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Dudes eating below 2000 calories

13

Replies

  • mattxouk
    mattxouk Posts: 3
    edited February 2015
    REFEED

    have a very high carb day eating at maintenance once a week. If this doesnt work then you need to lower your calories.

    Look into refeed days, they are important when eating at a deficit for a long time eventually causing fat loss to stall if you dont do them. Everyone seems to skip these but they are important. They are basically designed to replenish leptin levels in the body.

    Google 'Refeed Days' for more info
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
    edited February 2015
    Don't make it more complicated than it needs to be.

    Cut cals by 10%, log as consistently and as accurately as you can for at least a month. Evaulate, being honest about your efforts/accuracy. Tweak as needed.
  • mattxouk
    mattxouk Posts: 3
    BFDeal wrote: »
    mattxouk wrote: »
    REFEED

    have a very high carb day eating at maintenance once a week. If this doesnt work then you need to lower your calories.

    Look into refeed days, they are important when eating at a deficit for a long time eventually causing fat loss to stall if you dont do them. Everyone seems to skip these but they are important.

    I've had this suggested. I'm still considering it but I've read in a few places that if you're overweight you have plenty of leptin already. I may still try the refeeds if I can't get things going otherwise.

    I had a similar problem in that I was stuck at 63kg for over 3 months. I did a refeed day just once and instantly the next week my weight dropped. These arent broscience and just because you are overweight doesnt mean you dont need them. If you have been at a deficit for an extended period of time then you will likely need it. It is just that if you have a low body fat you will need them more regularly.
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
    ^^ causation or correlation?
  • mattxouk
    mattxouk Posts: 3
    jacksonpt wrote: »
    ^^ causation or correlation?

    Here is a decent quick read for reading about re-feeds.

    http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=127293643

    For some people, if they are not losing weight they simply need to drop the calories. However, some people genuinely do need to re-feed when they stop losing weight.

    For me, the cause of my weight loss was because i incorporated a re-feed into my routine. Now that I have seen the benefit, I would never go back to not having re-feeds.
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
    edited February 2015
    I know what refeeds are... I just think it's really hard, considering all the variables involved in weight loss, to definitively tie an outcome directly to 1 singular change/event.
  • hamoncan
    hamoncan Posts: 148 Member
    edited February 2015
    6-2, 205, over 40, moderately active, mainly walking ~12,000 steps a day plus moderate home workouts / lifting - I'm set for 2200 cals per day and usually go a bit over, ocassionally way over a few times per month - initially when I stayed strictly on target I was losing 1+ lbs every week - I'm not as strict lately and am happy with a slower loss for now (at least till summer and I get more active) and I still lose about 0.5 lb a week on average

    One thing I'm convinced makes a big difference for me is that I've almost entirely cut out fast food and snack food and also try keep the sodium number down. That way @ 2200 calories I get 3 really solid meals and never feel I'm depriving myself. Even when I get otherwise sloppy or indulgent, so long as I'm not eating totally crappy food, I almost always surprise myself and still lose a bit of weight - I've seriously weighed in 10+ times sometimes because I'm having a hard time believing I still lost for the week.
  • chouflour
    chouflour Posts: 193 Member
    BFDeal wrote: »
    ruggedshutter wrote: »
    BFDeal wrote: »
    No. I pretty much just lift. I figured that was enough because that's pretty much what everyone says they do and that you don't need cardio. I guess maybe I need to look in to it.

    I would say that either your metabolism has adapted or your accuracy in measuring is the issue. I took a peak at your food diary and are you logging every single item that you eat?
    I didn't log this past weekend (actually I had some stuff in there but just removed it because most of it was guess) because I had a birthday thing Saturday and a Superbowl party Sunday. I basically just chalked it up to a couple spike days and moved on. Beyond that yes. I eat very simply mostly. Chicken and potatoes for lunch, cottage cheese and salsa for snacks, apples for snacks at home, the occasional Oreo or cereal or other "treat." If you see a wacky named entry it's probably a recipe I inputed. For recipe servings I make the weight of the final product the number of servings so I can just weigh out portions.

