Only eating 1200 calories a day and not losing Weight
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janejellyroll wrote: »nationalvillage3215 wrote: »RachelAnnSaldana wrote: »I don’t eat my excercise calories and I don’t like that the app adds the calories onto your total. If I eat the excercise calories I always gain.
I don't eat the exercise calories either since I also always gain. I have been on 1200 calories for 5 months and have lost 23 lbs (4.6 lbs/month). It is a slow go and not linear. I have also adjusted my macros to see what works for me, everyone is different. I try to keep my carbs below 100, my proteins to a max of 8 oz. per day and 25-30 grams fiber daily. I have been chastised on this board for this diet plan with claims that it is unhealthy, I will lose my hair, suffer horrible declines in my health, will not be able to maintain once I lose what I want. None of this has come true so far and my doctor is pleased. I am 70 years old, 5 ft. 2.5inches tall. I walk 5 miles most days of the week. I would suggest you consult your doctor on what plan is healthy for you.
4.6 pounds a month is not a "slow go."
If not eating back exercise calories leads to this weight loss rate (which is equivalent to a daily deficit of about 535 calories per day) and eating back the exercise calories leads to weight gain, that would mean over 535 exercise calories attributed per day. I can't be more precise since the weight gain isn't specified, but reasonably at least 600 calories to be over maintenance in such a way that it leads to noticeable weight gain, which is quite a lot for a 5 mile walk.
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It's important when you're adding your foods into your daily log to be very specific about what it is you ate. I'm not saying you aren't already doing that, but whenever I input something, say for instance cottage cheese, I'll match the nutrition label to the exact item on the fitness pal app. If you pick the wrong brand or the same brand with different health facts (say reduced fat vs regular) it can make a big difference.
Also, I suggest buying a scale and weighing your meats. Before I cook any meat I put it on my kitchen scale and then input the exact amount of grams into my fitness pal. I do the same thing with all ingredients using measuring cups.
One more suggestion: You're never going to get the calories exactly right no matter how accurate you try to be, so what I do is I always OVERESTIMATE how many calories I'm taking in by 100-200 calories. It's better to overestimate then underestimate.1 -
nationalvillage3215 wrote: »RachelAnnSaldana wrote: »I don’t eat my excercise calories and I don’t like that the app adds the calories onto your total. If I eat the excercise calories I always gain.
I don't eat the exercise calories either since I also always gain. I have been on 1200 calories for 5 months and have lost 23 lbs (4.6 lbs/month). It is a slow go and not linear. I have also adjusted my macros to see what works for me, everyone is different. I try to keep my carbs below 100, my proteins to a max of 8 oz. per day and 25-30 grams fiber daily. I have been chastised on this board for this diet plan with claims that it is unhealthy, I will lose my hair, suffer horrible declines in my health, will not be able to maintain once I lose what I want. None of this has come true so far and my doctor is pleased. I am 70 years old, 5 ft. 2.5inches tall. I walk 5 miles most days of the week. I would suggest you consult your doctor on what plan is healthy for you.
The reality is that you do in fact eat back your exercise calories assuming your goal was around 1 pound a week loss, otherwise your loss would be more rapid. That or you don't exercise much. It sounds to me like those exercise calories counterbalance inaccurate logging.15 -
Lillymoo01 wrote: »nationalvillage3215 wrote: »RachelAnnSaldana wrote: »I don’t eat my excercise calories and I don’t like that the app adds the calories onto your total. If I eat the excercise calories I always gain.
I don't eat the exercise calories either since I also always gain. I have been on 1200 calories for 5 months and have lost 23 lbs (4.6 lbs/month). It is a slow go and not linear. I have also adjusted my macros to see what works for me, everyone is different. I try to keep my carbs below 100, my proteins to a max of 8 oz. per day and 25-30 grams fiber daily. I have been chastised on this board for this diet plan with claims that it is unhealthy, I will lose my hair, suffer horrible declines in my health, will not be able to maintain once I lose what I want. None of this has come true so far and my doctor is pleased. I am 70 years old, 5 ft. 2.5inches tall. I walk 5 miles most days of the week. I would suggest you consult your doctor on what plan is healthy for you.
The reality is that you do in fact eat back your exercise calories assuming your goal was around 1 pound a week loss, otherwise your loss would be more rapid. That or you don't exercise much. It sounds to me like those exercise calories counterbalance inaccurate logging.
