Can someone PLEASE explain what is going on?!

dakotababy

I wear a bodymedia armband...and I eat according to the numbers it produces for me. Up until recently, I was eating at a 250 calorie deficit (as I have about 20lbs left to lose). I was weak, having dizzy spells...my weight lifting sucked and had not progressed in a long time (in fact, my performance decreased in cardio and resistance).

So...I thought to myself "maybe my body hates me because I have been in a calorie deficit for the last 2 years with the rare days going over my calories". So this past week, I decided to eat above maintenance. In fact, yesterday I ate 500 calories over my maintenance and this morning I had actually lost weight. I went back to the gym and increased the weight and rep on every machine and my cardio also has improved.

So now what?! Do I keep eating above my maintenance? Do I keep doing this for a few weeks, then go back down?

More importantly, why is this happening? I am scared that in order to improve my athletic performance, I have to eat above maintenance...? I am just horribly confused about all of this and it is just going against everything I have learnt about calories in vs calories out.

brewinggirl_butskinnier

Do you wear a heart rate monitor also?

The reason I ask is because I have worn a body media (body bugg way back) for long periods of time as well and I notice that on days that I'm lifting a lot and pretty heavy (for me lol), it seems to slightly underestimate my calories burnt. I think it has to do with the fact that I'm moving slower but putting in more effort? And I'm super hungry on those days (or about 5 hours after) so I tend to eat a bit more.

This is a total, total guess. If it were me I'd eat a maintenance for another week and see what happens, and how you feel (make sure you're getting enough protein, water, etc).

brewinggirl_butskinnier

Oh the comments are more about the way you feel and your performance, less about the weight. For me the weight loss tends to be in fits and swooshes regardless so that part of it is pretty normal for me.

dakotababy

I do not wear an additional heart rate monitor. I guess I could continue to do what I am doing...essentially continue lifting and small cardio and just eat at maintenance...right now I am eating above maintenance and finally the dizzy spells have stopped and performance has improved. More importantly, I just want to keep losing weight at this point more than gain muscle.

Liftng4Lis

You say eating at maintenance, but where are you getting these numbers? Maybe your maintenance is higher than you think. I would eat if it was a choice between that and being dizzy.

Kalikel

I don't know much about gadgets, but if you're dizzy and weak, you're doing something wrong!

Since eating a little more is working for you, stick with that. Maybe you'll push harder in your workouts.

Dizzy is never a good sign. Don't do that.

Sounds like you're on the right track now.

crisb2

@dakotababy

When was the last time you adjusted your calories? Maybe re-check those numbers and don't just follow the armband's calorie count.

stealthq

Those bracelets and HRMs are useless for estimating calories burned while weightlifting. Additionally, all TDEE calculations are estimates. You're undoubtedly burning more than you account for during weightlifting and it's possible you burn more non-exercise calories than are in the general estimates. If I were you, I'd stay at a higher intake for a month and see what that does for your weight. Make adjustments from there.

alereck

You went from -250 to +500, so that's 750 calories above what you usually eat. I'm not surprised you got more energy.

I'm not sure why it would take you two years to realize that feeling dizzy and with low energy means you are not treating your body properly but increasing calories is the obvious choice. I'm not sure 750 calories is a good number, if it was me I would have increased in increments of about 250 calories. But if you feel good and you are not gaining, stay at the number for a few weeks and see how it goes.

My maintenance calories are a lot higher than I had originally thought. I went from cutting at 1200-1400 to maintenance at 1800-1900. It's about trial and error but listen to your body, you shouldn't have to feel hungry or sick to lose weight.

neanderthin

You've stressed your body to the max apparently by asking it to do something it can't on the energy you've provided.....the results from upping calories comes as no big surprise. 2 years in a deficit seems like a cortisol party.

FatJockSing

Get a Professional Coach to answer this and monitor you . . . MFP Forums can be dangerous information pools . .. . IMHO - Just sayin'.

scottacular

Get some second opinions on how much you should be eating (such as http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/) and see if there's any difference in the numbers. Speaking from experience I had been on a calorie deficit for a reasonably long time and then went on maintenance calories for two weeks and still lost weight. So it might be something like that, but as others have said if you feel better for it and are still losing weight - you were probably eating too little to begin with. I'd stick at it and see if you keep losing, if you do maybe add an extra 50 calories a day every week and see if you're still losing. Keeping your fat loss at 0.5-1 lbs a week would be ideal.

Francl27

Ok first, daily weight fluctuations have nothing to do with what you ate the day before. It can take weeks for your body to actually process the binge you had last week, for example (unless it had a lot of sodium, then you gain water weight overnight in most cases). So it just means you might lose less weight in 2 weeks than you would have otherwise... either way, you won't really notice.

