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Old 04-04-2014, 08:10 PM   #1  
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Default Losing weight slowly

I'm not trying to complain, losing is better than gaining...but it's been over a month and I've only lost about 5lbs. My scale says I'm 220.

I'm doing everything right (I think) I count my calories, eat around 1300 a day (no more than 1500) I workout often (3-4 times a week of walking a 2 hour route) could it be my workouts aren't burning as many calories as I think they are? I notice changes in my body, could the weight be muscles?

I don't have any other theories. Is there is anything I can do to speed things up?


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Old 04-04-2014, 08:48 PM   #2  
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5 pounds in a month is more than good. That's great, actually. It sounds like you're doing everything right. If anything, you might want to bring your calories up a bit. Its possible that you're losing fat and gaining muscle. That's what I've been doing. I actually regained 5 pounds since I started going to the gym regularly, but my clothes are getting looser, so I know its just muscle gain. I just decided to quit weighing myself for a while.
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Old 04-04-2014, 09:51 PM   #3  
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It sounds perfectly healthy and reasonable to me! I know how you feel though, I want to try to loose about 7lbs a month but it's definitely not easy. Perhaps you could amp up your exercise routine? Maybe try a more brisk pace/speed walk to start? As for it being new muscle mass, I don't know how likely that would be considering your main method of exercise is walking - although it does help for sure I don't know that this would be the reason you think your weight loss is slow.

Could also be water retention, do you eat high sodium foods? Have you noticed a heavier weight around your TOM? Lots of factors can contribute to this.

All in all, I still think 5lbs/month is fantastic and on track with losing at a healthy and sustainable pace. Don't worry!
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Old 04-04-2014, 10:35 PM   #4  
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1300 is ridiculously low for your height weight and activity level. Eat more. If you don't, you will probably fail at this.

I have been saying over and over and over again, all you have to do is eat a bit less than your maintenance calories to lose weight at a good pace and consistently without stress or hunger. Use an online calorie calculator and say you want to lose half a pound a week. You will lose faster than that but you will likely find the going much easier.

Then when your weight loss stalls after a while, as it will, reduce your calories a little bit more. I started at 1650 and am now doing 1400.
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Old 04-04-2014, 10:37 PM   #5  
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You can definitely build up muscle mass by walking but not if your calories are too low. You will build muscles in your calves, buttocks and thighs.

But your exercise though a lot is doing you a load of good. Keep it up if you can.

I find 2 hours that frequently difficult to sustain long term though so don't worry if you ever decide to cut back, just adjust your calories accordingly.
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Old 04-04-2014, 11:54 PM   #6  
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My weight loss slowed down around 200 pounds, too. Just keep on doing what you're doing and you'll get thru it. From 325 down to 200, the weight seemed to melt off.
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Old 04-05-2014, 03:03 AM   #7  
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Have you lost inches? I know that it is so easy to fall off the wagon when the scales 'stick' Muscle weight is certainly a possibility.
Good Luck, you'll get over this.
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Old 04-05-2014, 03:37 AM   #8  
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Pattience View Post
1300 is ridiculously low for your height weight and activity level. Eat more. If you don't, you will probably fail at this.

I have been saying over and over and over again, all you have to do is eat a bit less than your maintenance calories to lose weight at a good pace and consistently without stress or hunger. Use an online calorie calculator and say you want to lose half a pound a week. You will lose faster than that but you will likely find the going much easier.

Then when your weight loss stalls after a while, as it will, reduce your calories a little bit more. I started at 1650 and am now doing 1400.
Pattience-I know you mentioned this to me on a different thread. I have a similar problem to the OP, in that I'm slow now when it comes to losing, but 1300 is still a deficit so she should still be losing right? I've read that the starvation mode or metabolic adaptation is a myth, so it seems counter productive to me to increase calories. Is it just to trick your body?

OP-I've lost 2lbs in the last month and it's driving me crazy! I do cheat now and then so I can't complain much, however my cheats are still within my calorie range. I don't get it either! Here's hoping something changes for us soon!

