At my wits end, really need some advice.
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I was eating at 2000 and losing around 1 and a half pounds to 2 pounds a week right up till I lost around 28 pounds, I then stalled for a week completely, upped my calories to 2600 and lost another 4 pounds in the following 3 weeks. There are several posts a day of people saying they can't lose weight while eating 1200 calories and I have seen many posts of people saying they stalled and then started losing again when they upped their calories by 400-800.No study has ever found a point at which anyone loses more by eating more. It becomes less efficient to reduce intake at some point (removing 10 more calories might only add 7 to the deficit as metabolism slows) but it never starts going the other way. NEVER.
There are also several saying its not so and offering experience in the other direction. The assertion you make is only supported by unproven internet postings. The other position in the debate has unproven internet postings also and has science and studies to back it up. For some reason, every time one of these people who says they will gain weight or stall at a lower calorie intake is placed in a clinical environment and every calorie of food eaten and effort expended is recorded it doesn't happen.
I have made some of my friends who are "trying" to lose weight upset when they asked me what is working so well for me this time (I have had failed attempts to lose in the past). I tell them the truth - this time I am really doing what I say I am doing. When I cut out snacks I really cut them out; I have none at all. This time whenever I go out to get some exercise I run for miles (lately it is usually 5 or more) and I do this 3 times a week. I do some dumb bell work every day. I look them in the eye and say that every plan I have tried in the past would have worked if I were this faithful to it. They often infer correctly that I am also saying that they are not really doing what they say they are doing.
People are more likely to stick to a plan if it is easy; I get that. A smaller deficit is easier. Pretending it is somehow better through mumbo jumbo bro-science rubs me the wrong way.
You are missing my point completely, my TDEE is 3600+ (I do intense weight work 6 days a week for 1 and a half to 2 hours each day) and trolleys for 30-90 minutes 4 times a week, this would have made me in a deficit of 1600 calories yet I stopped losing at that huge a deficit? Then by upping my calories to a deficit of 900-1000 I then started to continue to lose weight, I am just stating my point from personal experience, it was not easier for me, I didn't enjoy eating more at that point and it wasn't easier but I still lost more weight by having less of a deficit. I also stated this has happened to A LOT of people who have previously stated that they were losing weight by eating 1200 calories. They then upped it to around 1600-1800 and started losing again. Bodies do not like having exceptionally small amounts of nutrition, so go continue telling 18 year old females to have a net of 800 calories to lose weight is safe
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1) When they say 1 cup of lettuce = XX calories.... do you ever wonder if they placed the lettuce in the cup loosely or packed it in as tightly as possible? The volume is different either way, even though you've used a real measuring cup.
2) Unless you are using a heart rate monitor and an accurate formula .... do you ever wonder if you're burning more or less calories?
And while we're questioning it... there are other factors to consider when trying to lose weight.
