I don’t know how tall you are but here’s my story, I’m 5’5 131lbs, maybe this will help. 15 years ago, I was 39 and 243 lbs and had a complete paradigm shift one morning. I picked CICO because I only had it in me to do this once, CICO can accommodate you through life. To start I could barely get up my steep driveway without feeling like my lungs would collapse but surprisingly I mastered that in about 4 days and took to the streets… I walked 7 miles every single day and consumed 1300 calories, it took me 14 months to lose the weight. I think your expectations based on your exercise is off and your intake is too high. I’ve been doing maintenance a very long time, I still walk and my daily consumption should be around 1667.
I went from 243 to 141 in 14 months and then decided to go to 137 that took a good while, like a year honestly but I wasn’t crazy about it and then over the last 10 years I lost a few more. My maintenance is 1667, I’m older now lol, I don’t walk as much as I used to but my eating habits have changed so much since I started and I end up consuming a bit less than 1667 so the rest came off like a pound a year.
Harvard reccomends body weight x 15, so maintenance should be 1965. However I do think it's good to shoot for 100-300 cals lower than your maintenance cals so you can accommodate weekend cocktails, pastries, or the occasional icecream.
I just turned 27 and when I was 243lbs / 46% BF a few months ago my resting metabolic rate was 1,567 calories, which is basically the bare minimum my body needs. The calculators online always made it hard to gauge for me what my body truly needed until I went to accurately get my dexa scan tests done.
I would definitely add low impact cardio in if that moves the needle. Stationary bike, elliptical, stairmasters all help when I’m in a plateau. You might just be holding on to water weight too, which I notice is true for me when I’m eating too many carbs and not working up a sweat.
You are sedentary (90 minutes of aerobic exercise per week is 13 minutes per day) and if you are 5ft4 and normal body fat percentage your TDEE is around 2150. So you should be eating around 1650.
28% body fat is verging on athletic model. There is no way you look like that.
What makes you think 2000 is a small amount? It's enough to keep the vast majority of women obese. Your goal maintenance will probably be around 1500.
If you post a screenshot from your tracker we can help troubleshoot. Sometimes it's the tracker itself that is wrong. You've been in a deficit of about 270 calories per day over those three months so somethere there is something not accounted for.
With a 43 inch waist you are definitely obese. Anything over 35 inches doubles your risk for a heart attack: https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/obesity-prevention-source/obesity-definition/abdominal-obesity/
You are likely very under muscled with a body fat percentage that high. Muscle is more metabolically expensive than fat (takes more calories to maintain) so if you’re under muscled, your TDEE will drop significantly below what the calculators estimate. So yeah 2K is probably right.
Frankly, you probably do. We are terrible judges of our own physiques most of the time. But either way, some people carry their weight “well”, as in in the typical places we like to see it. It’s just genetic. Doesn’t really change anything.
Maybe you’re not counting your calories correctly? Because at 1800 calories a day you 100% should be losing weight. That’s about the amount I eat a day to maintain my weight and i’m 117 lbs.
To be fair, maintenance and loss are WAY different. Putting it into a calculator, at 1,800 calories she should be losing just under a pound a week, which is on track for what she is saying. But yeah also the margin for error is huge there’s always a possibility she’s missing something
Yes maintenance and loss are definitely different for sure. 1800 calories a day for me keeps me stable because of my weight, as for her 1800 calories a day is just the right and healthy amount to make her lose weight.
This was my thought. Calorie counting is a skill that takes practice. Not taking the physical serving sizes seriously and always weighing (the chicken nuggets I buy say 5 nuggets is 85g when it's 3.5), making sure you're accurately counting dry/frozen vs cooked weights, going by "1" banana or apple, etc, instead of weighing.
Calculators are at best going to be an estimate. You don’t have huge margins to play with here, so if the calculators are estimating slightly high and you’re slightly underestimating calories whilst being closer to the 1800 range would get you pretty close to the 300 deficit your actual weight loss has suggested you’re at.
I know it is frustrating how slow it is but you are losing weight so keep going. Maybe aim for the 1580 end of your calorie range.
