Help! I don't get it

skidlock

Hi All

Just wanted some help here as a bit confused! I've been on here since Jan 1st and was 14st12 and I'm now (was!) down to 12st12 which is just in my normal range on the BMI (i'm 6ft). I normally exercise a lot but was also quite a big drinker which always used up a lot of my cals. So I decided to do a month non drinking starting Monday to lose my final half stone and reach my target. In the last 4 days I've:

eaten 2k cals, burned 1k
eaten 2.2k caks burned 1k
eaten 2.2k cals burned 900k
eaten 2k cals burned 500k

...and I have gained 2 pounds! I've so far found MFP to be amazingly accurate and I've reset my goals etc for my new weight..I weigh myself at the same time each day,,,why could this be?! I want to keep up my healthy month but this is getting me down!!

Thx MFPers x

damo1st

Hi there,

Firstly I'm no expert- but what did u eat, at what time and what excercise? Possibly eating at wrong time and wrong stuff ie full of fat has been stored and to be fair to much excercise when dieting is never a good thing as starvation mode could kick in and the foot you think your burning off infact gets stored. If its healthy food your eating- just keep it up and in a few days yous hould notice your body adjusts and loses it. If not somethings wrong.. maybe lower the calories to 1800. i've been doing things myself like cooking low fat muffins for my really bad treats- and they are therefore not bad so everything i consume is very healthy and i do little excercise- my results are aprox 1.5lbs a week on average.

My bmi has gone from 31.2 to 24 and i've avoided streneous excercise till now just brisk walks and core muscle building excercises such as pilates. Well done on your two stone till now- keep it up and your get there- as i hope i will

sknopster

Based on living for 30 years in permanent starvation mode by only eating 2 times per day (3 on rare occasions) and never eating breakfast... the best advice I can give for you is to eat your first meal within 30 minutes of waking up, then eat a minimum of 5 times per day. For me, my measured "At Rest Metabolic Rate" (ARMR) is 2757 kcal or 2,757 Calories per day burned if I was resting all day (which I am unfortunately sentenced to, because of my physical disease). I am a big guy, 6'6" and 322 Pounds U.S. (23 Stone U.K.) and since eating in this fashion, and actually eating MORE food and calories, I have lost 40 Pounds as of today - exactly 3 months since changing my eating habits ONLY.

I too have found the calculations on this site to be remarkably accurate. By back calculating, it proves that my (ARMR) is 2,750 calories per day which precisely matches the measured metabolic rate. It seems that your net caloric intake is approx 1,000 calories per day and that will put you in starvation mode. Your body stores as much energy as possible because you're not eating enough each day. Trust me, I have just proved that this is not a falsehood in my situation at least. I would recommend that you try to find your Metabolic Rate and use it to guide you.

None of my business, but at 6' tall, it seems that you don't need to lose weight, and burning 1,000 cal per day is definitely going to produce muscle, which weighs more than fat. It would be nice to know your Body Fat Percentage... my guess is that you're lean and mean!! If you goal is to maintain, then knowing your Metabolic Rate is key. If you don't want to pay for a test, eat consistently - minimum of 5 times per day at about 1,800 NET calories (total consumed minus physical activity). DO that for 2 weeks and this site will give you some predictions for 5 weeks out. At the end of the two week test, simply input adjust calories to get the prediction to estimate a stable weight for the next 5 week period... this will be your Metabolic Rate, or the NET calories you would consume to maintain weight. I use the "Add Calories" feature to adjust my day's intake until it reads my current weight for the "If every day were like today... You'd weigh XXX.X lbs in 5 weeks". Then the calories for that day, equal your Metabolic Rate. (be sure to account for any physical activity on that day).

Just some advice base on my experiences.

yarwell

If you've taken alcohol calories out what did you replace them with ? Your diary isn't comprehensive I suspect but in general you could increase your protein and reduce carbs by the same amount - a tall guy can eat 100g or more of protein a day.

2 lbs isn't a great deal in the big picture and it may be water weight associated with eating more carbs, alcohol does behave differently to other calorie sources and "isn't well understood" for example it tends to dehydrate somewhat and in a trial men given excess calories as alcohol didn't put on weight but those with the same excess calories as chocolate did.

jenneal89

What kind exercise are you doing?

In any event, it's prob water weight. Don't worry it's not that much

teez52

Wow...lot's of broscience in here. Nutrient timing doesn't matter, starvation mode doesn't exist in 99.9% of situations (http://fitnessblackbook.com/main/starvation-mode-why-you-probably-never-need-to-worry-about-it/).

Weigh your food, do the math to figure out your TDEE, BMR and goal calories to lose 1-2 pounds per week and did I mention, weigh your food? Chances are that you could be eating more than you think. This includes condiments, salads, snacks, drinks, etc. If you don't know how much your eating, how can you know how many calories your eating?