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kboise2
Posts: 4 Member
I have either been at or below my goal calories of 1200 per day and in 30 days have lost 2 lbs .... What am I doing wrong? I exercise every morning for 30 minutes and my food is all healthy. I'n drinking 6-8 cups of water a day. It's like I'm stuck and not sure how to get UN-stuck.
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Replies
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You've lost 2 pounds in 30 days. Doesn't sound like nothing!
How much are you expecting to lose per week?3 -
If you are at or close to a normal BMI, 2lbs a month is as good as it's going to get.
If you are not using a scale to *weigh* your food, your calorie count is not accurate.
If you are eating back all of your exercise calories per MFP calculators you are probably eating more calories than you actually burned.
If none of those apply, see a doctor.11 -
Unless you are very, very petite and/or under the care of a doctor you shouldn’t be eating BELOW 1200 calories on a regular basis and you should be eating a portion of your exercise calories back.
How tall are you, what is your current weight and how much are you trying to lose?4 -
You've lost 2 pounds. Perhaps all that needs correction is your expectations?
What is your height, weight now? What is your goal weight? In general a person can expect to lose AT MOST 2 pounds or 1% of their body weight weekly. Meaning it is not 'standard' for everyone to lose those big #s. If you're accurately & honestly logging your intake, exercising to improve your health & wellbeing, AND your weight is less now than last month: you're doing great.5 -
Another note: I find it easier to be patient during weight loss when I minimize my self-expectations to do thing that feel onerous and are unrelated to weight loss. If drinking 6-8 cups of water a day isn't adding to your enjoyment of life, why do it? It's not going to make you lose weight. If eating "all healthy" is something you're doing because you think it will result in more weight loss, then stop. Weight loss is creating by a calorie deficit. If exercising every morning isn't for specific fitness goals but you're just doing it because you think you "should," why not take a rest day once or twice a week or experiment with more fun forms of activity?
Weight loss is created by a calorie deficit and you don't need to add a bunch of other things to that unless you find they're also helping you feel better or enjoy life more. It's easy to feel resentful when you feel like you're doing a bunch of extra stuff and not getting results, but a lot of that "extra stuff" we do isn't getting us closer to our ultimate goal.11 -
I have either been at or below my goal calories of 1200 per day and in 30 days have lost 2 lbs .... What am I doing wrong? I exercise every morning for 30 minutes and my food is all healthy. I'n drinking 6-8 cups of water a day. It's like I'm stuck and not sure how to get UN-stuck.
What does "my food is all healthy" mean? Healthy food can be calorie dense too, for example, beans.
Side note: I've actually met people that have upped their calories and lost weight. (they didn't raise their calories by a lot, say instead of 1200 they do 1500, but that takes time to figure out the correct number)6 -
I have either been at or below my goal calories of 1200 per day and in 30 days have lost 2 lbs .... What am I doing wrong? I exercise every morning for 30 minutes and my food is all healthy. I'n drinking 6-8 cups of water a day. It's like I'm stuck and not sure how to get UN-stuck.
What does "my food is all healthy" mean? Healthy food can be calorie dense too, for example, beans.
Side note: I've actually met people that have upped their calories and lost weight. (they didn't raise their calories by a lot, say instead of 1200 they do 1500, but that takes time to figure out the correct number)
Nuts are another great example of a food that combines nutrient-density and calorie-density.
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I'm 5'7" I weigh 145 lbs and am trying to get at least down to 135. When I was on Optiva I lost a 2 lb a week. My food intake consists of Robert Irvine protein bars, Tossed Salad with Chicken Breast. Keto Cookies, Steamed Broccoli, light cheese sticks, celery sticks and unbuttered popcorn for snacking. I do 30 minutes of strength exercise every morning so burn maybe 200 calories tops2
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I'm 5'7" I weigh 145 lbs and am trying to get at least down to 135. When I was on Optiva I lost a 2 lb a week. My food intake consists of Robert Irvine protein bars, Tossed Salad with Chicken Breast. Keto Cookies, Steamed Broccoli, light cheese sticks, celery sticks and unbuttered popcorn for snacking. I do 30 minutes of strength exercise every morning so burn maybe 200 calories tops
Yeah, I think weight loss on Optavia is much faster than average, I'm guessing because their plans are lower calorie than most. I had a coworker who did it and she lost weight pretty quickly, especially at first.