    EDIT: I make all my lunch meat servings in advance on Sunday. I weigh the entire amount of chicken and just divide that by five. I don't weigh each portion individually. Yes I rounded up the 5oz from 4.74575454 or something like that LOL. Monday was a weird day for other reasons. I didn't eat until dinner. Yes I had about 2200 calories in the span of about 1.5 hours. Bulkers and "I can't seem to eat that much" people take note.

    Just for the record - I'm totally jealous of this ability.
  • chouflour
    chouflour Posts: 193 Member
    BFDeal wrote: »
    So I've had trouble breaking below 225lbs. It just flat out doesn't seem to work. Last year, eating 2300 calories I went from mid 240 to 225. Then nothing. I didn't change one thing and the losses stopped. Same thing a few years ago when I went from 300ish to 225. Randomly stopped losing. For. No. Reason. So I'm trying again. 2100 calories I've decided, which basically feels like starving BTW.

    Did something change in your diet then? You seem to eat a lot of the same foods. Since food labels only have to be accurate to +/- 20%, there's a pretty big possible swing.
  • chouflour
    chouflour Posts: 193 Member
    BFDeal wrote: »
    chouflour wrote: »
    BFDeal wrote: »
    ruggedshutter wrote: »
    BFDeal wrote: »
    No. I pretty much just lift. I figured that was enough because that's pretty much what everyone says they do and that you don't need cardio. I guess maybe I need to look in to it.

    I would say that either your metabolism has adapted or your accuracy in measuring is the issue. I took a peak at your food diary and are you logging every single item that you eat?
    I didn't log this past weekend (actually I had some stuff in there but just removed it because most of it was guess) because I had a birthday thing Saturday and a Superbowl party Sunday. I basically just chalked it up to a couple spike days and moved on. Beyond that yes. I eat very simply mostly. Chicken and potatoes for lunch, cottage cheese and salsa for snacks, apples for snacks at home, the occasional Oreo or cereal or other "treat." If you see a wacky named entry it's probably a recipe I inputed. For recipe servings I make the weight of the final product the number of servings so I can just weigh out portions.

    EDIT: I make all my lunch meat servings in advance on Sunday. I weigh the entire amount of chicken and just divide that by five. I don't weigh each portion individually. Yes I rounded up the 5oz from 4.74575454 or something like that LOL. Monday was a weird day for other reasons. I didn't eat until dinner. Yes I had about 2200 calories in the span of about 1.5 hours. Bulkers and "I can't seem to eat that much" people take note.

    Just for the record - I'm totally jealous of this ability.

    Definitely a double edged sword. I'm one of those guys that seems to always be hungry. I eat frequently to make it manageable though. For me, bulking seems like it would fun not some task like it gets made out to be.

    I get that. You'd currently prefer my double-edged sword (I struggle to eat enough to maintain weight) and I'd prefer yours. But it seemed like a little sociable envy might be appreciated. ;)
  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
    BFDeal wrote: »
    Either way it relates to cals in being more than they should be compared to your cals out.

    Yeah I get the science explanation for it but I just don't understand why my calorie figure to do this is seemingly so much lower than even a tiny female. And why would 2300 work for, what, 20 weeks in a row, then stop on a dime the next week. Why wouldn't it gradually slow down? It was pretty much right under 1lb all those weeks then it stopped. That doesn't make sense.

    I'm guessing you are being impatient as hell and assuming that not seeing much or any change on the scale for a short time means you are not losing weight.

    So, drop cals or eat to maintenance for a month for a break and drop 20% again to see if the break does you good and gives you a new higher starting point to work from.
  • myfelinepal
    myfelinepal Posts: 13,000 Member
    6ft4 and I eat 2700 cals a day to lose about 1lb per week without exercise calories. I was down at 1950 at one point, but I found anything below 2300 is unsustainable for me and makes me hangry.

    Personally, I think at the beginning of weight loss you should drop your cals below where you need them for a week or so and then once your body is used to less food gradually increase your calories to a more reasonable deficit. But that is what's sustainable for me. A lot of pain in the beginning and then a gradual ease off so the rest is smooth sailing.

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