If I am at a deficit, why am I not losing weight?

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  • lamps1303
    lamps1303 Posts: 432 Member
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    If you're struggling to cook healthy balanced meals, why not make healthy balanced meals that don't require cooking? Not sure what it's like where you live, but in the UK you can walk into any supermarket and buy a whole cooked chicken. Or cooked chicken breast/slices, etc. Add to that brown rice you can quick cook (either on the stove or microwave), a few fresh veggies (spinach, carrots, etc), and there's a health meal that requires little/no effort or time. You can also make salads or wack a tub of soup in the micowave for 2 mins with some bread. I can't believe you're so busy at work you don't have 5mins to eat something - surely you have time for the toilet?! Take small bags of nuts, fruit, granola bar, etc. to work with you - things you can basically pick on throughout the day, which also require little/no preparation. Make the time - if you go out to the loo/get a drink, take some food with you and munch it before returning to your work.

    There are loads of people on here who have very busy lives and still find the time to cook and exercise. If you're really determined you will find a way.
    Strongly agree. I get up an hour earlier than I have to in the morning to prepare and pack my meals for the day. I don't want to get up earlier but I'd rather do that then leave the house unprepared everyday.

    ditto. I prepare all my meals the night before and get up 2 1/5 hours before I need to leave for work so that I can fit in some exercise. I hate my alarm going off at 5am but needs must!
  • 1974lynnette
    1974lynnette Posts: 27 Member
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    I am so sorry for your loss. I wonder if maybe you're not eating your emotions over your loss. I know I do. If I'm upset, I tend to eat badly.
  • Elenagreek
    Elenagreek Posts: 10
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    It seems you like junk food. And if you keep on eating like this, don't expect to burn any fat cause all this junk food is full of processed and trans fat.

    Dietary fat does not equal body fat.

    The actual biggest concern about not eating hardly any meals prepped by you personally is the inaccuracy of the portions prepared vs. the portions use in the nutritional information provided by a restaurant.
    I didn't write somewhere that dietary fat equals body fat. But eating specially these kinds of fat, sabotages losing weight and burni fat plus it's unhealthy
  • Acg67
    Acg67 Posts: 12,142 Member
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    It seems you like junk food. And if you keep on eating like this, don't expect to burn any fat cause all this junk food is full of processed and trans fat.

    Dietary fat does not equal body fat.

    The actual biggest concern about not eating hardly any meals prepped by you personally is the inaccuracy of the portions prepared vs. the portions use in the nutritional information provided by a restaurant.
    I didn't write somewhere that dietary fat equals body fat. But eating specially these kinds of fat, sabotages losing weight and burni fat plus it's unhealthy

    Well that sounds like it's made up, anything to actually back up such a claim? Wouldn't increased fat intake actually increase fat oxidation?
  • Prahasaurus
    Prahasaurus Posts: 1,381 Member
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    Not really sure why we're having a discussion on fat oxidation, unless this thread has deteriorated into the classic "look how much smarter I am than you" phase...

    Basically we have a young woman who probably needs to take better control of her diet by preparing more of her own stuff. She can then better monitor the ingredients and portions, and establish habits that will benefit her long term. Probably even save some money in the process.

    Long story short, she needs to stop eating at McDonalds and start cooking most of her meals. If she is occasionally forced to eat out, she should seek out healthier alternatives.
  • a_stronger_me13
    a_stronger_me13 Posts: 812 Member
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    Not really sure why we're having a discussion on fat oxidation, unless this thread has deteriorated into the classic "look how much smarter I am than you" phase...

    Basically we have a young woman who probably needs to take better control of her diet by preparing more of her own stuff. She can then better monitor the ingredients and portions, and establish habits that will benefit her long term. Probably even save some money in the process.

    Long story short, she needs to stop eating at McDonalds and start cooking most of her meals. If she is occasionally forced to eat out, she should seek out healthier alternatives.

    That question was answered numerous times.

