Can't get into first gear. Should I cut the carbs?

OK, so I've been at this for four weeks. Logging accurately. Weighing with a food scale. Measuring with cups. Nothing lost. Not one single pound. I'm a 5'8 35 year old man. The TDEE calculators say I should be able to lose a pound a week at 2032 calories. I actually thought that sounded a hair high, so I backed off of that by ~5% and tried to eat around 1900 cals for the first three weeks of this weight loss attempt. Last week, I found I hadn't lost any weight at all, so I backed off another ~10%, down to 1700. Again, this week, nothing. Weighed yesterday and today to account for minor fluctuations in water retention, and it's steady-Eddie at 188 pounds.

When logging, I would say I overestimate in most cases, to be conservative. Like, when my wife roasts something in the oven, such as kale, I log that I've eaten a tablespoon of olive oil, to account for the amount on the kale. I know the first response is for people to think I'm not logging accurately, but I actually work in a clinical laboratory setting. I'm quite comfortable and adept with measurements. The logging is accurate in cases where I'm preparing the food. My wife makes dinner before I get home from work, and as I mentioned, I generally assume she's got a heavy hand with stuff, to be safe.

I work on a college campus and walk at least a quarter of a mile a day--again, conservative estimate, it's probably more. I converted to a standing desk at the beginning of the new year, so when I'm not walking, I'm standing. I'm on my feet for 8-10 hours Mon-Fri. I do some minor work in my garden on the weekends, and chase around my toddler & 11 month old.

I've been exercising with Stronglifts 5x5. Three times a week, since this started. I love it. I have been making progress, and I feel great. Although I'm discouraged about the weight loss, I feel my fitness and strength have improved. But my clothes aren't fitting any differently, and I'm not seeing any movement on the scale. I do not log anything for the exercise calories burned for these sessions, so obviously, I don't eat the cals back.

I don't feel like I should cut calories any more. I go to bed a little hungry some nights, but have been trying to fight this by eating some 0% yogurt. I've had success in the past by going on extremely low carb diets, but I have been trying to avoid that, this time, because it really changes the way I eat, and I find it to be burdensome and inconvenient to constantly figure out ways to avoid eating a sandwich.

I have read/heard a lot of anecdotal advice about low-carb stuff, and as I mentioned have even had some success with it, myself. Are there studies saying some people are just better at utilizing the caloric energy in carbs than others? For the carbs I'm eating, is my body somehow holding onto those calories?
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Replies

  • feliscatus84
    feliscatus84 Posts: 80 Member
    Perhaps you could be retaining water from starting the lifting program?
  • xcalygrl
    xcalygrl Posts: 1,897 Member
    I did low carb for a while. I stopped because I didn't have enough energy and had a hard time eating all of my calories. Now, I eat brown rice, whole wheat bread, or sweet potatoes.

    If you're lifting, you may be losing inches and fat but gaining muscle. If that is the case, you won't see a budge on the scale.

    Also, you may be overestimating calories eaten and actually undereating. Undereating is just as deterimental to weight loss as overeating.
  • cdnokie
    cdnokie Posts: 7
    Totally agree with xcalygrl - you might be losing inches rather than actual weight. I have barely budged on the scale but I have lost 2 sizes and almost 25 inches overall. ITs most likely due to being more active and doing more strength training. Take some measurements of your body and then check them again in a month or so. I also agree with the whole low carb thing not being the best as your body needs that for energy and typically once people go low carb then end up eating way more meats and processed foods.
  • I did low carb for a while. I stopped because I didn't have enough energy and had a hard time eating all of my calories. Now, I eat brown rice, whole wheat bread, or sweet potatoes.

    If you're lifting, you may be losing inches and fat but gaining muscle. If that is the case, you won't see a budge on the scale.

    Also, you may be overestimating calories eaten and actually undereating. Undereating is just as deterimental to weight loss as overeating.

    Thanks for the feedback.

