am i being unrealistic?

S

skyler1

New member
So, what do yall think?? I have to lose 20 lbs. and was hoping for a target date of mid-april. do you think that is realistic? the last thing i want is to set unrealistic goals & get super frustrated. my history - i JUST broke out of a plateau :) (that lasted 8 months). it seems like my body likes where i weigh too much as i plateau a lot. i exercise regularly and eat 1200-1400/day. i've been using fitday.com and i'm associating that with breaking through my plateau. i don't know if i will plateau again and how quickly? i guess everyone is different, but i guess i have a two part question:

1) has anyone been stuck in a plateau, doing the right things for so long, broken out of it (YEAH!!!) and then hit another plateau very recent after that??? if so, my goal is unrealistic.

2) mid- april is 3 1/2 months, 14 weeks...i am a slow loser it seems losing 20 lbs in this time frame, does that seem do-able?

anybody been in my situation or have any advice would be fabulous.
thanks and happy new year!
 
I've never really hit a plateu..but wonderwoman did, i think for like, 2 mths or something!

But, I can tell you to loose 20 pds in 14 wks is most certainly not un realistic!! Thats like 1.5 pds a week! You can do it!!!

If you have hit a plateu...what you can do is just shake things up a bit. Change your excersize around, change your diet a bit,ect.
 
Skyler, 1.5 lb loss per week means that you have to have 750 calorie deficit per day. With 1200 calorie/day thing, you'll need to be burning around 2000 per day. You know your own body, and you know from the past how much you're burning from exercise, and whether you're willing and able to exercise that hard. I think it is doable, but you have to really know if the numbers will add up to this fast loss for you. Personally I prefer "safe" goals that I know for sure I can achieve, and then if any extra weight loss happens, its just added bonus.
But whatever goal you decide to set for yourself, we will all support you!
 
thanks nothintolose. makes sense. considering my past with exercise & eating right and NOT losing, i guess i should set a goal to be more realistic. i am even cautious to say that i will lose 1 lb per week but that is what i am going to really really try to do. that will leave me at my target weight in 20 weeks....june 1st. and if i hit it earlier, the better off i am ;). thanks for the advice.
s
 
skyler said:
1) has anyone been stuck in a plateau, doing the right things for so long, broken out of it (YEAH!!!) and then hit another plateau very recent after that??? if so, my goal is unrealistic.

2) mid- april is 3 1/2 months, 14 weeks...i am a slow loser it seems losing 20 lbs in this time frame, does that seem do-able?

anybody been in my situation or have any advice would be fabulous.
thanks and happy new year!
Click to expand...

i had a 4 month long plateau! but once i broke out of it, it seemed to go fast from there. and dont worry about how fast you lose the weight, slower is better as i'm sure you have heard. if i were you i would NOT set a concrete 20 pound goal right now. you have no idea if your body is going to cooperate with you for that long even if you do everything BY THE BOOK! start by setting a 10 pound goal lets say for about 2 months from now. that way you wont be devastated by not meeting your goal in time and if you slip up you have allowed yourself a little extra time to get back on the wagon. at least thats the way i did it. usually my goal was met early but sometimes not depending if i hit a brick wall. totally up to you - just my 2 cents.
 
NothinToLose said:
Skyler, 1.5 lb loss per week means that you have to have 750 calorie deficit per day. With 1200 calorie/day thing, you'll need to be burning around 2000 per day. You know your own body, and you know from the past how much you're burning from exercise, and whether you're willing and able to exercise that hard. I think it is doable, but you have to really know if the numbers will add up to this fast loss for you. Personally I prefer "safe" goals that I know for sure I can achieve, and then if any extra weight loss happens, its just added bonus.
But whatever goal you decide to set for yourself, we will all support you!
Click to expand...
Huh, you know I've always done the calculations differently. First you have to find out how many calories you need to "maintain" your weight with your current exercise level (a google search for "calories needed" should give a ton of sites with calculators, ), then subtract 750 from that base amount to get your daily caloric intake.

Because 2000 calories burned a day in exercise is nearly 4 hours of solid biking (an average of 300 calories an hour), so I think you may have misunderstood something :p
 
thanks guys. i think i will do that. set to lose 10 lbs in two months and go from there that way if i get in a plateau again i won't be totally bummed!! thanks for the advice. much appreciated!!!!

so.....10 lbs gone by march 1 ;)
 
Beagle,

I did not mean 2000 calories burn per day just by exercise, but by your whole existance. A body may burn about 1000-2000 calories per day just by metabolism alone. Plus, all the movement that you do during the day and exercise adds calories burned on top of that. If person's metabolism and general activity level uses up 1700 calories per day, that person would need to do 300 calories worth of exercise (such as 1 hr biking, pehaps) in order to burn 2000 calories total during the day.
 
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