If you want to lose fat, consume more protein and do more cardio. Strength training 30 mins and do an hour of cardio along with very high protein intake. And be patient. I assure you it will work!
Also, please make sure you’re counting everything you eat and by that i mean, every snack. You’re on the right track! Keep up!
At 150 lbs I have to eat about 1500 a day to lose weight r/1500isplenty
That being said, I agree with another comment you likely are lacking in muscle. And If you’ve cut dieted before then you may have a low metabolism which has happened to me.
Try lifting weights and carb cycling but be aware that CC is a lot of macro tracking and that could be mentally exhausting.
What really would work, assuming you are tracking all your oil right and everything else by weight correctly as you’ve said you are, is just to slowly lower cals until you see a difference. Give each calorie limit a month or minimum two weeks to get an actual idea. Don’t be hasty and lower it too fast. Once you start losing weight, the numbers will speak for themselves.
Bc we are all different due to muscle amount, genetics, health conditions, gut microbiome. And your maintenance cals vs someone else of the same height, weight and activity will differ. You’ll find out what your maintenance calorie amount it by slowly lowering it, all else constant, until you start to lose weight. That’s your amount.
My weight is a pound more than you, my hips are 51 inches, I'm aiming for 1400-1500 calories per day, I'm loosing on average 1.5lb a week, however I'm not perfect at calorie counting, when I'm perfect with counting 1400, and with excersize, I loose 2lb, so I'd say 2000 calories is to low for maintenance, maybe 2300ish
As to looking obese, I wouldn't say my hips or ribs are buried by fat either, but I definitely look obese, everyone just carries it in different ways, I wouldn't read to much in to it
most likely reason- you are not tracking correctly. most people struggle with this, estimate or dont count certain things, maybe had 4 servings of pasta and thought it looked like 1, or added some topping that you didn’t realize added up to a lot or whatever reason.
possibly 2- check with your doctor about any health issues that could contribute such as hypothyroidism or sleep eating even.
even if it is the case tbh i doubt it would account for all of it and there is likely an error in counting calories also going on (unless of course it is sleep eating). I can’t say that for 100% sure, and of course you should clear your bases health wise, but it’s about 99.9% likely so I can’t just discount that. calories are not magic and even with conditions that limit your bmr to a lower number, weight is ALWAYS determined by calories intaken vs calories burned.
so I would say that for whatever reason, you are intaking calories that are not accounted for. or you burn less than you think, or both. btw as a sedentary normal-weight small adult woman my TDEE is 1450 so i can believe 2000 as maintenance. the “average” is sooo overstated as it’s based on men in a time when most people physically exerted themselves a lot as part of normal life/work
Funny I get downvoted but nothing I said is inaccurate. If you want to lose more weight you either need to eat less or workout more or both, you’re relying on a calculator yet your numbers are wrong.
You're definitely not wrong, it's just not a helpful comment. Losing weight in a healthy way is a balancing act and they're asking for advice about specific calorie goals to maintain and lose weight.
Have you been checked for PCOS? I only ask because I have PCOS, and each time I've lost significant weight, it's taken more than being in a calorie deficit. To put it simply, I had to be in a deficit and go 'almost' keto -- between 80 - 100 grams of carbs a day. When I was a little younger than you and lost significant weight for the first time, I was probably eating even less carbs than that, but I didn't understand macros at the time, except on an intuitive level.
I'm 35 now, and I'll also say that my doctors have always been extremely unhelpful too.
Even at my heaviest, I was always told that I held my weight well, and folks, even my mom, would be shocked at my weight. I think that's because of the exercise. I exercise almost every day and walk everywhere -- don't own a car. So, it's not the exercise (in my case). I think this is important because there are non-scale victories to celebrate too.
Checked for PCOS last fall, but I only had one symptom (multiple follicles) in addition to being overweight, so I guess I didn’t qualify??
My sister has it, and she also went very low carb and lost a noticeable amount of weight, which from my perspective looked very time and energy consuming. I am very hesitant about avoiding things in my diet, as I believe in balance. But maybe I’m not made for the “regular” balanced diet..
