Weight Loss

so i was looking at my weight log, and realized that of the 12 pounds that i've lost, i've lost only 4 in the month of june (and none in july yet, which is ok). my calorie intake is usually anywhere from 1550 to 1850, depending on what i'm doing for the day. this should be between a 500 and 800 calorie deficit each day-- but i've also become much more active.

so am i eating too little? i'm soooo confused because every website is telling me something different. what adds to the frustration is that my best friend is currently doing some extreme high protein and almost no carb diet (WHICH I KNOW IS BAD FOR HER) but she's losing weight very quickly. i know, i know... i'm not going to do what she's doing b/c i know better. but when i'm working so hard, it's so disheartening to see her doing all the wrong things and getting better results.

help please! for those of you with experience with calorie cycling, how often do you have the days with the higher intake? and how high do you make that intake-- up to maintanance levels?

EDIT: i forgot to mention that i've been at my current weight for 2 weeks now...

 :( booo.

That's a pound a week. Which is what you'd get with a 500 calorie deficit.

Make sure you keep your goals realistic. When you think about the numbers, 4 pounds in a month is nothing to despair over.

right... which makes sense to me... but i figured that adding running for 20-30 minutes would up the deficit, and thus make me lose more? (other days i swim for 15-25 minutes, or play tennis for a hour)

don't get me wrong, i realize that 4 lbs a month is more than i've lost in the past year before starting cc, but i just figured being more active has to be better (and help me get to my goal a little faster) than doing nothing at all.

Nope!  Sorry doesn't really work that way.  If you're more active, you need to eat more.  About the most you can hope to loose and keep off is ~1.5# per week.  You're right in that area, so I wouldn't worry about it. 

As for your friend, wait until she comes off her diet.  Can we say "yo-yo"?

yep, odds are your friend will gain all the weight back while you will keep slimming down and keeping it off.  That is the way to go!!!!  Good job on losing 4 pounds.  Believe me its a good thing.  It has taken me 2 months to get that much weight off and keep it off and I still have 10lbs to go!!!!

A pound a week is really good.  I've been struggling losing ANY weight per week lately.  You sound like you're doing great, so keep it up!

Original Post by minerva_moon:

That's a pound a week. Which is what you'd get with a 500 calorie deficit.

Make sure you keep your goals realistic. When you think about the numbers, 4 pounds in a month is nothing to despair over.

Exactly.

Keep doing it the CC way and you'll keep it off. Trust me! There are many on this website who can say the same thing! Good luck! =]

I saw your post title and wanted to reply that you are doing NOTHING wrong.

Weight loss is slow and frustrating. But 4lbs in one month is nothing to feel sad about. Goodbye four pounds! yay! When I started I was losing 1lb a month. Now that was frustrating. Everyone loses at a different pace.

Just stick to it - and if you stick to it you'll see results - and those results will change month to month and day by day but its the bigger picture that counts! Try different ranges of calories and monitor the effects - because different things work for different people!

I had to decrease my calorie intake to make a bigger difference (over 4lbs lost last month and I'm thrilled with that!)

Congrats on the 12lbs so far! Chin up!

Don't forget that muscle weighs more than fat, but as you are adding muscle through your workouts you'll be able to burn more calories in rest with the added muscles. Keep up the good work though, those lbs you are losing are permanent lbs, while your friends will pile back on her if she doesn't keep up that same diet. It takes me sometimes over a week to lose a lb... you just have to make sure you are feeling good about what you are eating and your workouts and keep it up. Don't get discouraged and don't focus on the weight, focus on how you feel.

Best of luck!

I kept hovering around the same numbers through June. I believe I found out why.

After losing very well in May, I got overly ambitious and dropped my calories to 1500 per day.

Obviously this was not enough for me because I stopped losing, even though I increased my exercise.

I had a few days where I upped my calories recently and as of today, I have shook 3 lbs loose.

I've re-worked my calorie intake to where I'm calorie cycling, and having some high days and low days off and on, instead of a flat 1500 - 1700 per day. I was staying really too low after looking back on my journal.

Maybe taking a free day, then getting back on can help give the metabolism a jolt.

Forgot to mention:

A pound per week is good. You are still losing something. Slow and steady wins the race!  (even if slower, feels frustrating at times)

this seems you are losing exactly the amount that is realistic with this deficit. if oyu want faster loss, you should eat less (but not under 1200ish) calories. i know that many people here keep urging others to eat, eat, eat, and say someone is "not eating enough" when they have like 1800 calories, but this defies all the knowledge i have gained

According to a college nutrition text book I read, you don't start burning fat until after the first 20 minutes of aerobic activity, so if you stop after 20 minutes, you aren't burning fat.  If you really want to make the pounds melt off you need to do aerobic exercise for half an hour a day, 5 days a week. Keep your heart rate up around 115 bpm for most of that half hour. I was 50 pounds over my goal weight (was 215, shooting for 165 or less) and was losing about 2 pounds a week when I started dieting and exercising. Now that I have lost almost 45 pounds (since January 2) it is coming off slower at around 1 pound per week. I am a 44-year-old male and eating 1500-1800 calories most days, a little less and a little more some days.