Caloric deficiency?
suarez73
Posts: 33 Member
I've been following a 1200 calorie a day diet and kickboxing 5 times a week. Each session of kickboxing burns approximately 865 calories.
Overall in the last 3 weeks I've lost 9 lbs. but in the past 9 days I've only lost 1 lb.
Lately I have been eating less than my 1200 allowance and am wondering if that's the culprit...Maybe I'm not getting enough calories/nutrition. Any advice or tips?
Overall in the last 3 weeks I've lost 9 lbs. but in the past 9 days I've only lost 1 lb.
Lately I have been eating less than my 1200 allowance and am wondering if that's the culprit...Maybe I'm not getting enough calories/nutrition. Any advice or tips? 0
Replies
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Are you eating your exercise calories back? That seems like a low amount of calories. Also, your rate of loss is fine. Weight loss will always slow down and not always is consistent.5
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You are not going to lose weight each & every day. Too many factors influence the number on the scale at any given moment. Water weight from TOM/hormones, sodium, muscle repair, etc.
Do eat enough to fuel your body. Eating very low can have negative consequences like vitamin/mineral deficiencies, low energy/fatigue, damage to hair/skin/nails.
Hopefully your goal is to lose weight in a healthy, sustainable manner. That means taking care of yourself. It also requires patience. Try not to compare your weight day to day or even week to week. Look at the longer term trends to negate the temporary effects of water weight.4 -
Eating 1200 calories (or less) and burning 900 means your daily Net calories are around 300. That is an absurd amount to net. Eat some execise calories back!!
That aside; weight loss is not linear so don't worry about bumps in the road. If you are in a calorie deficit, your body is burning body fat even if the scale hasn't caught up yet.8 -
3 lbs per week in 3 weeks is actually pretty fast (recommended healthy range is 1-2 lbs per week / no more than 1% body weight per week loss if you want it to be mostly fat loss)Overall in the last 3 weeks I've lost 9 lbs.
There is nothing wrong with that. In the past 4 weeks you have lost 10 lbs which is actually really fast (not recommended for health or sustainablity). That's an average of 2.5 lbs per week. You should expect your rate of loss to slow down. Some weeks you will lose a lot, some none at all, and some you might see a slight gain. It's normal. Keep in mind however that you should expect to keep seeing a loss of 3 lbs per week or even averaging 2.5 lbs per week unless you are fairly obese. Even then it will eventually slow down. If your deficit is too large, your body will start using it's lean body mass (bones, muscle, organs, ect) for fuel as well as fat. This can cause serious health problems down the road (I don't think you have to worry just yet if you just started losing weight...faster than normal weight loss is typical in the first few weeks of calorie restriction....long term however it can be dangerous).but in the past 9 days I've only lost 1 lb.3 -
Weight fluctuates. You can't expect to lose 3 pounds a week regularly. It seems a lot by the way.
Don't go under 1200 calories a day and eat some of your exercise calories back.1 -
Its only been nine days. If you are 100% on point with your calorie consumption, then you are losing weight still.. A 1 pound weight fluction is well with in a normal weight range.. Keep in mind weight loss is NOT linear, there will be weeks when you lose and some you do not..
Keep doing what you are doing and be patience..
I will throw caution, 1200 calories seems quite low and adding to the fact that you are doing intensive exercise secessions can be a bad mix. Also going under your goal is never ever a good idea and if not eating back any exercise calories, well this too can be an issue. .2 -
Eat more.
You are at too high of a deficit.3 -
If you lost weigh every day you would disappear. 1200 isn't sufficient unless you are very petite and don't really exercise hardly ever. You lost 9 pounds rapidly because your body thinks it's starving. Do a refeed day, bump up your calories to 1500 or so, and keep at it.2
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We all hit a plateau sometimes. There is a really nice article about it under Blogs for October which explains why this happens. Honestly I recently stood still for 3 weeks and then I started losing weight again as normal. I was just glad that I was not gaining weight
. good luck 1 -
Its only been nine days. If you are 100% on point with your calorie consumption, then you are losing weight still.. A 1 pound weight fluction is well with in a normal weight range.. Keep in mind weight loss is NOT linear, there will be weeks when you lose and some you do not..
Keep doing what you are doing and be patience..
I will throw caution, 1200 calories seems quite low and adding to the fact that you are doing intensive exercise secessions can be a bad mix. Also going under your goal is never ever a good idea and if not eating back any exercise calories, well this too can be an issue. .
That's what I was thinking as well. No, I'm not eating my exercise calories back. Overall I guess I have achieved a lot in 3 weeks...Thanks!1 -
robthephotog wrote: »Eat more.
You are at too high of a deficit.
Thanks, I think you're right...0 -
Thanks everyone for your feedback. I guess I just needed to hear it and look at the overall picture. 0
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Are you using a food scale and weighing everything? No measuring cups, etc.?? Either way it sounds like you have lost a lot already and are on a good track. My only point is unless you use a scale you can get some really large swings in your intake.1
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Please explain the concept of too high a deficit. She's eating 1,200, exercising 900, and netting 300.
