Calorie deficit too much

thintribe2014 · August 2015

First time poster..although been lurking around
I have spent time reading content in the community before posting...
Moi..Male. late forties, 6'4 tall 200 Lbs and 15% BF measured with callipers..possibly inaccurate but i use that as a gauge Vs what my actual BF is...(it looks about right compared to pics of similar

BMR is somewhere between 1950 and 2400 (using various calcs) irrelevant i know and my recommended cals to maintain weight is 2900 - 3400 based on my profile and workouts...5 days splits with IT..

I am pretty fastidious and weigh all nutrition..."anal i know"...but its the only way for me to workout what's not working...and make subtle changes and measure impact and result.

Finally my questions is this...im staying neutral regarding weight, BF and measurements..for 12 weeks.. my daily cals are 2200 -2300 and im struggling to consume more..im stuffed (happy problem)

Nutrition is all whole foods, clean and lean... 200g P, 90g F and the rest carbs no cheat days a blah blah...

I kinda know i should be consuming more but im struggling to... but nothing is changing..so something must change...target is lower BF..Do i force myself to consume for cals to get to the 500 Daily deficit or stick with it ...of course it will eventually melt away...

Anyone have any past experience..maybe its age....

IsaackGMOON · August 2015

First off, 'clean eating' has no effect on weight loss at all. When you consume food, your body sees macronutrients and micronutrients. That's it.

I think you're over-complicating things here. Just plug your details into MFP and set it for 1-1.5lb loss per week. Eat at the amount of calories given by MFP, and then eat 50-75% of exercise calories burnt from cardiovascular exercise. It's really not that hard.

Also, you need to make sure you're logging accurately. That means you use an electric food scale, weigh solids in grams or ounces. No eyeballing or using cups as measurements.

whiteblossom14 · August 2015

IsaackGMOON wrote: »

First off, 'clean eating' has no effect on weight loss at all. When you consume food, your body sees macronutrients and micronutrients. That's it.

I think you're over-complicating things here. Just plug your details into MFP and set it for 1-1.5lb loss per week. Eat at the amount of calories given by MFP, and then eat 50-75% of exercise calories burnt from cardiovascular exercise. It's really not that hard.

Also, you need to make sure you're logging accurately. That means you use an electric food scale, weigh solids in grams or ounces. No eyeballing or using cups as measurements.

Well said

Francl27 · August 2015

IsaackGMOON wrote: »

First off, 'clean eating' has no effect on weight loss at all. When you consume food, your body sees macronutrients and micronutrients. That's it.

I think you're over-complicating things here. Just plug your details into MFP and set it for 1-1.5lb loss per week. Eat at the amount of calories given by MFP, and then eat 50-75% of exercise calories burnt from cardiovascular exercise. It's really not that hard.

Also, you need to make sure you're logging accurately. That means you use an electric food scale, weigh solids in grams or ounces. No eyeballing or using cups as measurements.

+1

allyphoe · August 2015

Wait, what's your goal in terms of weight gain or loss? You've basically demonstrated that maintenance for you is 2200-2300 calories as you count them, because you've had no change in weight over 12 weeks eating at that level. So no need to find a tool to estimate maintenance; you know it as well as you're ever likely to.

If you eat significantly more than maintenance, over time, you'll gain weight. If you eat significantly less than maintenance, over time, you'll lose weight.

If you're trying to gain weight, eat more calorically dense foods. More nuts / cheese / avocado / olive oil / what have you. Or potato chips and ice cream, if that makes it easier to hit your goals.

Marcus_2015 · August 2015

Another late 40's male here... quite frankly, the MFP calorie calculation could be wrong. If you are stuffed, stop eating.

My requirements are MUCH lower because of my age and also because my job is sedentary.

If you are not losing weight following MFP, you need to back it down. Follow your body, though...

R

thintribe2014 · August 2015

first off thanks all for the prompt comments...

