Am I eating too little?

chloeharrisxo

So I’ve been dieting for 2 weeks and going to gym 5 days a week for a week now. In my first week I lost 1.5 kilos just dietin alone and since going to gym I’ve put on almost a kilo. I don’t understand, my diet hasn’t changed but I’m thinking will I need to up my calories because I’m being quite active? Or could the gain just be muscle mass? I’ve just never encountered the problem before because I’ve never got my self to the gym aha! I lost 15 kilos just diet alone 2 years ago.

Please ease my mind 🤪

ritzvin

That is most likely water retention in the sore muscles - very common when starting a new activity.

sameeya2121

I’ve read about water retention, but don’t understand the term properly
If you don’t mind, could you explain it please?

chloeharrisxo

How does it work? And is there any way I can stop it or get rid of it hahaa or does it go away by itself?

Thank you

nutmegoreo

chloeharrisxo wrote: »

How does it work? And is there any way I can stop it or get rid of it hahaa or does it go away by itself?

Thank you

When you go to the gym, the muscles are stressed with exercise, after the workout, they retain some water to help repair. This is a normal process and shouldn't be interrupted. It will mask your fat loss, but it will even out in the the end. Have some patience. It's all part of the process.

As for if you are eating too little: How many calories are you eating per day? How much weight do you have to lose? How tall are you. Having an aggressive calorie deficit can be bad for a few reasons, the main one being the lack of nutrition to protect your muscles, organs, hair, skin, nails, etc. An aggressive weight loss program can mess with your hormones, but it is not a common thing to undereat and not lose weight (sometimes called "starvation mode" which is a myth).

chloeharrisxo

Thank you for your insight 😄

I’m currently eating 1200 calories I want to lose another 14 kilos. I’m 172cm. I’ve just done 1200 calories because l lost so much with that 2 years ago so I thought it’d be a good place to start. But I’ve seen many many times people eating too little and it causes them not to lose weight at all.

Muscleflex79

chloeharrisxo wrote: »

Thank you for your insight 😄

I’m currently eating 1200 calories I want to lose another 14 kilos. I’m 172cm. I’ve just done 1200 calories because l lost so much with that 2 years ago so I thought it’d be a good place to start. But I’ve seen many many times people eating too little and it causes them not to lose weight at all.

that is not how it works at all - have you not seen people actually starving? starving children? anorexics? they don't not lose weight because they are eating too little.

chloeharrisxo

I am not saying that at all. I never said they were starving. Sorry I wrote that wrong, I was supposed to say I’m in a support group and I’ve seen many people complain about not losing weight on a very low calorie diet while exercising. And people were saying that if they are eating too little it can cause it. They then upped heir calories to 1500 and they started to lose weight.
I did not mean that people who starve themselves don’t lose weight 😐

lorrpb

Your muscles retain water to help repair them after a hard workout. This is what is supposed to happen. No reason to change it.
You need to track your exercise, food intake, and weight to learn your body's fluctuation patterns so you know what to expect.
By the way, the body is about 60% water and you need it to stay alive.

FlyingMolly

chloeharrisxo wrote: »

Thank you for your insight 😄

I’m currently eating 1200 calories I want to lose another 14 kilos. I’m 172cm. I’ve just done 1200 calories because l lost so much with that 2 years ago so I thought it’d be a good place to start. But I’ve seen many many times people eating too little and it causes them not to lose weight at all.

Okay, well, if you’re exercising then yes, that is too little. At your height even if you weren’t exercising it would be too little. But eating too little won’t make you gain weight; it’ll cause you to lose muscle, lose hair, get brittle and cracked nails, develop dry skin and brittle bones and eventually damage your organs.

