Lose weight = lose fat?

fightdem
fightdem Posts: 38
in Health and Weight Loss
Hey everyone, i have this problem for a while. I sometimes have a treat to myself after a week of clean diet, and i actually balance it by eating less at morning and afternoon, and then go all out at night. So actually i still maintain my calorie below my daily allowance, but the next day i can spot difference of my belly. It becomes larger than before and i feel really awful. I thought that the system works perfectly, but i still gain the fat. Am i missing something? Because they say, you can eat anthing anytime anyday as long as you are below calorie deficit and you will lose weight. And lose weight = lose fat, right? Or is it about the insulin at night? Thanks before

P.s : breakfast : a glass of milk. 160 calorie
Lunch : 100 g tempeh + broccoli. 350 calorie
Night : chocolate, i forgot but definitely below 200g. And 200 g of chocolate is below 1000 calorie

Replies

  • eena56
    eena56 Posts: 1,456 Member
    You are probably bloated by what you're eating. Even if I eat under calories if I eat a lot of carbs at night I am often bloated in the morning. And eating tons of chocolate for your dinner is not a balanced diet in anyone's book. No wonder you feel horrible! Try eating regular meals.
  • asciiqwerty
    asciiqwerty Posts: 565 Member
    while absolute calories are important for weight loss
    what you eat is more important for how healthy you are and how you feel

    your description seems high on sugar, but very low on nutrition from everything else
    i think you would feel a lot better and probably lose more weight if you were eating a more balanced diet with more vegetables and lean proteins

    doing so would also help you reduce the amount of chocolate you feel that you need

    try to watch your macro numbers to help you work out a more balanced diet
  • 3laine75
    3laine75 Posts: 3,069 Member
    Do you mean less than 1000 cals total for the day? Because that is nuts for a guy your age.

    You have age and sex on your side. Consider taking up strength training and you could eat 3 x that and not have to wait for a specific day to treat yourself, build some muscle, then you wouldn't be worrying about a tiny bit of bloat.

    ETA: open your diary if you want some more specific advice on what you're eating or not eating.
  • pennyllayne
    pennyllayne Posts: 265
    For starters, unless you're counting everything you eat you're not going to know exactly how many calories you're eating. How do you know you ate less than 200g of chocolate unless you weighed it?

    Secondly, most of your calories are coming from sugar on that day. Not only is this terribly unhealthy for you for a number of reasons, but it will add to water gain if your carbs are much lower the rest of the week and depending on your sensitivity to carbs your body may prefer to store that sugar as fat rather than use it for energy and make using body fat less efficient.

    Third, that doesn't seem like anywhere near enough protein which will lead to muscle wasting so I hope your protein is higher the rest of the week!

    Insulin matters, but not at any particular time of day. If insulin is elevated then your body can't burn fat, so it depends how close to bed time you are eating all that sugar and how soon after waking you're eating. Our bodies burn most fat overnight while we're sleeping and it can't do that effectively if it's working overtime trying to clear a load of sugar from the bloodstream. If I eat sugar too close to bed time I get night sweats and disturbed sleep because of the stress my body is under trying to clear all that sugar!
  • fightdem
    fightdem Posts: 38
    Sorry i forgot to put that it is my cheat day XD. On a normal basis i eat pretty balanced diet and i do strength workout 3 times a week. I always want to eat some good stuffs in a while, because eating clean is very hard lol. And while i do cheat day, i always try to minimize the impact for the next day.
  • 3laine75
    3laine75 Posts: 3,069 Member
    If you're strength training, you can afford to work anything into your day. If your concentrating on hitting your protein macro it is possible to work some 'unhealthy' stuff into your day.

    I am cutting at the moment so I'm having to work a bit harder to make it work but while bulking, I managed a snicker most days (while still getting the important stuff I needed). Many people (who are in great shape btw) on the boards will fit ice cream in everyday.

    If you can make this stuff work in instead of treating it as 'bad' you may be less inclined to binge on it. Good luck, hope that helps.
  • fightdem
    fightdem Posts: 38
    Allright, sounds good to me. Thanks for the help !

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