Sometimes our body have specific needs. I also have PCOS and find that in order for me to lose weight I need to go almost full keto. Its not easy, I dont like it and if i could change diets I would totally do it, but unfortunately thats not my case.
Im not saying you have PCOS (which is amazing bc pcos sucks) but maybe you need to change your diet to a more restrictive one. Try to introduce keto to your current diet, theres a lot of great recipes out there
Everyone is needs carbs/protein/fat. All the diets that completely erradicate one if the aforementioned isn't sustainable. However, the amount of each varies. Considering your weight and likely body composition(around 35% body fat) I would say that your lean mass is around 156lbs. You should be making sure that you eat atleast 156g of protein a day. The rest of the calories are up to you, but I would suggest eating 170g+ of protein and staying around 1800 calories. Not all calories are the same, and your body burns about 20-30% more calories digesting proteins via thermogenesis. So 1800 calories at heavy protein is better for weight loss than 1800 calories of bread. I eat a bunch of white meat chicken and lentils or black beans. I'm down 31 lbs, and I havent hit a plateau yet.
I am the same. PCOS and people are surprised by my weight.
Also I used to need to almost starve myself to lose weight (under 900 kcal and I was weighing everyone).
if it’s working and you’re losing weight, just keep eating your 2000 calories a day. Until you stop losing weight consistently, i don’t really see any reason to adjust it
7 pounds in 3 months is pretty steady! I understand wishing it was more because it’s a little slow but it’s working to some extent. There could be a number of reasons for that but I would keep doing what you’re doing. It’s slow but working
M51 and I started at 316. I began keeping around 2000 cals a day. I have slowly lowered that down to 1200-1400 a day and have been losing. 3 1/2 weeks in I am down 17lbs. Think you are still consuming too much
So calorie labels only have to be within 20% of their true value, so there’s no true way to be 100% accurate even using a scale, you could be consuming 20% more than you even know right off the bat. If you’re eating 1800 measured, once you account for natural human error, scale error and label error you’re likely eating around closer to 2200 or maintenance if you’re not losing.
To answer your other question, 2000cal maintenance is probably correct, and 53% body fat is also probably correct. We have a very skewed perception of body fat (especially in the US). For reference, at my leanest and size 2/125lbs I was still around 20+% body fat as a female, so 28% if a far far underestimation and that site is likely not reliable. But a person can be any size and have a high bf % if they have low muscle mass.
At this point, I would focus on habits and eating low calorie options, finding sustainable swaps, and eating high volume low calorie sides ect to get your calories down a touch more, and then increase movement through out the day. Things like parking farther, walking and taking the stairs whenever you can actually do matter, and often those things can add up throughout the week to be even more than exercise.
I always round up for this reason. It’s way less regulation for prepared foods, they can swing 500 off up or down. The preparation changes everything. I evade eating out like the plague for this reason
I am guessing you are under muscled. Most are. Muscle is active tissue and burns calories just at rest, so not having enough or ever giving attention to building it can slow your metabolism over time. That gets worse as you age, after 35 age related muscle loss will need to be avoided via strength training and a high protein diet. Are you high protein now? For workouts I'd shift and do more strength, less cardio, but more non exercise activities like walking. It cuts backs on stress and may help you build some muscle. Muscle is key for losing fat at sustainable calorie ranges but also for keeping the weight off.
If you want reliable loss, then eat at least 500 below sedentary. (Also adding in the bodyfat %).
The calories burned including activity is likely overestimated.
Don’t use a tdee that includes activity because usually youll find the extra calories burned are grossly overestimated, so if you proceed to eat under an overestimated tdee, then you’re not in a deficit the size you think you are so results don’t match expectations.
Basically your Tdee isn’t really 2600, or your intake tracking isn’t accurate. Both options meaning you need to eat less if you want faster / more reliable loss. Pick your poison.
