Not losing weight in a calorie deficit

unknownanonymoususer

I have been in a calorie deficit for the past 3 weeks or so, and with calories burned from exercise, have usually been below my daily calorie goal (1500 calories) leaving me with 3-4000 remaining calories at the end of the week. However, on rest day, I usually don’t burn many calories and end up eating more than 1500 as a result. I have only lost about 1.5 pounds so I am wondering if this is the reason why.

I am a 5’6, 137 pound male with about 16-18% body fat. I spend about 10 hours on a weekly basis doing cardio exercise or
strength training, currently my goal of weight loss is about 1 pound per week as I set when I signed up for MyFitnessPal.

Lietchi

Not sure why you qualify 1.5 lbs as 'only', it's good progress.
Furthermore, you might have lost more bodyfat than that if the exercise is new (water retention for muscle repair could be making get loss on the scale.

Without more info, it's hard to give feedback: your personal stats, your activity level, your exercise, your chosen weight loss rate, how much you're eating on average, how you're measuring your food intake (weighing?)... That would help us be more precise in our advice.

tomcustombuilder

Depending on your height, weight and bodyfat amount, a half a pound a week may not be too bad if you’re a small person. Don’t place too much confidence that the calculator is correct and your counting and tracking of calories is perfectly accurate. After another week or so just lower calories a bit if you want faster loss.

Retroguy2000

BMI calc says you're at 21.5, with normal weight listed as 18.5 to 24.9.

How are you calculating the body fat percentage? Because if your 16%-18% estimate is correct, and factoring in your BMI, a target loss of 1 pound per week sounds ambitious, and dare I say, maybe unnecessary?

What is your target? Because assuming you are close to it, weight loss will be harder and slower than if you were obese.

sbelletti

You're close to ideal BMI, so your current rate of .5 lb/week sounds ideal. Don't worry about how the calories and exercise work out on a daily basis... Take the average for the week.

unknownanonymoususer

@Retroguy2000 my target weight is about 130 lbs (looking to get more defined muscles through losing body fat) so I still have a little ways to go, it’s mainly the fact that my estimates from MFP have said that I would weigh 125-128 pounds in 5 weeks but I haven’t been losing weight that fast which I find weird.

AnnPT77

The "in 5 weeks" thing is generally pretty whacky. Remember: It says "If every day were like today". It never is. In your case, since it sound like you under-eat your goal some days, then over-eat it on rest days . . . well, it's really going to be whacky because those days are not the same, y'know? Plus it assumes you're statistically average, which you may or may not be. Ignore the "in 5 weeks".

If you want to improve your body composition, i.e., gain or even retain muscle as well as lose fat, you really don't want to lose fat fast. Slow fat loss is your friend, IMO. Lose slowly, get overall good nutrition (especially but not exclusively added protein), and keep lifting.

I'm around your size (5'5", 133 pounds), except way old (67), female, and (not surprisingly) at a much higher body fat percent (probably around 25%, a little higher than I'd prefer). I wouldn't consider losing faster than a half pound a week at this point, personally. I can get better nutrition and better fuel workouts that way, among other pluses. Your call, though.

For sure, follow some routine (even if it includes averaging over the week) for 4-6 weeks, then you'll know how fast you're losing on average on that routine. That's powerful information, lets you fine-tune with confidence if needful.

unknownanonymoususer

@AnnPT77 thank you for the insight and advice, I will keep it in mind.