Calorie Deficit, but still putting on weight

From one of my old posts from a similar topic:

OK. I'm gonna give this a shot. I am an avid lifelong athlete. I have never been overweight, however, I used to eat too few calories (without knowing it), and a couple years ago, I actually GAINED weight bc of having slowed my metabolism to the point that every little extra treat I ate caused a weight gain, even though overall my calories were too low. THIS DOES HAPPEN.

It is also the reason so many fat people stay fat. They restrict their calories so low, slow their metabolisms, binge (even a little), gain weight, restrict more . . . . and so on and so on. But they are still fat.

It is also the reason most people can't lose that last 10-20 lbs. For real.

1. MFP has a deficit built in. Let's say you're trying to lose 1 lb/ week. That is a 500/day deficit from your BMR (the amount of calories your body needs to complete basic functions.

2. You exercise and burn 500 calories. Now you are at a 1000 deficit. If you eat back those 500 exercise calories, you refuel your body and you still have a 500 deficit for that 1 lb loss. If you DON'T eat back those calories, you have too little fuel. This is bad. This is too much of a deficit for basic functions. If you do this for a long time, you will STOP LOSING WEIGHT. Why? bc your metabolism will slow down -- it's like a brownout--not quite enough electricity to make the whole city (your body) run, so it has to slow down some things. You will probably start being tired a lot, your skin and hair might start to look worse, and you might even gain weight. But you might NOT be hungry -- your body is getting used to fewer calories. That's bad.


That's when you start to gain weight. Let's say you're running along, eating 1200 calories a day, and exercising 400 calories a day, so net is 800. You're losing, you think this is great. You keep doing it, but after a while you stop losing. hmmmmm. One weekend you go out to a special event and have a slice of pizza and a beer. 1 slice of pizza and 1 beer. So you ate maybe 2000 calories that day and exercised off 400, so net 1600. BOOM! You gain 3 lbs! What?!

Next, you freak out and restrict yourself down to 1000 calories a day and work out extra hard, burning 500 calories. Great, netting 500 now. You don't lose any weight, but you sure feel tired. Better get some red bull.

Are you getting the picture?

EDIT: When you work out, you need fuel. Food is fuel. If you don't eat back those exercise calories, you will not only have a big calorie deficit, you will have an ENERGY deficit. Remember, the calorie deficit for weight loss is built in when you use MFP. Exercising basically earns you more calories because you must refuel.
--

There are many people who will tell you not to eat exercise calories. Before you take their advice, you might want to see whether they are at goal, have EVER been at goal, or have ever been able to maintain at goal. If anyone says to you 'THE LAST TIME I LOST WEIGHT", just stop listening right there.

Ask some athletes whether or not they replenish their bodies with food equal to the calories they burn. Ask people who are fit and have achieved and maintained a healthy weight for some years. Don't ask people who count walking across a parking lot as exercise.

Here's an interesting case study about how to stay fat while consuming only 700 calories a day. Take a moment, you'll be glad you did:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/3047-700-calories-a-day-and-not-losing

blessings.

Making things way too complicated.

1. It's only been a week.
2. Stick to the simple guide lines of 1 gram per lb of weight or lean body mass. 1-2 grams of carbs per lean body mass or. 0.35-0.50 grams of per lb or lean body mass.

That being said, stop calculating and start moving!

My daily intake in brief consists of a cup of 2% milk, a peanut butter jelly sandwich, a cup of trop-50 no puil vitamin d, white rice half a cup, lentils, vegetables, a cup of yogurt..I snack on NAture Valley crunchy bars(2/4).I eat put during weekend. I am a vegetarian. I eat pizza,pasta or ethnic food. Sometimes I skip food and sometimes I overeat(I am being honest). I started to develop an eating disorded(I am ashamed of myself ) and thats when I decided to exercise and join myfitnesspal. Now I am on the 4th day of jillian micheals 30 day shred

You are probably sending your body into starvation and storage modes. Starvation mode is less than 500NET calories per day. That means you are intaking 500 MORE than your BMR... Eat more, spread small healthy meals out throughout the day. Force yourself to eat if you must. I have an issue where I don't get hungry, therefore I won't eat. IT set me in a bad way and screwed my metabolism. THEN they had to remove most of my thyroid (non-cancrous cyst)... Things went desparately wrong after that. I plateau often and HARD but I keep pushing through. My new doctor finally told me to EAT MORE, follow my diet, just intake more of the healthier, lighter calories to make my body realize it doesn't need to store the energy....

My daily intake in brief consists of a cup of 2% milk, a peanut butter jelly sandwich, a cup of trop-50 no puil vitamin d, white rice half a cup, lentils, vegetables, a cup of yogurt..I snack on NAture Valley crunchy bars(2/4).I eat put during weekend. I am a vegetarian. I eat pizza,pasta or ethnic food. Sometimes I skip food and sometimes I overeat(I am being honest). I started to develop an eating disorded(I am ashamed of myself ) and thats when I decided to exercise and join myfitnesspal. Now I am on the 4th day of jillian micheals 30 day shred

You are probably sending your body into starvation and storage modes. Starvation mode is less than 500NET calories per day. That means you are intaking 500 MORE than your BMR... Eat more, spread small healthy meals out throughout the day. Force yourself to eat if you must. I have an issue where I don't get hungry, therefore I won't eat. IT set me in a bad way and screwed my metabolism. THEN they had to remove most of my thyroid (non-cancrous cyst)... Things went desparately wrong after that. I plateau often and HARD but I keep pushing through. My new doctor finally told me to EAT MORE, follow my diet, just intake more of the healthier, lighter calories to make my body realize it doesn't need to store the energy....