As long as she not consumed with hunger pangs all day and all night and feels like she's starving herself, why is this a problem? Also, the weight is coming off slowly, unlike the Biggest Loser fiasco.
Thanks in advance.
If those numbers are accurate, she's giving her body only 300kcal to survive on the entire day. That's a problem, no matter how you want to rationalize it.10 -
Eventually you will bonk on such few calories.
Have you noticed any other symptoms of under-eating such as fatigue, irritability, confusion, inability to complete a workout? Next up: hair loss, brittle fingernails, depression.
Eat, lovely! It will be good for you.4 -
Please explain the concept of too high a deficit. She's eating 1,200, exercising 900, and netting 300.
As long as she not consumed with hunger pangs all day and all night and feels like she's starving herself, why is this a problem? Also, the weight is coming off slowly, unlike the Biggest Loser fiasco.
Thanks in advance.
If those numbers are accurate, she's giving her body only 300kcal to survive on the entire day. That's a problem, no matter how you want to rationalize it.
If you have specifics, I would like to get educated.
You need specifics on why 300 net calories for the day is not a good idea?
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Chef_Barbell wrote: »Please explain the concept of too high a deficit. She's eating 1,200, exercising 900, and netting 300.
As long as she not consumed with hunger pangs all day and all night and feels like she's starving herself, why is this a problem? Also, the weight is coming off slowly, unlike the Biggest Loser fiasco.
Thanks in advance.
If those numbers are accurate, she's giving her body only 300kcal to survive on the entire day. That's a problem, no matter how you want to rationalize it.
If you have specifics, I would like to get educated.
You need specifics on why 300 net calories for the day is not a good idea?cmriverside wrote: »Eventually you will bonk on such few calories.
Have you noticed any other symptoms of under-eating such as fatigue, irritability, confusion, inability to complete a workout? Next up: hair loss, brittle fingernails, depression.
Eat, lovely! It will be good for you.
OP hasn't bonked yet.
Wouldn't eating in a way to prevent bonk be a good idea?2 -
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I've been following a 1200 calorie a day diet and kickboxing 5 times a week. Each session of kickboxing burns approximately 865 calories.
Overall in the last 3 weeks I've lost 9 lbs. but in the past 9 days I've only lost 1 lb. Lately I have been eating less than my 1200 allowance and am wondering if that's the culprit...Maybe I'm not getting enough calories/nutrition. Any advice or tips?
How tall are you and how many pounds do you want to lose in total?
At 300 net calories per day, you're running way too large a deficit. Under-eating stresses the body and mind. Stress increases cortisol, which leads to water retention, which makes it look like you're not making any progress:
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/research-review/dietary-restraint-and-cortisol-levels-research-review.html/
...a group of women who scored higher on dietary restraint scores showed elevated baseline cortisol levels. By itself this might not be problematic, but as often as not, these types of dieters are drawn to extreme approaches to dieting.
They throw in a lot of intense exercise, try to cut calories very hard (and this often backfires if disinhibition is high; when these folks break they break) and cortisol levels go through the roof. That often causes cortisol mediated water retention (there are other mechanisms for this, mind you, leptin actually inhibits cortisol release and as it drops on a diet, cortisol levels go up further). Weight and fat loss appear to have stopped or at least slowed significantly. This is compounded even further in female dieters due to the vagaries of their menstrual cycle where water balance is changing enormously week to week anyhow.
And invariably, this type of psychology responds to the stall by going even harder. They attempt to cut calories harder, they start doing more activity. The cycle continues and gets worse. Harder dieting means more cortisol means more water retention means more dieting. Which backfires (other problems come in the long-term with this approach but you’ll have to wait for the book to read about that).
When what they should do is take a day or two off (even one day off from training, at least in men, lets cortisol drop significantly). Raise calories, especially from carbohydrates. This helps cortisol to drop. More than that they need to find a way to freaking chill out. Meditation, yoga, get a massage... Get in the bath, candles, a little Enya, a glass of wine, have some you-time but please just chill.5 -
Please explain the concept of too high a deficit. She's eating 1,200, exercising 900, and netting 300.
As long as she not consumed with hunger pangs all day and all night and feels like she's starving herself, why is this a problem? Also, the weight is coming off slowly, unlike the Biggest Loser fiasco.
Thanks in advance.
Three pounds a week is fast, not slow. 1% maximum body weight loss per week is a good rule of thumb at least until goal weight gets close, at which point 1% could be too fast.
Why? Because your body can only metabolize 30-some calories from fat per day per pound of fat on your body. If your deficit is bigger than that, your body will burn more lean tissue in addition to fat, and slow down your less-survival-essential body functions (adaptive thermogenesis).
Lean tissue (muscles, bones, etc.) is important (!), and difficult/slow to rebuild. You don't want to lose it.
Slowed body functions mean your energy level can drop, your NEAT can decline so that you lose more slowly at the same calorie level (not "starvation mode", which is mythical), your hair/fingernails may thin and get brittle, and more. You don't want that, either. Plus adaptive thermogenesis can be difficult to reverse - simply eating more someday may not do it.
