Calorie deficit for petites!

[Oxfordgirl]

Hi guys! Hope you're having a good week. 

Basically, I'm intrigued to hear from how you fellow 'petites' (I'm 5'3") are managing your calorie deficit and weight loss. 

About me: I'm fairly new to fitbit, I bought my Zip three weeks ago now. I'm hoping to lose a stone in total, as I'm currently on the 'unhealthy' side of the BMI for my height. The fitbit has been awesome for getting me out of the house and walking around the countryside 🙂 I track using Myfitnesspal and eat a varied but healthy diet, always within my recommended limits and mostly 'under' compared to my cals burned walking. I've been using the same programme for 3 weeks: 750 calorie deficit, 10k+ steps per day. In week one I lost 2.25lb, in week two I lost nothing at all, in week 3 I lost 0.75lb.

So since I've been so good (and I chug four to five pints of water over the course of a day) - what's with the inconsistent weight loss? I manually counted my burn and intake, and using the old '3500 calories is a pound weight loss' formula, I should have lost 2lb each week.

I've now revised my fitbit programme to 'Hard, i.e. 2lb weight loss a week, but now I'm being recommended to limit myself to 887 calories a day in food - is that okay, given the one-size-fits-all 1200 cal minimum rule? Can a petite girl safely eat that and lose weight?

[lablover55]

I am 4'8" 56 years old, going through menopause.  I need to lose about 20 lbs. 

[Heybales]

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@lablover55 wrote:

I am 4'8" 56 years old, going through menopause.  I need to lose about 20 lbs. 

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Just in case you haven't, some mobile access makes it easy to skip prior posts, and some do it out of habit - but don't miss the good info written above - read and reread the whole topic for ideas.

Also, suggest 500 cal deficit for only 2 weeks max - then switch to 250 cal deficit.

Since you have small margin of error anyway - log all foods eaten by weight as grams, not measurements as volume spoons or cups.

Eat out infrequently during the diet since it's so inaccurate.

Meet your eating goal, over by 50 is better than under by 100, if it happens consisently.

[Punkynn01]

To be honest....I HATE THE WHOLE SCALE that shows you to be obese/overweight.

For my weight I can only add on inch to my height and it will actually put me from overweight to the area that is considered "normal".

It is incredibly frustrating because those scales or calculators don't go by health, or the measure of how much exercise you do or muscle that you carry.  It only goes by the measurement of weight in comparison to your height.  Even when I was young and thin I was considered overweight because I carried a lot of muscle.  I would have people see my weight and then look at me in disbelief.  They would say, "You look like you are AT LEAST 20 lbs lighter than that!"

It's why I have stopped putting such and enphasis on the scale and using other methods.  I pay attention to size and measurements more...and how well I am progressing in my running.  I take note at how my body is changing and how it looks.  Taking before and after pictures has truly helped.  You don't have to ever post them or show them to anyone...they are good for you to see areas that have changed.  Changes in cellulite, shape, skin firmness and muscle definition can all be non scale triumphs.  

[suemac28]

thank you for the info, I am going to try your example.  I've been having a tough time, I'm 5'1" and 60 years old.  It's so hard, I go down 5 then back up 3..It's very frustrating.  I walk 5 times a week, my only cheat is having 1 cosmo on Friday and Saturday.

[ShortnProud]

You have support here!