I too, agree with the lowering your calorie intake, at 5'4ish I eat 1220 to lose! Granted, that's now I'm at a lower weight, but even when I started MFP gave me a figure of 1350. Accurate measuring is definitely key for me, my old scales were out by about 100g sometimes, as is accurately logging foods. For instance, if I search for 'rice' some of the figures in the MFP database are for 100g of cooked rice and some are for 100g of dry rice and it's very easy to confuse them!
As someone who has counted calories at a low weight and now a very high weight, I know for me that I can lose weight keeping within a much higher calorie count when I am bigger. To compare someone's caloric intake at 220 lbs to someone else who weighs almost half that makes no sense whatsoever, regardless of height. In other words, just because you are the same height as someone else doesnt mean your caloric needs are the same.
I think 1700 is good... Although you could drop a bit maybe but definitely not to 1200. You could maybe try 1500 for a week?
Also, are you sure your calorie counts are correct? There are often. " hidden" calories with portion sizes, dressings, oils, etc.
If you drop your calories to 1500 and are still not losing , consider getting your thyroid tested and blood sugars done. It could be something medical. Good luck!
As someone who has counted calories at a low weight and now a very high weight, I know for me that I can lose weight keeping within a much higher calorie count when I am bigger. To compare someone's caloric intake at 220 lbs to someone else who weighs almost half that makes no sense whatsoever, regardless of height. In other words, just because you are the same height as someone else doesnt mean your caloric needs are the same.
Ok good, I was worrying I was missing something over why height is all of a sudden a such a deciding factor in calories. It's not when you weigh much more that the same short person
I will say when I was much thinner and I couldn't drop anything after a month, I added 100 cals to my daily intake and they started melting off again. I would first try dropping your cal/day by 100 and see how that treats you. Wish I could be of more help. Good luck!
The rationale for basing calories on height is that many consider it safe to base weight loss calories on what your calorie needs would be (and hopefully, will be) at your ideal weight.
The advantage (in theory) is rapid weight loss, and minimizing the need to adjust caloric need as you lose weight.
The disadvantage is more hunger and feelings of deprivation.
In theory, you could try to estimate your maintenance calorie range, start there and ride it all the way to goal, thereby, from the start, learning how you will eat forever. There will (in theory) never come a time when you will have to change the calorie level at which you start.
As a theory, this makes great sense as you only have to learn to adapt to changes, once. There is no anticipated change at goal weight, so there is no "end" to the diet changes and the goal changes (maintenance rather than loss), but behavior (again in theory) won't change.
Unfortunately, this tends to be more practical in theory than in practice. For many people, it's easier to accomplish smaller changes. Others find that they can't reach their goal on their estimated maintenance calories. Some theorize that it takes fewer calories to maintain an overweight body than to reach that weight in the first place.
I agree with cutting out some carb calories. I would def. not cut any more protein, since it looks like you aren't eating much protein. Maybe cut out the bananas and peanut butter?
I have used the MY PLATE from livestrong. This past week and have walked up to 2.5 miles everyday and drank tons of water! And i have managed to lose weight about 3 lbs. Based on my characteristics 240 starting weight sedentary activity and want to lose 2 lbs per week it gave me 1224 calories to eat per day. You should try it out.
I wish I had an answer for you, but unfortunately I am in the same situation. I am 5'0" and weigh 248lbs and am not normally an active person. Today is my 11th day I have only dropped 1lb. I am also using the same app "Lose It". I am exact in measuring EVERYTHING I eat and not only do I log it on my app, but I also write it down. I drink on average 64oz of water/unsweet tea daily and I eat between 1300-1500 net calories a day. I walk 4 days a week for 30-45 min. (avg. 1.25-2.0 miles) the other three days I do Turbulence Training which is body weight strength training. I eat on average daily: 80-120g carbs (good carbs - fruit), 80-100g protein (lean chicken and fish), and 20-30g fat (good fat - advocado). I am so frustrated at this point. I know it has only been 11 days, but I ahve made a huge change in my eating ( i used to eat nothing but junk - carb overload) and I have started working out every day. I totally expected to have lost at least 5lbs by now! What's the deal? I got up this morning and jumped on my scale and started crying...I am now regretting not having a gastric bypass...I talked myself out of it because i wanted to do it "the right way" to make myself healthy and to change my lifestyle to a healthy one, but at this point, I'm getting depressed and fear I will go back to my old (emotional eating) habits. I need to see results..even if it's just a few lbs, but ONE pound is not cutting it! Oh and I have been tested for thyroid and other things...they say I have no problems..even my sugars and cholesterol is great, which even the doc said she was surprised.... SMH!
Kaplods is bang on about the water weight increase from strength training, I read somewhere to give it 6 weeks into a new training programe before you start worrying about stalling. I just started the 30DS again and decided not to weigh in for a month to see how it goes.
In regards to calories you could try cutting back a few hundred but I would go with the measurements first, if they aren't changing then try the calories. To be honest (and I'm not pushing my WOE) but I found cutting the carbs allows me to reduce my calories without feeling deprived.
I'm sorry you are frustrated, I know how it feels! was stuck for 6 weeks at same weight, same measurements etc I found intermittent fasting broke the stall and I dropped a few pounds only to go straight into another one so I added exercise. Maybe change it up?
I think if you stopped exercising for a week you would see a drop in weight as your body lets go of water. Personally I think exercise is good (I hate it but am trying my best to get on with it) but it may demonstrate to you that you have actually lost weight but it's not on the scale yet.
I agree with changing up macros( Carbs/Proteins/fats) I rarely lose weight if my carbs are high. I tend to lose weight when my diet is more geared to low carb. Diet and fitness is a lot of trial and error and although it seems cut and dry it isn't. Each body is different. Switch things up don't be afraid to try different things.
Another thing MFP suggests eating back exercise calories, I would suggest it may not always be a good idea, the amount of actual calories burned will vary dramatically, if you stop eating back exercise calories and the weight shifts you know they were too high.
