Can you not eat enough to lose weight?

caithnessman · February 2020

Hi all. I hit my mac weight after Xmas and was 17 stone 4. I’m 5ft 8. I have moved to a desk job recently and my calorie daily goal is 1500 calories. I’ve been sticking to it pretty well averaging between 1200-1800 callories a day (sometimes less. Although not often).

I go the gym and lift weights 3 times a week, play squash/badminton and swim for 45 mins 2/3 times a week. I’m not sure how much I burn off during that time so I don’t deduct that from my daily allowance.

Will this hinder me for weight loss? Am I in starvation mode due to this.

I started off with a massive 9lbs loss after 1 week, then slowly 2/3 lbs a week. For the last 3 weeks I’ve been losing an average 0.8lbs a week.

Should I increase my intake? Should I take into account my callories burnt?

Any suggestions please will
Be a help.

Thanks

caithnessman · February 2020

I should say after 8 weeks I’m now 16.02lbs

tinkerbellang83 · February 2020

Starvation mode is not really a thing in the way you are expecting it to be. It is far more likely that your food logging/calorie burns are off and you're eating more than you think and/or burning less calorie through exercise than you think.

A healthy rate of loss is around 1-2lbs per week, so you're not too far off.

Check out the Most Helpful posts at the top of the board for advice on how to log more accurately.

yirara · February 2020

No, starvation mode doesn't exist. If your body would stop burning energy it would die. Quite simple. Your body is egotistical and makes sure this won't happen.

Choppdogg777 · February 2020

Stick to eating as much protein as possible thats another way

caithnessman · February 2020

I would say I’m pretty accurate with my food, it’s all homemade and weighed so I’m happy with what I’m eating. The exercise I’m not really counting so if I go the gym for 2 hours and say burn off 500 callories (just a guess) I’m not adding it or taking it away.

I’ll try increase my protein intake maybe that’ll help.

I am still losing weight so that’s good, just find when I press the complete diary it says I should be a lot less than I am.

scarlett_k · February 2020

caithnessman wrote: »

I would say I’m pretty accurate with my food, it’s all homemade and weighed so I’m happy with what I’m eating. The exercise I’m not really counting so if I go the gym for 2 hours and say burn off 500 callories (just a guess) I’m not adding it or taking it away.

I’ll try increase my protein intake maybe that’ll help.

I am still losing weight so that’s good, just find when I press the complete diary it says I should be a lot less than I am.

The estimate you see is just an estimate based on your current day, I wouldn't read much into it.

sijomial · February 2020

caithnessman wrote: »

I would say I’m pretty accurate with my food, it’s all homemade and weighed so I’m happy with what I’m eating. The exercise I’m not really counting so if I go the gym for 2 hours and say burn off 500 callories (just a guess) I’m not adding it or taking it away.

I’ll try increase my protein intake maybe that’ll help.

I am still losing weight so that’s good, just find when I press the complete diary it says I should be a lot less than I am.

You don't have to complete your diary if the projection irritates or demotivates you.

If results don't follow expectations then you have choices:
1/ Look for the reason(s) why - overwhelmingly it's because of inaccuracy in one side of the calorie balance equation, or even both sides and making your diary public would help people to help you.
2/ Rely on consistency and simply adjust your intake based on the feedback loop of your long term weight trend.
3/ A bit of both - which is what I did, I adjusted my goal down in line with my trend weight but also investigated better ways to estimate my exercise. My roughly 1,000 discrepancy was a bit of slopy food logging and slightly exaggerated calorie burns from exercise.

But I must say that if you have lost 16lbs in 8 weeks I'm simply not seeing a problem that needs to be fixed let alone look for wild theories like starvation mode.

WinoGelato · February 2020

Choppdogg777 wrote: »

Stick to eating as much protein as possible thats another way

Another way for what?
Why would eating more protein help OP with their specific goal?

SnifterPug · February 2020

Given the rate of weight loss it sounds as if you are about where you need to be in respect of diet and exercise. You may not be losing as much as you expect if you are building any muscle. Do you measure yourself as well as weigh? Are your clothes feeling looser than you might expect?

Can you not eat enough to lose weight?

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