Correct calorie deficit

stay_co

Just curious what everyone on here thinks. I've perused the boards enough to know there are mixed thoughts on if you can stall weight loss by not eating enough (meaning too MUCH of a calorie deficit). Is it possible to stall weight loss by not eating enough? If a deficit is a deficit (as I've seen repeated on here many times before), how is this explained? I'm looking for real ideas and suggestions, so bring them on!

I'm 5'5", hovering at 140lbs and would like to lose about 10lbs. MFP set me to 1200 calories to lose 1lb/week (my job is sedentary and I do one BodyPump class and maybe one good jog (3 or so miles, around 12 min/mile - yes, that slow) a week. I even log the calories that I burn on a 30 min walk on my lunch break, if I'm able to fit one in. I've had a few friends tell me that 1200 calories is WAY too little to be eating, even though I eat all of my exercise calories back. I am not having much luck losing weight at 1200, so if that's TOO LITTLE, how is that possible? If I'm even 1 calorie below 1200, MFP yells at me for not eating enough.

Yes, I weigh/measure EVERYTHING. I zero out my food scale with each new item and I'm measuring any caloric liquids (wine one to two times a week). I even track Altoids, people. I pay attention to the suggested macros and try my best to hit protein while staying under for fat/sugar/carbs, but I'm human and sometimes I go over on those things just to satisfy a craving, but I still don't go too far over the 1200.

Sued0nim

depends ... are you logging food and exercise accurately?

How is your weight going in comparison to your goals over time

I would say to set to 0.5lb a week to lose 10lbs personally which would be a 250 calorie defecit

DemoraFairy

I found this article on the whole eating too little/starvation mode idea really good: http://www.aworkoutroutine.com/starvation-mode/ TL;DR: no, eating too little will never cause you to stop losing weight.

I would also agree that 0.5lbs a week is probably better for you. How long has it been since you stopped losing weight?

flabassmcgee

There's the rub.

It just depends. I used the generic IIFYM calculator and ate according to that, but I wasn't losing. So I kept going 100 cal lower and 100 cal lower gradually until I finally found the amount that works for my personal activity/exercise level.

shadow2soul

My thoughts:
- Exercise Calories- Your burn might not be as high as what you are logging and as such this is causing you to eat at maintenance or at least close enough to it. Try 75% for awhile and see if you start losing. If not, than try 50%.
- Accurate logging - I know, I know. Everyone hates to hear that they might have a few inaccurate entries. Just look over your log and make sure that your not using Generic or Homemade entries from the database. These entries are typically inaccurate. Also watch out for the entries that are like "Coffee with milk", you don't know the quantity of milk that the person who created the entry used, so it's best to just log your coffee and your milk separately. (I'm adding this in, because I can't see what your logging looks like)

stay_co

It has been interesting - I'm down a total of 5lbs since I started back on this plan, but then I just hover at around 140. I say 'around' because I know that weight fluctuates within a few pounds up or down, and I only weigh on Fridays, so I TRY not to get too down when I'm up 1lb one Friday from the one previous, and just think it'll be back where it was next time I hop on - sometimes yes, sometimes no. The lowest number I have seen on the scale is 137 and the highest lately is 140.5. I update my weight to MFP each time, too, just to try to be as accurate as possible.

One thing I am working on is no longer saving around half of my calories for dinner. This is something I did a decade ago when I did Weight Watchers in order to keep me from waking up STARVING. I am trying to vary it up and do some days with 400 calories left, some with 600, then back to 450 just to keep things fresh.

I am very careful to log items separately (meaning no 'coffee and milk' - I log my coffee by ounces and measure out the tbsps of creamer I use) and I make sure the labels match what MFP says (holy CRAP there are a lot of blatantly wrong entries out there!). I'm also careful to not eat out too often, as I know that a hand-made item has the human variable in it - that mayonnaise may be 1tbsp with one person making it and 2.5 with another.

I know many users report that MFP overestimates calories burned on exercise. I'm trying to sell my Motoactv to get a Fitbit Charge HR so that I can more accurately know my heart rate and calorie burn.

