Too few calories + too much exercise = no weight loss?
_lyndseybrooke_
Posts: 2,561 Member
I'm not new to cutting and I've been lifting heavy for a little over a year. A few months ago, I was eating 1850 cal a day and losing about a half a pound a week. At that time, I was lifting four days a week for about an hour and doing one 60-minute cardio session per week. I measure/weigh everything I eat and log everything as accurately/consistently as I can.
I switched to maintenance in November and stayed at about 122 pounds until I started a quick eight week summer cut program that I designed in March. The goal was to lose about a pound a week, or drop down to 115 pounds by the end. I'm now eating about 1700 cal per day and, in addition to the aforementioned mentioned exercise, I added 30 minutes of cardio to my lifting days.
This is the end of the week six and I have only lost about 2.5 pounds. I now realize that I'm pushing my body too much and I need to cool it on the extra exercise. My body constantly hurts, my energy level is on the ground, and I'm even starting to feel low/depressed.
I've never had a problem losing weight before, and this time it seems that math is not on my side. I was maintaining at 2150 cal a day, yet not losing much on 1700 cal a day even with extra exercise. I realized today that I'm doing at least eight hours of exercise per week, lifting heavy for half and moderate/intense cardio for half. And eating at a 20% deficit of my old TDEE. My body is telling me to slow down, so I will.
However, it's extremely frustrating that I might go the entire eight weeks and only drop a fraction of my goal. Is it possible that I was over training and it was sabotaging my weight-loss? If so, what does this mean as far as transitioning back to maintenance? Am I going to probably gain weight at my old maintenance because I mistakingly pushed my body too much during this cut? It's not as if I'm starving myself, so I just don't get what's going on with my body and why it won't cooperate or let go of these last few pounds.
Words of wisdom are appreciated.
I switched to maintenance in November and stayed at about 122 pounds until I started a quick eight week summer cut program that I designed in March. The goal was to lose about a pound a week, or drop down to 115 pounds by the end. I'm now eating about 1700 cal per day and, in addition to the aforementioned mentioned exercise, I added 30 minutes of cardio to my lifting days.
This is the end of the week six and I have only lost about 2.5 pounds. I now realize that I'm pushing my body too much and I need to cool it on the extra exercise. My body constantly hurts, my energy level is on the ground, and I'm even starting to feel low/depressed.
I've never had a problem losing weight before, and this time it seems that math is not on my side. I was maintaining at 2150 cal a day, yet not losing much on 1700 cal a day even with extra exercise. I realized today that I'm doing at least eight hours of exercise per week, lifting heavy for half and moderate/intense cardio for half. And eating at a 20% deficit of my old TDEE. My body is telling me to slow down, so I will.
However, it's extremely frustrating that I might go the entire eight weeks and only drop a fraction of my goal. Is it possible that I was over training and it was sabotaging my weight-loss? If so, what does this mean as far as transitioning back to maintenance? Am I going to probably gain weight at my old maintenance because I mistakingly pushed my body too much during this cut? It's not as if I'm starving myself, so I just don't get what's going on with my body and why it won't cooperate or let go of these last few pounds.
Words of wisdom are appreciated.
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Replies
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TLDR?0
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Only read the subject line. The subject line is wrong. Too few calories and too much exercise leads to rapid weight loss, and a LOT of the lost weight will be lean body mass. This isn't conjecture, there is tons of evidence demonstrating this.
Eat too little, exercise too much -> rapid body weight loss, guaranteed.
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If your body is hurting and your energy is low, it's time to take somewhat of a break. If you switch to maintenance I don't see why you'd gain. I would say do a little recovery and recoup and then re-start your 8 week plan instead of feeling like you failed this time. Not a failure. Just a back-up, re-route, and start over at another date.0
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Only read the subject line. The subject line is wrong. Too few calories and too much exercise leads to rapid weight loss, and a LOT of the lost weight will be lean body mass. This isn't conjecture, there is tons of evidence demonstrating this.
Eat too little, exercise too much -> rapid body weight loss, guaranteed.
If you read past that, your answer might have actually been useful to me.0 -
Seems like they might be in starvation mode if they're not eating enough calories and are burning even more.0
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LyndseyLovesToLift wrote: »Only read the subject line. The subject line is wrong. Too few calories and too much exercise leads to rapid weight loss, and a LOT of the lost weight will be lean body mass. This isn't conjecture, there is tons of evidence demonstrating this.
