Anyone else discovered low calories are their only option?
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No as I've said time and time again I am not in a position to do that but I am not stupid and know my own body. I've been logging calories and macros on here for months, taking advice by increasing calories and after months of eating up to 2000 calories per day all that's happened is I gained back the 1% body fat I lose initially and gained back the 4lbs I had lost in the beginning too.
No more weight loss, no more fat loss and all when burning off approximately 2500-3000 calories per week (being conservative).
I have given it over 4 months of listening to what works for others which is not exactly no time at all and now have reached this conclusion through staying at the same weight for a while by averaging 1600 calories per day. I therefore have concluded that my true TDEE including exercise is 1600 which I don't think is unrealistic and is certainly not an eating disorder amount of food to maintain on!
My goal IS to lose fat more than scale weight and for my health I can't afford to gain any more fat so in order to lose as has been said on here over and over again I have to create a deficit large enough to lose this fat hence eating less for a while, hopefully not too long.
What's so wrong with that? Just because your buff and don't have these problems good for you, maybe one day when I've stripped off the fat I can work on increasing my calories and building muscle but my goals for now are different.
Um Op I never made any statement at all. I just asked what your bmr was.
2000 is kind of high for a woman though, that's almost my intake. I was at a plateau for awhile on super low cals too though, it sucked.
So your new intake will be 1200?0 -
Joehenny
Sorry, just that I've had so many people who haven't read the things I've said and form conclusions that's all!
When I set MFP cals to lose weight and ate back exercise calories some days I was up to 2000-2100 and did that for a while before realising it was too much. Then I did TDEE -20% which ended up being about 1800 which again was too much for me. Then I gradually lowered and still didn't lose weight so here I am!
Yes I am trying 1250 calories this week and hopefully won't need to go any lower. How did you overcome your planteau?0 -
Just a couple of points:
Do you wear a heart rate monitor when working out? You might be over-estimating calories burned. If you are doing the same kind of workout month after month, your body will become more efficient and burn fewer calories. So check how many calories you are REALLY burning to keep things more accurate. Try new kinds of workouts if you get in a rut.
I went to a really tame aerobics/weights class a few weeks ago and was shocked to have muscle aches the next day - because I did some exercises I never usually do! Try and work out some different muscle groups by playing tennis, ice skating or some other activities you never usually do.
You have been weight-lifting for a few weeks, so your muscles may contain more water and glycogen than usual. Have you been gradually increasing weights? As the muscles repair, the weight will drop off. Maybe you have noticed a slight change to your body shape? This means you are on the right track!
1% body fat increase is nothing to worry about unless you have been using some seriously high-tech machine to measure it. No scales are that accurate!
Work out your TDEE at sedentary level, take off 20%. THEN add in your exercise calories on a daily basis as accurately measured from each workout. See if this is in fact less than you were eating before.0 -
Yes, I've been wearing one religiously with every workout for at least 3 months. It's playing up now so haven't used it for about a week now need to get it looked at as it may be the battery. In addition I add up my total calorie burn for the week and subtract 20% to allow for overestimation anyway. so when I say I burn off 2500 calories it's actually over 3000 ish and if I burn less another week I'll do the same and eat less to make up for it.
I have changed my workouts a lot too. For the first 8 weeks I did Jillian Michaels body revolution which is a 12 DVD programme so the workouts changed every week anyway and there were 3 different workouts per week repeated twice each.
After that I switched to a hybrid of Insanity and weight lifting but then realised there were a lot of body weight exercises in Insanity so after 3-4 week changed to doing cardio in the gym twice a week using 3 different machines per workout and one day of walking for enjoyment at the weekends (1-2 hours each time). On top of that I've been lifting heavy weights for at least 7 or 8 weeks now and I change the exercises I do for each body part in every workout so my body doesn't get too used to the same routine.
I don't do outdoor sports because I don't like them except for skating and I get the odd knee problem so best to steer clear, plus I have time constraints so my home gym is the easiest option as I can fit it in when I have a few minutes free. I also have a pool I can use here from the end of this month so I'll start adding in swimming around twice a week.
Regarding the weights I do I have been increasing weights gradually yes, as often as I can manage it. Normally it's been every 2 weeks or so. My body shape isn't really changing much. The main change has been on my hips as I've had 4 inches off there over the 4 plus months on MFP but not much else from other body parts although my chest is looking more toned (but I've got very little fat there!).
