Not even sure where to start (again) at this point

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happymom24
happymom24 Posts: 26 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I am 47, female, 6’ tall and 207 lbs. I have tried fasting, calorie counting, and currently working with a trainer but I am gaining weight instead of losing.

With four kids and working full time, I tend to get busy and skip meals. My trainer is having me increase calories and protein to “reset” my metabolism and get into a regular eating habit again, but I’m gaining weight because of the increased calories. Also, I’m starting to feel like the constant tracking and worrying about protein is taking over my life. Finally, I’ve been doing this for 5 months and haven’t lost anything. I’ve had a very stressful winter with several emergency family issues that has thrown some weeks off but I feel like I should be down some weight by now. I am seeing improvements in my workouts.

I am now eating around 1400 calories and 110g of protein daily. I am lightly active and aim for 8k steps each day. On days that I don’t actively go for a walk, I still hit 5k steps. I feel like this is a good amount of food for me and I can pretty much hit my protein goal every day without feeling like I’m forcing myself to eat (which I did feel like on a different plan). I can keep up on the routines myself and now that winter is ending, I can go for more walks.

What should I tweak to start seeing some weight loss?

Replies

  • happymom24
    happymom24 Posts: 26 Member
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    Sometimes I’m weighing, sometimes I’m using cups or spoons. For example, breakfast today is tea, toast, and Greek yogurt which I use measuring cups for. I’d be happy with 1-1.5 lbs lost each week. We have been increasing my calories to 1400…I was eating less. 😔
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,945 Member
    edited March 2022
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    Well, I am 5'7" (or 5'8"..apparently...) female, no kids, not working, and I lost nearly all my 80 pounds of weight lost at 1500-1600 PLUS MORE on days I exercised. So for five days a week I walked five miles and added on 300 calories more - I was eating 1800-1900 to lose weight.

    1400 sounds really low for your height and weight.

    What does this site's Goal calculator give you for calories when you set it at "Lose 1 pound per week" and "Lightly Active?" Use that and then add on your purposeful exercise on top of those 5,000 steps.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,611 Member
    edited March 2022
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    I did have a look at February using my old MFP excel macros, then MFP stopped cooperating.

    While, if you had the time and inclination and desire, there absolutely does exist room for log tightening with pre-cooked food weight and grams and ingredients and the elimination of the occasionally missed days. Nevertheless, in general, I did NOT spot any HUGE errors that jumped out! Assuming that most of the volume based measurements (especially ones that tended to average between 250 and 300 Cal on the days I looked at) are relatively accurate.

    Yet your total caloric intake as logged is extremely low for someone who is your size and activity level. In February your logged intake was less than 1000 Cal on average with zero missed days.

    Even if you're off a bit because of logging issues, as long as there's no systematic under-representation, the general conclusion is that your caloric and nutrition intake is already at a minimal level.

    Based on what you said, it sounds as if you're being guided through a reverse diet which is trying to increase your caloric maintenance level and accepting a small weight increase as the cost of trying to achieve that. And that you're starting to feel better in terms of being better able to perform at the gym and becoming more active.

    Nutritional requirements are very hard to fulfill on less than 1200 Cal. as such I would continue to work on increasing my maintenance calorie level before attempting another deficit, and would consider making an attempt to re-allocate as many of my calories as I could towards maximizing the nutritional content of my caloric intake! :wink:

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