Calorie Deficit Not Working

Hi,

I currently weigh 175 and height is 5,9 it says my daily calorie intake should be 2200 but I want to go on a calorie dificit cause I am not working out.

1 Week passed, I been eating and noting 1200 - 1250 calories per day but I don't add it on myfitnesspal I use a different app on my phone so yeah I'm paying attention to my intake.

I haven't loss or gained any pounds... what am I doing wrong?
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Replies

  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
    You aren't waiting long enough. You can't expect noticible change over 7 days.
  • kgeyser
    kgeyser Posts: 22,505 Member
    Are you weighing all foods and measuring liquids? Using a food scale?
  • jorda13456
    jorda13456 Posts: 62 Member
    No I am not measuring liquids, Just eating normal foods but staying at 1200.

    Also I'm going to see after another week what happens but I thought i'd see something after 5 days.

    Why does the liquid even matter?
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  • btc1987
    btc1987 Posts: 94 Member
    Because if they have calories then they count.

    If you aren't weighing and measuring all your intake then you don't actually know how much you're eating. It's just guessing.

    This guy's got it right.

    How can you claim you're eating about 1200 cals / day when you're not measuring your intake? :(
  • ILiftHeavyAcrylics
    ILiftHeavyAcrylics Posts: 27,732 Member
    Also be patient. A week feels like a really long time in the beginning, and it is a great accomplishment, but it's not much time in the grand scheme of things. Give things a few weeks before you worry.
  • jorda13456
    jorda13456 Posts: 62 Member
    No I am not measuring liquids, Just eating normal foods but staying at 1200.

    Also I'm going to see after another week what happens but I thought i'd see something after 5 days.

    Why does the liquid even matter?
    Because if they have calories then they count.

    If you aren't weighing and measuring all your intake then you don't actually know how much you're eating. It's just guessing.

    Lmao sorry I mis-read what she wrote, I am definitly measuring my liquids. Idk I was thinking you meant something else, I do measure my glasses of oranges juice I drink, or any other liquids that I drink... Most are 120 calories and I make sure I keep everything I mean everything that has calories noted. I'll give it another week and see
  • firstsip
    firstsip Posts: 8,399 Member
    You've been eating 1200 calories this week... except for the two days over 1900? By noting 1250 do you mean just setting your diary to 1250?
  • tony56pr
    tony56pr Posts: 141 Member
    You can starve yourself, and this will slow things down. I had a plateau, upped calories and kept dropping. 1200 for 5-9 at 175 isn't enough in my opinion.
  • jorda13456
    jorda13456 Posts: 62 Member
    You've been eating 1200 calories this week... except for the two days over 1900? By noting 1250 do you mean just setting your diary to 1250?

    The day where its 1900 I was just testing out the iphone food scanner feature, where you can scan the barcode and I just scanned a whole bunch of items but never bothered to clear our the dairy, first day and second day.

    By noting I mean I Write the calories in a different APP like "120" calories then it gives me the total amount of calories from everything I consumed.
  • jorda13456
    jorda13456 Posts: 62 Member
    You can starve yourself, and this will slow things down. I had a plateau, upped calories and kept dropping. 1200 for 5-9 at 175 isn't enough in my opinion.

    Can you elaborate? I'm lost on what you mean
  • tony56pr
    tony56pr Posts: 141 Member
    And 2200 is without working out, when you workout mfp increases your calories. So sounds like you are starving, which your body will hang onto fat and use muscle for fuel. Up calories to at lleast
    2000 and try that.
  • tony56pr
    tony56pr Posts: 141 Member
    Eating less makes you lose weight, but if you eat too little your body senses starvation/famine and will keep you "alive". You won't lose any fat, you'll keep everything you do eat, burn muscle to live (less muscle=less required energy).
  • rkonks
    rkonks Posts: 10 Member
    Why not eat healthy and work out.? No special workouts, just something as simple as walking. Rome wasn't built in a day and Jared didn't lose all that weight overnight. Patience is key. Also, try not weighing yourself everyday, it can become frustrating. The perfect scale is the mirror. Lbs are just a number. It's how you feel and look what matters. When you see a difference, then weigh yourself.
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
    And 2200 is without working out, when you workout mfp increases your calories. So sounds like you are starving, which your body will hang onto fat and use muscle for fuel. Up calories to at lleast
    2000 and try that.

    Although you very well may not be eating enough for health and fitness but not at all for the reason given here. Your body will definitely not "hold onto fat" if you don't eat enough.
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
    Eating less makes you lose weight, but if you eat too little your body senses starvation/famine and will keep you "alive". You won't lose any fat, you'll keep everything you do eat, burn muscle to live (less muscle=less required energy).

    Completely false and an utter myth. Find one study that substantiaties this obviously flawed logic.

    For one thing muscle weighs more per calorie than fat so if you kept your fat and burned your muscle instead the result would be you would lose weight twice as fast not lose no weight.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 9,271 Member
    Hi,

    I currently weigh 175 and height is 5,9 it says my daily calorie intake should be 2200 but I want to go on a calorie dificit cause I am not working out.

    1 Week passed, I been eating and noting 1200 - 1250 calories per day but I don't add it on myfitnesspal I use a different app on my phone so yeah I'm paying attention to my intake.

    I haven't loss or gained any pounds... what am I doing wrong?

    how did you get the figure 1200 - 1250 if you are 5ft 9 in tall?

    I think you should plug your stats into MFP and get a more realistic calorie goal - and then in turn stick to it more accurately - ie weigh and measure everything.

    If you have not made any progress after 1 month, post again and see if people can make suggestions for you.

