Attached a picture for context, but I’m 5’0 128lbs don’t exercise much, however I’m trying to get into using a weighted jump rope and walking. My steps this passed week have really declined due to being sick and staying with in-laws. How can I lose weight without starving? Is 1000 cals spread out through out the day enough? Please help 🙂
by korrupt20
4 Comments
It certainly wouldn’t be enough for me. I’d say you’re probably better off shooting for between 1200-1500 calories and increasing your exercise instead of restricting that low.
I’m your height and a few pounds heavier, but just barely. For me, even 1,200 calories was too few for me to function normally. In general, petite women are the exception to the general “focus on diet, not exercise” advice for weight loss. While not consuming too many calories is key, we can make a much larger dent in our defecit (by percentage) with exercise than most, simply because our starting calories are so low to begin with.
For example, if a half hour walk burns (very roughly) 100 calories, this means we can burn 10 percent more calories in a day by walking for an hour.
Of course, this does mean we typically lose weight more slowly as well – but as far as what weight loss is sustainable, the percentage of weight you’re dropping in a given time period is a better metric than how many pounds you lose.
Overall, I would start with sticking to your sedentary TDEE as a calorie limit while also committing to getting more walking in (walking in particular is great because it doesn’t make most people as hungry as more intense forms of cardio do). If that works for you, then you can experiment with cutting calories further, but I’d start with 100 calories fewer than the previous week, not 500. That would be 30% of your calories!
Strength training is also super important for us – it’s the only reliable way to raise your BMR and therefore your passive calorie burn, and those few calories make a much bigger difference when the margins are slim to begin with.
Finally, don’t stress too much. At 128, you’ve already reached the healthy BMI range – getting further into that zone is great, but know that you’re starting from a good place.
Good luck!
Eating below 1200 calories is not recommended for anyone.
You are better off aiming for 1200-1400 and lose the weight slowly. Increased your exercise as you can, but it will just take time.
You don’t have to lose 1lb a week. Especially because you’re smaller. 1/3 of my TDEE is not the same as 1/3 of your TDEE. If I cut 1/3 of my TDEE which is 2000, it would be like missing two snacks. For you, that’s missing a whole meal.
You can eat 1200 and do more exercise. And make sure to focus on high protein, high fibre and high fat.
If your fats are too low but your protein and fibre is high, you’ll be physically full but not mentally satisfied? And it leaves you in this weird limbo of “I cannot fit more food in my body but I still want more food”
So if you’re aiming for 120g protein for example, then you should eat at least 60g of fats and 75g of carbs. This way you eat around 1320 calories a day.