Not losing weight in a deficit

lemurcat2

DonnaMiles1966 wrote: »

Also I reckon I need to buy some scales
See if that can make things easier.

OP said the above yesterday, so I don't think she's anti using a scale or can be accused of disappearing. There's only so much that can be added after a certain point.

Personally, I find it easier to use a scale than to estimate with cups and size of a chicken thigh or banana or whatnot, but I often think it's less an issue with scale or no as just getting used to logging and avoiding the entries for complete dishes (such as "lamb stew, homemade" or "pancakes, homemade" -- these are hypothetical, not from OP's diary) and learning that you need to make a recipe or list all ingredients (including any added oils).

AnnPT77

yirara wrote: »

I think AnnP was talking generally, just to give an idea what kind of muscle gain might be possible for women under ideal conditions, not that TO is gaining 2lbs per month. That's how I understood it anyway. But yes, TO, please come back and let us know what you think.

Correct interpretation. I said "2 pounds a month" and "half a pound a week fat loss" to make the math match up - to compare the rates in a relative sense.

Yes, OP may be gaining some muscle, especially if eating at maintenance (or even close). However, it's a common misconception that muscle gain can explain a lack of fat loss in a deficit, but that's an unlikely thing to occur. (And this is an OP who believes she's in a deficit, and who - if her calorie intake were accurate - would be very likely, in a statistical sense, to be in a deficit.)

The "muscle gain completely matches up with fat loss" scenario is possible, but pretty improbable, in general, if there's a solid rate of fat loss happening. That was my point.

She does seem to be effectively eating at maintenance, and could be gaining muscle mass (heck, that could happen even in a deficit). That muscle gain would be a nice consolation prize, but it's not the *explanation* of the non-loss at perceived low calorie intake for current activity level.

Perhaps the PP to which I responded wasn't suggesting it was the explanation, but it could be read that way - not clear. That's why I wrote what I did. People can gain mass, perhaps even in a deficit, and almost certainly if eating at maintenance. It's just that it's not a speedy thing, and it's fairly common around here to see people who don't realize that.

elisa123gal

All I can add... is when I'm not losing. it is because something I'm doing isn't working. I take a hard look at what I've been eating and doing.. and adjust to moving more and eating less.. then I start losing.

jeraldt6

First of all, the fact that you are counting, keeping track and becoming tuned with your body is huge. I have found myself in the same position as you. For me, I realized that if I ate the calories I thought I earned according to mfp, I didn't lose weight or belly fat. I monitor my macros but pay extra special attention to carbs. For me, carbs are a killer regarding my 1. weight gain and 2. type 2 diabetes.
Also: The "chart" says my "resting" allows me 2200 calories a day. If I eat that much even working out 4 times a week, I don't lose weight. I have spent a lot of time leaning my body and what food and how much of what food, does to me and my goals.

Retroguy2000

@AnnPT77

We know she is gaining muscle, she said so herself. Nobody, least of all myself, implied she is gaining two pounds of muscle each month. That would only be true if she was around the calorie deficit she thinks she is. In fact I said she's likely not at that deficit due to some combo of: a) incorrect starting TDEE in MFP, b) not correctly counting all portions, c) over-counting exercise calories. So it follows that I would be attributing her muscle gain to be far slower than two pounds per month.

Ddsb11

jeraldt6 wrote: »

First of all, the fact that you are counting, keeping track and becoming tuned with your body is huge. I have found myself in the same position as you. For me, I realized that if I ate the calories I thought I earned according to mfp, I didn't lose weight or belly fat. I monitor my macros but pay extra special attention to carbs. For me, carbs are a killer regarding my 1. weight gain and 2. type 2 diabetes.
Also: The "chart" says my "resting" allows me 2200 calories a day. If I eat that much even working out 4 times a week, I don't lose weight. I have spent a lot of time leaning my body and what food and how much of what food, does to me and my goals.

Just curious, do you use a food scale and log your calories? As an aside, carbs are not responsible for your weight (fat) gain. Only calories are the culprit for that.

Psychgrrl

DonnaMiles1966 wrote: »

The stair climber shows 100 cal burnt in 10 minutes maybe because I have the pace/level set toggling between 5 and 8, but like go hard most of the time on there with a slow to 5 until I catch my breath, lol. Sundays I generally don't log anything, as is my main day off, but continue to stay around the 1300 deficit. As for the bread, I don't share my loaf, my son hates it. He's a naughty white bread lad. Looks like I'm going to have to invest in some scales and eat less, which doesn't really leave me much for fuel in the gym. It's awfully complicated this dieting stuff, haha.

Cardio is tricky for that reason; you’re out of breath, covered in sweat, and your heart is pounding and you think you’re burning a ton of calories because you’re working so hard and the machine says you are. And it’s usually wrong. The algorithms calculating burn generally overestimate the burn for most people.

An hour at the gym on the elliptical and the machine tells me I burn 600+ calories. My two fitness trackers (Garmin and Fitbit) said ~340.

As others have pointed out, weight-lifting burns comparatively fewer calories than cardio per workout. Building muscle over time has great health benefits, though (as improving cardio fitness has health benefits).

lemurcat2

If you are feeling discouraged about having a lower deficit than you thought, since you are already feeling like you are doing as much as possible, you may find that the more specific logging identifies some easy way to cut cals without feeling like you are eating less, or perhaps some ways to add more food without a lot of cals, based on what you are eating now and days that work well for you.

AnnPT77

Retroguy2000 wrote: »

@AnnPT77

We know she is gaining muscle, she said so herself. Nobody, least of all myself, implied she is gaining two pounds of muscle each month. That would only be true if she was around the calorie deficit she thinks she is. In fact I said she's likely not at that deficit due to some combo of: a) incorrect starting TDEE in MFP, b) not correctly counting all portions, c) over-counting exercise calories. So it follows that I would be attributing her muscle gain to be far slower than two pounds per month.

Absolutely agree with all of that.

I think I was unclear, also. I never meant to imply that you (or she) said anything about 2 pounds a month of muscle gain. That's just a generic "good result" rate for a woman, under favorable circumstances. (If OP's gaining mass, it would be likely to be slower than that rate, so I think we agree on that, too.) My intention was to contrast a very generic good rate of muscle mass gain with a relatively slow generic rate of fat loss (half a pound a week), to clarify that muscle gain was unlikely to explain the scale holding steady, if she was in fact losing fat at a reasonable (but somewhat slow, though not positively minimal) rate. That's all.

I think you and I pretty much agree, but are talking past each other to some extent. I agree that the explanation is likely to be in your a-b-c list in the post I've just quoted. Her goal seems to be fat loss (rational at her current weight) plus muscle/strength/fitness gain (also rational for nearly anyone, with the muscle gain limited by other circumstances - generically speaking - in some scenarios).