Help with interpreting my stats and how to improve

janiebsa wrote: »

It has been a month now.

How much weight have you lost in that month?

janiebsa wrote: »

No please keep asking, that is the only way to figure it out.
Well before that I was on way less calories but got quite a bollocking on this forum that I was busy with malnutrition so after rectifying that, I only lost 1kg this month and the rest of the time just kept steady.

Do you still have a menstrual cycle?

janiebsa wrote: »

No please keep asking, that is the only way to figure it out.
Well before that I was on way less calories but got quite a bollocking on this forum that I was busy with malnutrition so after rectifying that, I only lost 1kg this month and the rest of the time just kept steady.

I'm glad you've rectified that!

Here's what I think (I am not a medical professional. I've just done a lot of reading and learning on my own. )

You are still undereating. 1200 and not eating back exercise calories is putting you under 900 calories per day. I punched your stats into a TDEE calculator (Total Daily Energy Expenditure). It looks like you would maintain your weight on approximately 2039 calories per day.

You want to lose 10 to 15 kgs, so you should be shooting for a half kilo loss per week at most. If you aren't going to eat back exercise calories, you need a daily calorie target of ~1500 calories per day (provided you really are weighing and logging everything).

janiebsa wrote: »

Yes agreed with you, could not have maintained eating that little anyway. My cycle is all over the show, not that it was every very regular however last month I was at it for 3 weeks but I have the idea that I might be peri-menopausal but if I don't think about it then it might disappear the same way it arrived.
Also, I am not hungry with the amount of calories I eat at the moment.

Thank you so much for taking the time to help turn over all the rocks to see where the spiders live.

Hormones can cause water weight. I gain at ovulation and right before my period. If you are all over the place with your cycle, water weight may be masking fat loss. Read this article. It's awesome.

http://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations

If you're having trouble eating enough calories, add some fat. Peanut butter, full fat dairy, ice cream, fattier cuts of meats, etc.

janiebsa wrote: »

Hmm interesting, I got my BMR all wrong but that was just using an online calculator of course and they are just as good as the person who designed/coded them.

Would you mind please explaining the eating more to lose more scenario to me. I clearly do not completely understand how that works. Maybe I should add that I use Intermittent Fasting every day so my eating window is from 11am to 7pm.

Believe me I really am weighing and logging everything.

I believe you.

You are underfueling your body, and your body is reacting to that (I don't know the science behind it). I promise you will not gain on 1500 calories per day. Treat it as an experiment. Try 1500 calories for a good eight weeks (due to female hormones, stupid things!), and see what happens.

If you like Intermittent Fasting, keep using it. If it's a struggle, don't use it. IF isn't magic. It's just a tool that helps some people stay within their calorie target.

You are losing. You've lost a kg in a month, which is good!

quiksylver296 wrote: »

janiebsa wrote: »

Hmm interesting, I got my BMR all wrong but that was just using an online calculator of course and they are just as good as the person who designed/coded them.

Would you mind please explaining the eating more to lose more scenario to me. I clearly do not completely understand how that works. Maybe I should add that I use Intermittent Fasting every day so my eating window is from 11am to 7pm.

Believe me I really am weighing and logging everything.

I believe you.

You are underfueling your body, and your body is reacting to that (I don't know the science behind it). I promise you will not gain on 1500 calories per day. Treat it as an experiment. Try 1500 calories for a good eight weeks (due to female hormones, stupid things!), and see what happens.

If you like Intermittent Fasting, keep using it. If it's a struggle, don't use it. IF isn't magic. It's just a tool that helps some people stay within their calorie target.

You are losing. You've lost a kg in a month, which is good!

Not terribly scientific, but undereating stresses the body, stress raises cortisol, extra cortisol can lead to water retention, which makes your weight on the scale higher than it should be due to the extra water weight.

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/research-review/dietary-restraint-and-cortisol-levels-research-review.html/

...a group of women who scored higher on dietary restraint scores showed elevated baseline cortisol levels. By itself this might not be problematic, but as often as not, these types of dieters are drawn to extreme approaches to dieting.

They throw in a lot of intense exercise, try to cut calories very hard (and this often backfires if disinhibition is high; when these folks break they break) and cortisol levels go through the roof. That often causes cortisol mediated water retention (there are other mechanisms for this, mind you, leptin actually inhibits cortisol release and as it drops on a diet, cortisol levels go up further). Weight and fat loss appear to have stopped or at least slowed significantly. This is compounded even further in female dieters due to the vagaries of their menstrual cycle where water balance is changing enormously week to week anyhow.

And invariably, this type of psychology responds to the stall by going even harder. They attempt to cut calories harder, they start doing more activity. The cycle continues and gets worse. Harder dieting means more cortisol means more water retention means more dieting. Which backfires (other problems come in the long-term with this approach but you’ll have to wait for the book to read about that).

When what they should do is take a day or two off (even one day off from training, at least in men, lets cortisol drop significantly). Raise calories, especially from carbohydrates. This helps cortisol to drop. More than that they need to find a way to freaking chill out. Meditation, yoga, get a massage... Get in the bath, candles, a little Enya, a glass of wine, have some you-time but please just chill.

janiebsa wrote: »

Yes agreed with you, could not have maintained eating that little anyway. My cycle is all over the show, not that it was every very regular however last month I was at it for 3 weeks but I have the idea that I might be peri-menopausal but if I don't think about it then it might disappear the same way it arrived.
Also, I am not hungry with the amount of calories I eat at the moment.

Thank you so much for taking the time to help turn over all the rocks to see where the spiders live.

I'm 53 and my cycle is oddly regular now, so I can just look back a month. There are period tracker apps that help women track more erratic cycles.

Last month, I gained four pounds at ovulation, and nothing when I was premenstrual. (I use to gain less at ovulation and a few pounds premenstrually.)

So instead of getting depressed by the ovulation weight gain, I compare my weight to where it was at that point in my cycle last month. I am starting the ovulation spike now, but am 2 pounds less than I was this time last month.