1200calories vs 2000calories

TheGetFitGal
TheGetFitGal Posts: 98 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
My calorie intake has been 1200 from Jan'19 to March'19( I am 5.3 and was 68kg) I lost about 3 kgs in Jan and I am guessing that's water weight.
After which till March I lost nothing more.
I lift 3 times a week for 1 hour per day.
My nutritionist friend told me I am too low on calories with lifting weights etc so I slowly upped my calories to 2000 and I am still maintaining weight.

What am I doing different? And how can I loose fat?

Any insight is helpful

Replies

  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    There are mistakes that people commonly make that cause them to not lose weight that we might be able to spot if you change your Diary Sharing settings to Public: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings
  • TheGetFitGal
    TheGetFitGal Posts: 98 Member
    firef1y72 wrote: »
    How are you measuring your intake? Are you using scales to weigh everything solid? Are you logging all cooking oils and condiments? It's very possible that you were actually eating far more than the 1200 and now you're in maintenance. You don't have that much to lose so slowly drop your Calories down to maybe 1750 which should give you weight loss of around 0.5lb/week.
    The other thing to think about is how you are logging exercise/active Calories and how many you are eating back. MFP's entries are notoriously inaccurate and many people will only eat back 50-75% (and most machines are even more inaccurate). I use a Garmin Vivoactive 3 and find it pretty accurate for me.

    ps starvation mode really isn't a thing.

    Fitbit gives me about 2000 calories burnt per day (incl BMR) + the weight lifting ( which I don't count due to inaccuracy of food logs)
  • TheGetFitGal
    TheGetFitGal Posts: 98 Member
    To be honest I don't count every single thing to the T but try my self to log in as much as possible
  • californiagirl2012
    californiagirl2012 Posts: 2,625 Member
    edited April 2019
    TheGetFitGal wrote: »
    My calorie intake has been 1200 from Jan'19 to March'19( I am 5.3 and was 68kg) I lost about 3 kgs in Jan and I am guessing that's water weight.
    After which till March I lost nothing more.
    I lift 3 times a week for 1 hour per day.
    My nutritionist friend told me I am too low on calories with lifting weights etc so I slowly upped my calories to 2000 and I am still maintaining weight.

    What am I doing different? And how can I loose fat?

    Any insight is helpful

    The average TDEE for a 5'3" female is 1680 calories (that's an average of all the various calculations used in nutrition college in which each calculation result is all over the map!) Since there is no magic one size fits all formula, this is a great place to start for you.

    What this means is if you have a rolling daily average for say 60 days where most days are over around 1700 calories, you are likely to gain body fat. If the rolling daily average for that 60 days is under, then you will lose body fat. It's it's pretty much right on that line, then you'll stay the same.

    The biggest thing is to document accurately even when you don't feel like it, give it at least 60-90 days. Then you will learn the truth of the matter.

    So yeah, since 1500 is a sufficient deficit for you over time with lifting, etc, I would agree with your nutritionist.

    Oh and the starvation mode myth? We hear this term thrown about all the time, but many don’t know that it’s not something the average person over 12% body fat needs to worry about. The Army did a study as only the military can do (because they OWN your body when you enlist).

    Does that mean you should eat too low? NO. Other problems occur, it’s just not technically starvation mode until you get to lower levels of body fat. Eating too low and fasting too often can slow down your metabolism as they discovered in the study The Minnesota Starvation Experiment.

    Here is the information from Army study on the Theory of Fat Availability:

    The Theory of Fat Availability:

    •There is a set amount of fat that can be released from a fat cell.

    •The more fat you have, the more fat can be used as a fuel when dieting.

    •The less fat you have, the less fat can be used as a fuel when dieting.

    •Towards the end of a transformation, when body fat is extremely low you may not have enough fat to handle a large caloric deficit anymore.

    At the extreme low end, when your body fat cannot ‘keep up’ with the energy deficit you've imposed on your body, the energy MUST come from SOMEWHERE. This is when you are at risk of losing lean body mass during dieting (commonly referred to as ‘starvation mode’). This happens at extremely low levels of body fat, under 6% in men and 12% in women [Friedl K.E. J Appl Phsiol, 1994].

    Some things to think about as you experiment with different calorie levels, fasting periods (or simply the time between meals), and exercise are:

    How is your general feeling of well-being?

    How do you feel working out?

    How well do you recover from workouts?

    Do you have the energy to complete your daily responsibilities?

    How well do you sleep at night?

    Are you binging?

    Usually it's the answers to those questions that tell you if you are too high or too low with your daily or even rolling daily average over time.

    Roberta
  • daniwilford
    daniwilford Posts: 1,030 Member
    OP, I am confused. Are you trying to lose fat or gain muscle? It is very difficult, some say impossible, to do both at the same time. 1200 is probably too low, if that is truly what you were eating, but a jump up 800 calories may be too much to lose weight.

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