I dont get it!

Brandongood

Thanks! Bottom line is there must not have been as much as a deficit that MFP led me to think. Gonna try and slice the calories off by a third cause I have heard before that MFP overestimates burned calories.

Brandongood

I am currently set to lose a pound a week.

Brandongood

My plan has been to maintain a daily deficit of 500 calories. Is that too much?

littledumplings

What I dont understand is when you do your settings, it asks you how much exercise you do...I put in 3 x 30 mins pw....so in the calorie allowance it has surely made some adjustment for this in the first place iyswim?

BeautyFromPain

You have a high protein intake, is this to help you build muscle? They do say muscle weighs more than fat (not sure how true this is, I'm no expert) Maybe your lack of weight loss is due to muscle gain.

The most muscle you can gain whilst on a deficit is 12lbs per YEAR, one per MONTH! when on a strict, perfect diet...

morthon

I loooked at your diary and didn't see any fruits or veggies for the last 3 days, atleast? You must eat those!

What are you set up to lose on MFP 1 pound? two pounds per week? Whatever the deficit is, might be too much. I have heard that when you only have a little to lose, your deficit shouldn't be more than about 250 cals per day.

Of course you can eat more and still lose if you exercise, otherwise the deficit would be about 1500 calories per day. When I was set to lose 1 pound per week, I had about 1400 cals for the day (I'm 5'3 and 123 lbs). I would burn about 800 per day with exercise. If I don't eat those back, my body is starving and thinks I am only eating 600....because that's all the fuel it has left after my workout!

I was gonna say the same thing - there is absolutely no fruits or veg in your diary.... are you just not recording them or not eating them. (I used to make the mistake of thinking an apple and asparagus cant count for many cals) but when i record them and add them up they sure do add up ?

mommynmotion

Last week, I changed my goal to maintenance, so I could see my deficit. I started leaving just a few hundred leftover everyday for my deficit and I lost a pound, after not losing for almost 2 months. I tried eating less (no exercise cals) and scale stayed almost exactly the same.

I burned almost 27,000 calories in January, left a pretty big deficit almost everyday and weighed the same on the 31st as on the 1st. I had a huge deficit at the end of the month...the only explaination is that a smaller deficit works better.

Matt_Wild

Matt - i'm genuinely interested here. MFP tells me to east 1370 for a 0.5lb a week loss (I don't have much to lose).

If I don't eat back my exercise calories I'll be netting less than the "magic" 1200. Is that OK?

I don't know your weight and bodyfat percentage or even approximate, so I couldn't say hun. Message me and I'm more than happy to help. Would rather not post on the message board as people like to shoot people down without any understanding of nutrition!

The most muscle you can gain whilst on a deficit is 12lbs per YEAR, one per MONTH! when on a strict, perfect diet...

I would personally be surpised if you put on 1lb of muscle whilst cutting back calories unless you are a genetic freak or a newbie trainer.

mommynmotion

What I dont understand is when you do your settings, it asks you how much exercise you do...I put in 3 x 30 mins pw....so in the calorie allowance it has surely made some adjustment for this in the first place iyswim?

MFP asks for lifesytyle because someone who exercises or moves a lot (as opposed to a desk job), has a higher BMR. You burn more calories at rest when you exercise regularly.

MoogieOh

You have a high protein intake, is this to help you build muscle? They do say muscle weighs more than fat (not sure how true this is, I'm no expert) Maybe your lack of weight loss is due to muscle gain.

1kg of muscle is the same a 1kg of fat. Muscle just takes up less room then fat, so measurements should go down when weight stays the same

ladyraven68

but does that include a built in deficit like MFP provides?

Naturally yes, 300-400 below maintenance. Then 50 mins cardio in the morning (20 after weights) 6x a week, weights 4x a week. When required, an extra 50 mins in the evening too.

so, you give them a small deficit, and let exercise do the rest.

For someone wanting to lose 2lb a week, MFP has already set them a defict of 1000 calories without any exercise.

If they they exercised as well, the deficit would be more than 1000. so they eat back any exercise calories to maintain the 1000 deficit.

