Frustratingly slow weight loss

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24

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  • douglerner
    douglerner Posts: 237 Member
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    I'm not always eating back all the exercise calories.

    Anyway, I bought some extra (healthy) stuff to eat and will eat more and see what happens. I remain skeptical that I am anywhere near "starvation mode" which every medical site I've read said doesn't kick in until you are below 1,000 calories/day. But I'll try it for a month and see what happens.

    doug
  • Barbellerella
    Barbellerella Posts: 1,838 Member
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    My TDEE is 2919 calories/day.

    If I increase it to 2300 calories/day I will not lose weight.

    Thanks anyway.

    Sigh.


    doug

    So you BURN 2919 calories a day, but if you eat 2300 you won't lose weight??
    Wow you must be quite the special snowflake. Sorry for trying to help!
  • LinaS1976
    LinaS1976 Posts: 52 Member
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    hahah special snowflake...thats funny.

    Doug, its all trial and error, I would suggest increasing your exercise to maybe 45 mins a day and mix it up. Maybe going for walks/jogs, treadmill, bike etc and some weights. Some bodies like mine need to be shocked with exercise. My weighloss has bee frustratingly slow (3.5kgs in almost 4 months) but im not stopping. My body is different and requires alot of attention (3 times cancer survivor and the chemo has totally kicked my metabolism in the butt).

    Keep at it. It took a long time to gain weight and it wont be overnight to take it off.

    Goodluck from Sydney
  • douglerner
    douglerner Posts: 237 Member
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    Amanda - Apparently the TDEE and BMR equations are not all they are cracked up to be, and we are not all clockwork mechanisms, wouldn't you say?

    Lina - Yes, I guess it must be some amount of trial and error. Nevertheless, in my past diets (I've rebounded) I've tended to notice that basically the less net calories I eat the more weight I lose. It's never really been more mysterious than that. I've gotten older though, and my overall metabolism might have slowed down. Anyway, we shall see.

    doug
  • douglerner
    douglerner Posts: 237 Member
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    One thing I've been thinking of this past week is that in my previous successful diets (in the pre-MyFitnessPal era) is that I created my own logging system. It was similar to, but different from MFP in a couple of respects.

    The main difference was the way I logged how many calories I had remaining for a day. Basically I would start with, say, 1800 calories.

    Then I would keep a row of balances, subtracting food I ate and adding in exercise I did.

    So in the past, I really never was conscious of how many calories I ate. All I cared about was the total net calories remaining, after food and exercise.

    In MFP you always see the total calories you ate, and I suppose that has been preying on my mind. I think I should at least concentrate more on the net calories, which I'm going to do.

    Thanks again, people. Even those with snarky remarks who took the time to post. :)

    doug
  • douglerner
    douglerner Posts: 237 Member
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    Well, I ate more, so gained weight yet again. I'm 1.3 lb heavier than I was a week ago - and right back to where I was on December 1st. And entire month wiped out.

    I'll try this some more, and I'll be willing to eat crow if it turns out that eating more causes me to lose weight. But as of right now color me skeptical. I still think it's simple: the less net calories you eat the more you lose. I think I'm just eating too many calories for my age, metabolism and level of activity.

    doug
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
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    I'm female, and going into menopause and eating more than you, and losing weight. I do not think it is your age. It is likely your metabolism because you have suppressed it by eating too little. In order to fix it so that you can eat a healthy amount of food to lose weight, you are going to have to eat more. And, you tried it for what, two days since your last post? Try it for two months before saying it failed.
  • douglerner
    douglerner Posts: 237 Member
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    I'll compromise and try it for a month. I don't think I could stand gaining weight for two months. :)

    Anyway, yesterday might have been a typical water weight fluctuation. Today I'm down that 1.3 lb I gained yesterday.

    Thanks,

    doug
  • douglerner
    douglerner Posts: 237 Member
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    Actually, it's a bit better than I wrote in my previous note. I had gained 0.4 kg yesterday and lost 0.6 kg today, and I'm actually down 0.4 kg from 1 week ago and down 0.6 kg since the first of the month. Still, a very up-and-down month.

    doug
  • taso42
    taso42 Posts: 8,980 Member
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    I still think it's simple: the less net calories you eat the more you lose.

    What exactly are you trying to lose? If you are like most people, you are trying to lose FAT.

    How to lose fat is a well known and well documented process, and there is a certain rate at which it is optimal (1-2 lbs/week, for most people). And I will just leave it at that.
  • nguk123
    nguk123 Posts: 223
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    Amanda - Apparently the TDEE and BMR equations are not all they are cracked up to be, and we are not all clockwork mechanisms, wouldn't you say?
    doug
    This is interesting to me.
    Given that you are 56 year old male that currently weighs 100kg, according to the BMR calculator I use, you would be 123 cm tall, or about 4 foot. Is this close?

    http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/CalRequire.html
  • a_certain_shade_of_green
    a_certain_shade_of_green Posts: 134 Member
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    i'm sure there is a valuable lesson in here somewhere, but after reading some of the OPs comments i just want to punch myself in face in frustration
  • PikaKnight
    PikaKnight Posts: 34,971 Member
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    If you are worried about the calorie intake, I also suggest you read this thread that has numerous people who met their goals and are maintaining. Some for years and they also provide their calorie intake and how often they work out.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/816542-let-s-hear-it-for-maintainenance