    In order to make constructive suggestions, they will need to be able to see your diary though - which means you probably need to use the MFP app for recording.
  • TheVirgoddess
    TheVirgoddess Posts: 4,535 Member
    What a mess.

    You can say you're eating at a deficit, but if you're not weighing and logging ALL your food, you have no idea if you really are or not.

    1200 calories is NOT ENOUGH.

    Go here: http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/ - fill this out and be accurate.

    Take the number that that site gives you, take the TDEE (higher number) and multiply it by 20% (or .20 if you can't math). Then take the original TDEE and subtract that 20% from it - eat that many calories a day for a while. Say a month. You should see success IF you're logging accurately.
  • TheVirgoddess
    TheVirgoddess Posts: 4,535 Member
    Eating less makes you lose weight, but if you eat too little your body senses starvation/famine and will keep you "alive". You won't lose any fat, you'll keep everything you do eat, burn muscle to live (less muscle=less required energy).

    Please tell starving kids in Africa about how not eating enough will make their bodies hold onto fat.
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
    No I am not measuring liquids, Just eating normal foods but staying at 1200.

    Also I'm going to see after another week what happens but I thought i'd see something after 5 days.

    Why does the liquid even matter?

    Took me 5 weeks of consistent calorie tracking with a deficit of 600 calories per day before I saw the scale budge.
  • TheVirgoddess
    TheVirgoddess Posts: 4,535 Member
    I did it for you - try eating 1700 calories a day. You're welcome.
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  • ketoambahh
    ketoambahh Posts: 67
    I looked at your diary and it's all over the place. Your nutrients aren't consistent day to day like they should be. Sugar was a little high for a few days. Carbs were in a good range though. I suggest someone who's not doing low carb eat about 130-175 a day, so you're good in that department most days.

    Check your macros, drink a lot of fluids, and have more consistent food choices. If you want to eat more then just burn it off. You'll be all set to go after that.
  • jorda13456
    jorda13456 Posts: 62 Member
    I did it for you - try eating 1700 calories a day. You're welcome.

    Ok I will eat 1700 a day and thanks tons for doing the math for me :)

    As for everyone else, the problem is not that I can't workout it's really that I changed my mind on not wanting to and just focusing on a deficit instead but I'm not lazy and I ride my bike everyday + SOMETIMES do a 30 minute workout but I don't sense the feel when I could just eat less and focus on other stuff like learning.

    I will log everything on MFT just so I can give you guys accurate stuff and I will do it everyday as I always login everyday ,currently on a 17 day streak !

    Anyways thanks everyone for the information, if anyone has anything else to say please feel free to comment and I will keep it in mind.
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  • tony56pr
    tony56pr Posts: 141 Member
    Eating less makes you lose weight, but if you eat too little your body senses starvation/famine and will keep you "alive". You won't lose any fat, you'll keep everything you do eat, burn muscle to live (less muscle=less required energy).

    Completely false and an utter myth. Find one study that substantiaties this obviously flawed logic.

    For one thing muscle weighs more per calorie than fat so if you kept your fat and burned your muscle instead the result would be you would lose weight twice as fast not lose no weight.

    Here is one, but I'm not going to do your research for you, believe what you like. http://info-centre.jenage.de/assets/pdfs/library/fontana-JAMA-03_2007.pdf If you read this, it actually references several "study"(s).

    Best case is you do lose fat and muscle at same time, but you still lose muscle. The more restrictive, the more muscle lost and less fat (if you lose 50 pounds and 20% is muscle and rest is fat, then you lost 40 pounds of fat, however, if you lose 50 pounds and 50% was muscle, you only lost 25 pounds of fat! your body fat % actually would go UP in this case, therefore causing you to have "gained" fat) . And, muscle DOES not weigh more than fat, 1 pound of muscle is 1 pound of fat, now fat takes up MORE space, but fat is NOT an active tissue, it doesn't "burn" any calories, muscle, or more general muscle mass DOES burn calories.

    It does take 3500 calories to "Burn" one pound of fat, it takes NOTHING to burn a pound of muscle, it does however, COST you energy to maintain.

    Also to another poster, asking for me to tell those starving kids in Africa about all that fat, I ask you, where is all that muscle? If I'm so wrong, then why wouldn't they have muscles? Perhaps not huge, but defined muscles (men, women, kids, NO one starving has much muscle)? They don't because they ARE starving. And by the way, we aren't talking about "Starving kids in Africa" we are talking about a diet of someone wanting to lose a few pounds over a short period of time, not someone who has NEVER known too much food. Who never had a BUNCH of fat on their bodies to begin with let alone someone who can go off of diet anytime they like.
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  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
    And, muscle DOES not weigh more than fat, 1 pound of muscle is 1 pound of fat, now fat takes up MORE space,

    I never said 1 pound of muscle weighs more than 1 pound of fat do not attempt to strawman what I actually said.

    What I said, if you read my post, is that muscle weighs more per calorie than fat which is absolutely true.

    Muscle tissue is primarily protein which nets 4 calories per gram. If you had a deficit of 3500 calories and burned muscle tissue to recoup that you would need to burn 875g worth.

    If however you recouped that same deficit from adipose tissue the fat would yield 9 cal per gram so you would need to burn 389g.

    In one case you catabolize 875g of tissue while in the other case you catabolize 389g. What this means is that if you end up burning muscle in addition to fat or instead of fat you would lose more weight than if it had been from fat alone.

    Therefore the claim that going into a starvation mode, where your body burns muscle instead of fat, explains a lack of weight loss is clearly false.

    If you burned muscle instead of fat your weight loss would accelerate not slow and certainly not stop.