Too few calories over a period of years
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poejegg
Posts: 26 Member
Hello!
I've recently begun a lifestyle change which I need in my life. I started a month ago at about 186lb (13.3 stone) and I am now down to 177lb (12.6 stone). Although the 1200 diet and exercise has been a major contributor I'm sure, I am now plateauing again.
The thing is, 1200 has been easy. I've been trying 1800 this last week creating an approximate 500 calorie deficit. I'm actually finding it to be a massive struggle to eat that many calories! I've also massively increased my water intake. Before I pretty much never drank any water or anything else (so little in fact that I never went to the toilet just to take a leak) and as of yesterday I'm drinking 3 litres a day.
I am 27% body fat, 5'8", male and 12.6 stone.
Is it possible that for as long as I can remember I've actually been eating and drinking far too little (albeit all the wrong things) and that that is the reason I have so much fat on my belly and torso? Eating 1800 calories feels so unnatural. It's so much food!
Should I stick to the 1200 calorie diet (1100 calorie deficit), try 1800 for a couple more weeks, or take my entire 2300 calorie allowance with no deficit but only eating healthy choices and continue to exercise three times a week?
I've recently begun a lifestyle change which I need in my life. I started a month ago at about 186lb (13.3 stone) and I am now down to 177lb (12.6 stone). Although the 1200 diet and exercise has been a major contributor I'm sure, I am now plateauing again.
The thing is, 1200 has been easy. I've been trying 1800 this last week creating an approximate 500 calorie deficit. I'm actually finding it to be a massive struggle to eat that many calories! I've also massively increased my water intake. Before I pretty much never drank any water or anything else (so little in fact that I never went to the toilet just to take a leak) and as of yesterday I'm drinking 3 litres a day.
I am 27% body fat, 5'8", male and 12.6 stone.
Is it possible that for as long as I can remember I've actually been eating and drinking far too little (albeit all the wrong things) and that that is the reason I have so much fat on my belly and torso? Eating 1800 calories feels so unnatural. It's so much food!
Should I stick to the 1200 calorie diet (1100 calorie deficit), try 1800 for a couple more weeks, or take my entire 2300 calorie allowance with no deficit but only eating healthy choices and continue to exercise three times a week?
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Replies
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No way in hell am I going to recommend a male to eat at 1200 calories! It's a minimum of 1500 net calories for males... for a very important reason.
Eat 1800. Eat sweet treats - do you seriously want to sacrifice your health for losing weight?
Plateau questions;- Are you weighing your foods with an electric food scale?
- Are you weighing foods accurately? i.e. using grams instead of cups
- How are yo obtaining your calorie burns? MFP, HRM or machines?
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No, it's not possible. You did not gain weight by eating and drinking far too little. 1200 is too low for a male. Eat 1800. If you aren't weighing everything on a food scale, you're probably eating more than you think.0
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Theres no way you have been eating 1200 calories and maintaining a weight of 186 / BF of 27%.
It sounds like there is some significant underestimation of calories happening.
Do you have a food scale? If you don't, I recommend getting one and starting to use it to see what your actual calorie consumption is.
If you can open your journal it would help in trying to understand whats going on so that you can get a proper answer to your question.0 -
Eat more.
Do some resistance training.
Do not fear gaining weight in the context of a long term plan to improve body composition rather than drop weight.0 -
Thanks for the incredibly fast responses! My dinners and breakfasts are weighed at home. Lunch is often from the canteen but since I began has always been salad, no meat, occasionally an egg. Breakfast is always a banana. Dinners have been weighed on a scale, under 400 calories and made at home from bbc good food super healthy meals. Snacks are typically a banana or on occasion a flapjack.
Resistance training - yes! I enjoy this. I do 20 minutes running at intervals and then move on to 3-5 sets of 10 on cheat press, bicep curl and crunches.
