Is it really calories in/calories out?

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jelleigh
jelleigh Posts: 743 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hey fitness fans! Wondering if someone out there can help clarify something for me.

I keep seeing on this forum insistence that weight loss is a simple formula of calories in vs calories out. Being a bit of a chronic dieter (I've tried a tonne of different things) this just seemed too simple; although pretty logical. Simple science right? What I can't understand though is that I also see people say a lot that weight loss is not linear. But if it really is just a matter of calories in vs calories out, then (all other things being equal - ie: what you are eating and burning) wouldn't the weight loss be a steady decline? If I've set up my plan and exercise routine to lose 1 lb per week, then shouldn't I see that steady amount come off ? I get that in the first week or so you could see greater fluctuations because of water weight but what about afterwards?

I've wondered this a lot because from what I've seen in myself, it doesn't seem to work that way. If I eat healthy and exercise, I will lose weight at about .5 lb increments every other day. Great right? But if I have *one* thing off plan (a glass of wine, a bowl of pretzels), even if it fits into my calorie count for the day, I'm suddenly up 3 lbs. And I don't just mean the next day or the day after - I mean a week later I'm still 3 lbs heavier. So whats the deal?

A little about me: I'm 5'8" and 200 lbs (so obese according to my BMI). My TDEE is somewhere between 1855-2155 depending on whether I'm lightly active or not. I'm eating 1355 calories a day and exercising (lightly - walking for 45 min or so briskly). I've got about 55 lbs to lose (its what I gained in the last 3 years) to get back to my 'norm' of the 145 range. I'm trying to be reasonable about the speed to lose but I get really discouraged if I don't see things going in the right direction! Any insights?
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Replies

  • queenliz99
    queenliz99 Posts: 15,317 Member
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    It's about calories in and calories out. Pretzels have sodium and will create a some water weight retention. So yea, weight loss is not linear. TOM, sodium intake, muscle repair from exercise all create some water weight retention.
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
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    Yes, it's a simple as CICO. But due to sodium, hormones, muscle repair, stress, and other factors water weight constantly fluctuates.

    If you weigh every day, it's best to use a tracking app to look past the fluctuations and view the overall trend. Happy Scale (iOS), Libra (Android), and Trendweight (web-based that connects to Withings and Fitbit) are the most recommended.
  • MelaniaTrump
    MelaniaTrump Posts: 2,694 Member
    edited March 2016
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    Weigh the pretzels. Measure the wine (5oz is a serving).
    Foods scales at target, walmart, bbbeyond.
    ^ Best $20 you will ever spend in your life.
  • jelleigh
    jelleigh Posts: 743 Member
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    Thanks for the input. I have been thinking of getting a scale since everyone on the site here swears by them. I think I tend to overestimate my calorie intake just to be safe, but I guess until I start weighing things I can't be sure. Is there anything I can take/eat to help eliminate the water weight?
  • Afura
    Afura Posts: 2,054 Member
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    It seems simple, but it is. I have more than you to lose, but I HAVE been losing by watching what I eat, down to weighing my food to make sure that I'm not being shifty and cheating. Exercise (especially cardio) will help create a bigger deficit in calories as well but is not necessary for just weight loss (though generally important for overall physical health).
    As @malibu927 stated there are variables that will *BLEEP* with your loss but over time if you track you will see a trend and you should see a downward phase. I find that if I weigh too often that I do get obsessive, but some people like to track it, that's up to you and what works best for you (both tracking, and your mental weight loss sanity).
    I don't have 'the chart' on hand, but if you make changes, stick with it for about a month that's when you should really start seeing changes. You may want to throw in the towel after a week or two of little to no change, but that's not how it works. It's not an instantaneous change, everything good takes time, including shedding pounds.
  • PaytraB
    PaytraB Posts: 2,360 Member
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    Your body uses a different amount of calories each day, which means that weight loss isn't linear. When cold, you use more calories heating your body, for example, so on a day when you feel cold you may "lose" more weight if you eat the same number of calories as every other day. On a day when you move less, such as a day off, sitting in the sun reading, you'll burn fewer calories. On that day, you'll "gain" some weight if you eat the same calories as every other day.
    However, it doesn't help to micromanage on this level and it all balances out and you lose an average of your weight loss goal (ie 1 lb/week).

