Could eating too little cause me to not lose weight?
gabriellax92
Posts: 65 Member
Just curious, I have been restricting myself to around 1300 - 1400 calories a day. I've been going to the gym 5 days a week for the past 2 weeks. I haven't seen any weight loss. In the past I tried the 21 day fix, I lost 15 pounds in a month. Most of my diet is based around things I ate while doing the 21 day fix. Lots of salads, veggies, fruits. I want to give this a try because although I had success with the 21 day fix the workouts have become boring and I'm uninterested in them. I seemed to be eating much more during the 21 day fix.
I'm 24, 5'3, 255 pounds. I try to spend about an hour to and hour and half at the gym doing some strength training and at least 30 minutes of cardio. I try to jog/walk on the treadmill and do the elliptical machine. I work up a good sweat and get my heart rate up between 180-190. Not sure where I'm going wrong.
I'm 24, 5'3, 255 pounds. I try to spend about an hour to and hour and half at the gym doing some strength training and at least 30 minutes of cardio. I try to jog/walk on the treadmill and do the elliptical machine. I work up a good sweat and get my heart rate up between 180-190. Not sure where I'm going wrong.
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No, eating more is never the answer to losing weight.
It doesn't sound like you are doing anything wrong. Just weight loss doesn't happen every week, especially for females.
Has it been TOM?6 -
No.2
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I have read before that too large a deficit in calories will cause your body to process food more slowly, meaning it remains in your digestive tract for longer.
If this is true, then eating too little does literally slow down the rate at which the number on the scale drops. Temporarily, though.
I mean, you've got to 'go' properly at some point!1 -
can you open your diary? my hypothesis are that you are eating more than you think you are - but since your diary isn't open - its hard to tell2
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Short answer - no.
Longer response: you have posted several threads recently that lead me to believe that you may not really understand the process of losing weight and you have unrealistic expectations.
You would probably find it helpful to read the posts here:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10300319/most-helpful-posts-general-diet-and-weight-loss-help-must-reads#latest
First, recognize that weight loss is not linear. You will not lose consistently every day or week. Weight fluctuates for a number of reasons, especially for women - many women "gain" during ovulation and menstruation. You need to look at the trend over time. For example, compare April 2nd to May 2nd to June 2nd. That doesn't mean you should weigh only once a month - weigh however often you like as long as it doesn't affect your mental state, but compare the long term. I weigh daily. I fluctuate all the time. I eat high calories on weekends, so I hold onto water weight, and thus the scale shows a higher weight until about Wednesday.
Second, you do not need to exercise to lose weight. Exercise is important for health, especially for those of us who do not have active jobs. However, all you need to do to lose weight is eat less than your body burns.
Third, accurately logging your food is important. Based on a quick look at your diary, I don't think you are logging accurately. First of all, there seem to be some generic, homemade type entries. Did you enter those yourself? If not, then those entries do not reflect the calories you consumed for those items. You can enter your own recipes for homemade stuff. Also, you don't have to weigh your solid foods, but it is the easiest way for most of us to be as accurate as we can when logging our food. I would suggest doing so.
Fourth, consistency and patience are, in my opinion, two of the most important things you need to learn to be successful. If you are constantly changing what you are doing, you are not giving yourself time to see if what you're doing is working or to develop new habits. If you make a change to what you are doing, you should give it 4-6 weeks to see if it's working, then make one change if necessary, wait another 4-6 weeks, and repeat.
Please read the posts in the link above. I think they would help you.14 -
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HeliumIsNoble wrote: »I have read before that too large a deficit in calories will cause your body to process food more slowly, meaning it remains in your digestive tract for longer.
If this is true, then eating too little does literally slow down the rate at which the number on the scale drops. Temporarily, though.
I mean, you've got to 'go' properly at some point!
Yeah. Starvation response (as opposed to starvation mode) is a thing: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK22414/ No way you can actually gain weight in a deficit, but your body slows down its metabolism in an effort to cut 'less-critical' systems and try to stay alive longer.1 -
Love it
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Im 5 ft 4 weigh 144.75 pounds. Used to eat around 1200 to 1300 calories. I now eat 1600 minimum and im losing weight steadily. Too big a deficit and i dont lose weight because my metabolism slows right down. I weigh everything log everything even if iv cheated. I wear a fitbit to make sure i hit a daily calorie burn of 2100 calories. Sometimes i dont but gym days i make up for it. I go to the gym 3 days a week most weeks. For me i found eating more snd tracking properly was the key1
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gabriellax92 wrote: »Just curious, I have been restricting myself to around 1300 - 1400 calories a day. I've been going to the gym 5 days a week for the past 2 weeks. I haven't seen any weight loss. In the past I tried the 21 day fix, I lost 15 pounds in a month. Most of my diet is based around things I ate while doing the 21 day fix. Lots of salads, veggies, fruits. I want to give this a try because although I had success with the 21 day fix the workouts have become boring and I'm uninterested in them. I seemed to be eating much more during the 21 day fix.
I'm 24, 5'3, 255 pounds. I try to spend about an hour to and hour and half at the gym doing some strength training and at least 30 minutes of cardio. I try to jog/walk on the treadmill and do the elliptical machine. I work up a good sweat and get my heart rate up between 180-190. Not sure where I'm going wrong.
You said in your other thread that you hadn't been logging properly. Try weighing and logging scrupulously for a month and see what happens.2 -
That was awesome, thanks for sharing.
Of note (the article contains links to the studies):
http://archive.is/1xJpu#selection-1721.115-2131.111
...the truth is: people are notoriously bad – no, really, like super bad – at reporting calorie intake. This isn’t an opinion, either: it’s fact. There are a plethora of studies that have shown this over and over and over and over and over, over, over, over again…and again.
Misreporting of food intake isn’t exclusive to the general public, either. Here’s a review of a study by James Krieger of Weightology finding that even dietitians misreport calorie intake.
“The results showed that the dietitians underreported their food intake by an average of 223 calories per day, while the non-dietitians underreported their intake by an average of 429 calories per day. Thus, while being a dietitian improves the accuracy of self-report of food intake, it does not eliminate the phenomena of underreporting.
Yes, even people whose job involves dealing with these things on a daily basis aren’t immune to the error.
Let me show you one more thing.
This British actress was adamant she had a slow metabolism, turned out she was simply misreporting calorie intake.
When she recorded her food intake via video journal, her intake, according to her, was 1100 calories. When they checked her actual intake [with doubly labeled water] it came to 3000 calories.
Even when she was keeping a food diary, she misreported by 43%.
Numbers are abstract. Let’s make this palpable.
Let’s say your calorie intake is 1500 calories: 43% is 645 calories. Maybe within the scope of a day or two, this wouldn’t make that much of a difference, but you misreport like this over a week? That’s an additional +3500 calories you ‘forgot’ about – enough to gain a pound of fat.
Suffice to say, I’ve made my point. People are terrible at tracking and reporting food intake accurately [1].4
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