    Yes, I have heard that theory, but I should have been down at least 4-5 pounds by now. As someone who has lifted pretty seriously in the past, I can say that putting on that amount of muscle is grueling, difficult, and time consuming. It just doesn't seem possible. Especially considering that I've been in what should be a 700 cal deficit, if all things are equal.

    Hmmm...so under eating? That does strike me as a lot more likely than inaccurate logging. But I thought the calorie in/calorie out folks say that you'd have to be losing in a case like that. Jeez, there is just so much conflicting information. I'm not looking for miracle results after a month, but I'd imagine I'd see something by now. A couple pounds, at least.
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  • Totally agree with xcalygrl - you might be losing inches rather than actual weight. I have barely budged on the scale but I have lost 2 sizes and almost 25 inches overall. ITs most likely due to being more active and doing more strength training. Take some measurements of your body and then check them again in a month or so. I also agree with the whole low carb thing not being the best as your body needs that for energy and typically once people go low carb then end up eating way more meats and processed foods.

    Thanks, yeah. My wife says she sees some change. But as I mentioned, I work in science, and I like to quantify things. Being that my body fat % is quite high at the moment, the scale should be moving. Maybe the measurements will help. Are there specific sites that are indicators to measure body composition changes?
  • Regardless of weather you work in a clinical setting or not and you feel you're comfortable and adept with measurements, in this case you are wrong. You are simply guessing. Which easily would mean you could be over eating.

    Maybe I muddled my point a bit. I use a food scale. The only guessing I do is for dishes my wife has prepared, like the kale or sweet potatoes. In those cases, she's prepared it before I get home, roasted in the oven, with some amount of olive oil. In those cases, I estimate that I've eaten at least a full tablespoon of olive oil. Does that not seem like an overestimate? Should I be guessing I'm eating 2 tablespoons of olive oil? I mean, the food is not swimming in oil, it seems like a reasonable assesment to me--conservative, in fact--but I guess it could be an underestimate. She's with the two kids, and is nice enough to make me delicious food, so I'm not adding a step where she meticulously measures anything she makes for me, I'd rather just estimate conservatively.
  • waxwingdesign
    waxwingdesign Posts: 17 Member
    You know, I did everything exactly right for the first 7 weeks and saw nothing change and then all of a sudden it started coming off fast. Just hang in there, keep doing everything right and your body will adjust. That's my advice.
  • You know, I did everything exactly right for the first 7 weeks and saw nothing change and then all of a sudden it started coming off fast. Just hang in there, keep doing everything right and your body will adjust. That's my advice.

    That's really my plan. For at least another 2 or 3 weeks, mainly because I've done the low carb thing before, and it's really a drag for me (& my family). I was hoping to put out some feelers for other ideas, to see what people thought. Thanks for the feedback.
  • BarbieAS
    BarbieAS Posts: 1,414 Member
    Regardless of weather you work in a clinical setting or not and you feel you're comfortable and adept with measurements, in this case you are wrong. You are simply guessing. Which easily would mean you could be over eating.

    Maybe I muddled my point a bit. I use a food scale. The only guessing I do is for dishes my wife has prepared, like the kale or sweet potatoes. In those cases, she's prepared it before I get home, roasted in the oven, with some amount of olive oil. In those cases, I estimate that I've eaten at least a full tablespoon of olive oil. Does that not seem like an overestimate? Should I be guessing I'm eating 2 tablespoons of olive oil? I mean, the food is not swimming in oil, it seems like a reasonable assesment to me--conservative, in fact--but I guess it could be an underestimate. She's with the two kids, and is nice enough to make me delicious food, so I'm not adding a step where she meticulously measures anything she makes for me, I'd rather just estimate conservatively.

    That makes sense, when you're figuring out ingredients and stuff. But, are you weighing the food on your plate? Let's go with the sweet potatoes, and say she's roasted them in the oven tossed in olive oil. You log a tb of olive oil to account for the cooking oil, great. But I'm assuming that you do actually then weigh the potatoes before they go on your plate, so that you know that you're eating, say, 80 grams of potatoes plus the oil? (Well, I guess the oil weighs something, too, but you catch my meaning.)
  • Cleo58
    Cleo58 Posts: 7 Member
    Some things which are helping me are: LOTS of lemon water, adding beans to my lunch salad, amazing peanut butter-honey-craisin balls in the fridge for an energy boost in the afternoon and many kinds of fruit. Keep on being healthy-you will see results soon!
  • parkscs
    parkscs Posts: 1,639 Member
    Give it some more time man. While I don't think you've put on 4-5 pounds of muscle that quickly, starting a weight lifting program up is known to cause a bit of water retention as your muscles hold a bit of extra water during the repair process. That uptick in water weight can hide fat loss when it comes to the scale, but eventually you should start to see a downward trend.
  • Regardless of weather you work in a clinical setting or not and you feel you're comfortable and adept with measurements, in this case you are wrong. You are simply guessing. Which easily would mean you could be over eating.

    Maybe I muddled my point a bit. I use a food scale. The only guessing I do is for dishes my wife has prepared, like the kale or sweet potatoes. In those cases, she's prepared it before I get home, roasted in the oven, with some amount of olive oil. In those cases, I estimate that I've eaten at least a full tablespoon of olive oil. Does that not seem like an overestimate? Should I be guessing I'm eating 2 tablespoons of olive oil? I mean, the food is not swimming in oil, it seems like a reasonable assesment to me--conservative, in fact--but I guess it could be an underestimate. She's with the two kids, and is nice enough to make me delicious food, so I'm not adding a step where she meticulously measures anything she makes for me, I'd rather just estimate conservatively.

    That makes sense, when you're figuring out ingredients and stuff. But, are you weighing the food on your plate? Let's go with the sweet potatoes, and say she's roasted them in the oven tossed in olive oil. You log a tb of olive oil to account for the cooking oil, great. But I'm assuming that you do actually then weigh the potatoes before they go on your plate, so that you know that you're eating, say, 80 grams of potatoes plus the oil? (Well, I guess the oil weighs something, too, but you catch my meaning.)

    Yes, Barbie, I do weigh the food before I eat it. Don't always do the "grams" conversion for solids, sometimes go by cups, depending on the available units from the food in the database. I could improve there, I guess. It's hard to believe that would be the source of my "failure to launch", though. Considering I'm so far under what my TDEE is saying I need to be at for 1 lb/week loss. Even if I account for some error in logging, which of course everyone has, it's tough to see how that could be more than +/- 150 calories.
  • Thanks Cleo and Parks! I'm going to stick with it. I am an extremely impatient person--at least I realize this!
  • brandiuntz
    brandiuntz Posts: 2,717 Member
    You know, I did everything exactly right for the first 7 weeks and saw nothing change and then all of a sudden it started coming off fast. Just hang in there, keep doing everything right and your body will adjust. That's my advice.

    I agree with this. I didn't lose any weight the first month after I started and hit lots of "no loss" weeks off and on. Weight loss isn't linear. A good sign is that your wife has noticed changes. Be a little more patient and keep track of other progress like strength gains (I do Strong Lifts, too). :flowerforyou:
  • RodaRose
    RodaRose Posts: 9,562 Member
    Give it more time before you make some changes
  • You know, I did everything exactly right for the first 7 weeks and saw nothing change and then all of a sudden it started coming off fast. Just hang in there, keep doing everything right and your body will adjust. That's my advice.

    I agree with this. I didn't lose any weight the first month after I started and hit lots of "no loss" weeks off and on. Weight loss isn't linear. A good sign is that your wife has noticed changes. Be a little more patient and keep track of other progress like strength gains (I do Strong Lifts, too). :flowerforyou:

    haha, I'm just worried she's being too nice to me :)
  • eomuno215in541
    eomuno215in541 Posts: 201 Member
    Sounds like you're building muscle. Try not worrying about carbs for a couple weeks. You need those for the quick burn. Try maybe strict cardio most days, and strength 1 or 2 days a week. You know, cardio will burn calories. How many lbs are you trying to lose?
  • Sounds like you're building muscle. Try not worrying about carbs for a couple weeks. You need those for the quick burn. Try maybe strict cardio most days, and strength 1 or 2 days a week. You know, cardio will burn calories. How many lbs are you trying to lose?