In fact my calculations for TDEE (sedentary) are 1700-1900 according to various calculators which I believe is way overestimated based on my experience and lack of weight loss for several months eating according to those numbers plus exercise -20%. I'm now working off 1600 as my sedentary TDEE for that reason. I work out my total calories for the week which is 11,200, then add my calorie burn of 2500 for the week on top and then subtract enough to lose at least 1-1.5 lb per week from the total. I tried subtracting less ie. enough to lose just 0.5-1lb per week but it hasn't happened and I've lost nothing so that's why I've now lowered my total to average 1250 per day which should be enough to lose 1.5lb per week on paper but as I've not seen weight loss for a while it's possibly only enough to lose 1lb or less anyway in reality.0 -
I'll give you my experience for reference:
5' 1" 118.6 lbs
1200 calories per day
40 minutes of circuit training, 5 days per week
Sunday, no calorie counting (but behaving anyway)
So far, lost 2.5 lbs, looking to get to 105 (please, I'm really short)
I have started measuring my arms, neck, waist, bust, lower waist, hips and thighs and even when I don't "lose" weight, I AM losing inches! So, perhaps a little of that lack of weight loss is in that you are gaining muscle!0 -
Sorry I havent read this whole thread but just wondering, Do you still eat your exercise calories back? For the past 6 weeks i've been working to TDEE -20% but have not been eating my calories back. I burn between 7500-8000 calories a week and i've lost 18lbs of fat and numbers off the inches but increased my strength.
I really hope you find what the situation is and i know what works for one person doesn't for another.
My TDEE was calculated as 6 sessions a week rather than sedentary and i dont eat my calories back so even on my rest day i eat to maintenance which is still 20% off my TDEE tao aid weightloss0 -
My TDEE is also 1700 ("little or no exercise") and I am finding the weight loss really slow like you. I think we are in the same boat!
I am eating 1280 a day net - so eat back my exercise calories for the day (anything up to an extra 400).
TDEE - 20% would be 1360 but I think this is too much.
According to Fitness Pal this means I should be losing about 1 lb a week, and I think that - in the long run - this will be the case. I have upped my exercise to weight lifting x 1, Body Combat x 2, cross trainer x 1 and Body Step x 1 a week.
Over the first month I have barely lost anything, so the 1280 calories a day is not necessarily a recommendation but might be a good place to start.0 -
The more I read of your thread OP, the more I find myself saying "ME TOO!". I have done all the things you have done. My fitness level went up, weight and BF% arent going down since I stopped the 1200 cal thing about 4 months ago.0
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Hello from Chicago! Thanks for the discussion.0
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Just as an additional note your TDEE should be re calculated after every 5lb loss/ gain (depending on goal) Unlike MFP you DONT eat your calories back from exercise.0
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Wow all these medical anamolies on MFP. You guys need to go to your nearest University with a medical school because they would LOVE to study you. If in fact what you say is true, the study of your special metabolism would be of great interest and add knowledge to humanity's field of nutrition and exercise science. However, I suspect that if you participated in such a study, where your food was strictly controlled and exercise monitored, you would indeed lose weight without cutting your calories so low. Oh, and these studies are free.0
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Yes but you're netting 1280 because you're eating exercise calories back pinksparklefa. I'm netting around 850 as I'm eating 1250. I tried doing what you are doing and didn't lose a single pound for months hence why I've now decided to try eating less.0
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If you were netting 850 for months and then increased your calories to TDEE PLUS exercise calories then no wonder you put weight on - temporarily. That is a big jump in calories! Your body would need time to re-adjust. Maybe I have misunderstood something??
Then you started the weight-lifting too which means you have some water weight at the moment.
Netting 850 a day is starving yourself and not healthy! You need at least 1200 a day if you are the same height as me, which you must be with the same TDEE.
If I were you I would try eating 1300 plus exercise calories for a few months. See if that works - as far as I can tell you have not tried it yet. Also, have 1100 on some days and 1400 on others - just make sure you hit your weekly target.
Balance and long-term determination are what you need to lose the weight .. not very fun but it has to work due to basic scientific facts.0 -
Supplemama it's not a case of special metabolism or anything worth anyone studying. I am very strict with weighing, measuring and counting calories, monitoring via HRM etc. so unless those are way out then everything I log is quite accurate, as far as it can be. Don't know why you seem to think that someone studying me would have any different results by getting me to eat more.
A lot of people on MFP are big and have a lot of weight to lose and many are only just embarking on this journey. Many are also a lot younger. Here I am after 12 years of losing/gainin/losing weight and now my body isn't responding in the same way as it used to.