1. That is exactly why I use scales.
2. I watch my body for changes and readjust my calorie intake accordingly 0 -
It seems that you have replaced a lot of your fat with lean muscle. Muscle has a higher energy requirement than fat so although you are eating the same amount you are not losing weight because that's how much energy your newly toned body requires. Have you ever had the fat content of your body measured with one of those machines that passes a small current through your body? The "average" woman has about 25% fat in their body. I had mine measured today at 34.9%. Although my BMI is in the healthy range I have the wrong ratio so need to lose some of the fat and replace it with muscle. Body builders often have a BMI that puts them in the clinically obese category but have a very low fat percentage so are in fact healthy. See if you can find out what your percentage fat is. Perhaps if you want to lose weight you need to cut down on both calories and exercise.0
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You are missing my point completely, my TDEE is 3600+ (I do intense weight work 6 days a week for 1 and a half to 2 hours each day) and trolleys for 30-90 minutes 4 times a week, this would have made me in a deficit of 1600 calories yet I stopped losing at that huge a deficit? Then by upping my calories to a deficit of 900-1000 I then started to continue to lose weight, I am just stating my point from personal experience, it was not easier for me, I didn't enjoy eating more at that point and it wasn't easier but I still lost more weight by having less of a deficit. I also stated this has happened to A LOT of people who have previously stated that they were losing weight by eating 1200 calories. They then upped it to around 1600-1800 and started losing again. Bodies do not like having exceptionally small amounts of nutrition, so go continue telling 18 year old females to have a net of 800 calories to lose weight is safe
And you are missing mine. I think the reason no one has ever been able to demonstrate this in a clinical setting is abundantly clear.0 -
You are missing my point completely, my TDEE is 3600+ (I do intense weight work 6 days a week for 1 and a half to 2 hours each day) and trolleys for 30-90 minutes 4 times a week, this would have made me in a deficit of 1600 calories yet I stopped losing at that huge a deficit? Then by upping my calories to a deficit of 900-1000 I then started to continue to lose weight, I am just stating my point from personal experience, it was not easier for me, I didn't enjoy eating more at that point and it wasn't easier but I still lost more weight by having less of a deficit. I also stated this has happened to A LOT of people who have previously stated that they were losing weight by eating 1200 calories. They then upped it to around 1600-1800 and started losing again. Bodies do not like having exceptionally small amounts of nutrition, so go continue telling 18 year old females to have a net of 800 calories to lose weight is safe
And you are missing mine. I think the reason no one has ever been able to demonstrate this in a clinical setting is abundantly clear.
Alright, go on the forums and find me someone successful on losing 80lb+ by having a net of 800 calories.0 -
You are missing my point completely, my TDEE is 3600+ (I do intense weight work 6 days a week for 1 and a half to 2 hours each day) and trolleys for 30-90 minutes 4 times a week, this would have made me in a deficit of 1600 calories yet I stopped losing at that huge a deficit? Then by upping my calories to a deficit of 900-1000 I then started to continue to lose weight, I am just stating my point from personal experience, it was not easier for me, I didn't enjoy eating more at that point and it wasn't easier but I still lost more weight by having less of a deficit. I also stated this has happened to A LOT of people who have previously stated that they were losing weight by eating 1200 calories. They then upped it to around 1600-1800 and started losing again. Bodies do not like having exceptionally small amounts of nutrition, so go continue telling 18 year old females to have a net of 800 calories to lose weight is safe
And you are missing mine. I think the reason no one has ever been able to demonstrate this in a clinical setting is abundantly clear.
Alright, go on the forums and find me someone successful on losing 80lb+ by having a net of 800 calories.
Even more obvious you are missing the point. I don't accept forum posts as proof of anything. If you do, then you have to stop arguing because I have made a forum post that says that "eat more to lose" is wrong. Show me a peer reviewed study where it is proven that someone can lose weight at a given calorie consumption level, drop to a lower calorie level and stop losing weight or where the person wasn't losing weight and increased calories and began to lose.0 -
You are missing my point completely, my TDEE is 3600+ (I do intense weight work 6 days a week for 1 and a half to 2 hours each day) and trolleys for 30-90 minutes 4 times a week, this would have made me in a deficit of 1600 calories yet I stopped losing at that huge a deficit? Then by upping my calories to a deficit of 900-1000 I then started to continue to lose weight, I am just stating my point from personal experience, it was not easier for me, I didn't enjoy eating more at that point and it wasn't easier but I still lost more weight by having less of a deficit. I also stated this has happened to A LOT of people who have previously stated that they were losing weight by eating 1200 calories. They then upped it to around 1600-1800 and started losing again. Bodies do not like having exceptionally small amounts of nutrition, so go continue telling 18 year old females to have a net of 800 calories to lose weight is safe
And you are missing mine. I think the reason no one has ever been able to demonstrate this in a clinical setting is abundantly clear.
Alright, go on the forums and find me someone successful on losing 80lb+ by having a net of 800 calories.
