I've lost just 2.1kg in 8 weeks. Should I adjust calories intake?

[paja02]

48 old women

I workout 5 days per week (gym or runs) plus every day 10 000 steps, I have set up my calories deficit to "kind of hard" (once per week I eat a bit more - not over the intake), also I don't eat processed food. I've lost just 2.1 kg in 8 weeks ( about 5cm in tights, 1cm in the waist). Shall I adjust my calories intake?

Moderator edit: subject for clarity

[TXBRDTX]

I feel ya, I am 49 years old. And the scale is not moving as fast as it used to. Very disappointing, isn't is? I too did choose the kinda hard option, and I do try to do 10K a day. (does not always happen thought) I go 3 times a week on the treadmill for about 1 hour. However I have had a desk job 8-5 mo - fr. all my life and it started to show 😞 I used to be 125 lbs - 135 lbs all my life. Till I did hit 43!!! Downhill since then :(. Now I am 181 lbs from 189 lbs. After almost 3 month of strict calorie counting and living healthy. No junk food, no processed food. Only home made dishes. I could cry. I have tried every diet on the market, nothing will work for me. So, tell me if you find something that helps you, please. 🙂 

[paja02]

oh, girl, I will let you know if I found anything we both shouldn't give up x

[Glenda]

Ladies,  All the studies show that people who start an exercise program too lose weight eat more and DON'T lose weight.  Maybe you should forget the exercise and concentrate on what you ear.  Count calories.  and probably eat fewer than you are now.  You make me curious How many are you counting?

[paja02]

I haven't started any exercise program to lose weight (I'm working out my whole life) I calculate my calories on Myfitnesspal connected to my Fitbit account

[Glenda]

No junk food or processed food!!!    So you probably eat no sugar or flour?  So if you reduce fat in your diet (which has the most calories) and eat fiber in fruit and vegetables,  you should be doing well at weight control.

[paja02]

yep you are right, I have a doctor check-up scheduled. I'll talk to him about it

[SebWotan]

What is your daily calories intake and your daily calories expenditure ?

2.1 kg in 8 weeks could be OK or not depending on those numbers and whether the trend change in the next few months. 

[Heybales]

2.1 kg in 8 weeks, if it really is fat weight only and not some water weight fluctuations, would indicate the following:

2.1 kg x 7718 cal / 56 days = 289 daily deficit on average.

Now - if those days included your typical start a diet fast water weight loss, better to remove that from the math.

Perhaps your final weigh-in included a high sodium meal the day before, not good to include in math either. Water has weight but no calories.

So add that to your food logging for avg eaten during the same time period - that is your TDEE.

But - how accurate is your food logging - perhaps during that time your logs say you ate on average 2000 calories. So TDEE 2289.

But perhaps you didn't weigh your food but used measurements, had lots of carry-out food with low accuracy, ect.

So maybe in reality you were eating say 2300 on average. Your TDEE would be 2589.

That part just interesting though to estimate your TDEE, but that method depends on good logging of intake.

As to adjusting - that deficit is very reasonable for the last 4.5 kg to lose. So keep at it if that much is left.

But if you have say 23 kg still to lose - you could reasonably do a 750 cal deficit and be fine, down to 13.5 kg left, then switch to 500 cal deficit. Then move to 250 for the last 4.5.

If you thought you had a 500 cal deficit this whole time - you didn't. What did your plan have your deficit at?

Likely some food logging was inaccurate, and exercise burn was inflated.

No matter - find actual calories for extra deficit if that's reasonable, and remove from diet.

If you want to improve accuracy of Fitbit so easier moving forward - if you exercise that much I'm betting it's inflated exercise calories mainly.

What are your workouts, for how long?

[TXBRDTX]

I did allow for 1200 calories a day. -+ 100 calories on Weekends. However I gave that up. Did not work for me at all. The scale did not move. So I went hard core and did 1 meal a day and only water for about 12 month. That meal did not have more than 800 calories. Guess what. That did it. If Nature goes hard.. go harder against Nature. 

[SebWotan]

This is very unhealthy and dangerous advice and I strongly advice to not follow it unless you discuss this first with your doctor AND a licensed dietetician. Going so low could put your body in starvation mode, which would mean it will start to shut down some processes and organs. 

[Gr4ndp4]

Hi, I hesitate to join this conversation, I agree very much with @SebWotan. This is not a sprint, it's a lifetime marathon. Exercise is great & everyone needs to engage for their wellbeing and general health but to lose weight there is only one solution and that is to take in less than you use. You can exercise as much as you like, it's only a calorie deficit that will reduce weight.

I'm a steadfast user of the Fitbit app and find it very effective in helping me control my weight. In my experience, once you have populated the "Food Stats" (we are creatures of habit & tend to eat and drink the same things most of the time) it's easy to use and effective. As long as you are losing weight and feel comfortable in yourself you will get there.

Cheers