Changing my goals to 0.5lb/wk puts me at 1420 calories a day. I'll give that a go and see how things change. I appreciate all of you taking the time to read and comment!

DC_TheDrivah1

I'm sort of on the newer side of actually keeping track of everything as far as calories and quantities of food to be eaten. Not so new to working out and staying in shape (not an expert though lol). But based on all my research I found out my BMR, which is the amount of calories your body burns just by you being alive! Breathing, blood pumping, heart beating, etc.. I learned that no matter what, never eat under your BMR. For example mine is 1,725 calories. I workout 5-6 days a week and my job is on the active side. So my TDEE is 2,650 calories a day. So if I were to eat 2,650 calories a day Id maintain my weight. So anything under that would be a deficit. 1 pound is roughly 3500 calories so say I eat 2,150 calories a day Id lose 1lb a week 500cal x 7. So just find an external website that calculates your BMR & TDEE and base your daily calories on that.

This is how someone explained it all to me and I did that and honestly I see more definition in my muscles, never feel like I'm very hungry and I feel great. Give it a shot.

StaciMarie1974

How long have you been around 140? What did you weigh this past Friday, and what did you weigh 4 weeks prior? Is it still a downward trend?

Weight loss WILL be slow from here. But the goal is a downward trend over time. Sounds like you're doing all you can to be accurate on your food log, but also be careful not to count too much for calories burned. A female of 140ish pounds is not going to have a higher per minute burn rate. Perhaps 8/minute jogging. Which is likely only +6 per minute when you consider MFP already takes into consideration you'd burn 1-2/minute just doing normal daily activity.

TimothyFish

A couple of things: One, no, you can't stall your weight loss by eating too little. Anyone who thinks you can doesn't know what they are talking about and are likely eating more than they realize. Two, there's no reason not to eat below your BMR. For people whose TDEE is close to their BMR, they aren't likely to lose weight unless they do eat below their BMR.

Ravenredhed

a young lady above posted a link to a workout routing. I can't express how good this individual is and how knowledgeable he is. If you have facebook, do "like" his page. He is the best in the business...hands down...is very straight up and honest. Highly recommend everyone read the article posted above from one of the ladies here....
https://www.facebook.com/AWorkoutRoutine

paxbfl

Check out this calculator: http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/. When I put your stats in, it gives me a BMR of 1338, TDEE of 1606. So I think you could safely eat a bit more. I'd suggest that you use that extra "fuel" to power a more intense workout. Google "HIIT" for ideas. Food = metabolic boost, exercise = metabolic boost. Eat more, workout more, lose more.

hisangelsong

I want to thank you Demorafairy for posting the article. http://www.aworkoutroutine.com/starvation-mode/
I really enjoyed. it opened my eyes to why I was not successful with the weight loss program mentioned.

stay_co

But it stands to reason - when eating at around 1200, why would weight loss be slower than it would (in theory) be at a higher calorie goal? These are just things I don't know. I do like the point that it could help fuel better workouts.
Also interesting, when I plugged in the same exact stats on both of the below websites, I got differing amounts. I wonder why...
http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/
http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

Both from Scooby, yet different (difference was by about 60 calories in each field, which isn't HUGE, but strange). I'm 35 and set it to 1-3 hours of light exercise.

dterpsy

I'm a similar size to you, and found my weight loss was stalling the last couple of weeks. This goes against what everyone else seems to be saying, but I did find there was a correlation between eating much less and the stall. This past week I tried to stay close to my daily goal (1200 cal) and I lost a full pound. I've had more energy and have been able to work out harder.

Asher_Ethan

DemoraFairy wrote: »

I found this article on the whole eating too little/starvation mode idea really good: http://www.aworkoutroutine.com/starvation-mode/ TL;DR: no, eating too little will never cause you to stop losing weight.

I would also agree that 0.5lbs a week is probably better for you. How long has it been since you stopped losing weight?

Great Great GREAT article... It's like, "Starvation mode for dummies," its real idiot proof.