Daily Exercise + Under Daily Calories = No Weight Loss!

prettykitty1515 wrote: »

DanielNotDan wrote: »

prettykitty1515 wrote: »

You're on the wrong site. MFP is not for you. Despite all the mounting evidence in the last five years, 98% of the people here think 2000 calories of donuts = 2000 calories of veggies when it comes to weight loss. Let them believe it. You don't have to.

There is a slowly building wave in the medical and nutrition communities against refined sugar and junk carbs. And it will continue to get bigger and bigger.

Start with the book Pure, White and Deadly, by John Yudkin.

Thanks, Pretty.

I (almost completely) avoid refined sugars and junk carbs. No soda, no (well...very, very few "chips/crisps" — although I'll eat — and log — a serving or two of Garden of Eatin blue corn chips occasionally). Close to zero pasta or other noodles.

I know how evil that stuff is and am painfully aware and dubious of Big Food. (have you read, "Salt, Sugar, Fat"?http://www.amazon.com/Salt-Sugar-Fat-Giants-Hooked/dp/0812982193). Creepy. Makes my blood boil.

Thanks!

How did I miss that book? Thanks.

I buy it. OP's TDEE should be around 2400 + exercise. Even if he is grossly underestimating, there should still be some loss. I consumed fewer than 2000 calories per day with net calories even lower (about 1500 or so) this month and gained 11 pounds. Maybe OP should talk to a doctor to see if a low calorie diet (e.g. 1200 or so calories short term) is right for him if that's what it takes. It won't help him in the long run, but it would be a start if the tried and true MFP lifestyle is failing him.

I know they say you can't use hunger as a guide, but "just under satisfied" for me would mean a very slow rate of weight loss. I have to experience some hunger for the scales to move. And with all that exercise do you feel like there might be some body recomposition going on?

DanielNotDan -

I can relate. That's for sure. You need easy. Try this first.
Take everything you know and just apply these three things for two weeks and see what happens:

1) Drink tons of water. Increase to at least 1 gal. per day. There is a reason this is a foundation in EVERY eating plan I've ever read. Easy to do, and it works. Cools off your body and causes you to have to expend energy to heat up. Vital to all body functions. Deals with retention problems. Aids in digestion. Only drawback is I have to go to the bathroom more often (at first anyway).

2) Weigh your proteins. Don't freak out about the other macros so much. Here's why: You probably don't use enough oil to warrant weighing that. Use a tsp measurement. Stick with eyeballing your veggies, but log those in. It's pretty easy. Prep your proteins ahead of time. Cook chicken, beef, pork, whatever, all your main proteins on the weekends. Weigh them on a scale and cut them into 1oz cuts. You'll be able to do this pretty quickly. Then set them in baggies for each day or meal. You can't eat any proteins that you don't make at home (except HB Eggs).

3) Get a Heart Rate Monitor and get a more accurate estimate of your calorie output. You may find that you're not burning as much as the pre-loaded estimates say. You say you're pretty athletic. That may mean that you're not getting the VO2 exchange that the models are based on. You may not be able to measure...but your workouts may not be producing the work you think you are. That doesn't mean you're not working hard. Get a HRM and make sure you are. I'd even measure your HR for a few 24 hr cycles and recalculate your TDEE. Then, reset your intake (correctly measured) to get a deficit against that (not some BRM number that you got from a generic computer model).

RNGRZulu wrote: »

Get a HRM and make sure you are. I'd even measure your HR for a few 24 hr cycles and recalculate your TDEE.

This is TERRIBLE advice.

HRMs are not designed to give anything resembling accurate numbers for that purpose. You WILL end up with a huge over-estimate.

DanielNotDan wrote: »

goldthistime wrote: »

...with all that exercise do you feel like there might be some body recomposition going on?

I'm 100% certain my composition has changed, so yes. But I'd forego that (i.e., I WILL forgo that) to be lighter. I'm eating too damn much, that MUST be it.

Thanks for your input!

Those darn scales! Think about what you just said. You would rather weigh less than have put on muscle and lost fat but stayed the same weight? Meaning you wish you hadn't put on muscle? You should be delighted you have put on muscle!

Those scales have messed with my head too. To the point that I have abandoned my efforts in frustration at times. Walked away from it all. And promptly got a little fatter.

If you are 100% certain that you have put on muscle and lost fat, I would say to stay the course. Or at the very least, make only tiny changes. But I'm biased perhaps. My motto is "Learning to lose weight s-l-o-w-l-y". Because I want it gone f-o-r-e-v-e-r.

fallencherubim wrote: »

Hi, the same problem has happened to me too a few months back, I was tracking all my food intake but still gaining weight. Now I may not be as informed as all of you, but just recently I went back to the gym and it's being 3 weeks now and I've lost 8 pounds. I'm a biology student and recently we touched this topic in class, when eating certain kinds of foods we need to not only check the calories it has, but also the percent of Fat. We need calories to have energy during the day but consuming food with a lot of fat will make your body store it as Fat and burning Fat while burning calories is hard!! Plus eating a lot of sugar gives you energy and then the rest transforms into fat. Keeping this in mind has helped me tremendously, I try to eat the calories that I need daily but ones with fewer fats. I know not everybody is the same, but just wanted to share my experience.

I'm not sure that you understood that correctly, or maybe it was just touched on too briefly. Dietary fat does not make it harder for you to lose weight or burn fat.