Is weight loss really as simple as eating less?
Replies
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Also, you say you’ve lost 15 pounds in 3 months (which is about 7kg); on a 25% deficit I usually shed 2 kg every month, so your numbers actually seem to be what I would expect over a three month period. I think you’re expecting too much, too soon. Healthy weight loss is, cliche approaching, a marathon and not a sprint.7
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I have lost weight using several different macro settings including keto and moderate/high carb. The consistent thing was eating less calories than I burn.
Exercise can mask weight loss for weeks. Literally.
And if you don't want to weigh everything on your scale (I definitely do not, que the woo's) that may be fine but at least weigh your more calorie dense items like nuts, nut butter, etc. One of the first things we should check when not losing is if we are eating the amount that we think.
Choosing correct food entries is important and it's very easy to pick a bad one. I've been logging for 5 years and still may find an entry that is incorrect in my diary.
Most importantly, consistency and patience. Weight loss isn't fast.9 -
If you log accurately, get good sensible nutrition with a variety of foods and a reasonable amount of protein and fat and if you stick to your calorie goal (I'd try around 2000) for a couple months you will see results.
The food scans are often wrong.
You say you're eating "about" 1800. "About" isn't good enough.
You've lost a consistent amount of weight in the past few months.
Weight loss isn't linear. There WILL be weeks when the scale doesn't show a loss. Stay the course.
Lower expectations and be consistent.13 -
davidparziale wrote: »So, I've made a handful of tweaks to my diet, (moderate carb, low carb, carb cycle, keto, more cardio) but the caloric deficit has been constant week after week. According to those who claim that caloric deficit is all that is needed for weight loss, I should have been losing for the past several weeks; hence my question: is a caloric deficit really all you need to burn fat?
Calorie deficit is all that is needed for FAT loss. The scale doesn't just measure the weight of your fat, it's also weighing all the other stuff in your body. That other stuff is like 75% of your scale weight. Every time you change your diet or exercise, even slightly, it can cause shifts in your water weight and digestive time. These fluctuations can cause your weight to go up and down, essentially covering up fat loss.
Your fat loss also doesn't immediately react to a calorie deficit. Your body is constantly storing some fat and burning some fat as needed, regardless of what you specifically ate today. Fat loss doesn't correlate to calorie deficit on a daily basis, it happens over time. If you eat at a perfect 500 calorie deficit every day for 12 weeks, you will probably not lose 1 lb every week, 1/7 of a lb every day, but at the end of the 12 weeks, you will have lost around 12 lbs of fat. Whether that approx 12 lbs is seen exactly on your scale will depend on your water and digestive weight on that day.
Add to all that the fact that you aren't using a food scale for a lot of stuff. It sounds to me like more accurate logging, more patience, and a longer term view will take care of this for you
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GaleHawkins wrote: »
Let go of the cruel myth that weight loss is all about cutting calories and find the calorie sources that works best for your health so body weight has a chance to automatically regulate. I think you to may come to realize the need to count calories to lose/maintain weight is often due to some prior health failure(s) that first need to be addressed before weight loss can become autoregulated once again. Most all animals can become obese eating the wrong macros and humans are no different.
This is irresponsible advice and defies science.
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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.5 -
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.
Where did you get those numbers from?9 -
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.
Did you read the article about weight fluctuations I linked for you? New exercise has been known to make people retain water for an extended period of time.
Did you see where I said it can take 3 weeks for me to see a new low weight? This has been happening to me pretty regularly for the over 150 pounds that I have lost.
You absolutely have to stop trying to strangle results. Relax and find a lane. Stress over weight can increase your cortisol and, surprise, it can also make you retain water.
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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.
There are a lot of estimates in there, and the exercise ones have a lot of potential to be wrong.
I assume you know strength gains can be from neuromuscular adaptation (particularly in early stages), not just muscle mass gain. The NMA ones are much faster.
And that water weight, frequent switch-ups of routine, stress/cortisol, early over-restriction kind of thing. Yeah.
You may in fact have some medical anomaly limiting your weight loss. But you haven't done this in a way that gives you very good data to assess that, so far, I'm sorry to say.9 -
You went to see a large drop in your weight?
Sit at home without exercise for three+ days (but do walk frequently for a total of over 5,000 steps a day). Eat your MFP calories for weight loss from sedentary accurately counted. Keep sodium to below where you were at, or below 3000, whichever is lower. Limit carbs to less than 75g a day. Take a dose or two of a stool softener. Consume adequate hydration and at least 0.4g of fat per lb of body weight.
And you will see the scale move down.
And almost NONE of this "weight loss" will be fat reserves leaving your body.