People who have weight loss surgery typically lose that much or more. And see significant health improvement while doing so.0 -
People are not understanding that you need to dial in your weight loss while eating as many calories as you can and still lose. Then when you plateau, you have more room to drop more calories and still not starve. If you start by eating say 8-900 cals per day sure you'll lose weight, and physically suffer and eventually have a metabolic shutdown where your body is used to running on such little calories.
So it's better to find your TDEE, and subtract 3-500cals and eat that amount, then recalculate every 5lbs weight lost.0 -
People are not understanding that you need to dial in your weight loss while eating as many calories as you can and still lose. Then when you plateau, you have more room to drop more calories and still not starve. If you start by eating say 8-900 cals per day sure you'll lose weight, and physically suffer and eventually have a metabolic shutdown where your body is used to running on such little calories.
So it's better to find your TDEE, and subtract 3-500cals and eat that amount, then recalculate every 5lbs weight lost.
Oh no, the dreaded plateau...
Also never happens in clinical settings. People with normal to high BF% eating at a substantial calorie deficit do not plateau. They continue losing weight until they get to a below normal BF% (like the MN study participants) and then crazy stuff does happen or they increase their intake or they decrease their burn. There are a few elephants in the room that we often all too politely ignore...0 -
Go tell this individual they needs to lower their calories thenOh no, the dreaded plateau...
Also never happens in clinical settings. People with normal to high BF% eating at a substantial calorie deficit do not plateau. They continue losing weight until they get to a below normal BF% (like the MN study participants) and then crazy stuff does happen or they increase their intake or they decrease their burn. There are a few elephants in the room that we often all too politely ignore...
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1007865-not-sure-what-i-am-doing-wrong
I don't think there is a problem with people lowering their calories to around a 1000 calorie deficit, it's when people on here are litteraly on a 1500+ deficit that I think they should eat a little more, the OP is 5'7 at 13 stone so should not be eating ridiculously low calories...0 -
Go tell this guy he needs to lower his calories thenOh no, the dreaded plateau...
Also never happens in clinical settings. People with normal to high BF% eating at a substantial calorie deficit do not plateau. They continue losing weight until they get to a below normal BF% (like the MN study participants) and then crazy stuff does happen or they increase their intake or they decrease their burn. There are a few elephants in the room that we often all too politely ignore...
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1007865-not-sure-what-i-am-doing-wrong
I don't think there is a problem with people lowering their calories to around a 1000 calorie deficit, it's when people on here are litteraly on a 1500+ deficit that I think they should eat a little more, the OP is 5'7 at 13 stone so should not be eating ridiculously low calories...
That profile is for a female.
Unfortunately, as do so many on MFP, they keep their diary private and so it is next to impossible to make any reasonable suggestions.
For instance they may guess at the weight of food and so underestimate the real total.
So many people on MFP write threads saying they cannot lose any weight and yet when you go to see their diary, it is private, impossible to comment on those.0 -
Go tell this guy he needs to lower his calories thenOh no, the dreaded plateau...
Also never happens in clinical settings. People with normal to high BF% eating at a substantial calorie deficit do not plateau. They continue losing weight until they get to a below normal BF% (like the MN study participants) and then crazy stuff does happen or they increase their intake or they decrease their burn. There are a few elephants in the room that we often all too politely ignore...
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1007865-not-sure-what-i-am-doing-wrong
I don't think there is a problem with people lowering their calories to around a 1000 calorie deficit, it's when people on here are litteraly on a 1500+ deficit that I think they should eat a little more, the OP is 5'7 at 13 stone so should not be eating ridiculously low calories...
An anonymous post by someone who joined that day, did not fill out the profile and never posted in any other thread besides that one? That's your evidence? I hope you don't use the internet for investment advice. You take too much at face value from postings. You used the word "literally" to describe the information you have surmised about deficits people are eating at.0 -
Go tell this guy he needs to lower his calories thenOh no, the dreaded plateau...