Eat too little, exercise too much -> rapid body weight loss, guaranteed.
If you read past that, your answer might have actually been useful to me.
If you had been concise, I might have.
If you want other people's help, it's your responsibility to engage them, not theirs to wade through TL;DR.
:drinker:
Bottom line: you aren't doing what you think you're doing. Good luck!0 -
It looks like you are already pretty lean so the weight loss gets tougher. In addition, I think the deficit you are shooting for may be extremely stressful on you at your current weight which may result in increased cortisol and water retention (just a hypothesis).0
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The stress you are putting your body through is not good. Cruise on over to lyle mcdonald's website and pick up some good tips for a cut -0
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AgentOrangeJuice wrote: »Seems like they might be in starvation mode if they're not eating enough calories and are burning even more.
Not eating enough calories to do what? Lose weight?
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No.AgentOrangeJuice wrote: »Seems like they might be in starvation mode if they're not eating enough calories and are burning even more.
I don't have any words of wisdom. It sounds like what you're doing should have had better results than what you're seeing.
The only thing I can think of is to bump calories so that your pains, energy level, and mindset improve and see if that's still low enough to generate any fat loss.0 -
LyndseyLovesToLift wrote: »Only read the subject line. The subject line is wrong. Too few calories and too much exercise leads to rapid weight loss, and a LOT of the lost weight will be lean body mass. This isn't conjecture, there is tons of evidence demonstrating this.
Eat too little, exercise too much -> rapid body weight loss, guaranteed.
If you read past that, your answer might have actually been useful to me.
If you had been concise, I might have.
If you want other people's help, it's your responsibility to engage them, not theirs to wade through TL;DR.
:drinker:
Bottom line: you aren't doing what you think you're doing. Good luck!
Notice the question mark at the end. I'm eating at what SHOULD be a deficit based on my TDEE (as I explained in what you didn't bother to read), I'm doing a lot more exercise than before (as I explained in what you didn't bother to read), and yet I'm not losing as much as I SHOULD be (as I explained in what you didn't bother to read). I'm not claiming that my subject line is a fact. If I was, it would end with a period. Grammar.
I'm not a newbie, so you can keep your condescension to yourself. Thanks.0 -
It sounds like you need a deload week. Not just with eating at maintenance but also your training. You don't need to take it completely off from weights/cardio but cut it back about 60%.
In that year of training/dieting, have you ever done a deload before?0 -
LyndseyLovesToLift wrote: »Only read the subject line. The subject line is wrong. Too few calories and too much exercise leads to rapid weight loss, and a LOT of the lost weight will be lean body mass. This isn't conjecture, there is tons of evidence demonstrating this.
Eat too little, exercise too much -> rapid body weight loss, guaranteed.
If you read past that, your answer might have actually been useful to me.
If you had been concise, I might have.
If you want other people's help, it's your responsibility to engage them, not theirs to wade through TL;DR.
:drinker:
Bottom line: you aren't doing what you think you're doing. Good luck!
Then don't comment on it. No one forced you to participate.0 -
girlviernes wrote: »It looks like you are already pretty lean so the weight loss gets tougher. In addition, I think the deficit you are shooting for may be extremely stressful on you at your current weight which may result in increased cortisol and water retention (just a hypothesis).
This ^^
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/why-big-caloric-deficits-and-lots-of-activity-can-hurt-fat-loss.html/0 -
AgentOrangeJuice wrote: »Seems like they might be in starvation mode if they're not eating enough calories and are burning even more.
nope, starvation mode is a myth ..0 -
My best guess?
Since weight is not just fat, I think a lot of the "I didn't treat my body so well in order to get a bigger deficit, but didn't lose, and then treated myself better, with a smaller deficit, and started losing again!" things are related to the non-fat parts of your weight. If you are run-down and your muscles need extra water for repair and so on, the scale may not be reflecting your weight loss properly.
Honestly, your 1700 is almost 1 lb a week anyway, right? Why the extra cardio on lifting days? (You went from 1 hour of cardio a week to, if I'm reading you right, 3, and added it TO lifting days, which is tough, so that's a huge increase.)
Try sticking out the 1700, back off on the new exercise. Maybe add an extra rest day, since you may need one. And don't worry so much about your deadline. It will suck if it takes an extra couple weeks, or if you don't get as low as you wanted on this cut, but better to be well taken care of so you can kick *kitten* in the gym than how it sounds like you've been feeling lately.