    Now we are trying to weed out some of the nonsense that was posted about why she might not be losing. It doesn't have anything to do with trans fats or meal timing or doing HIIT workouts or eating McDonalds or whatever other garbage people wrote. It has to do with maintaining a calorie deficit and the amount of error she is exposing herself to with 1) not always measuring and weighing what she eats, 2) frequently eating food that she isn't personally preparing and 3) possibly not choosing an appropriate calorie goal to begin with.

    Since when do threads need to only address the OP and not address any other fallacies that have been posted in response to the OP?
  • GypsieFlower94
    GypsieFlower94 Posts: 71
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    Me again. There as been a lot of posts so once again I will try answer all the questions.

    I don't actually enjoy fast food, like at all. I get bored of food easily, and I only like a select few things from each take out place, so after a week I don't really want to go, but either my partner goes or it is easier and quicker than cooking.

    I actually don't enjoy most food. I do try new stuff a lot, but I have certain foods and meals I like, and that's pretty much it. I am also gluten and dairy intolerant. Which is why i don't eat the buns of burgers when I have take out and I try not to have cheese on stuff. The only dairy I do want to eat is yoghurt. I don't always stick to this though, I love certain things too much, i.e pizza.

    Also, if my week evens out, it doesn't affect or "sabotage" me. That's ridiculous. Your weight fluctuates so much over a week anyway there would be no point weighing yourself every day, because at the end of the week when you weigh in, your weight is affected by both the day you overate and the other days you underrate to make up for it. If I ate 3000 calories on Monday and ate 500 or less every day ( not healthy obviously but for arguments sake) for the rest of the week, I would still be under my weekly goal and I would have still lost weight. That's the same as thinking eating at any time of day would affect digestion of the food.

    I like the idea of the soup bags, in my environment that may actually really work, and someone else mentioned a cooler in my room due to the lack of space, which is also a really good option for me. It will make it easier to preprepare.

    As I stated before, waking up early is not an option. I would if I could but the owners of the house are very snooty about any noise, ironically they make a lot themselves, but whatever.

    I have a very tiny room that literally only has room for our desk, our bed, a built in robe and me and my partner, so I can't even exercise before work because my gym is pretty far from home and work.

    I agree that it doesn't matter what I eat as long as I am at a deficit, whether it is fast food or better stuff, if I am trying to lose weight. I am more disappointed in myself for the fact that I started dieting and calorie deficits to be healthier and lose excess weight, and eat better, and now I just try eat below a deficit regardless of what I eat.

    I made a food plan today for the rest of the week, so if anyone wants to see it let me know, but I think between me and my partner and the cooler I bought last night, we should be able to start having pre prepared meals. And then when we move out we wont even have a space or time issue coz we will have our own place.

    for my bmr and tdee, a1400 calorie goal is just over a 500 cal deficit. Which I think is about 1poound a week? Which I am happy to do. atm the rate seems to be over the last 2 months, its been about 250g a week so I have only lost 2 kg.

    It isn't horrific but it could be better. It is honestly convenience that I eat the way I do.

    I barely ever have an appetite or am hungry. I eat at night because my partner makes me and I know I should, and occasionally I will get peckish throughout the day, but not often, I am usually preoccupied. So hunger isn't the reason I overeat, its more I see food I like, like a chocolate pudding lets say, and I will eat it. Even if I am not hungry.

    I also don't seem to really know when I am full unless I am completely stuffed. There isn't an in between. it goes ok, ok, ok, ok, ok, stuffed.

    I don't know if that's normal, but regardless. I really need to be stricter on eating more nutritious foods.

    I do take multivitamins and fibre and iron and vitamin c every day. So my body isn't completely malnourished, but it would help eating better, I know.

    I suppose now it is just finding a way to do that for me that I will actually stick to.