Stop.

Hi, my intake of calories is less than what is specified. But still I am putting on weight... Any idea why?

I only see 3 or 4 days of your diary filled out the rest is blank?

Thank you kelli..

Please take a look at my other posts.. I had mentioned thta I have bulky thihgs(unlike my bamboo stick arms)..

And on my thighs, I have islands of swellings that makes it look irregular. It hurts extremely when I get a massage done. Somebody told me that it is water retention or lactic acid.

Yeah I'm not sure why it would swell like that. You must be pushing really hard. The idea is not to hurt yourself. If 30 day Shred is too much then start with walking and if you are sore rest for a day or two.

One trick that really helps me is a nice hot bath with epsum salts when I'm sore. That works best on the day after or 2 days after right after a tough workout if you feel it already you should ice the sore muscles.

From one of my old posts from a similar topic:

OK. I'm gonna give this a shot. I am an avid lifelong athlete. I have never been overweight, however, I used to eat too few calories (without knowing it), and a couple years ago, I actually GAINED weight bc of having slowed my metabolism to the point that every little extra treat I ate caused a weight gain, even though overall my calories were too low. THIS DOES HAPPEN.

It is also the reason so many fat people stay fat. They restrict their calories so low, slow their metabolisms, binge (even a little), gain weight, restrict more . . . . and so on and so on. But they are still fat.

It is also the reason most people can't lose that last 10-20 lbs. For real.

1. MFP has a deficit built in. Let's say you're trying to lose 1 lb/ week. That is a 500/day deficit from your BMR (the amount of calories your body needs to complete basic functions.

2. You exercise and burn 500 calories. Now you are at a 1000 deficit. If you eat back those 500 exercise calories, you refuel your body and you still have a 500 deficit for that 1 lb loss. If you DON'T eat back those calories, you have too little fuel. This is bad. This is too much of a deficit for basic functions. If you do this for a long time, you will STOP LOSING WEIGHT. Why? bc your metabolism will slow down -- it's like a brownout--not quite enough electricity to make the whole city (your body) run, so it has to slow down some things. You will probably start being tired a lot, your skin and hair might start to look worse, and you might even gain weight. But you might NOT be hungry -- your body is getting used to fewer calories. That's bad.


That's when you start to gain weight. Let's say you're running along, eating 1200 calories a day, and exercising 400 calories a day, so net is 800. You're losing, you think this is great. You keep doing it, but after a while you stop losing. hmmmmm. One weekend you go out to a special event and have a slice of pizza and a beer. 1 slice of pizza and 1 beer. So you ate maybe 2000 calories that day and exercised off 400, so net 1600. BOOM! You gain 3 lbs! What?!

Next, you freak out and restrict yourself down to 1000 calories a day and work out extra hard, burning 500 calories. Great, netting 500 now. You don't lose any weight, but you sure feel tired. Better get some red bull.

Are you getting the picture?

EDIT: When you work out, you need fuel. Food is fuel. If you don't eat back those exercise calories, you will not only have a big calorie deficit, you will have an ENERGY deficit. Remember, the calorie deficit for weight loss is built in when you use MFP. Exercising basically earns you more calories because you must refuel.
--

There are many people who will tell you not to eat exercise calories. Before you take their advice, you might want to see whether they are at goal, have EVER been at goal, or have ever been able to maintain at goal. If anyone says to you 'THE LAST TIME I LOST WEIGHT", just stop listening right there.

Ask some athletes whether or not they replenish their bodies with food equal to the calories they burn. Ask people who are fit and have achieved and maintained a healthy weight for some years. Don't ask people who count walking across a parking lot as exercise.

Here's an interesting case study about how to stay fat while consuming only 700 calories a day. Take a moment, you'll be glad you did:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/3047-700-calories-a-day-and-not-losing

blessings.

Awesome and so true what you wrote here

I think you are eating too little. I went through this same thing during my weight loss time period. The minute I bumped my NET calories for the day to 1200, it started coming off. So, this means, if I set my calorie goal to 1200 and exercised burning 300 calories, then I could eat 1500 calories of food and net to 1200. Anytime I would go into a period where I was in a deficit like you are doing, I would stall...so in my example, if I instead ate 1200 calories and exercised burning 300 calories, after a couple weeks of that, I just stopped losing weight because my body went into starvation mode and my metabolism slowed down.

My daily intake in brief consists of a cup of 2% milk, a peanut butter jelly sandwich, a cup of trop-50 no puil vitamin d, white rice half a cup, lentils, vegetables, a cup of yogurt..I snack on NAture Valley crunchy bars(2/4).I eat put during weekend. I am a vegetarian. I eat pizza,pasta or ethnic food. Sometimes I skip food and sometimes I overeat(I am being honest). I started to develop an eating disorded(I am ashamed of myself ) and thats when I decided to exercise and join myfitnesspal. Now I am on the 4th day of jillian micheals 30 day shred

If you are new you need to give this time! It' s a lifestyle not a rush to the finish line! Plus there is very little info on your profile but - you only want to lose a few pounds and in the past past you started to develop a eating disorder. I'm sorry but your post still has red flags all over it. STOP worrying about 3 pounds and start focusing on fueling your body with lot's of healthy nutritious foods!!!
1 - up your calories to consistently stay above your BMR
2 - as you are a vegetarian make sure you are getting enough protein at least 85 to 100 grams a day
3 - since your goal is only 3 pound loss and you have a history of a eating disorder - IGNORE THE SCALE
4 - strength train!! it will change the shape of your body...most likely the result you're seeking can be done with proper nutrition and proper exercise. Overkill gets you nowhere fast.
:flowerforyou: