Calorie Deficit- But NOT losing weight

How isn't it? I read about it everywhere and have experienced it myself.
Lose lean tissue, keep fat. By a calorie deficit that is TOO LARGE! It's science.

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"Starvation mode is not a thing."
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Starvation mode means that your metabolism has slowed down so much from a severe calorie deficit that when you do eat, it stores the energy as fat, since it doesn't know when your next meal (the fuel) is coming.

My experience was this: I lost 83 pounds in 9 months in 2003-2004. Of those 83 pounds, nearly 28 of those pounds was Lean Tissue, based on body comp testing with calipers. While I had lost weight, my body composition remained pretty much the same, somewhere around 33%.

I still want to lose, but I also want to gain the much needed muscle to keep my metabolism burning. Higher metabolism=eat more food to maintain when I get there. My BMR is about 1680, based on the BF% method. If I limit myself to low calories (1600-1800), I am miserable and ravenous. Yes, I do eat my exercise calories back. My current net calorie goal is 1980. Back on track after the Thanksgiving holiday, when I didn't log anything for 4 or 5 days. But, my scale is down 2 lbs since Monday.

Starvation mode means that your metabolism has slowed down so much from a severe calorie deficit that when you do eat, it stores the energy as fat, since it doesn't know when your next meal (the fuel) is coming.

My experience was this: I lost 83 pounds in 9 months in 2003-2004. Of those 83 pounds, nearly 28 of those pounds was Lean Tissue, based on body comp testing with calipers. While I had lost weight, my body composition remained pretty much the same, somewhere around 33%.

I still want to lose, but I also want to gain the much needed muscle to keep my metabolism burning. Higher metabolism=eat more food to maintain when I get there. My BMR is about 1680, based on the BF% method. If I limit myself to low calories (1600-1800), I am miserable and ravenous. Yes, I do eat my exercise calories back. My current net calorie goal is 1980. Back on track after the Thanksgiving holiday, when I didn't log anything for 4 or 5 days. But, my scale is down 2 lbs since Monday.

I've never seen any starving children whose bodies held onto their fat.

Maybe not here in the US, but it happens in some children in third world countries. Not all, but some.

Starvation mode means that your metabolism has slowed down so much from a severe calorie deficit that when you do eat, it stores the energy as fat, since it doesn't know when your next meal (the fuel) is coming.

My experience was this: I lost 83 pounds in 9 months in 2003-2004. Of those 83 pounds, nearly 28 of those pounds was Lean Tissue, based on body comp testing with calipers. While I had lost weight, my body composition remained pretty much the same, somewhere around 33%.

I still want to lose, but I also want to gain the much needed muscle to keep my metabolism burning. Higher metabolism=eat more food to maintain when I get there. My BMR is about 1680, based on the BF% method. If I limit myself to low calories (1600-1800), I am miserable and ravenous. Yes, I do eat my exercise calories back. My current net calorie goal is 1980. Back on track after the Thanksgiving holiday, when I didn't log anything for 4 or 5 days. But, my scale is down 2 lbs since Monday.

I've never seen any starving children whose bodies held onto their fat.

I apologize for digressing.

I think the discussion lies in whether a calorie goal is too low, too high, or in the sweet spot for weight loss.

The key is that every body is different but there are some common factors.

I always have to remember that there is 3 components of weight loss:

10% genetics - no control over this one!
10% exercise - plays an important role in fitness, but doesn't necessarily cause us to lose weight
80% nutrition - no amount of exercise can compete with a poor diet.

My calorie goal works because I've had to up it. I burn more than 2000 calories a day, even when I'm not working out.
The original poster of this thread has a BMR 1.5 times that of mine. He should be able to eat 3000 calories a day and lose body fat. And he probably burns more calories during exercise than I do, so I'm guessing he burns at least 4000 calories/day.

I still believe that his goal of 2700-2900 calories may be too large of a deficit, but that is for him to figure out.

And, yes, starvation mode is absolutely a THING and it does happen to many people.

I been taking in around 2700-2900 calories a day . 2900 on workout days and 2700 or less on non workout days.

I'm 6'2 239lbs and I usually take in 240g of protein, 75g fat and the rest carbs. I've been doing this for a couple weeks now but my weight isn't going down. I train intense so I know I'm burning a lot of calories and my rest times in between sets are about 25 seconds. Just trying to figure out what's going on. I went from 245lbs to 235 and now I'm fluctuating 237-239 Any suggestions?

You're taking in a lot of calories each day even if you are weight training. I'm down to 1500 and a few calories a day and even at that I only might lose a lb a week. Burning calories isn't the answer if you are intaking so many. Cut those calores by 500 and then your exercise and I bet the weight will start to come off.

Question to the OP:

What about your nutrient timing? When do you eat your macros?

Also, at 14% BF, are you wanting to lose for how you look and/or feel or are you a body builder and competing?

Timing of meals won't make any difference either.

I'd say to eat a bit less too.

I recently saw and heard on one of those doctors shows on tv that nutrition values and calorie counts on package foods can be as much as 200 cal off as well as carbs, fat, sat fat, sodium counts and values. So really you never know how many calories you are intaking per day.

What I did was keep a daily record and reduce calories by 10pts or so per day and use this following calculation for the rest.

Calories divided by 16 (basically number of waking hours during the day) then take this number and add 100 to it for your carbs for that calorie count and then take that number and divide by 2 for your fat for that calorie count the protein is the carb number you origionally came up with.

so lets say you are on a 1500 calories diet. Divide that by 16 = 93.75 which equates to 93.75 +100 = 193.75 carbs per day

then take that 93.75 and divide by 2 = 46.87 which will be your fat intake for the day and 93.75 will be your protein count.

Don't asked me where the 100 added to carbs comes in but it just seemed to me like the right number to add for carbs for the day for that 1500 calorie diet.

If you adjust all these numbers accordingly I think you will lose weight. But, first you must find your calorie intake where you start losing weight and then reduce that number by 10 or so per day until you notice a weight loss. Then that is your number for a time to lose weight until you reach a plateau of no weight loss and then you have to reduce your calories per day from 10 or so per day until you start losing again.

This has worked for me and I like the calculations that come up whichever calorie count I choose to use. I think here is where the "balance" of everything works together.