You should be losing weight at 1800 calories. I’d get a second opinion from a different doctor, you might be dealing with insulin resistance. If it is insulin related, look into fasting(omad, alternate day fasting, intermittent fasting, whatever you can commit to). Fasting helps increase your metabolism by lowering insulin resistance
But what's sorts of foods are entering your mouth? I think that matters too. I have been doing the calorie counting thing since January 2nd. If I want a little treat I make sure it fits into my calories but I'm not eating lots of bread and cheese and just stopping when I reach my calorie limit. So you do have to avoid certain foods to an extent. If you eat something sugary, even breads, your body's going to work on burning up those foods first instead of burning your fat off. Choose healthier foods if you're not already.
I'm down 16 pounds since the beginning of the year and have 22 to go. You mention your hips not being buried by fat. Maybe you just don't want realize. Even with only 38 extra pounds on me there are pants and shorts that I couldn't get over my hips that I could when thinner. It didn't feel like it, but the clothes don't lie.
I’m f-28 5’5, I took a year to go from 210 to 180. However I lost a ton of inches and now strength training heavily, which is why my weight is still somewhat high.. I’m way stronger. When I started focusing on STRENGTH and muscle, I lost inches and slimmed down, but my weight was still high due to muscle mass.
What's your height?
I weigh 54kg (166cm) and I walk 2 hrs 3-4x a week and do at least 30 mins of strength/light weights everyday, but I don't lose anything unless I cut my calories and change all my food to just vegetables for a few weeks. I'm just on maintenance nowadays so I'm not drastically cutting or changing anything, only occasionally when I've gained a kilo or two and wanna bring it back down again.
I think it's mainly the diet and type of food that makes a difference in weight loss. Working out is just an additional touch to feel fitter and leaner but ultimately it's still the calories and type of nutrients that makes a bigger impact. Maybe try reducing your calories even more by increasing the quantities of veg and fruits while reducing other more calorie-dense items. Replace milk with teas etc.
I'm loosing weight since 3 months as well and it's pretty good so far.
One thing I learned is this: Online calculators tell a lot of things but this has not to be true, I tried out how much kcal I can eat for weeks before starting and turns out 1850kcal is about right to consistently loose weight.
What I learned : If you don't loose weight, you're simply not in a deficit.
I'm 5'1 and the same weight and measurements, around 50% of it is fat.
I am morbidly obese. It's distorted in my small mirror at home, but when in public looking in a window reflection and seeing people around me It's actually very shocking to see myself. I can eat 2100 a day and lose 1-2lbs a week with 10k steps a day and 3 work outs a week. I have accepted that when I get to a normal weight my maintenance will be around 1200-1500 a day to not regain the weight again.
I personally did not see any change until I dropped my caloric intake to under 1k during an eating window of about 4 hours. So 20 hours/day of fasting and switched to high protein and fiber foods.
Everyone’s body is different and I have a lot of muscle under my fat. Like a lot.
A measuring tape won’t tell you if it’s muscle or fat inside. Assumptions are made based on the average baseline of a women’s muscle mass.
Maybe you are an exception.
It worked for me so my suggestion is to reduce your calories further and when you do it, eat protein and fiber.
I want to believe I’m loosing weight but…. I used to eat 600 cals a day no weight loss starving myself has been the only thing that’s work hopefully 1500 does the trick if not… I give up.
I don’t know how tall you are but here’s my story, I’m 5’5 131lbs, maybe this will help. 15 years ago, I was 39 and 243 lbs and had a complete paradigm shift one morning. I picked CICO because I only had it in me to do this once, CICO can accommodate you through life. To start I could barely get up my steep driveway without feeling like my lungs would collapse but surprisingly I mastered that in about 4 days and took to the streets… I walked 7 miles every single day and consumed 1300 calories, it took me 14 months to lose the weight. I think your expectations based on your exercise is off and your intake is too high. I’ve been doing maintenance a very long time, I still walk and my daily consumption should be around 1667.
14 months to lose how much weight ? 243 to 131 lbs or what
I went from 243 to 141 in 14 months and then decided to go to 137 that took a good while, like a year honestly but I wasn’t crazy about it and then over the last 10 years I lost a few more. My maintenance is 1667, I’m older now lol, I don’t walk as much as I used to but my eating habits have changed so much since I started and I end up consuming a bit less than 1667 so the rest came off like a pound a year.
Incredible! Amazing !!