Also, as others have said, if you're only wanting to lose 10 lbs and you're already at a healthy weight range (which you are for your height and weight), weight loss will typically be slower.
I went from 151 to 143 at 5'8 at a rate of about .5 lb per week, but was actually eating at only a 250 calorie deficit (so significantly more than 1200). Although I was already doing quite a bit of formal exercise already, I find it really important to be active throughout the day as much as possible--and not necessarily by "exercise."3 -
I'm 5'7" I weigh 145 lbs and am trying to get at least down to 135. When I was on Optiva I lost a 2 lb a week. My food intake consists of Robert Irvine protein bars, Tossed Salad with Chicken Breast. Keto Cookies, Steamed Broccoli, light cheese sticks, celery sticks and unbuttered popcorn for snacking. I do 30 minutes of strength exercise every morning so burn maybe 200 calories tops
2 pounds a month is a great rate of loss for someone who is going from 145 to 135. The closer you are to goal, the less you're going to see huge moves each week. That's just the nature of weight loss -- you're not using enough energy to be able to create the big deficits that result in losing 2 pounds a week.5 -
Thanks Everyone. You have been very Helpful !1
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I'm 5'7" I weigh 145 lbs and am trying to get at least down to 135. When I was on Optiva I lost a 2 lb a week. My food intake consists of Robert Irvine protein bars, Tossed Salad with Chicken Breast. Keto Cookies, Steamed Broccoli, light cheese sticks, celery sticks and unbuttered popcorn for snacking. I do 30 minutes of strength exercise every morning so burn maybe 200 calories tops
With 10 pounds to lose, 2 pounds a week is probably too fast. I admit, unlike some, I think fast loss for a truly short time (a month, say) may be compatible with reasonably moderate (not excessive) health risk . . . for a person who is on the younger side (likely to be more physically resilient than oldies like me), and who doesn't have other major sources of life stress going on (because fast loss is a physical stress, cumulative with other physical and psychological stress in one's life, to potentially create risk and cause problems in total).
So, after you lost 2 pounds a week with Optiva, did you keep the weight off? One thing that fast loss tends to do, is not create an opportunity to experiment and learn a long-term-sustainable eating and exercise routine that will help one stay at a healthy weight, ideally permanently. (For someone with lots of weight to lose, they may safely lose faster at first, but those last 10-25 pounds are a good time for the "figure out maintenance" experiments and practice, and slower loss is risk-conservative when one has less to lose.)
FWIW: I'm 5'5", only a little shorter than you. I've been maintaining a weight in the healthy range for 5+ years (after previous *decades* of obesity). My weight had crept up a bit - about the amount you're trying to lose - over those 5 years, still in a healthy range, but I wanted to (re-)lose it. Last March (2020), I weighed about 135. Now, I weigh 125. That's kind of crazy-slow weight loss, much slower than half a pound a week, so not for everyone . . . but it was IMO completely painless, easy, kept my exercise performance/results high, and had other nice side benefits. I didn't even need to change anything major about my eating style, didn't change exercise at all. Just one option to consider.
P.S. I'd be skeptical of anything even nearly as high as 200 calories for half an hour of strength exercise, especially if that's classic reps/sets strength. That sort of thing is more than worth doing, especially for someone who has appearance or performance goals, but it's not a great calorie burner. I figure about 80-90 calories for half an hour of strength training, and I'm not much smaller than you are. Even some my moderately-high-intensity cardio is not going to burn as much as 400 calories per hour, and while I'm pretty old, I'm not really a cardio slacker. For a woman, especially one of your/my size, 400 calories per hour is pretty robust exercise intensity.1 -
Gaining an understanding of how much energy you use in a day can be helpful, so as to know why losing 2 pounds in a month is reasonable and 2 pounds in a week is not.