By the way, I think that doing any/most of all this for the purpose of manipulating your weight is stupid. So no, you should not actually do it!18 -
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.3 -
@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.4
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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?1 -
Maxematics wrote: »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?
Furthermore, besides the gross/net calorie burn question, heart rate monitors are not necessarily accurate for estimating calories from some types of workouts, such as interval workouts (of all types, but especially HIIT), or workouts involving a strength component, especially overhead motions. They're especially likely to be inaccurate at estimating standard weight training. Their best shot at accuracy is with steady-state moderately intense cardio, somewhat less good at estimating very high intensity or low intensity steady-state cardio.
If you don't have a tested heart rate max (from an exercise-focused test, not a medical stress test), but are relying on either an age-estimated heart rate max, or a device's HRmax estimate based on exercise performance or your demographics, that's another potential source of inaccuracy. Age-based HRmax formulas are inaccurate for many people. (The age-based formulas are far enough off for me that they'd estimate my max to be a number that's really approximately on the lower end of anaerobic threshold; if I relied on that, I'd be working with zones a full zone away from reality in most schemes, and not making much fitness progress . . . but I'd get too-high calorie estimates!)
It's important to realize that "calculators" and HRM/tracker devices are still estimating exercise calories, not actually calculating or measuring them.
These are oldies, but still goodies, very informative:
https://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Azdak/view/hrms-cannot-count-calories-during-strength-training-17698
https://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Azdak/view/the-real-facts-about-hrms-and-calories-what-you-need-to-know-before-purchasing-an-hrm-or-using-one-21472
The fitness trackers that measure factors beyond heart rate, plus ask you to tell them what type of exercise you're doing, have the theoretical potential to be slightly more accurate in their estimating, but I don't know how sophisticated the algorithms actually are in that respect. A straight HRM (that doesn't know what you're doing) is more limited even theoretically.
600-800 calories for 30-45 minutes of Beachbody Insanity (1200 or more calories/hour) is a pretty big number. I know you're a larger person, so I'm not trying to say it's necessarily wrong or even difficult to believe: I don't have a standard of comparison, as I'm much smaller. Maybe one of the bigger guys around here has some insight.
I know this is maybe coming across as confrontational or critical, but I truly don't mean it that way. I'd like to help you figure out what's going on, and find a path to success, if possible. :flowerforyou:13 -
GaleHawkins wrote: »
Let go of the cruel myth that weight loss is all about cutting calories and find the calorie sources that works best for your health so body weight has a chance to automatically regulate. I think you to may come to realize the need to count calories to lose/maintain weight is often due to some prior health failure(s) that first need to be addressed before weight loss can become autoregulated once again. Most all animals can become obese eating the wrong macros and humans are no different.
This is irresponsible advice and defies science.
Could you post scientific links that supports you personal opinion which you posted above?20 -
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.4 -
GaleHawkins wrote: »GaleHawkins wrote: »
Let go of the cruel myth that weight loss is all about cutting calories and find the calorie sources that works best for your health so body weight has a chance to automatically regulate. I think you to may come to realize the need to count calories to lose/maintain weight is often due to some prior health failure(s) that first need to be addressed before weight loss can become autoregulated once again. Most all animals can become obese eating the wrong macros and humans are no different.
This is irresponsible advice and defies science.
Could you post scientific links that supports you personal opinion which you posted above?
Actually you are you are the person making the claim.Let go of the cruel myth that weight loss is all about cutting calories and find the calorie sources that works best for your health so body weight has a chance to automatically regulate. I think you to may come to realize the need to count calories to lose/maintain weight is often due to some prior health failure(s) that first need to be addressed before weight loss can become autoregulated once again. Most all animals can become obese eating the wrong macros and humans are no different.
That would put the burden of supporting this claim with evidence on you. Good of luck with that!19 -
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!4 -
GaleHawkins wrote: »GaleHawkins wrote: »
Let go of the cruel myth that weight loss is all about cutting calories and find the calorie sources that works best for your health so body weight has a chance to automatically regulate. I think you to may come to realize the need to count calories to lose/maintain weight is often due to some prior health failure(s) that first need to be addressed before weight loss can become autoregulated once again. Most all animals can become obese eating the wrong macros and humans are no different.
This is irresponsible advice and defies science.
Could you post scientific links that supports you personal opinion which you posted above?
http://foris.fao.org/preview/25553-0ece4cb94ac52f9a25af77ca5cfba7a8c.pdf8 -
GaleHawkins wrote: »GaleHawkins wrote: »
Let go of the cruel myth that weight loss is all about cutting calories and find the calorie sources that works best for your health so body weight has a chance to automatically regulate. I think you to may come to realize the need to count calories to lose/maintain weight is often due to some prior health failure(s) that first need to be addressed before weight loss can become autoregulated once again. Most all animals can become obese eating the wrong macros and humans are no different.
