Stuck on 70+kgs

oddingley
oddingley Posts: 3 Member
edited June 7 in Health and Weight Loss

Good morning , my weight has been between 72-75 kgs forever. I’m 5’2”, a vegetarian and think I eat well. Active 3ish times a week / yoga, walking, random weights. So I gave up alcohol 95 days ago completely (did it for lent and continued) - no weight change which really surprised me! My daughter showed me this app and calculated my goals for me. Lost 1kg but now now nothing - floating around 73/74kgs - I’m really disheartened - I’m now 60 but definitely not old. Feeling really frustrated, unhappy, defeated! Would love some help and support 😢

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Answers

  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 2,496 Member

    If its been less than 4-6 weeks that you've been trying to lose then have patience if its been longer than that then you arent in a consistent weekly calorie deficit.

  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,718 Member

    Yeah, weight loss isn't a consistent thing. Lots of things will affect daily weigh-ins so you want to look at a trend over time, like 4-6 weeks.

    The other thing would be that you can't just set your myfitnesspal to whatever you want and then follow it blindly forever. Adjustments (by you) will need to be made. The numbers it gives you are population-derived. You could need higher or lower calories.

    Set it to "Lose 1 pound per week." Be as honest as you can about the "Activity level."

    Log diligently. Re evaluate after 4-6 weeks when you have good trending data.

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 36,645 Member

    You're doing a lot of good things for your health and well-being, which is great: Eating healthy foods, skipping the alcohol, working out. But while good for health, none of those things on their own - or even in combination - will necessarily cause weight loss. Somehow, fat loss or the lack of it is about calories.

    How many calories are you eating on average daily? How long did it take you to lose a kg eating at that level?

    As Riverside said, MFP gives you a starting goal that's based on averages for demographically similar people. That estimate will be close for most people, but not for all - that's the nature of statistical averages, right? (MFP's estimate is around 500 calories daily off for me, because I'm one of the statistical weirdos. It's rare to be that far off, but it can happen.)

    FWIW, I joined MFP close to the weight you are now, around 71kg, though I'd started losing weight before I joined. I was also about your age, 59 at the time, 69 now. I'm also vegetarian (since 1974), ate then and now pretty healthfully IMO, work out fairly hard 5-6 days most weeks starting a dozen years before weight loss while still staying obese.

    Losing body fat is directly about the calorie level. Nutrition may matter indirectly, if sub-ideal nutrition makes our energy drop so we do less, or spikes our appetite so we eat above the right calorie goal. But the direct mechanism is calories. There's more nuance than that, but that's the basic fact.

    Over short time periods, water weight fluctuations can mask fat loss. Even fast fat loss of a kilo per week is only about 157 grams a day on average, whereas water weight can easily fluctuate by a kilo and more from one day to the next, playing peek-a-boo with the slower fat loss on the bodyweight scale. That's why we're asking what your timeline has been.

    I hear what you're saying about being discouraged. I think you can find a solution, if you're willing to treat this like a fun, productive science-fair project for grown-ups: Track your calorie intake carefully, compare your weight loss goal to your actual results over 4-6 weeks, then use arithmetic to adjust your calorie goal if needed to dial in a sensible loss rate.

    That can work. It takes some patient persistence, but the rewards are worth the effort.

    Best wishes!

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