Also never happens in clinical settings. People with normal to high BF% eating at a substantial calorie deficit do not plateau. They continue losing weight until they get to a below normal BF% (like the MN study participants) and then crazy stuff does happen or they increase their intake or they decrease their burn. There are a few elephants in the room that we often all too politely ignore...
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1007865-not-sure-what-i-am-doing-wrong
I don't think there is a problem with people lowering their calories to around a 1000 calorie deficit, it's when people on here are litteraly on a 1500+ deficit that I think they should eat a little more, the OP is 5'7 at 13 stone so should not be eating ridiculously low calories...
An anonymous post by someone who joined that day, did not fill out the profile and never posted in any other thread besides that one? That's your evidence? I hope you don't use the internet for investment advice. You take too much at face value from postings. You used the word "literally" to describe the information you have surmised about deficits people are eating at.
Says they joined January, not today. You have not filled out your profile. And I've seen you've commented on many posts just like that one saying it is not proof of anything. It certainly works for a strangely large amount of people, especially ones that have been eating very low calories. Please stop trying to sound so clever in front of everyone with your facts and go and tell more teenage girls to lower their calories to 1200 0 -
I know the frustration - I am a healthy eater, very conscience about what I eat. I have a good work out routine and in addition work 2x/week with a personal trainer.
In November (2012) I started to plateau. However it was more than a plateau as it is now June and the scale has not budged. My trainer and I have tried everything, to jump start my weight loss again with zero results. At his recommendation, I went to see an endocrinologist and we found that I have zero Vitamin D in my body. There was no reason why based on my excercise and eating habits my weight should have stalled, or even on the rare occassions I'd have excessive weight gain following the same routines. I am now on a very high dose of Vitamin D and was told it could take up to 8 weeks to see any changes. Something to consider....0 -
I know the frustration - I am a healthy eater, very conscience about what I eat. I have a good work out routine and in addition work 2x/week with a personal trainer.
In November (2012) I started to plateau. However it was more than a plateau as it is now June and the scale has not budged. My trainer and I have tried everything, to jump start my weight loss again with zero results. At his recommendation, I went to see an endocrinologist and we found that I have zero Vitamin D in my body. There was no reason why based on my excercise and eating habits my weight should have stalled, or even on the rare occassions I'd have excessive weight gain following the same routines. I am now on a very high dose of Vitamin D and was told it could take up to 8 weeks to see any changes. Something to consider....0 -
I have recently , about a month ago started taking a Vit D supplement. I know if you are deficient it can cause fatigue.0
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Here's food for thought:
If you over-eat 20 calories a day, you will gain 2 pounds in one year.
If you over-eat 20 calories a day, you will gain 50 pounds in 25 years.
...... How easy it might be to under or over estimate your calorie intake when you take a few things into consideration...
1) When they say 1 cup of lettuce = XX calories.... do you ever wonder if they placed the lettuce in the cup loosely or packed it in as tightly as possible? The volume is different either way, even though you've used a real measuring cup.
2) Unless you are using a heart rate monitor and an accurate formula .... do you ever wonder if you're burning more or less calories?
And while we're questioning it... there are other factors to consider when trying to lose weight.
1) What about hormones? What if you are insulin resistant and don't know it? What about cortisol? You know the hormone that increases when you're stressed and makes you gain weight whenever you so much as look at food. (Not really, but if you're super stressed then it just makes losing weight that much more difficult).
2) What about sleep?
It seems like you need to be a nutritional expert/chemist/biologist/crazy mad scientist to really know what's going on inside your body. Doctors go to school for years and years to study the human body and they still haven't figured it out.
I don't know the answers, but I think it's interesting that so many people think they do. Just an observation. Good luck and I hope you find the "right" answer soon.
