calories in calories out not true?

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angelbabyskies
angelbabyskies Posts: 17
in Food and Nutrition
So I've lost 10 pounds, 3 were water weight. I look at each day for the last month and added my cals up. I never eat the same amount of cals a day, each day is different. My cals ranged from1200 - 2800 depending on the day. It added up to 54388 and my tdee for the month would be 54000. So it doesn't make sense to lose 7 pounds I should have consumed 25k this month. So is it the fact that I changed to healthier foods or is my tdee probably higher than 1800? I'm pretty much sedentary 160 pounds 5'4 so the highest tdee calculation I've ever gotten was 1900. Or could it be that I'm unintentionally calorie cycling?
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Replies

  • navyrigger46
    navyrigger46 Posts: 1,301 Member
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    How do you know that 3 pounds was water weight?

    Rigger
  • angelbabyskies
    angelbabyskies Posts: 17
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    Well, a week before I started I ate the same just cut down sodium and drank a lot of water 3 pounds gone in 2 days and stayed that way for the rest of the week. Also, even if I lost a pound it doesn't make sense to me
  • AJ_G
    AJ_G Posts: 4,158 Member
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    Calories in calories out is ALWAYS TRUE. Either you're not being completely accurate with tracking food, or your TRUE tdee is different from your calculated/estimated tdee, or both.
  • professorRAT
    professorRAT Posts: 690 Member
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    Calories in calories out is ALWAYS TRUE. Either you're not being completely accurate with tracking food, or your TRUE tdee is different from your calculated/estimated tdee, or both.

    ^this. Like it or not, this is true.
  • ajaxe432
    ajaxe432 Posts: 608 Member
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    As much as I love to question science, this is simply inaccurate. Your going against theories that have been established way before our time:) Trust me I tried this argument;)
  • SouperDuck
    SouperDuck Posts: 57 Member
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    it's close but not perfect. It is assuming that all of the protein you eat will be converted to glucose and used as fuel, instead of being used as protein to repair tissues.
  • MindyAir
    MindyAir Posts: 1
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    If you ate 1500 calories a day in Snickers bars, do you think your body would look the same if you ate 1500 worth of calories in nutritionally-dense vegetables, lean meats, and healthy fats?

    NO.

    Calories in/Calories out is a lie.
  • angelbabyskies
    angelbabyskies Posts: 17
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    Well, I guess I'll just keep doing what I'm doing then. I'm not sure where the maths off (probably higher TDEE though)

    Thanks, all. (:
  • Oishii
    Oishii Posts: 2,675 Member
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    My TDEE is normally above what any calculator predicts. The calculator works to an average and therefore is only perfect for a tiny percentage of people and can be completely wrong for any outliers.
  • mathjulz
    mathjulz Posts: 5,514 Member
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    Calories in calories out is ALWAYS TRUE. Either you're not being completely accurate with tracking food, or your TRUE tdee is different from your calculated/estimated tdee, or both.

    ^^ This.

    Calculating your real, true TDEE is a lot trickier than just plugging numbers into a website. But then, most of our logging (even if we weigh everything) is still an estimate -- maybe pretty good, maybe not. And I wonder sometimes if the quality of food you take in can effect your "calories out" (TDEE). Still, it's all just estimates, which is why weight loss in rarely "perfect"

    At any rate, if what you're doing works for you, and you are satisfied, then there's no reason to change it. If you realize, in a few months (or even weeks) that you aren't losing well or that your always feeling weak, or anything else, then reevaluate what you're doing.
  • Acg67
    Acg67 Posts: 12,142 Member
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    So I've lost 10 pounds, 3 were water weight. I look at each day for the last month and added my cals up. I never eat the same amount of cals a day, each day is different. My cals ranged from1200 - 2800 depending on the day. It added up to 54388 and my tdee for the month would be 54000. So it doesn't make sense to lose 7 pounds I should have consumed 25k this month. So is it the fact that I changed to healthier foods or is my tdee probably higher than 1800? I'm pretty much sedentary 160 pounds 5'4 so the highest tdee calculation I've ever gotten was 1900. Or could it be that I'm unintentionally calorie cycling?

