too little?

[merryuser]

I'm a 38 yo female and 5'7".  I started exercising four times a week on average and dieting four weeks ago.  I've lost 9 pounds within the first two weeks and less than a pound the last two weeks.  I figured I am still doing something wrong?!  My current weight is 187.  My end goal is 155 pounds.  I entered yesterday's meals in the calorie tracker and only consumed 980 calories.  Is this too low of a calorie intake and my body is going into starvation mode?  What would be a healthy daily calorie goal for me?  Any other ideas as to what is causing me to stop losing?

[merryuser]

Thanks so much for the reply!  Definitely makes me feel better knowing that it is fat I'm losing now.  I think I've lost more this past week even with increasing my daily calorie goals.  My official weigh in is tomorrow morning. :)  

Has adjusting your daily calories up and down made a noticeable difference yet?

[OytheGreat]

That's actually an interesting idea. I may implement it myself and see how it goes. I've been so strict with my calorie intake, that I tend to eat just the exact amount of calories I've set for myself, not above or below. Maybe I'll try eating at the upper level, then dropping it down lower and see what happens.

To merryuser, a pound a week is actually pretty good. Slow weight loss is actually fat loss, which means every pound is that much more meaningful.

Usually the initial fast weight loss is water weight, which is fine. Water weight is great to get rid of if we're carrying extra, and we'll look thinner and feel lighter. But 1 lb of fat loss is the good kind of weight loss. One pound of fat takes up a lot of space, too, so it'll look like a lot more!

Keep it up! You're being smart with how you're doing this. Don't let the slow weight loss or plateaus get you down. The slower you lose it, the more likely it is you'll keep it off.

[merryuser]

Thanks so much for your response!  

My partner in weight loss and I researched more after I posted this and determined that my sedentary lifestyle daily calorie intake should be 1800.  Also, that it is dangerous for anyone to go below 1300 per day.  So I allowed myself to indulge a bit last night to go over the 1300 minimum.  I'll keep adjusting as you suggested too. :)  

I just can't believe that I was able to eat so much less than my body needs.  I am surprised at my willpower!  I am super motivated to get fit!   Good luck to you too and thanks again for replying to my post.

[VictoriaEuphoria]

I'll be honest I don't do calories - only saturated fats - but I may still be able to help - I was 12 and a half stone at the age of 13 and now weigh 9st 7lb :-)  The first couple weeks of dieting your body will drop the pounds off very quickly. I lost 7lb in my first WEEK of dieting and assumed that it would always be like that. It's not! You'll find that once your body starts getting used to taking in less saturated fat - or calories - that the weight loss tends to decrease and you'll just lose a couple of pounds at a time, if that sometimes. It wouldn't hurt for you to increase your calorie intake slightly, since varying the amount of calories you have every week, rather than just lowering them or keeping them the same every week, will actually increase your chances of losing more pounds per week, since your body will be readjusting itself all of the time. Perhaps one week you could try reaching your upper calorie limit, then another week try lowering it a little bit, and so on. I hope this makes sense and helps a bit - I'm not a dietician by any means but have lost a lot of weight in the past using this method of varying my intake each week and it seems to have worked well for me. I'm still going though! ;-) Good luck - don't starve yourself, it sounds like you're doing a great job just don't lose faith!