Should I eat the maintenence amount for my goal weight or what the app suggests to lose it?
Question at the start of the last paragraph... History above.
I have been using an app to track my eating the the last 10 months and I lost 70 pounds. My mother got very sick and I had to fly back to the US to take care of her. I had my daughter with me and was still working online full time, attending grad school full time, and then became my mothers care taker 24/7 over the months until she died. That meant I was eating whatever I could find in her house and often what was left over after I made food for her. Right after she died the virus broke out and it was a huge fight for over a month trying ty get back where I live. I finally made it back and weighed in and had gained 35 pounds back during all of that. Big fail... I know I suck but I'm trying to fix it.
I have lost 17 of that again using the same app but it has my calorie allowance set at around 1400 a day. I was OK the last couple weeks with it but this week I am just hungry. I think I'm emotionally drained so it's hard to keep it that tightly controlled.
I did the research and the maintenence calories for my goal weight and height is 1850. I know it's not exact and if you have been over weight you have to eat less than a normal person... I eat a very healthy diet (no processed food, no refined sugar/carbs/grains, everything home made, it's exhausting). I don't have diabetes or high blood pressure. I do have autoimmune disease, celiac disease, and neuropathy (none related to weight).
OK, here is my question. Can I just eat the amount of calories that my goal weight maintenance amount would be (1850) or do I have to eat the 1400 the app suggests to lose weight? I assume it will take longer at 1850, but wouldn't just setting it up the way I plan to live the rest of my life make more sense? It would take longer, but since it is lower than the maintenence amounts for higher weights, wouldn't you ultimately get there? Plus I wouldn't be hungry as often and it would be a lot less stressful and I am not doing well emotionally. OR am I just justifying wanting to eat more and trying to cheat out of doing the work and I should stick with the app recommended amount to get to the goal faster and once I get there move it up? They say eating too little will make your metabolism slow down though, so isn't that a problem once you hit your goal weight and you raise up to maintenence levels? Or, do you need to drop it to get the pounds off and the maintenance amount would just keep you overweight? I live in a place that doesn't have a lot of over weight people so my doctor's attitude is badly " why are you still fat, you should lose faster!" Sure he's not much help.
Thank you for taking the time to read and respond! Have a great weekend!
Posted Apr 10, 2020, 3:36 PM UTC
I always recommend eating what is recommended for you height and weight. But make sure youre eating healthy foods. If you eat 1800 calories of fries, and donuts then you wont lose anything and you have to exercise regularly. Think about body builders. They have massive muscles and lean bodies and they can eat 3000 calories a day. (My numbers are wrong and body builders bodies look a little gross imo but still you get the point. 1800 a day plus a 30-60 minute work out is a great start until this pandemic is over. I know about a year ago i was working out almost everyday for an hour and i was recommended (probably by the same app as you...MyFitnessPal?) to eat 2,800 calories a day for how much i was working out and i lost 40 pounds in a few months. Before i make any more suggestions do you mind me asking what your meals and exercise routine are like? Edit: can i also know you’re height, weight, age, and what sex you are? It would just help to get a better scope of things.
Hello - thanks for your thoughts and ideas. It seems like you have a lot more in depth practices than I do and I appreciate your thoughts.
My diet is pretty good. I don't eat any refined sugar/grains/or carbohydrates (so no added sugar, flour, white rice, etc.) and I don't eat any processed or prepared foods. I cook all of my food and meals at home including any bread my family eats and such. I eat fruit, veggies, nuts, eggs, meats, and dairy (but not often - my kids and husband can't eat dairy). That's been my diet for the last year other than the 3 months I was in the US which I mentioned in the OP. When my mother was dying I was there alone so didn't get to the store to buy groceries and all she had was junk food. For the last month she was alive I was sleeping in 45 minute intervals on the floor by her chair and giving her medication every 2 hours, so I ate what was in her house and what was left over from trying to get her to eat and gained 35 pounds.
Since I got back to my home town I have lost 20 of that so have a net loss of 55 pounds from where I started (Started at 255, was down to 185 before I went to the US, gained 35 up to 220 and today weighed in at 200.5 - Also female, 5'8, 42).
Exercise is a bit tricky for me. The autoimmune disease and thyroid cancer lead to the autonomic neuropathy - my body doesn't regulate my heart rate, temperature, or blood pressure correctly (along with other things). Sometimes just standing up too fast will cause me to faint. If I try to exert myself too much my blood pressure drops too low and sometimes it causes me problems that last days. Where I live the schools are opening Monday so I will start riding my bike to and from work every day which is about 15-20 minutes each way but there is a lot of stop and go. My office is on the 4th floor and there is no elevator so I go up and down the stairs at least 5-20 times a day depending on the day of the week. I don't count any of that as exercise so my calculations are based on a sedentary life style.
Oh, the app I'm using is "loseit" and I have it set to lose 2 pounds a week and have been inputting my weight weekly so it will adjust. The last 4 weeks I have followed it's suggesting (about 1380 a day) and I'm always hungry and have been losing 4-5 pounds a week.
With always being hungry and the allowance that low I'm struggling plus with all the other things going on in my life right now... That's when I had the idea that maybe I could just eat what the calories my goal weight would need and over the next few years I would ultimately get to it.
Today I split the difference at 1-1.5 pounds a week setting giving me 1600 and that's really doable.
Thanks again for your thoughts and time! Like I said above, I'm trying to figure it out on my own and I think my brain is scrambled.
Try it out and let us know what happens and if it works then stick to it :)
Thanks! Sometimes I need to talk it out to figure out what I'm thinking or to see obvious things. Thanks for wading through it!