So how long do you give it before...

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BFDeal
BFDeal Posts: 3,160 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
...you break down and cut your calories to the level of an 18 year old girl trying to lose 5lbs to impress her b/f? I've been stalled FOREVVVVVVVVER it feels like. I feel like I'm eating at a realistic level for a realistic goal. I'm not some guy trying to lose 2lbs a week with only 3lbs left to lose. I'm 5'11" 230lbs. If I lose 30lbs I'm still considered obese. But yet no losses. So it comes to to ask the guys who've tried it before, how long did you wait before you just slashed your calories to 1500 even though the general advice is to not do stuff like that? Did you get results? Were you able to recover after and return to a more normal diet?
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  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    again? Didn't we just do this the other day?
  • BWBTrish
    BWBTrish Posts: 2,817 Member
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    i see a lot of cup and tsp entrees in your diary Maybe you are eating more than you think.

    Weigh ALL your solid food and measure the liquids.
  • blazterx
    blazterx Posts: 10 Member
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    Weigh your food raw and in grams to be more accurate. Makes a pretty big difference.
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
    edited February 2015
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    Personally, every stall I've ever had was the result of undisciplined eating and/or sloppy logging. When I correct those issues, results usually show themselves within a few days, a week at the most.

    I know from your past posts that you think your logging is pretty spot on, so that's probably not helpful. But that's my experience, take it for what it's worth.


    As a side note, I've been counting calories for going on 4 years now, so I have a pretty good idea of what my maintenance calories are, at least based on how I log/estimate (remember - this is all based on estimates, so what I log as 2000 cals may or may not be the same as what you or anyone else log as 2000 cals). at 38yrs old and 5'8" tall, I cut at ~1800 cals and maintain at ~2300.
  • Khukhullatus
    Khukhullatus Posts: 361 Member
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    I'm 6'4" 240 and I'm eating 1480 calories a day and getting a few runs in. If it's within your threshold, I say go for it.
  • stevencloser
    stevencloser Posts: 8,911 Member
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    I never stalled, but since stuff can fluctuate a lot I'd wait at least a month of no loss to reduce calories further. Going down to 1500 or 1600 is not dangerous at all either if you just want to do that and can stick to it, it's a reasonable deficit at that height if you were less overweight so you'd have to reduce your intake to something along that eventually anyway.
  • BWBTrish
    BWBTrish Posts: 2,817 Member
    edited February 2015
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    When you eat in a deficit and you are sure you are, than nobody here can help you out.
    Eating less calories than you burn WILL result in weight loss.
    Always! with one exception and that is when there is a medical issue.

    So when you are really sure of this than its time for a visit to a doctor.

    There is no magic to weight loss, or gaining weight.

    I still say its in what you eat, i find it pretty amazing you can measure out every time the SAME weight for example your salsa.
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
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    FoCoAlphaNerd wrote: »
    I'm 6'4" 240 and I'm eating 1480 calories a day and getting a few runs in. If it's within your threshold, I say go for it.

    You're a male, this is not a good idea. You're adding back exercise calories right?
  • mom2ava07
    mom2ava07 Posts: 186 Member
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    BFDeal wrote: »
    TheOwlhouseDesigns wrote: »
    i see a lot of cup and tsp entrees in your diary Maybe you are eating more than you think.

    Weigh ALL your solid food and measure the liquids.
    I do. I think diary entries can be deceptive or something since I've gotten this multiple times. My cottage cheese lists itself as .5 cups (113g). So I weigh out 226g. If I go over a couple grams I'll call it 2.1, which is actually estimating high. Same for the tablespoons of salsa. 31g a tablespoon. I have these memorize because I eat these daily. The diary log still displays these as cups or tablespoons but I've weighed them though. Same for cereal, etc. I've got the weighing/measuring thing down. Liquids I use cups.

    I agree....if a serving size is 100 grams, for example I weigh out 100 grams...yet my diary entry would look as if I was just assuming it was a serving. I don't know how to log it so it's clear that I did in fact weigh the food.

  • minizebu
    minizebu Posts: 2,716 Member
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    How often are you weighing yourself? Weight naturally fluctuates on a daily basis, sometimes rather dramatically. Often, when people weigh only once a week (or less often), they catch themselves at a low point one week and at a high point the next week and wrongly perceive that they are in a plateau. If you weigh yourself on a daily basis and start keeping a trend line, then you can disregard the noise of the daily fluctuations and instead concentrate on the trajectory of the trend line. Check out John Walker's "The Hacker's Diet" (specifically the weight monitoring chapter) or a site like trendweight.com (if you don't want to keep an Excel spreadsheet on your own).
  • Khukhullatus
    Khukhullatus Posts: 361 Member
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    Liftng4Lis wrote: »
    FoCoAlphaNerd wrote: »
    I'm 6'4" 240 and I'm eating 1480 calories a day and getting a few runs in. If it's within your threshold, I say go for it.

    You're a male, this is not a good idea. You're adding back exercise calories right?

    No, I'm not. I'm listening to my body. I don't find myself in any way diminished, tired or overly hungry. I recover from workouts just as fast as I did when I was overeating. Percentage of deficit wise, which is a much more useful measurement than just the deficit number itself, it's very similar to many people on here who are trying to lose two pounds a week.
  • minizebu
    minizebu Posts: 2,716 Member
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    BFDeal wrote: »
    Liftng4Lis wrote: »
    FoCoAlphaNerd wrote: »
    I'm 6'4" 240 and I'm eating 1480 calories a day and getting a few runs in. If it's within your threshold, I say go for it.

    You're a male, this is not a good idea. You're adding back exercise calories right?

    TDEE method. I eat the same daily. I actually eat under what my supposed TDEE is.

    What specifically are you calculating as your TDEE? How much are you exercising? Perhaps you are overestimating your burn rate and therefore are not achieving as much of a deficit as you thought?

  • BWBTrish
    BWBTrish Posts: 2,817 Member
    edited February 2015
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    BFDeal wrote: »
    TheOwlhouseDesigns wrote: »
    When you eat in a deficit and you are sure you are, than nobody here can help you out.
    Eating less calories than you burn WILL result in weight loss.
    Always! with one exception and that is when there is a medical issue.

    So when you are really sure of this than its time for a visit to a doctor.

    There is no magic to weight loss, or gaining weight.

    I still say its in what you eat, i find it pretty amazing you can measure out every time the SAME weight for example your salsa.

    I mean I could make a video of me doing it. Most are 2.1 in my entries. This is to account for the 63g or 65g vs 62g (which calories wise on salsa, at 10 calories a tablespoon, is a VERY small difference).

    Well i dont have to see what you are doing.
    Your body is the perfect counter and will be the judge of that.
    I only try to help

    When you dont have a medical issue or did a wrong calculation of your TDEE your are not eating in deficit. Thats all there is too it.

    And there are ways to do it. Lower your calories with 100 or 150 for some weeks...Not a week but some weeks and see what the result is. When you keep on weighing your food the same way than you still get less calories.
    After some weeks you look at the result. Lost weight? than you ate in deficit, when no loss you were eating to much.
    Going very low in calories is up to the person itself. I dont recommend very low calories without support of a doctor.

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