    I'm trying to lose about 30 pounds, total. Even though 160 might be on the high end of BMI for my height, I know from experience that it's a good weight for me to walk around at. I don't have a specific timetable for the loss, just want to see some--any--progress.

    Cardio is a thought, as a way to increase what should be a caloric deficit, it's just that I find it so tedious. I really enjoy weightlifting, and was hoping the caloric deficit from the decreased food intake would be enough to avoid cardio entirely. I used to do a 40 minute uphill walk at 3.5 miles an hour in a past weight loss experience, and it was effective at helping me drop weight.
  • sati18
    sati18 Posts: 153 Member

    Also, you may be overestimating calories eaten and actually undereating. Undereating is just as deterimental to weight loss as overeating.

    ERM no it isn't. If you under eat you will most definitely still lose weight you will just feel rubbish whilst losing it. There is no way that not eating enough is stopping the OP losing weight. That's so unbelievably misleading.

    If under eating stalled weigh tloss people wouldn't starve to death and anorexics COULDN'T exist.

    OP, Either you are eating more than you think, exercising less than you think, retaining massive amounts of water, or you need to go to a doctor and have your metabolism tested to check its working properly.

    check your salt levels, if you're eating masses then that can stop the scale budging. My guess is that you're accidentally taking in more calories than you are burning. it's the most likely explanation especially since you say you do lose weight with a low carb diet so obviously it is possible for you to lose weight

    EDITED TO ADD: If the TDEE method isn't working for you, try investing in a fitbit which will monitor every step you take (since you do a lot of walking), and setting your activity level to sedentary on MFP and logging your exercise as and when you do it.

    With TDEE my understanding is that you tell the calculator how much exercise you do and it factors that in when it tells you how many calories you are burning. If you have in any way overestimated how much daily exercise you're doing that could account for it giving you a bigger number to eat than you actually need. Just a thought
  • jmangini
    jmangini Posts: 166 Member
    I did low carb for a while. I stopped because I didn't have enough energy and had a hard time eating all of my calories. Now, I eat brown rice, whole wheat bread, or sweet potatoes.

    If you're lifting, you may be losing inches and fat but gaining muscle. If that is the case, you won't see a budge on the scale.

    Also, you may be overestimating calories eaten and actually undereating. Undereating is just as deterimental to weight loss as overeating.

    Thanks for the feedback.

    Yes, I have heard that theory, but I should have been down at least 4-5 pounds by now. As someone who has lifted pretty seriously in the past, I can say that putting on that amount of muscle is grueling, difficult, and time consuming. It just doesn't seem possible. Especially considering that I've been in what should be a 700 cal deficit, if all things are equal.

    Hmmm...so under eating? That does strike me as a lot more likely than inaccurate logging. But I thought the calorie in/calorie out folks say that you'd have to be losing in a case like that. Jeez, there is just so much conflicting information. I'm not looking for miracle results after a month, but I'd imagine I'd see something by now. A couple pounds, at least.

    Lots of people on here say eating more calories will make you lose weight.. Man I wish! Does anyone have any study where people ate more and lost serious weight? If so, Please post. I'd love to read it.
  • csy108
    csy108 Posts: 58 Member
    I was in a pretty similar situation. I have lost weight in the past with low carb and was tempted to go that route again when I wasn't seeing any change on the scale. From April 18th to mid/late May I only lost about one pound. I did see the scale move, but then I'd see it move back up. And I started with about 90 pounds to lose.

    However, I noticed my clothes fitting better and I started taking measurements. I saw changes there before the scale moved. I think I was retaining water from starting a weight program. All of a sudden, since the last week of May, I dropped about 8 pounds on the scale.

