and I haven't lost a pound. 27yrs old, female, 5'4", 216lbs, desk job during the day. I used this website to guide me with caloric intake: http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calc ulator.htm# ; since a lot of people suggested it was more accurate than CC.
Anyway, I do the zig zag thing, almost always have an A for my grade, walk 60min 5x a week, do HIIT training twice a week, and drink over 100oz of water a day.
I'm getting a little frustrated... any suggestions? Does anyone think 1700-1900 calories is too much for me? I feel like most people on here with similar stats to mine only consume around 1500 per day.
In a rut and could use some advice, thanks!
According to the bigest Loser Diet it is.... you would do 7 pounds X your weight ... wich would be 1512 perday.
That is the formula I use. No less than 1050 no more than 2500 per day. It is how they lose all the weight on the show too. They use this formula. I say give it a try. I have lost 83 pounds using this.
the proof is in the pudding, pchca: if you haven't lost after a month, then you're eating too much.
I second the suggestion of weighing your food .. I prefer weighing over measuring (using cups and such) as I can be really exact..
Like Pgeorgian mentioned, the most common mistake is underestimating what you are eating and obviously eating too much.
Another suggestion would be to try and prepare your own food as often as possible, this way you can really track what you are consuming and adjust accordingly.
How many calories are you burning per day? at 1700- 1900 calories consumed, what is your deficit?
Sedentary I burn 2100 - but I try to exercise enough to be 500-1000 over what I eat. Some days less than 500, but rarely.
Hmm... so how many calories are you logging for exercise?
Considering your numbers and the fact that you do exercise a bit, it could easily be the amount of food.. =)
Adjust it a bit, play around with your numbers and give it some time to take effect.. it's all about trial and error and we have all been there at one time or another.
Good luck to you!
and remember that all activity burn rates are estimates. the calculators really can't account for fitness and exertion.
Agree, agree, agree. I would also give up the whole zig-zag thing. It's o.k. to take off a few days a month to give your body and mind a break, but zig-zagging every other day would just cancel out any deficit that you had the previous day. What does your zig-zag look like?
I usually consume between 1700 and 2000 calories a day. But only 2000 on the days that I burn closer to 3000 (swimming days).
I guess I'll try going down to 1512 like someone suggested, but when I posted a similar question a month ago in the fitness section, everyone jumped down my throat saying that that wasn't enough and it would slow my metabolism down since my BMR is 1702.
Your stats are similar to mine when I started, I'm just five years younger and one inch shorter (but I had two pregnancies that were close together, so my body had gone through it.) So far, I've been successful in my diet, and haven't felt deprived. Hopefully it keeps at it's progress, I'm pretty new at it.
My typical eating habits include oatmeal with 1% milk for breakfast, (I'm transitioning myself to fat free) and just enough brown sugar to sweeten it up a little bit. That keeps me full until lunch. At lunch, I'll usually eat a Turkey or a Tuna sandwich with fat free cheese, on whole grain and flaxseed bread. On the side of that, I'll either have a fruit, or vegetable, cherry tomatoes are my favorite. I also like fresh broccoli. In between meals, I'll snack on yogurt, fruits, vegetables, or if I have a craving for chocolate, I'll have a Slim Fast Optima Peanut Butter Crunch bar, which helps me satisfy it without cheating on my diet. Low fat puddings are also good for that. I also keep Special K protein water in my fridge to curb my hunger when I feel like over eating, but I feel like I need it a lot less. For dinner, I will usually eat a Smart One, Healthy Choice, Or Lean Cuisine, or I'll eat a low calorie dinner.
