Single meal way over (as in too stuffed) and yet still in deficit for the day..

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freedomofnow
freedomofnow Posts: 37 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hey guys..

As the title says this is my day today. I really wanted to indulge and towards the end of my meal I could feel that yeah, this is getting a bit too much, but I kinda still wanted to finish so I did. :p I counted the calories properly after and it is at around 900. Not high in sugar or the like just a bit of cheese, avocado and some smoked meat + oat pancakes and steamed broccoli. The only thing not made from scratch is the smoked meat. Now my day has been okay so far and I'm still going to end it at around 2k calories (which is 500 less than my MFP recommended because I wanna shed more than 0.5 pounds per week), but I'm just painfully stuffed right now.

So my question is since I'm averaging around 2k calories these days and my meals just fill me up a bit, nourish me to the next pitstop basically, is there such a thing as the body going into "saving mode" that I heard about? Like is the body going to store this for later since I'm basically on a bit of a constant starvation in order to shed weight?

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  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
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    No, your body won't save fat if you're in a deficit. But if you're eating at a higher deficit when you don't have much to lose, you risk losing more muscle mass.
  • freedomofnow
    freedomofnow Posts: 37 Member
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    Ah okay great, I kinda thought as much but it's always nice to get help from the experts. :) Thanks!!
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
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    If it gives you 2500 for 0.5lb/week loss, then I wouldn't worry about the days you only get to 2000. That will change your loss rate to 1.5lb/week. Of course, actual losses will vary, depending on how often you do this. Starvation mode at is typically presented (body holding onto/gaining fat) is a myth. There are other reasons to not under eat (main one being malnourishment), but at 2000 cal/day, I doubt that you are at risk unless you are highly active, or a big guy.
  • freedomofnow
    freedomofnow Posts: 37 Member
    edited December 2016
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    nutmegoreo wrote: »
    If it gives you 2500 for 0.5lb/week loss, then I wouldn't worry about the days you only get to 2000. That will change your loss rate to 1.5lb/week. Of course, actual losses will vary, depending on how often you do this. Starvation mode at is typically presented (body holding onto/gaining fat) is a myth. There are other reasons to not under eat (main one being malnourishment), but at 2000 cal/day, I doubt that you are at risk unless you are highly active, or a big guy.

    @nutmegoreo I am fairly big still. I'm 188cm tall and at 140kg at the moment and looking to lose 50 more. I have done around 2k calories for almost a week now though because I experienced a stagnation for a week when I did 2500 + more the days of exercise, so I cut a little more just to be on the safe side of the equation, and I'm planning on staying at around 2k regardless of exercise (but with some leeway on exercise days of course).. I don't know if that's pushing it too far?
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
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    The program here is designed for you to consume the exercise calories back. That being said, many people (not all) find that the exercise estimates are too high, so consider 50-75% of burns to eat, and then adjust based on results.

    You said you experienced a stall. How long was this stall? There are different reasons for stalls, and anything less than several weeks is an impatience thing. When I started lifting, I stalled for a month, then whoosh, big drop. With new exercise, your body retains water to repair the muscle, so it looks like a stall. Too much sodium the day before you weigh = water retention.

    Another common cause of frustration is inaccurate logging, or inaccurate database items.

    Just some extra stuff to consider.
  • freedomofnow
    freedomofnow Posts: 37 Member
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    @nutmegoreo Yeah that makes sense. Thanks. I was fairly active in the gym to be honest so you're probably right in that it's an impatience thing. I want consistent loss. I found I was overdoing it a little when I was going every other day though so now I'm going like every 3 days to the gym, unless I'm out golfing then that is it for that day.

    I also have a bit of sodium intake as a general thing. I love salty stuff and most days I break sodium levels. Salted smoked meat or kaviar (not the expensive kind, the scandinavian type :P). So yeah you're probably right about why I didn't see anything happen aswell. Anyhoo if this gets too uncomfortable I'm going to up the calories a little, but I do eat more on exercise days generally. Kinda fun to test out and see what the body can handle in this process. :) Thanks for the tips!
  • dfc4
    dfc4 Posts: 109 Member
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    If you burn off the calories you eat during the day your Body will have nothing left to store as fat, if you burn off more than you eat - the energy has to come from somewhere so you will start burning off your fat reserves.
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
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    freedomofnow wrote: »
    @nutmegoreo Yeah that makes sense. Thanks. I was fairly active in the gym to be honest so you're probably right in that it's an impatience thing. I want consistent loss. I found I was overdoing it a little when I was going every other day though so now I'm going like every 3 days to the gym, unless I'm out golfing then that is it for that day.

    I also have a bit of sodium intake as a general thing. I love salty stuff and most days I break sodium levels. Salted smoked meat or kaviar (not the expensive kind, the scandinavian type :P). So yeah you're probably right about why I didn't see anything happen aswell. Anyhoo if this gets too uncomfortable I'm going to up the calories a little, but I do eat more on exercise days generally. Kinda fun to test out and see what the body can handle in this process. :) Thanks for the tips!

    I know how it feels to want to see consistent losses. The reality is very different though. Maybe a weight trender app would be helpful for you. It will take your information and generate a smoother line for you, so the ups and downs feel less daunting. I use trendweight (it syncs with my FitBit, so I only need to log weight in one area), I have heard of others, one by Libra.

    These are from last year/earlier this year, but here's my progress charts with both MFP and with trendweight over the same period of time. So you have an idea.

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    tqau6h6t1i30.png

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