    I highly recommend that you use a BF% calculator (http://fitness.bizcalcs.com/Calculator.asp?Calc=Body-Fat-Navy) and use a TDEE calculation that considers BF% (http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/). The TDEE calculators were telling me to eat WAY too many calories before I gave it my estimated 44% BF and used the Katch-McCardle formula. I am basing my calorie deficit on that much lower TDEE estimate and it's working for me.
  • trishfit2014
    trishfit2014 Posts: 304 Member
    Your body takes on water weight when you start a new lifting program. Here is an article I read today which talks about this.

    http://berzinatorfitnessdesigns.com/2013/03/15/is-your-scale-deceiving-you-part-2/
  • I was in a pretty similar situation. I have lost weight in the past with low carb and was tempted to go that route again when I wasn't seeing any change on the scale. From April 18th to mid/late May I only lost about one pound. I did see the scale move, but then I'd see it move back up. And I started with about 90 pounds to lose.

    However, I noticed my clothes fitting better and I started taking measurements. I saw changes there before the scale moved. I think I was retaining water from starting a weight program. All of a sudden, since the last week of May, I dropped about 8 pounds on the scale.

    I highly recommend that you use a BF% calculator (http://fitness.bizcalcs.com/Calculator.asp?Calc=Body-Fat-Navy) and use a TDEE calculation that considers BF% (http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/). The TDEE calculators were telling me to eat WAY too many calories before I gave it my estimated 44% BF and used the Katch-McCardle formula. I am basing my calorie deficit on that much lower TDEE estimate and it's working for me.

    Yeah, haha, don't know if my ego can take an honest assessment of my BF% at this point. Honestly, the advice to just kind of stay the course seems to be pretty reasonable and the most sensible. I'm going to try it for at least another 2-3 weeks before switching anything up. Thanks for your feedback.

  • Also, you may be overestimating calories eaten and actually undereating. Undereating is just as deterimental to weight loss as overeating.

    ERM no it isn't. If you under eat you will most definitely still lose weight you will just feel rubbish whilst losing it. There is no way that not eating enough is stopping the OP losing weight. That's so unbelievably misleading.

    If under eating stalled weigh tloss people wouldn't starve to death and anorexics COULDN'T exist.

    OP, Either you are eating more than you think, exercising less than you think, retaining massive amounts of water, or you need to go to a doctor and have your metabolism tested to check its working properly.

    check your salt levels, if you're eating masses then that can stop the scale budging. My guess is that you're accidentally taking in more calories than you are burning. it's the most likely explanation especially since you say you do lose weight with a low carb diet so obviously it is possible for you to lose weight

    EDITED TO ADD: If the TDEE method isn't working for you, try investing in a fitbit which will monitor every step you take (since you do a lot of walking), and setting your activity level to sedentary on MFP and logging your exercise as and when you do it.

    With TDEE my understanding is that you tell the calculator how much exercise you do and it factors that in when it tells you how many calories you are burning. If you have in any way overestimated how much daily exercise you're doing that could account for it giving you a bigger number to eat than you actually need. Just a thought

    I do eat a lot of salt. I'm almost always over my sodium intake for the day. I'd say I'm trying to compensate for the reduced calories by adding more flavor to the meals I eat, but if I'm being honest, I pretty much always love salt. I've always been more of a "savory" eater than someone with a sweetooth. Given the choice between french fries or a piece of cake, and 10/10 times I'll eat the fries (after sprinkling some salt on them).

    So I guess I could try to reduce the sodium intake, or proceed on my current course with the notion that I'm just retaining more water from a combo of the high levels of sodium and increased water retention from weightlifting.

    To your earlier point, though, shouldn't the exercise just be gravy, anyway, considering I'm eating 300 cals under what's recommended to lose a pound a week? I mean, I'm really not logging anything on MFP for exercise. I manually change the "weightlifting" thing down to 1 calorie burned, and have my profile set up as "lightly active".
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
    Hey man. So I started diet and exercise for weight loss a little over 3 months ago. For the last 100 days I've been tracking my calories and regularly hitting my goals both calorie intake and exercise. I'm 6' tall and I started at 188 pounds, I weighed in this morning at 172. Pretty much every day I weigh myself and this has been the result.