YMMV, but that's how I'd explain the concept of "too high deficit".
300 net calories is too high a deficit. Even if you assume the exercise calories are overestimated, and the true value is only half, 800 net calories is too high a deficit for someone who is not super petite, quite (um) mature, or an extreme outlier on the BMR/NEAT/TDEE bell curves.
ETA +1 to the basic thrust of @kshama2001's leptin/cortisol comments, too.7 -
She's already said she just wanted someone else tell her it's ok if she eats more.2
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CasperNaegle wrote: »Are you using a food scale and weighing everything? No measuring cups, etc.?? Either way it sounds like you have lost a lot already and are on a good track. My only point is unless you use a scale you can get some really large swings in your intake.
No, I don't use a scale or anything.0 -
cmriverside wrote: »Eventually you will bonk on such few calories.
Have you noticed any other symptoms of under-eating such as fatigue, irritability, confusion, inability to complete a workout? Next up: hair loss, brittle fingernails, depression.
Eat, lovely! It will be good for you.
I feel satisfied and if I'm hungry, I eat. I haven't had any negative side effects either.1 -
cmriverside wrote: »Eventually you will bonk on such few calories.
Have you noticed any other symptoms of under-eating such as fatigue, irritability, confusion, inability to complete a workout? Next up: hair loss, brittle fingernails, depression.
Eat, lovely! It will be good for you.
I feel satisfied and if I'm hungry, I eat. I haven't had any negative side effects either.
Well, the thing about hair loss from stress or malnutrition is that it doesn't kick in until up to 6 months after the event that caused it. And then it takes a while to get back on track due to the way hair growth works.1 -
cmriverside wrote: »Eventually you will bonk on such few calories.
Have you noticed any other symptoms of under-eating such as fatigue, irritability, confusion, inability to complete a workout? Next up: hair loss, brittle fingernails, depression.
Eat, lovely! It will be good for you.
I feel satisfied and if I'm hungry, I eat. I haven't had any negative side effects either.
Yet.3 -
1) How are you figuring that each session of kickboxing burns 865 calories? Is that something they told you in class or are you wearing a heartrate monitor?
2) You've been doing this for 3 weeks...9 lbs in 3 weeks is 3lbs/week. And this upsets you? It's probably best to set realistic expectations right now so you don't crash and burn and give up.
3) Eat more. Even though I think it's BS that you are actually burning that many calories per session, 1200/calories daily and exercising isn't good. You should be NETTING 1200, not just eating that much.
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CasperNaegle wrote: »Are you using a food scale and weighing everything? No measuring cups, etc.?? Either way it sounds like you have lost a lot already and are on a good track. My only point is unless you use a scale you can get some really large swings in your intake.
No, I don't use a scale or anything.
So, how do you know how many calories you're actually eating?
It's very common to underestimate calories eaten if you don't weigh everything. And, easy to over estimate calories burned.
That said you're losing weight at a good clip so maybe just some patience.2 -
kristen6350 wrote: »3) Eat more. Even though I think it's BS that you are actually burning that many calories per session, 1200/calories daily and exercising isn't good. You should be NETTING 1200, not just eating that much.
That makes no sense at all. If she in fact burning 865 calories, you are telling her to eat 2,065 calories, whether she is hungry or not hungry.
So if she has a 200-calorie breakfast (two eggs and sauteed mushrooms, for example), she's supposed to have an 800-calorie lunch and a 1,065-calorie dinner, no matter what?
Terrible advise.
What she's saying makes far more sense (and is a far better idea) than your advise that it's perfectly okay to net 300 calories per day. Now that's terrible advice, for a number of reasons.2 -
kristen6350 wrote: »3) Eat more. Even though I think it's BS that you are actually burning that many calories per session, 1200/calories daily and exercising isn't good. You should be NETTING 1200, not just eating that much.
That makes no sense at all. If she in fact burning 865 calories, you are telling her to eat 2,065 calories, whether she is hungry or not hungry.
So if she has a 200-calorie breakfast (two eggs and sauteed mushrooms, for example), she's supposed to have an 800-calorie lunch and a 1,065-calorie dinner, no matter what?
Terrible advise.
What she's saying makes far more sense (and is a far better idea) than your advise that it's perfectly okay to net 300 calories per day. Now that's terrible advice, for a number of reasons.
I NEVER said it was OK. I asked about specifics regarding its drawbacks. PS - I would never do it because using a non-scientific phrase - it makes no sense.
But neither does stuffing yourself with 2,100 calories to net to 1,200 calories.
Before we say @suarez73 is would be "stuffing herself" with 2100 (although I doubt if OP is actually burning almost 900 cals, 2100 cals of fuel would be "stuffing") calories to net 1200, let's find out a few things.
1) OP, what are your stats (ht/wt)
2) Are you sedentary
3) How often do you work out and for how long.
Odds are, to get the proper nutrition and fuel 2100 isn't close to "stuffing"1
please say 
This discussion has been closed.
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