When I was a student I ate like a horse, drank loads of beer/wine daily and ate tons of junk food. I went from a fairly 'normal' size and body fat % to way above what I should be by eating probably 2000-3000 calories per day back then and lost all the excess very quickly (56 lbs in 4.5 months) by dropping calories way too low on the recommendation of people who didn't know any better at the time and neither did I.
Now I have a very slow metabolism and need to eat less to lose weight and that's the reality. Those of you who haven't had this pattern throughout a long period of their lives don't have these issues. Lucky you.
I am in a country where I don't speak the local language fluently and am in the middle of nowhere with the nearest University 45 minutes away and I don't have a car so being studied really isn't an option!0 -
No No No! I wasn't netting 850 calories in the past. I was netting way more and some days I was netting 1600 and eating 2000 or more for months. This is the first week I'll be netting 850. I started on MFP when I was eating 1300-1700 daily nett and I wasn't exercising and I got to my current weight by eating like that. When I joined this site I started working out more and eating more, although for the first 2 weeks out of over 4 months here I did eat 1100-1200 but was netting around 1000.
I have also already tried eating 1300 plus exercise calories which didn't work as I've been saying repeatedly! I tried that for several weeks!!
I've also been weight training for 4 months in total, 2 of those months with heavy weights so it's nothing new for my body.
And yes I already eat different amounts on different days which I monitor carefully. I'm doing 5:2 so 2 days at 500-600 calories then I normally have 3 days at 1400 and the other 2 days at 1600.0 -
I can only lose when I consume about 1,066 calories. I found this number by reading a post about the Biggest Loser online somewhere. You take your weight and multiply it by 7 (they multiply it by 6 on the show for fast results). I tried the In Place Of a Roadmap thing for about a month and it didn't help at all, I thought I had been eating too little before hand but it turns out I've actually been eating way too much. So eating much fewer calories has done wonders for me!0
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I can only lose when I consume about 1,066 calories. I found this number by reading a post about the Biggest Loser online somewhere. You take your weight and multiply it by 7 (they multiply it by 6 on the show for fast results). I tried the In Place Of a Roadmap thing for about a month and it didn't help at all, I thought I had been eating too little before hand but it turns out I've actually been eating way too much. So eating much fewer calories has done wonders for me!
Do this to lose weight but remember weight = fat, water, muscle and bone mass) Use TDEE if you want to lose body fat as for every lb of body weight lost 25% of that will be muscle
Following the advice biggest loser has given you, I'm sorry but 1470 calories for someone of my height and lean mass i would just become non existant.
TDEE -20% deficit set at a level you know you are going to work out say 2 times a week then do not eat your exercise calories back.0 -
Fortunately I've trained my body to lose on more--patience is key with this--I get peeved when I'm not losing after 2 weeks but really I shouldn't. I mean I eat ~2000 calories a day, burn a heap of calories working out, and still manage to lose weight. I'm only 4'11 and ~109-111 pounds so I don't have a high BMR or RMR. I've actually had the respiratory readout twice--my numbers come out to the 1100-1200 calorie range--that doesn't take into account the calories I burn walking to the restroom, cooking dinner, cleaning, or working out. I can easily burn about 1200 calories doing the aforementioned things. A lack of patience is usually the real culprit (or systematic underestimation of your caloric intake).0
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I can only lose when I consume about 1,066 calories. I found this number by reading a post about the Biggest Loser online somewhere. You take your weight and multiply it by 7 (they multiply it by 6 on the show for fast results). I tried the In Place Of a Roadmap thing for about a month and it didn't help at all, I thought I had been eating too little before hand but it turns out I've actually been eating way too much. So eating much fewer calories has done wonders for me!
Do this to lose weight but remember weight = fat, water, muscle and bone mass) Use TDEE if you want to lose body fat as for every lb of body weight lost 25% of that will be muscle
Following the advice biggest loser has given you, I'm sorry but 1470 calories for someone of my height and lean mass i would just become non existant.
TDEE -20% deficit set at a level you know you are going to work out say 2 times a week then do not eat your exercise calories back.
I did try that with the TDEE and did not have success. But thank you for your help!0 -
I can only lose when I consume about 1,066 calories. I found this number by reading a post about the Biggest Loser online somewhere. You take your weight and multiply it by 7 (they multiply it by 6 on the show for fast results). I tried the In Place Of a Roadmap thing for about a month and it didn't help at all, I thought I had been eating too little before hand but it turns out I've actually been eating way too much. So eating much fewer calories has done wonders for me!
