Help with weird weight loss or lack of

californiagirl2012

At 5'7" Your maintenance is approximately 1900 calories a day. Your deficit is kinda low for your height, that might work better for a shorter person.

1400-1500 would be a perfectly healthy calorie deficit for you to lose body fat.

Here's the thing with calorie deficits. Your body adapts and it feels fine, but actually it's corrective action that puts stress on your body. The body is amazing and it can adapt to many things, including too much food or too little food. You can't always go on how you "feel", but you will learn. I would hate for you to learn the hard way. The bottom line is that the maintenance number is the actual number approximately calories you need to survive daily. Anything under that is stress, and corrective action to fix a health problem. If you go too long without eating up to maintenance your hormones will go insane, your metabolism will slow down, and you will binge. That does not help you achieve your goals at all. It does not promote a healthy lifestyle.

I strongly advise that if you want to sustain a healthy lifestyle that you find a way to eat up to your normal calorie needs at least one day a week to keep your hormones stable. That means spreading your food out throughout the day because on a deficit we adapt to less food and can't eat so much all at once (unless we go so long that we binge and then that is not fun either).

Also if you eat too low on your deficit the same thing happens. You will not gain weight if you eat up to your maintenance or just shy of it. And if you are just shy of it you will still lose weight. The biggest failure I see so many make is going too low for too long and then the binge hits them like a freight train out of left field. You feel fine, feel fine, eating low, feel fine, BAM BINGE. Then get depressed, then fast, then binge, and it's a vicious unhealthy cycle.

If you look up the Minnesota Starvation study on the internet you will find they proved that eating too low does slow down your metabolism slightly. But also you don't have to really worry about starvation mode until you get to 12% body fat and are a lean athlete, still.. it's the right balance for sustainability.

What is STARVATION MODE? Here is the Army study on the Theory of Fat Availability:

The Theory of Fat Availability:
•There is a set amount of fat that can be released from a fat cell.
•The more fat you have, the more fat can be used as a fuel when dieting.
•The less fat you have, the less fat can be used as a fuel when dieting.
•Towards the end of a transformation, when body fat is extremely low you
may not have enough fat to handle a large caloric deficit anymore.

At the extreme low end, when your body fat cannot ‘keep up’ with the energy deficit you've imposed on your body, the energy MUST come from SOMEWHERE. This is when you are at risk of losing lean body mass during dieting (commonly referred to as ‘starvation mode’). This happens at extremely low levels of body fat, under 6% in men and 12% in women [Friedl K.E. J Appl Phsiol, 1994].
.
So some things to think about as you experiment with different calorie levels, fasting periods (or simply the time between meals), and exercise are:

How is your general feeling of well being?
How do you feel working out?
How well do you recover from workouts?
Do you have the energy to complete your daily responsibilities?
How well do you sleep at night?
Are you binging?

Usually it's the answers to those questions that tell you if you are too high or too low with your daily or even rolling daily average over time.

CharlieBeansmomTracey

californiagirl2012 wrote: »

At 5'7" Your maintenance is approximately 1900 calories a day. Your deficit is kinda low for your height, that might work better for a shorter person.

1400-1500 would be a perfectly healthy calorie deficit for you to lose body fat.

Here's the thing with calorie deficits. Your body adapts and it feels fine, but actually it's corrective action that puts stress on your body. The body is amazing and it can adapt to many things, including too much food or too little food. You can't always go on how you "feel", but you will learn. I would hate for you to learn the hard way. The bottom line is that the maintenance number is the actual number approximately calories you need to survive daily. Anything under that is stress, and corrective action to fix a health problem. If you go too long without eating up to maintenance your hormones will go insane, your metabolism will slow down, and you will binge. That does not help you achieve your goals at all. It does not promote a healthy lifestyle.

I strongly advise that if you want to sustain a healthy lifestyle that you find a way to eat up to your normal calorie needs at least one day a week to keep your hormones stable. That means spreading your food out throughout the day because on a deficit we adapt to less food and can't eat so much all at once (unless we go so long that we binge and then that is not fun either).

Also if you eat too low on your deficit the same thing happens. You will not gain weight if you eat up to your maintenance or just shy of it. And if you are just shy of it you will still lose weight. The biggest failure I see so many make is going too low for too long and then the binge hits them like a freight train out of left field. You feel fine, feel fine, eating low, feel fine, BAM BINGE. Then get depressed, then fast, then binge, and it's a vicious unhealthy cycle.

If you look up the Minnesota Starvation study on the internet you will find they proved that eating too low does slow down your metabolism slightly. But also you don't have to really worry about starvation mode until you get to 12% body fat and are a lean athlete, still.. it's the right balance for sustainability.

What is STARVATION MODE? Here is the Army study on the Theory of Fat Availability:

The Theory of Fat Availability:
•There is a set amount of fat that can be released from a fat cell.
•The more fat you have, the more fat can be used as a fuel when dieting.
•The less fat you have, the less fat can be used as a fuel when dieting.
•Towards the end of a transformation, when body fat is extremely low you
may not have enough fat to handle a large caloric deficit anymore.