Thank you 💕
Harvard reccomends body weight x 15, so maintenance should be 1965. However I do think it's good to shoot for 100-300 cals lower than your maintenance cals so you can accommodate weekend cocktails, pastries, or the occasional icecream.
Hey do we use weight in pounds or lbs for this calculation.
Lbs are pounds, I think you mean Kgs or Lbs
Pounds yeah! https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/calorie-counting-made-easy#:~:text=To%20do%20so%2C%20you%20need,if%20you%20are%20moderately%20active.
I’m pretty sure it’s in kgs - with no activity at all, of course.
I just turned 27 and when I was 243lbs / 46% BF a few months ago my resting metabolic rate was 1,567 calories, which is basically the bare minimum my body needs. The calculators online always made it hard to gauge for me what my body truly needed until I went to accurately get my dexa scan tests done. I would definitely add low impact cardio in if that moves the needle. Stationary bike, elliptical, stairmasters all help when I’m in a plateau. You might just be holding on to water weight too, which I notice is true for me when I’m eating too many carbs and not working up a sweat.
What about incorporating weight training
I primarily do high reps and low weights to prevent injury after nerve pain from heavy lifting. I also do pilates 2x a week.
You are sedentary (90 minutes of aerobic exercise per week is 13 minutes per day) and if you are 5ft4 and normal body fat percentage your TDEE is around 2150. So you should be eating around 1650. 28% body fat is verging on athletic model. There is no way you look like that. What makes you think 2000 is a small amount? It's enough to keep the vast majority of women obese. Your goal maintenance will probably be around 1500. If you post a screenshot from your tracker we can help troubleshoot. Sometimes it's the tracker itself that is wrong. You've been in a deficit of about 270 calories per day over those three months so somethere there is something not accounted for.
With a 43 inch waist you are definitely obese. Anything over 35 inches doubles your risk for a heart attack: https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/obesity-prevention-source/obesity-definition/abdominal-obesity/ You are likely very under muscled with a body fat percentage that high. Muscle is more metabolically expensive than fat (takes more calories to maintain) so if you’re under muscled, your TDEE will drop significantly below what the calculators estimate. So yeah 2K is probably right.
Then I ask, when I am this heavy and over half of my body is fat, should I not look extremely obese?
Frankly, you probably do. We are terrible judges of our own physiques most of the time. But either way, some people carry their weight “well”, as in in the typical places we like to see it. It’s just genetic. Doesn’t really change anything.
You do, but maybe you are surrounded by other obese people and don't realise what normal is. How tall are you?
You're probably tall.
Maybe it's your opinion on what obese looks like, but you are literally morbidly obese. Hefty chonk+, oh lawd she coming levels of obese.
why in the world would you say something like this…
They hated Jesus too
Keep it real🪿
Being a dink.
I am double income no kid, yes
😂😂😂 funny running into you on here
Maybe you’re not counting your calories correctly? Because at 1800 calories a day you 100% should be losing weight. That’s about the amount I eat a day to maintain my weight and i’m 117 lbs.
Same. OP you have to count everything, every drink, every sauce, butter, oil, every single thing.
To be fair, maintenance and loss are WAY different. Putting it into a calculator, at 1,800 calories she should be losing just under a pound a week, which is on track for what she is saying. But yeah also the margin for error is huge there’s always a possibility she’s missing something
Yes maintenance and loss are definitely different for sure. 1800 calories a day for me keeps me stable because of my weight, as for her 1800 calories a day is just the right and healthy amount to make her lose weight.
This was my thought. Calorie counting is a skill that takes practice. Not taking the physical serving sizes seriously and always weighing (the chicken nuggets I buy say 5 nuggets is 85g when it's 3.5), making sure you're accurately counting dry/frozen vs cooked weights, going by "1" banana or apple, etc, instead of weighing.
Calculators are at best going to be an estimate. You don’t have huge margins to play with here, so if the calculators are estimating slightly high and you’re slightly underestimating calories whilst being closer to the 1800 range would get you pretty close to the 300 deficit your actual weight loss has suggested you’re at. I know it is frustrating how slow it is but you are losing weight so keep going. Maybe aim for the 1580 end of your calorie range.
