Calories In Versus Calories Out = CRAP!
phee
Posts: 147 Member
I did not have a loss this week despite the fact that I have been eating at a calorie deficit of between 800 and 1800 per day for the entire week. I haven't worked out as much but I have still worked out moderately 3 times this week. This is what I hate about traditional weight loss advice. It is simply not a matter of calories in versus calories out! Well it sure isn't for me! I have never had any real success with WW, Jenny Craig, Gloria Marshall and even dieticians for this reason. With the dieticians advice to eat more wholegrains like brown rice and whole wheat bread, I have been twice, and both times I gained weight!! It is very disheartening.
I guess it just means I have to work a lot harder than what I have been. Which is something I have never really done. So here goes to working harder and seeing what the results bring. I just thought I would post this for others who might be in the same boat.
I guess it just means I have to work a lot harder than what I have been. Which is something I have never really done. So here goes to working harder and seeing what the results bring. I just thought I would post this for others who might be in the same boat.
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Replies
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I get why you're saying what you're saying and I agree but not 100%. It's not really crap, it does make sense and work. There are weeks when I don't lose anything but did well work out wise and calorie wise and then the next week I lose 2-3 pounds. Losing weight doesn't work like we'd like, it's some give and some take. You could be retaining water, you might have had a bit more sodium than you realized and that's why the scale isn't showing anything different.
If you haven't already, I'd suggest using a measuring tape as well-inches don't lie but the scale can.0 -
It works, you aren't working it correctly.
I don't have the link but its in the forums - in place of a road map.
It is every informational, and it will help you figure things out.
Trust me - you are not a special snow flake, calories in Vs Calories out works if you understand your BRM and your TDEE its how I have lost 14ish pounds. I used to think it would never work for me.0 -
This isn't exactly the same as what you're going through, but many of the facts still apply:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/689968-losing-1-lb-or-more-in-24-hours?hl=24+hour
It could simply be water weight. I have seen my weight fluctuate by upwards of 8 lbs in a week. If you only measure once a week, then you may not see any changes for a while.
There may also be other underlying reasons for not losing weight: thyroid problems, food allergies/intolerances, chronic illness, etc.0 -
1. Water weight fluctuations can hide weight loss/gain
2. 800 to 1800 deficit is way too high unless you're around 600+ pounds and medically supervised.
3. What you eat can affect the OUT side of the equation, as malnutrition in the form of lack of protein and/or vitamins and/or minerals can greatly reduce TDEE (Protein alone seemed to reduce it by 50% to 60% in one subject I read about)
Overall, it all depends on LONG TERM. Complaining about a single week is like claiming the sun exploded simply because its no longer in view.0 -
If you are running that much of a deficit your body is probably in starvation mode.
Open your diary so people can see what you have been doing to offer decent advice.0 -
Take a few steps back...I did not have a loss this week despite the fact that I have been eating at a calorie deficit of between 800 and 1800 per day for the entire week. I haven't worked out as much but I have still worked out moderately 3 times this week. This is what I hate about traditional weight loss advice. It is simply not a matter of calories in versus calories out! Well it sure isn't for me! I have never had any real success with WW, Jenny Craig, Gloria Marshall and even dieticians for this reason. With the dieticians advice to eat more wholegrains like brown rice and whole wheat bread, I have been twice, and both times I gained weight!! It is very disheartening.
I guess it just means I have to work a lot harder than what I have been. Which is something I have never really done. So here goes to working harder and seeing what the results bring. I just thought I would post this for others who might be in the same boat.
On some days you eating a deficit of 1800 calories per day. That means -1800 of your totals calories consumed for the day. That is your problem right there. You need to eat.0 -
nope, not crap. it is just a slower process.
but scientifically speaking, it works.0 -
ha ha ha a week! give up now, what were you expecting 4-6 pounds???? I am not even going to offer advice on a post like this, you need a reality check calories in vs calories out= crap. hang on a pig flew by my window,
Sorry for the hard truth, no offense meant.0 -
I did not have a loss this week despite the fact that I have been eating at a calorie deficit of between 800 and 1800 per day for the entire week. I haven't worked out as much but I have still worked out moderately 3 times this week. This is what I hate about traditional weight loss advice. It is simply not a matter of calories in versus calories out! Well it sure isn't for me! I have never had any real success with WW, Jenny Craig, Gloria Marshall and even dieticians for this reason. With the dieticians advice to eat more wholegrains like brown rice and whole wheat bread, I have been twice, and both times I gained weight!! It is very disheartening.
I guess it just means I have to work a lot harder than what I have been. Which is something I have never really done. So here goes to working harder and seeing what the results bring. I just thought I would post this for others who might be in the same boat.
