Something does not compute!!!

lsreject

I have been weighing/measuring my food for years. I go to the gym 4-5 days a week and strength train. Practice yoga (vinyasa) twice a week. I work at a job that keeps me moving -hospital . My cals run about 12-1400 a day. I keep my macros shifted to a high protein split. Covid cost me (about 10 lbs) like everyone else. Here is where it doesn’t compute. According to my Fitbit I burn give or take 1000 more cal a day than I take in. By that rationale I should be about 95 lbs soaking wet not 168. Before I lost my gym mojo, at 12-1400 cals a day I stayed right at 156ish. How is this possible???

Fflpnari

Are you weighing everything in grams? Tracking everything 100%?

lsreject

I weigh (in ounces on a digital scale)and prep for the week. I can and do eat the same thing for a week at a time. All 3 meals. Sunday is spent cooking & packing. I do eat out of my macros on the weekend but not to excess. My co-workers think I’m nuts because I eat what I bring to work - period. When I totally lost focus I gained but such is life. This is not a recent “what the hell?” Kind of question. When I get locked on the numbers just don’t add up.

lsreject

Let me add here that I started 5 yrs ago at 172. Went to 158 with the 11-1200 cals per day. So yes, my weight did come down and I am fit. I’m also no spring chicken. That said-I don’t quit. I’m trying to get back to the 158!

middlehaitch

Take a diet break, 2 weeks eating at maintenance, and logging.
(Diet break thread in the stickies.)

Get a physical so you know there are no health problems, thyroid, diabetes 2, etc which may affect your CICO. If you are on meds have your medication reviewed so they are appropriate for your weight now, and every 10-20lbs thereafter.

Start tracking in grams, I, raised using lbs/oz, find them more accurate.

Review your entries, if needed compare against the usda and any packaging.

Once you are back to logging at a deficit make it 1lbs or 0.5lbs a week. (You don’t give your height so no idea of your mid BMI range therefore appropriate deficit)
Eeview your calorie needs every 5-10lbs.

Make sure your activity level in MFP is appropriate for your activity. If you are moving a lot at work don’t put sedentary.

Macros are not as important as calories for losing weight so eating outside your macros at the weekend doesn’t matter, eating over your calories and not accounting for it does. Log and weigh everything. If you eat out make a best guess.

Log your exercise and eat those calories back.

I am not a digital health user, have always just used the numbers from MFP for cardio, yoga, lifting, etc. You may want to try not using your Fitbit. The burn from any device or MFP is only an estimate and may need adjusting. Activity calories should not just be ignored though.

Your calorie level from your posts is low. Sometimes our bodies adjust to this by subtly cutting back on things like general energy levels, hair and nail growth, skin health, and a plethora of small things. Too low a calorie level can also call stress and this can lead to water retention.

If, when you go back to logging after reviewing your goals, your calorie level is higher than now give it a chance for 4 (post menopause), to 6 (pre menopause) weeks, before changing anything.

Having a diet break will increase the food you are digesting and water stored so don’t panic if your weight goes up, it is not fat, it is your body functioning normally.

I’m not a spring chicken either. MFP takes your age into account when you input your info for both calories and exercise.

Cheers, h.

lsreject

Thanks so much for that! I have never even considered eating the cals burned back. May be time for a mindset change! Thanks all!

kshama2001

lsreject wrote: »

I have been weighing/measuring my food for years. I go to the gym 4-5 days a week and strength train. Practice yoga (vinyasa) twice a week. I work at a job that keeps me moving -hospital . My cals run about 12-1400 a day. I keep my macros shifted to a high protein split. Covid cost me (about 10 lbs) like everyone else. Here is where it doesn’t compute. According to my Fitbit I burn give or take 1000 more cal a day than I take in. By that rationale I should be about 95 lbs soaking wet not 168. Before I lost my gym mojo, at 12-1400 cals a day I stayed right at 156ish. How is this possible???

lsreject wrote: »

Thanks so much for that! I have never even considered eating the cals burned back. May be time for a mindset change! Thanks all!

Ok, so you are eating 12-1400 calories a day, exercising, not eating back your exercise calories, but not losing weight? You are right, something does not compute.

How long have you been back at exercise? If just recently, you may be retaining some water from that.

Also, there are mistakes that people commonly make that cause them to not lose weight that we might be able to spot if you change your Diary Sharing settings to Public: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

heybales

Increased cortisol from stress on body doing extreme diet (you are making it extreme) can cause body to retain upwards of 20 lbs of water weight slowly.

How many weeks of scale loss will that hide? 10 wks if really 2 lbs weekly, more if slower rate.

And with body that stressed, it's adapting other ways to cause you not to burn as much.
Your workouts probably suck compared to what they could be if properly fueled and recovered from. Now they are likely just part of the stress.

While the Fitbit will be inflating the lifting calorie burn by some amount (manually log in Fitbit as Weight Lifting and take the small burn given) - I'm sure you didn't magically have such massive logging issues as to wipe out a 1000 deficit plus whatever exercise caused.
But all that deficit combined can sure stress out the body.

Ditto to time to take a diet break, slowly eating more and more to get body back to where it could be.
And then on restart keep deficit reasonable for amount to lose.