Jaga, I think alcohol and bad foods (pizzas etc) may have been a problem rather than quantity. 1800 is struggle to eat that much and I dobt diet often. What do you think?0 -
Thanks for the incredibly fast responses! My dinners and breakfasts are weighed at home. Lunch is often from the canteen but since I began has always been salad, no meat, occasionally an egg. Breakfast is always a banana. Dinners have been weighed on a scale, under 400 calories and made at home from bbc good food super healthy meals. Snacks are typically a banana or on occasion a flapjack.
Resistance training - yes! I enjoy this. I do 20 minutes running at intervals and then move on to 3-5 sets of 10 on cheat press, bicep curl and crunches.
Jaga, I think alcohol and bad foods (pizzas etc) may have been a problem rather than quantity. 1800 is struggle to eat that much and I dobt diet often. What do you think?
1800 is seriously not hard...
As I said, eat sweet treats, nuts, a pizza will easily wipe out 900-1100 of your calories.0 -
Thanks Isaack
In answer to your plateau questions -
I use a mechanical scale and measure in grams.
Calorie burns I let the machine tell me, and also input my figures from Google Fit - I cycle in and out of work every day as well as a lot of general walking, albeit at a leisurely pace. I don't include any calorie burns from resistance training as I don't know how to figure this out.
I don't want to sacrifice my health to lose weight that's for sure! Unfortunately when I started out I received bad advice elsewhere online. Even MFP calculates for 1500 calories before exercise. Now I'm eating 1800, and I'm sure I'll get used to it, but the reason for my question is because I'm so happy with my loss so far I'd be devastated if I put it back on because I went to 1800 without asking more experienced folks like yourselves first.
I understand the pizza would be a good bet for wiping out a lot of the calories for me, but it's not a particularly nutritious meal.0 -
IsaackGMOON wrote: »No way in hell am I going to recommend a male to eat at 1200 calories! It's a minimum of 1500 net calories for males... for a very important reason.
Eat 1800. Eat sweet treats - do you seriously want to sacrifice your health for losing weight?
Plateau questions;- Are you weighing your foods with an electric food scale?
- Are you weighing foods accurately? i.e. using grams instead of cups
- How are yo obtaining your calorie burns? MFP, HRM or machines?
I did.
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Thanks Isaack In answer to your plateau questions -
I use a mechanical scale and measure in grams.
Calorie burns I let the machine tell me, and also input my figures from Google Fit - I cycle in and out of work every day as well as a lot of general walking, albeit at a leisurely pace. I don't include any calorie burns from resistance training as I don't know how to figure this out.
I don't want to sacrifice my health to lose weight that's for sure! Unfortunately when I started out I received bad advice elsewhere online. Even MFP calculates for 1500 calories before exercise. Now I'm eating 1800, and I'm sure I'll get used to it, but the reason for my question is because I'm so happy with my loss so far I'd be devastated if I put it back on because I went to 1800 without asking more experienced folks like yourselves first.- Get an electric scale
- Stop using machines. Invest in a HRM or use MFP and eat back 50-75% of your exercise calories.
- You can't figure out calorie burns from weight training; don't bother trying to find it out.
You may gain some water weight because you've been eating so low calories, don't get that put you off... as you said, you don't want to sacrifice your health for weight loss.0 -
Isaack, loads of great advice. Thankyou. I have an HRM that came with my Garmin, so I'll start getting my cardio that way again and make use of the HRM. 50-75% of my exercise calories is a good idea. MFP seems to encourage me to eat all of them, but that seemed counterproductive.
I'll get myself an electric scale. Might give the pizza a miss though, pizzas are a slippery slope as far as my motivation to get and stay healthy are concerned!0 -
Isaack, loads of great advice. Thankyou. I have an HRM that came with my Garmin, so I'll start getting my cardio that way again and make use of the HRM. 50-75% of my exercise calories is a good idea. MFP seems to encourage me to eat all of them, but that seemed counterproductive.
I'll get myself an electric scale. Might give the pizza a miss though, pizzas are a slippery slope as far as my motivation to get and stay healthy are concerned!
