What am I doing wrong?!?
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stevencloser wrote: »stevencloser wrote: »Well, 2 things.
You're eating a 250 kcal deficit to lose 0.5 pounds per week if I see that right. That's a very small deficit and easy to accidentally overshoot accidentally. That could be it.
On the other hand, even if you're consistently hitting your deficit properly, you could be retaining water weight. That stuff can make your weight fluctuate a lot and hide you actually losing weight, something like 5 pounds difference from one day to the other isn't unheard of.
I'd understand overshooting maybe once a week. And I'll concede to that because hey, accidents happen. On the other hand, I WEIGH everything I eat. I drink nothing with calories (except creamer which is weighed and added into logging). My meals are planned out Sunday's and proportioned evenly across the board. One day I felt I was low on sugar so I ate a quest bar. I adjusted my dinner to fit. But, that's once I did that. Other wise I haven't had a single snack that hasn't been accounted for.
Another possibility is that your daily burn is lower than you think, but that's not too likely either at the low calories you're already eating. And you're also only eating back half the exercise calories which is good.
I'm curious what your thoughts are on calories. Do you feel like they're all created equal? Do you feel a calorie in pizza would be the same as a calorie in say a garden salad. Silly question yes. But, the reason I ask is because when I'm eating back my calories I'm eating fresh veggies or spinach salads. I'm trying to keep the freshest, organic foods in my body.
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Am I wrong to think I might be allowing myself too few calories? Is that possible? I've thought about that, but... Starvation mode will only last so long before weight does start dropping (if that's the case, and no I don't want my body to be in starvation mode of any kind.) I've battled with anorexia my entire teen/early adult life and that's not what I want. But, is it possible? My lifestyle is set to sedentary because I have an office job that I don't move around a lot throughout that portion of the day. I don't want my efforts to be counter productive.
Starvation mode doesn't exist. Unfortunately, metabolic adaptation may have occurred at some point, if you have a history of not eating. That being said, your BMR, therefore TDEE maybe lower than you think it is and with that low of a deficit your logging will have to be spot on.0 -
Create a bigger deficit. Add a daily run to your exercise routine. Don't eat back the calories.0
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A calorie is a unit of energy. For the purposes of energy, they are all the same. For satiety, hypertrophy, whatever, not so much.stevencloser wrote: »stevencloser wrote: »Well, 2 things.
You're eating a 250 kcal deficit to lose 0.5 pounds per week if I see that right. That's a very small deficit and easy to accidentally overshoot accidentally. That could be it.
On the other hand, even if you're consistently hitting your deficit properly, you could be retaining water weight. That stuff can make your weight fluctuate a lot and hide you actually losing weight, something like 5 pounds difference from one day to the other isn't unheard of.
I'd understand overshooting maybe once a week. And I'll concede to that because hey, accidents happen. On the other hand, I WEIGH everything I eat. I drink nothing with calories (except creamer which is weighed and added into logging). My meals are planned out Sunday's and proportioned evenly across the board. One day I felt I was low on sugar so I ate a quest bar. I adjusted my dinner to fit. But, that's once I did that. Other wise I haven't had a single snack that hasn't been accounted for.
Another possibility is that your daily burn is lower than you think, but that's not too likely either at the low calories you're already eating. And you're also only eating back half the exercise calories which is good.
I'm curious what your thoughts are on calories. Do you feel like they're all created equal? Do you feel a calorie in pizza would be the same as a calorie in say a garden salad. Silly question yes. But, the reason I ask is because when I'm eating back my calories I'm eating fresh veggies or spinach salads. I'm trying to keep the freshest, organic foods in my body.
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PinkPixiexox wrote: »Muscleflex79 wrote: »how much are you wanting to lose?? as others have said, you are already in a healthy weight range and, if anything, should focus on recomp.
See the bolded.
Your goal is it be stronger, leaner and overall less body fat - your scales aren't going to show you that kind of progress. I know someone who weighs about 15 lbs more than me but she is in better shape than me because she is 140 lbs of lean muscle. When I was 140 lbs, I looked NOTHING like that.
Ditto you should recomp at this point. It's a slow process--on days you don't lift heavy, you eat a couple hundred calories less (by WEIGHING, not measuring your food) than your TDEE, and on days you do lift, you eat a couple hundred calories more than your TDEE. So you lose a little fat on off days, start to build muscle on weight days.
Be sure to get enough protein, because if you don't have enough, you can't make new muscle.
Throw out your scale. The "kickass" body you want is going to weigh more than the body you have now, and you'll just make yourself crazy watching your weight go up.
Here's a pic from a fitness blog of a woman who did a recomp. On the left, at her goal weight. On the right, after a recomp. Note that she is heavier but looks better and smaller on the right.
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PinkPixiexox wrote: »stevencloser wrote: »Mariothegr66t wrote: »Well I think your issue is that with your weight training you need to up the weight and intensity and you body has gone into starvation mode one day a week you need to increase your calories to 2500 per day have a slice and a beer and another day you should increase your total by 500 to trick your body to start burning fat. You are definitely in starvation mode
You can't definitely be in a mode that doesn't exist.
