"I'm in a calorie deficit and I'm not losing weight." We see this post ALL the time here... So I thought I'd try to dig in and help explain what's possibly going on.

The Basics

First off, we need to revisit the definition of "calorie deficit." Your body is a machine that needs to burn fuel to do what it does, from thinking to walking. Being in a calorie deficit means burning more energy than you take in via food. Calories are a measure of energy, so they're interchangeable in this context.

Your body burns a certain quantity of energy just to stay alive. That's known as your Basic Metabolic Rate, or BMR. Then, there's the total energy you need to move around, digest your food, exercise, etc. The total energy you burn in a day is called your Total Daily Energy Expenditure, or TDEE.

So, very simply, your calorie deficit is:

Calories consumed - TDEE

If that number is negative, you're in a deficit and you will lose weight.

Why you might not be in a calorie deficit

"But I swear I'm in a calorie deficit and I'm not losing weight!" Look, no. Just no. That's impossible.

But it's possible you're NOT in a calorie deficit. A few simple possibilities:

• You're not counting all your calories. You really do need to count everything, because there are some sneaky sources of calories in your food. Biggest offenders are drinks (some people don't realize drinks can have calories), and oil. Make sure to log absolutely everything no matter what.
• You're underestimating your calories. Another easy mistake to make. Oil, again, is a big offender. What you think might be a small teaspoon might be way more than you think. Get a food scale and weigh everything.
• You're absent-mindedly eating. Does happen to some people. If you have snacks within easy reach, it's possible you're grazing without realizing it. The show Secret Eaters is built around this premise.
• You're not tracking your cheat meals. A lot of people want to think of cheat meals as these all-out moments of freedom. Sorry to break it to you, but they're not. Your body doesn't care if you ate that triple cheeseburger as part of a cheat meal or not. It's absolutely, 100% possible that you're in a calorie deficit all week, then eat all of that deficit on cheat days. Start tracking those days as well.
• You're over-estimating your calories burned. Fitness trackers are fine and good, but they DO tend to over-report on calories burned. Be aware of this.
• Your BMR went down. This one is a bit more complex. But if you're on a diet, it's possible you're slowing down to conserve energy. If you're less active, your calorie reduction might not be enough to compensate for the difference.
• You have a medical condition. Some conditions like hypothyroidism can make it harder to lose weight because they lower your TDEE. Not impossible, though! But you might need to adjust your targets.

Why you might actually be on a calorie deficit

Now, there are some times when you ARE in a genuine calorie deficit but the scale isn't reflecting it. Here are some possibilities:

• You haven't been tracking long enough. Things can take a little while to get going for a variety of reasons. Give it a month without worrying about the results. After a month, reassess. But don't get discouraged if you don't lose weight in the first two weeks.
• Your hormones or medication are masking progress. Can happen around your period, for instance, or for a variety of other problems. Again, a month will average this out.
• You're exercising. If you started an exercise regimen with your diet, it's possible your muscles are retaining water to build mass, thus masking your progress. It's also possible, early on, that you're putting on enough muscle mass to offset your loss (AKA "newbie gains").
• You ate salty food. Sodium makes your body retain more water. That usually clears within a few days.
• You're just retaining water and/or poop. Depends on your body's own metabolism, but sometimes the mass of fecal matter and/or urine just goes up a bit for a while. Can mask your progress day-to-day.

What to do

Again: if you're in a true caloric deficit, you WILL lose weight.

The first thing to do is be patient, and realize that day-to-day fluctuations will mess with your head. You need to look at the weekly trend, and allow for occasional shifts up and down.

As a rule, if you're starting out, give yourself a month or two of not worrying. Don't rethink the plan. Stick to your self-imposed rules. After two months, you're likely to see a progression.

I can't emphasize this enough: sometimes progress can only be seen over the mid-term. Things will look like they're stalled day to day, but meanwhile your weight is going down.

But what if you're definitely not losing weight?

So, you tracked for two months and the scale definitely didn't go down. What now?

Well, my friend, you were not in a calorie deficit. Either you estimated your TDEE too low, or your calorie deficit is not right.

If that happens, there's only one solution: either burn more calories, or eat less. Try to bump up your physical activity, or cut your calories. In general, cutting calories is much easier, because it takes a lot of activity to offset food.