Do this to lose weight but remember weight = fat, water, muscle and bone mass) Use TDEE if you want to lose body fat as for every lb of body weight lost 25% of that will be muscle
Following the advice biggest loser has given you, I'm sorry but 1470 calories for someone of my height and lean mass i would just become non existant.
TDEE -20% deficit set at a level you know you are going to work out say 2 times a week then do not eat your exercise calories back.
I did try that with the TDEE and did not have success. But thank you for your help!
Just as a question how long did you try it for? if you're wanting to try again i'm happy to help you out.
Alternatively give this a read:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/974888-in-place-of-a-road-map-2k13 OR
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/975025-in-place-of-a-road-map-short-n-sweet0 -
Fortunately I've trained my body to lose on more--patience is key with this--I get peeved when I'm not losing after 2 weeks but really I shouldn't. I mean I eat ~2000 calories a day, burn a heap of calories working out, and still manage to lose weight. I'm only 4'11 and ~109-111 pounds so I don't have a high BMR or RMR. I've actually had the respiratory readout twice--my numbers come out to the 1100-1200 calorie range--that doesn't take into account the calories I burn walking to the restroom, cooking dinner, cleaning, or working out. I can easily burn about 1200 calories doing the aforementioned things. A lack of patience is usually the real culprit (or systematic underestimation of your caloric intake).
YES0 -
Low cals aren't the only option. I'd recommend having a look into Jonathan Bailor's Smarter Science of Slim. He has a lot of podcasts on iTunes and there's also a thread about it on My fitness pal. He proposes an explanation for why people can calorie restrict, exercise, and still not lose weight. It relates to the quality of the food and the quality of the exercise, not the quantity so much. Basically he says it is a myth that all calories are equal, and eating your calories in the form of sugar (incl sugars in carbs) interferes with your metabolism. Good luck!0
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I think part of the problem for me could be my activity level. Thinking about it there's a huge difference between someone who works out 5-6 days a week and is active day to day either through looking after kids, cleaning their home, travelling to and from work, having an active job etc. and someone like me who is extremely sedentary. I don't travel to work or even to the gym so I am at home 24/7 sitting at a desk and then sitting on the sofa except for a little cooking and walking up and downstairs to and from the kitchen and living room most days except for at weekends when I maybe get in the car and go to a restaurant to meet friends so that doesn't involve being very active either.
Yes I work out 6-7 days a week but each workout is around 60 minutes, maybe 120 minutes once a week walking. If you think about the extra calorie burn these active people have it could be as much as an extra 1000 + calories per day more than I'm burning and TDEE figures don't really factor in the difference between a very active person who works out a lot and a sedentary person who works out 6-7 days a week.
My sister has 3 kids and an active job where she's on her feet all day and eats what she wants. She's never been on a diet in her life and with her lifestyle she doesn't have to. Between work, preschool and ferrying the kids to and from various places she probably burning off 2000 calories more than me each day.0 -
Hi Carrington
That sounds like an interesting book to read. I generally stay away from sugar that isn't from natural sources like fruit and vegetables although I allow myself a little from time to time. I also try to eat under 100g of carbs at least 5 days a week too. I'm trying to eat less processed foods generally but still have a little each day. I just try and keep the majority of my diet natural if I can.0 -
Wow all these medical anamolies on MFP. You guys need to go to your nearest University with a medical school because they would LOVE to study you. If in fact what you say is true, the study of your special metabolism would be of great interest and add knowledge to humanity's field of nutrition and exercise science. However, I suspect that if you participated in such a study, where your food was strictly controlled and exercise monitored, you would indeed lose weight without cutting your calories so low. Oh, and these studies are free.
OR, there are so many anomolies because they really aren't anomolies at all. 1600 TDEE for a woman doesn't sound very out of the ordinary to me. I know a lot of women that maintain their weight on about that amount.
I'd say the biggest problem with the OP is that she is down to vanity pounds. Those are not easy to get off.0 -
Not just vanity pounds. If you saw me in person you'd be able to see how high my body fat is and for my size it's really not healthy at all to have body fat at 31%. At a lower level I'd be lighter/thinner anyway naturally so it's not just down to vanity but health0
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I'm the same height as you and currently lighter but I bet if we stood side by side we'd look very different and I'd look a lot heavier. I'm also a UK 10-12 at the moment.