    And if you are looking for foods to help with upping your calorie intake, I suggest checking this out:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/410771-i-can-t-reach-my-calorie-goal-it-s-too-much-food



    For the whole eating under a 1000 calories, look...you are going to do what you want but check out the link below at some of the stories of people who thought it was okay (especially because they weren't "feeling" hungry a lot of times) but ended up regretting it. These links are just information to give you options. I'm not preaching or trying to tell you or anyone what is the "right way"...just throwing some info your way is all.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/521480-1000-calories-or-less-a-day
  • taso42
    taso42 Posts: 8,980 Member
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    i'm sure there is a valuable lesson in here somewhere, but after reading some of the OPs comments i just want to punch myself in face in frustration

    Maybe he's just having a laugh with us....
  • douglerner
    douglerner Posts: 237 Member
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    Taso - Yes, I'm trying to lose fat. And I'm trying to lose at 1 - 2 lb a week. And that's what's been happening for the past 7 months until this month where it suddenly became more up-and-down.

    Joylia - I'll check out the links. Thanks. I do want to clarify something: I am not and have never been aiming for 1,000 calories or less. I have always been aiming for what my doctor has recommended, which is 1800 calories/day plus exercise. That does, however, mean net calories of about 1500 calories a day or less after exercise. Usually I end up in the 1300 *net* calorie range, so we are talking about possibly trying to increase net calories by about 200-300 calories a day to get to what my doctor recommended (unless you are one of those people who think I should be eating 2300 calories/day which I just disagree with).

    Nguk - There are different calculators all over the place. The one in your link gives my BMR as 1945 calories, activity at 912 and my total calories as 2857. I entered the following info: Male, age 56, weight 100.8 kg, height 174 cm. 7 hrs resting, 15.5 hr very light activity, 1 hr light activity and 0.5 hr moderate activity. However this other site (http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/) gives my BMR as just 1679 calories, which is more in correspondence with the value MyFitnessPal gives. That's quite a difference between the two calculators.

    Thanks,

    doug
  • PikaKnight
    PikaKnight Posts: 34,971 Member
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    Joylia - I'll check out the links. Thanks. I do want to clarify something: I am not and have never been aiming for 1,000 calories or less. I have always been aiming for what my doctor has recommended, which is 1800 calories/day plus exercise. That does, however, mean net calories of about 1500 calories a day or less after exercise. Usually I end up in the 1300 *net* calorie range, so we are talking about possibly trying to increase net calories by about 200-300 calories a day to get to what my doctor recommended (unless you are one of those people who think I should be eating 2300 calories/day which I just disagree with).


    So...you are working with a doctor on this...so why are you posting about being frustrated. Aren't these things you should be conveying to your doctor???

    And if your doctor is telling you to do these things, then what can we tell you??? Now I'm confused as to what the post is about...
  • douglerner
    douglerner Posts: 237 Member
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    One extra note: I checked the link for adding calories and the suggestion there really don't apply to me. Since having my heart attack in May, I decided to go on the Ornish/Esselystyn plan (like what Bill Clinton did) and is supposed to be a "heart disease reversal" plan. So this means that since May I've been vegan + no added oils + no nuts/seeds.

    Since going on this diet, I've lost 62 lb, my total cholesterol has dropped to 130, my LDL to 70 and my HbA1c has dropped from the dangerous level of 10.7 to around 5 and I'm off all blood sugar medications now. So eating this way has had positive health effects for me so far. And I eat plenty. I definitely don't feel like I'm starving myself.

    Still, I admit I could probably up the calories a bit more. I could easily accomplish that with an extra or larger brown rice servings a day, for example. Or some more fruit or legumes.

    My only concern is why my weight has suddenly started fluctuating this month in particular.

    Thanks,

    doug
  • douglerner
    douglerner Posts: 237 Member
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    Joyla - My doctor told me after my heart attack I need to go on an 1800 calorie/day diet and do exercise. So I did. As I mentioned in my followup note I decided to accomplish this with the Ornish/Esselstyn type extremely low fat vegan diet.

    If my doctor told me my calorie limit and that precludes me from posting here when I run into a plateau well, I don't really understand the purpose of these forums or what your complaint is. Are you suggesting that people who are told by their doctor to go on a diet and limit their calories to a certain amount should not post here???

    Thanks,

    doug
  • douglerner
    douglerner Posts: 237 Member
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    Maybe this graph will clarify my frustration.

    This is a graph of my daily weight since starting my diet in May. The vertical axis is kilograms and the horizontal axis is days.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/1eu9gwy6lhet0zz/weight-20121230.png

    As you can see, until this month my diet was going along just great. But as I got close to 100 kg all of a sudden the curve changed to be almost flat.

    So my frustration is due to the suddenness of the change. Especially since I'm nowhere near my goal weight?

    Does that make it easier to understand why I have become frustrated?

    Thanks,

    doug
  • kcoftx
    kcoftx Posts: 765 Member
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    Have you always stepped on your scale this often in the past? Your body fluctuates ALL THE TIME.

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