Losing weight faster is appealing to everyone, but there’s a reason MFP offers different weight-loss goals. A kilo per week simply isn’t appropriate for everyone, even if everyone would like to lose that fast. With 14 kilos to go, half per week would be a more reasonable rate, and when you’re especially active (such as on days you exercise) you need to log that and eat more to compensate. Maybe not all the exercise calories, but at least some. When you’ve gotten halfway to your goal, go down to a quarter kilo. It’ll take longer but you’ll be healthy when you get there, which is worth some patience.

FlyingMolly

chloeharrisxo wrote: »

I am not saying that at all. I never said they were starving. Sorry I wrote that wrong, I was supposed to say I’m in a support group and I’ve seen many people complain about not losing weight on a very low calorie diet while exercising. And people were saying that if they are eating too little it can cause it. They then upped heir calories to 1500 and they started to lose weight.
I did not mean that people who starve themselves don’t lose weight 😐

When people eat too little their metabolisms do slow down—rather than blithely continuing to shed its fat at the same rate it has been, your body stops using so much of its energy to maintain the systems I mentioned above. But the slowing is only slowing, not stopping or reversing weight loss.

Another funny thing that happens when you under-eat on an extended basis is your brain starts playing tricks on you. Your ability to eyeball portions gets even worse than usual—what you truly believe is one portion is actually three. You legit forget things you’ve eaten. Your brain does everything in its power to get you to eat more...and it usually works. At the same time your brain talks you into moving less in every-day life. You might still work out, but you’ll be slower and less effective, burning fewer calories. More importantly, you’ll fidget less, park closer to the store entrance, and take the elevator more often. You’ll cut way back on your caloric expenditure in ways you probably won’t even notice, because your brain doesn’t want you to notice, because it’s trying to save your life.

People who think they’re dramatically under-eating but aren’t losing any weight long-term simply aren’t under-eating. They’re eating more than they realize and moving less. When they relax their efforts to starve, their brain calls off the sabotage and allows them to actually achieve the new smaller, more sensible deficit.

chloeharrisxo

FlyingMolly wrote: »

chloeharrisxo wrote: »

I am not saying that at all. I never said they were starving. Sorry I wrote that wrong, I was supposed to say I’m in a support group and I’ve seen many people complain about not losing weight on a very low calorie diet while exercising. And people were saying that if they are eating too little it can cause it. They then upped heir calories to 1500 and they started to lose weight.
I did not mean that people who starve themselves don’t lose weight 😐

When people eat too little their metabolisms do slow down—rather than blithely continuing to shed its fat at the same rate it has been, your body stops using so much of its energy to maintain the systems I mentioned above. But the slowing is only slowing, not stopping or reversing weight loss.

Another funny thing that happens when you under-eat on an extended basis is your brain starts playing tricks on you. Your ability to eyeball portions gets even worse than usual—what you truly believe is one portion is actually three. You legit forget things you’ve eaten. Your brain does everything in its power to get you to eat more...and it usually works. At the same time your brain talks you into moving less in every-day life. You might still work out, but you’ll be slower and less effective, burning fewer calories. More importantly, you’ll fidget less, park closer to the store entrance, and take the elevator more often. You’ll cut way back on your caloric expenditure in ways you probably won’t even notice, because your brain doesn’t want you to notice, because it’s trying to save your life.

People who think they’re dramatically under-eating but aren’t losing any weight long-term simply aren’t under-eating. They’re eating more than they realize and moving less. When they relax their efforts to starve, their brain calls off the sabotage and allows them to actually achieve the new smaller, more sensible deficit.

Thank you for that, I’m very new to it all haha so I just read things 😄 I will probably up my calories a wee bit and see how I go thank you!

kshama2001

chloeharrisxo wrote: »

I am not saying that at all. I never said they were starving. Sorry I wrote that wrong, I was supposed to say I’m in a support group and I’ve seen many people complain about not losing weight on a very low calorie diet while exercising. And people were saying that if they are eating too little it can cause it. They then upped heir calories to 1500 and they started to lose weight.
I did not mean that people who starve themselves don’t lose weight 😐

What probably happened was when they were eating 1200 calories or less they also had periods of overeating that they weren't factoring in (but their bodies were). When they upped their calories, they stopped the secret eating, and total calories were less, and so they lost weight.

https://www.aworkoutroutine.com/1200-calorie-diet/

This is how you get people saying they’re “eating 1200 calories a day but not losing weight.”

