1200-1400 calories a day but not losing
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callumrayb
Posts: 19 Member
Hi! I posted this in the food and nutrition but didn't realize that this section is for diet too. So,
I weigh around 106.5kg and my height is 174cm.
I am following the tried and tested Exante diet meal replacement of 3-4 200kcal products a day with a meal at the end of the day. I am currently working out too, not cardio, mainly lifting. But I've hit a stump, for the last 3 days progress has declined massively and I'm starting to gain, I weigh myself everyday at the same time, I eat between 2-6pm no later than 6:30pm. I thought maybe it's just muscle mass as I've only recently just started seeing changes in strength. But I have these scales that tell me my BFP and fat mass, muscle mass has increased by about 0.5lbs but fat has also jumped higher which I don't understand. I occasionally have a protein shake just after my workouts (100kcal) all in all I don't go above 1400kcal a day but I'm GAINING weight and according to my scales fat too! I'm at a loss. Any help?
I weigh around 106.5kg and my height is 174cm.
I am following the tried and tested Exante diet meal replacement of 3-4 200kcal products a day with a meal at the end of the day. I am currently working out too, not cardio, mainly lifting. But I've hit a stump, for the last 3 days progress has declined massively and I'm starting to gain, I weigh myself everyday at the same time, I eat between 2-6pm no later than 6:30pm. I thought maybe it's just muscle mass as I've only recently just started seeing changes in strength. But I have these scales that tell me my BFP and fat mass, muscle mass has increased by about 0.5lbs but fat has also jumped higher which I don't understand. I occasionally have a protein shake just after my workouts (100kcal) all in all I don't go above 1400kcal a day but I'm GAINING weight and according to my scales fat too! I'm at a loss. Any help?
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Replies
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Just going to repeat what I said in your other thread
(PS I wouldn't recommended posting multiple threads about the same question)
Some things you need to understand:
- weight loss is not linear, ups and down are normal.
- 3 days is nothing, way too short to show you anything reliable. 4 weeks is a minimum to determine your true weight trend.
- those scales are not reliable and can give different values just from different levels of hydration
I'd like to add that your calorie intake is low, too low IMHO. I'm 'only' a 5ft5 woman and I lost weight eating between 1700-2000 calories. Generally speaking 1500 is the minmum used here on MFP for males, to ensure adequate nutrition. And being over 100kg, even that sounds too low to me. Losing weight too fast carries health risks, it's better to slow it down.13 -
Just going to repeat what I said in your other thread (PS I wouldn't recommended posting multiple threads about the same question)
Some things you need to understand:
- weight loss is not linear, ups and down are normal.
- 3 days is nothing, way too short to show you anything reliable. 4 weeks is a minimum to determine your true weight trend.
- those scales are not reliable and can give different values just from different levels of hydration
I'd like to add that your calorie intake is low, too low IMHO. I'm 'only' a 5ft5 woman and I lost weight eating between 1700-2000 calories. Generally speaking 1500 is the minmum used here on MFP for males, to ensure adequate nutrition. And being over 100kg, even that sounds too low to me. Losing weight too fast carries health risks, it's better to slow it down.
Yeah I'll use this thread, sorry I didn't realize this one was for diets too. If I could delete the old one I would 🤫0 -
callumrayb wrote: »Just going to repeat what I said in your other thread (PS I wouldn't recommended posting multiple threads about the same question)
Some things you need to understand:
- weight loss is not linear, ups and down are normal.
- 3 days is nothing, way too short to show you anything reliable. 4 weeks is a minimum to determine your true weight trend.
- those scales are not reliable and can give different values just from different levels of hydration
I'd like to add that your calorie intake is low, too low IMHO. I'm 'only' a 5ft5 woman and I lost weight eating between 1700-2000 calories. Generally speaking 1500 is the minmum used here on MFP for males, to ensure adequate nutrition. And being over 100kg, even that sounds too low to me. Losing weight too fast carries health risks, it's better to slow it down.
Yeah I'll use this thread, sorry I didn't realize this one was for diets too. If I could delete the old one I would 🤫
The moderators can delete for you.
Click
Flag/Report/This is my post and I want to delete it.2 -
callumrayb wrote: »Just going to repeat what I said in your other thread (PS I wouldn't recommended posting multiple threads about the same question)
Some things you need to understand:
- weight loss is not linear, ups and down are normal.
- 3 days is nothing, way too short to show you anything reliable. 4 weeks is a minimum to determine your true weight trend.
- those scales are not reliable and can give different values just from different levels of hydration
I'd like to add that your calorie intake is low, too low IMHO. I'm 'only' a 5ft5 woman and I lost weight eating between 1700-2000 calories. Generally speaking 1500 is the minmum used here on MFP for males, to ensure adequate nutrition. And being over 100kg, even that sounds too low to me. Losing weight too fast carries health risks, it's better to slow it down.
Yeah I'll use this thread, sorry I didn't realize this one was for diets too. If I could delete the old one I would 🤫
The moderators can delete for you.