    140611_Weight.jpg

    Notice that for the first 5 weeks I experienced essentially no weight loss. That said during that time I dropped about 1.5 inches from my waist and improved my cardiovascular fitness and strength by a good amount. I've learned that switching to a different food intake coupled with starting exercise can cause you to retain a lot of water which will offset your fat loss and obscure it from the scale.

    After those first few weeks I've been losing a steady 1.3 pounds a week eating 1800 calories net. Eating back exercise calories means I'm eating about 2100-2200 a day.

    Recently on 5/26 I changed my exercise rotinue and as a result my weight loss stalled, again not because i'm no longer losing fat but likely due to water retention...its normal.

    In my opinion of your exercise is weight lifting the last thing you want to do is cut out carbs.
  • Hey man. So I started diet and exercise for weight loss a little over 3 months ago. For the last 100 days I've been tracking my calories and regularly hitting my goals both calorie intake and exercise. I'm 6' tall and I started at 188 pounds, I weighed in this morning at 172. Pretty much every day I weigh myself and this has been the result.

    140611_Weight.jpg

    Notice that for the first 5 weeks I experienced essentially no weight loss. That said during that time I dropped about 1.5 inches from my waist and improved my cardiovascular fitness and strength by a good amount. I've learned that switching to a different food intake coupled with starting exercise can cause you to retain a lot of water which will offset your fat loss and obscure it from the scale.

    After those first few weeks I've been losing a steady 1.3 pounds a week eating 1800 calories net. Eating back exercise calories means I'm eating about 2100-2200 a day.

    Recently on 5/26 I changed my exercise rotinue and as a result my weight loss stalled, again not because i'm no longer losing fat but likely due to water retention...its normal.

    In my opinion of your exercise is weight lifting the last thing you want to do is cut out carbs.

    Thanks man, that is immensely helpful!
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
    OP I haven't read the rest of this thread so not sure if you already were asked this but have you been measuring your waist with a tape measurer or have you noticed any non-scale progress? Pants fit a little looser, belt up a notch...that sort of thing?
  • jmangini
    jmangini Posts: 166 Member
    Hey man. So I started diet and exercise for weight loss a little over 3 months ago. For the last 100 days I've been tracking my calories and regularly hitting my goals both calorie intake and exercise. I'm 6' tall and I started at 188 pounds, I weighed in this morning at 172. Pretty much every day I weigh myself and this has been the result.

    140611_Weight.jpg

    Notice that for the first 5 weeks I experienced essentially no weight loss. That said during that time I dropped about 1.5 inches from my waist and improved my cardiovascular fitness and strength by a good amount. I've learned that switching to a different food intake coupled with starting exercise can cause you to retain a lot of water which will offset your fat loss and obscure it from the scale.

    After those first few weeks I've been losing a steady 1.3 pounds a week eating 1800 calories net. Eating back exercise calories means I'm eating about 2100-2200 a day.

    Recently on 5/26 I changed my exercise rotinue and as a result my weight loss stalled, again not because i'm no longer losing fat but likely due to water retention...its normal.

    In my opinion of your exercise is weight lifting the last thing you want to do is cut out carbs.

    Good post
  • OP I haven't read the rest of this thread so not sure if you already were asked this but have you been measuring your waist with a tape measurer or have you noticed any non-scale progress? Pants fit a little looser, belt up a notch...that sort of thing?

    Haven't done the measurement thing yet. My thought process was that because I am currently at a pretty high BF%, the scale should be a good indicator. From reading the responses in this thread, it seems maybe I should add some measurements into my evaluation process.

    My pants might feel a hair looser, but I'm definitely not down a whole belt loop or anything. As I mentioned, my wife has said she can see a difference in my appearance. Not that I don't trust her, but I just want some quantifiable way to judge that.

    I think you might have posted an x-y scatter plot about your initial weight loss. It's not showing up for me, but judging on what you've said, it would have been pretty flat at the beginning.

    Question for you, at 1800 net, how far is that off what the TDEE calculators suggest for steady 1 lb week weight loss? I've been at 1700, but you're 4 inches taller than I am. Is 1700 too high? It doesn't feel like it, that's for sure.