Weight loss

havewings wrote: »

Thx for your input. I've been doing this for 2 weeks, haven't been as diligent at logging as I should be though. Haven't lost any weight, but now that I'm seriously giving this a go, I just wanted to know if those extra calories I earn from exercise, are calories I can consume, but still lose weight. I made my goal 2 lbs. a week. I currently weigh 160, am 5'3" and I want to weigh 140...prefer less, but I'll reassess when I get there. I lost 40 lbs. on WW, but couldn't lose the last 20, so I'm here to try something different

This may come across as mean, but I promise you that's not where I'm coming from. I'm little taller than you (5'5"), have weighed 160 (and more), and I want you to succeed, because reaching a healthy weight has been a powerful quality of life improvement for me, and I want that to happen for everyone who can commit to the goal.

I don't know how old you are, but if I assume you're 35, a TDEE calculator says a low-activity woman your size would burn around 1700-1800 calories daily, maybe up to 2000-2100 if you have a fairly active but average-ish kind of activity schedule between daily life and exercise. If older, fewer calories estimated.

If that's the case, an accurately-logged 1200 would be expected to produce maybe a pound a week loss, up to a pound and a half or so if more active. 1600 would be even slower loss.

MFP won't give a woman a calorie goal lower than 1200, because unless someone is older, petite, quite inactive, that's at best skating on the edge of under-nutrition. I suspect that you asked MFP to help you lose 2 pounds a week, but it gave you a calorie goal that may not accomplish that, in order to protect your health.

A common rule of thumb around here is that it's sensible not to try to lose more than 0.5-1% of current weight per week, with a bias toward the lower end of that unless severely obese and under close medical supervision for deficiencies or complications. Going faster is not only hard to stick with, it increases health risk.

For you, that would be 0.8 to 1.6 pounds per week . . . but you're not severely obese, so more like 0.8 pounds a week, maybe one pound a week.

Here's the thing:

* You lost 40 pounds on WW, but haven't been able to lose more.
* You say you haven't been diligent about logging.
* It's been 2 weeks, and you haven't lost any weight (which could still be because of shifts in water retention, especially if you have menstrual cycles, but it's still a data point)
* You gave yourself an extremely aggressive loss rate goal, so got the lowest calorie goal MFP will ever give a woman
* . . . and you're already asking us if you can eat more.

I'm not criticizing eating back exercise calories. I ate back all my carefully-estimated exercise calories through just under a year of loss from class 1 obese to healthy weight, and have been at a healthy weight for 8+ years since, doing the same. Conceptually, it's fine.

You've done great so far, lost a bunch of weight on WW - kudos for that . . . but you haven't been able to lose that expected-to-be-last 20.

Right now, you say you're "seriously giving this a go". You maybe only have that 20 pounds to go. At 2 pounds a week, you'd need to diligently stick with a seriously low calorie goal, and stay with it consistently for at least two and a half months. I'm not prejudging, just asking: Can you realistically do that? Then what?

My advice would be this: Slow the bus down. Find a plan that's easy to stick with. Eat exercise calories separately, or average them into calorie goal - doesn't matter, pick one. Maybe target half a pound to a pound a week. That will take even longer, but be substantially easier.

Maybe more important: You're getting somewhat close to goal. I assume you want to stay at goal long term, ideally permanently. At this point, don't focus on "lose weight fast", focus on "find new sustainable, relatively easy/happy routine new habits". That means both eating habits and activity habits (active daily life stuff in addition to exercise ). Include that small calorie deficit for however long it takes to reach goal weight, but focus on finding the new eating and activity habits you can keep up long term almost on autopilot when other parts of life get complicated, because eventually they will. Be realistic about how to handle special events, treats, etc., starting now.

When you reach goal weight, add back a few daily calories on average to stop losing, and just keep rolling with those new habits. It's a different way of looking at it, but that's my advice.

Wishing you success!