"How am I gaining weight in a deficit?" or: You're not losing fat because you're eating too much.
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ArvinSloane
Posts: 80 Member
Clickbait title, but bear with me. This is a great article at Physiqonomics on why people tend to under-report their calories, and strategies to avoid or minimize the problem: http://physiqonomics.com/eating-too-much/
I see a lot here that folks will run into issues where they think they should be losing but they aren't, and (barring a few short-term issues like water retention) it's usually because they aren't recording their intake as accurately as they think they are. Questions about their logging strategies are often taken as accusations that they are "lying," when really it's an effort to identify and remove as many barriers as possible in order to get the most accurate logging they can with the tools available. As the article states, literally everyone, even a dietitian, is susceptible to misreporting calorie intake.
So in short: You're not in "starvation mode." Look at your logging first.
I see a lot here that folks will run into issues where they think they should be losing but they aren't, and (barring a few short-term issues like water retention) it's usually because they aren't recording their intake as accurately as they think they are. Questions about their logging strategies are often taken as accusations that they are "lying," when really it's an effort to identify and remove as many barriers as possible in order to get the most accurate logging they can with the tools available. As the article states, literally everyone, even a dietitian, is susceptible to misreporting calorie intake.
So in short: You're not in "starvation mode." Look at your logging first.
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Replies
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Thank you for this post, I'm so sick of seeing people who don't log accurately, then come here and say that they "cant eat so little because its causing them to not loose weight" as an excuse.23
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Calories in Calories out. A universal law of physics that cant be changed.12
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Just to add, the other component of CICO is the actual CO. Claims of burning 1000 calories in an hour doing something like yoga and logging it as such, can DEFINITELY be a cause of no weight loss.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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Just to add, the other component of CICO is the actual CO. Claims of burning 1000 calories in an hour doing something like yoga and logging it as such, can DEFINITELY be a cause of no weight loss.
Yes.
Anytime people claim to eat low calorie and not lose, they should be asked if they are eating or netting the number they're quoting. Many don't know the difference.5 -
How nice. BUT you know just as well as I do this will
1) fall on deaf ears.
2) not many people search the forums before posting a question.
3) these people you are attempting to reach will see this and pass it by.
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Just to add, the other component of CICO is the actual CO. Claims of burning 1000 calories in an hour doing something like yoga and logging it as such, can DEFINITELY be a cause of no weight loss.
Yes.
Anytime people claim to eat low calorie and not lose, they should be asked if they are eating or netting the number they're quoting. Many don't know the difference.
This pretty much one of my standard questions. There is a tendency to jump in with all sorts of advice but clarifying the basics should be first port of call.9 -
That was a fun read! Thanks for sharing.2
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I must say though i am a weight loss "newbie" and only recently bought food scales. For 2 reasons. 1 i thought people weighing food was obsessive and 2 i had no money to buy scales! But after getting them i actually was scarily OVER estimating my calories! And was not eating enough calories to fuel my body. I did wonder why i was constantly fatigued lol36
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Jayj180894 wrote: »I must say though i am a weight loss "newbie" and only recently bought food scales. For 2 reasons. 1 i thought people weighing food was obsessive and 2 i had no money to buy scales! But after getting them i actually was scarily OVER estimating my calories! And was not eating enough calories to fuel my body. I did wonder why i was constantly fatigued lol
Awesome! Yeah, when I got a food scale it was actually really liberating. Like, to know FOR SURE that I had room for that single serving of ice cream and that it fit perfectly into my goals? Was a really big deal and made life much less stressful.
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I know it's crazy how much easier it makes weight loss!! I won a high street voucher at work and that's what paid for them! I see a lot people saying how inaccurate guessing is and i am amazed how wrong you can be sometimes! I kept logging 50g of butter on my toast! I weighed it, it was 8g LOL!!19
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VintageFeline wrote: »Just to add, the other component of CICO is the actual CO. Claims of burning 1000 calories in an hour doing something like yoga and logging it as such, can DEFINITELY be a cause of no weight loss.
Yes.
Anytime people claim to eat low calorie and not lose, they should be asked if they are eating or netting the number they're quoting. Many don't know the difference.
This pretty much one of my standard questions. There is a tendency to jump in with all sorts of advice but clarifying the basics should be first port of call.
Really good points, all. Once we get really proficient at something like calorie counting, I think we tend to forget what our "unknown unknowns" were when we first started. I haven't used MFP for net calories in so long, I had completely forgotten that many people use it this way. And you're right, that's another variable that absolutely needs to be looked at!
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This was well worth the read!1
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So much truth. Too bad the people that really need it won't believe it.3
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Yes. It gets really annoying when people post here over and over how they're eating 1000 calories and not losing weight. They claim they're so accurate and even weigh food, then when they're asked to open their diary the truth comes out.
Sadly, I feel like I see women do this more often than men. Even with being quick to blame hypothyroidism, PCOS, carbs, etc. I never found it difficult to lose weight at all because I came equipped with a food scale, a realistic outlook, and a love for being active. Of course the same people attribute my success to my "super" metabolism, the fact that I haven't had kids, or my genes. Such nonsense.15 -
I keep gaining on my 1200 calorie diet. I guess I should cut back on all the 1200 calorie foods I eat every day.
For every 1000 people who thinks they're gaining on a 1200 calorie diet, there's one bedridden 5'0 person who's counting their calories accurately.
I semi jest (there's more people than that who are heavily bedridden, or very very small), but...
Fact is, there are far more ways to miscount 1200 calories, than there are to gain on that amount (you'll need to be either very small or very much bedridden - it's simply not enough energy to move a normal sized male body through a normal sedentary day)6 -
Maxematics wrote: »Yes. It gets really annoying when people post here over and over how they're eating 1000 calories and not losing weight. They claim they're so accurate and even weigh food, then when they're asked to open their diary the truth comes out.
Sadly, I feel like I see women do this more often than men. Even with being quick to blame hypothyroidism, PCOS, carbs, etc. I never found it difficult to lose weight at all because I came equipped with a food scale, a realistic outlook, and a love for being active. Of course the same people attribute my success to my "super" metabolism, the fact that I haven't had kids, or my genes. Such nonsense.
All those things do effect weight-loss though. Do they have as large of an impact on weight-loss as calories in-calories out? Of course not. Just means some people have to be more strict than others. It's not nonsense, it's just used as an excuse for being unsuccessful in place of dietary failures.4 -
What ever happened to that flowchart infographic to post when people complain they don't know why they aren't losing weight?1
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Maxematics wrote: »Yes. It gets really annoying when people post here over and over how they're eating 1000 calories and not losing weight. They claim they're so accurate and even weigh food, then when they're asked to open their diary the truth comes out.
Sadly, I feel like I see women do this more often than men. Even with being quick to blame hypothyroidism, PCOS, carbs, etc. I never found it difficult to lose weight at all because I came equipped with a food scale, a realistic outlook, and a love for being active. Of course the same people attribute my success to my "super" metabolism, the fact that I haven't had kids, or my genes. Such nonsense.
I see the same thing. I think some people find the task of paying attention to and logging their food intake is really a lot of effort. If they are going to so much trouble surely it's enough to see results, right? If their measuring and logging isn't completely accurate it couldn't be enough to spoil their weight loss, could it? Yep, it could!
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doittoitgirl wrote: »What ever happened to that flowchart infographic to post when people complain they don't know why they aren't losing weight?
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