Calorie deficit not the answer?

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  • brower47
    brower47 Posts: 16,356 Member
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    Doesn't count calories.

    Is confident he's eating only 1500 calories.

    Does not lose or gain weight.

    :huh:
  • spamantha57
    spamantha57 Posts: 674 Member
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    To make a long story short:

    I'm 5'2". At my heaviest/ gaining weight I was only eating about 900 calories a day.
    Now I eat about 1,600 a day & am losing weight.
    No, the change didn't happen over night because yes, I did kill my metabolism. I doubled my calorie intake in about a year (or around 100cals/ month.)
    If you'd like to know more, send me a message or add me. :)
  • whitebalance
    whitebalance Posts: 1,654 Member
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    ". . . from healthy to pizza . . ."

    How do you define "healthy?"
    Not pizza. Duh. :wink:

    Liss-- I mean, OP -- Creating a caloric deficit is the answer to weight loss. If you want to exercise control over your weight, you're going to need data. I'd suggest you start logging your meals (including the alcohol) so you can get a handle on what you're consuming. Log accurately for a while, then compare the numbers with those you get from the online calculators, and you'll know whether you have a super-low special snowflake metabolism. My hunch says no. But you have no way of knowing right now, because you're just eating whatever and guessing at the numbers.
  • LoupGarouTFTs
    LoupGarouTFTs Posts: 916 Member
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    'Anyone is allowed to disagree with me. If you don't want to see the similarity or feel there is no similarity, that's fine. But please tell me why I'm wrong rather than simply attacking me.
  • Marlena0708
    Marlena0708 Posts: 27 Member
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    Although I don't count calories (I know many of you are going to say that I'm eating more than i think), i'm quite confident that I never exceed my daily maintenance number. I say this because I do not eat anything throughout the entire day and only drink diet coke. At dinner I eat varied meals with family from healthy to pizza and may have a beer or glass of wine. To the point, I believe my body has learned to compensate by slowing my metabolism, such that I don't gain or lose, despite being under calorie recommendations. I'm 6'1" and 230lbs and estimate eating 1500 calls per day... lifestyle is sitting behind a desk in home office.

    Advice anyone? I would like to drop 30lbs before building muscle. Could it really be as simple as eating more often and cleaner calories in the 2500 per day range along with walking or jogging 3 days per week???

    I don't think you need to do anything different in order to lose the 30 lbs. At 6'1", 230 lbs, male, 45 years old, sedentary, your BMR calculates to about 2500. Since you're already eating at a deficit of 1000 cal per day (you estimate you consume1500 cal per day) you're already losing about 2 lbs per week just doing what you're doing. At this pace, the 30 lbs will be gone in about 15 weeks without you doing a thing different.

    I don't think I'd wait until then to start weight training though. You might as well hang on to the muscle you have by doing some resistance training now; then, when the 30 lbs is lost you can start muscle building.
  • GiveMeCoffee
    GiveMeCoffee Posts: 3,556 Member
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    Although I don't count calories (I know many of you are going to say that I'm eating more than i think), i'm quite confident that I never exceed my daily maintenance number. I say this because I do not eat anything throughout the entire day and only drink diet coke. At dinner I eat varied meals with family from healthy to pizza and may have a beer or glass of wine. To the point, I believe my body has learned to compensate by slowing my metabolism, such that I don't gain or lose, despite being under calorie recommendations. I'm 6'1" and 230lbs and estimate eating 1500 calls per day... lifestyle is sitting behind a desk in home office.

    Advice anyone? I would like to drop 30lbs before building muscle. Could it really be as simple as eating more often and cleaner calories in the 2500 per day range along with walking or jogging 3 days per week???

    I don't think you need to do anything different in order to lose the 30 lbs. At 6'1", 230 lbs, male, 45 years old, sedentary, your BMR calculates to about 2500. Since you're already eating at a deficit of 1000 cal per day (you estimate you consume1500 cal per day) you're already losing about 2 lbs per week just doing what you're doing. At this pace, the 30 lbs will be gone in about 15 weeks without you doing a thing different.

    I don't think I'd wait until then to start weight training though. You might as well hang on to the muscle you have by doing some resistance training now; then, when the 30 lbs is lost you can start muscle building.

    Where did you see that they were losing 2 lbs per week? They have to actually log their food so they know if they are in a deficit, because currently he's not losing. I will agree on the starting weight training
  • GiveMeCoffee
    GiveMeCoffee Posts: 3,556 Member
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    'Anyone is allowed to disagree with me. If you don't want to see the similarity or feel there is no similarity, that's fine. But please tell me why I'm wrong rather than simply attacking me.

    Let's look at this another way... do you eat at a deficit? do you plan your day to hit your calorie goal and macros? If you do this.. than do you consider you have disordered eating?

