Is hitting calorie goal really enough?
joowelz
Posts: 170 Member
First, i am sorry if i sound like a broken record. I need some tough love and encouragement because it seems like i am working hard and getting no results.
I want a guarantee that hitting my calorie goal (of 1600) daily will allow me to lose half a pound per week.
At this point, i believe i will have to go a bit hungry and eat bland foods the rest of the time. I am willing to try to eat nothing but apples if it will guarantee fat loss every week.
I want a guarantee that hitting my calorie goal (of 1600) daily will allow me to lose half a pound per week.
At this point, i believe i will have to go a bit hungry and eat bland foods the rest of the time. I am willing to try to eat nothing but apples if it will guarantee fat loss every week.
3
Replies
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Nothing will guarantee you fat loss every single week.
But eating food you like within your calories and not starving won't either. Neither will doing a ton of exercise. Those things might make you more likely to GAIN weight when you mentally snap because you hate your food and you're starved, though
Weight loss isn't linear. There are going to be days the scale goes UP and days nothing happens and sometimes a week or two where the scale doesn't move. This is EXTRA true for women and their hormonal cycles.
Try one of those trend smoothing apps, and those bounces are not fat, but it isn't linear - and you don't see immediate results in any regard.
You have to be consistent and you have to be patient.6 -
Nobody can guarantee that you will lose half a pound a week.
There are so many things that can complicate weight loss week to week. We can't promise that you'll never retain water after a tough workout or that you'll won't a bit heavier after air travel. We can't keep you from getting constipated. If you have a period or ovulate, we can't control water retention related to those. If you eat a higher sodium meal than usual, we can't prevent temporary water weight gain related to that.
What you will see is that if you're in a deficit you will, over time, lose weight.
You may have to have to put in some effort to learn how to log better so that you're consistently hitting that deficit.
Note: I'm not sure why you would only have to eat bland food (unless it makes it easier for you to hit your calorie goal). There's a whole world of ways to add flavor to foods without adding a bunch of calories. You're free to explore those along the way. While some people find that reducing the variety of foods they eat makes it easier for them to hit their calorie goal, many others find that having meals that they look forward to eating and include a variety of foods actually makes it easier to be in a deficit. If you're only eating a single food, you will probably have a much harder time because you'll be craving things like fat and protein that aren't really in apples.10 -
How did you come up with 1600?
I ate at about that level and lost about 50 pounds from 190 to 140...but I'm female, 5'7" and was in my fifties and retired when I did that. PLUS I ate 300-500 more calories on the FIVE days a week I exercised.
And yeah, hunger is involved in weight loss. It's a lot easier if I get some exercise at least five days a week...1900-2000 calories is a lot easier and that's what I ate when I got an hour exercise.7 -
Be patient with yourself
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cmriverside wrote: ». How did you come up with 1600?
.
I did some math. I am 43 years old, 5’6 and 172 lbs. Due to lockdowns, i sit in my condo every day. The only exercise i do now is a light jog or brisk walk for 40 minutes, 4-5 times a week. I just bought a treadmill and started doing that. Gyms have been closed for the past year. I have gained 10 pandemic pounds since last year.
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cmriverside wrote: ». How did you come up with 1600?
.
I did some math. I am 43 years old, 5’6 and 172 lbs. Due to lockdowns, i sit in my condo every day. The only exercise i do now is a light jog or brisk walk for 40 minutes, 4-5 times a week. I just bought a treadmill and started doing that. Gyms have been closed for the past year. I have gained 10 pandemic pounds since last year.
Well, 1600 is probably good on those sedentary/inside days. Add a little more for the exercise on those days...like 150-200 for that brisk walk. There is an "Exercise" tab above. Log the exercise and you'll get a little more to eat.
Only way for you to test your numbers is to use them for a couple months and then adjust if necessary.
We all have to run an experiment. The better your data, the more predictable the results.9 -
First, i am sorry if i sound like a broken record. I need some tough love and encouragement because it seems like i am working hard and getting no results.
I want a guarantee that hitting my calorie goal (of 1600) daily will allow me to lose half a pound per week.
At this point, i believe i will have to go a bit hungry and eat bland foods the rest of the time. I am willing to try to eat nothing but apples if it will guarantee fat loss every week.