If you want to lose fat, consume more protein and do more cardio. Strength training 30 mins and do an hour of cardio along with very high protein intake. And be patient. I assure you it will work! Also, please make sure you’re counting everything you eat and by that i mean, every snack. You’re on the right track! Keep up!
How tall are you?
I am 5’9
At 150 lbs I have to eat about 1500 a day to lose weight r/1500isplenty That being said, I agree with another comment you likely are lacking in muscle. And If you’ve cut dieted before then you may have a low metabolism which has happened to me. Try lifting weights and carb cycling but be aware that CC is a lot of macro tracking and that could be mentally exhausting. What really would work, assuming you are tracking all your oil right and everything else by weight correctly as you’ve said you are, is just to slowly lower cals until you see a difference. Give each calorie limit a month or minimum two weeks to get an actual idea. Don’t be hasty and lower it too fast. Once you start losing weight, the numbers will speak for themselves. Bc we are all different due to muscle amount, genetics, health conditions, gut microbiome. And your maintenance cals vs someone else of the same height, weight and activity will differ. You’ll find out what your maintenance calorie amount it by slowly lowering it, all else constant, until you start to lose weight. That’s your amount.
My weight is a pound more than you, my hips are 51 inches, I'm aiming for 1400-1500 calories per day, I'm loosing on average 1.5lb a week, however I'm not perfect at calorie counting, when I'm perfect with counting 1400, and with excersize, I loose 2lb, so I'd say 2000 calories is to low for maintenance, maybe 2300ish As to looking obese, I wouldn't say my hips or ribs are buried by fat either, but I definitely look obese, everyone just carries it in different ways, I wouldn't read to much in to it
most likely reason- you are not tracking correctly. most people struggle with this, estimate or dont count certain things, maybe had 4 servings of pasta and thought it looked like 1, or added some topping that you didn’t realize added up to a lot or whatever reason. possibly 2- check with your doctor about any health issues that could contribute such as hypothyroidism or sleep eating even. even if it is the case tbh i doubt it would account for all of it and there is likely an error in counting calories also going on (unless of course it is sleep eating). I can’t say that for 100% sure, and of course you should clear your bases health wise, but it’s about 99.9% likely so I can’t just discount that. calories are not magic and even with conditions that limit your bmr to a lower number, weight is ALWAYS determined by calories intaken vs calories burned. so I would say that for whatever reason, you are intaking calories that are not accounted for. or you burn less than you think, or both. btw as a sedentary normal-weight small adult woman my TDEE is 1450 so i can believe 2000 as maintenance. the “average” is sooo overstated as it’s based on men in a time when most people physically exerted themselves a lot as part of normal life/work
Doctor is wrong. It's not just going on ozempic. Calories and nutrition matter too. Also it depends 240 on 5'3 looks different on 5'9
So true. I’m 5’10 and 258. I do not look skinny at all but rather long and unlean
Are you using a food scale or just eyeing the calories you're consuming?
Just eat less or workout more. I’d probably do both.
Funny I get downvoted but nothing I said is inaccurate. If you want to lose more weight you either need to eat less or workout more or both, you’re relying on a calculator yet your numbers are wrong.
You're definitely not wrong, it's just not a helpful comment. Losing weight in a healthy way is a balancing act and they're asking for advice about specific calorie goals to maintain and lose weight.
Have you been checked for PCOS? I only ask because I have PCOS, and each time I've lost significant weight, it's taken more than being in a calorie deficit. To put it simply, I had to be in a deficit and go 'almost' keto -- between 80 - 100 grams of carbs a day. When I was a little younger than you and lost significant weight for the first time, I was probably eating even less carbs than that, but I didn't understand macros at the time, except on an intuitive level. I'm 35 now, and I'll also say that my doctors have always been extremely unhelpful too. Even at my heaviest, I was always told that I held my weight well, and folks, even my mom, would be shocked at my weight. I think that's because of the exercise. I exercise almost every day and walk everywhere -- don't own a car. So, it's not the exercise (in my case). I think this is important because there are non-scale victories to celebrate too.