    Trust your body to adjust as it needs and fuel it properly.

    Your weight can go up with an increased sodium amount. One day of high sodium can up your weight for days. An increased exercise routine can also make your weight go up temporarily. Your muscles get tiny microscopic tears in them and hold on to water for healing purposes. As you get used to the new exercise this stops happening and the water weight comes off. TOM adds weight for many. There are a lot of reasons to "gain" weight temporarily but if you are within your MFP calorie goal it isn't a weight gain and shouldn't be seen as such.
    A glass of wine will not cause you to gain 3 lbs but enough pretzels might for a few days because of the salt.

    Keep on plan. This does work. Don't be discouraged and don't weigh yourself so often. You'll notice less fluctuations with a weekly weigh-in than a daily one. You want to concentrate on the downward trend; not each individual weigh-in.
  • MelaniaTrump
    MelaniaTrump Posts: 2,694 Member
    edited March 2016
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    Do not take anything to take water out of your system.
    It can harm you in many ways.
    Drinking water will help flush out sodium.
    Also eating foods high in potassium.
    - Beans, lentils, kale/spinach, sweet potatoes, squash, greek yogurt, fish, low fat milk, bananas.
    This is controvercial, but I love drinking green tea. I stopped it and gained. Started again and lost weight. Bigelow green tea has many flavors.
  • I_Will_End_You
    I_Will_End_You Posts: 4,397 Member
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    There are a lot of factors that will throw off your CICO and cause weight loss to be non linear. Both your CI and your CO are estimates. We can take measures to be sure those estimates are as accurate as possible, but they are still just estimates. It isn't going to be 100% every time. Plus add in weight fluctuations due to hormones, water weight from sodium, carbs, exercise...it's all going to make your loss look off at times. My suggestion would be to use an app like Happy Scale, log your weight every day and look for a downward trend. There will be ups and downs, but if the line on that graph is trending downward, you're doing it right.
  • VintageFeline
    VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
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    I was a good 5lbs lighter on the scale today than yesterday. Some of that is true fat loss, the rest is because last week I got a little sidetracked and ate pretty much at maintenance so for a while my body was adjusting to more food in my system, more carbs causing glycogen stores to be replenished, more salt adding to the water weight, a pretty intense couple of workouts causing even more water retention for muscle repair. It all sorted itself out and today, whoosh.

    So when people say weight loss is not linear it is because the body is not a machine and is influenced by many factors. Couple that with what is essentially a crude measurement (scales) that cannot differentiate with any accuracy, even the fancy pants scales, what is fat and water etc then you just have to trust the process and track the trends.
  • itsbasschick
    itsbasschick Posts: 1,584 Member
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    pretty much everyone over-estimates their calories. weighing my food makes a HUGE difference. these are people on MFP who tried logging without a scale, didn't lose an ounce and then started weighing their food and started losing weight.

    you can get a digital food scale for well under $20. i have one of these
    http://www.amazon.com/Ozeri-Digital-Multifunction-Kitchen-Elegant/dp/B004164SRA/ref=sr_1_3
    and i'm sure there are others.

    for now you could buy foods that are single-servings. you can eliminate water by eating less sodium - eating asparagus can help, also.
  • Nuke_64
    Nuke_64 Posts: 406 Member
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    Although weight loss is not linear, if your calories in and out are constant and accurate, fat and lean body mass loss is linear. The nonlinear part of weight loss is due to water retention.
  • jelleigh
    jelleigh Posts: 743 Member
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    Great points! Thanks @PaytraB for the reminder on why I would burn more on some days. For some reason I had forgotten the fluctuations that weren't to do with physical exercise.

    I'm 'technically' doing a weigh-in every week (a few friends are all doing a 1lb per week challenge so I report in) but I had noticed this crazy fluctuating and wanted to track it closer to see if I could catch the trends. But I think I should probably just stop with the frequent weighing and trust the process. I guess it does me no good to be so impatient! lol.
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    There are a few things that come into this conversation...

    First of all, yes. Real long term weight loss is as simple as CICO. There can be some trial and error at first figuring out what your CI and CO are and how they balance out, but ultimately it's just a matter of energy balance.

