"How am I gaining weight in a deficit?" or: You're not losing fat because you're eating too much.
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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doittoitgirl wrote: »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.
I wasn't saying those things were nonsense; I was saying that the people who attribute my success to my genes or apparent super duper hyper metabolism are spouting nonsense. I agree that there are a multitude of factors that affect one's CO but how much of an impact it has is HIGHLY overestimated.4 -
doittoitgirl wrote: »What ever happened to that flowchart infographic to post when people complain they don't know why they aren't losing weight?
Honestly I was happy that people stopped circulating that tiresome chart. Now here it comes again!11 -
I'd like to put my 2 cents in on this discussion. Once one has honestly and accurately recorded one's calories and nutrition and is STILL not losing weight, OR inches, a visit to the doctor may be in order. (I stress inches as an importance since the scales can some times reflect water weight when there actually has been a fat loss.) I am a rare case of one of those who couldn't lose for love or money. I actually DID have health problems blocking my weight loss. One was inflammation from having a low vitamin D level which caused insulin resistance and slow metabolic rate, so, get your vitamin D level checked if you haven't already. The next was, my labs came back abnormal for both thyroid and parathyroid. I'm now getting treatment for both. Lastly, (but not necessarily an excuse) is my age...I'm older than some on this thread (56) and don't have the luxury of child-bearing hormones circulating through my wrinkled up ol carcass. Nevertheless, I don't use my age as an excuse and am logging in every day here and doing what's necessary. I hope to be soon losing weight and inches now that I am starting to recover from some of my health problems. I hope this helps someone else here. It is important to look at the WHOLE picture!23
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I'd like to put my 2 cents in on this discussion. Once one has honestly and accurately recorded one's calories and nutrition and is STILL not losing weight, OR inches, a visit to the doctor may be in order. (I stress inches as an importance since the scales can some times reflect water weight when there actually has been a fat loss.) I am a rare case of one of those who couldn't lose for love or money. I actually DID have health problems blocking my weight loss. One was inflammation from having a low vitamin D level which caused insulin resistance and slow metabolic rate, so, get your vitamin D level checked if you haven't already. The next was, my labs came back abnormal for both thyroid and parathyroid. I'm now getting treatment for both. Lastly, (but not necessarily an excuse) is my age...I'm older than some on this thread (56) and don't have the luxury of child-bearing hormones circulating through my wrinkled up ol carcass. Nevertheless, I don't use my age as an excuse and am logging in every day here and doing what's necessary. I hope to be soon losing weight and inches now that I am starting to recover from some of my health problems. I hope this helps someone else here. It is important to look at the WHOLE picture!
Yup, 100% agree. Glad to hear you have started to recover!
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Glad you're on the mend, @stit60 !
Medical problems do need to be ruled out, but like you said, generally only after the weighing and logging is as accurate as possible for both CI and CO. Getting some people to understand that part seems to be a struggle - I think a lot of folks would rather believe they have something wrong with them than it's their own inaccuracies causing their stall.
Another thing is that people tend to get very defensive when asked about their logging - they think, as mentioned above, that they're being accused of lying or just plain greed, when that's not what we mean at all when we say "you're eating more than you think". I try to find different ways of phrasing that, these days, to try and avoid triggering Defense Mode...!
Tell someone that if they were truly in a deficit they'd be losing weight, and they automatically think you're calling them a barefaced liar - while they carry on logging 1000 calories of exercise doing something minor and eating all those back. *sigh*
Being accurate is hard at the start, but it gets easier the more you do it. It's pretty much second nature to me now, and as I'm not very good at eyeballing I'm happy to keep weighing! I know that I get a bit sloppy at times, but right now it's not enough to cause me issues... if my weight loss stalled, the first thing I would do is tighten up my logging and make sure I'm weighing absolutely everything, before I (seriously) complained that I was stuck. We all gripe to friends at times, but I know that if I really do get stuck it's because I'm not doing something as well as I could.
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I'd like to put my 2 cents in on this discussion. Once one has honestly and accurately recorded one's calories and nutrition and is STILL not losing weight, OR inches, a visit to the doctor may be in order. (I stress inches as an importance since the scales can some times reflect water weight when there actually has been a fat loss.) I am a rare case of one of those who couldn't lose for love or money. I actually DID have health problems blocking my weight loss. One was inflammation from having a low vitamin D level which caused insulin resistance and slow metabolic rate, so, get your vitamin D level checked if you haven't already. The next was, my labs came back abnormal for both thyroid and parathyroid. I'm now getting treatment for both. Lastly, (but not necessarily an excuse) is my age...I'm older than some on this thread (56) and don't have the luxury of child-bearing hormones circulating through my wrinkled up ol carcass. Nevertheless, I don't use my age as an excuse and am logging in every day here and doing what's necessary. I hope to be soon losing weight and inches now that I am starting to recover from some of my health problems. I hope this helps someone else here. It is important to look at the WHOLE picture!
I totally agree. I too was low in vitamin D (here in Oregon, we refer to that yellow thing in the sky as a UFO) and on top of that I'm a red head who can't be in the sun without burning. And needed thyroid meds. And, I'm 74 years old so my metabolism has slowed down from age. I also ate at about 1000 cals a day, and sometimes none at all if I forgot to eat when I smoked. This went on for up to 50 years. As I now understand it, that slowed my metabolism even more.
It took me over 3 years to get rid of 20 of the 30 lbs I gained when I quit smoking. And I retired from working at an active job, and I was diagnosed with COPD from all the years of smoking.
Even with all that, I have been at a normal weight for many years now, but have never been able to get rid of that last 10 lbs.
Since I had never needed to watch my weight before, I did pretty much whatever the "experts" told me to do. 6 months ago I joined the YMCA and upped my exercise. I am now working on strengthening my diaphragm and upper body. But, there is no way that I could do most of the exercises that are suggested without passing out due to lack of oxygen.
I just recently started studying about resetting one's metabolism and thought what the heck. Nothing else seems to work so I started eating more. I began with the 1400 suggested here. I use a program that computes the weekly daily average so it shows a trend line along with the daily ups and downs. I have used the program for many years so I have lots of control data. As of now, I'm up to almost 1600 cals a day and still showing a very slow reduction in weight.
So, it seems to me that something has improved my metabolism. I weighed 135 eating barely enough to keep me alive, and now I am losing while being in the 145-146 lb range eating much more.
Yes, I use a food scale. Yes, I track everything even my 15 cal salad.
I hope this post helps those who feel that all hope is lost. I sometimes think that the most important thing in weight issues is just being too stubborn to give up:)12 -
Ditto on The vitamin D thing. Mine was down to nearly nothing. I was a zombie. I had never felt so bad in all my life. I make sure to stay on top of my Vitamin D now. I can always tell if it's getting low because I get a funky "sleepy" feeling in my thumbs.3
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Yep, great article. Saw it this morning on FB and read it.0
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ThatUserNameIsAllReadyTaken wrote: »doittoitgirl wrote: »What ever happened to that flowchart infographic to post when people complain they don't know why they aren't losing weight?
Honestly I was happy that people stopped circulating that tiresome chart. Now here it comes again!
Why is the truth in an easy to read format tiresome?21 -
VintageFeline wrote: »ThatUserNameIsAllReadyTaken wrote: »doittoitgirl wrote: »What ever happened to that flowchart infographic to post when people complain they don't know why they aren't losing weight?
Honestly I was happy that people stopped circulating that tiresome chart. Now here it comes again!
Why is the truth in an easy to read format tiresome?
Gosh, good question. Wish I could answer one way or another, but the print in the chart is too small for me to read.1
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