Calorie Confusion

Korrie2020 · February 2022

So I started my weight loss journey about 10 days ago and going strong. My first week I lost 4 lbs eating an avg of 1700 cals a day.

My initial thought process is that if I am eating 4000 cals a day now, if I cut back to 2000 cals a day, I'll lose weight...and thats what I did..only after a few days of being over 2000 cals, I had a really hard time going past 1400/1500 calories, giving me a weekly avg of 1700 lbs...and I lost 4 lbs that week!

However, I was watching a video that teaches you how to figure your weight loss calories. You take your BMR (2012) and multiply it by lifestyle (sedimentary 1.2 ) coming to a TDEE of 2414. To lose 1lb a week I have to subtract 500 cals a day over 7 days....so 1914 a day. I'd like to lose 2 lbs a week so I'd have to cut out 1000 cals a day making my calories 1414 a day.

So now I'm confused. How did I lose 4 lbs by having a weekly avg of 1700 cals a day if I'm supposed to be consuming 1400 a day to lose 2 lbs a week?

cwolfman13 · February 2022

Early on when dieting and cutting calories you lose a lot of water weight, particularly if you've cut back on carbohydrates (carbs carry roughly 4 grams of water per 1 gram carb)...a good chunk of that 4 Lbs loss is water, not fat. Things typically start to normalize after the first 2-3 weeks.

Korrie2020 · February 2022

ok, so obviously my thinking process was way off. I thought if I started at 2000 cals, every 2nd or 3rd week I could drop the cals a little. But If I'm supposed to be at 1400 cals, I don't have much room to drop my cals once my body adjusts to the new lower calorie intake. Thoughts?

cwolfman13 · February 2022

Korrie2020 wrote: »

ok, so obviously my thinking process was way off. I thought if I started at 2000 cals, every 2nd or 3rd week I could drop the cals a little. But If I'm supposed to be at 1400 cals, I don't have much room to drop my cals once my body adjusts to the new lower calorie intake. Thoughts?

You are correct...that is one of the major issues with aggressive weight loss, particularly sedentary with no exercise or activity. 2 Lbs per week is generally considered safe, but very aggressive...but safe is also relative to how much you need to lose...everyone wants to lose weight yesterday, but 2 Lbs per week isn't a universally safe or smart goal...but that's for you to decide.

Also, regular exercise or more activity in general will give you a higher TDEE and thus a higher calorie target to lose weight. This also begs the question...are you really sedentary? Some people are truly sedentary, but in my experience, most people aren't. I have a desk job, and even without deliberate exercise I'm not sedentary, I fall under light active without exercise...moderately active to active with exercise depending on what I'm doing.

Personally, if it were me, I'd stick with 1700-2000 calories per day and get more data for a more informative analysis of what is actually happening and adjust from there as per real world results. The figures for your weight loss calculation are still very much just an estimate like any other calculator out there...they aren't gospel.

Korrie2020 · February 2022

I really appreciate your time in helping me.

Let me tell you my stats, maybe that will influence anything you have to say. I'm 5'6 (I think) and 288lbs.

I say sedimentary bc I do have an office job, but I literally sit on my butt about 7.25 out of 8 hrs. I sit on the way home, I mostly sit at home, aside from washing dishes or making dinner. Once a week I"ll walk down to the laundry room (I live in an apt) and once a week I'll change the sheets and do overall house cleaning (more than the day to day stuff).

Now there is lots of room for me to start moving. I have in the past walked around my office a few times and a few times a day....I also (up until 3 wks ago when I got covid) started getting up early and walking around my apt a few laps. I am probably going to be buying dumbbells this weekend. So increasing activity is definitely a desire of mine.

Like I said, Im just concerned about my body adjusting to a lower cal amt and stop burning cals as fast. Is the only option at that point is to increase exercise every couple of weeks?

cwolfman13 · February 2022

I put your stats into this calculator...don't know your age so I put 25:

https://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/

and it's pretty close to your calculations...but closer to 1500 calories per day. With your stats I would think you would lose just fine on that. The only way to increase your TDEE is more movement, but adaptive thermogenesis doesn't happen in 2-3 weeks...there's no reason to adjust your calorie intake down every few weeks.

As you get smaller, your TDEE will also become smaller (at the same activity level)...if I put into the calculator that you're 188 instead of 288, it comes to about 200 calories per day less...so that's not really something you need to worry about right now.

Adaptive thermogenesis is a thing, but doesn't happen overnight...it happens with prolonged dieting, particularly with severe under-eating...ie your calorie goal is 1500 per day which is already a big deficit, but you're undercutting that with an even bigger deficit and say, eating...1000 calories per day. The effects of adaptive thermogenesis also are more pronounced if an individual is already fairly lean and/or has been dieting for a long time and lost a lot of weight. These effects can be offset to some extent with refeeds and diet breaks which will likely be required in a long haul weight loss effort.

Here is a very good (but long) thread on the matter:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks/p1

But again, this isn't something you need to worry about in the near future. Do realize however that losing weight isn't a uniform, linear process. You will not lose exactly X Lbs per week. You will have weeks with smaller losses, bigger losses, no losses, and gains as well as periods where nothing seems to be happening. Many people mistake these things for not doing things correctly or they are in a plateau, or they need to change things up, etc...when in reality it's just natural and normal fluctuations that just happen. We aren't robots...the human body is very dynamic. Losing weight needs to be viewed as a trend over time rather than getting too wrapped up in the minutia of individual data points. A trend app like Libra is beneficial for this reasons. This is what weight loss looks like plotted on a graph...for everyone...

So don't get discouraged in the short term with fluctuations in weight that don't jive with the math, just keep moving forward. Embrace and trust the process and stay consistent within the process and win. And remember, you can't sprint a marathon...this is a rabbit and the hare kind of thing...don't be the rabbit.

Korrie2020 · February 2022

Fantastic explanation! I super appreciate all your time.. Thank you!

Calorie Confusion

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