Is my metabolism ready to lose fat?
NaomiSarahChan
Posts: 17 Member
Hey everybody! So, I don't weigh myself very much, but what I do know is that I weigh exactly the same as I did last year. The problem is, is that my caloric intake has been up and down and I'm sure my weight has as well.. I've just always ended up at the same weight eventually.
So basically I haven't lost any weight permanently this year:
March ~69kg
April 68kg
Sept 68kg
Nov 68-69.2kg
Dec 68kg
I feel ready to get myself losing fat and improve performance in the gym and gymnastics, but I don't know what calories my body has adapted to. I'm estimating an overall average this year would be about 2200-2400 calories. Yeah I know its not totally consistent. Notice I need to start weighing myself more too.
So what I am doing is, and please correct me if anything looks wrong, is:
Calculated my calorie needs on http://macronutrientcalculator.com/ (2300-2400)
Eat 2300 calories consistently for a week or two and base maintenance off weight change
Enter a small deficit (~250 calories) if my weight stays the same at ~68kg
I hear about people overexercising and their metabolism adapting, needing to reverse diet, etc. but these people are also quite thin due to undereating and lots of cardio. I don't think I fall into that category as I am not at all thin. I also just started a proper training program as well instead of youtube workouts and lightweight jumbo
Is my plan alright? Or do I need more time on a consistent amount of tracked calories before I can enter a deficit?
So basically I haven't lost any weight permanently this year:
March ~69kg
April 68kg
Sept 68kg
Nov 68-69.2kg
Dec 68kg
I feel ready to get myself losing fat and improve performance in the gym and gymnastics, but I don't know what calories my body has adapted to. I'm estimating an overall average this year would be about 2200-2400 calories. Yeah I know its not totally consistent. Notice I need to start weighing myself more too.
So what I am doing is, and please correct me if anything looks wrong, is:
Calculated my calorie needs on http://macronutrientcalculator.com/ (2300-2400)
Eat 2300 calories consistently for a week or two and base maintenance off weight change
Enter a small deficit (~250 calories) if my weight stays the same at ~68kg
I hear about people overexercising and their metabolism adapting, needing to reverse diet, etc. but these people are also quite thin due to undereating and lots of cardio. I don't think I fall into that category as I am not at all thin. I also just started a proper training program as well instead of youtube workouts and lightweight jumbo
Is my plan alright? Or do I need more time on a consistent amount of tracked calories before I can enter a deficit?
5
Replies
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Pick a calorie goal and eat at your goal, as closely as possible, for 4-6 weeks. Adjust from there. You need to give your body more time to adjust than a week or two. Just be patient.2
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Pick a calorie goal and eat at your goal, as closely as possible, for 4-6 weeks. Adjust from there. You need to give your body more time to adjust than a week or two. Just be patient.
So I can enter a deficit (at least what the calculator says is a deficit) now? Like no certain preparations needed?
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Nope. Why would you think your body needs to prepare to be in a deficit?2
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NaomiSarahChan wrote: »Pick a calorie goal and eat at your goal, as closely as possible, for 4-6 weeks. Adjust from there. You need to give your body more time to adjust than a week or two. Just be patient.
So I can enter a deficit (at least what the calculator says is a deficit) now? Like no certain preparations needed?
Yup, that's it. Be consistent for 4-6 weeks, then adjust as needed to stay at a sensible average weekly loss rate. (Slow is good, as you suggest.)0 -
Your height is unknown. For a non obese person a deficit of 10% to 20% of TDEE is generally suitable. If your TDEE is in the 2300-2400 range, that would mean setting MFP somewhere between 250 and 500 Cal deficit a day to lose weight.
Note that MFP would give you a lower amount that 2300-2400 for your maintenance because it does not count any of your intended exercise off the bat, and that your eating target would be correspondingly much smaller because it will include the complete deficit off that lower amount. With MFP you are supposed to log and eat back your actual exercise calories as you perform such exercise.
Regardless of how you set things up... after 6-8 weeks you figure out how many calories you've eaten and how far below your theoretical maintenance you've been. That will give you your expected weight loss over time. You compare that figure to the weight your trending weight application or web site tells you you've lost. And you now have a better idea as to whether your TDEE calculations and food logging are relatively speaking accurate!
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Nope. Why would you think your body needs to prepare to be in a deficit?
I guess I'm worried that my body might be adapted to too low calories (Since I haven't been tracking consistently and my intake has jumped around so much). I'm totally overthinking I think haha
Alright, tomorrow morning I will take out the food scale, start at 2100 (-250ish) calories, start my training program, and work on being patient waiting 4-6 weeks
Hope I can break out of the 68-69kg range next year. 2 -
NaomiSarahChan wrote: »Pick a calorie goal and eat at your goal, as closely as possible, for 4-6 weeks. Adjust from there. You need to give your body more time to adjust than a week or two. Just be patient.
So I can enter a deficit (at least what the calculator says is a deficit) now? Like no certain preparations needed?
Yup, that's it. Be consistent for 4-6 weeks, then adjust as needed to stay at a sensible average weekly loss rate. (Slow is good, as you suggest.)
Thank you
I'm so motivated to do this now! 0 -
NaomiSarahChan wrote: »Pick a calorie goal and eat at your goal, as closely as possible, for 4-6 weeks. Adjust from there. You need to give your body more time to adjust than a week or two. Just be patient.