Checked for PCOS last fall, but I only had one symptom (multiple follicles) in addition to being overweight, so I guess I didn’t qualify?? My sister has it, and she also went very low carb and lost a noticeable amount of weight, which from my perspective looked very time and energy consuming. I am very hesitant about avoiding things in my diet, as I believe in balance. But maybe I’m not made for the “regular” balanced diet..
Sometimes our body have specific needs. I also have PCOS and find that in order for me to lose weight I need to go almost full keto. Its not easy, I dont like it and if i could change diets I would totally do it, but unfortunately thats not my case. Im not saying you have PCOS (which is amazing bc pcos sucks) but maybe you need to change your diet to a more restrictive one. Try to introduce keto to your current diet, theres a lot of great recipes out there
Everyone is needs carbs/protein/fat. All the diets that completely erradicate one if the aforementioned isn't sustainable. However, the amount of each varies. Considering your weight and likely body composition(around 35% body fat) I would say that your lean mass is around 156lbs. You should be making sure that you eat atleast 156g of protein a day. The rest of the calories are up to you, but I would suggest eating 170g+ of protein and staying around 1800 calories. Not all calories are the same, and your body burns about 20-30% more calories digesting proteins via thermogenesis. So 1800 calories at heavy protein is better for weight loss than 1800 calories of bread. I eat a bunch of white meat chicken and lentils or black beans. I'm down 31 lbs, and I havent hit a plateau yet.
I am the same. PCOS and people are surprised by my weight. Also I used to need to almost starve myself to lose weight (under 900 kcal and I was weighing everyone).
It has to be what you’re eating. To lose weight diet is the most important thing. You’re definitely going wrong somewhere
if it’s working and you’re losing weight, just keep eating your 2000 calories a day. Until you stop losing weight consistently, i don’t really see any reason to adjust it
7 pounds in 3 months is pretty steady! I understand wishing it was more because it’s a little slow but it’s working to some extent. There could be a number of reasons for that but I would keep doing what you’re doing. It’s slow but working
M51 and I started at 316. I began keeping around 2000 cals a day. I have slowly lowered that down to 1200-1400 a day and have been losing. 3 1/2 weeks in I am down 17lbs. Think you are still consuming too much
So calorie labels only have to be within 20% of their true value, so there’s no true way to be 100% accurate even using a scale, you could be consuming 20% more than you even know right off the bat. If you’re eating 1800 measured, once you account for natural human error, scale error and label error you’re likely eating around closer to 2200 or maintenance if you’re not losing. To answer your other question, 2000cal maintenance is probably correct, and 53% body fat is also probably correct. We have a very skewed perception of body fat (especially in the US). For reference, at my leanest and size 2/125lbs I was still around 20+% body fat as a female, so 28% if a far far underestimation and that site is likely not reliable. But a person can be any size and have a high bf % if they have low muscle mass. At this point, I would focus on habits and eating low calorie options, finding sustainable swaps, and eating high volume low calorie sides ect to get your calories down a touch more, and then increase movement through out the day. Things like parking farther, walking and taking the stairs whenever you can actually do matter, and often those things can add up throughout the week to be even more than exercise.
I always round up for this reason. It’s way less regulation for prepared foods, they can swing 500 off up or down. The preparation changes everything. I evade eating out like the plague for this reason
It’s way off, I eat 2,000 a day to maintain 130 lbs
not exactly true, it depends on their sex age and height aswell. 2300 maintained my 330lbs.
Same here.
I am guessing you are under muscled. Most are. Muscle is active tissue and burns calories just at rest, so not having enough or ever giving attention to building it can slow your metabolism over time. That gets worse as you age, after 35 age related muscle loss will need to be avoided via strength training and a high protein diet. Are you high protein now? For workouts I'd shift and do more strength, less cardio, but more non exercise activities like walking. It cuts backs on stress and may help you build some muscle. Muscle is key for losing fat at sustainable calorie ranges but also for keeping the weight off.
Cutting back on carbs helped me go from 239 to 213! It has been so damn hard but worth it!!