Seffell

I would recomnend the top post in this forum. It contains links to helpful and scientifically sound posts. The starvation mode you're talking about is featured there several times.

Noone doesn't lose weight because they're eating too little. Noone. That includes the ill-informed people in your support group.

Noone.

chloeharrisxo wrote: »

FlyingMolly wrote: »

chloeharrisxo wrote: »

I am not saying that at all. I never said they were starving. Sorry I wrote that wrong, I was supposed to say I’m in a support group and I’ve seen many people complain about not losing weight on a very low calorie diet while exercising. And people were saying that if they are eating too little it can cause it. They then upped heir calories to 1500 and they started to lose weight.
I did not mean that people who starve themselves don’t lose weight 😐

When people eat too little their metabolisms do slow down—rather than blithely continuing to shed its fat at the same rate it has been, your body stops using so much of its energy to maintain the systems I mentioned above. But the slowing is only slowing, not stopping or reversing weight loss.

Another funny thing that happens when you under-eat on an extended basis is your brain starts playing tricks on you. Your ability to eyeball portions gets even worse than usual—what you truly believe is one portion is actually three. You legit forget things you’ve eaten. Your brain does everything in its power to get you to eat more...and it usually works. At the same time your brain talks you into moving less in every-day life. You might still work out, but you’ll be slower and less effective, burning fewer calories. More importantly, you’ll fidget less, park closer to the store entrance, and take the elevator more often. You’ll cut way back on your caloric expenditure in ways you probably won’t even notice, because your brain doesn’t want you to notice, because it’s trying to save your life.

People who think they’re dramatically under-eating but aren’t losing any weight long-term simply aren’t under-eating. They’re eating more than they realize and moving less. When they relax their efforts to starve, their brain calls off the sabotage and allows them to actually achieve the new smaller, more sensible deficit.

Thank you for that, I’m very new to it all haha so I just read things 😄 I will probably up my calories a wee bit and see how I go thank you!

So upping your calories will NOT make you lose more.

I know that you came here for a reassurance that you can start eating more in order to start losing (this is understandable - undereating is against our survival instincts so we'd go to any lengths to assure we can eat more, including deluding ourselves). So despite all the replies you got you somehow managed to get to this exact conclusion - that you need to eat more to lose weight.

But it is wrong.

If you are truly eating 1200cals then it is water weight. And you don't need to do anything about it because I'm sure your goal is to lose fat (which you have lost) and not dehydrate yourself so that you see a lower number on the scale.
Your muscles need this water in order to repair themselves.

Please read the posts on the top of the forum list.

Also if you're truly eating 1200cals you indeed need to eat a bit more. This will make you lose more slowly but it is better in the long run because it is sustainable and healthier.

P.S. The likelihood is that, regardless of what you do, this water will eventually drop. But since people are impatient they stop dieting and start eating more which coincides with the drop of the water weight so they conclude (wrongly) that they had to eat more in order to lose.

JeromeBarry1

Take data for at least 4 weeks of consistent conduct before beginning to investigate possible changes to make. Changing stuff every week or 2 is only going to lead you to frustration and despair.

kelseymccusker13

If you're going to the gym that much I would up your calories to atleast 1800 and make sure you're eating enough protein to aid with muscle repair! 1800 sounds like so much - I know. I was terrified of upping from 1200. Yes, you need a caloric deficit to lose weight. But because you're burning so much more than you would have previously, your body needs the extra calories. Your body will start to cling to the fat of everything you eat if you're depriving your body too much, making it alot harder to lose weight.
Up the calories, up the protein consumption! Trust me, you won't look back x