To ask how do I actually lose weight?

[Strivetobe]

I've tried different calculators but they all say different things and I'm very easily confused so I'm not sure what exactly I'm meant to be doing.

I want to lose about 20 pounds so that I can reach the optimum BMI for my sport hobby. It's intensive on the body and a bmi of 20 means that I will both likely be better at it and will have a much lower risk of injury because I'll have less weight to haul around.

I'm currently 140 pounds and have a bmi of 23. I'm 5ft 4, don't do very much exercise other than my sport but trying to increase it to short daily runs.

How many calories should I be eating a day and how much exercise?

I'd really appreciate it if someone could please tell me because I'm a bit dumb

I recently downloaded the weightwatchers app and have lost 7lb in 2 weeks . I find it really easy to follow as unlike calorie counting you don’t have to count every single thing, lots of healthy foods and most fruit/vegetables are ‘free’. The big difference for me has been things like for breakfast I have overnight oats made with water and frozen berries. I’ve really cut down on cheese and instead eat a lot of eggs and quorn meat substitutes for protein as these are ‘free’, I fill up on salads made with chickpeas, kidney beans etc. I’ve also switched to a low calorie olive oil spray for cooking with and can’t taste the difference. I still eat bread, pasta etc but just make sure most of my other choices are from the ‘free’ foods list.

So I've weighed out everything I've eaten so far today and I am surprised at how much o was eating previously! Im vegan so eat a lot of kidney beans and chickpeas and didn't realise how many calories these have! I always just threw loads in but those calories really add up! That's the main difference I'm noticing so far. Will keep going and hopefully I'll start to lose some weight after a bit

Scales are really your best friend. Try weighing everything, and I mean everything for a few weeks to really get an idea of your coloric intake then, I really do recommend an app like My fitness Pal. Also, a weight trending app like Libra

But, my BMI at the moment is 20.1 and I'm trying to get it to 19 and its is very very difficult. You've got to be brutal with your weighing and logging and don't expect results too soon. With a small amount to lose you can't go for a large deficit, it will take time so be patient

If you eat 1200 calories a day and are active I guarantee you will be starving every day and it will make you unhappy and you will not stick to it.

Lift weights, find workout programs online, eat high protein foods and drink plenty of water

Surely the more you climb the more weight you will loose in addition to diet.

I also do a sport (not climbing) where strength to weight ratio is important and I had just got out of my normal weight range (50-52 kg - I'm 153 cm) and decided to lose some weight to see if it improved my performance.
I didn't want to lose too much weight at once because I didn't want to lose muscle or impact my performance, and because I'm small already. I tried to work out my TDEE (which is hard, because of working out activity). I also felt that my TDEE was higher than the calculator suggested because I have more muscle mass than it expects for a woman.
Anyway, I used MFP and aimed to get 1500-1600 calories a day. I like carbs and I need protein, so the easiest thing for me to cut out was sweets and oil. I measure the oil I use when cooking now - before I didn't even count it. I personally wouldn't eat falafel - it's usually fried or deep fried so would be extremely high calories for what it is. But that's just because I prefer eating other food in my budget. I have lost about a kg a month - I'm 49 kg now and I think I've stalled. I don't really want to cut down calories further so I'm happy like this.

It has made a difference to how I feel - I can do so many more pull ups now!

oh, I have also tried to get a bit more incidental exercise in my day - a little more walking etc

Don't drop under 1300 calories if you're active in a sport already - your body needs fuel. Instead try to increase fruit & veg and fibre and take up resistance training and HIT. Also cut down tea/coffee if you have milk and stick to water. If you drink, maybe try cutting down to half your weekly intake as well.

Op I just wrote a long message that I lost.

But in a nutshell. You are a healthy weight. Maybe focus on training to get stronger. Your sport requires but also creates strength.

The calories in/calories out model is problematic, not least because it suggests a lower calorie dense is automatically ‘better.’ (Please don’t worry about how many chickpeas you are eating). Caloric restriction also often leads to metabolic adaptation as was seen in the biggest loser study. Maintaining is what is hard as the body gets by on fewer and fewer calories.

If you are still set on being smaller/losing fat through diet - and it’s fat you want to lose, not a mixture of muscle and fat- you may wish to consider an intermittent fasting protocol eg 16:8. Such protocols tend to preserve muscle mass and have other health benefits as demonstrated in this review paper.
Or for an easy overview listen to the intermittent fasting podcast or look at www.ginstephens.com/.

Good luck. As you can see, everyone has an opinion. But I really encourage you to do your research on what approach will be best for you and keep you healthiest.

RLABC May I ask why you picked that number in particular?

RLABC May I ask why you picked that number in particular?

Because I think I look my best at that BMI.

Joe Gargary
Intermittent fasting is just skipping a meal. How does it preserve muscle mass?
You will lose weight by skipping a meal and eating all your daily calories in a shorter space of time as most people cannot eat a full days worth in a few hours. If this works for you and is sustainable then great. Just don't call it "intermittent fasting" it's literally just skipping a meal.

NT53NJT perhaps you could take a look at some of the studies around IF. The effects persist even when calories aren’t reduced.

As I say, there are lots of opinions out there. I was responding to the OP. I’m not interested in getting into a fight.