Second, do you weigh your food? You might be overestimating your calorie intake.

Third, it could be hormones making you hungrier right now (can't tell if you're a gal or guy from your profile)

Fourth, I've noticed the same thing. I don't really believe you can notice much progress in performance when you eat at a deficit anyway. I know I certainly don't, but a day after I eat too much, I do much better.

Unknown

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scrittrice

I don't know what's happening to you, but I was in kind of a similar situation with about 5 pounds to go until goal. (I use a FitBit and do something similar, and I've always lost very consistently with the MFP/FitBit settings.) I wasn't dizzy and miserable, but I was getting a lot of "head rushes" when I stood up, which a) was unpleasant and b) made me nervous about lifting weights. So I decided f*** it, I like the size I am and I'd rather feel better than get down to some arbitrary number on the scale. (I wasn't sure whether it was eating at a deficit or hormones that were causing the head rushes, and I wanted to know.) I added 100 calories/day, and in the first 10 days of doing that I felt much better and I lost 3 pounds. So I added another 100, and I lost another pound. I added another 100 calories/day. I was weaning myself off of weighing my food when the head rushes started, so maybe I was eating less than I intended. (I'm one of those oddballs who instinctively goes the other way.) In any case, the head rushes are gone and, like you, I've found my workouts are fun again. If I had to guess, I'd guess I was underestimating both how much I was eating and how much I burn lifting weights. Try eating at what you think is your maintenance for a little while and see how it goes--at the very least it will give you a preview of what your maintenance level might be.

WalkingAlong

I think feeling dizzy is probably more likely to be from not drinking enough than a 250 calorie deficit. 250 calories below maintenance is so small it probably gets eaten up in measurement error for most of us. Are you still losing weight? How much have you lost in the last two years?

The studies I've seen show that athletic performance doesn't suffer even on fasting days.

If I had 20 lbs. to lose I'd want to lose it, not run faster or lift more first.

Good luck!

dakotababy

Just to update/give some more information. One individual mentioned that I have been like this for 2 years - which is completely false. I started at 250lbs in June 2012. I lost weight very well until about 4-6 months ago. This is when the dizziness began. I have still been losing weight over the last 6 months (10lbs in fact) but I have been dizzy when standing and performance has been decreasing.

So the update - I have increased my calories over the last week and a half and the dizziness has been non-exsistant. Unfortunately, the scale has not moved as well. So I mean, obviously I was not taking in as much calories as I thought and/or I was burning more than what my Bodymedia was telling me. I am going to be eating at maintenance or -100 below maintenance (according to bodymedia which I will now assume it is underestimating my calorie burn) and see how that goes.

Oh yeah, someone also asked how much I have lost (I hate how these new forums have no ticker!) I am down 81lbs from 250lbs.

shaun603

dakotababy wrote: »

Just to update/give some more information. One individual mentioned that I have been like this for 2 years - which is completely false. I started at 250lbs in June 2012. I lost weight very well until about 4-6 months ago. This is when the dizziness began. I have still been losing weight over the last 6 months (10lbs in fact) but I have been dizzy when standing and performance has been decreasing.

So the update - I have increased my calories over the last week and a half and the dizziness has been non-exsistant. Unfortunately, the scale has not moved as well. So I mean, obviously I was not taking in as much calories as I thought and/or I was burning more than what my Bodymedia was telling me. I am going to be eating at maintenance or -100 below maintenance (according to bodymedia which I will now assume it is underestimating my calorie burn) and see how that goes.

Oh yeah, someone also asked how much I have lost (I hate how these new forums have no ticker!) I am down 81lbs from 250lbs.

Congrats on the big loss:) as your losing weight you should definitely be adjusting your numbers to compensate. You weigh less so your numbers are different from when you were heavier. How are your macros? Are they consistent? A lot of people will disagree but at a certain point, simply just being on a deficit isn't enough. You will still lose weight but at a drastically slow rate. You will see better results if you fine tune and maintain consistency in your macros while at the appropriate deficit.

Hearts_2015

Here's something not mentioned yet..... feeling light headed and dizzy can to do with other things besides food and workouts. It doesn't even always have to do with what you eat.

Have you checked in with you doctor and let them know you're feeling light headed. It can be something minor but worth checking in with them about. Feeling lightheaded or dizzy and such may have nothing at all to do with your workout...

I think posters trying to help tend to think of this first being on a workout site but there might be another reason it's happening to you. Definitely work checking into!

galprincess

heart rate monitors are much more accurate than MFP but like anything we aren't average and it calculates using an equasion so some it will work some have to tweak the numbers. Its difficult to know how many calories you burn while lifting etc as you continue to burn calories well after you stop.
I would stick to what you are doing for a bit longer and then see what happens as it can take a while for the body to react to changes. Im guessing you were underestimating your burns. If I feel weak I eat more.