Are you measuring your food intake or estimating?
Same for your exercise and calorie burn.
Even trying to be very precise, there is a lot of room for error. You may not be at the deficit you think you are at.
Weight gain or loss is not a linear event, though a straight interpretation of the calorie in/calorie out thing would lead you to believe that it is. I popped up 4 pounds overnight a few days ago. I most certainly did not eat 3500 calories x 4 the day before.
Track everything you do in terms of weeks rather than days, then trends will start to make more sense.
Also, being patient will help.0 -
It could be user error?
1.) you are underestimating what you eat
2.) you are overestimating what you are burning with exercise
3.) you are not logging properly
4.) you assume weight loss happens overnight. (you didn't gain all that weight overnight did you?)
Also, maybe you have some medical problem? Doubtful.
You are not a special snowflake. Fix the above and go from there!
Best of luck!0 -
How do you get a deficit of 1800??0
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I get why you're saying what you're saying and I agree but not 100%. It's not really crap, it does make sense and work. There are weeks when I don't lose anything but did well work out wise and calorie wise and then the next week I lose 2-3 pounds. Losing weight doesn't work like we'd like, it's some give and some take. You could be retaining water, you might have had a bit more sodium than you realized and that's why the scale isn't showing anything different.
If you haven't already, I'd suggest using a measuring tape as well-inches don't lie but the scale can.
I completely agree with you. I seem to lose in weeks. Last week I lost, this week nothing. I"m so not sweating it (like i did in the beginning) because I KNOW i'll see a loss next week. It's a long process, the weight didnt get put on overnight, it dont expect it to come off overnight 0 -
There are a large number of reasons why you may not be experiencing a weight loss.
1: With a deficit as extreme as you are citing your body may be in starvation mode and actually holding on to everything it can.
2: Your sodium intake may be pretty high and you're retaining a lot of water.
3: Fat may be being converted into muscle which is a good thing, but won't hit the scales.
Generally speaking one week is to small of a sample period. I've often had times where I wouldn't lose anything for a week, and the next week I would drop 5 pounds, despite little to no change in diet/exercise. Give it some time, see what happens.0 -
I did not have a loss this week despite the fact that I have been eating at a calorie deficit of between 800 and 1800 per day for the entire week. I haven't worked out as much but I have still worked out moderately 3 times this week. This is what I hate about traditional weight loss advice. It is simply not a matter of calories in versus calories out! Well it sure isn't for me! I have never had any real success with WW, Jenny Craig, Gloria Marshall and even dieticians for this reason. With the dieticians advice to eat more wholegrains like brown rice and whole wheat bread, I have been twice, and both times I gained weight!! It is very disheartening.
I guess it just means I have to work a lot harder than what I have been. Which is something I have never really done. So here goes to working harder and seeing what the results bring. I just thought I would post this for others who might be in the same boat.
Its not crap. Your body is probably burning fat and you could be retaining water, constipated, whatever. Your actual bodyweight is something to be measured as a trend over time. You can't take one week and draw these conclusions. The process can be extremely frustrating but you have to continue at it.0 -
so you don't have a loss after 1 week and you think that the entire basis of weight loss doesn't apply to you? No wonder you didn't have much success on those other programs...
You are making excuses for yourself.0 -
Not eating and exercising your butt off. A lot of cardio.How do you get a deficit of 1800??0 -
/smh
It's called water weight - or inaccurate logging.
ETA:
You have had one week of no weightloss and you have decided that the fundamental well established concept behind it is crap?0 -
There are a large number of reasons why you may not be experiencing a weight loss.
1: With a deficit as extreme as you are citing your body may be in starvation mode and actually holding on to everything it can.
2: Your sodium intake may be pretty high and you're retaining a lot of water.
3: Fat may be being converted into muscle which is a good thing, but won't hit the scales.
Generally speaking one week is to small of a sample period. I've often had times where I wouldn't lose anything for a week, and the next week I would drop 5 pounds, despite little to no change in diet/exercise. Give it some time, see what happens.
Oh my god.
1: With a deficit as extreme as you are citing your body may be in starvation mode and actually holding on to everything it can.-No. No it is not. This is not true.
2: Your sodium intake may be pretty high and you're retaining a lot of water.- Very likely.
3: Fat may be being converted into muscle which is a good thing, but won't hit the scales.- This is not physiologically possible. This is completely untrue.