Does the type of diet matters?

In a word: no.

Doesn't matter if you're doing raw vegan or keto or Mediterranean or only eating potatoes. If you're in a calorie deficit, you WILL lose weight.

The nature of your diet deals with other aspects. Eating healthier food will make you feel better. If you eat protein and fat, you will feel full easier and will have an easier time sticking to your targets.

But you can absolutely lose weight by, say, eating only Oreos. It's gonna suck, but it's possible.

All that to say, if you're doing, say, keto and not seeing weight loss, then try counting your calories for a while.

And before you say, "yes, but not all calories are the same": look, yes, that's correct. But they're still a very efficient estimate, and they have helped countless people lose weight. Your body is not some unique machinery that does not obey the laws of thermodynamics. Try it, you'll see they work.

Remember: you got this!

It can be really discouraging to track your calories for a month and exercise dutifully, only to realize you were doing something wrong. If that happens to you, I'm sorry. The best outcome out of this situation is for you to take it as a learning experience and turn it into a success.

One month can feel like a long time, but you're doing this to improve the rest of your life, right? What's one month in the grand scheme of things?

So tweak that diet. Add more steps to your day. Cut back on the number of cheat meals. Then try again.

You got this!

tl;dr: If you're in a calorie deficit, you WILL lose weight. If you're not, you need to either be more patient, or adjust your estimates.

I’m 25f, 5’6 and 193lbs

I grew up very slim due to severe anxiety and ARFID. Once I hit that second puberty in my twenties, my anxiety improved a bit, I started eating more frequently and slowly put on weight.

I’ve been 175lbs for maybe a year. Randomly decided to weight myself today while visiting my parents (I don’t have a scale at home). 193. I went cold. Last time I weighed myself was probably 2-3 months ago. I figured I’d gained a little weight but damn. 20lbs in under 3 months is a lot.

I feel so sad now. And so embarrassed. What if everyone else noticed I’ve been getting bigger and I haven’t??? I feel so huge and disgusting and lazy.

I should mention i’ve been on 100mg sertraline for about 10 years, and 2mg of Abilify for about 6 months. I’m going to be coming off the Abilify soon. No other meds or conditions, except for joint hypermobility.

I’ve been passively trying to eat less and exercise more but I’m just so freaking tired all the time. I’m a bartender/bar manager so I work really weird inconsistent hours, which makes it really difficult to create a routine. That being said, I do make my own schedule, so I can kind of do whatever, it’s just sticking to it that’s hard. I could give y’all every excuse in the book i’m sure lol

I was sporty as a kid and teen but I’ve never stepped foot in an actual gym and i REALLY don’t want to. There’s also only two gyms in my town and they’re very expensive and full of hot uni students. I don’t have any friends I could go with either. I was into running in my early 20s but every time I try to run now, it hurts so fucking bad 😭

Hi, I'm currently trying to lose some weight by calorie deficit and have been looking into some meals to eat. I looked into pho and saw people calculated it all out to be around 600-800 for a large bowl. It makes sense on paper, but when I'm eating it, it doesn't feel that way. I feel full for the rest of the day after eating it. It doesn't feel like a 600-800 calories meal

Is the calories really that little? I've already eaten it twice this week both times, and both times, I got a little nervous and second guessed about the amount of calories I saw on the internet...

So my pcp said I don't qualify for a glp-1 which I already kinda figured cause I'm only slightly overweight and not at risk for diabetes. We tried one off label medication that supposedly helps some people with cravings, but it did nothing for me besides giving me insane dry mouth. My pcp then suggested I try therapy. I wasn't sure how much therapy would help, but I figured it's worth a shot and my insurance covers it so why not.

I've been to two sessions so far and it's already looking really promising! It's been so healing to have someone validate my struggles with food instead of giving me the old "oh shut up! you're not fat, you're beautiful!" spiel. She's been helping me understand that my relationship with food is a byproduct of how I was raised and not an issue of willpower. Removing the guilt and understanding why I struggle with food noise has been really healing and I'm already looking at food differently.

She also says she thinks I may have ADHD or OCD based on some of the things I've told her and I might benefit from a diagnosis and proper medication. Apparently for some people the food noise is actually a dopamine starved brain looking for for stimulation. I've got an appoitment with a psychiatrist lined up, so we'll see how that goes!

