Beginning calorie deficit when you're used to eating a lot

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Replies

  • girlwithcurls2
    girlwithcurls2 Posts: 2,257 Member
    This is really tricky and personal. You're getting a lot of good information and personal experience that will help you decide what will work for you. You might also find out that you try something and it just isn't manageable. I know that if I had overhauled my diet and cut my calories way down, I would have burned out. I started reading labels, weighing foods, and logging. At times, I had only one serving of something. Other times, 1.5 or 2. It didn't matter. It all got logged. If you managed to stay on keto for 3+ years, you can probably overhaul your diet and calorie intake and stick to it. It does sound like you have the right mindset and attitude for success. Be patient as you go through the process. You'll learn lots of things about yourself, food, your body, etc. Allow for slip ups and trust the process.

    Best of luck to you!
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,030 Member
    Several people have mentioned the volume eaters thread. I didn't see that anyone had linked it. I think this is probably the one being referred to:

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10563959/volume-eaters-thread
  • corinasue1143
    corinasue1143 Posts: 7,467 Member
    Sounds like you’ve got a good plan and a good mindset.
    Lots of luck! You can do it.
    And I have a feeling you WILL do it.
  • losingit4G
    losingit4G Posts: 13 Member
    Random question but I’m just now getting serious about counting all my calories and even logged after I ate an entire pizza but where does it show your calorie deficit-is that the same as calories remaining?
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,030 Member
    losingit4G wrote: »
    Random question but I’m just now getting serious about counting all my calories and even logged after I ate an entire pizza but where does it show your calorie deficit-is that the same as calories remaining?

    It doesn't explicitly show your deficit. If you set up MFP asking for X pounds weight loss weekly, that determines your deficit (1 pound per week = 500 calorie daily deficit, for example).

    Then you eat until you've eaten all the calories in your daily goal, plus a reasonable estimate of exercise calories. You eat until calories remaining is zero, or close.

    Your deficit is built in, taken off the top, before it gives you your goal.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,030 Member
    pink_mint wrote: »
    Just wanted to provide a small progress report if it is helpful to anyone. I am 16 days into this weight loss effort. I set/ lowered my calories to 2,400 (from approximately 4,000 starting), tracked my intake without a food scale, and after some cycle related things and fluctuations, I'm officially at a 4 lb loss so far, 2 weeks into this.

    So it is still very early and adjustments are sure to happen over time but... I guess this just goes to show what it's worth to know your own unique body, hunger levels, energy output etc. If I had started at 1,600 calories thinking I just obey MFP calculator or what I "should" be eating to lose, I would have quit and concluded there's something wrong with me by now.

    I'm definitely eating less and it took a few days to get used to but it's tolerable at this point. I think some people just have a higher TDEE than they're 'supposed' to. Hence probably why I ate 4,000 calories a day and and wasn't as heavy as the calculations say I would be.

    So I don't know if this is helpful to anyone but basically we're not computers, we're complex human beings. A food scale may or may not be necessary but there's a big picture🌻

    Yes, possible.

    Your calorie goal is a statistical estimate. MFP is close for most people, a bit off for some (high or low), and way off for a very few (that's rare). That's the nature of statistical estimates. The goal MFP calculates is essentially the average (mean) for people of your size, weight, age, etc.

    MFP thinks I'd burn 25-30% fewer calories than nearly 5 years of carefully-logged weight loss/maintenance tell me I do (quite rare).

    Is note that it's also very common (not universal) to lose faster in the first 1-2 weeks of a diet, because water weight depletes and average digestive contents in transit are lower. Those aren't fat reductions, but they show up on the scale. Sometimes there can be a couple weeks of pseudo-plateau or even fake gain after an initial faster loss, too, sadly, but it settles out with more time. Hang in there, regardless!
  • ReenieHJ
    ReenieHJ Posts: 9,724 Member
    Were you eating 4K cal due to hunger or habit, binge, etc.? I find myself having a binge day sometimes and mentally calculate the # of cal I think I take in. It's around 4K or so. I'm never hungry, except mentally hungry. My normal days I don't seem to be hungry(except mentally) either and I usually eat to around 1400-1500 cal., depending on activity level.
    Seeing that you've been on this 2+ weeks and are losing a couple lbs. a week, you seem to be at a good spot, or you could even add 200 cal. if you find yourself getting hungry or wanting to binge.

    Good luck!!
  • cherys
    cherys Posts: 387 Member
    edited March 2020
    I can tell you how I did it, because I'm in week four and honestly have found it so much easier than I thought I would. Start by making a list of all the really low calorie foods that you love and use these as the basis of the bulk of your meals. This is easy if you love vegetables and berries etc. For now, swap fatty foods for low fat varieties as they have fewer calories for the same bulk. Do the same with sugar - ditch sugary varieties for low sugar. Cook in ways that require no extra fat. Look for lower calorie versions of what you love

    So for breakfast I will have 100g of low fat greek yoghurt or skyr sprinkled with 35g of low sugar granola and then bulked out with lots of fresh or frozen berries.

