What are your stats (height, weight, age)? Calorie Count probably told you to eat 1200 calories, but you should be eating your BMR. I posted a link to calculate it below.
http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/
Also, your weight is going to fluctuate. You've only been doing this a week - your body might still be adjusting.
I am 5'3" and now 143 pounds. According to the calculations to maintain my weight I would need to consume 1891 calories. Subtracting 500 calories to lose weight that would give me 1391 calories which is just above the 1200 estimated on CC's site. Do you have any suggestions for me?
Thanks
1200 is too low for you. You shouldn't eat less than your BMR, which is about 1400. Weight loss does not happen in a nice straight line. You need to be patient and think long term. Don't worry about day to day or week to week weight fluctuations.
I'm glad it's too low because I am hungry most of the time :) I have never had to watch what I eat and then I started taking a medication (no longer taking) that slowed down my metabolism and slowly put weight on. This whole weight loss thing is new to me. I am thinking that it is best for me not to check the scale every day :(
Great advice!
i am pretty new too, and feeling the frustration... but I think you have gotten great counsel. your calories are too low. when I started this - I thought it would be better for me to weigh in only once per week so I wasn't feeling the constant up and down of water weight fluctuations... SO, week one, after counting calories and exercise 6 days that week, I anxiously got on the scale. I had GAINED one lb! I know everyone talks about the whole "muscle weighs more than fat ..." but I don't care! I wanted to see WEIGHT LOSS progress! I SO SO SO wanted to quit, but I didn't. (had several friends who advised me that the first week your body doesn't do anything cause it is waiting to see if you "really mean it this time.") I am now in week 5, and have lost 4 lbs. I still have my "weigh in Wednesday" where i post my weight on my blog (my accountability to some friends who are trying to support me) but i DO weigh myself every morning. My CC weight log looks more like an EKG reading or lie detector test... up down up down up down, but I AM seeing consistent loss trend of about 2 - 4 ounces every couple days. (which works out to abotu 1 lb per week) It actually helps me to see it that way, rather than anxiously waiting all week, only to NOT see the results I was hoping for. GOOD LUCK! hang in there!
Stay off the scale. Check the scale maybe once a month. Your clothes will be a good indicater. Drink lots of water. Much love and happy wishes to your success.
Thanks for the advice. I think at this point the scale is my worst indcatir because I get depressed when I see the numbers rise!
Thanks for the encouragement! One thing is for sure I need to increase my exercise. Now when I do that and it deducts calories, can I eat more to get back up to my calorie goal or should I not eat and create a bigger deficit. Kind of confused about that!
I use this calculator: http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator /
Since you're petite, it's probably best to eat back some of those exercise calories. For us shorties, a smaller deficit is usually more sustainable. I would aim for a 300-500 calorie deficit and not more.
I am so happy to see this post! I am 5' and won't even mention my weight, out of control. I have been doing this for about a month, and have lost 5lbs. I was discouraged by this, because I lost those 5lbs in the first week and a half. I have consistently been up and down since then. I am supposed to eat 1204 calories a day and it is sooooo hard! Most days I am going over. I have yet to put a good exercise routine in, but still I've been discouraged. This post made me feel like I am not alone! Thanks for the advice!!
Ok, so just checked what I should be eating. Rather than 1204, and 500 less than what they recommend for maintaining is 1550, I could even go 1450 probably. How are all of you keeping track of that with CC? Just in your head, or can I adjust my calorie intake to what I want rather than what I assign?
I'm 5'2" and when I decided to get serious about losing weight after pregnancy, I was around 135. I picked up weight lifting, intervals for cardio and ate 1,700-1,800 calories. My weight dropped to around 125 and stayed there, even when I still lost inches.
It is NOT necessary for petite women to starve themselves in order to lose weight. I'm happy to hear that more and more of us are realizing that!
Kirb1228, I upped my activity level to "moderate" and stopped logging my workouts.
Thanks!!! I actually just went in and changed my calories, it let me do that. Where it said 1204/day, I clicked and it took me into my profile where I just changed the number myself. I will just ignore the goal date it gives me and count on the scale number lowering to tell me I'm doing okay. Of course I have a goal date, but I honestly don't care as long as I am consistently losing!! I have been feeling very down about weight loss and the number of calories I have been eating a day (which was usually going over), and you all have no idea how much better all of this has made me feel! I'm going to eat a much healthier and full dinner tonight, and even get going on this exercise!!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!
that's great I just started to use this site and keep myself very tight lol love it
Just keep in mind Scooby's calculator already takes into account your exercise level. So if you're logging your exercise in CC and using the number from Scooby's website, you will be accounting for exercise twice (which means allowing yourself to eat more calories that you should to lose weight).
I looked at both Scooby's and the one the link that was posted above that. The one above it gave me a number of how many I would burn laying in bed all day, which I'm sure is not 100% accurate, but it at least did not include exercise. I sometimes log my exercise on CC, but not every time. I've been trying to get better at it. When I took the 20% away from the calories it said I burn, it said to subtract 410, and I went ahead and subtracted 500, although my real goal is to eat 600 less than what it recommended so I can lose weight faster.....hopefully. But 1200 calories was just getting too hard, and I was beating myself up for going over all the time. I think this way, if I'm over 1200 I won't feel bad, but I can still try to eat less than what they recommend. If I did that before, I was eating like a 1000 calories a day, which was not happening. I'm hoping this will help :-/ Thank you for all of the advice!