I am 5'5", 133ish, 46 year old female. My BMR is about 1250. With regular daily (deskjob) activity and a decent amount of intentional activity/exercise, I'm using 1900-2000 TOTAL calories daily and eating 1600 approximately. My deficit is thus 300-400. 300 daily deficit is a tiny bit more than .5 pounds per week. (I'm working to get back to maintenance of 128-130 after a couple of months where I got lazy, didn't move much but kept eating as if I were moving more!) For me to lose 2 pounds per week, I'd need to eat 900-1000 which is not sustainable, not safe, would result in excessive loss of muscle, and drive me bonkers from hunger.
Based on height of 5'7" and weight 145, your bmr is 1335-1435, assuming you are between 45 and 25. (Higher BMR for younger people.) So that is your starting point, plus regular daily activity and exercise. Subtract 250 daily for .5 pounds per week loss, or 500 for 1 pounds per week loss. And keep in mind, when you have a smallish deficit then you can't really afford logging errors. So using a food scale as often as possible for solid food is wise.1 -
I'm 5'7" I weigh 145 lbs and am trying to get at least down to 135. When I was on Optiva I lost a 2 lb a week. My food intake consists of Robert Irvine protein bars, Tossed Salad with Chicken Breast. Keto Cookies, Steamed Broccoli, light cheese sticks, celery sticks and unbuttered popcorn for snacking. I do 30 minutes of strength exercise every morning so burn maybe 200 calories tops
You're already at a healthy weight and only wanting to lose 10 Lbs...you don't have the capacity (fat stores) to lose 2 Lbs per week. Vanity weight is the slowest kind of weight to lose as you're trying to lose something that biologically is "normal" and when you get to a certain point, essential.4 -
I'm 61 years old1
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I'm 61 years old
I lost weight from obese to healthy at 59-60. I'm now 65. I personally wouldn't even consider losing the last 10 pounds to goal at 2 pounds a week, at this point (or ever, probably), and I say that as a pretty vigorous, healthy, active & robust 60-something woman.
When I first lost weight back in 2015-2016, the last 10 pounds or a bit higher than that was where I deliberately slowed loss, shooting for half a pound a week. I wanted that for two reasons, one was to keep health risks at a minimum, the other was to give myself more time to practice weight-maintenance skills and really make those things habits, so all I needed to go when I hit goal weight was add a *small* number of calories daily, and not change any major eating or exercise habits. As I mentioned above, when I went to re-lose a few pounds, I went even slower than that - much slower, kind of crazy-slow, on purpose.
If I were you, I'd hang in there where you are, and keep making gradual progress. But it's up to you.4 -
I'm 61 years old
Me too.
It's a good reason to lose weight the best way you can rather than the fastest way you can.
Our skin isn't as elastic and may not keep up with fast rates of loss, it's also slower to regain muscle if you lose it.
Losing weight at your current 2lbs a month sounds a really sensible rate of weight loss for you.7 -
I'm 61 years old
Me too.
It's a good reason to lose weight the best way you can rather than the fastest way you can.
Our skin isn't as elastic and may not keep up with fast rates of loss, it's also slower to regain muscle if you lose it.
Losing weight at your current 2lbs a month sounds a really sensible rate of weight loss for you.
Ha! Mid 50s and my skin didn't keep up with even a slow weight loss. I never had that problem when younger.0 -
Hi there, I am 56. It has been a slow road for me too...however, things started to really change when I made sure I got more than 10k steps in a day. I was not paying attention to that before but now I am and it is making a difference in my weight, finally. I also do not eat back my exercise calories which is a touchy subject here but we have to do what works best for each of us. Those 2 things combined are finally working for me. Just a thought for you...1
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