Responsible way to lose weight

[Sunflower16]

Hey all!

I'm new here and very happy to be a part of the fitbit community 🙂

I have a question: What's a responsible way to lose weight? I'm a bit confused..every article online tell me to receduce my calories by atleast 500. Its recommened women eat app. 2000 cals a day so if I want to lose weight that means I need to eat 1500 cals a day. Isn't that under eating? Won't my body go into starvation mode? I'm sure you will lose weight with that method but is it healthy in the long run? What if you also exercise? Is that amount of cals really enough? I'm not overweight but I did gain weight and would like to lose 22 pounds. Is losing weight just about eating a healthy and balanced 'diet" and working out?
Any help would be appreciated!

[USAF-Larry]

Weight loss, or weight maintenance for that matter, is a Calories In vs Calories Burned, @Sunflower16.  The common philosophy is that if you want to lose one pound a week, you have to burn 3500 more calories per week than you consume - that is 500 calories per day. That does no mean that you simply consume 500 less calories than you normally do, and you'll lose weight, though. You can eat exactly the same amount of calories that you always do, but increase your exercise to burn 500 additional calories a day and lose weight. That is why is important that you journal what you consume, and the  number of calories you burn in a day.  If your BMI indicates you should consume 1800 calories per day to maintain you weight, that indicates that the energy to fuel your body, even while sleeping, is 1800 calories. If you want to lose weight with those 1800 calories, you would have to exercise enough to burn an additional 500 calories above those 1800.

[GershonSurge]

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@Sunflower16 wrote:
Hey all!

I'm new here and very happy to be a part of the fitbit community 🙂

I have a question: What's a responsible way to lose weight? I'm a bit confused..every article online tell me to receduce my calories by atleast 500. Its recommened women eat app. 2000 cals a day so if I want to lose weight that means I need to eat 1500 cals a day. Isn't that under eating? Won't my body go into starvation mode? I'm sure you will lose weight with that method but is it healthy in the long run? What if you also exercise? Is that amount of cals really enough? I'm not overweight but I did gain weight and would like to lose 22 pounds. Is losing weight just about eating a healthy and balanced 'diet" and working out?
Any help would be appreciated!

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I recommend you eat no less than your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). There are many calculators online. This will prevent you from being undernourished.

To have a 500 calorie deficit, you will have to burn at least 500 calories a day more than you eat. This is a good place to start given the amount of weight you have to lose. Choose whatever exercise you like. Exercises involving the legs such as walking, jogging, swimming or bicycling are more efficient. A 1,000 calorie deficit is considered the maximum to balance weight loss and health needs. It is somewhat arbitrary, but it is good enough to use. 

If you wear a wrist type Fitbit with a heart rate monitor, it may overestimate the calories you burn. Clip-ons may underestimate the calories you burn. If you don't lose ANY weight after a few weeks, adjust your calorie goals.

Many successful people on Fitbit count calories. This means weighing or measuring everything and logging it. Others have a good idea what they eat each day and adjust the amount to lose weight. Either way works if it works for you. (I have trouble when not counting calories.)

Having said I count calories, I will say calorie counting does not work without the proper diet anymore than trying to limit the number of breaths you take while at high altitude.  No person can commit to being hungry the rest of their life. It would be like having emphysema of the stomach.

If you feel constant real hunger pangs while maintaining a 500-1,000 calorie deficit, you are doing it wrong. I'm not including cravings for refined sugar, fat and salt. You will have to work past these. 

[A_Lurker]

@Sunflower16 - first, welcome.

There are many ways to lose weight.  My opinion is slow, manageable changes.  The less you have to lose, the smaller the deficit.  I always laugh when they say women should eat 2000 calories.  Which woman, which age, which height, which weight.

Let's say you're 25, 5'6" and weigh 154lbs.  She wants to weigh 132.  Using this site:

http://www.fat2fittools.com/tools/bmr/

The BMR (basal metabolic rate) for this fictitious woman is 1518 calories.  Usually it is suggested that you don't eat below this number for any length of time.  This is how many calories she would burn if she lay in bed all day and had someone bring her food.  This might be fun to do now and then for a single meal, but most of us move around.  To get to 132 lbs, if she's fairly sedentary she can eat 1708 calories and work her way down to that goal weight.  If she's lightly active she can eat 1957 calories a day and still lose weight.

Of course, even all of the above is a guess.  You have a new tool (your Fitbit) which can give you some information that will also help.  It will look at the steps you take and estimate what you burn each day.  To get your 500 calorie deficit you could burn more calories and/or eat a little less.  Since you're new, try tracking this information for a couple of weeks and see where you are.  Look at the calories you burn each day and start tracking the calories you take in each day.  Eating healthy is good, but you can still eat too much of the right things.

Anyway, it's a great community, and when you have questions, more than one person will answer.  Best of luck.

[AndyDandyPandy]

Don't eat more than your BMR. The most healthy way I can think of is to eat your BMR and do some aerobic/anaerobic exercise. Enjoy being fit and active. Do something that will work for you in the long term. Do something that you don't hate doing. Most of us hate exercise though I can't lie about that but we do it for the results. I think you already know all of this. But being reminded by someone can help also.

[A_Lurker]

@Sunflower16 - this is somewhere that Andy and I will always disagree on.  If you eat at your BMR or below and then add lots of excercise you run the risk of tanking your metabolism and losing muscle mass.  As a woman, your body will fight you tooth and nail for weight loss, and if you can't keep it up forever, you will likely gain some or all of the weight back if you relax your guard.

I am still in the morbidly obese category, but I weigh 125 lbs less than my top weight, and have lost amost 80 pounds since February.  I did this eating ~2500 calories a day, and only recently started increasing my exercise.  Oddly enough, early on at a higher weight the weeks I ate too little I lost less than the weeks I ate a little more.  I aim for burning 3500 calories a day and if I don't make it I eat less.  As I lose weight this naturally takes more effort.  Maybe it's me but I'd rather do that and lose weight more slowly.   I'd rather end up at my goal weight being able to eat more.