It looks like you are heading for the same goal, just going a different way about it.

Aperture_Science

What I dont understand is when you do your settings, it asks you how much exercise you do...I put in 3 x 30 mins pw....so in the calorie allowance it has surely made some adjustment for this in the first place iyswim?

I don't think it works that way. I think that you're initial "I'm going to do 3 x 30mins per week" is just so that you can track whet you did against what you said you would do. The number of cals MFP gives you to lose at your chosen rate is not affected by this initial exercise target: Only recorded cardio exercise sessions will change the cals you are allocated on a daily basis.

Matt_Wild

Hmm not really. An hour of cardio is around 600 calories, heavy weights could be up to 900. My method targets fat and leaves muscle well alone. Calories in and being burned off are viewed in a different manner by the bodies hormonal systems, not the same thing.

This is one of my guys, he won sponsorship with a nutrition company and in mens health mags:-

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/body-transformation-bobby-changed-attitude-won-sponsorship.html

CookieGem

Firstly, give yourself longer than a week, unfortunately nothing happens that quickly. Do you have scales that measure your BF or just normal scales. I have some that measure Body Fat (lbs), BF %, water weight and BMI. Its more encouraging when you jump on the scales and when the weight has gone up but BF has gone down i know im gaining muscle.

I am currently seeing a personal trainer and he looked at my food diary and told me to reduce the amount of carbs I was eating, from looking at your diary you eat ALOT of carbs, maybe you should focus on reducing them. An example of my food diary looks like this...

Breakfast: scrambled eggs with bacon and grilled mushrooms

Morning snack: apple and sliced turkey

Lunch: Chicken, sliced avocado and salad

Afternoon snack: Hand full of nuts, protein shake

Tea: Grilled salmon with med veg and halloumi

Feel free to add me as a friend to look at my food diary to see what I mean.

Good Luck.

Matt_Wild

I like that diet Cookiegem - low in carbs bar the apple early on and full of protein and good fats :happy:

ChristineDiet

First off give it longer than a week. Try it for a month and then reevaluate.

Second your muscles are probably retaining water. This is normal. Your body needs to repair itself.

I agree. You have to give it time. I just starting out but I lost nothing for 3 weeks straight then 6lbs in one go! this could be the same for you.

And you do need to eat your exercise calories back as MFP already puts you at a 500 calorie deficit. You could allow for a maximum of 1000 calorie deficit and still lose weight and not mess with your metabolism. You could try that, so only eating about 1/2 of your exercise calories.

Good luck and stay positive. x

ramyavemuganti

I dont get this too.Sorry for diverting the topic of the post but see I have had this major major doubt.I have been trying to lose fat yes!targeting fat doesnt work yes.But then I measure like 36 on my breasts and 34 on my waist.What if I lose inches around my breasts cause I dont want that to happen?

godricshollow

Starting to think this eating back your calorie thing isn't for me.

Its a load of old cobblers. Only on MFP does one do it. Its madness.

Incorrect. My mother and sister both use Weight Watchers and when you work out, you earn points. You use those points so that you can eat more to refuel your body.

To the original poster, give your body time to adjust. If it still isn't working then try something else, maybe only eating back half of your exercise calories. See how you go! Good luck

Matt_Wild

Incorrect. My mother and sister both use Weight Watchers and when you work out, you earn points. You use those points so that you can eat more to refuel your body.

To the original poster, give your body time to adjust. If it still isn't working then try something else, maybe only eating back half of your exercise calories. See how you go! Good luck

Ever consider what you'd have lost if you hadn't eaten back extra calories?!

BerryH

"Extra" is relative. Most calorie-based weight loss plans include exercise but they do it based on overall level of activity including exercise, rather than having lifestyle calories and separate exercise calories like MFP. So you might find a personal trainer in the gym says work out 5 days a week and eat 1,800 calories a day, whereas MFP says eat 1,400, but you burn an average of 400 a day and eat all, or some, of those.

MFP wins out for many people, myself included, as not having that extra deficit until you exercise encourages activity that you wouldn't normally do, so you're not just slimmer, you're fitter and have an enhanced metabolic rate.