This is irresponsible advice and defies science.
Could you post scientific links that supports you personal opinion which you posted above?
I am pretty sure they still teach the basics of energy in elementary school.
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GaleHawkins wrote: »GaleHawkins wrote: »
Let go of the cruel myth that weight loss is all about cutting calories and find the calorie sources that works best for your health so body weight has a chance to automatically regulate. I think you to may come to realize the need to count calories to lose/maintain weight is often due to some prior health failure(s) that first need to be addressed before weight loss can become autoregulated once again. Most all animals can become obese eating the wrong macros and humans are no different.
This is irresponsible advice and defies science.
Could you post scientific links that supports you personal opinion which you posted above?
I am pretty sure they still teach the basics of energy in elementary school.
Thanks for communicating to the community your personal opinion was not supportable by scientific links that you could find. Misspeaking happens to us all from time to time.32 -
You should NOT be using cups for nuts.
(Unless of course you’re playing hockey or something)
Seriously though, nuts are super calorie dense and you absolutely have to weigh them. You could be ingesting several hundred more calories per week than you think.
You need to weigh your nuts!
And I’m laughing again.. sorry OP!
Keep trying, it takes awhile to figure out what the hang up is sometimes. Though it sounds like you’ve already had some great success!
Stick with one approach that feels the best to you, stay consistent with it, and weigh absolutely everything!16 -
Weight loss is from calorie reduction.
https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-weight/start-the-nhs-weight-loss-plan/7 -
The evidence to back up this claim.
https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-weight/start-the-nhs-weight-loss-plan/9 -
As for any other extraordinary claims on this thread, the burden of proof is on them; personal testimonials are excluded as a credible source.13
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GaleHawkins wrote: »GaleHawkins wrote: »GaleHawkins wrote: »
Let go of the cruel myth that weight loss is all about cutting calories and find the calorie sources that works best for your health so body weight has a chance to automatically regulate. I think you to may come to realize the need to count calories to lose/maintain weight is often due to some prior health failure(s) that first need to be addressed before weight loss can become autoregulated once again. Most all animals can become obese eating the wrong macros and humans are no different.
This is irresponsible advice and defies science.
Could you post scientific links that supports you personal opinion which you posted above?
I am pretty sure they still teach the basics of energy in elementary school.
Thanks for communicating to the community your personal opinion was not supportable by scientific links that you could find. Misspeaking happens to us all from time to time.
And thank you for communicating to everyone that you just don't seem to grasp the concept of 'burden of proof'22 -
GaleHawkins wrote: »GaleHawkins wrote: »GaleHawkins wrote: »
Let go of the cruel myth that weight loss is all about cutting calories and find the calorie sources that works best for your health so body weight has a chance to automatically regulate. I think you to may come to realize the need to count calories to lose/maintain weight is often due to some prior health failure(s) that first need to be addressed before weight loss can become autoregulated once again. Most all animals can become obese eating the wrong macros and humans are no different.
This is irresponsible advice and defies science.
Could you post scientific links that supports you personal opinion which you posted above?
I am pretty sure they still teach the basics of energy in elementary school.
Thanks for communicating to the community your personal opinion was not supportable by scientific links that you could find. Misspeaking happens to us all from time to time.
It is so obvious no link should be required. Besides I don't jump through hoops for a person that seems to enjoy trolling and spamming.
I am not the one trying to sell an autoregulation theory which would probably have links supporting it similar to the earth being flat. BTW, the earth is not flat. I also learned that in grade school.16 -
GaleHawkins wrote: »GaleHawkins wrote: »GaleHawkins wrote: »
Let go of the cruel myth that weight loss is all about cutting calories and find the calorie sources that works best for your health so body weight has a chance to automatically regulate. I think you to may come to realize the need to count calories to lose/maintain weight is often due to some prior health failure(s) that first need to be addressed before weight loss can become autoregulated once again. Most all animals can become obese eating the wrong macros and humans are no different.
This is irresponsible advice and defies science.
Could you post scientific links that supports you personal opinion which you posted above?
I am pretty sure they still teach the basics of energy in elementary school.
Thanks for communicating to the community your personal opinion was not supportable by scientific links that you could find. Misspeaking happens to us all from time to time.
He says as he offers nothing supporting his theory of autoregulation....
And doesn't address the other links posted in support of energy balance.8 -
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