Advice appreciated- Eat Healthier not losing alot of weight

[Lesliep89]

Starting on New Years I have been eating healthier and drink nothing but water all day with the exception of one cup of coffee in the morning. I have also been trying to eat whole foods not processed or fast food and only eating between 1200 and 1500 calories a day. Since I have started I havent lost a whole lot of weight. What could be keeping me from losing more weight.

[SunsetRunner]

1-2 pounds per week is the average. Less if you are fairly close to your ideal body weight. Most of what you lose in the beginning is water weight. 2 weeks isn’t enough time to determine if you need to drop more calories. The majority of the time when one isn’t losing any weight it’s because one is underestimating calories consumed or not tracking properly. Give it more time before making changes.

[Glenda]

@Lesliep89 Leslie, You didn't say how tall you are or how much you weigh now.  That makes a difference.   1200 calories supports about 120 pounds usually.  People  say everyone, even if it is a midget, must eat 1200 calories a day, which is ridiculous if you are 5 feet tall and want to weigh less than 120 pounds.

[Lesliep89]

I am 5ft 6in and weigh 248. I want to reach my goal of at least 150.

[Glenda]

@Lesliep89 I don't blame you for feeling disappointed.  If you ate 1200 calories each day I think you should have lost  at least 10 pounds I would guess  considering the usual water loss at the beginning .  If you actually ate more or if elimination is slow maybe less.  But hang in there it will happen for you soon I'll bet.  If you lost only 2 pounds a week at the end of a year you would have lost 104 pounds.  Isn't that amazing?  And the good thing about that is that you will not have any loose skin.   

[Lesliep89]

Thanks 😊

[Lesliep89]

I guess I was just expecting to lose more than I did with the amount of calories I cut down from. I just need to be patient and persistent 

[Glenda]

@Lesliep89  Leslie, Someone wrote that most people eat about 10 things over and over.  That isn't true of people who like to cook but the rest of us know some things  that we like and we knowhow to fix it or where to buy it etc.  If you can learn 10 new favorite things to eat that you like as much as your current 10 favorites that have fewer calories you will find it easier to lose and you will be able to maintain the loss.  Many people feel it is easier to lose than to maintain because when their diet enthusiasm and will power runs out they go back to their old favorites.  There are very good things to eat that you would love that has fewer calories if you will really work to find those things you will like.  They can be easy too.  Try some fat free greek yogurt and frozen blueberries.  Cook a spaghetti squash and put fat free cream cheese and some concentrated broccoli cheese soup on it.  Put the squash in the microwave for a couple of minutes to soften it so you can cut it in half first.  Then cook it for 30 minutes in the oven at 400 degrees.   I put Jalapeño salt on mine. Sign up for the free Hungry girl newsletter for low calorie stuff.

[Dominique]

I entered your numbers in this online calculator. Based on your average step count of about 7400 steps (as displayed in your profile), I estimated your activity level as "light". With this assumption, your calculated TDEE (calories burned) would be 2547. Does it match what your Fitbit is telling you? More often than not, Fitbit tends to overstate calories burned. If you were eating 1500 (deficit: 1000), you should be losing 2 pounds per week in average. Does this match what you’ve seen on the scale so far?

Keep in mind that we’re only two weeks in the new year, and that weight loss usually isn’t fully linear (especially for menstruating women, due to the impact of their hormonal cycle).

Eating "healthy" is about quality, and impacts primarily health outcomes, usually over longer periods of time. OTOH, weightloss is primarily about quantity (size of deficit), though there are some who believe calories are totally meaningless. I would consider upping both calories eaten (to at least your calculated BMR, about 1800) and your activity level (e.g. to the 10k steps "gold standard", even though it may be just an arbitrary number).

I would also break down the total weight loss goal of 100 into several chunks, with periods of maintenance in between, as opposed to attempting to do it all at once (justification: my favorite weightloss resource, the Losing All Your Weight At Once video).

[Lesliep89]

I usually dont pay attention to the calories burned on the fitbit app and just try and stick with the 1200 to 1500 calories a day. For steps it depends on what I have going on each week at work. Some weeks it is no problem to get 10000 a day and other weeks I am mostly at my computer.