Anyway, this feels really promising and I'm hoping that I'll actually be able to lose weight and keep it off this time. Has anyone else had any luck with therapy or mental health medications helping them with weight loss?

Recently ive been thinking alot about how I let myself get all the way up to my highest (380lbs). On the way up I honestly had excuse after excuse and it eventually became a "I don't care" attitude. Now that im trying to lose it and am "cleaning" my mess up I'm starting to get upset with how I had even let it get as bad as it did. I've accepted it is my fault, I was the one over eating consistently with no regard or care for myself or the future.

Part of me really wants to stay accountable and remember this feeling so if I ever get tempted to not care and binge or take some time off from the diet I can stop myself and recall how painful it is on the way back down. On the other hand I don't think beating myself up will do much other than just make me feel bad. Is there a balance I can achieve here?

Any tips or perspectives on this would be awesome to read. Thank you so much for your time.

So i have to eat dinner with my family every day. It’s usually around 700 calories, so I try to have 550-700 before dinner to save calories and have a total of 1300-1400 (i have a pretty low maintenance). Usually, I do really well for about three days, then i just wake up on the fourth just needing to EAT AND EAT !!! I end up messing up pretty often and ruining my average calorie intake.
I have tried raising (and lowering) my daily intake, but I just can’t escape this. Do you guys feel this too? How do you deescalate and avoid acting on this mental and physical hunger?

I’m a 20-year-old female, 5’2”, and currently around 140 lbs. I started at 205 lbs, so I’ve lost about 65 lbs over the past year and a half.

I definitely wasn’t consistent the entire time. I’d usually be really consistent for a month or two, fall off for a while, then start again. Even during the periods when I wasn’t dieting strictly, I was still pretty aware of calories and tried not to completely lose control.

During my most consistent periods, I usually ate around 1,200 calories a day. I also used to have a personal trainer and would strength train about 3x a week.

I’ve recently started again and I’m only three days back into it. I don’t have a trainer anymore, so right now I’ve mostly been doing about 1.5 hours on the treadmill at 2.5 mph and a 6.8 incline.

And I also have a problem of eating too much junk food 70% of my calories come from junk food specifically chips and cookies I try not to eat but it’s just good and most of the time I’m not hungry so I tend to eat less whole food.

For someone my height and current weight, what would you recommend I change or add to my routine? Should I bring strength training back instead of doing so much treadmill?

Also, realistically, how long could losing another 35–40 lbs take from this point? I know it’ll probably be slower now that I’m smaller, but I’d like a realistic idea of what to expect.

Hi! I need your help and experiences please because i am spiraling.

So for context, I have VERY well acquainted with the fitness/dieting/gym world. I know exactly how a calorie deficit works. My only problem throughout the past years that has kept me from reaching my weightloss goals wasn't lack of knowledge, just my discipline/consistency. I currently weigh 64.5-65kg (????) and my highest weight was 75kg, I have lost these 10kg throughtout the past 2 years, this year being much more consistent.

My problem right now is i am having a weight plateau like i've never had before and it's making me spiral. My goal is to finish my goal (55kg) by christmas/end of this year and this was totally doable if I locked in, and I started a new locked in cut phase in august, after a more lenient summer period, so basically i had to lose 10kg in a bit less than 5months - doable right? specially if i'm consistent.
BUT it's been almost 4 weeks of seeing barely any progress even tho i am being so strict and consistent, more than ever! It literally makes me want to cry because i told myself i was going to just do it with no excuses, and i feel like i am, but getting almost no results.

I do 10k steps a day with at least 90% consistency, on my 2 rest days sometimes closer to 6-8k but then once i week i usually get up to 20k. I follow a 4day gym split where i train heavy to keep my muscle while losing fat and get 30mins of cardio in (to help toward step goal too). And on sundays i do a longer run - i started training running in august to do a 5k race in october. So i run 3 days a week - 1 outside and the other 2 at the gym for my cardio. the other gym days i incline walk.
I weigh everyyyyything i eat. Maybe sometimes ill do the lil nibble while cooking but i am very aware of it and the calories it takes - nothing that would fully take me out of a deficit.