Those are some good points, I am a highly stressed person and am prone to putting on fat around my middle as a result and my sleep is affected as well. My insulin is fine as I had a load of blood tests in April. I have huge problems with fatigue and muscle pain for years and no one knows why.0 -
As I have mentioned already I only started actually using MFP on Friday ,although I signed up to it a while ago, I was finishing my subscription to Weight Watchers first. So if I made my diary public I would rather wait a couple of weeks so it gives a more information.0
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You have to "Roller Coaster" your calories as I have coined it...when I put a similar client on a caloric fun ride of 2000 , 1500, 1800,
2200, 1300 etc. weight loss water loss and fat loss occurred..The problem I see with alot of posts here are people pretty much sticking to 1200 calories a day or 1800 etc. But everyday your activity changes...so you have to eat to support your activity! I hope this helps
Happy Sunday from NYC:)
Kristian Rocco
I think goodtimezzzz has it right. I think when you lock yourself into X amount of exercise, and X amount of food, you will have some trouble losing at times. I eat like a crazy person some days. Shoot Saturday I think I was close to 6000 calories. I'm not suggesting that everyone eat that much, but I tend to lose more weight when I my calories go up and down throughout a period.
I'm a firm believer in switching things... EVERYTHING up. The OP says she does some workouts that are varied, but the point is switch it up. One day go in and just lift weights, another day do some sore of cardio, another day do some kind of routine or workout. Or do one kind of thing for a period of time and then switch to something else. But they should be very different. Not necessarily just doing back one day, chest the next, etc... Even the times of day and durations of your workouts should change.0 -
Go tell this guy he needs to lower his calories thenOh no, the dreaded plateau...
Also never happens in clinical settings. People with normal to high BF% eating at a substantial calorie deficit do not plateau. They continue losing weight until they get to a below normal BF% (like the MN study participants) and then crazy stuff does happen or they increase their intake or they decrease their burn. There are a few elephants in the room that we often all too politely ignore...
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1007865-not-sure-what-i-am-doing-wrong
I don't think there is a problem with people lowering their calories to around a 1000 calorie deficit, it's when people on here are litteraly on a 1500+ deficit that I think they should eat a little more, the OP is 5'7 at 13 stone so should not be eating ridiculously low calories...
An anonymous post by someone who joined that day, did not fill out the profile and never posted in any other thread besides that one? That's your evidence? I hope you don't use the internet for investment advice. You take too much at face value from postings. You used the word "literally" to describe the information you have surmised about deficits people are eating at.
Says they joined January, not today. You have not filled out your profile. And I've seen you've commented on many posts just like that one saying it is not proof of anything. It certainly works for a strangely large amount of people, especially ones that have been eating very low calories. Please stop trying to sound so clever in front of everyone with your facts and go and tell more teenage girls to lower their calories to 1200
I said they joined "that day" meaning the day of their one and only post which you linked to and it was in January. Joined that day, made that post, followed up in it a couple of times and never posted anything else since. It looks very much like that "person" was an ID created solely for the purpose of making a post like that. I do not know that for sure, but this topic is hotly debated and it is more than a little suspicious that someone would post only that and never anything else.
No, I haven't bothered with a full profile here. I started out using the logging here late last year but quickly abandoned it, finding other things that are working better for me. But I have continued tracking weight and following some discussions and participating in others. It does irk me that this baseless idea of "eat more to lose" is bandied about so much and that people like yourself even ask me to stop using facts to try to sound clever.
I don't suggest that everyone lower their calories to 1200. I do tell people who say they are physically active and restricting their calories but not losing weight to try restricting further because in all likelihood their figures are wrong and their deficit is non existant or very small. The law of thermodynamics is just a theory, kinda like gravity, but I think it does apply to everyone. And yes I may sound like a broken record but there is not a single medically verified case of someone increasing calories and losing more weight. Pointing to posts as suspect as the one you linked really makes me wonder what the motive of the disinformation campaign is. Very strange.0
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