYS15 Posts: 17 Member
    I did low carb for 7-8 ish months, Keto diet specifically. I lost 30 lbs and 4 sizes in that time, but it's a fat burning diet so you'll notice the inches quick. I only lost that 30lbs the first 2 months and nothing after besides some inches. I slowly got off the diet and only rebounded 5 lbs which is great.
    Keto is very hard though, your heart rate will sit higher because you are eating high fat and protein. You cannot cheat AT ALL - if you do you knock yourself out of ketosis. It's also a quite expensive diet buying meats, cheeses, and other high protein/fat foods. (Quest chips for example, 3-4 net carb and 15 g protein but 8+ dollars for 4 snack bags)

    It works well initially like others said, but I was unable to see any loss after my 2nd month. I got on WeightWatchers while getting off Keto but I'm noticing a gain with them (even though I don't indulge in any 0 point food besides vegetables and some fruit). Calorie in vs out has never worked for me, but I'm willing to try again which brought me back to MFP.
  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,122 Member
    edited February 2021
    SYS15 wrote: »
    I did low carb for 7-8 ish months, Keto diet specifically. I lost 30 lbs and 4 sizes in that time, but it's a fat burning diet so you'll notice the inches quick. I only lost that 30lbs the first 2 months and nothing after besides some inches. I slowly got off the diet and only rebounded 5 lbs which is great.
    Keto is very hard though, your heart rate will sit higher because you are eating high fat and protein. You cannot cheat AT ALL - if you do you knock yourself out of ketosis. It's also a quite expensive diet buying meats, cheeses, and other high protein/fat foods. (Quest chips for example, 3-4 net carb and 15 g protein but 8+ dollars for 4 snack bags)

    It works well initially like others said, but I was unable to see any loss after my 2nd month. I got on WeightWatchers while getting off Keto but I'm noticing a gain with them (even though I don't indulge in any 0 point food besides vegetables and some fruit). Calorie in vs out has never worked for me, but I'm willing to try again which brought me back to MFP.

    All weight loss comes down to calories in vs calories out, regardless of what method you're using.

    Keto - calorie deficit through higher satiety with higher fat (for some people)
    Weight watchers - calorie deficit due to points system
    Slimming world - calorie deficit due to syns systems
    Intermittent Fasting - calorie deficit through eating one less meal/lower on certain days.
    and so on.

    So whilst you may not have been calorie counting, the weight loss you saw when you were on Keto, was due to a calorie deficit, there are also people who maintain and gain (both intentionally and unintentionally) on Keto so it's not magic weight loss. The quick loss comes from the release of water weight from not eating as many carbs. 1g of carbs will cause the body to store around 4g of water. Which is why after the first few weeks or couple of months weight loss slows down.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,452 Member
    leighs96 wrote: »
    2lbs per week is a pretty high rate of loss, the only thing that is the issue is your expectations.

    Why do you need to burn 650 calories per day? Your calorie deficit is already factored into your calorie goal. Also if you're going 10000 steps per day, have you set yourself as Active when choosing your activity level?


    i thought in order to lose weight you have to burn more calories than you’re eating? i saw that on tik tok
    It's true, but burning TOO MANY CALORIES and not compensating (meaning your net total is well under 1000 calories for the day) is not good. Your body will rebel by lowering your metabolic rate and you'll burn less body fat (body fat is burned at rest in higher percentage than when working out and your body is at rest much longer than working out) which leads to a total slowdown in weight loss. Don't use TIK TOK as your reference for good information.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

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