Is weight loss really as simple as eating less?

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  • wannabeskinnycat
    wannabeskinnycat Posts: 205 Member
    edited May 2019
    Your BMR for age, height and weight is 2171 cals/day and 2605 cals/day for sedentary so having 1500-1600 cals/day isn’t healthy. As you’re measuring most of your food instead of weighing then you have to factor in the errors in your logging calories. Instead of guessing these why don’t you weigh all your foods (measure liquids maybe) for at least 4 weeks and see if this helps. Don’t rely on any packaged food being the weight it says on the pack, these are only a very general estimate. And the bar code scan might show the correct name but that doesn’t mean the information is correct.

    It’s also widely accepted that exercise calories are way too generous. So your 1300 - 1700 calorie deficit might only be 100 cals/day. You could even be levelling out at maintenance.

    You’ve been given a huge amount of guidance here and I’d suggest you have a good read of the links provided, re-read the comments and take your weight loss routine back to the bare bones. Have you read the getting started sticky posts on the main forum page? There are a few videos about the place about the calorie difference between weighing and measuring items.

    Once you’re absolutely spot on with correctly logging all your food and have been doing it for a few weeks then you can factor in the exercise, as a guide. Being concerned about heart rate and body fat at this stage is pointless if you have no idea what your calorie intake and expenditure really is.
  • davidparziale
    davidparziale Posts: 8 Member
    @Maxematics + @AnnPT77 I use a heart rate monitor during exercise combined with a calorie burn calculator that uses an algorithm including my age, height, weight, average heart rate, and duration of elevated heart rate to comeup with the calorie burn figures. I read the article on weight fluctuations, but I've never experienced anything like this in the past.
  • Maxematics
    Maxematics Posts: 2,287 Member
    davidparziale wrote: »
    @Maxematics + @AnnPT77 I use a heart rate monitor during exercise combined with a calorie burn calculator that uses an algorithm including my age, height, weight, average heart rate, and duration of elevated heart rate to comeup with the calorie burn figures. I read the article on weight fluctuations, but I've never experienced anything like this in the past.

    Thanks for answering. Depending on what you're using, the 600 to 800 could be your gross calorie burn not your net calorie burn meaning that it's including your BMR which are already a part of your MFP calories.

    For example, Fitbit said I burned 256 calories during my hour workout this morning but part of that 256 are the calories I would have burned just by being alive during that hour. So maybe 180 out of the 256 is actually excess calorie burn, that's the adjustment that would be sent to MFP, and 180 calories would be the amount of exercise calories I could eat back, not 256. Luckily my synced Fitbit makes those adjustment for me or else I'd have to figure it out manually.

    Would you mind sharing which HRM you use as well as the specific calorie burn calculator?
  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,400 Member
    edited May 2019

    davidparziale wrote: »
    Thanks again for the advice, everybody! I'd like to address the measurement issue because that's been the most common explanation brought up. Keep in mind, at 1500-1600 calories consumed per day (at my lowest) combined with a 2300 calorie maintenance level and 30-45 minutes of intense cardio (Insanity by Beachbody) at my height and weight, with an average heartrate of 170 bpm, I should have burned an extra 600-800 calories daily. My daily deficit would be between 1300 and 1700 calories on workout days (5x per week) At the time, I was only eating eggs, ground turkey (weighed) boneless skinless chicken breast (weighed) lean beef (weighed) and mixed vegetables, broccoli, or spinach (measured) so unless the difference between measuring four one-cup servings of vegetables and weighing those same vegetables could account for 1300 to 1700 EXTRA calories per day, I don't see how inaccurate my calorie counts during those four weeks of stalled fat loss could be.

    Additionally, I weigh myself, measure myself, and take handheld body composition scans to track my progress.

    Note: over the past few months, I have experienced strength gains in the gym regardless of body mass calculations.

    You don't mention what you were eating on your vegetables--or were you eating them plain? If not, how were you measuring what you put on them? Vegetables per se don't have many calories, it's the condiments that getcha.
  • cmarangi
    cmarangi Posts: 131 Member
    I don't blame you for being impatient, when you are working so hard, you want to see results, so I think it's natural. (from one impatient person to another :-) But from everything I've read on here it seems if you just stay the course, eventually you will start losing again. I've gone weeks with nothing and then had a big loss by changing nothing.

    One thing that I didn't see anyone mention is that when you stress and when you work out a ton you can raise your cortisol which can cause some hindrance in weight loss. So maybe less cardio and more of just the fitness stuff you enjoy and work on learning and observing the process. Very zen, I know. Good luck to you!
  • jlklem
    jlklem Posts: 259 Member
    edited May 2019
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