Oh and I would definitely take measurements!
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Old 04-05-2014, 08:35 AM   #9  
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5 pounds a month is awesome, I slowed down to crawl when I got under 200 but I continue to see changes in my body. I think especially after losing a significant amount of weight our bodies need to slow down and heal from the process.
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Old 04-05-2014, 08:54 AM   #10  
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I've averaged losing a pound a week/4-5 pounds per month for last 60 or so pounds (not counting my pregnancy break!). I lost a lot faster when I had more to lose.

While you can control your habits and ensure you're eating right and exercising, unfortunately you can't control the rate at which you lose. For example, I often gain for the week no matter how strict I am, but since my trend is still going in a downward direction (see the chart on the right side of my signature), I don't panic over it. I know it's easy to get frustrated, but reaching that 5 pounds a month is actually a pretty good rate! Remember it's not a race; the most important aspect is establishing good habits now so you can reach a healthier state and never regain.

Good luck and keep going!
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Old 04-06-2014, 12:07 AM   #11  
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I see weight loss as a marathon. If we persevere, we'll beat the wall and we'll reach goal. So far it has taken me a bit more than 2 years but I am doing well and in the meantime I have learned a lot. Congrats on the 5 pounds.
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Old 04-06-2014, 12:40 AM   #12  
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If you lose 5 pounds in 30 days then you are burning roughly 583 calories more a day than you are eating. You say you eat around 1300 calories a day and no more than 1500. Does that mean you average 1300 calories a day, including occasional higher calorie days. Or, are you saying that you eat 1300 calories a day and occasionally eat 1500. Let's say you eat 1300 a day for 5 days of the week and eat 1500 calories on 2 days. Your average would be 1357. So, do check that.

Let's say your average is 1300 though. Then if you lost 5 pounds in 30 days you would be burning an average of 1883 a day.

I don't know how old you are. I looked at this calculator to get your BMR. If you were 20 it would be about 1838. If you were 60, it would be about 1650.

Of course most people burn more than there BMR. I work from home and unless I do formal exercise I can end up burning only a couple of hundred calories more than my BMR. That calculator says my BMR is 1439. Last month I was fairly sedentary (knee injury) and Fitbit said I burned an average of 1656 a day. In January I did a lot of walking (although usually not for more than an hour at a time) and it says I burned 1786 a day.

So I would guess that most people burn at least a couple of hundred calories a day more than their BMR depending on how active they are.

So, you might look at that to see how well your losing matches up with your calories burned.
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Old 04-06-2014, 03:07 AM   #13  
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Ugh I a barely chipping at my number too. It's a bit frustrating but I do see the change in m body... but I just wanna be in One-derland NOOOWWW!!!
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Old 04-06-2014, 10:31 AM   #14  
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My goodness what I wouldn't give to lose 5 pounds per month! Keep up the good work :-)
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Old 04-06-2014, 05:08 PM   #15  
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hhm6 View Post
Pattience-I know you mentioned this to me on a different thread. I have a similar problem to the OP, in that I'm slow now when it comes to losing, but 1300 is still a deficit so she should still be losing right? I've read that the starvation mode or metabolic adaptation is a myth, so it seems counter productive to me to increase calories. Is it just to trick your body?

OP-I've lost 2lbs in the last month and it's driving me crazy! I do cheat now and then so I can't complain much, however my cheats are still within my calorie range. I don't get it either! Here's hoping something changes for us soon!

Oh and I would definitely take measurements!

him, i thought Koshka's post was going to clarify what might be going on but it didn't.


The thing is if she's eating 1300 calories per day and burning nearly 600 calories per day in exercise, she's only got 700 calories for her body to use for all its tissue repair type functions. Its unlikely she would be building muscle if her calories are this low. She's probably burning muscle.

But i think aspects of her body must be not functioning well at the moment if she is only eating so few calories. And this could be why she is not losing weight faster.

I read a fairly good article on it not so long ago but i don't know where. If you good enough you will find an explanation. Ignore the sites and articles where people simply states its a myth and look for articles that actually try to explain something about the processes involved.

If you can find a good explanation of what goes on, it will give you the incentive to override, the misconception you operate under.

But all i can say again and again, i've been losing at a steady rate with a much higher calorie intake since January. In fact i need to slow it down a bit because i don't want to experience any rebound. But i actually feel quite ooh at the weight i am at now. if i was still around 200, i would be definitely considering increasing my calories for better results.
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