My fitness pal calories and starvation mode maybe?
zfitgal
Posts: 518 Member
Hi, last year I was diagnosed with celiac disease. Prior to that I put on 30 pounds out of no where (I though malabsorption). Anyway, after I went gluten free I still had a hard time losing weight. I was eating 1650 calories and exercising intensely. I’m now wondering if everything f was just to much stress for my body. I had everything checked by my dr. Thyroid is good and hormones were pretty good, cortisol was slightly elevated throughout the day but not by much,but it was elevated. Anyway I’m here now a year later needing to change things up. I’m very tired and lost all motivation. I set my calories for my weight on MFP and kept it not active because I don’t want to be so active right now and it’s giving me 1710. Do you think eating and exercising the way I was eating could have been the issue? I was alwyas able to lose weight at 1650 I couldn’t anymore. Do you feel MFP calories are pretty accurate? Any suggestions on what to do to get back into shape and regain my body back? Any advice will be great! Thanks so much in advance
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Replies
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MFP synced with my Garmin was accurate enough to lose weight, in fact I lost more quickly than expected.
We're all individuals and we may or may not conform to the averages MFP uses to calculate the calorie goal. So the best thing is to give it a 'test run' of a few months (menstrual cycles if applicable) and see if your weight evolves as expected or not, and then adjust if needed.
How long did you try to lose weight eating 1650 calories while exercising heavily? If your calorie deficit is too great, it's stressful on the body, which can cause water retention, masking fat loss on the scale. Furthermore, intense exercise can lead to massive water retention, especially when it's new. Depending on the timeline/duration of your attempts, both of these things could explain your lack of progress on the scale.
As for tips to get back into shape: take it one step at a time. The more drastic the changes, to more likely you are to fall off the wagon, especially since you state being tired and having lost motivation.
Motivation isn't the key to weight loss, good habits and consistency is. It pays to make it as pleasant as possible (or at least not distinctly unpleasant), so you don't actually don't need tons of willpower to keep it up.
So for example just add a little movement here and here in your routine - doesn't need to be actual exercise, could simply be taking the stairs instead of the elevator, parking further away from the shops,... If you eventually want to exercise, choose something you enjoy, don't limit yourself to what you think you should be doing. Same with your food intake: how about just trying to eat your regular foods, but tweaking quantities and proportions to fit your calorie goal? With time and some experimentation, you can tweak your diet to be for example more satiating for the same amount of calories,...5 -
MFP synced with my Garmin was accurate enough to lose weight, in fact I lost more quickly than expected.
We're all individuals and we may or may not conform to the averages MFP uses to calculate the calorie goal. So the best thing is to give it a 'test run' of a few months (menstrual cycles if applicable) and see if your weight evolves as expected or not, and then adjust if needed.
How long did you try to lose weight eating 1650 calories while exercising heavily? If your calorie deficit is too great, it's stressful on the body, which can cause water retention, masking fat loss on the scale. Furthermore, intense exercise can lead to massive water retention, especially when it's new. Depending on the timeline/duration of your attempts, both of these things could explain your lack of progress on the scale.
As for tips to get back into shape: take it one step at a time. The more drastic the changes, to more likely you are to fall off the wagon, especially since you state being tired and having lost motivation.
Motivation isn't the key to weight loss, good habits and consistency is. It pays to make it as pleasant as possible (or at least not distinctly unpleasant), so you don't actually don't need tons of willpower to keep it up.
So for example just add a little movement here and here in your routine - doesn't need to be actual exercise, could simply be taking the stairs instead of the elevator, parking further away from the shops,... If you eventually want to exercise, choose something you enjoy, don't limit yourself to what you think you should be doing. Same with your food intake: how about just trying to eat your regular foods, but tweaking quantities and proportions to fit your calorie goal? With time and some experimentation, you can tweak your diet to be for example more satiating for the same amount of calories,...