    Now what's the difference between you eating 1, 2, 3, 4, or 100 meals? Where does the disorder come in to play?
  • BusyRaeNOTBusty
    BusyRaeNOTBusty Posts: 7,166 Member
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    I would like to drop 30lbs before building muscle. Could it really be as simple as eating more often and calories consisting of mostly whole, nutrient rich foods in the 2500 per day range along with walking or jogging 3 days per week???

    Yes.
  • confetticupcake
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    You are using extreme examples to try and prove your theory on eating 1 meal per day. You can't go around saying you used to do this or that and it was unhealthy for you so it's unhealthy for everyone. You are talking about not eating all day then going and eating pasta and cake or a bunch of whatever you wanted. Absolutely no one, no one in this thread is talking about those extremes. You are debating with a group of individuals who have learned to structure their meals and training to their preference. And I can confidently say that as basically everyone you are debating is on my own friends list and I've seen their journey.

    The fact that you suffered from ED and still might should tell you that you should not apply your beliefs to other people's experiences as not only are we not playing on the same field, we're not playing the same sport.

    And you can't say just because it's healthy for you and your friends that it is healthy for everyone. When I made my first comment in this thread, I was replying to the OP, not to you or anyone practicing IF with structured meals and training. You seemed to feel that I was speaking to you and everyone else doing IF. I wasn't. Also, "learning to structure meals and training to their preference" is a very good description of an eating disorder if I've ever seen one. You will never meet anyone who learned to be more controlled and structured with their eating than someone who is eating disordered. Talk about weighing/measuring every single crumb and planning food intake days, even weeks in advance.

    Please do not try to insult me by saying I still might suffer from an ED when my profile clearly states I am recovered and I even stated so in this thread. Although you may believe we are not playing the same sport, there is a very fine line between an eating disorder and disordered eating and many people would consider fasting all day and eating one meal to be disordered eating.
  • LoupGarouTFTs
    LoupGarouTFTs Posts: 916 Member
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    I'm sorry, what???? Please explain the how you see the similarities between someone suffering from ED and someone that practicing intermittent fasting?

    Serious question, do you understand what IF/IIFYM and how it is not just thrown together on a whim? Or are you basing your opinion simply on a few posts you've read around here? Have you taken the time to research any information on these things? And please don't say something like it's common sense or from your experience whatever, because you, just like we did, ended up here on MFP.

    How is fasting only on diet sodas for the majority of the day (sodas that probably contain a significant amount of uncharted sodium, btw) and then eating "everything from healthy to pizza" IIFYM? In order for something to fit one's macros, it is necessary to know what one's macros are in the first place and then track the macros being consumed, at least to some reasonable extent. In my opinion, the OP is simply "saving up" all of the day's calories for one big blowout at the end of the day, which the OP appears to believe will allow virtually anything to be consumed. I don't know, it doesn't sound healthy to me at all and it does sound like there is similarity to the rigid structures/rules of an ED.

    Or at least it did until the OP admitted that sometimes it's two meals a day. I see nothing wrong with eating two meals a day. Although I prefer to eat three meals a day and have a snack with my met at night, there are times I literally have to force myself to eat supper. I would venture to guess that there are more times the OP is eating two meals/day or is eating one meal and a snack than s/he is willing to admit.

    So yes, I have my doubts the OP is eating as little as claimed, otherwise there would be a calorie deficit accompanied by weight loss.
  • confetticupcake
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    I'm sorry, what???? Please explain the how you see the similarities between someone suffering from ED and someone that practicing intermittent fasting?

    Serious question, do you understand what IF/IIFYM and how it is not just thrown together on a whim? Or are you basing your opinion simply on a few posts you've read around here? Have you taken the time to research any information on these things? And please don't say something like it's common sense or from your experience whatever, because you, just like we did, ended up here on MFP.

    How is fasting only on diet sodas for the majority of the day (sodas that probably contain a significant amount of uncharted sodium, btw) and then eating "everything from healthy to pizza" IIFYM? In order for something to fit one's macros, it is necessary to know what one's macros are in the first place and then track the macros being consumed, at least to some reasonable extent. In my opinion, the OP is simply "saving up" all of the day's calories for one big blowout at the end of the day, which the OP appears to believe will allow virtually anything to be consumed. I don't know, it doesn't sound healthy to me at all and it does sound like there is similarity to the rigid structures/rules of an ED.

    Or at least it did until the OP admitted that sometimes it's two meals a day. I see nothing wrong with eating two meals a day. Although I prefer to eat three meals a day and have a snack with my met at night, there are times I literally have to force myself to eat supper. I would venture to guess that there are more times the OP is eating two meals/day or is eating one meal and a snack than s/he is willing to admit.

