weight loss

1200 calories is low for a man. Mfp recommends 1500 calories at a minimum for men. I would guess that you are unintentionally eating more. It is critical when you are struggling to drop weight, to weigh your food (better than measuring volume, much better than eyeballing), use “good” food entries (by consulting outside sources (like USDA)), and logging every single bite (and maybe even sidelong glances at desserts, lol!). I’m a few years younger than you, a woman, so no doubt shorter, and weigh ~140 lbs. I also eat 1200 calories/day, which is mfp’s recommended minimum for a woman. I am averaging one pound of loss a week. Hope this helps.

My husband is 66, started at just under 250 in august and has lost over 30 so far.

He is “allowed” about 1800 or so per day but soon discovered exercise buys back more calories so he’s begun exercising and, like me, now enjoys it- and the extra food it puts on his plate.

If you’re eating 1200 and not losing, a.) bad bad idea for many reasons including potential heart issues amongst others and b.) I suspect it’s a sign of sloppy weighing/logging. You’re going to have to make the decision to go all in on accuracy if you want to lose.

BTW, MFP won’t even recommend less than 1500 for a male, or less than 1200 for a female.

1200 is pretty low and probably not sustainable. In the same boat myself (mid 60s), tend to go up and down, key is to change behaviors and things in the long term, but it’s hard and I’m having mixed results but keeping moving forward even when the progress isn’t what I’d like and I get setbacks. Any exercise you can do is a big plus, even light walking, I know it’s harder the older we get.

brosia2 wrote: »

Thanks for all the great comments, the one thing I am not doing is weighing my food, but I track every single calorie, every day, I know 1200 is very low, but I had this spare tire that I figured could stand a few less calories. I exercise every day at the gym, I do the treadmill at a 15 degree slope and 3.1 mph, I go for about 40 min a a day but make sure I burn at least 400 cal, on the treadmill, i do the weight machines for about 30 min, so overall 60 min a day, every day. I try to find low calorie recipes, but I really suck at cooking, but I try. I stopped drinking soda completely, and yes I did enjoy a good annual doctors visit, I am religous about weighing myself every morning, I know its too much, but I cant stand not knowing, Yesterday I worked out for an hour , ate 1275 calories and woke up today and gained a pound, very hard to understand, I started dieting on Sep 14th and to date have lost 25 lbs, they tell me thats good but again, its very hard.

So you ate 1275 calories, and exercised 400 (probably more). In effect, you gave your body 875 calories (probably less) to fuel all its basic life functions, plus your daily life chores and whatnot. It's not enough. It's not remotely enough.

I started MFP with a 1200 calories goal. I did as MFP expects, and ate all of my carefully-estimated exercise calories, too, on top of the 1200. It was still not enough. I felt great, energetic, not hungry . . . until I hit a wall. Suddenly I was weak, fatigued, took multiple weeks to recover even though I corrected quickly. I was lucky nothing worse happened, other than maybe some hair thinning a few weeks afterward (that effect is usually delayed).

Much worse things can happen. Consider this:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10761904/under-1200-for-weight-loss/p1

I was under 200 pounds, 5'5", 59 years old, and 100% more female than you . . . and 1200 plus exercise was too few calories. 1275 minus exercise is too few for you, unless you really like health risk. You're not morbidly obese: Your spare tire isn't enough to fuel that big a deficit. (We can only burn a certain number of calories of body fat per day, per pound of fat we currently have, according to researchers. After that, the body will burn other kinds of tissue to make up the difference.)

The less fat your have, the slower you want to be losing, if you value your health. Depending on how tall you are, you should be aiming for a pound a week loss, maybe two. Are bad things guaranteed to happen if you keep trying to lose ultra-fast? No, not guaranteed. But you're seriously upping the risks.

Personally, at our age (I'm 66 now), I'm less resilient than I was at 20, less willing to take health risks. Your call, though.

As far as weight on the scale, it'll go up and down. Read the link Springlering62 posted. You're over-reacting to water weight. It's fine to weigh every day, but you need to realize that the weight on the scale in the morning is a cumulative effect of the past several weeks, not just the previous day.

Also, the weight changes are not just about fat: Overnight, they're more about water retention and digestive contents on their way to becoming waste. You learn your actual fat-weight loss rate by averaging over multiple weeks. I, too, like to weigh daily . . . to help me understand the water/waste fluctuations, not because it offers any feedback on the previous day's efforts.

Eat more, understand what you're seeing on the bodyweight scale. You may succeed on your current route, but those of us who've been around for a while** see a lot of people go pedal to the metal, burn out, disappear, sometimes come back in a few months having regained the lost pounds (with friends), and they're back here again trying to lose again. Don't be that person.

** I've been here since 2015, lost 50+ pounds in just under a year, have been maintaining a healthy weight since, after having been overweight/obese for 30 years or so before 2015.

Best wishes, sincerely - I'd really like to see you succeed. That's my only motivation for posting on your thread, truly.

brosia2 wrote: »

Thanks for all the great comments, the one thing I am not doing is weighing my food, but I track every single calorie, every day, I know 1200 is very low, but I had this spare tire that I figured could stand a few less calories. I exercise every day at the gym, I do the treadmill at a 15 degree slope and 3.1 mph, I go for about 40 min a a day but make sure I burn at least 400 cal, on the treadmill, i do the weight machines for about 30 min, so overall 60 min a day, every day. I try to find low calorie recipes, but I really suck at cooking, but I try. I stopped drinking soda completely, and yes I did enjoy a good annual doctors visit, I am religous about weighing myself every morning, I know its too much, but I cant stand not knowing, Yesterday I worked out for an hour , ate 1275 calories and woke up today and gained a pound, very hard to understand, I started dieting on Sep 14th and to date have lost 25 lbs, they tell me thats good but again, its very hard.

First, this eating pattern is not sustainable. You will crash, and crash hard. That may only be having all energy disappear and taking several weeks to months to have it come back after you increase your calories, or it could be a complete breakdown in your eating and putting back on what you have lost because of it.

Second, if you are going to weigh every day, you will have to get used to things like what you outline above. There are a whole host of things that cause day to day weight fluctuations that have nothing to do with putting on fat . . . constipation, water retention or dehydration, and more. Weight loss never proceeds in a straight line, especially if you are weighing every day.

brosia2 wrote: »

Wow!! Thanks everyone, I dont want to crash and I dont want to be a statistic either, I am going to 1800 calories, I just need to stay away from the bad stuff, junk food, While I only lost 21lbs in 2 1/2 months, I feel very good about myself, maybe I exercise to much (every night at the gym for 1 hour, but I kinda like it, I put ear buds in, listen to old music and I feel really good, again thanks everyone for all the great comments and thoughts.

I think you need to adjust your perspective. There is nothing 'only' about losing 21lbs in 10 weeks. That's quick weight loss! Losing 0.5-1% of your bodyweight per week is recommended - preferably nearer the 0.5% side the closer you are to your goal weight.
Don't let shows like the Biggest Loser skew your perception. Extreme weight loss often results in loss of muscle mass and often leads to regain in the future too.

@callsitlikeiseeit I’m liking the “Cliff Notes”. Hope you saved that one. 😉