I started counting my calories and trying to lose weight 2 weeks ago. I decided to start off at around 1500 per day. The first week i lost around 8 pounds but it's looking like i'm only going to lose 1 pound this week. Heres a run down of what ive done so far.
Day
1: 1250 calories
2: 1532
3: 1340
4: 1525
5: 1305
6: 1525
7: 1520
Average calories per day: 1434
This week i decided to try to up my calories some and i've walked on the tread mill for 30 mins. the past 5 days.
Day
8: 1605
9: 1653
10: 2025
11: 1941
12: 1820
13: 1710
Average of 1792 so far.
So what am I doing wrong? I'm well under the calorie range for my weight but could i be too low? Thanks for any advice.
On the good side, I have lost weight and my fasting blood suger is now in the normal range without any meds!
For your current weight you should be around 2000 calories, maybe more.1500 seems low for your current weight. I am at 200 pounds now and over 1500 calories.
To me, it looks like you are doing everything right! There will always be times that it will level off and you won't lose as much, and then it will pick back up again. You have to be patient and ride it out. You have to look at the long term.
I find it helpful to keep a visual chart of my weight loss over time. It gets so discouraging sometimes, to see the little ups and downs, and not think you are making progress. But then you zoom out, and look at the last several weeks, and you see a general decline in the graph. Just project that forward, and keep doing what you are doing, and you will get there.
It's one thing to look at the numbers, but when you see it depicted on a graph, you really feel it. There are electronic phone and computer apps that do this, but I also like to graph it on paper, because it helps me relate to the data better.
Congratulations on your decision and your progress so far! You are doing wonderfully well.
You're doing absolutely nothing wrong. Our bodies don't work on a daily or even weekly (and sometimes not even monthly) schedule. It's perfectly normal to lose in "whooshes," rather than at a steady pace. So, only after two you cannot even guess what your weight loss pattern is going to be. The only thing you can really say truthfully at this point is that you are averageing more than 4 lbs per week loss. During your third week you might also only lose 1 lb or you might lose 4 or more. It's far too early to know your pattern (and to make things even more complicated - weight loss patterns can change so you can get used to one pattern and your body may not stay on that pattern).
If you could follow 100 people of the same age, gender, and starting weight, all on the same calorie and exercise level -you'ld see all sorts of different weight loss patterns. Some people may lose nothing for three to six weeks, and then suddenly will lose several pounds almost overnight. Some people may lose gradually and consistently every single week. Some people will even have occasional weight gains (not associated with eating more than their calorie alottment).
You may also find that what you eat makes a difference. I lose weight more consistently and easily on relatively low-carb eating. That doesn't mean I can't lose on a high-carb plan, I just will tend to lose more slowly - and I will have more up and down fluctuations.
You're going to have to do some experimenting to see what works best for you, but don't assume that losing at a rapid or consistent speed is necessarily "best." Losing one or two pounds every week is not any better than losing 6-12 lbs every six weeks (it's the same amount of loss, just by way of a different pattern).
Even if your average does turn out to be one pound a week, there's nothing wrong with that. So far, my "average" has been far less than that, and I've still managed to get off 100 lbs. It makes me angry that when I was younger I gave up because the weight loss was "too slow" and now I've succeeded with weight loss even slower. My new "success" is slower than many of my previous "failures." If I had decided (as I did this time) that I was not going to give up even if I lost no weight at all for months (and during some months I did lose nothing).
The secret to weight loss isn't in how much you lose, it's in how long you stick with it.
As others have said, you are doing great. Our bodies are not designed to lose 8 pounds one week and than again another week. However, make sure you DO NOT go below 1700 calories each day. Someone your size needs more than that. 1 pounds is still a loss in the right direction!
Thanks for all the advice. I am glad for the weight loss that i've had so far. I'm not new to dieting(used to weigh 420) but I usually lose more than this at the begining of the diet escpecially. I know it'll slow done, just not hoping this quick lol. Thanks ladies for helping this poor old man out
I've learnd that weight loss patterns can change tremendously. In past attempts, I always lost a lot in the beginning, and then slowly tapered off. this time it has been a lot different. I can do "everything right" and still not see a loss for several weeks and even occasionally see an inexplicable gain (and sometimes there are very easily explained gains).
I'm losing more and more consistently now than when I started, so I've disproven the myth that a person always loses fastest in the beginning.
Even so, I still have a hard time grasping that "this time" is a lot different for me than my previous weight loss attempts. I've learned (mostly) not to compare myself to other people, but I still have difficulty remembering not to compare myself to previous versions of myself. At 45, my body doesn't work like it did at 15 or 25, but I still want those results because I acheived them in the past.
Thanks dgramie (I received so many requests for patterns for my etsy items, that I'm currenlty working on writing patterns to sell, which is fun - but a lot harder than just creating in the first place).
As for weight loss. On one hand, I'm losing much slower than ever in my life (and I've been dieting more often than not since kindergarten - so for the past 40 years). And while the weight loss is much slower, it's mentally much easier because of my new philosophy (that "not gaining" is my first goal and priority where my weight is concerned and that while I'm at it, I might as well try "maybe losing just one more pound").
I don't know if maturity or luck is responsible for the philosophy. I'd like to think that I could have learned it as a young person (which is why I try to "get the message out" here and in my TOPS group and sometimes even in casual conversation with random people - that focusing on "not gaining" can make a tremendous difference in sustainable motivation. By focusing mostly on "not gaining" I experience a lot more success than when I focused on losing weight (and losing weight rapidly - I don't think I ever quit a diet because I wasn't losing anything - I quit because I had stopped losing quickly and I had allowed myself to believe that not losing more was as bad as gaining, and even worse that losing slowly was as bad as gaining).
Advice needed