I have been eating 1650 calories for several years. I always maintained a very lean muscular build. I did a lot of weight training and three hours of cardio a week day. I isolated my body parts with weight training and putting on a significant amount of muscle, but I did go through a lot of stress and then Covid happened and then I was diagnosed with celiac. I never had an issue losing weight. It’s always been quite simple for me up until now. After my celiac diagnosis I went gluten-free and continued eating 1650 cal and working out the same way I always have and I wasn’t able to lose. Could it be all the stress that I went through holding onto everything? Could be the stress of the diet? Could be the stress of the exercise? Could just be stress in general? I’m not really sure but I do want to take some control back. Maybe my metabolism needs to be built back up? Maybe I’ve been under eating for a long time and my body just said I’m not losing anything anymore. I don’t know… all I know is that I am lost and confused but it is strange that I being 1650 with working out and my fitness pal is telling me to eat 1710 doing nothing to maintain my weight.
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Here's the excellent thread from the sticky posts about "starvation mode" (which isn't what you're thinking it is, I don't think)
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1077746/starvation-mode-adaptive-thermogenesis-and-weight-loss/p1
...and, this is an interesting informative article
https://www.aworkoutroutine.com/metabolic-damage/2 -
Your diary is open - that's helpful! Looking over the past week, I see a lot of days that are not logged, or not fully logged, and lots of Quick Adds.
I encourage you to tighten up you logging for at least a month and check back in.
Here's my favorite article on "starvation mode:"
https://www.aworkoutroutine.com/starvation-mode/3 -
Re your question about MFP calories being accurate:
Unfortunately, the green check marks in the MFP database are used for both USER-created entries and ADMIN-created entries that MFP pulled from the USDA database. A green check mark for USER-created entries just means enough people have upvoted the entry - it is not necessarily correct.
To find ADMIN entries for whole foods, I get the syntax from the USDA database and paste that into MFP. All ADMIN entries from the USDA will have weights as an option BUT there is a glitch whereby sometimes 1g is the option but the values are actually for 100g. This is pretty easy to spot though, as when added the calories are 100x more than is reasonable.
https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Use the “SR Legacy” tab - that seems to be what MFP used to pull in entries.
Note: any MFP entry that includes "USDA" was USER entered.
For packaged foods, I verify the label against what I find in MFP. (Alas, you cannot just scan with your phone and assume what you get is correct.)
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kshama2001 wrote: »Your diary is open - that's helpful! Looking over the past week, I see a lot of days that are not logged, or not fully logged, and lots of Quick Adds.
I encourage you to tighten up you logging for at least a month and check back in.
Here's my favorite article on "starvation mode:"
https://www.aworkoutroutine.com/starvation-mode/kshama2001 wrote: »Your diary is open - that's helpful! Looking over the past week, I see a lot of days that are not logged, or not fully logged, and lots of Quick Adds.
I encourage you to tighten up you logging for at least a month and check back in.
Here's my favorite article on "starvation mode:"
https://www.aworkoutroutine.com/starvation-mode/
My logs have not been completed or really maintained..I’ve eaten way under. I was very consistent and now I have lost hope and don’t know to do. When I’m focused I’m looking everything..but like I said I was very focused and measured everything by the gram and wasn’t able to lose…for the past few weeks I’ve been trying to figure out what to do. I figured I’d come on here and ask for help
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If I were to guess, it is your calorie counting that is off. You are probably eating more calories than you think you are. And you aren't in "starvation mode" eating 1700 calories, unless your calorie needs are like 3500 calories or some really high number.1
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musicfan68 wrote: »If I were to guess, it is your calorie counting that is off. You are probably eating more calories than you think you are. And you aren't in "starvation mode" eating 1700 calories, unless your calorie needs are like 3500 calories or some really high number.
Nope 100% tracked to the gram. I wish I a was counting wrong…that’s easy to fix
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First, let me say that 3 hours of cardio a day sounds excessive. Especially when combined with weight training. There's no need to abuse your body like that.
How long have you been trying to lose with 1650 calories? And is this with zero activity? No more exercise? If you maintenance is 1710 without activity, then yes, you won't lose very quickly at all (and 1650 might be your actual maintenance - meaning without exercise).
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First, let me say that 3 hours of cardio a day sounds excessive. Especially when combined with weight training. There's no need to abuse your body like that.
How long have you been trying to lose with 1650 calories? And is this with zero activity? No more exercise? If you maintenance is 1710 without activity, then yes, you won't lose very quickly at all (and 1650 might be your actual maintenance - meaning without exercise).