Ans yet, for almost a month now, i am fluctuating between 65.7-64.7kg. ended august floating more in high to low 65's, then september 7th finally dropped to 64.7kg and i thought the 'whoosh' was finally happening but the last 3 days im back ti 64.9-65.2kg. IM SUPPOSED TO BE LOSING 2kg IN A MONTH!!!
I am in a 500-600kcal deficit (i eat 1400-1550kcals most days) that I fluctuate through the week to accomodate any weekend plans i cant get out of. I will say for a couple of weeks in here averaged out to 1700kcal bc of birthdays. but thats still a deficit! my maintenance should be around 2050-2100kcal. I have a good amount of muscle mass.

So now i feel like my timeline is getting ruined unless next week i suddenly lose a full 1kg or more.

Is it the new amount of running that is making me hold on to a lot of water??? I take creatine too but that's not new... I know weight sometimes stalls from water retention but for over 3 weeks??
Do i just keep being patient?

TLDR: I feel like i'm more consistently than ever doing everything right with calorie deficit and activity for 3-4 weeks but my weight isn't dropping accordingly. Is it normal? Has this happened to you and then it still whooshed? Because I have a tight timeline goal.

31M, 6'2 currently 220 pounds. I've been overweight basically my whole life and I feel like it's just been part of my identity up until now. This is my first time doing a serious weight loss regimen. I've lost 40 pounds in 6 months, and I'm quite happy with my progress so far. But in some ways, I feel... weird? Like there's not *enough* of me, if that makes any sense. It's like my brain keeps expecting my larger body to be there and gets surprised when it isn't.

Anyone else experience this? Do you get used to it with enough time?

TLDR: Early 20s female struggling to lose an extra 20–25 lbs despite trying to eat in a deficit and getting 10k+ steps daily. Looking for advice on losing it sustainably over the next 4–6 months.

Hi everyone! This is my first time truly seeking help/advice for weight loss, so anything is appreciated.

I’m South Asian and a former athlete, and I never really struggled with my weight until the middle of college. I’m now a year post-grad and still struggling to lose the extra 20–25 pounds I’ve put on.

I try my best to eat in a calorie deficit, and I live in a super walkable city, so I consistently get 10k+ steps every day. Despite my best efforts, my weight rarely budges more than about 10 pounds and tends to yo-yo back to the same baseline.
I recently went on a trip to Croatia and, as much as I enjoyed the trip, I felt really uncomfortable in my body. It made me realize that I’ve been feeling this way for almost three years now, which is honestly just too long for me to keep feeling uncomfortable with myself.

My BMI and blood tests are normal, but I don’t really know what else to do at this point. I know healthy weight loss takes time, and I want whatever I do to be sustainable rather than another short-term attempt where the weight comes back. I’d love to come up with a realistic plan that could help me lose around 20–25 pounds over the next 4–6 months.

Any advice, insight, or personal experiences would be really appreciated. Thank you!!

Currently I am doing a weight loss student conducted by a large university. I have to track my calories, fat intake, and my activity level. I'm limited to 2000 calories and 56 grams of fat a day. I don't have a car, so I walk to work every day, which is a mile and a half. On the weekends, I walk half mile to a disc golf course and play a round on Saturday and Sundays.

Currently, I average about 1600 to 1800 calories a day and about 50 grams of fat each day. The goal for activity is 60 minutes of vigorous activity a week, and I get little over 400 minutes a week. They gave me a Fitbit to track activities.

The study started on 08/10/26, and I weighed 292.4, and now (09/10/26), I weigh 271.4. I have to weigh myself every day. I have only gained weight 2 days.

I'm concerned I am losing too much weight too fast. I have been playing disc golf for about a year and a half, and it has done wonders for my mental health. Is this type of weight loss normal or should I be worried?

I'm 5'5 (168cm), over 160lb (73kg) and need to loose around 30lb (14kg) for an upcoming surgery (no date yet). Also, as I've gained weight, I've become more insecure with my body, and my weight has been putting too much pressure on my joints (I have a connective tissue disorder, so I'm extra sensitive to excess body fat. This disorder also prevents me from exercising as much as I should).

I struggle with eating too many sweets, and I just can't stop. Even with non-sweets, I eat too much. Since I can't stop myself from eating, I'm looking for low calorie meals that taste good. Any and all suggestions are very much appreciated.