That's my thoughts. I was an anorexic. I struggled for a lot of years with it. I'm not going to give tips on how to lose an extreme amount of weight in a short time. But I will say when I was at the peak I NEVER struggled to lose weight when I was actually physically starving. It's a bad bad thing. Under eating will always result in loss.
A loss that isn't limited to weight. You will also lose your hair, your skin quality, your health and your sanity.
Glad to hear you've recovered - stay strong.
Thank you! It's been a hard fought battle. And I will admit Doing things the healthy way is not always easy. And it's hard to get over that mindset that the number on the scale doesn't actually matter (probably the reason I still worry about the scale at all)
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stevencloser wrote: »stevencloser wrote: »Well, 2 things.
You're eating a 250 kcal deficit to lose 0.5 pounds per week if I see that right. That's a very small deficit and easy to accidentally overshoot accidentally. That could be it.
On the other hand, even if you're consistently hitting your deficit properly, you could be retaining water weight. That stuff can make your weight fluctuate a lot and hide you actually losing weight, something like 5 pounds difference from one day to the other isn't unheard of.
I'd understand overshooting maybe once a week. And I'll concede to that because hey, accidents happen. On the other hand, I WEIGH everything I eat. I drink nothing with calories (except creamer which is weighed and added into logging). My meals are planned out Sunday's and proportioned evenly across the board. One day I felt I was low on sugar so I ate a quest bar. I adjusted my dinner to fit. But, that's once I did that. Other wise I haven't had a single snack that hasn't been accounted for.
Another possibility is that your daily burn is lower than you think, but that's not too likely either at the low calories you're already eating. And you're also only eating back half the exercise calories which is good.
I'm curious what your thoughts are on calories. Do you feel like they're all created equal? Do you feel a calorie in pizza would be the same as a calorie in say a garden salad. Silly question yes. But, the reason I ask is because when I'm eating back my calories I'm eating fresh veggies or spinach salads. I'm trying to keep the freshest, organic foods in my body.
Once your body has taken apart the food into its components, glucose, fatty acids, amino acids and so on, it's all the same to your body, glucose from a piece of fruit or from a pie, protein from a shake or from fresh meat, your body can't tell the difference.
There can be some differences in how fast some foods get digested, how much your body burns to digest them or how much is actually available for use, but those differences are so small you don't really have to think about them.
For your problem, maybe you could try lowering calories a little bit more, only another 100 or so, not too much, and see what's happening over the next month.0 -
So the scale is only one number and clearly you mention you are seeing changes. It sounds like you are adding muscle. You should start tracking your body fat and see what that does. However at your height and weight it sounds like you are not overweight. So these last pounds are not going to melt off and if you are truly working out hard you are most likely gaining muscle. Remember muscle weights more than fat also. I will tell you I don't eat back my calories daily and I think that can really catch people.. I set my overall calorie intake by knowing I lift 4-6 hours a week and just keep it flat. It has worked really well for me. Do you break out your macros?0
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CasperNaegle wrote: »So the scale is only one number and clearly you mention you are seeing changes. It sounds like you are adding muscle. You should start tracking your body fat and see what that does. However at your height and weight it sounds like you are not overweight. So these last pounds are not going to melt off and if you are truly working out hard you are most likely gaining muscle. Remember muscle weights more than fat also. I will tell you I don't eat back my calories daily and I think that can really catch people.. I set my overall calorie intake by knowing I lift 4-6 hours a week and just keep it flat. It has worked really well for me. Do you break out your macros?
My macros have been broken out yes. Id have to look at them and see as I don't remember exactly how they've been broken up.
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PinkPixiexox wrote: »Muscleflex79 wrote: »how much are you wanting to lose?? as others have said, you are already in a healthy weight range and, if anything, should focus on recomp.
See the bolded.
Your goal is it be stronger, leaner and overall less body fat - your scales aren't going to show you that kind of progress. I know someone who weighs about 15 lbs more than me but she is in better shape than me because she is 140 lbs of lean muscle. When I was 140 lbs, I looked NOTHING like that.
Ditto you should recomp at this point. It's a slow process--on days you don't lift heavy, you eat a couple hundred calories less (by WEIGHING, not measuring your food) than your TDEE, and on days you do lift, you eat a couple hundred calories more than your TDEE. So you lose a little fat on off days, start to build muscle on weight days.
Be sure to get enough protein, because if you don't have enough, you can't make new muscle.
Throw out your scale. The "kickass" body you want is going to weigh more than the body you have now, and you'll just make yourself crazy watching your weight go up.
Here's a pic from a fitness blog of a woman who did a recomp. On the left, at her goal weight. On the right, after a recomp. Note that she is heavier but looks better and smaller on the right.
How often should I be heavy lifting? And, should I still be doing yoga and cardio with it?
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PinkPixiexox wrote: »Muscleflex79 wrote: »how much are you wanting to lose?? as others have said, you are already in a healthy weight range and, if anything, should focus on recomp.