    As long as you have a long term downward trend (assuming your goal is weight loss), who really cares if all your math doesn't work out to a T
  • AJ_G
    AJ_G Posts: 4,158 Member
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    it's close but not perfect. It is assuming that all of the protein you eat will be converted to glucose and used as fuel, instead of being used as protein to repair tissues.

    What?? Almost all protein consumed goes to muscle synthesis, only when protein is consumed in high enough quantity does excess protein get used for energy. Muscle synthesis is still part of the energy balance equation. It does not have to be converted to glucose to be counted as calorie intake...
  • Oishii
    Oishii Posts: 2,675 Member
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    If you ate 1500 calories a day in Snickers bars, do you think your body would look the same if you ate 1500 worth of calories in nutritionally-dense vegetables, lean meats, and healthy fats?

    NO.

    Calories in/Calories out is a lie.

    You'd probably experience the same weight loss in both scenarios. The difference would be to do with malnutrition, not calories in, calories out.
  • mandasalem
    mandasalem Posts: 346 Member
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    If you ate 1500 calories a day in Snickers bars, do you think your body would look the same if you ate 1500 worth of calories in nutritionally-dense vegetables, lean meats, and healthy fats?

    NO.

    Calories in/Calories out is a lie.

    You'd probably experience the same weight loss in both scenarios. The difference would be to do with malnutrition, not calories in, calories out.

    Your body might not LOOK the same, but looks =/= weight.
  • Lane1012
    Lane1012 Posts: 211 Member
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    If you ate 1500 calories a day in Snickers bars, do you think your body would look the same if you ate 1500 worth of calories in nutritionally-dense vegetables, lean meats, and healthy fats?

    NO.

    Calories in/Calories out is a lie.

    You wouldn't look the same but you'd be the same weight. Cals determine weight, macros/exercise determine composition.
  • korygilliam
    korygilliam Posts: 594 Member
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    Your metabolism may be higher...or because you have started eating better and your body is just processing it better...or you are overestimating your portions...or you are underestimating your TDEE (are you including your exercise in that? doesn't look like it or you aren't exercising much)...are you not entering, and therefore not eating back, your exercise calories...

    regardless of what it is, it is calories in vs calories out...just some people take longer to figure out what their calories out actually is (easier to measure calories in). If your goal is to lose, then congrats and keep doing what you are doing!
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    Calories in calories out is ALWAYS TRUE. Either you're not being completely accurate with tracking food, or your TRUE tdee is different from your calculated/estimated tdee, or both.


    ^^^ This ^^^
    I track all my cals in/burned/BMR etc. in Excel and they have never matched up exactly with reality. My results are the opposite to yours in that I "should" have lost 3 - 5lbs this year according to the stats but in fact have lost 10lbs.
    Most likely explanations are that either my activity level burns more calories or my BMR is higher than the estimates.

    Really what matters are actual results over a prolonged period of time. The benefit of tracking is that I now know how many calories I need to either lose or maintain.
  • Tiffa0909
    Tiffa0909 Posts: 191 Member
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    If you ate 1500 calories a day in Snickers bars, do you think your body would look the same if you ate 1500 worth of calories in nutritionally-dense vegetables, lean meats, and healthy fats?

    NO.

    Calories in/Calories out is a lie.


    She did not ask how she would look , she asked about caloric deficit to lose weigh.

    So calories in/calories out is not a lie.
  • SouperDuck
    SouperDuck Posts: 57 Member
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    the protein can be used for 1 or the other. not both.
  • Calliope610
    Calliope610 Posts: 3,771 Member
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    You can determine your "calories in" to a fairly accurate degree by logging all your food and drink. But unless you are accurately logging all (and I mean ALL) your activity, do really don't know what your "calories out" are. Maybe your actual TDEE is greater than 54000 per month, which would explain you weight loss.

    How did you determine your TDEE?

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