Calories in and calories out question

FitnessFreak1821

Ok so I'm trying to consume 1400-1600 calories. (Except this weekend it has been 1700-1800 calories I'm so hungry I don't know if its because my period). The last two weeks I'm working out monday-friday(40-60 mins) and I lost 1.2 pounds last weigh in before my period. Got out of my plateau finally I think! I was at 138.6 before my period started currently up to 140.6 this morning. I'm assuming because of my period I'm only on day 2. I was weighing in the last few days just to see how much I go up during my period and I now have an idea. I might stop weighing and do my weigh in next weekend now give myself time to get back to normal and I'll just continue to work out like I have. Hopefully i will lose at least another pound or two.

My calorie deficiency for this week is 5, 154 calories. That's when I add up calories I'm deficient in food plus the calories I burned each day with excercise. Am I doing that right ? So technically i should lose just over a pound this week cause theres 3500 calories in one pound?

AnnPT77

That's the theory. Reality has a lot of estimates and potential errors in it, plus the water fluctuations can hide what fat is actually doing (not just hormonal fluctuations, but from lots of sources).

If you have around a 3500 calorie deficit weekly from whatever turns out to be your actual daily calorie expenditure, and do that consistently, over a long-ish period of time (weeks to months), you'll average about a pound a week loss.

The caveats:

* Calculators and fitness trackers just estimate our calorie needs, they don't measure them. They'll be close for most people, off (high or low) for a few, and way off for a very rare few. After 4-6 weeks of careful logging, you'll begin to have some idea how close your estimates are for you.

* Food and exercise logs are necessarily imprecise, even when we do our best at accuracy. Exercise is hard to estimate accurately (fitness trackers estimate, not measure). Food varies - like one apple is sweeter than the next. Etc.

* Because of the weirdness of water weight, random changes in digestive contents, and lots of other stuff, you may lose 2 pounds one week, then nothing for 3-4 weeks, then another 3 pounds. If it's been 5 weeks, and you lost a total of 5 pounds in that example, that's an average of a pound a week . . . but it didn't show up on the scale evenly. Since you're an adult female, and not in menopause yet, you'll be best off comparing the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles.

* Some people (the ones who are very stressed by scale fluctuations) may be better off weighing only occasionally, as you suggest you're considering doing. But, if fluctuations are not a stressor, it can be informative to weigh daily, consistently (ideally first thing in the morning, (un)dressed in the same way, after the bathroom, before eating/drinking). By doing that, it's possible, over a period of time, to get a very good idea of what causes random fluctuations in your very own personal body weight, which can be useful knowledge.

Best wishes!

NorthCascades

You're doing all the calorie math right.

It works, but your weight is affected by how much undigested food you have moving through you, your hydration status, how much water you're retaining, etc etc. That stuff can nudge the scale around and make it harder to notice changes line a pound and a half.

Body fat is what you want to lose, retaining water isn't bad for your health. And it sounds like you're doing everything right.

🙂

I try to weigh myself every day. There are apps that smooth out the noise and make the trend easier to spot.

FitnessFreak1821

Thanks everyone for clarifying:)