Calorie Deficit - Seems to be a hot but confusing topic.

"How long do you use the gazelle for?"

90 to 120 minutes per day. I usually go for an hour at a time twice a day.

When I first started with the Gazelle, I was gaining muscle but burning fat.

I took a look at your diary....

You may be burning fat but with the lack of protein in your diet, you'd be hard pressed to be gaining any muscle. I get more protein in one meal than you do all day!

Hi OP!

First of all, well done for starting MFP and don't worry about apparently rude comments. I have read through the entire thread, and yes, some come across as snarky, but there has been quite a lot of good advice. Don't take the snarky comments to heart and do keep sticking to MFP because it helped me get on track.

A few things,

1. I have taken a look at your diary, and I agree with many others that it may not be as 'clean' as you imagine it to be. Weight loss and healthy eating should go together, so diss some of the protein shakes and bars and substitute with smoothies, fresh fruit, vegetables, soups, etc. Plan to have your 5-a-day and hit the calorie limit. You can simply add a few salad leaves, a tomato and some cucumber to your sandwich. I know this is not about increasing calories, but eating fresh fruit and vegetables is as important.

2. Cardio exercise does not build muscle. It burns fat and muscle (depending on your heart rate and type of cardio) to energize your body. Muscle is supposed to be faster to burn that fat, so if you are doing high intensity cardio for a long time, you will burn more muscle than fat as the body wont have enough time to burn fat to satisfy the calorie needs of exercise.

3. You have said you combine some weight training with your cardio, which is good as this will help build muscle. You wont build new muscle like a body builder if you are eating on a deficit, but you will still make the muscle you've got bigger by adding some weight lifting. Also, you need to meet your protein requirements to build muscle.

4. The initial gain that you experience when you first start exercising is water retention. As your muscles aren't used to exercise you will get little tears and damage in the muslces, and the repair process (which also causes soreness) retains water, which causes the initial weight gain. I used to be a gym freak and exercise and eat properly as a university student. Then I got a job and had to move out of London and away from my gym so I was sedentary (apart from walking at least 30 minutes to and from work every day) for nearly 2 years before I started exercising again 3-4 weeks ago. I gained nearly 1.5kg in the first week and by the second week all that weight just dropped. Happens to everybody.

5. Hitting your calorie limit is important for the same reason. If you don't eat enough your body will burn muscle as well as fat to meet its calorie requirements. If you eat less consistently, the body will start to adapt to the low calorie level, i.e. it will slow down the rate at which it burns calories down (slow down your metabolism) and learn to live using fewer calories. If you damage your metabolism this way when you decide to eat more calories (say a 'normal' 1800kcals a day) you will start putting the weight back because the body no longer needs this many calories to survive. It has gotten used to surviving on much less.

6. In the same way as the body gets used to surviving on less calories you will need to eat even less to lose more weight, and the vicious cycle will continue. This is why it is important to meet the calorie goal, even if it means eating ice cream or chocolates (as long as you are also eating healthy and meeting your nutrient requirements).

I know this is a bit long, but I hope it answers all the questions you may have and hope it helps.

Please feel free to correct me if I've got anything wrong. xx

How'd you gain 50 lbs? Did the magical weight fairy kiss your forehead and bestow glitter and starshine calories upon you? Dude, that's totally how I got fat. It wasn't like I was hungry all the time, stress eating, or having hormone issues . . . it was magic!

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Awwww, hell. Can I at least say I'm under tall then??? :bigsmile:

HI
MY NAME IS MARG AND I CAN TELL YOU THIS... THAT I HAVE BEEN EATING 1000 -1200 CALORIES EXERCISE USE LITE WTS.. AND I RECENTLY WENT TO A PERSONAL .T AND NUTRI. AND HE TOLD ME ALONG WITH EVERY ONE ELSE I AN MOT EATING ENOUHG~~~ WHEN YOU EAT 1200 AND BURN SAY 500 IN EXERCISE YOU ARE THEN AT 700 CAL. STARVING YOUR BODY! BUT...... I HAVE UP MY CALORIES TO 1500 FOR 2 WEEKS AND I WT MYSELF TODAY UP 2 LBS SO I AM AS CONFUSED AS YOU... :{

It's only 2 weeks and 2lb is nothing - apart from anything else, if you're eating more, you'll be carrying more bulk in your digestive tract - it won't be fat. Give yourself a bit of time!

When I started logging I went into full 'diet mode'. I thought I'd set my goal to 1200 giving me a 1.5lb per week loss ... and not always eating back calories as sure it would be great to lose more. I have a vague recollection of posting or at least almost posting asking should I really be eating more because hey, I'm not hungry and my weightloss is going well. Took about 2 months to start gradually getting more and more hungry and for the weightloss to slow down. At this point, I read, read and read on here and realised that there was no way I wanted to drop my calorie limit as that would just be too impossible to stick with but there was a chance that if I upped my calories I could continue losing and feel better. I upped to 1400 and carried on losing at the new slower pace that I had on 1200...bonus! I then hit a serious plateau in Sept (maybe partly due to ill health and inactivity) and was feeling pretty low. I decided to try upping to 1600 (even though I was satisfied on 1400) which should give a 0.5lb per week loss. This just kick started my loss again don't think I was in 'starvation mode' by any means but I do think that I was feeling run down and the extra calories gave me the boost I need to be more active generally. Now I hardly feel like I'm on a diet at all. There are plenty of healthy high fat foods out there if you want to avoid junk food..I'm sure you've been given plenty of ideas like nuts, cream, cheese.

I feel like a bit of an idiot now for the way I started this diet which has now progressed to a lifestyle change. I could have argued that I was doing it the right way and was very sceptical of people saying that they eat more and lose. I thought I was a special snowflake. The result was getting run down, not losing any more quickly in the long run and probably losing a lot more muscle mass than I really should have. I guess some of us just have to learn the hard way!

You should search for articles here on why you should never fall under 1200 calories net. You definitely are not eating enough. Your body is a furnace that needs fuel CONSTANTLY.

OP:
I did not see people getting angry or attacking you. What I did see was a handful of blunt answers and people offering some information why you are doing it wrong. I can guarantee the people who have seen success are not jealous that you feel full on less than 1200 calories. Read the link provided earlier in the thread and read all of the links in it.

Ok, so maybe they weren't intended to be rude or aggressive, but without body language and facial expression things you can say IRL come across completely differently on the internet: e.g. the "Weight loss fairy" comment might sound ok in the right tone of voice with a smile to someone you know well, but comes across as rather unpleasant in a typed message to a stranger.


This^^