    Next, regarding the non-linear nature of weight loss... that's usually over shorter spans of time, i.e. days and weeks, as represented by a number on the scale. Scale weight reflects a number of things, only one of which is actual fat/tissue loss. So as the amount of fluid you're retaining changes due to workouts, stress, hormones, etc etc, the number on the scale can and will change independently of what's happening with your actual fat/tissue mass. So you can and may well be losing fat despite short/temporary increases in the number on the scale.

    Lastly, as your weight changes and as life happens, your CICO balance can and may change. Lower body mass usually requires fewer cals to maintain that mass. This is REALLY oversimplified, but if you lose 75lbs, your BMR will decrease accordingly. If you don't adjust your cals accordingly, weight loss can slow/stop. Alternatively, if you add a meaningful amount of muscle to your body, your BMR will increase. Granted this takes a very long time and tons of hard work to do, but it is worth mentioning.

    All of that adds up to make your target cals for weight loss a bit of a moving target. That's why it's important to log consistently over time and evaluate things as you go. Then you can make small changes here and there to keep yourself on the right track. Otherwise you wake up 6 month from now and make a thread about how you're doing everything right but not losing (when in fact you're not doing everything right, but since you haven't been logging, you don't actually realize that).

    Hopefully that helps give some context to all this.
  • jsecret
    jsecret Posts: 606 Member
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    There are also pros and cons to weighing every day, week, or month. Some people prefer one over the other. If not seeing the scale move really gets to you then avoid weighing every day and switch to weekly, biweekly or monthly this will create a more linear trend most of the time.
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
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    jelleigh wrote: »
    Great points! Thanks @PaytraB for the reminder on why I would burn more on some days. For some reason I had forgotten the fluctuations that weren't to do with physical exercise.

    I'm 'technically' doing a weigh-in every week (a few friends are all doing a 1lb per week challenge so I report in) but I had noticed this crazy fluctuating and wanted to track it closer to see if I could catch the trends. But I think I should probably just stop with the frequent weighing and trust the process. I guess it does me no good to be so impatient! lol.

    You can also use an app that maps the trend of your weight. They smooth out the fluctuations and show you what's going.

    example:
    zdhx4xok9fhn.jpg
    This is from trendweight.com (need a fitbit or withings account to use). The red line is my weight trend, the diamonds are my individual weigh ins.

    There are several apps that do this:
    - Happy scale (iOS)
    - Libra (Android)
    - My Weight Tracker (Android / iOS ? )
    - Monitor Your Weight (Android / iOS ? )
    - Trendweight.com (need fitbit or withings account to use)

  • jelleigh
    jelleigh Posts: 743 Member
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    Very cool @shadow2soul ! I'm a data person by nature so being able to have this kind of visual appeals to me. I'll try one of these out.
  • ReaderGirl3
    ReaderGirl3 Posts: 868 Member
    edited March 2016
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    For me it has really been about CICO. There are other factors that can cause temporary issues with the scale though-sodium intake, digestion times, hormones/time of month, water retention from exercise and other things, constipation, illness, etc etc. When I was in my active weight loss phase I focused on my first weigh-in of the month, vs the last weigh-in of the month, to get a more accurate picture of what I was actually losing. Day to day fluctuations can really mess with your head!
  • SueSueDio
    SueSueDio Posts: 4,796 Member
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    itsbasschick wrote: »
    for now you could buy foods that are single-servings.

    Even with that, really you need to weigh it to be certain. I've found a lot of things that weigh more than the package claims!

    Also, OP, when you do get a scale (and I highly recommend it!), make sure you weigh things like a 'cup' of something as well. The weight of that is often more than the package will say, too, and can add a lot of calories over the course of a few days depending on what the food is.

    Stick with it, and good luck - you've got this! :smile:
  • EddieP50
    EddieP50 Posts: 192 Member
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    I bought a digital kitchen scale when I started in November and I use it regularly. I weigh out the serving size based on the gram or ounce weight per serving listed on the package. After I learn how much of a certain food makes a serving size then I don't have to weigh it again. (i.e. the number of tablespoons to make a serving).
    I log everything eaten strictly and make sure calories out is more than calories in.

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