Quick way to get the weight going down!!

I'm not going to get into this but I did want to point out that those with pre-diabetes can definitely have issues losing weight and it's not necessarily CICO for them.

When I first met my best friend she weighed nearly 300 pounds at 5'1". She and I went on a diet together (I'm 5'3" and had about 10 pounds to lose.) We were eating practically the same diet and walking together on our breaks at work. She and I were losing weight at about the same pace which shouldn't have been happening given how much more she had to lose than I did. So we switched to a low sugar/carb, high fat, high protein diet. Not only did I lose weight faster but over the next year she lost 130 pounds. Diabetes runs in her family, so she'll always need to be a bit careful about how she eats.

People really need to stop telling everyone it's a simple deficit. Yes, for a lot of people, this works; however, there is no need to make people feel stupid or like they must be doing something wrong just because a deficit isn't working for them. It IS more complicated for some people than it is for others. I would weigh a LOT less if a deficit worked for me, but when I eat at TDEE - 15/20%, I get nowhere.

Are you weighing your food? If you're decently healthy and have no conditions (Diabetes, PCOS, Insulin Resistance, etc.) that would restrict your weight loss, you may be eating more than you think you are. I personally used to eat less than I thought I was, and then wonder why I was constantly hungry and binging at night. I once passed out thinking I'd eaten around 9 oz of chicken all day, when really I'd only had around 2-3. A LOT of people are the opposite, though, so make sure you're counting your calories correctly.

As for the deficit, if it's not working for you, you're not alone. Certain conditions may prevent a deficit from being the only diet-change necessary. I personally have PCOS and have to net significantly under my calorie goal in order to lose weight. I also try to stick to a high-fat, mod-protein, low-carb (and by low, I mean around 30g per meal, not 30g per day) diet. Sometimes, when there are conditions such as these, Macros matter A LOT. PCOS comes with insulin resistance, so carbs and sugars are not my friends.

Good luck losing! Just remember that everyone's body is different, and it's a process figuring out what works for you. Not everyone responds so quickly to a caloric deficit.

The only exception to the calorie deficit rule is a medical condition. Otherwise, you WILL lost weight at a deficit.

How much water do you drink? The last time I lost a lot of weight I had more success when I made sure to drink a lot of it.

Yes, and no. Yess people people need to burn more calories than they consume as a general rule.

But, when you have faulty biological reactions taking place, that can considerably alter the balance of that equation. So, even though they're consuming at a considerable deficit, they won't see weight loss in the same manner, and sometimes at all. That's why vitamin deficiencies, certain medications and hormonal balances are so important. It's not just your straightforward CICO calculation when you have misfiring biochemical reactions. The body has considerable survival mechanisms for a reason.

Yes, and no. Yess people people need to burn more calories than they consume as a general rule.

But, when you have faulty biological reactions taking place, that can considerably alter the balance of that equation. So, even though they're consuming at a considerable deficit, they won't see weight loss in the same manner, and sometimes at all. That's why vitamin deficiencies, certain medications and hormonal balances are so important. It's not just your straightforward CICO calculation when you have misfiring biochemical reactions. The body has considerable survival mechanisms for a reason.

It IS still your straightforward CICO. Of COURSE you have to take your personal faulty biological reactions into account, but it is in fact still straightforward CICO. Your "CO" level may be less than "usual" or "normal" due to your personal faulty biological reactions, but it is still CICO.


edit: or what ndj said

There's no point in arguing with some of these people. They simply don't understand the complexity of the human body and the role that certain hormones and metabolic pathways come into to play with weight loss. They don't understand that a greater deficit can actually impede weight-loss due to the body's stress response. They don't understand that if you have malfunctioning glucose metabolism that will affect your calorie balance and the macros you need to eat to see results.

They don't understand it, so they declare that doesn't exist. Luckily, reality is not dependent upon the limited understanding of such people.

In their reality, the world is flat.

see previous study I posted stating that diabetics can lose weight with a low calorie deficit..

I wholeheartedly believe a calorie deficiency is the true method to healthy weight loss. There are people with all of the above health issues plus more in my social circle. Therefore, I truly understand their battle with weight loss. Yes, it is a challenge and I don’t think anyone is implying otherwise or implying the right combination of food along with the deficiency isn’t important. Nonetheless, they are still losing weight because they are eating at a calorie deficiency despite their medication. Yes, it took several trial and error sessions to achieve the correct balance of medication and diet, especially for my godmother who is taking 13 different medications. They just had to find a deficiency that worked for them. This is the reason MFP allow users to change the recommendations for macronutrients and micronutrients because some people will require different means to achieve the same goal.

I wholeheartedly believe a calorie deficiency is the true method to healthy weight loss. There are people with all of the above health issues plus more in my social circle. Therefore, I truly understand their battle with weight loss. Yes, it is a challenge and I don’t think anyone is implying otherwise or implying the right combination of food along with the deficiency isn’t important. Nonetheless, they are still losing weight because they are eating at a calorie deficiency despite their medication. Yes, it took several trial and error sessions to achieve the correct balance of medication and diet, especially for my godmother who is taking 13 different medications. They just had to find a deficiency that worked for them. This is the reason MFP allow users to change the recommendations for macronutrients and micronutrients because some people will require different means to achieve the same goal.

True, true. But, from what I've seen, the deficit argument isn't one where no deficit is important or necessary to some extent. It's more along the lines that a deficit may not necessarily equal weight loss depending on other factors, or affect weight loss considerably differently. Because if it was just about a deficit, then macros wouldn't matter and they do matter to a lot of people, for very good reason.

That essentially the straightforward CICO calculations require certain assumptions, and when those assumptions are no longer true, the balace of the equation shifts or there are extra factors the equation does not account for -- like when you see dramatically different weight loss for insulin sensitive and insulin resistant women based on different macros of diets that are calorically equivalent.

And the CICO purists will not acknowledge this or at least most of them don't seem to. Or they extrapolate into extreme, irrelevant arguments like "oh so you can create mass on a calorie deficit?" It's absurd.