Reason: My theory is that you're losing the fat just fine, but you're overworking yourself, and it's showing in water retention and energy levels (so you may burn less) and digestion and such. Back off, aim to feel better, and see if your weight catches up as you get more energetic and feeling more like your usual self. If not, then something else is up in your numbers -- but you sound to me like that shouldn't really be the case, as you've been at this awhile, and were successfully maintaining recently.0 -
You weigh 122lbs. Unless you're incredibly short, I imagine you're pretty thin. If you've been lifting for over a year I expect you are in good shape. So weight loss will be slow, although I think 2.5lbs in 6 weeks is good when you don't have much to lose (if any).
I weigh a lot more than you do and I exercise a lot/eat at a deficit and I lose quite slowly on the scale, but my clothes fit so much better. Take measurements and don't get disheartened.0 -
Yeah, take a break for a week. If you are hurting a lot you may have a lot of water being retained in your muscles.0
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if your were losing half pound per week on 1850 and wanted to lose a pound per week, why were you not eating at 1600 instead of the 1700 that you went to???
1850 - 250 = 1600 ....0 -
joejccva71 wrote: »It sounds like you need a deload week. Not just with eating at maintenance but also your training. You don't need to take it completely off from weights/cardio but cut it back about 60%.
In that year of training/dieting, have you ever done a deload before?
I haven't deloaded in maybe two months, but I usually deload on my main lifts every four weeks. I kind of cheat, though, because I don't deload on accessory lifts. I plan to do a deload next week, cut out the extra cardio, keep my macros the same, and see what happens.
Thank you.0 -
DawnieB1977 wrote: »You weigh 122lbs. Unless you're incredibly short, I imagine you're pretty thin. If you've been lifting for over a year I expect you are in good shape. So weight loss will be slow, although I think 2.5lbs in 6 weeks is good when you don't have much to lose (if any).
I weigh a lot more than you do and I exercise a lot/eat at a deficit and I lose quite slowly on the scale, but my clothes fit so much better. Take measurements and don't get disheartened.
Hm...where did you get that information? I weigh 119-120 lbs and I'm 5'5", so not really incredibly short.0 -
if your were losing half pound per week on 1850 and wanted to lose a pound per week, why were you not eating at 1600 instead of the 1700 that you went to???
1850 - 250 = 1600 ....
Because I increased my cardio as well...
Regardless, I'm not even losing .5 lbs a week, so something's still not right.0 -
My thoughts, you increased your exercise and dropped your calories at the same time, both large changes to your routine that might have large impacts on the weight you see on the scale. 6 weeks is usually a good indicator, but I am wondering if you still have a mish mash of maskings going on here. As mentioned before, a deload or light exercise week might show you some losses you have not seen yet.0
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Have you had your body fat measured? I am wondering why you are trying to get to a specific weight instead a specific body fat %.0
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Also Lyndsey remember that as you lose, your TDEE drops. You said you were eating 1700. I don't know how active your lifestyle still is, but it might be time to reevaluate how much you burn also.
The best way I got over a "stall" or a "hump" i guess. Not really what word is appropriate to use lol. I either took a deload week, I ate at maintenance or I dropped carbs down to almost nothing for a week, then did a refeed day where I ate like 1000g of carbs. Then went back to dieting and it worked.
Just different things. You'll have to play around with it when your bf% gets lower.0 -
Maybe you are burning fewer calories with the additional cardio you are doing than you thought. Additionally, how long does it usually take for you to see changes on the scale? Sometimes I have a week or two lag. In your case if you had increased glycogen and water retention initially with the changes to your exercise routine, you might see some larger loses soon.0
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LyndseyLovesToLift wrote: »I'm not new to cutting and I've been lifting heavy for a little over a year. A few months ago, I was eating 1850 cal a day and losing about a half a pound a week. At that time, I was lifting four days a week for about an hour and doing one 60-minute cardio session per week. I measure/weigh everything I eat and log everything as accurately/consistently as I can.
I switched to maintenance in November and stayed at about 122 pounds until I started a quick eight week summer cut program that I designed in March. The goal was to lose about a pound a week, or drop down to 115 pounds by the end. I'm now eating about 1700 cal per day and, in addition to the aforementioned mentioned exercise, I added 30 minutes of cardio to my lifting days.