See the bolded.
Your goal is it be stronger, leaner and overall less body fat - your scales aren't going to show you that kind of progress. I know someone who weighs about 15 lbs more than me but she is in better shape than me because she is 140 lbs of lean muscle. When I was 140 lbs, I looked NOTHING like that.
Ditto you should recomp at this point. It's a slow process--on days you don't lift heavy, you eat a couple hundred calories less (by WEIGHING, not measuring your food) than your TDEE, and on days you do lift, you eat a couple hundred calories more than your TDEE. So you lose a little fat on off days, start to build muscle on weight days.
Be sure to get enough protein, because if you don't have enough, you can't make new muscle.
Throw out your scale. The "kickass" body you want is going to weigh more than the body you have now, and you'll just make yourself crazy watching your weight go up.
Here's a pic from a fitness blog of a woman who did a recomp. On the left, at her goal weight. On the right, after a recomp. Note that she is heavier but looks better and smaller on the right.
How often should I be heavy lifting? And, should I still be doing yoga and cardio with it?
Depends on the program you're doing. Most programs for beginner lifters are 3 times a week every other day. But there's also programs where you go 4-5 or even 6 times. Those are usually not for beginners though.
And yeah, you can still do yoga and cardio. Probably best on the days you don't lift.0 -
stevencloser wrote: »PinkPixiexox wrote: »Muscleflex79 wrote: »how much are you wanting to lose?? as others have said, you are already in a healthy weight range and, if anything, should focus on recomp.
See the bolded.
Your goal is it be stronger, leaner and overall less body fat - your scales aren't going to show you that kind of progress. I know someone who weighs about 15 lbs more than me but she is in better shape than me because she is 140 lbs of lean muscle. When I was 140 lbs, I looked NOTHING like that.
Ditto you should recomp at this point. It's a slow process--on days you don't lift heavy, you eat a couple hundred calories less (by WEIGHING, not measuring your food) than your TDEE, and on days you do lift, you eat a couple hundred calories more than your TDEE. So you lose a little fat on off days, start to build muscle on weight days.
Be sure to get enough protein, because if you don't have enough, you can't make new muscle.
Throw out your scale. The "kickass" body you want is going to weigh more than the body you have now, and you'll just make yourself crazy watching your weight go up.
Here's a pic from a fitness blog of a woman who did a recomp. On the left, at her goal weight. On the right, after a recomp. Note that she is heavier but looks better and smaller on the right.
How often should I be heavy lifting? And, should I still be doing yoga and cardio with it?
Depends on the program you're doing. Most programs for beginner lifters are 3 times a week every other day. But there's also programs where you go 4-5 or even 6 times. Those are usually not for beginners though.
And yeah, you can still do yoga and cardio. Probably best on the days you don't lift.
Also, with recomp do I eat at maintenance goal?
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I can tell you the mistakes I made my first two weeks on MFP.
With only 10-12 lbs vanity lbs to lose I set my weight loss goal at 1 1/2 lbs a week which gave me a daily calorie of 1200, which I stuck to religiously for first 2 weeks. I lost 2 lbs the first week and then gained back the 2 lbs the second week. And yes, i weighed everything I ate (obsessively) and worked out 5-6 times a week.
It was pointed out to me by a very knowledgeable lady on these forums that I was under eating. So I took her advice and changed my weight loss goal to 1/2 lb a week, which put my daily calorie goal at 1430. She also told me to log my exercise burn everyday and eat back 1/2 of the calories.
I took her advice even though that means most days I am eating as much as 1600-1700 gross calories. My net calories aren't perfect, but average out over a weekly view at between 1400-1500.
The kicker is that over the next 4 weeks I have lost 5 lbs.
This is the best results I've gotten in the last 15 years of trying to lose these same 12 lbs.
So basically, I'm eating MORE and losing weight.
By the way, I'm much older than you, so I find this concept of eating more and losing weight to be even more miraculous.
I also carry my vanity lbs in my lower body. Thighs, hips and I can see the results in the mirror these last 4 weeks.
I see no reason I won't reach my goal.
I'm 5' 9'. Starting weight 152 goal weight 140 current weight 147.
Exercise is HIIT with body weight exercises 30 minutes 3 Xs a week. One 30 minute Tabata workout 1X a week(which I love but think I'm gonna die every time) and two 60 minute beach walks per week(with weighted back pack).
Good luck to you! You WILL get the formula that works for you.
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So much rotten information. There is no such thing as starvation mode, and you can't "trick" your body into losing weight.0
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Do you eat back exercise calories? I'm wondering if you're overestimating your caloric burn. This is why most MFP folks will only eat back a portion of their exercise calories. Something to consider?0
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Do you eat back exercise calories? I'm wondering if you're overestimating your caloric burn. This is why most MFP folks will only eat back a portion of their exercise calories. Something to consider?
I only eat back about 50% of them. And I usually go between what my HRM and here says.
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try high intensity interval training! it works well for me0
This discussion has been closed.
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