    Also, I did do intermittent fasting for a while there at the beginning, didn't see much of an effect. Not sure if I didn't give it long enough or it just doesn't work for me, but I was eating only 1200 calories (healthy food too, didn't have this work schedule then) and fasting for about 20 hours, so if anything should have worked, fasting should have, and it didn't. Everyone said they lost about 8kg/ 16ish pds on average after a month of fasting, I lost about a kilo, maybe half. AND I was also exercising too.
  • MelissaDonahue12
    MelissaDonahue12 Posts: 18 Member
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    I had to add calories back in to start losing weight again.
  • GypsieFlower94
    GypsieFlower94 Posts: 71
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    The thing is if I add any more calories, it will just make it even harder for me. 1400 is really good for me, coz of my bmr and tdee.
  • GypsieFlower94
    GypsieFlower94 Posts: 71
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    So I have decided to do intermittent fasting, as I am basically already doing it most days.

    I've had a look at some easy quick meal ideas to make sure I am eating healthy, and hopefully this will work for me.

    Thank you all for your help, it is greatly appreciated.

    Hope this works!
  • SherryTeach
    SherryTeach Posts: 2,836 Member
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    First of all, I am very sorry for your loss. I cannot imagine how upsetting this is.

    But as you move on, I would take a look at your schedule and whether or not it is really necessary to skip meals because of overwork. I don't know what you do, but everyone is entitled to breaks and should absolutely take them. No one's job is so important that they should be skipping lunch just to get more work done. I'm pretty sure even the President eats lunch, and I'm guessing that he is really busy.

    I'm a middle school teacher and my job is very hectic. I rarely go to the faculty lounge to eat lunch and I often read email or take care of other tasks while eating, but I always make a trip to the microwave to heat up the meal I made at home. I also rarely cook during the week but batch cook on the weekend. As far as quick snacks while working, I always have little baggies of nuts, a banana, some grapes, measured out portions of cereal that I like dry (I'm partial to Quaker Oat Squares). These are available on my credenza and I have been known to grab a few bites between classes.

    You must figure out how to take better care of yourself and not let work and living arrangements become obstacles that you cannot overcome.
  • Bonnieelizabeth
    Bonnieelizabeth Posts: 68 Member
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    try the hamburger minus the bun! I do this all the time even at home I don't eat regular bread ! I am just getting back into logging food but do watch my carbs very closely! Read your labels and watch for what is termed serving distortion!I had a chicken wrap from Mcdonalds today and did not even have the ranch dressing or lettuce or cheese and the tortia wrap itself tasted nasty because I don't eat those,that being said small changes add up over the long term processed food is your enemy leave it off and you will notice that it does not taste good anymore example I tried to eat a very small piece of bday cake and it made me feel very sick because of the sugar it just tasted to sweet! Moderation is the key and be sure to log every morsel that you consume so you can get the total picture.Need to eat breakfast and lunch dinner at the same time every day ! Reason for that is your body is like a furnace and it needs fuel everyday to run just like a furnace needs it to warm house up ! Best Wishes Post back in a few days so we can try to help you!:smile:
  • wilsoje74
    wilsoje74 Posts: 1,720 Member
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    500 calories below what i am is 900. I don't think that is safe.

    I need to find a better way to have meals, rather than takeaway, and better options for how to have 3 meals a day instead of one with my schedule.
    what job do you have where you can't eat at all? Isn't that against the law? You can't bring a shake or sandwich???
  • hearthwood
    hearthwood Posts: 794 Member
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    You're 19 and you want to lose the equivalent of 20 pounds. So basically you're probably not considered obese yet, that's at 30 pounds overweight.

    Unfortunately, the hardest pounds to lose is when you are or get close to your goal weight. The plateaus can drive you nuts. If you're working out, make certain you're not over eating your workouts. That is a common problem.

    You also want to make certain you're eating at least 1200 calories a day so that your body doesn't go into starvation mode. But you can burn, thru exercise as much as you want of those 1200 calories.

    Remember that a pound is 3500 calories. So if you can eat 3500 less week, (which may be hard for you to do) because you're already in a deficit, so you may have to settle with eating a few hundred calories less a week, and burning the rest. Basic math will tell you it's going to take longer to lose it, than someone who is obese, who can easily cut that many calories out of their weekly consumption.