I also stay active, even when I can't get out, I'll put on a workout from Comcast on demand and do one or two videos. So far, I've lost four pounds, and I started at the beginning of the month. Another tip: Water is your best friend. Diet soda can be just as bad for you as regular soda, so if it's a hard thing to quit, drink club soda mixed with a 100% fruit juice. I've cut a lot of calories out simply by just drinking more water, and less juices. I do, however, love acai juice and V8, and other natural juices. Green tea is good, too.
you're kind-of missing the point, pchca: if you were burning as much as you think you are, you'd be losing weight. you must be overestimating the number of calories you're burning.
wow. actually, i'm not missing the point. i log every kind of exercise i do in to this website. same with food. the only food i don't weigh is my meat, but that's because i'm at work and there's no scale in our cafe. but i doubt one piece of grilled chicken is off by a few hundred calories.
either way, thanks to everyone else for the advice. i'll try lowering my calories by a few hundred for two weeks and see if that helps. if my bmr is 1700, i'm not exactly sure how eating 1500 make sense, but i'll give it a try.
logging your exercise doesn't change the fact that you're logging estimates. yes, you can be precise about food: that's just measuring/weighing and adding. but BMR and activity burns are always estimates.
My advice from the website you mentioned is pretty close to this one. Are you looking at the weight loss figure or maintenance? You should look at the weight loss cals. Also, put in sedentary and then add your activities here. That may give you a much different result. If you choose active and then also add activities, you could be double counting activity calories.
Original Post by cruebug2002:
According to the bigest Loser Diet it is.... you would do 7 pounds X your weight ... wich would be 1512 perday.
That is the formula I use. No less than 1050 no more than 2500 per day. It is how they lose all the weight on the show too. They use this formula. I say give it a try. I have lost 83 pounds using this.
That is not a good formula for a small person! I thought they say 1200 here for a lower limit?
Honestly, I was in your boat a few months back and spoke to an MD with a solid nutrition background to figure out the problem. I was eating 1800 a day and not losing. She said I should try 1200 calories, and I of course came back with "what about starvation mode?" She thinks that is a valid concern -- but only at sub-800 cals a day (I was 5'6 and 175 lbs at the time.) Well, I basically kept 1200 as my minimum, some days went up to 1500, and the weight slowly started to come off. I know people get all worked up when you question the starvation mode threshold, as you found out before, but I think it's perfectly reasonable to find out how your body responds to 1500.
Original Post by cruebug2002:
According to the bigest Loser Diet it is.... you would do 7 pounds X your weight ... wich would be 1512 perday.
That is the formula I use. No less than 1050 no more than 2500 per day. It is how they lose all the weight on the show too. They use this formula. I say give it a try. I have lost 83 pounds using this.
I'm assuming this is for people with a pretty high weight? If I weighed, say, 140 lbs and wanted to lose weight, I'd have to eat about 1000 cals/day... which is ridiculously low. This also doesn't take height into account, so I doubt the accuracy of this method. :P
Congratulations on all your hard work . . . it sounds like you have been sticking very closly to your plan and been doing lots of exercise! Good for you.
The way to break up a plateau is to change it up - and for you it sounds like lowering your calories by 200 would be a good option. At 1500-1700 calories you will not be in danger of starvation mode.
There may be other things for you to change . . . some people lose weight when they start incorporating more protein, ect. We are all different - and there are lots of reasons why the math may not be working as well as hoped.
Good luck!
I think you should probably take a look again at how much you burn when you exercise... I very highly doubt that you're burning 900 calories when you swim (I get that number from where you say you burn 2100 on a sedentary day, but 3000 when you swim). I mean, I burn about 300 calories by running 2 miles at 7 mph and doing vigorous abs exercises for 20 minutes. Unless you're doing vigorous laps (ie Michael Phelps laps) for an hour and a half when you swim, you need to rethink what you burn when you exercise. That might help a lot. (Also, don't rely on what the treadmill says you burn... it usually doesn't take height/weight into account like sites like CC do). Hope that helps.
Just use the free tools her on CC. Figure out your burn first, then deduct 500 calories a day from that to get a 1 pound a week weight loss. Be aware that it won't be a smooth progression. Your weight will go up and down.
The basic idea is to eat less than you burn. If you want to eat more, burn more by adding exercise. I've lost with no exercise at all due to physical/medical problems.
Don't give up! Use the Advice section up in the menu bar to learn about balanced diet, good nutrition and appropriate, safe, healthy weight loss. You're going to do fine!