You never want to eat all the calorie burns anyway because they are never 100% accurate and you may end up overeating your calorie goal. I usually aim for 50% myself.
And if you're struggling to reach your calorie goal, eat calorie dense foods like nuts and nut butters, avocados, meats and fish, and cook with oils like olive and coconut. My goal is 1700 and I am always able to reach it by the end of the day, I would struggle with 1200 calories.0 -
OP - Can you open your diary so we can see how you've been logging? Weight management is about calorie control, so before one can make any recommendations (beyond 1200c being far too low for the average male), we would need to see what/how much you are eating.0
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Yes, but I need to figure out how.0
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Yep got it diary is now public. I've only been logging for 10 days, and I've been mucking about with the settings regarding how much I want to lose and how fast etc! Hopefully it all makes sense. This is the first time in my life I've laid my eating habits bare so please be nice!
Weekend wasn't filled in, but I didn't go mental. I had a few gin and slimlines with my friends, and a few intoxicants which don't carry any calories if you take my meaning. I took some spicy cajun chicken quinoa with me for lunches and dinners, although I can admit to having a few 'Dirty Dirty Fries' (very very bad) from my buddies plate on Sunday afternoon!
Also worth pointing out, I've been watching what I eat for a little while longer than I've been using MFP, however I've been doing much better at it since using the app.0 -
As you can see I'm currently looking at 1500+exercise calories. I've had the flapjack to get me closer to target.0
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Yep got it diary is now public. I've only been logging for 10 days, and I've been mucking about with the settings regarding how much I want to lose and how fast etc! Hopefully it all makes sense. This is the first time in my life I've laid my eating habits bare so please be nice!
Weekend wasn't filled in, but I didn't go mental. I had a few gin and slimlines with my friends, and a few intoxicants which don't carry any calories if you take my meaning. I took some spicy cajun chicken quinoa with me for lunches and dinners, although I can admit to having a few 'Dirty Dirty Fries' (very very bad) from my buddies plate on Sunday afternoon!
Also worth pointing out, I've been watching what I eat for a little while longer than I've been using MFP, however I've been doing much better at it since using the app.
For me I rather have you learn from your mistakes than poke fun about what/how you eat.
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Hello!
I've recently begun a lifestyle change which I need in my life. I started a month ago at about 186lb (13.3 stone) and I am now down to 177lb (12.6 stone). Although the 1200 diet and exercise has been a major contributor I'm sure, I am now plateauing again.
The thing is, 1200 has been easy. I've been trying 1800 this last week creating an approximate 500 calorie deficit. I'm actually finding it to be a massive struggle to eat that many calories! I've also massively increased my water intake. Before I pretty much never drank any water or anything else (so little in fact that I never went to the toilet just to take a leak) and as of yesterday I'm drinking 3 litres a day.
I am 27% body fat, 5'8", male and 12.6 stone.
Is it possible that for as long as I can remember I've actually been eating and drinking far too little (albeit all the wrong things) and that that is the reason I have so much fat on my belly and torso? Eating 1800 calories feels so unnatural. It's so much food!
Should I stick to the 1200 calorie diet (1100 calorie deficit), try 1800 for a couple more weeks, or take my entire 2300 calorie allowance with no deficit but only eating healthy choices and continue to exercise three times a week?
You've lost 9 lbs in the last month!!! How do you figure you're doing anything wrong? Stalls take around 4-6 weeks to determine and you've lost weight in the last 4.
On top of that, you're 5'8" and only 177lbs? You don't have much to lose so I would shoot for a 250 cal deficit.
You seem to be in this mind frame that you need to lose all this weight now now now and that will cause you even more problems in the long run. You're trying to lose too fast. Be patient, it'll come off.0 -
Thanks yopeeps. The missing dinners aren't falling off the wagon, they're generally salads I've had prepared when I've been at a mates house or where I've forgotten to log a meal. However all the meals in my little book are 500 calories or less. I'm trying to fill in the gaps.0
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