Click
Flag/Report/This is my post and I want to delete it.
Thank you!1 -
If your weight hasn't moved or has increased in the past 3 days and you're still doing the same thing as when you lost 29lbs(per your other thread) its just water retention. Ignore the scales fat percentage, it's nonsense.6
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You will definitely have jumps and dips. Stay the course, focus on the good things that have changed, and you’ll start losing again.
1400 calories is far too low though. You might risk crashing your body’s metabolism. If you try to fight against that, you’ll have a hard time winning. Your body is designed to survive in low intake situations. Don’t be afraid to refuel after a hard workout. Maybe consider adding another small meal to your day. This is not a sprint. You are going to want to adopt a healthy, sustainable diet that you can live with for a long time.3 -
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For anyone who wants to see my chart here ya go! I definitely know that weight yoyos and goes up down, sideways and every other possible axis! But mine has stayed the same and gone up which is unusual for my circumstances.
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My weight will stay the same and even go up when I'm eating at a deficit, often for 3 weeks at a time before I see a consistent drop. If you know you're logging correctly have faith that the scale will show the change eventually. 3 days is nothing at all to worry about.3
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Like others have said, 3 days is not a meaningful sample set. Your overall weight graph is going down over a period of multiple weeks and that's all that matters. If you are going to weigh daily you'll need to understand that this happens to everyone.
As for your body fat measurement scale readings, these readings also are heavily impacted by water weight. You can't infer anything from those readings on a day to day basis.
Your calorie intake seems fairly low, but your rate of weight loss seems to be about 1.5lbs per week (if I'm reading your graph correctly) which given your total weight is actually a reasonable rate.
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Also, eat more.
1200-1400 for a man your size is too little.
Bump it up to what myfitnesspal tells you to eat to lose one pound per week. You're going to crash and burn on 1200-1400.5 -
I can “lose fat” according to my scales by weighing myself before and after a bath 🤣. They measure impedance of body fluids etc to estimate and for some reason being hotter after the bath always results in a lower fat reading. So does greater hydration. My scales say I have more fat first thing in the morning when I’m naturally dehydrated compared to evening when I’m hydrated. They are useful for trends over time but it genuinely does not mean you’ve put fat on in a day.4
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A gain that fast, without changing calorie level in an *extreme*, *dramatic* way (many thousands of calories), is not fat. Overwhelming likelihood that it's water retention. There doesn't even have to be a reason, but there are many, many possible reasons.**
One possible reason is that stress increases cortisol, and cortisol can increase water retention. Eating too little is a physical stressor. You've been eating too little for quite a while now, it sounds like. (I'm a 5'5" 125 pound 65-year-old woman, and I'm another who'd lose weight crazy-fast eating what you're eating, and doing what you're doing.)
By the way, those BIA scales? Not precise enough in determine body composition with anything like 0.5lb granularity over a few days' period. They can be useful to see long-term trends in body composition (because you can ignore outlier measurements), but the absolute values are always questionable, and short-term changes pretty meaningless. It's sending a weak electrical current through your body (mostly lower body, if you don't have 4-point contact), and measuring the electrical flow. It's not directly measuring composition, and can be mislead by things like hydration levels.
Hang in there, eat a bit more (which will cause some temporary scale jump, BTW), and settle in for the long haul. That would be in the best interest of both your health and body composition. If this sounds harsh, I'm sorry: Try to think of me as your concerned old internet auntie who's speaking frankly because she wants you to stay healthy while achieving your weight goals, because I do want that. 😉
** If you haven't read the article below, it would be a highly recommended to read, for background info on this:
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
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callumrayb wrote: »For anyone who wants to see my chart here ya go! I definitely know that weight yoyos and goes up down, sideways and every other possible axis! But mine has stayed the same and gone up which is unusual for my circumstances.
Where’s the unusual part?2 -
Are your muscles sore from the 2x a day deadlifts? (That I do not recommend!)
Sore muscles = water retention, which will show as a gain on the scale. It’s not fat gain, so no reason to sweat it.3 -
quiksylver296 wrote: »Are your muscles sore from the 2x a day deadlifts? (That I do not recommend!)
Sore muscles = water retention, which will show as a gain on the scale. It’s not fat gain, so no reason to sweat it.
Could make sense. Thanks everyone! I'll up my caloric intake. I don't lift 2x a day now just 5x4 a day max.0 -
Just a small update, still maintaining/gaining I'm now 107.5kg0
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callumrayb wrote: »Just a small update, still maintaining/gaining I'm now 107.5kg
You do know that 107.5kg is less than 107.7kg, right
You are not gaining.
You are still measuring progress in days which given water weight fluctuations is fairly meaningless.
Here's what happened to me a week or so ago:
Over a week with no loss, even a 2 lb gain ? Do you know what I did to fix it ? Nothing. I kept doing the same thing I had been doing. This is all very normal.
This is what happened next:
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