^^^This is most likely what is happening...10 -
nationalvillage3215 wrote: »RachelAnnSaldana wrote: »I don’t eat my excercise calories and I don’t like that the app adds the calories onto your total. If I eat the excercise calories I always gain.
I don't eat the exercise calories either since I also always gain. I have been on 1200 calories for 5 months and have lost 23 lbs (4.6 lbs/month). It is a slow go and not linear. I have also adjusted my macros to see what works for me, everyone is different. I try to keep my carbs below 100, my proteins to a max of 8 oz. per day and 25-30 grams fiber daily. I have been chastised on this board for this diet plan with claims that it is unhealthy, I will lose my hair, suffer horrible declines in my health, will not be able to maintain once I lose what I want. None of this has come true so far and my doctor is pleased. I am 70 years old, 5 ft. 2.5inches tall. I walk 5 miles most days of the week. I would suggest you consult your doctor on what plan is healthy for you.
as a long term member of these boards, I am not sure what you would have been chastised for in the above.
With all the information given - you are an older shortish female losing at the rate of just over 1 lb per week over time, then 1200 may well be right for you.
You are the demographic which long term MFP-ers do say 1200 is the right amount for - and if you are not doing highly energetic excercise - ie you are just doing walking - then most likely your non eaten back excercise calories is evening up with some inaccurate logging.
Your results would suggest you probably are eating around about 1200 calories net - and what you are doing is working, so no problem.
But I'm really not getting the point of all these anecdotal 'But I did x and that works for me!' posts
If what you are doing is working for you - great.
Ive always pushed the line that you do not need to log to the nth degree of accuracy, (and I certainly don't) you only need to log to the degree that works for you
What OP is doing is not working though so upping the degree of logging to find out why, would be a good step.
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Obviously people think I am losing weight incorrectly, find my post somewhat offensive, and I do not accurately log my food (which I do). I will therefore, probably to the relief of many, will divert to the experts, scientists and mathmetician posters and will no longer be participating on the MFP Community Boards.6
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nationalvillage3215 wrote: »Obviously people think I am losing weight incorrectly, find my post somewhat offensive, and I do not accurately log my food (which I do). I will therefore, probably to the relief of many, will divert to the experts, scientists and mathmetician posters and will no longer be participating on the MFP Community Boards.
Nobody thinks you're losing weight incorrectly. At issue is whether or not it is good advice for OP to have less data (what you're recommending) instead of more data. You are seeing results that are satisfactory for you. OP isn't. So your advice that it is okay to be less accurate doesn't really apply here.14 -
Check the EM2WL group here.0
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MFP vastly overestimates exercise calories. The giant surplus your eating back is ruining your goals. When I stopped using MFP and just ate a deficit without logging exercise I lost 13lbs. Now I'm using MFP without logging exercise or eating back any extra calories and will begin losing weight again. I really wish MFP had settings to stop adding exercise calories and encouraging you to eat them back. I made my own exercise that burns 1 calorie so I could note I'm working out without really effecting my base calories.2
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Your body type can be a factor. I am short (5'2") and have a small build, I have to eat 1000 calories to lose weight. I do not lose weight if I eat 1200.1
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This is one of those “your miles may vary” topics because I eat back nearly all of my exercise calories logged by Garmin and have lost at the expected rate. If I didn’t eat back exercise calories I would be a mess because some days it’s 800-1000 if I do something extensive (Sprint Tri one day, Sunday I went hiking with the family, then 4 mile run later in the evening, etc.). Most exercise days I average around 300-400 for running and am noticeably hungry for days afterwards if I don’t properly refuel (especially if I stay consistently active, which is happening more and more with warm weather - walks, gardening, yard work, chores, etc.)).Beverly2Hansen wrote: »MFP vastly overestimates exercise calories. The giant surplus your eating back is ruining your goals. When I stopped using MFP and just ate a deficit without logging exercise I lost 13lbs. Now I'm using MFP without logging exercise or eating back any extra calories and will begin losing weight again. I really wish MFP had settings to stop adding exercise calories and encouraging you to eat them back. I made my own exercise that burns 1 calorie so I could note I'm working out without really effecting my base calories.
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Beverly2Hansen wrote: »MFP vastly overestimates exercise calories. The giant surplus your eating back is ruining your goals. When I stopped using MFP and just ate a deficit without logging exercise I lost 13lbs. Now I'm using MFP without logging exercise or eating back any extra calories and will begin losing weight again. I really wish MFP had settings to stop adding exercise calories and encouraging you to eat them back. I made my own exercise that burns 1 calorie so I could note I'm working out without really effecting my base calories.