So I can enter a deficit (at least what the calculator says is a deficit) now? Like no certain preparations needed?
Nope, no preparations needed. If your memory is really good, you could enter what you've eaten the last couple of days into your diary here to get an idea of what your normal maintenance cals are. It won't be exact unless you conveniently happened to be weighing all your food already, but it will give you an idea. Though, you can also equally go with the estimated average of 2300 and deduct your 250 deficit from that.
Well done, btw, on picking a sensible and appropriate weekly weight loss goal!! Usually we're having to talk people out of their choice of 2 lbs per week despite already being a healthy weight, or close to it!
A couple of tips:
1) with a small calorie deficit you need to be fairly meticulous with your tracking, so if you haven't already, get a food scale that weighs in grams, and learn how to log accurately (there are some posts in the 'most helpful posts' post stickied at the top of this forum, and another excellent thread that should be on this page or the next on using the USDA database and MFP's database together accurately)
2) download a trending app for your phone - Happy Scale (Android) or Libra (iPhone), think I have those round the right way - or use the web-based Trendweight (requires a Fitbit account, but you don't need a Fitbit, you just need to be able to log your weight there manually), and log your weight into that each day. Small weekly weight losses easily get lost in the noise of normal water weight fluctuations, especially for women, and a trending app will show you that you are in fact moving in the right direction, even if the scales don't say so.1 -
Nony_Mouse wrote: »NaomiSarahChan wrote: »Pick a calorie goal and eat at your goal, as closely as possible, for 4-6 weeks. Adjust from there. You need to give your body more time to adjust than a week or two. Just be patient.
So I can enter a deficit (at least what the calculator says is a deficit) now? Like no certain preparations needed?
Nope, no preparations needed. If your memory is really good, you could enter what you've eaten the last couple of days into your diary here to get an idea of what your normal maintenance cals are. It won't be exact unless you conveniently happened to be weighing all your food already, but it will give you an idea. Though, you can also equally go with the estimated average of 2300 and deduct your 250 deficit from that.
Well done, btw, on picking a sensible and appropriate weekly weight loss goal!! Usually we're having to talk people out of their choice of 2 lbs per week despite already being a healthy weight, or close to it!
A couple of tips:
1) with a small calorie deficit you need to be fairly meticulous with your tracking, so if you haven't already, get a food scale that weighs in grams, and learn how to log accurately (there are some posts in the 'most helpful posts' post stickied at the top of this forum, and another excellent thread that should be on this page or the next on using the USDA database and MFP's database together accurately)
2) download a trending app for your phone - Happy Scale (Android) or Libra (iPhone), think I have those round the right way - or use the web-based Trendweight (requires a Fitbit account, but you don't need a Fitbit, you just need to be able to log your weight there manually), and log your weight into that each day. Small weekly weight losses easily get lost in the noise of normal water weight fluctuations, especially for women, and a trending app will show you that you are in fact moving in the right direction, even if the scales don't say so.
Y'all are so amazing. Thank you! Got out a food scale and will change the battery haha
Wow Happy Scale looks amazing! This will definitely help me.1 -
Nony you flipped them! Happy Scale is iPhone, libra is Android. Of course I am surprised some of you scientists don't drag out SPSS or equivalent packages!!!!0
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Nony you flipped them! Happy Scale is iPhone, libra is Android. Of course I am surprised some of you scientists don't drag out SPSS or equivalent packages!!!!
Gah!! That will teach me to not check.
I am one of those scientists that tries to avoid statistics as much as possible. Anything beyond Excel is beyond me!2 -
NaomiSarahChan wrote: »Nope. Why would you think your body needs to prepare to be in a deficit?
I guess I'm worried that my body might be adapted to too low calories (Since I haven't been tracking consistently and my intake has jumped around so much). I'm totally overthinking I think haha
Alright, tomorrow morning I will take out the food scale, start at 2100 (-250ish) calories, start my training program, and work on being patient waiting 4-6 weeks Hope I can break out of the 68-69kg range next year.
That's not really a thing the way most people think it is.
Weight loss is really simple at heart. Eat at a deficit, and you'll lose weight. It can be hard to actually do that, but it's simple in the sense that you don't need to do any special tricks or anything. Lots of people will tell you all kinds of nonsense, and that makes this really confusing. But the truth is if you eat at a deficit, you'll lose weight.
What you described sounds like it'll work perfectly.2 -
NaomiSarahChan wrote: »Pick a calorie goal and eat at your goal, as closely as possible, for 4-6 weeks. Adjust from there. You need to give your body more time to adjust than a week or two. Just be patient.
So I can enter a deficit (at least what the calculator says is a deficit) now? Like no certain preparations needed?
Yes.
The only preparations you might need to make is to do a clear out of foods you would rather not have easily accessible, and a grocery shop for foods you do want to include ... if necessary.
Then enter your information into MFP.
Choose how much you want to lose each week (i.e. 1 lb/week).
Eat the number of calories MFP gives you.1 -
I like your plan. You can maintain for a bit to get an accurate idea of what your actual maintenance calories are if you like, but as others have said it isn't particularly necessary. You've maintained for the last year, so you seem pretty solid there.
Either way, it sounds like a solid and sensible plan. How refreshing.
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