skysaff

Thank you Oglalagirl

Hi Cjohnson:

I too believe that 1600 is too many calories as well.
I'm almost 5 ft 4, however I just 5 ft 3. Most of the online
calculators show my calories should be around 1350 to 1425.

I do feel full at around 1100 calories.

Thank you for your suggestion regarding calorie zig zag. I can give that a try as well.

Thank you so much

skysaff

Thank you so much Mai that certainly makes sense ~ I'll keep trying, I won't give up.

waltrush

You should try to lose 1-2 lbs. per week, that's the preferred rate of weight loss.

Be sure you are eating enough calories and breaking your meals up into 6 times.

If you are not already active try to add some light walking or other activities that you enjoy. Always check with your Doctor prior to any strenuous exercise.

Hope that helps, I'm looking to drop 80!!!

skysaff

Hi Waltrush,

I do break my meals up to 4 times a day and I do get some excersie from jogging/walking the treadmill and bike riding.

I have been sedentary since I retired so I have not been losing weight, just maintaining and need to jumpstart my metabolism.

However today I jumped on the scale and did lose 2 lbs, with eating 1000 calories and with some excercise.

I don't know how to lose 2 lbs a week, My food and fitness journal is public if you'd like to take a peek.

I have got the ok to excercise, etc after I passed the stress test from my Dr and passed.

Good luck on the 80 lbs as well. I know you can do it.

Mark999

Hi skysaff,

I've spent a lot of time online learning these formulas and I put it all into a spreadsheet. I decided to plug in your numbers and see what it says.

Using a lightly active life style, if you began this journey on 4/17/11 at a weight 172 and your goal was to lose a total of 30 lbs. at a rate of 1 lb. per week you should reach your goal on 12/18/2011.

Your calorie intake to maintain 172 lbs. would be 1855 and to lose 1 lb. per week your calorie intake would be 1355.

Trying to be more aggressive than that would put your calorie intake too low. I personally don't think men should ever go below 1500 or women below 1200.

If you want to lose it faster then you can increase movement, however, more exercise would mean more calories are also needed.

I would recommend changing your macros to 30% fat, 30% protein, 40% carbs. Target your calorie intake to 1250-1350 and continue walking and biking just as you've been doing. Also make sure the carbs are more from fruits and vegetables and less from breads and pastas. You may also want to try to reduce sugar. That helped me a lot!

Try these things and I'll bet the scale starts moving! If this doesn't work, try something else. There lots of methods talked about around here. I've had to make several adjustments to break my own plateaus.

Hope this helps. Good luck on your journey!

skysaff

Thank you Mark so very much for taking the time and figuring out my formula.
I have started over to begin my journey for 4/17/2011 and put my goal weight to reach by 10/30/2011 and will eat between 1240-1350 calories. I will work hard to get the right macros of 30% fat/ 3o % protein and 40% carbs as well and work from there.
Hope I can kickstart my metabolism and start to see the scales move.
Thank you so much,

Sky

Kathy13118

Skysaff, your height shows that you are shorter than I am. If the sedentary calories seem low to you, maybe that's because you are more petite. You may need fewer calories than a taller person. I wish I could be a taller person (I'm 5 foot 5 inches) because then I COULD eat more to fill out a taller frame.

Maybe it seems unfair, but lining up your calories in/ calories out balance is key to losing weight. At some point, when you have reached your goal, there will be the reward of being slimmer and you won't want to eat many more calories than your body can handle. It's too bad that eating in a restaurant, for example, costs so many calories. For many people, eating large-size meals becomes the norm and that is how they became fat.

When your body is smaller, and you're not growing (like a teenager or a very young adult), you need fewer calories. That doesn't change the environment, though. Everything still has the same caloric content it always did.

One thing that WW does, for an example of this principle, is to give you points (calories) to eat every day and adjusts that point allowance DOWNWARDS as you lose weight. What a bummer, but what a reality. Unless you're suddenly running marathons you never ran before, your caloric needs are going to go down when you lose weight and that fits your body's weight and height at any moment.