Cardio is three hours a week. One hour three times a week. And weight training on the other days. I was eating 1650 with exercise. Before I was diagnosed with celiac disease I was eating 1650 for years and was very lean. I had a cheat meal once a month and that worked for me. Then I started gaining weight out of no where. I gained 30 pounds and and was then diagnosed with celiac which was 1 year ago. I have been eating 1650 for almost a year with no change. I will fluctuate between 3 pounds though. This past summer I decided to increase my calories. I went up to 2000 with no change in weight. I have no idea what is going on with my body anymore
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One thing that it is not - going back to your initial post - is gaining weight due to malabsorption. No one absorbs more calories from a food than are in that food. If someone is malabsorbing food, it means their body harvests fewer calories/nutrients from the food, and passes more of them out as waste. At most, malabsorption would have an indirect effect in the direction of increasing body weight, via sub-ideal nutrition or sub-ideal fueling, i.e., from fatigue, basically. Even then, there'd be some offset from absorbing fewer calories in the first place.
If you're gaining weight on the same number of calories counted in the same way, something else likely has changed: Daily life activity level (did you change jobs, living situation or anything like that?), fidgetiness (can be hard to notice), exercise intensity, fatigue level, water retention . . . . etc. I'm wondering about the overall effect of the celiac condition and change in eating habits, especially from an energy level perspective, especially since you used the word "tired" and I'm not sure whether that's literal dragging through your day, or more psychological than physical.
It's less likely to be anything about metabolic rate, body composition, or changes in the nature of what's eaten (lower TEF, thermic efficiency of food), because those effects are usually at most only a few percentage points of the calorie total, which would be quite slow gain. (How fast did you gain 30 pounds?) But things like that could make a contribution to gradual gain, when stacked on top of some of the other possibilities.2 -
One thing that it is not - going back to your initial post - is gaining weight due to malabsorption. No one absorbs more calories from a food than are in that food. If someone is malabsorbing food, it means their body harvests fewer calories/nutrients from the food, and passes more of them out as waste. At most, malabsorption would have an indirect effect in the direction of increasing body weight, via sub-ideal nutrition or sub-ideal fueling, i.e., from fatigue, basically. Even then, there'd be some offset from absorbing fewer calories in the first place.
If you're gaining weight on the same number of calories counted in the same way, something else likely has changed: Daily life activity level (did you change jobs, living situation or anything like that?), fidgetiness (can be hard to notice), exercise intensity, fatigue level, water retention . . . . etc. I'm wondering about the overall effect of the celiac condition and change in eating habits, especially from an energy level perspective, especially since you used the word "tired" and I'm not sure whether that's literal dragging through your day, or more psychological than physical.
It's less likely to be anything about metabolic rate, body composition, or changes in the nature of what's eaten (lower TEF, thermic efficiency of food), because those effects are usually at most only a few percentage points of the calorie total, which would be quite slow gain. (How fast did you gain 30 pounds?) But things like that could make a contribution to gradual gain, when stacked on top of some of the other possibilities.
Thank you so much to responding! I’m more psychologically tired then anything else. But this past year I was extremely active and couldn’t lose weight. I wasn’t as happy as I normally am but I did work out 6 days a week. I did diet at a 1650 calorie deficit and measured everything to the gram. Prior to celiac diagnosis I think I must have put on weight gradually. It started with sibo which ended up being my initial diagnosis for celiac. When I had sibo I looked like I was 9 months pregnant and I stopped working out as hard and dieting as well and the pounds started coming in even more. But since then, I have been driven and focused for a year and still couldn’t lose it. I am not gaining weight on the same number of calories. I can not lose weight on a normal caloric defecit anymore. But like I said, this summer I brought my calories up from 1650 to 2000 without any weight change… any thoughts…1 -
One thing that it is not - going back to your initial post - is gaining weight due to malabsorption. No one absorbs more calories from a food than are in that food. If someone is malabsorbing food, it means their body harvests fewer calories/nutrients from the food, and passes more of them out as waste. At most, malabsorption would have an indirect effect in the direction of increasing body weight, via sub-ideal nutrition or sub-ideal fueling, i.e., from fatigue, basically. Even then, there'd be some offset from absorbing fewer calories in the first place.