@IsaackGMOON as per my original post "i weigh everything i consume" with electronic scales infact i have two scales so as not to rely on a single point of failure if they are incorrect... i am fastidious as i can be...and i am very minduful and aware that macros are macros. The only rationale for mentioning "clean" was to indicate the general type of nutrition as this might provide some insight as to why i feel satiated (Stuffed).

@allyphoe Target is mentioned in last paragraph.."i should have made it more clear, my fault" its lower BF... and as you say if there has been no change then this is of course my Maint now...

@Rhyalus Thanks that's what i had assumed as common sense..if the body is saying enough then listen to it.

All thanks for the time and input...

allyphoe · August 2015

I understand that your end target is lower body fat. But how are you right this moment attempting to get there? By losing weight? Or by gaining muscle? Because one requires a deficit and the other a

allyphoe · August 2015

The other a surplus. Stupid phone posting.

Hornsby · August 2015

allyphoe wrote: »

The other a surplus. Stupid phone posting.

Or just eat at maintenance and lift your *kitten* off.

longtimeterp · August 2015

you could look into intermittent fasting or carb/calorie cycling, as when getting towards lower BF%, more consideration to nutritional strategies can have an effect...but the only surefire way to lose fat is to eat in a deficit.

thintribe2014 · August 2015

@allyphoe currently consuming a deficit to reduce the body fat although I maintain a lifting regime but I'm not attempting to add muscle mass. @Hornsby "yeah I like that" @longtimeterp I have tried it and it seemed to work very well. For 3 consecutive days I consumed 50% of the usual carbohydrates. I was 500 cal below my deficit during this period... This put me even further below. On the 4th day I would re-feed adding 50%. So that was 50% above normal. An overall reduction. But I could not maintain this and on 2 days over the course of trying this approach binged (I like to refer to these as cheat days... They were actually not and I don't do cheap days) anyway. Since April of this year of lost currently 17 lbs

this is my starting point believe I was above 22% body fat measured with calipers although I appreciate these are not accurate.

current and I'm tense as hell just say. 15% body fat using the same points and the same calipers
the profile pic is my current weight but taken in lucky lighting and I'm so tensed up I nearly gave myself a hernia.

KittensMaster · August 2015

The MFP calorie settings are off over 40 IMO

To drop more body fat will probably require some endurance type training.

What helped me get the fat burn going again was fasted long term cardio

I chose cycling as my method.

I have been getting 100-120 miles per week in, typically at least 4 hours from a meal.

It does help burn off fat and I am a lower carb eating person so glycogen stores stay low.

You can google endurance training mitochondria to check out a few medical papers and research papers. It is not anything new. It just isn't easy and many people won't stick with it.

It does work.

I will be hitting the road this morning for 25 at a decent pace and burn off 1200 calories or so.

I'm fairly well fat as fuel adapted so it will hit the fat stores a bit.

Good luck with it.

thintribe2014 · September 2015

Thank you. I had read much that HIIT was more effective than endurance for fat loss.. Maybe I took a skewed view because that sounds too much hard work.. I will definitely investigate. Thank you

Clarewho · September 2015

First off - you've made great progress well done. You have demonstrated your true maintenance fig is 2200-2300/day. You're happy with weight but not bf %. So this seems a recomp situation. You need a slight deficit as you want to lose fat not lbm. You're stuffed so you could probably consume around 200/250 less cals a day and feel sated? Along with very accurate logging, enough protein and lifting you should gradually reduce bf. But it's a slow process, I think. Good luck!

thintribe2014 · September 2015

"I think" too...I've created a solid foundation and common sense would now indicate a slight reduction in cals with constant accurate measuring the way forward...but as per the original question raised ...if I did reduce my cals slightly this would but me on my supposed BMR... As I understand it that's a plan to fail. So I do this or maintain current nutrition and ruin myself at the gym ...lift heavey etc.
I just need to "go do" be consistent and see where I am every two weeks.

Thanks everyone for all the I put and comments ..I've got all the advice..I will go and act now

Calorie deficit too much

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