    It's taken me months to get off a plateau, but I finally did it with hiking, and tweeting my workout routine, as I couldn't cut anymore calories out of my daily food without sending my body into starvation mode, which makes it all the harder to lose weight.

    What really helped is I bought a Jawbone UP that tracks the steps I take during the day, and I can add in workouts on it, that gives me a very accurate picture of how many calories I am burning in a day, and it syncs with MFP.

    Good luck, and remember it takes time, just stick with it and you'll get there.
  • RobPA1
    RobPA1 Posts: 48 Member
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    The thing is if I add any more calories, it will just make it even harder for me. 1400 is really good for me, coz of my bmr and tdee.

    Well obviously it's not, because you are stuck like me and and so many others were. You should google a BMR calculator that includes BF %. Just my personal experience, when I started eating back in my exercise calories (about 3-400 per day), I started losing again, and in a big way.
  • acorsaut89
    acorsaut89 Posts: 1,147 Member
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    Also, if my week evens out, it doesn't affect or "sabotage" me. That's ridiculous. Your weight fluctuates so much over a week anyway there would be no point weighing yourself every day, because at the end of the week when you weigh in, your weight is affected by both the day you overate and the other days you underrate to make up for it. If I ate 3000 calories on Monday and ate 500 or less every day ( not healthy obviously but for arguments sake) for the rest of the week, I would still be under my weekly goal and I would have still lost weight. That's the same as thinking eating at any time of day would affect digestion of the food.

    I agree that it doesn't matter what I eat as long as I am at a deficit, whether it is fast food or better stuff, if I am trying to lose weight. I am more disappointed in myself for the fact that I started dieting and calorie deficits to be healthier and lose excess weight, and eat better, and now I just try eat below a deficit regardless of what I eat.

    I barely ever have an appetite or am hungry. I eat at night because my partner makes me and I know I should, and occasionally I will get peckish throughout the day, but not often, I am usually preoccupied. So hunger isn't the reason I overeat, its more I see food I like, like a chocolate pudding lets say, and I will eat it. Even if I am not hungry.

    I also don't seem to really know when I am full unless I am completely stuffed. There isn't an in between. it goes ok, ok, ok, ok, ok, stuffed.

    I don't know if that's normal, but regardless. I really need to be stricter on eating more nutritious foods.

    Ok - so a couple of things:

    First you say you try to eat a deficit regardless of what you eat then two paragraphs later you say you know you should be stricter about eating nutritious foods? Sorry, but if you know you need to eat better QUALITY food then why do you say it doesn't matter to you what you eat as long as you're at a deficit? Also, as mentioned so many times most days you aren't at a deficit and your salt intake is sky high.

    Second - the reason you don't know when you're "stuffed" is probably because you're devouring your food. Honestly, your brain and your stomach need time to sync up with each other and eatting really quickly is what causes over eating. And, if you try eating slowly, enjoying what you're eating this will make you look forward to food. Your stomach is a muscle, too. And when you don't eat it shrinks so eating normal, moderate sized meals 4 - 6 times/day ensures it stays at a consistent size.

    Third, by saying that as long as your week evens out is setting you up for disappointing results. I have friends who are heavy lifters and figure competitors and their best advice is to take food and look at it one meal at a time. Your body spends energy digesting, so by attempting to get your whole daily calories into one meal isn't going to help - it's similar to why a lot of people crash after heavy carb meals (like too much pasta). Take it one meal at a time, ensure your nutrients are there. The idea that it all evens out in the end isn't always true, maybe it has been working for you now but I can bet by taking daily caloric in take values more seriously you will see better results. Weekly ones are an arbitrary measurement - it's like saying so as long as I am at 18,000 calories every 10 days or 54,000 in the month of June it's all good.

    Further - your partner MAKES you eat? To me this just seems ridiculous . . . . it's human nature to want to eat food, to fuel your body (although I get sometimes the apetite isn't there, like in the summer where I am it's really humid and it can affect what and how much I want to eat, but overall, humans eat to survive and because of our nature we have a lot of choice in what we eat) and it just seems like this is similar to a parent promising their kids ice cream for eatting their veggies.