If you're gaining weight on the same number of calories counted in the same way, something else likely has changed: Daily life activity level (did you change jobs, living situation or anything like that?), fidgetiness (can be hard to notice), exercise intensity, fatigue level, water retention . . . . etc. I'm wondering about the overall effect of the celiac condition and change in eating habits, especially from an energy level perspective, especially since you used the word "tired" and I'm not sure whether that's literal dragging through your day, or more psychological than physical.
It's less likely to be anything about metabolic rate, body composition, or changes in the nature of what's eaten (lower TEF, thermic efficiency of food), because those effects are usually at most only a few percentage points of the calorie total, which would be quite slow gain. (How fast did you gain 30 pounds?) But things like that could make a contribution to gradual gain, when stacked on top of some of the other possibilities.
Thank you so much to responding! I’m more psychologically tired then anything else. But this past year I was extremely active and couldn’t lose weight. I wasn’t as happy as I normally am but I did work out 6 days a week. I did diet at a 1650 calorie deficit and measured everything to the gram. Prior to celiac diagnosis I think I must have put on weight gradually. It started with sibo which ended up being my initial diagnosis for celiac. When I had sibo I looked like I was 9 months pregnant and I stopped working out as hard and dieting as well and the pounds started coming in even more. But since then, I have been driven and focused for a year and still couldn’t lose it. I am not gaining weight on the same number of calories. I can not lose weight on a normal caloric defecit anymore. But like I said, this summer I brought my calories up from 1650 to 2000 without any weight change… any thoughts…
Honestly, I'm completely out of my depth here.
Can you get a consult with a registered dietitian who has specific expertise in your medical condition(s)? That would be ideal, if it could be made to happen.
Without intending the slightest diss - truly, with only concern for you even though I'm a stranger - I think your situation is unusual and complicated, and you're unlikely to get pinpoint advice from anyone here, much as we (for sure I) might like to help.
Virtual ((hugs)), and best wishes in your efforts to find a positive path forward. I'm sure a positive path is out there. It may not be easy to chart. I sincerely wish you much goodness ahead!0 -
First, let me say that 3 hours of cardio a day sounds excessive. Especially when combined with weight training. There's no need to abuse your body like that.
How long have you been trying to lose with 1650 calories? And is this with zero activity? No more exercise? If you maintenance is 1710 without activity, then yes, you won't lose very quickly at all (and 1650 might be your actual maintenance - meaning without exercise).
Cardio is three hours a week. One hour three times a week. And weight training on the other days. I was eating 1650 with exercise. Before I was diagnosed with celiac disease I was eating 1650 for years and was very lean. I had a cheat meal once a month and that worked for me. Then I started gaining weight out of no where. I gained 30 pounds and and was then diagnosed with celiac which was 1 year ago. I have been eating 1650 for almost a year with no change. I will fluctuate between 3 pounds though. This past summer I decided to increase my calories. I went up to 2000 with no change in weight. I have no idea what is going on with my body anymore
Oh, I'm so glad it's not 3 hours a day, lol. And thank you for clarifying that workouts haven't changed.
I have friends and family members with celiac and from what I remember they tend to gain weight in the beginning because of the healing that is happening inside their bodies due to the new diet. Your previous diet did a lot of damage to your intestines. It takes a while to repair. Not sure of the exact time frame for the healing, I'm sure it is different for everyone.
If it's been a very long time since you switched your diet then I agree that a specialized dietitian might be needed.0 -
As someone with Celiac disease I will simply say this: it is very common, pretty much universal, for celiacs to gain weight after going gluten free. I gained 30 pounds. This is primarily because active celiac disease doesn't allow your body to appropriately digest food. As you begin to digest food again once you begin to heal, your weight goes up because your body is now able to successfully digest the food you are eating. Be kind to yourself. This is not the time to worry about your weight. Your intestines were basically a war zone for years, even though you couldn't see it.4
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Dairy could be the culprit.1
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I was also diagnosed celiac last year. Right before the diagnosis, I lost 20 pounds in 3 weeks due to malabsorption. Once I quit the gluten, I gained back what I had lost.
After the diagnosis I gave my body time to heal. I had a really rough year before being diagnosed so getting back to my goal weight was not a plan at that time.
Hope you can figure out what's going on soon.
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