At the extreme low end, when your body fat cannot ‘keep up’ with the energy deficit you've imposed on your body, the energy MUST come from SOMEWHERE. This is when you are at risk of losing lean body mass during dieting (commonly referred to as ‘starvation mode’). This happens at extremely low levels of body fat, under 6% in men and 12% in women [Friedl K.E. J Appl Phsiol, 1994].
.
So some things to think about as you experiment with different calorie levels, fasting periods (or simply the time between meals), and exercise are:

How is your general feeling of well being?
How do you feel working out?
How well do you recover from workouts?
Do you have the energy to complete your daily responsibilities?
How well do you sleep at night?
Are you binging?

Usually it's the answers to those questions that tell you if you are too high or too low with your daily or even rolling daily average over time.

to make some corrections "maintenance number is the actual number approximately calories you need to survive daily" no that is BMR,maintenance is the amount of calories to keep your weight where it is now.it will lower as your weight lowers.hormones will also be fine(unless you are eating a very low calorie diet). to lose weight you are supposed to eat under your maintenance,if you are eating your maintenance calories then you will maintain your weight.for those who are obese they may be able to eat under BMR for a period of time,but it can cause adaptive thermogenesis,even dieting for a long period of time can do that.

you dont have to eat several meals a day, some people eat one big meal a day and still lose weight, and it doesnt mean that everyone will binge if they dont eat several meals a day.once body fat gets low it gets harder to lose weight of course.

for some those examples of how they are feeling may or may not show up until "miles down the road".now for those who eat a VLCD and Im talking low(starvation area low) then issues may crop up faster, some people the less they eat get to a point to where they no longer feel hungry. eating less than maintenance is not for most going to cause stress on the body and cause hormone issues unless they have a health issue,are eating too big of a deficit(which may result in eating less than their BMR), or not getting enough healthy fats.

MFP usually puts peoples calorie intake over their BMR but under their TDEE so that its safe weight loss,which is why its suggested to eat calories back after exercise calories are factored in,so that a deficit does not become to large and lurk into dangerous territories.

trigden1991

If I understand correctly, you weigh over 300lbs. Your TDEE is likely to be in excess of 3000 calories.

At your weight you can afford to lose 2lbs per week as a healthy weight. Set MFP up with your correct stats and follow the number given. You will be able to lose weight at a far more reasonable calorie level.

gabriellejayde

duanehcpiercey wrote: »

jesika0731 wrote: »

I eat 1200 calories a day. Weigh 312 and 5'7 and 37 years. I eat a high protein, low sugar and carb diet and stick to healthy fats. Each Friday I weigh in and lose 1 lb. Then on Friday night I binge cuz I'm pissed about the 1 lb. I sleep in on Saturday and weigh in again and drop 2 more lbs. Then the week repeats with eating perfect, Friday weigh in with a total week loss of 1 lb from the Friday before (but still up 1 lb from Saturday, binge and the next day I weigh in with a 2 lb loss.

So, what am I doing right or wrong? Should I be eating more carbs, calories and sugar to lose more weight each week? Or am I losing more on Saturday because I actually slept and released some stress? Whatever it is it's a ongoing weekly pattern so it can't be water weight or something random.

Please help!

I believe you're eating too little calorie wise... target 7cal/lb up to 300. So ... that would be 2100 per day... when your less that that.. your body is in major slow down mode metabolism wise... and believes it not going to get food...

Boost to 2100 and move three times a week... try tgat for just 2 weeks and you'll see some results

DP

Eating more is not the answer.
There's no "slow down mode" or anyone with anorexia, anyone who survived a concentration camp, anyone who lost their appetite from cancer treatment, or anyone who had weight loss surgery would not lose weight.

CharlieBeansmomTracey

gabriellejayde wrote: »

duanehcpiercey wrote: »

jesika0731 wrote: »

I eat 1200 calories a day. Weigh 312 and 5'7 and 37 years. I eat a high protein, low sugar and carb diet and stick to healthy fats. Each Friday I weigh in and lose 1 lb. Then on Friday night I binge cuz I'm pissed about the 1 lb. I sleep in on Saturday and weigh in again and drop 2 more lbs. Then the week repeats with eating perfect, Friday weigh in with a total week loss of 1 lb from the Friday before (but still up 1 lb from Saturday, binge and the next day I weigh in with a 2 lb loss.

So, what am I doing right or wrong? Should I be eating more carbs, calories and sugar to lose more weight each week? Or am I losing more on Saturday because I actually slept and released some stress? Whatever it is it's a ongoing weekly pattern so it can't be water weight or something random.

Please help!

I believe you're eating too little calorie wise... target 7cal/lb up to 300. So ... that would be 2100 per day... when your less that that.. your body is in major slow down mode metabolism wise... and believes it not going to get food...

Boost to 2100 and move three times a week... try tgat for just 2 weeks and you'll see some results

DP

Eating more is not the answer.
There's no "slow down mode" or anyone with anorexia, anyone who survived a concentration camp, anyone who lost their appetite from cancer treatment, or anyone who had weight loss surgery would not lose weight.

actually the longer you eat a a deficit ,your body will adapt to the lower calories aka adaptive thermogenesis.but they would still lose weight just at a slower pace or need less calories. which is why many go back to eating at maintenance for awhile to prevent this from happening.but less than 2100 calories like the other person mentioned is not going to be the case for everyone. 2100 for some is maintenance and for others its weight gain.