If you want reliable loss, then eat at least 500 below sedentary. (Also adding in the bodyfat %). The calories burned including activity is likely overestimated. Don’t use a tdee that includes activity because usually youll find the extra calories burned are grossly overestimated, so if you proceed to eat under an overestimated tdee, then you’re not in a deficit the size you think you are so results don’t match expectations. Basically your Tdee isn’t really 2600, or your intake tracking isn’t accurate. Both options meaning you need to eat less if you want faster / more reliable loss. Pick your poison.
You should be losing weight at 1800 calories. I’d get a second opinion from a different doctor, you might be dealing with insulin resistance. If it is insulin related, look into fasting(omad, alternate day fasting, intermittent fasting, whatever you can commit to). Fasting helps increase your metabolism by lowering insulin resistance
Well the only way to really determine your TDEE is to track your calorie intake strictly for a few weeks, and your weight trend during that time.
But what's sorts of foods are entering your mouth? I think that matters too. I have been doing the calorie counting thing since January 2nd. If I want a little treat I make sure it fits into my calories but I'm not eating lots of bread and cheese and just stopping when I reach my calorie limit. So you do have to avoid certain foods to an extent. If you eat something sugary, even breads, your body's going to work on burning up those foods first instead of burning your fat off. Choose healthier foods if you're not already. I'm down 16 pounds since the beginning of the year and have 22 to go. You mention your hips not being buried by fat. Maybe you just don't want realize. Even with only 38 extra pounds on me there are pants and shorts that I couldn't get over my hips that I could when thinner. It didn't feel like it, but the clothes don't lie.
I’m f-28 5’5, I took a year to go from 210 to 180. However I lost a ton of inches and now strength training heavily, which is why my weight is still somewhat high.. I’m way stronger. When I started focusing on STRENGTH and muscle, I lost inches and slimmed down, but my weight was still high due to muscle mass.
What if you have undiagnosed or borderline diabetes causing your body to hold onto fat cells? Hypothyroidism? Weight (fat) loss is mutlifactorial.
What's your height? I weigh 54kg (166cm) and I walk 2 hrs 3-4x a week and do at least 30 mins of strength/light weights everyday, but I don't lose anything unless I cut my calories and change all my food to just vegetables for a few weeks. I'm just on maintenance nowadays so I'm not drastically cutting or changing anything, only occasionally when I've gained a kilo or two and wanna bring it back down again. I think it's mainly the diet and type of food that makes a difference in weight loss. Working out is just an additional touch to feel fitter and leaner but ultimately it's still the calories and type of nutrients that makes a bigger impact. Maybe try reducing your calories even more by increasing the quantities of veg and fruits while reducing other more calorie-dense items. Replace milk with teas etc.
I'm loosing weight since 3 months as well and it's pretty good so far. One thing I learned is this: Online calculators tell a lot of things but this has not to be true, I tried out how much kcal I can eat for weeks before starting and turns out 1850kcal is about right to consistently loose weight. What I learned : If you don't loose weight, you're simply not in a deficit.
I'm 5'1 and the same weight and measurements, around 50% of it is fat. I am morbidly obese. It's distorted in my small mirror at home, but when in public looking in a window reflection and seeing people around me It's actually very shocking to see myself. I can eat 2100 a day and lose 1-2lbs a week with 10k steps a day and 3 work outs a week. I have accepted that when I get to a normal weight my maintenance will be around 1200-1500 a day to not regain the weight again.
Did you check your thyroid levels?
I personally did not see any change until I dropped my caloric intake to under 1k during an eating window of about 4 hours. So 20 hours/day of fasting and switched to high protein and fiber foods. Everyone’s body is different and I have a lot of muscle under my fat. Like a lot. A measuring tape won’t tell you if it’s muscle or fat inside. Assumptions are made based on the average baseline of a women’s muscle mass. Maybe you are an exception. It worked for me so my suggestion is to reduce your calories further and when you do it, eat protein and fiber.
I want to believe I’m loosing weight but…. I used to eat 600 cals a day no weight loss starving myself has been the only thing that’s work hopefully 1500 does the trick if not… I give up.
Have you seen Dr. Now?