    Bottom Line: if you want this to happen, you'll figure out a way to make it happen regardless of obstacles. Until then, you have excuses and that's all there is. If you want it, you make it happen. I want to be able to spend time with my partner since we both work 60+ hr weeks so I get at up 3:45 every morning to go to the gym before work since when we both get home we have so little time together and I do it Mon-Fri so on the weekends, we have time to do stuff together. If you want it, you will figure out a way to make it happen, period.

    ED: sp
  • CCSavage88
    CCSavage88 Posts: 191
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    Woah carb city! & you CANNOT estimate, keep specific track of your foods...by guessing you can easily be off by 100's!...Exercise really means nothing if you're not still watching what you eat, eating too many fruits and veggies isn't so great when you don't have the exercise to match it, just because its healthy doesn't mean your body can handle it without exercise. Veggies & fruits hold carbs and sugars and forget the "good carb/bad carb" carbs are carbs you have to burn them for energy regardless so if you don't they get stored. Skipping meals does NOTHING for you, you skip then eat your body goes into store it all mode thinking it needs to retain incase it's starved again, it also slows down your metabolism. You're going to stay stuck until you make real changes. Good Luck
  • momma_hav
    momma_hav Posts: 17 Member
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    Did you pick the 1400 hundred calories a day or did you let MFP choose for you? In our weight loss group we had a couple of people that thought the MFP number was too high so they lowered it and struggled. Once they went to what MFP chose for them to lose 1.5 lbs a week they started doing better..

    Also I notice you aren't drinking/logging water. That really helps as well as eating a little something every couple of hours even if it is just a few nuts. This was the hardest for me as I didn't eat regular times(breakfast 2-3 hours after I got up, lunch maybe 6 hours later then dinner about 3hours later). I switched my options from Breakfast, lunch and dinner to 7-9, 9-11,-11-1 etc for about 2 weeks to help train me to eat more regular and not to eat real late at night.

    Remember you should have a positive number of calories left to eat. The bottom number is the amount you can still eat and be under the goal, if it shows a negative number you ate more than allotted.

    As far as going from ok to stuffed in feeling full when eating, once I started eating every couple of hours and less junk food, I realized that my ability to feel full while still eating a simple meal came back after years of being gone.
  • mscleo1115
    mscleo1115 Posts: 42 Member
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    I completely understand what you mean about having a hectic, fast paced job that doesn't allow much room for eating. I'm a funeral director/embalmer and I too would hit the ground running as soon as I walked in the funeral home. Between meeting with families, conducting funeral/memorial services, preparing pickups/drop off at the crematory, dressing/casketing, arranging flowers/plants that arrive for services, and finding the time to run to the county clerks off to file death certificates I found it hard to find the time to eat a balanced meal so I started packing little baggies of snacks that do not require refrigeration (nuts, seeds, dried fruit, sliced carrots, protein bars), can handle the Houston heat and keeping them in my purse/bag which I left in the hearse/flower van since as a funeral director we don't walk around totting a purse/bag while we're working. On a daily basis I would tuck a protein bar in the pocket of my suit pants so that once the service started I could move to the foyer of the church or what have you and discreetly eat it while monitoring a service. A protein bar was my typical lunch most days, not because that's what I wanted but that's the only thing that worked for me. Every once in a while I had enough time between services (and I wasn't driving the hearse!) that I could eat a fresh hot meal and I always opted for something healthy and nutritious, even if it was from McDonalds, Wendy's or what have you. After my shift as a funeral director ended I switched to embalmer mode and there is literally no opportunity to eat during that process so right beforehand I would eat a few handfuls of nuts, seeds, and dried roasted soybeans, enough to give me energy to be on my feet for four to five hours at a time with no breaks. Dinner was usually take out but again I opted for something healthy and nutricious and not laden with sodium or empty calories. I needed fuel for my body and I learned real quick what worked and what didn't. Stay positive on your journey. Where there's a will, there's a way.

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