    So yes, I have my doubts the OP is eating as little as claimed, otherwise there would be a calorie deficit accompanied by weight loss.

    Exactly.

    I have not been trying to say that IF/IIFYM is unhealthy...I believe those two methods can be used in a very healthy manner. Fasting all day on diet sodas and eating whatever you want at dinner is an entirely different routine. Right?
  • MelodyandBarbells
    MelodyandBarbells Posts: 7,725 Member
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    I'm sorry, what???? Please explain the how you see the similarities between someone suffering from ED and someone that practicing intermittent fasting?

    Serious question, do you understand what IF/IIFYM and how it is not just thrown together on a whim? Or are you basing your opinion simply on a few posts you've read around here? Have you taken the time to research any information on these things? And please don't say something like it's common sense or from your experience whatever, because you, just like we did, ended up here on MFP.

    How is fasting only on diet sodas for the majority of the day (sodas that probably contain a significant amount of uncharted sodium, btw) and then eating "everything from healthy to pizza" IIFYM? In order for something to fit one's macros, it is necessary to know what one's macros are in the first place and then track the macros being consumed, at least to some reasonable extent. In my opinion, the OP is simply "saving up" all of the day's calories for one big blowout at the end of the day, which the OP appears to believe will allow virtually anything to be consumed. I don't know, it doesn't sound healthy to me at all and it does sound like there is similarity to the rigid structures/rules of an ED.

    Or at least it did until the OP admitted that sometimes it's two meals a day. I see nothing wrong with eating two meals a day. Although I prefer to eat three meals a day and have a snack with my met at night, there are times I literally have to force myself to eat supper. I would venture to guess that there are more times the OP is eating two meals/day or is eating one meal and a snack than s/he is willing to admit.

    So yes, I have my doubts the OP is eating as little as claimed, otherwise there would be a calorie deficit accompanied by weight loss.

    The Original Poster (OP) has just the one post in their whole MFP history
  • LoupGarouTFTs
    LoupGarouTFTs Posts: 916 Member
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    The Original Poster (OP) has just the one post in their whole MFP history

    My apologies, then. Who is the person who has derailed the thread and made it his/her own?
  • Marlena0708
    Marlena0708 Posts: 27 Member
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    Although I don't count calories (I know many of you are going to say that I'm eating more than i think), i'm quite confident that I never exceed my daily maintenance number. I say this because I do not eat anything throughout the entire day and only drink diet coke. At dinner I eat varied meals with family from healthy to pizza and may have a beer or glass of wine. To the point, I believe my body has learned to compensate by slowing my metabolism, such that I don't gain or lose, despite being under calorie recommendations. I'm 6'1" and 230lbs and estimate eating 1500 calls per day... lifestyle is sitting behind a desk in home office.

    Advice anyone? I would like to drop 30lbs before building muscle. Could it really be as simple as eating more often and cleaner calories in the 2500 per day range along with walking or jogging 3 days per week???

    I don't think you need to do anything different in order to lose the 30 lbs. At 6'1", 230 lbs, male, 45 years old, sedentary, your BMR calculates to about 2500. Since you're already eating at a deficit of 1000 cal per day (you estimate you consume1500 cal per day) you're already losing about 2 lbs per week just doing what you're doing. At this pace, the 30 lbs will be gone in about 15 weeks without you doing a thing different.

    I don't think I'd wait until then to start weight training though. You might as well hang on to the muscle you have by doing some resistance training now; then, when the 30 lbs is lost you can start muscle building.

    Where did you see that they were losing 2 lbs per week? They have to actually log their food so they know if they are in a deficit, because currently he's not losing. I will agree on the starting weight training

    I just ran the numbers based on the data given. Male, 45, sedentary, 6'1", 230 lbs. BMR calculates to 2500. He's eating 1500. Deficit = 1000 cal per day = 2 lbs per week.

    If he is saying he is losing 0 lbs per week, then the data must be wrong somewhere. If the 1500 cal per day intake is incorrect, then of course the whole equation just goes to hell. If the 1500 cal per day intake IS correct, and he is losing 0 lbs per week, then he needs to see a physician to rule out some kind of metabolic disorder.
  • _Zardoz_
    _Zardoz_ Posts: 3,987 Member
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    'Anyone is allowed to disagree with me. If you don't want to see the similarity or feel there is no similarity, that's fine. But please tell me why I'm wrong rather than simply attacking me.
    sometimes things are just too stupid to deserve a sensible response but anyway going by your theory any one who plans meals or has meal times is disordered eating so by your argument everyone has an ED.
  • GiveMeCoffee
    GiveMeCoffee Posts: 3,556 Member
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    I'm sorry, what???? Please explain the how you see the similarities between someone suffering from ED and someone that practicing intermittent fasting?