Nobody can guarantee anything. Weight management is about calories...a calorie is a unit of energy. You require XXXX amount of energy to maintain the status quo based on your personal stats and overall activity. When you consume energy in excess of what you need, that energy is stored as body fat...it's basically your backup generator. When you consume less energy than you require, that deficiency has to be made up...so your backup generator kicks on and you burn body fat to bridge that gap. It's that simple.
Eating only apples would be a very bad idea and result in substantial malnutrition. If you're set to 1/2 Lb per week it's going to be difficult to see anything in the short term considering water and waste fluctuations can be much more than that. When set at 1/2 Lb per week it is very important to get some kind of trending app as you aren't likely going to be able to see what is truly going on for a good 4 to 6 weeks.6 -
I want a guarantee that hitting my calorie goal (of 1600) daily will allow me to lose half a pound per week.
Well that's a shame as there's no guarantee:- 1600 is your appropriate goal for losing at that rate.
- Or that your weight loss will be linear even if 1600 is that magic number.
- Or that what you think is 1600 actually is 1600.
- Or that starting a new exercise routine won't change your magic number.
- Ot that your total body weight changes will track your reduction in bodyfat.
Not sure why you think bland foods have a dieting advantage over tasty foods?
Personally when I need to cut weight making sure my food is satisfying and tasty helps me stick to a deficit.
Test your 1600 (net or gross isn't clear) for a month and then you will have some data from which to make adjustments. But you really do have to reset your expectations and your timescales.10 -
The closest thing you can get to a "guarantee" of losing a half pound per week is to go to the MFP goals tool, enter your age, weight, gender, and height, tell it you want to lose 1/2 lb per week, and get its recommended calories, which may not be 1600. If you weigh all your food to the gram to ensure you are actually eating the calories you think you're eating, and stick like glue to that calorie target and don't go over or under for a month, you will have at LEAST and possibly much higher than 90 % chance of losing the 1/2 pound per week. For me that MFP goals tool has been accurate to within 1 % of its claim, and many others have been able to take that calorie target to the bank as well. You could do a lot worse than to rely on MFP's algorithm.
You can eat whatever you want for those calories. Apples, chocolate fudge cake, it will make no difference as far as weight loss is concerned. You may as well eat what you like, and focus on portion control - WEIGHED, to the gram, every time, if you really want to put the odds in your favor.7 -
.5 lb a week is an average over time, not a set guarantee that you will lose every week on the scale like clockwork. It isn't going to happen, especially for women. If that is your expectation, you will need to learn to adjust it or this will be a very discouraging process for you.5
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Some things to keep in mind....
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cwolfman13 wrote: »First, i am sorry if i sound like a broken record. I need some tough love and encouragement because it seems like i am working hard and getting no results.
I want a guarantee that hitting my calorie goal (of 1600) daily will allow me to lose half a pound per week.
At this point, i believe i will have to go a bit hungry and eat bland foods the rest of the time. I am willing to try to eat nothing but apples if it will guarantee fat loss every week.
Nobody can guarantee anything. Weight management is about calories...a calorie is a unit of energy. You require XXXX amount of energy to maintain the status quo based on your personal stats and overall activity. When you consume energy in excess of what you need, that energy is stored as body fat...it's basically your backup generator. When you consume less energy than you require, that deficiency has to be made up...so your backup generator kicks on and you burn body fat to bridge that gap. It's that simple.
Eating only apples would be a very bad idea and result in substantial malnutrition. If you're set to 1/2 Lb per week it's going to be difficult to see anything in the short term considering water and waste fluctuations can be much more than that. When set at 1/2 Lb per week it is very important to get some kind of trending app as you aren't likely going to be able to see what is truly going on for a good 4 to 6 weeks.
This is really interesting. What is a trending app?0 -
These are my results over the past 7 years. I can’t stop eating at 1,600. I want more food!0 -
This is really interesting. What is a trending app?
A trending app just smooths out the daily fluctuations, into a trend line.
You can make your own just by putting your data in excel and plotting a trend line.
Not sure about a specific app, it might come with a Bluetooth enabled scale.
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cwolfman13 wrote: »First, i am sorry if i sound like a broken record. I need some tough love and encouragement because it seems like i am working hard and getting no results.
I want a guarantee that hitting my calorie goal (of 1600) daily will allow me to lose half a pound per week.
At this point, i believe i will have to go a bit hungry and eat bland foods the rest of the time. I am willing to try to eat nothing but apples if it will guarantee fat loss every week.
