How can I lose this final 15?

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unicorn19girl
unicorn19girl Posts: 56 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Ok, So here's the deal. In May of 2009, I weighed 258 pounds and was hugely obese on my 5'4" frame. I started counting calories and walking more. I reached my lowest weight of 142 in December 2010, but felt totally zapped of all energy and had some issues with my hair falling out and periods stopping. I went to the doctor and she told me to eat around 1800 calories. I immediately gained some weight, which she told me that would happen because of the whole starvation mode thing. I started changing up my workouts and I again reached 146 in July of this year. Now I am 153 pounds, and my workout routine is Sun, Tuesday, Friday an hour to an hour and a half of interval training with weights (30 DS, Ripped in 30) and Sat., Monday, and Thursday running approximately 4 miles on the treadmill. Wednesdays are rest days. I am eating around 1500 plus some of my exercise calories. I am definately losing inches since I can see my belly starting to disappear and gaining muscle so my question is how can I safely get down to 140? Am I eating too much or not enough or am I just exercising too much? Any information would be greatly appreciated. I know I will never be skinny, I don't have the frame for that but I would love to get out of the "overweight" category.

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  • chevy88grl
    chevy88grl Posts: 3,937 Member
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    I truly believe that every single one of us has an "ideal" weight. That is the weight that our bodies are comfortable at and where we are healthy and look good too. For me, that weight is right around 145lbs. I am also 5'4" and I found that I could get myself down lower than 145, but I didn't like how I felt when I did it.

    You mentioned that you were down to 142lbs and you had some physical issues - that was your body's way of saying it wasn't comfortable at that weight. Hair loss, stopped periods, etc are all a sign that you are pushing your body beyond its comfort zone. Instead of trying to force it to do something it isn't comfortable with, how about learning to be happy with your current weight? Or just try and take another 5lbs or so off. If you were having trouble at 142lbs, your body isn't going to like 140lbs.

    There's a lot more to this journey than simply losing weight and I think you've reached the point where you need to focus on other fitness goals and less on weight loss. You can still change your body without losing more weight.


    Good Luck.
  • unicorn19girl
    unicorn19girl Posts: 56 Member
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    Good point....maybe I will just try to continue to build muscle and get leaner. Thanks.
  • VemmaMom
    VemmaMom Posts: 82 Member
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    Hi I can relate to your issue of the starvation mode thing. I have been on a ton of extremely low cal diets and now suffer from

    not being able to lose weight and it sux. From what Ive been told is to focus on getting enough cals to keep body furnace going

    now and not go to low in the cals or under 1400. It feels not right but I feel it working now. If you focus on eating more clean and not alot of starchy carbs and alot alot of proteins...like as much as you weigh in protein and no less than half of your weight.

    OOOO how I feel your pain, Im there too and I so wish I could turn back the hands of time and never eat that low again. Man it messes up your system...good luck to you and friend me if you wanna chat :flowerforyou:
  • Lift_hard_eat_big
    Lift_hard_eat_big Posts: 2,278 Member
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    Refeed I.E. eat at maintenance for a week or two, then go back to a deficit, lowering your calories a hundred calories/day, one week at a time till you're at around 400-500 kcal/day deficit.
    You're body will fight you tooth and nail to give up that last bit of fat, specially being a woman, woman aren't meant to be super lean, you're going against nature. You might also want to try some fasted cardio.

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