Although yes, give it more time. 0 -
/smh
It's called water weight - or inaccurate logging.
most people i notice who cant seem to lose weight. Really just suck at counting calories.0 -
/smh
It's called water weight - or inaccurate logging.
well yeah either this or the whole idea of a calorie deficit is bunk0 -
You must be different
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/you-are-not-different.html0 -
this is right. if u r in a 1800cal deficit u would be losing CRAZY weight until u get to about 20%bf when u would probably see slower weight loss becuz of starvation mode.It could be user error?
1.) you are underestimating what you eat
2.) you are overestimating what you are burning with exercise
3.) you are not logging properly
4.) you assume weight loss happens overnight. (you didn't gain all that weight overnight did you?)
Also, maybe you have some medical problem? Doubtful.
You are not a special snowflake. Fix the above and go from there!
Best of luck!0 -
It works, you aren't working it correctly.
I don't have the link but its in the forums - in place of a road map.
It is every informational, and it will help you figure things out.
Trust me - you are not a special snow flake, calories in Vs Calories out works if you understand your BRM and your TDEE its how I have lost 14ish pounds. I used to think it would never work for me.
bahahaha and she's on a roll folks0 -
I would suggest altering your expectations. Weight loss is about trends, not weekly results. The science is there and is proven you lose weight and fat by consuming less calories than you burn.0
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Unfortunately the scale doesn't always move the way we want it too.
Just because MFP has you set up to lose 1 or 2 or 1/2 pound per week doesn't mean that you will lose that every week.
I have had small losses, and a gain thrown in, since I started at the beginning of November. It's been about 7 weeks, and I've lost 7 pounds overall.
My best losses happened in the last week - after I really and truly began to understand just what my BMR and TDEE were, and how that effects how my body functions through regular day to day movements and increased movements through exercise.
I had always been under the mind set that if I had big deficits, that should equal big losses. This is where the crap is.
It is something that has to be learned, and I am still learning and still, even after a week, am not as high as I should be for my BMR/TDEE, but I am working on it, and I'm working on myself.
Educate yourself, really understand what it is that you want from this process and please be kind to your body and give it everything that it needs so it will respond to you when you do ask more from it in terms of exercise.0 -
Granted, most of us here at MFP want to lose weight. But if your primary measure of success is the scale it can become discouraging in short order.
I keep my motivation up by always remembering that my MFP eating and fitness plan are about being healthy and taking care of myself. It helps me to worry less about my scale and having great value for eating foods and staying active so that my current and future quality of life is as high as I can make it. Every day I see that I'm under, it's a win! I don't need a scale to know that I have more energy, I need less sleep and that muffin top already seems to have faded away from my fat jeans.0 -
I did not have a loss this week
so what?0 -
Just a light correction. Fat is not converted to muscle. Your fat cells shrink and never go away. Muscle is "built" due to tearing of fibers during resistance training.There are a large number of reasons why you may not be experiencing a weight loss.
1: With a deficit as extreme as you are citing your body may be in starvation mode and actually holding on to everything it can.
2: Your sodium intake may be pretty high and you're retaining a lot of water.
3: Fat may be being converted into muscle which is a good thing, but won't hit the scales.
Generally speaking one week is to small of a sample period. I've often had times where I wouldn't lose anything for a week, and the next week I would drop 5 pounds, despite little to no change in diet/exercise. Give it some time, see what happens.
Oh my god.
1: With a deficit as extreme as you are citing your body may be in starvation mode and actually holding on to everything it can.-No. No it is not. This is not true.
2: Your sodium intake may be pretty high and you're retaining a lot of water.- Very likely.
3: Fat may be being converted into muscle which is a good thing, but won't hit the scales.- This is not physiologically possible. This is completely untrue.
Although yes, give it more time.0 -
I did not have a loss this week despite the fact that I have been eating at a calorie deficit of between 800 and 1800 per day for the entire week. I haven't worked out as much but I have still worked out moderately 3 times this week. This is what I hate about traditional weight loss advice. It is simply not a matter of calories in versus calories out! Well it sure isn't for me! I have never had any real success with WW, Jenny Craig, Gloria Marshall and even dieticians for this reason. With the dieticians advice to eat more wholegrains like brown rice and whole wheat bread, I have been twice, and both times I gained weight!! It is very disheartening.
I guess it just means I have to work a lot harder than what I have been. Which is something I have never really done. So here goes to working harder and seeing what the results bring. I just thought I would post this for others who might be in the same boat.
Take about 2 weeks for you to start seeing results starting a new diet. Also just in case you have not already done so you might want to get a check up from the doc. Some people have thyroid issues that can cause issues and such. If you use MFP correctly it will work for you. Keep going and good luck.0 -
I did not have a loss this week
so what?
So clearly the whole site and most research and studies on weight loss through calorie counting is completely made up just to mess with people.
Or...special snowflakes.0
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