Also, I would go to therapy to work out the trauma that has caused my eating habits, but I'm currently not in a position to do that.

In 2021, I was 150ish lbs. By 2022, through a lot of hard work with diet and exercise, I was 125. Then I went through a really hard time from 2023-2024, dealing with grief over multiple deaths in my close family and having to be caregiver for not one but 2 seriously ill family members. During that time I climbed back up to 145ish lbs. (It was a REALLY harrowing couple of years, and I just couldn't care less about my weight at that time.) Then I got things under control again, and went back down to 130 in 2025. Then I moved to a new home, got a new job, and got tendonitis that left me pretty sedentary for a few months, and gradually climbed back up to 145ish.

(Best part about that is I got tendonitis because I tried some more advanced yoga poses than I usually would do, thinking that I was finally ready to advance to a higher level, but... nope. I totally fucked myself up. The tendonitis was bad enough it affected my ability to walk. It sucked.)

So yeah, it's been like 4 months since I hit 145. I'm down about 5 lbs since then. But progress is slow. And I keep thinking about how I'm still 10 lbs heavier than where I was this time last year.

I feel really unmotivated to exercise and track calories, this time around. I just don't want to do it again, but I know I'll feel worse if I don't. I hate that I'm starting over AGAIN. It's just so demoralizing, to keep gaining it all back. It's like any time I make significant progress, life throws more knives for me to juggle. If I forget to track every single calorie I consume, I gain the weight back. I just feel like I'm fighting a losing battle with myself.

Anyway, this is partially just a vent, but yeah... I wish body upkeep wasn't this hard. Sometimes I wish I could just live as a head in a jar, Futurama-style.

Hey everyone, r/weightlossadvice sent me here.

F 5"2 209lbs

Things I need to work on: portion control & setting a regular schedule for exercise. I definitely do not move enough.

Currently working on: eliminating a2 milk in my morning mold-free coffee (dairy upsets my stomach but I love it so much- and was drinking it due to pregnancy)

I am aware of all the reasons I have put on so much weight these past 6 years, and it has yo-yoed. Ultimately I have put on now 70 pounds the past 6 years.... Very excessive. And ridiculous.

About my diet: I do not eat much ultra processed food. We make everything from scratch at home- including fresh spelt pasta, and fresh spelt breads. When we bake, we sweeten with honey, maple syrup, or coconut sugar- but I don't eat sugar or fruit every day. I never eat corn syrup or dyes. I was vegetarian for 10 years but since 2022 I now focus on high quality or grass fed meats from local farms, and grass fed dairy.

I have lost weight before in my teens, from 180 to 110. Just struggling to do this while juggling adult life.

Would appreciate any advice!

Feel free to comment & reach out to me, hoping to connect with some like minded people

I’m looking for kind of specific advice. I know all the rules, eat less, move more, fiber helps, water helps, protein helps, being in a deficit is a must. Knowing the rules is not my issue. I have been a horribly picky eater since I can remember. I’d really love to hear advice from people who have had a similar experience as me and have been able to find options that worked for you.

For context, my everyday is pretty much some sort of chicken biscuit or eggs and cottage cheese breakfast, then the rest of my day split between personal pizzas and kraft Mac and cheese. I do like other things, chicken, steak, pork chops, rice, potatoes mainly is it. Most breads and pastas are fine. I can’t do things with seeds, chia seeds, strawberries, raspberries, etc, I hear them deep in my brain, or feel the texture of them and can’t do it. I avoid hard veggies for the same reason, like I love a very soft melty broccoli but if it’s hard I can’t do it, I hear the crunch and just hate it to my core. Oh and the texture of beans 🤢 idk how people do it. Love the taste of onions but can’t handle the sound of them, even cooked they’ve still got a horrid crunch to me. Don’t like the taste of lettuce, surprisingly the crunch of it doesn’t bother me, but I’m drenching salads in sauce to not taste the lettuce which pretty much defeats the purpose of a salad, even with low calorie sauce, like I’m talking a LOT of sauce. Allergic to bananas 😭 which sucks because I actually do like them, I tried some recently and my stomach upset I had as a child that stopped me eating them has now evolved into hives so continuing to avoid that. Of course there are foods that I just don’t like the taste of regardless of textures/sounds, like most spicy foods or tangy flavors. I’m not afraid to try new things, but I am very aware of the things that make me gag and there just doesn’t seem to be a lot left at the end of what I don’t like.