Ah, okay, now I've read through more of the thread. Perhaps you have some genetic reason why you specifically "can't" respond well to my suggestions, but I'll say it anyway. Here goes...The reason that the two of you are the same height and you have larger inches on arms, thighs, etc (basically more fat), is because you have always pursued very low calorie dieting, in which your body consumes it's own muscle. You became "smaller" and "lighter" by losing muscle (and some fat). Then, when you started eating normally WITHOUT musclebuilding exercises, you replaced the lost muscle with fat. Fat takes up more space than muscle, so you are now measuring bigger in the arms, thighs, etc because (as you yourself pointed out), you have more fat there. You simply need to get your muscle back. That means BUILDING muscle, NOT CONSUMING it. You will need to eat enough protein daily and work very hard to build up your muscle (but not so hard as to injure yourself). THIS TAKES TIME!!!!!. That new muscle, combined with the newly formed fat, will make you bigger. But at the end of adding muscle, you will be able to successfully "cut" that fat...but not before (not easily anyway, and not without continuing to perpetuate the circumstances of muscleloss followed by "filling in" with fat). Hope you can do some further research and perhaps get some good professional help on this journey. i do believe that you can become like your boyfriend who eats as much as he likes and doesn't gain weight. But you need muscle and to EAT healthy to do that.
good luck to you!
OP, I find this is good advice. What you mentioned about how you lost weight in the past is through restricting calories severely and hence you should be focusing on resetting your metabolism now!! I have been there eating less than 1000cals a day and lost, but then found that I gain so easily!! Then after a few months of eating A LOT (albeit not intentionally), I find that now I am eating at least 2000-3000cals a day with about an hour of slow cardio and I'm still slowly but surely losing inches! Yes it took a long time but it sure is worth it0 -
Just a couple of points:
Do you wear a heart rate monitor when working out? You might be over-estimating calories burned. If you are doing the same kind of workout month after month, your body will become more efficient and burn fewer calories. So check how many calories you are REALLY burning to keep things more accurate. Try new kinds of workouts if you get in a rut.
I went to a really tame aerobics/weights class a few weeks ago and was shocked to have muscle aches the next day - because I did some exercises I never usually do!
This is very true. I walked 20 miles for seven hours with only a break of a minute or two. I was still sore two days later. I walk a lot, but not 20 miles.
I use the heart rate monitor to tell me how fast my heart is beating during intense cardio and for nothing else. It helps during interval work. But it's not designed to estimate calorie burn, even if it purports to do so.
If you eat carefully, weighing and measuring if necessary, weigh yourself, use a semi-good method of estimating your body fat (I have a scale) consistently, that's all you need. Exercise is not essential for weight loss. Work out as much as you can, but don't sweat how many calories you're supposedly burning and never eat calories back.0 -
All well and good but not effective. Working out for 1 hour per day and 2 hours at weekends burns approx 2500 calories at my estimation therefore that's just over 350 per day. If you're saying to disregard that completely and simply go by what the body burns off without exercise then in that case I'd only be allowing myself 1600 per day total and in order to lose weight I'd then have to take off at least 500 cals from that figure to lose 1lb per week. That would only leave me with 1100 in total and I'm being slated for saying I'll eat 1250 per day!
Regarding the previous poster's comment about restricting calories and losing but eating more and gaining easily and then unintentionally eating a lot more for several months and losing inches what do you think I've been doing for 2.5 years?! I was restricting calories and losing 2 years ago and then ate more because I got slack and stopped calorie counting and gained weight, fat and inches! I never got to the point of being able to eat more and lose anything at all even though I went through months of training every day during the 2 years.
Now I listened to advice which told me to keep on eating mroe and surprise surprise I haven't been losing. The so called 'reset' didn't take place for me at all and I never reached the stage of being able to eat more and lose weight. So, for me the only option is lower calories.0 -
OP, I have seen you post on other threads, and sometimes the same questions on multiple threads. Help me, help me, I can't seem to lose weight, what am I doing wrong, what should I do?? I tried this for a couple of weeks, I tried that for a couple of weeks, I followed this advice, that advice, none of it works. I workout this way, I work out that way, I am going to start changing my workout again. All of this since January 2013. We are now in May, and you haved switched your routine and calories so many times I don't think even you can keep track of all of your changes in the last four months. As several people have stated, try something, stick to it, and give it time. You keep continually asking for advice, but as others have pointed out on this thread, all you do is argue about the advice you are given. You have done this on all the other threads as well. I guess I don't understand why you keep asking for advice that you don't want and you only believe what you want to believe and follow your own program how you want to follow it. How's that working for you? As you can see, I don't normally even post, but I feel your threads are getting ridiculous!!0
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