Help! I'm confused!

absolutekraze
absolutekraze Posts: 15
edited September 19 in Health and Weight Loss
so, i just lost my first ten pounds and decided to re-structure my goals.
After I put in all the information (I now weigh 130 pounds, my goal is 120) the calculator said I would only loose 0.3 pounds per week!
Even when I added in exercise (7 days a week, an hour a day) the number didn't change!

Does this mean I should stop trying to loose weight because my body is in a healthy place right now and it would be extremely hard to loose any more? or is it not working correctly?
Please help!

~Casey

Replies

  • absolutekraze
    absolutekraze Posts: 15
    so, i just lost my first ten pounds and decided to re-structure my goals.
    After I put in all the information (I now weigh 130 pounds, my goal is 120) the calculator said I would only loose 0.3 pounds per week!
    Even when I added in exercise (7 days a week, an hour a day) the number didn't change!

    Does this mean I should stop trying to loose weight because my body is in a healthy place right now and it would be extremely hard to loose any more? or is it not working correctly?
    Please help!

    ~Casey
  • stylistchik
    stylistchik Posts: 1,436 Member
    It will still come off, just not as quickly. You should be happy that you're so healthy now! I think the thing is, the site mandates that you eat 1200 calories per day no matter what. At this point, in order to lose 1 lb a week you would have to be eating much less than that and its hard to get your necessary nutrients eating that little. Keep it up and good work!!
  • hiddensecant
    hiddensecant Posts: 2,446 Member
    It's working fine. It just takes longer if you have less to lose.

    What's your BMI? If it's healthy enough, then focus more on fitness than on what the scale says. It will creep down eventually and you'll be firm and toned when it does.
  • StiringWendel
    StiringWendel Posts: 3,908 Member
    What you need to do is check what MFP has as your maintenance calories (in other words, temporarily set your goal to maintenance). I would wager a guess that your maintenance calories are about 1500 calories. What MFP is doing is trying to subtract your calorie deficit from that, but it won't go below 1200. Therefore, without exercise, MFP is telling you you can't create a 500-calorie-a-day deficit.

    In terms of whether you are a healthy weight or not, only you would know that. Without knowing your height, I can't say. I know I am 5'2", and 130 is NOT my ideal weight, yet MFP couldn't give me a 500-calorie-a-day deficit even at that weight because of my height. Therefore, in order to lose the one pound a week to get to my goal, I had to subtract the remaining deficit out of my earned exercise calories.

    In other words, if my maintenace calories are 1500, then eating 1200 gives me a daily calorie deficit of 300. If I want to lose one pound a week (which I could safely do at 130 because of my height), and I burned 400 calories working out, I would subtract 200 calories from those 400 calories to make up the 500 calorie deficit and, therefore, only eat back the 200 remaining calories I had burned off working out.

    Again, only you know if you are at a comfortable weight for your height. But if you are shorter (like me), and could comfortably go lower and want to go lower, you could either be patient OR dip into your exercise calories while still creating a safe deficit.

    If you are much taller, you might want to reassess your goals.
  • gregoryk
    gregoryk Posts: 10
    The index's on here are only a basic starting point. Everyone is a little different. If you have been losing weight and want to continue just keep doing what you are doing. If you are eating healthy and the weight stops coming off, reduce your calories a little. Reducing to much can make your body store calories. The slower it comes off the more likely it is to stay off. By taking it off slowly your are developing long term habits that will help you keep it off. It sounds like you are already doing these things, so just treat this as reinforcement that you are doing a great job.
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