    The other day I was craving red meat. We had some gourmet burgers in the freezer but they were 330 cals each and 22% fat. Instead I bought some 5% fat lean mince, added finely chopped onion and egg, seasoning, stirred them together, made them into beefburger patties and grilled them on a sheet of baking parchment. Each one was 150 calories. They were delicious. With a big leafy salad and some tomatoes, two burgers some in at around 350 calories for a main meal. You can add a bowl of home popped corn (just pop it in a pan, no oil, then add salt and paprika) if you want some padding.

    I find cutting out white flour helped reduce my appetite overnight as it stopped the cravings. That's worth trying as an experiment. It won't work for everyone, but if you are over eating every day, are there times when you are bingeing in response to a craving rather than actual hunger? I find the two really easy to identify now, Cravings are like an incessant voice saying 'I'm starving and must eat something carby absolutely immediately, in high volume.' Real hunger is a feeling in the stomach that signals food is needed but it can wait for half an hour or more. Not having felt it for years, I quite like the feeling of real hunger. It feels healthy.
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
    pink_mint wrote: »
    So when you're used to eating 4,000 or so calories a day, how do you ease into a calorie deficit? I know I was eating this much because I started this current weight loss endeavor by being very honest with myself and tracking my intake on a normal day where I wasn't trying to be "good".

    I know what MFP says I should be eating to lose weight. But how realistic and sustainable is it to just all of a sudden drop a full 2,000 per day? This is not about specific numbers per se. I'm just wondering about a calorie range when starting out in a place where you're used to eating so far above what your recommended calorie budget is for weight loss.

    Do you just cut your calories so drastically and suffer through it until you get used to it? Or lower them in stages, even though you won't be in an actual deficit at first?

    Any thoughts appreciated!

    I started by concentrating more on WHEN I ate, rather than what. I am a grazer so I set out specific meal times (3 meals plus 2 snacks) to eat instead of allowing myself to eat whenever. I tried to make those meals out of more meal-type food instead of snack type food (for example: a sandwich, piece of fruit, and container of yogurt for lunch instead of unlimited chips and salsa). Once I had the schedule down, I started lowering my calories to the target MFP set for me. Turns out I already lowered them by half just by eating meals instead of eating what I wanted, when I wanted it. It took me about 3 weeks to get into a groove at my calorie target but was a reasonably painless process.

    It is good that you already started tracking, even the high calorie count. You can look at past days and see where you can just cut down a little or things you can cut out easily. The first thing people tend to change is beverages. Do you drink full sugar soda? Switch to diet. Fancy high sugar/high fat coffee drinks? Switch to black or a splash of cream and a small amount of sweetener. Juice? Eat whole fruit instead. Do you eat a huge mound of pasta? Eat less pasta but make the sauce heartier with more meat and veggies.

    Small changes you start making right now will make a bigger difference in the long run than drastic changes right now. You will learn new habits and your weight loss will be more sustainable.

    If there is something you cannot moderate (for me it is peanut butter and finger food like chips or cookies), cut it out for now. Later you may be able to have it in the house but be honest with yourself.
  • cherrylou123
    cherrylou123 Posts: 96 Member
    Do it little by little 😊😊😊.. Let your body adjust to its demand

    Example when you are eating rice 3 cups in 1 meal.. Make it 2. 5 then when your body has adjusted already make it lesser again.. Do it until you can eat only 1 cup of rice a day 😉.. Do the same for all other food especially for the unhealthy foods.. Eat more on veggies for snack (they make you feel full especially the green) and the protein rich food for meal, they help you build muscle 💪😊
  • pink_mint
    pink_mint Posts: 103 Member
    Thanks for the replies, everyone.

    I am not even sure if I was binging when eating 4k calories a day. For me personally, I really think it was a reaction, a very hard pendulum swing after I stopped my lengthy keto experience. It's almost like I needed a length of time to feel like I'm allowed to eat what I want after feeling so extremely deprived for so long on keto. So for some people, eating that much may just be habits built over time, but I think at least part of it was somewhat healing from disordered eating patterns for me. But now of course I'm ready to reverse the weight gain in a sustainable way (def not keto).

    Anyway I don't know if it's just me but eating that much (4k calories a day or more) is not hard and didn't even feel like I was stuffing myself. There are a number of value meals at major fast food establishments that are 2,000 calories just for that one meal. Sonic even has a single milkshake that exceeds 2,000 cals. The food environment we live in, here in the US at least, just makes it so easy and seamless to overeat.

    I've noticed so far that tracking food intake is good to make sure you don't eat too much, but also that you're eat enough! Wanting to lose weight and not tracking can lead to a binge-restrict cycle. It's not that hard to get into actually.

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