    Serious question, do you understand what IF/IIFYM and how it is not just thrown together on a whim? Or are you basing your opinion simply on a few posts you've read around here? Have you taken the time to research any information on these things? And please don't say something like it's common sense or from your experience whatever, because you, just like we did, ended up here on MFP.

    How is fasting only on diet sodas for the majority of the day (sodas that probably contain a significant amount of uncharted sodium, btw) and then eating "everything from healthy to pizza" IIFYM? In order for something to fit one's macros, it is necessary to know what one's macros are in the first place and then track the macros being consumed, at least to some reasonable extent. In my opinion, the OP is simply "saving up" all of the day's calories for one big blowout at the end of the day, which the OP appears to believe will allow virtually anything to be consumed. I don't know, it doesn't sound healthy to me at all and it does sound like there is similarity to the rigid structures/rules of an ED.

    Or at least it did until the OP admitted that sometimes it's two meals a day. I see nothing wrong with eating two meals a day. Although I prefer to eat three meals a day and have a snack with my met at night, there are times I literally have to force myself to eat supper. I would venture to guess that there are more times the OP is eating two meals/day or is eating one meal and a snack than s/he is willing to admit.

    So yes, I have my doubts the OP is eating as little as claimed, otherwise there would be a calorie deficit accompanied by weight loss.

    You might want to reread the OP. Which was not mine, and the OP is male.

    My post have been because of blanket statements made that the OP had to increase how many meals they consume? Not necessary they just need to track the how much they are actually consuming to ensure they are actually in a deficit.

    You derailed it by claiming that eating 1 meal a day is the same as an ED
  • LoupGarouTFTs
    LoupGarouTFTs Posts: 916 Member
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    'Anyone is allowed to disagree with me. If you don't want to see the similarity or feel there is no similarity, that's fine. But please tell me why I'm wrong rather than simply attacking me.
    sometimes things are just too stupid to deserve a sensible response but anyway going by your theory any one who plans meals or has meal times is disordered eating so by your argument everyone has an ED.
    'Anyone is allowed to disagree with me. If you don't want to see the similarity or feel there is no similarity, that's fine. But please tell me why I'm wrong rather than simply attacking me.
    Let's get one thing straight, no one is attacking you.

    You made a frivolous claim. By your claims many of us have ED.

    I'm sorry, what???? Please explain the how you see the similarities between someone suffering from ED and someone that practicing intermittent fasting?

    Serious question, do you understand what IF/IIFYM and how it is not just thrown together on a whim? Or are you basing your opinion simply on a few posts you've read around here? Have you taken the time to research any information on these things? And please don't say something like it's common sense or from your experience whatever, because you, just like we did, ended up here on MFP.

    How is fasting only on diet sodas for the majority of the day (sodas that probably contain a significant amount of uncharted sodium, btw) and then eating "everything from healthy to pizza" IIFYM? In order for something to fit one's macros, it is necessary to know what one's macros are in the first place and then track the macros being consumed, at least to some reasonable extent. In my opinion, the OP is simply "saving up" all of the day's calories for one big blowout at the end of the day, which the OP appears to believe will allow virtually anything to be consumed. I don't know, it doesn't sound healthy to me at all and it does sound like there is similarity to the rigid structures/rules of an ED.

    Or at least it did until the OP admitted that sometimes it's two meals a day. I see nothing wrong with eating two meals a day. Although I prefer to eat three meals a day and have a snack with my met at night, there are times I literally have to force myself to eat supper. I would venture to guess that there are more times the OP is eating two meals/day or is eating one meal and a snack than s/he is willing to admit.

    So yes, I have my doubts the OP is eating as little as claimed, otherwise there would be a calorie deficit accompanied by weight loss.

    You might want to reread the OP. Which was not mine, and the OP is male.

    My post have been because of blanket statements made that the OP had to increase how many meals they consume? Not necessary they just need to track the how much they are actually consuming to ensure they are actually in a deficit.

    You derailed it by claiming that eating 1 meal a day is the same as an ED

    I never made any such claim. However, the fact that you reacted so strongly to what I did say (that both forms of eating are rigidly structured but one lacks the mental issues) makes me think that I'm not the only one who sees similarities.

    As to *my* derailing the thread . . . I think not. Your posts disrupted the thread even moreso, as people were expressing opinions about what could help the OP and you were merely defending your own dietary practices. I just find it interesting that you took the whole thread so personally.
  • FatFreeFrolicking
    FatFreeFrolicking Posts: 4,252 Member
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    FYI - I know plenty of people that eat 1 meal per day and are successful.

    I currently eat once every three days and I'm eating about 6,000 calories on my eating day. Now I'm not eating like a normal person because I'm a competitive eater and that 6,000 calories is all coming from raw beef, but yes you can eat infrequently and be successful.

    Sounds healthy. :noway: