Hello!

I'm new here and have recently gained weight due to several changes (moving to a different lifestyle, surgery, disability, new medications, etc) and am a small person who never had weight issues before. I have no idea where to begin so I started with reducing calories. I have been counting calories for 2 1/2 weeks now and am hungry all the time but have not lost a pound! It is so frustrating!

Anyway I am curious from other petite ladies what has worked for you the most.

Diet or exercise?
A specific diet?
How much do you workout?

and most of all.....

How many calories a day do you need to loose weight???

Thank you!

Hi New2dieting, and welcome!

I saw your post on another board I think. You are quite small and right now you're limited as to what sort of exercise you can do, right? I think you said you were aiming for about 1060 calories because of your size? But always hungry?

A common concept on 3FC (that I agree with) is that diet is more important than exercise. It's so easy to out-eat an exercise program. However, I think for people who are small and don't have a lot of weight to lose, their calorie requirement is already pretty low, and exercise is very important to give them a little more wiggle room with calories.

Do you have access to a nutritionist, or someone knowledgeable who could help you come up with an eating plan that packs a lot of nutrients into such a small allotment of calories?

Does your physical therapist have any suggestions regarding exercise you could do? Can you pedal a bike, or even one of those little pedal-only contraptions you use while sitting in a chair? Or can you use an arm-cycle? Heck, on the Biggest Loser they had a guy who was injured and he would sit on the bed and shadow-box. This woman has a lot of different "bed" workouts: Laurel House Quickie Fat-burning Bed Workout. Can you lift weights, even just hand weights? Building muscle is great for weight loss.

My sister is disabled and only 5 feet tall, and she lost a good amount of weight with Weight Watchers and has kept it off.


To answer your specific questions:
Diet or exercise: For me, diet is key. I can out-eat my workout with one stop at Starbucks.
Specific diet: I count calories, but I find I'm more successful if I focus on fruits & veggies, lean protein, yogurt, cottage cheese. And veggies. And veggies. And veggies.
How much do I work out: I run 4-6 miles 4x/week. Used to run more before injury, just getting back after a couple months.
Calories: I lose on 1600/day. Would probably lose pretty well on 1800.

Hope this helps... good luck!

Hi New2Dieting - welcome!!

I gained weight after surgery 3 years ago (20lbs) and was able to take it off without exercise at all. I've gained back a bit just by being focused on other things and I'm trying to get back down. I have a minor disability (hip dysplasia and resulting knee/back/ankle problems) so I have to modify workouts and do things that work for me like cycling and some weight lifting.

What works for me is similar to thesame7lbs -
Diet: calorie counting but focusing on lean protein, yogurt, cottage cheese, lots of fruit and veggies, oatmeal in the morning.
Calories: 1200-1400 if I'm not working out 1400-1600 if I am
Workout: Currently I do spinning, weight lifting, and (modified) bootcamp classes 5x a week and do a long walk on the weekends.

You also have to remember that when you don't have much to lose you lose slowly! It's really frustrating, I can maybe lose 1 pound a week. Good luck!

Thanks for the tips! I really appreciate the feedback.

I have increased my exercise a bit, a do physical therapy 2x week and it includes the elliptical and lots of resistance and strengthening exercises. I have also added two more days at home doing similar things plus some exercises in my pool and some very basic yoga. The majority of what I do is core strengthening.

After a few weeks of losing nothing and being hungry all day on 1100 calories, I have upped it to 1300-1400 a day. But I still have not lost a single pound!

I feel so frustrated and ready to give up.

I would never say not to exercise, but exercise alone did nothing for me as far as weight loss goes. I actually gained weight after starting zumba, which is an intense hour-long class for a lifelong couch potato like myself I've been heavy all my life, so I've tried many different diets. We have been doing a weight loss challenge at work and my supervisor, who has never had an issue with weight until recently, is doing fabulous on weight watchers. She doesn't go to meetings. She borrowed my startup kit and downloaded a couple of free apps on her phone. One with a scanner, one is a points tracker and then a points calculator. For someone who has never really dieted before she sure is kicking butt. I don't think she's had a week yet (started June 14th) where she hasn't at least lost a pound. She also walks almost daily, a really brisk walk.

As for me, I've been going back and forth from low carb and weight watchers because they both work for me. Low carb is stricter and I lose faster, but WW's doesn't really feel like dieting so it's much easier. Really it's just another way of counting calories. I keep track on my fitness pal app on my phone as well as a points tracker. I really like the features of mfp and it's free so who can beat that. You can keep track on your phone as well as online and the information will sync. There are some things you can do online that you can't do with the phone app. I like to pull up the reports and look back over the months and see how I did calorie wise and of course it keeps track of your weight loss and I like seeing the downward trend on the graph. If you have a particularly good week or month you can compare it to others to see what was different. You can see a graph of anything, even just your carb intake or exercise history. I just find it helpful to keep a journal, they say keeping a food journal alone can help you lose weight.

Whatever you decide to do, I wish you lots of luck! This website is great for finding information, inspiration and getting support.

what works for me? low carb, moderate protein diet combined with moderate gentle exercise. The Fitbit is a good tracking tool for that.

also lots of water and good quality sleep.

Keep going!

I agree with MandyDawn. This website is great!

Annik

Something that I find works for me is calorie cycling. You pick the calorie count that is going to work... maybe 1200 and you have several high calorie days followed by low but the average is 1200 cals.

So.
M-1000
T -1000
W-1600
Th-1400
F-800
Sat -1100
Sun-1000

Something like that. It keeps your body from holding on to weight because sometimes you eat more. The key is to continually throw your body curve balls. I might also consider dropping the calories a bit. When I first diet I lose a lot of "food weight" / water weight. If I don't that usually means my food is too high in cals.

Calorie counting has always worked for me and I have to say that exercise has never really helped that much for actual weight loss. Toning yes, just not pounds down.

One small thing that I have always found gave me that little extra kick was weighting my calories more heavily earlier in the day and basically just having a large snack for dinner right when I get home from work(6pm). After that, just drinking water for the rest of the night. For me, this always helped ensure that I woke up in the morning feeling thin (not bloated!!) which I found gave me motivation to maintain that feeling for the rest of the day.

*** Quick Update ***


After losing nothing the first month, I changed things up and have now lost 5lbs!!! I'm losing about 3/4lb a week which I know isn't much for most, but great for me since I'm small and don't have much to lose.

What changes have helped (I think)....
- Increased how often I ate; lots of small healthy low-carb snacks
- Upped my calorie intake a bit
- Started taking vitamin for the first time ever
- Went to bed 1 1/2 hours earlier, more sleep really makes a difference
- Worked with my physical therapist to increase my exercise and strength training
- On days I'm not at P/T I do a very modified version of the 30 day shred

Thanks for all the suggestions!

BTW I can really see how exercise makes more of a difference for smaller people. When I use those calorie counter calculators, for my current weight and height it tells me I need like 900cal a day to lose, that's crazy.

I just committed to learning about dieting in the last week or so and am still getting info on how this is all done. I think one thing that might help me would be diet plans that have it all worked out with grocery lists etc.. I've seen a couple of them and wasn't too impressed. I'm a midwestern gal wasn't raised around healthy food...think casseroles (hot dish!) and starchy church dinners as the norm.

Having been raised like this, I don't really have much in the way of cooking skills and have never been very adventurous. Any ideas? Anyone else come from a similar background?

Weight Watchers is the only thing that's worked for me long term as nothings off limits you can still have crisps & chocolate, cake & ice cream in moderation and loose weight too, fantastic coming up for two years with them, now lost 60lbs & got to goal a couple of months ago