Ask me anything about fat/weight loss....

I'm 41, 5'5", and currently 136 lbs. I've always been very active (love working out ) but needed to lose the last 20 lbs. after having 2 kids -- I finally kicked it tracking my food on here.

I hit my goal of 132 lbs. right after New Year's, but I've been yo-yoing over the same 5 lbs. for the last 5 months.

I was eating about 1,500 calories / day + exercise calories, and then bumped it up to 1,800 (+ exercise cals) when I reached my goal because I was training for a 1/2 marathon, and I was working out 5-6 days a week, sometimes burning over 1,000 calories on longer runs. I also started incorporating 2 days of circuit training w/weights.

I recently cut back to the 1,500 + exercise cals after the bottom of my weight range kept slowly inching higher (now instead of 132, my low is usually 135 or 136). I've done a lot of the BMR / TDEE calorie calculators, and still feel like I'm struggling to find my "magic #" per day to stay at my goal weight.

Is this "magic #" just different for every person? How do you determine where your clients should be calorie wise?

I also don't wanna get too hung up on the #s...advice?

With my clients I usually start them off on a reco. For men usually 2,000, for women 1,200. From there I reevaluate at the end of every week to see how their body is responding. If they're losing too fast, I'll bump their calories up. Too slow, and I'll decrease them again or up their activity factor. I've talked earlier about how fickle the metabolism is, and how unique each of our bodies are. Usually toward the end with them I start having them incorporate weekly refeeds, and then when they are usually a month out from goal, I start increasing their calories each week to see how strong I can get their metabolism without adding back fat.

For you I would recommend the same. Take it slow and easy. Track what you're eating, and slowly start decreasing the amounts till you start losing.

THANK YOU!

Should I NET my BMR or eat up to it?

Elaborate. If you just ate up to your bmr everyday, you would still lose in the long run so long as your counting was spot on. Bmr assumes you're not doing ANYthing. So time you move out of bed, brush your teeth, and walk to the car, you're already ahead of it.

Well, I burn 600 calories a day. Should I stick to my BMR (1493) or eat back those 600 calories? I net at 900 if I don't eat back my calories from exercise- I don't eat them very often. THANK YOU!!:flowerforyou:

What this site needs is a bookmark facility! It's all here, but it's getting to be a Big Read.
:flowerforyou:

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How bad is diet pop for your body? I gave up drinking regular coke and began drinking diet..I drink 4-6 cans per day. Does it slow down my metablolism? Thk for your help.

Wealth of info. Bumping to shares and to see all of the other answers that will be coming. I am currently experimenting to see what works for my body. My ultimate goal is to see six pack abs. Would be nice to enter a figure competition one day, but right now, just want to see six packs.

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i do a lot of walking, at least 2.5 hours per day (15k or 9 mile) unfortunately there is no way around this as its the school run. i have my activity level set as sedentary and count the calories burnt. i also try to do at least 3 sessions of Jillian Micheals per week, jogging 3 times per week, and try to do half an hour on my exercise bike everyday, but that's because i was recommended it to strengthen my knee muscles (dodgy knee from an accident 23 years ago)

my questions are.... should i change my activity level, is this much walking counterproductive to my weight loss, and in the long run am i messing with my metabolism

im 35 and since January 2011 i have lost 79 pounds

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Thanks for being so generous with your time and knowledge! Not only is this great info, your willingness to do it is really inspirational. Very much appreciated!

Loving this thread and learning a lot!

Now for my question. I am a 64 year old male and when I was in my 20's & early 30's I worked out religiously and was in decent shape. For whatever reason one day I just stopped working out and really let myself go. In September 2011 I weighed 254 lbs ( I'm 5' 9" ) and was badly out of shape ... then my doctor dropped a bomb on me when she told me I was pre-diabetic. That was my wake up call. In October 2011 I found MFP and I have logged in every day since then and really kept myself on track. I've lost 55 lbs so far!

In December 2011 I joined a gym and I now workout 3 - 4 days a week.. I generally do 15 min of cardio and weight train heavily (for me) for 60 minutes. Since joining the gym I have dropped my body fat from 38% to 27%. My goal is to get to 20%. Do you feel this is a realistic goal given my age?

BTW, I had originally set my goal weight at 185 lbs. I am now at 198. As my body fat percentage drops I have noticed my weight loss has slowed, but I am still losing inches and starting to notice muscle gain. I have now realized that a certain number on the scale is not as important as the body fat percentage.

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