This may work well for people who aren't very active, but it isn't appropriate at all for more active people. You need to account for your activity in some way -- either in your initial calorie goal or through making adjustments.4 -
I would definitely agree with everyone about weighing your food with a scale. You would be surprised how much calories can vary. Also make sure you’re tracking any oils you cook your food in. Those can be quite high in calories. Try using cooking sprays when you can. I know it doesn’t always do the food justice. You don’t have to do it for every meal but I found that really helped me.3
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Beverly2Hansen wrote: »MFP vastly overestimates exercise calories. The giant surplus your eating back is ruining your goals. When I stopped using MFP and just ate a deficit without logging exercise I lost 13lbs. Now I'm using MFP without logging exercise or eating back any extra calories and will begin losing weight again. I really wish MFP had settings to stop adding exercise calories and encouraging you to eat them back. I made my own exercise that burns 1 calorie so I could note I'm working out without really effecting my base calories.
The setting is accurate logging of calories in and calories out and adjusting percentage of exercise calories after collecting data over time
For some people it's 50%, for others 100%, etc.
If 0% is an accurate predictor, something is wrong with the logging of calories in.9 -
nationalvillage3215 wrote: »Obviously people think I am losing weight incorrectly, find my post somewhat offensive, and I do not accurately log my food (which I do). I will therefore, probably to the relief of many, will divert to the experts, scientists and mathmetician posters and will no longer be participating on the MFP Community Boards.
Nobody said you are losing weight incorrectly
or found your post offensive
and I would say none of us log our food accurately - some just do it more accurately than others and it isnt a competition anyway, you only have to do it as accurately as you want to or as works for you - ie gets the desired results.
which is really a paraphrase of what I said before.
Is this what you called before posters chastising you???
seems more like you getting offended at nothing to me.
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Your body type can be a factor. I am short (5'2") and have a small build, I have to eat 1000 calories to lose weight. I do not lose weight if I eat 1200.
More likely you do not lose weight if you eat more than your logged 1000.
Which again, fine if it is working for you - but most likely you are actually eating more than 1000.
5 ft 2 is not excessively short and 'body type' doesnt really change the equation.
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audrianna4969 wrote: »I would definitely agree with everyone about weighing your food with a scale. You would be surprised how much calories can vary. Also make sure you’re tracking any oils you cook your food in. Those can be quite high in calories. Try using cooking sprays when you can. I know it doesn’t always do the food justice. You don’t have to do it for every meal but I found that really helped me.
I had that driven home for me this week. I decided to make the black bean brownies on the front page this week. Usually, I'll just go by the can's serving and call it 3.5 servings for 1 whole can beans, but I got curious this time, wondering if that can was considering the liquid with the beans as part of the serving. So, after rinsing the beans, I weighed them and found that there was only 2 servings of actual beans in that can by weight! (which was rather nice, actually, as it did reduce the calories of the brownies ) 3 -
nationalvillage3215 wrote: »Obviously people think I am losing weight incorrectly, find my post somewhat offensive, and I do not accurately log my food (which I do). I will therefore, probably to the relief of many, will divert to the experts, scientists and mathmetician posters and will no longer be participating on the MFP Community Boards.
If what you are doing works for you and you are losing weight at a healthy rate then you are doing it correctly - FOR YOU! If this is the case then keep going as you are because you should be proud of your efforts. If, for whatever reason, they stop working then reassess.1 -
I’m not sure if it’s been mentioned but for those who don’t like the added excersise calories you can also google a tdee calculator and change your calorie amount in MFP and aim to eat that amount every day. It’s just the way MFP works to eat back excersise cals.
This is what I did when I first started then over time was able to figure out my actual maintenance based on the data I had2 -
Mazintrov13 wrote: »I’m not sure if it’s been mentioned but for those who don’t like the added excersise calories you can also google a tdee calculator and change your calorie amount in MFP and aim to eat that amount every day. It’s just the way MFP works to eat back excersise cals.
This is what I did when I first started then over time was able to figure out my actual maintenance based on the data I had
Just to point out TDEE method still has you eating back exercise calories - they are just estimated in advance instead of after the event (inherently even less accurate).
It's a perfecty valid method of course which highlights that despite inaccurate exercise estimates if people are eating the right amount (some experimentation required...) they can still lose weight / maintain weight successfully.5
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