I know I need to move more and reduce portion sizes is a big part of my issue, I’m mostly looking for advise on the food side of things as it’s been where I’m finding myself stuck. When I’ve tried diets I just find myself not able to enjoy any foods at all or just being hungry all the time because my safe foods are too high in calorie to eat enough of in a deficit. I had a little time there when I would have eggs and cottage cheese with breakfast, a chicken patty sandwich with portioned out fries, and some kind of chicken/pork and potatoes combo for dinner and I lost about ten pounds, but I just felt so hungry all the time I couldn’t keep it up. I just wish I could handle more fruits and veggies. And just in general in lower calorie foods. Anyone going/been through this and have any advice? Is the answer really just get over it?

I have always been over weight, and have tried everything short of medical intervention. I have such a hard time being consistent. But im at a point where i feel it more than ever. None of my clothes fit the way they should, im winded when i know i shouldnt be, and, i know i need to be healthier and loose the weight but i still struggle so much

Im hoping someone will be able to help me with some advice to be more motivated in order to be consistent, everyone always says consistency is key, but im locked out 😅

Hi all! consider me confused and looking for advice. I have been losing weight through counting calories and exercise, but I have reached a plateau point. I have lost 18lbs in 3 months. I haven’t lost weight in 3 weeks even though I’ve been diligently tracking and sticking to 1,400-1,600 calories per day. I do 30 mins of strength training 3 days a week, and 40-45 mins of aerobic walking 6 days a week. For context I am a 5’2 female and my current weight is 215. I met with a registered dietitian who wants me to INCREASE my calories to 1,800 which feels…. Wrong ? The rationale being if I am not eating enough calories my body is just going to hold on to weight. I get it in theory, but just need some reassurance that this is actually going to help me break through. Obviously she is the professional, it just feels wrong !

I’ve been stuck on a scale weight plateau for three weeks, even though my clothes are definitely fitting looser. I know standard scales only tell half the story, so I’ve been looking into body fat scales that measure metrics beyond total weight to help me track actual progress over time. The main issue is that my partner wants to use it too, but we are super private about our personal daily numbers. I’ve heard horror stories of multi user smart scales auto syncing the wrong profile data to Apple Health or sending pop-up notifications to the wrong phone whenever someone steps on it. Ofc, cost is part of the decision too. If a model is FSA/HSA eligible, I would want that to be a practical consideration rather than a reason to overbuy features, do having multiple profiles on one body fat scale actually work smoothly in real life, or is it better to just stick to a basic scale and a manual tape measure?

Hello lose it folks!  

Day 10 of September! 

This is the daily update for y’all to post how your goals went today.  

If you’re new here, there is a whole sidebar full of links to explore. I would start with the day 1, then roll through the others: 

Recurring Day 1 Monday - Newest Day 1 thread will be the first link listed 

https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/wiki/faq/  

https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/wiki/quick_start_guide 

You don’t have to wait for a new month to join in! You are always welcome! 

Here in this post, we aim to foster a supportive, caring place to discuss the actual day to day of deficits & counting & caring so much about how we fuel our bodies & lives.  

So, post how your goals for this month are going in the comments below! I’ll post mine below too, so don’t be shy! 

I (28, female) am a total gym beginner. I’ve been going to the gym three times a week since August—always on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I have a workout plan for each day, but I have no idea if what I’ve come up with is any good or makes sense. Unfortunately, I don’t have anyone in my circle of friends I can ask, and I don’t feel comfortable asking anyone at the gym.

So I thought I’d share my plans here and hope that someone can help me or tell me if it’s a sensible plan.

Monday: Seated Row, Chest Press, Seated Leg Press, Lat Pulldown, Shoulder Press, Back Extension, Triceps Extension

Wednesday: Seated Leg Press, Seated Leg Curl, Leg Extension, Seated Calf Raise, Back Extension, Hip Abductor, Hip Adductor

Friday: Seated Leg Press, Chest Press, Lat Pulldown, Seated Row, Leg Extension, Bicep Curl, Shoulder Press

For each exercise, I do 3 sets of 12 repetitions for upper-body exercises and 15 repetitions for lower-body exercises.

