confused on calories

I have been in this for 3 full weeks now. I lost 12 lbs in the first 2 weeks.. last week, nothing. and that is when I started doing Wii fit for 30 min daily. Im staying withing the 1200 calories and I next to never use up the carbs. i did add the sodium and noticed I went way over a few days. wondering if thats whats stalling me or is it the exercise that stumped me? any suggestions?

Replies

  • 12 lbs in the first two weeks is a lot. I'm thinking that your body is catching up and you may not loose any for a week or two. just keep staying within your calories and exercising, you will see it starting to move again. also the sodium is REALLY important. if you go over your sodium, make sure you are drinking plenty of fluids. good luck
  • If you have gone heavy on sodium then your body may well be clinging on to some water, try going lower sodium for a few days drink PLENTY of water and maintain your exercise.

    Give yourself a day of more calories too, spike to 1500 or 1600 for just a day, kick start your matobolism again.
  • Meatsies
    Meatsies Posts: 351 Member
    You've lost 12 lbs over the course of 3 weeks. I wouldn't say that not having a loss last week necessarily means you're stalled. And 12 lbs over TWO weeks (at an average of 6 lbs per week) is probably neither a realistic nor a healthy amount to continue to expect to lose. My guess would be, although I'm no expert, that your initial 12 lb loss was really high because of an initial flush of your body when you started dieting. I say continue what you're doing and maybe adjust your expectations a bit. I've learned a LOT about the scale in the few months I've been using MFP daily...and a lot about how our metabolisms work. I would recommend searching through some old forum topics for this similar thread, as how many calories you should be eating and what kind of results you should expect are pretty hot topics & there are many schools of thought surrounding how many calories you should be taking in. Personally, I started at 1200 when I joined MFP. Since then, I've upped my calories considerably and wouldn't think about going that low again. Best of luck to you! Hang in there. :)
  • Shayztar
    Shayztar Posts: 415 Member
    Sodium does help retain water, but it's probably not the reason why. When I first started MFP, I lost a lot of weight fast too. It was probably because my diet was so horrendous before I started. Also because I lost mad water weight. However, 1200 a day is actually too little calories to sustain a diet for very long. Search the forums for more details because a million other people say it better than I do. But in a nutshell, if you eat too little, your body stalls out your metabolism. Holds on to weight thinking you are a caveman in the winter living on little until spring. 1200 calories is the least amount of calories a person should eat in order to not die. MFP is a computer that will do math. If you tell it you want to lose 200 lbs in 2 months, it will give you 1200 calories. But you know that's not possible to lose 200 lbs in 2 months.

    Try searching BMR (amount of calories you need if you just stayed in bed all day and didn't even get out to pee) and your TDEE (amount of calories expended while you walk to your car and/or just being you) and then work the numbers in order to lose weight. Remember that 3500 calories = 1 lbs. Most people suggest you don't eat less than your BMR anyway.

    Good luck.


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  • toomuchsweetness
    toomuchsweetness Posts: 168 Member
    thank you all for your thoughts. I agree the bulk of the loss was the initial start and now the work begins. Im not giving up and am going to now watch the sodium and increase the water... thks!