This is the end of the week six and I have only lost about 2.5 pounds. I now realize that I'm pushing my body too much and I need to cool it on the extra exercise. My body constantly hurts, my energy level is on the ground, and I'm even starting to feel low/depressed.
I've never had a problem losing weight before, and this time it seems that math is not on my side. I was maintaining at 2150 cal a day, yet not losing much on 1700 cal a day even with extra exercise. I realized today that I'm doing at least eight hours of exercise per week, lifting heavy for half and moderate/intense cardio for half. And eating at a 20% deficit of my old TDEE. My body is telling me to slow down, so I will.
However, it's extremely frustrating that I might go the entire eight weeks and only drop a fraction of my goal. Is it possible that I was over training and it was sabotaging my weight-loss? If so, what does this mean as far as transitioning back to maintenance? Am I going to probably gain weight at my old maintenance because I mistakingly pushed my body too much during this cut? It's not as if I'm starving myself, so I just don't get what's going on with my body and why it won't cooperate or let go of these last few pounds.
Words of wisdom are appreciated.
That's almost a half pound a week.0 -
LyndseyLovesToLift wrote: »DawnieB1977 wrote: »You weigh 122lbs. Unless you're incredibly short, I imagine you're pretty thin. If you've been lifting for over a year I expect you are in good shape. So weight loss will be slow, although I think 2.5lbs in 6 weeks is good when you don't have much to lose (if any).
I weigh a lot more than you do and I exercise a lot/eat at a deficit and I lose quite slowly on the scale, but my clothes fit so much better. Take measurements and don't get disheartened.
Hm...where did you get that information? I weigh 119-120 lbs and I'm 5'5", so not really incredibly short.
You put you weigh 122 and want to get to 115 in your first post. I said 'UNLESS' you're incredibly short as i didn't know your height, which I do now, so 119-120lbs at 5'5 is pretty small, I think most people would agree, therefore you don't have much to lose.
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Liftng4Lis wrote: »LyndseyLovesToLift wrote: »I'm not new to cutting and I've been lifting heavy for a little over a year. A few months ago, I was eating 1850 cal a day and losing about a half a pound a week. At that time, I was lifting four days a week for about an hour and doing one 60-minute cardio session per week. I measure/weigh everything I eat and log everything as accurately/consistently as I can.
I switched to maintenance in November and stayed at about 122 pounds until I started a quick eight week summer cut program that I designed in March. The goal was to lose about a pound a week, or drop down to 115 pounds by the end. I'm now eating about 1700 cal per day and, in addition to the aforementioned mentioned exercise, I added 30 minutes of cardio to my lifting days.
This is the end of the week six and I have only lost about 2.5 pounds. I now realize that I'm pushing my body too much and I need to cool it on the extra exercise. My body constantly hurts, my energy level is on the ground, and I'm even starting to feel low/depressed.
I've never had a problem losing weight before, and this time it seems that math is not on my side. I was maintaining at 2150 cal a day, yet not losing much on 1700 cal a day even with extra exercise. I realized today that I'm doing at least eight hours of exercise per week, lifting heavy for half and moderate/intense cardio for half. And eating at a 20% deficit of my old TDEE. My body is telling me to slow down, so I will.
However, it's extremely frustrating that I might go the entire eight weeks and only drop a fraction of my goal. Is it possible that I was over training and it was sabotaging my weight-loss? If so, what does this mean as far as transitioning back to maintenance? Am I going to probably gain weight at my old maintenance because I mistakingly pushed my body too much during this cut? It's not as if I'm starving myself, so I just don't get what's going on with my body and why it won't cooperate or let go of these last few pounds.
Words of wisdom are appreciated.
That's almost a half pound a week.
but she wanted to lose a pound a week for her "eight week summer cut"...
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LyndseyLovesToLift wrote: »if your were losing half pound per week on 1850 and wanted to lose a pound per week, why were you not eating at 1600 instead of the 1700 that you went to???
1850 - 250 = 1600 ....
Because I increased my cardio as well...
Regardless, I'm not even losing .5 lbs a week, so something's still not right.
if you increased cardio and continued weight training you probably have some water retention going on..
also, as others mentioned as you lose weight your TDEE is going to be lower than it was at maintenance. So if you are basing your TDEE on maintenance level then you are probably over consuming for one pound per week loss.
And, as body fat % decreases it becomes harder and harder to drop additional body fat and weight...0
This discussion has been closed.
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