Not loosing; Getting discouraged!

nikki6_2002

duplicate post

nikki6_2002

Have you had your thyroid tested? If you are in as much of a deficit as you calculate you are you would be losing, so maybe the cals burned are grossly overestimated.

Wrong.

How is that wrong? caloric deficit = weight loss, the larger the deficit the larger the weight loss, though a larger portion of said weight loss will come from lean muscle vs. fat if the deficit is too large. And over time you will slow your metabolism down to where you though you have a 1500 cal/day deficit, may only be 1200 or so due to the lowered metabolic effect of your body shutting down non life sustaining functions, and loss of lean muscle.

Caloric deficit only equals weight loss if the body is being fueled properly otherwise. If a person is not eating enough and not providing the proper nutrition and/or energy for their body, they will not lose weight unless, as you said, the body starts cannibalizing itself for energy (which is clearly not what anyone wants).

So, say someone has entered a goal of losing a pound a week. They would have a daily 500 caloric deficit BUILT IN (this point is often misunderstood) to their target that MFP provides. If that person NETS whatever their MFP target is (let's say it's 1500) every day, they will lose a pound a week. If that same person NETS 1000 calories a day, their body probably wouldn't be getting the proper fuel for them to function so their body will likely hold on to everything it can. Therefore, the dreaded plateau and posts such as this one where the OP is frustrated and discouraged.

Wow, so anorexics should not be skinny?

vwbug86

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Wow, so anorexics should not be skinny?
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^^^ This. If starvation mode worked they way you say anorexics would gain weight before they lose. That's not how it works. You will lose weight while starving, it just won't be as fast and will be muscle instead of fat until there is no muscle to lose.

Also you probably aren't gaining muscle on a deficit especially if you're not lifting.

Siansonea

Everyone knows that the way to lose weight is to just eat lots of calories, so your body doesn't think there's a famine. It'll go into Starvation Mode™, and then you'll gain weight by osmosis. It's totally scientific, y'all! Clearly people gain weight because they just don't eat enough. :smokin:

kiwitechgirl

FIrst off yes I am burning 2500 a day but thats from 9am-10pm all day including excersise I have a Polar Heartrate monitor that counts calories..

You're not using it to estimate your entire daily burn, are you? HRMs are designed for steady state cardio, not normal every day activities, so if you are it may well be giving you an inaccurate reading. Just use it for cardio...