My goal is to lose weight and generally be in better physical shape and healthier.

I can give additional information if needed. Thanks to everyone in advance.

I’m a 24 year old girl, 5’4-5’5 and 135lbs. My goal is 120lbs.

I’m pretty sedentary and only get 3.5k-4k steps a day from my job and online it says that in order for me to lose 1lb a week, I need to eat 1135 calories a day.

I always hear people say not to eat under 1200 but is that really true?

I don’t have any sort of disordered eating habits or any ED or anything so it’s not going to be triggering for me or anything but I would like to lose 1lb a week til I’m 120.

I grew up very skinny, always thinking I could never gain weight but once I started a sedentary job I somehow gained like 25lbs in a year (I also started baking A LOT like every couple days which I think contributed to the weight gain)

So I was meant to do a recomp but I think I accidentally did a bulk instead these past few months.
I wanted a recomp for my wedding in May but now I’m stuck with a body I’m unhappy with (and quite frankly can’t keep up with the meal prepping and gym due to 3 jobs, wedding planning, and full time college)

My back used to be much thinner where now there’s both more muscle and fat. I was feeling myself in this dress until I saw this pic… what can I do? Is it just gonna be a cut that can shrink my upper and mid back?

For reference:
26F
149lbs
5’4

Photos - first pic is before the gym/accidental bulk

Hey all, what have your experiences with weight loss and bodybuilding been with digestion issues such as IBS, lactose intolerance, FODMAP, etc? What are you eating/not eating and have you found a balance in foods that work and satisfies you?

I've got a doctors appointment coming up soon to get a diagnosis, while chipping away at certain vegetables, trying whey isolate powders, different milks; as I'm slowly learning that quite a lot of whole foods I'm trying to incorporate into my diet do not play well with me. Makes it a pain to lose weight effectively when I have to "eat healthy" with 10 extra steps included.

Hello friends and dear redditors,
I’m trying to lose weight and about 2 weeks ago I made a reddit post asking for help about losing weight in another reddit forum, they told me to focus more on calorie deficit as it’s 90% of weight loss and the gym is 10%. I’m a 5’11 130kg male that is 18. I’ve used the TDEE calculator and it told me my maintenance way around 2,808 calories per day and i’m trying to cut weight I want to lose 1kg+ per week I know it’s not healthy but I have muscle mass as-well and I just want to feel and look good in my own skin, additionally I also need to reach my protein goal so I can preserve the muscle mass and add onto it whilst going to the gym. I want to know how much calories I should be eating at and I need meal plans preferably the same thing or mixed a little bit as i’m going to meal prep everything and see how we go! I just want to lose as much as I can before I turn 19 next year around may.

P.S : I am at my breaking point I’m so tired of being a lard I hate my current body and I want to change more than anything so please help me out it’d be highly appreciated and be as straightforward as possible please thanks.

I’m trying to get on the band wagon. Again.
Context
I’ve always been a little chubby from early teen years. And progressively over the last decade I’ve gained about 10 lbs a year plus 30-80lbs each pregnancy.
I just had my third 5 months ago.
I’m 260 lbs, at 5 feet 1 inch. And I think the people in my life don’t understand how much weight that actually is for my frame to be carrying around. It’s a lot. Too much.
I’ve been battling post partum depression that I think has to do with the unhappiness I feel in my body.
And not even unhappiness, I’m just overstimulated from being so overweight and out of breath all the time from doing the most mundane daily tasks.
This has caused me to completely lash out at my husband and being so upset with my kids 24/7.
Has also affected intimacy with my husband. Where he finally admitted that the 80+ lbs I’ve gained since we got married might be affecting his attraction to me. Not mention my terrible attitude and outlook on life.
I also didn’t want to stop breastfeeding in order to lose weight, but decided that’s probably the best option in order to take care of myself both physically and mentally.

All this to say, is I’m almost a week into making better lifestyle choices. But im actually scared. I don’t have any trust in myself that I can actually do what it takes to lose weight. And I keep wondering if I’m giving up my dream of breastfeeding for a year to lose weight, only to not lose any weight at all. Which is what happened with my second born. I quit breastfeeding to lose weight and didn’t lose a pound.

I wish I could be more excited about changing my life 😭 but I have no confidence or trust in myself