__freckles__

What is your maintenance? How did you calculate it? Do you weigh everything you eat with a food scale? Need more info - and can't see your diary.

stealthq

WalkingAlong wrote: »

I think feeling dizzy is probably more likely to be from not drinking enough than a 250 calorie deficit. 250 calories below maintenance is so small it probably gets eaten up in measurement error for most of us. Are you still losing weight? How much have you lost in the last two years?

The studies I've seen show that athletic performance doesn't suffer even on fasting days.

If I had 20 lbs. to lose I'd want to lose it, not run faster or lift more first.

Good luck!

A fasting day is different than weeks- or months-worth of under eating.

I think what most of us are thinking is that she's not really eating at a 250 deficit. It's probably more than that, and the estimations are off somewhere.

scrittrice

dakotababy wrote: »

Just to update/give some more information. One individual mentioned that I have been like this for 2 years - which is completely false. I started at 250lbs in June 2012. I lost weight very well until about 4-6 months ago. This is when the dizziness began. I have still been losing weight over the last 6 months (10lbs in fact) but I have been dizzy when standing and performance has been decreasing.

So the update - I have increased my calories over the last week and a half and the dizziness has been non-exsistant. Unfortunately, the scale has not moved as well. So I mean, obviously I was not taking in as much calories as I thought and/or I was burning more than what my Bodymedia was telling me. I am going to be eating at maintenance or -100 below maintenance (according to bodymedia which I will now assume it is underestimating my calorie burn) and see how that goes.

Oh yeah, someone also asked how much I have lost (I hate how these new forums have no ticker!) I am down 81lbs from 250lbs.

I'm glad you're feeling better. There are some other good suggestions here--making sure you're drinking enough water and checking with your doctor. Hormone fluctuations and all kinds of other things, like sinus infections (to which I am prone), can cause dizziness. But I suspect that in your case and in mine, it was longtime eating at a deficit (I'd been at it for a year and a half at that point) that ultimately caused it. Your plan of running a very small deficit sounds like a good one, especially since you seem like a good tracker. Also, a week and a half isn't really that long, statistically speaking--when you look at a month or two of data, you may find that your maintenance is higher than it seems now.

WalkingAlong

If the dizziness was from dehydration, eating more could have alleviated it just due to the water content in food.

If you've lost 10 lbs. in the past six months, I think you can rule out dangerously low calorie levels, which seems to be stealthq's theory. Unless you believe in starvation mode, I guess.

ninerbuff

Try resetting your parameters on your Bodymedia. You shouldn't be dizzy from exercise (with the exception from low blood pressure), but you stated that it didn't happen from increased calories. So stay with maintenance. It could be that depending on how long you've owned that Bodymedia, that the calibration of it could be off, hence the possible wrong readings.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

dakotababy

scrittrice wrote: »

dakotababy wrote: »

Just to update/give some more information. One individual mentioned that I have been like this for 2 years - which is completely false. I started at 250lbs in June 2012. I lost weight very well until about 4-6 months ago. This is when the dizziness began. I have still been losing weight over the last 6 months (10lbs in fact) but I have been dizzy when standing and performance has been decreasing.

So the update - I have increased my calories over the last week and a half and the dizziness has been non-exsistant. Unfortunately, the scale has not moved as well. So I mean, obviously I was not taking in as much calories as I thought and/or I was burning more than what my Bodymedia was telling me. I am going to be eating at maintenance or -100 below maintenance (according to bodymedia which I will now assume it is underestimating my calorie burn) and see how that goes.

Oh yeah, someone also asked how much I have lost (I hate how these new forums have no ticker!) I am down 81lbs from 250lbs.

I'm glad you're feeling better. There are some other good suggestions here--making sure you're drinking enough water and checking with your doctor. Hormone fluctuations and all kinds of other things, like sinus infections (to which I am prone), can cause dizziness. But I suspect that in your case and in mine, it was longtime eating at a deficit (I'd been at it for a year and a half at that point) that ultimately caused it. Your plan of running a very small deficit sounds like a good one, especially since you seem like a good tracker. Also, a week and a half isn't really that long, statistically speaking--when you look at a month or two of data, you may find that your maintenance is higher than it seems now.

I will be doing a lot more of "refeed" weeks from now on for sure. Probaby a good week every 2nd month or so. I am just glad the symptoms have gone away. BTW - I have always been drinking tons of water (2.2L or more per day)...which at times, I was starting to think it may have been making the situation worse.

I have never been in major calorie deficits. Most days I eat 1800-2000 calories. Now I am going to try sticking to 2100 (as this last week and a half, I have been eating at 2400+)

All trial and error.

Maitria

How's your sodium? Too little can cause you to feel unwell and fatigued.