Nobody can guarantee anything. Weight management is about calories...a calorie is a unit of energy. You require XXXX amount of energy to maintain the status quo based on your personal stats and overall activity. When you consume energy in excess of what you need, that energy is stored as body fat...it's basically your backup generator. When you consume less energy than you require, that deficiency has to be made up...so your backup generator kicks on and you burn body fat to bridge that gap. It's that simple.
Eating only apples would be a very bad idea and result in substantial malnutrition. If you're set to 1/2 Lb per week it's going to be difficult to see anything in the short term considering water and waste fluctuations can be much more than that. When set at 1/2 Lb per week it is very important to get some kind of trending app as you aren't likely going to be able to see what is truly going on for a good 4 to 6 weeks.
This is really interesting. What is a trending app?
A trending app will show the data points, along with a trend line showing the overall trend over time. Losing weight, and losing weight consistently means also hitting your targets consistently...at least reasonably so. I've done 1/2 Lb per week before, and the difficulty in that is that normal fluctuations are going to mask that week to week. I can fluctuate easily up or down 2-3 Lbs day to day and same week to week...that being so, it is easy to see how you're simply not going to see 1/2 Lb down on the scale week to week...there's too much noise in there. You could in fact lose 2 Lbs of fat in a month and never see it on the scale because of the other noise. When you're wanting to go that slow, it's really about a lot of patience and trust in the process and consistency. You also have almost no wiggle room for errors...cheats, etc. When you're losing that slow, it's all about the long game...you are lucky if you can identify a true loss on the scale in 4 weeks...in my experience, it's going to be more like 6 to 8 weeks before you can say, "yeah...I'm losing"4 -
cmriverside wrote: ». How did you come up with 1600?
.
I did some math. I am 43 years old, 5’6 and 172 lbs. Due to lockdowns, i sit in my condo every day. The only exercise i do now is a light jog or brisk walk for 40 minutes, 4-5 times a week. I just bought a treadmill and started doing that. Gyms have been closed for the past year. I have gained 10 pandemic pounds since last year.These are my results over the past 7 years. I can’t stop eating at 1,600. I want more food!
I want more than 1600 calories too. I get hours of exercise every day despite not belonging to a gym. I actually haven't gone to one since early 2017. If you want tips on how to get more exercise without belonging to a gym, perhaps start a thread dedicated to that.0 -
First, i am sorry if i sound like a broken record. I need some tough love and encouragement because it seems like i am working hard and getting no results.
I want a guarantee that hitting my calorie goal (of 1600) daily will allow me to lose half a pound per week.
At this point, i believe i will have to go a bit hungry and eat bland foods the rest of the time. I am willing to try to eat nothing but apples if it will guarantee fat loss every week.
It is quite possible that you will lose a half pound of FAT per week but you will not see this on the scale due to WATER retention masking it. I'm good for a four pound uptick every month when I ovulate, and somewhat less premenstrually.4 -
First, i am sorry if i sound like a broken record. I need some tough love and encouragement because it seems like i am working hard and getting no results.
I want a guarantee that hitting my calorie goal (of 1600) daily will allow me to lose half a pound per week.
At this point, i believe i will have to go a bit hungry and eat bland foods the rest of the time. I am willing to try to eat nothing but apples if it will guarantee fat loss every week.
You might have to go a bit hungry, but that's ok. Bland, absolutely not. I'm 5 ft tall with a calorie allowance of 1300... last night I had a .5 lb tri tip steak and a noodle vegetable stir fry for dinner.1 -
My exercise today was walking the dog, my calorie allowance is about 1500 (while losing) and I had Dairy Queen for dinner. You can make just about anything work.6
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I just had 800 Cal (155g) of chocolate covered Belgian cookies.
Today's 2500 Cal look extremely likely to leave me a bit hungry unless I go over.
Yesterday I had 263.5g of lean beef, 61.5g of Betty Crocker garlic mashed potatoes made with water. All of that was seasoned with 6g of lemon pepper seasoning, and eaten with 23g Keen's hot English mustard.... and totalled 797.5 Cal
Yesterday I did not feel hungry, nor did I have any difficulty adhering to my caloric goals.
Check out happy scale (iOS), Libra (Android), trendweigh or weightgrapher in terms of web sites2
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