New to calorie deficit and gaining weight

rachalwiebe
rachalwiebe Posts: 3 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi there, I’m new to using my fitness pal as I was using weight watchers and lost just over 30lbs. I decided to use my fitness pal as I was tired of the point system with WW and was beginning to feel restricted and food. I still want to lost another 10lbs and seem to not be losing much weight on my calorie deficit. I lose a pound, gain a pound kind of thing. I track regularly and work out about 4x a week. Any tips or info would be helpful.

Best Answer

  • csplatt
    csplatt Posts: 1,205 Member
    Answer ✓
    How are you estimating the number of calories you burn when you exercise? What tools are you using to weigh and measure your food so you know how many grams / ounces you are eating of eat item when you log it?

Answers

  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 2,225 Member
    Stick with a weekly calorie amount for 4-6 weeks before coming to conclusions. No loss at that point and you need to lower calories.
  • Retroguy2000
    Retroguy2000 Posts: 1,848 Member
    edited September 15
    It sounds like you're eating around maintenance. There could be a bunch of things going on there, including a combination of:

    1. You have estimated your regular daily activity too high, e.g. perhaps you are more Lightly Active instead of Very Active or whatever terminology your online calculator uses. This will inflate their estimate of your TDEE.

    2. You are over-estimating exercises calories and eating all of that estimate. For one thing, remember that exercise calories are the net gain, e.g. if you burn 300 calories doing whatever for an hour, but you would have burned 100 calories watching Netflix, you've effectively burned 200 more. That 100 was already accounted for in your daily budget.

    3. Your calorie tracking may be in need of improvement, whether via using a scale to measure food, checking the entries in your food log are accurate, ensuring you're tracking EVERYTHING, etc.

    4. If you are new to working out, you may be retaining water for recovery purposes.
  • rachalwiebe
    rachalwiebe Posts: 3 Member
    I do weigh my food and use measuring cups. Not new to working out, have been working out for two years now and work out regularly, like to strength train. I also incorporate walking and some running into it as well. I try to subtract the calories I burn from working out from my total calories for each day.
  • rachalwiebe
    rachalwiebe Posts: 3 Member
    Thank you all for your comments and suggestions
  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 2,225 Member
    rachalwiebe wrote: »
    I do weigh my food and use measuring cups. Not new to working out, have been working out for two years now and work out regularly, like to strength train. I also incorporate walking and some running into it as well. I try to subtract the calories I burn from working out from my total calories for each day.
    you want to start weighing your food instead of using measuring cups and also when you pull foods off of the database, do you want to be sure you’re not choosing entries that show calories that are too low. Many people do that and that really causes issues with correct counting.

    Figuring too many calories burned during exercise is another culprit so you want to watch those two factors and try to tighten those things up a bit

  • csplatt
    csplatt Posts: 1,205 Member
    rachalwiebe wrote: »
    I do weigh my food and use measuring cups. Not new to working out, have been working out for two years now and work out regularly, like to strength train. I also incorporate walking and some running into it as well. I try to subtract the calories I burn from working out from my total calories for each day.

    switch to digital food scale!
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,222 Member
    I hope you understand the 2 main reasons people are saying 4-6 weeks as a trial for a given calorie level.

    1. Weight fluctuates by several pounds per day from differences in water retention and waste in the digestive tract on the way to the exit. Even fast fat loss is only a few ounces (around 4.6 ounces, if 2 pounds a week actual fat loss rate). Because of that, those water/waste fluctuations can play peek-a-boo with fat loss on the body weight scale for a surprisingly long time. Hence the 4-6 weeks (or whole menstrual cycles for those who have them). Water weight fluctuations in particular are part of how a healthy body stays healthy. They know what they're doing, so we shouldn't want to mess with that. ;)

    2. The calorie estimate you get is essentially the average calorie need for someone with similar demographics. Individuals vary from average. Most of us are close, but a few can be pretty far off. (Based on 9+ years logging experience, I'm around 25-30% off what MFP and my good brand/model fitness tracker - one that estimates well for others - think I need. That's rare, but it happens, and it can be high or low.) Once we have enough personal data, we can adjust our goal based on that experience. I hate to say it, but if you've been dieting for a long time, it's possible (not definite) that your calorie needs could be below average as a consequence.

    Curious: Are you eating about the same things you were when you were doing WW? Had you been losing well on WW, or was a slowdown part of the reason for switching? Knowing things like that could help us help you.

    BTW, I agree with others advice about using a food scale as much as practical, and being meticulous about picking accurate entries from the MFP food database. For example, if you make a dish at home (lasagna, ham sandwich), don't use someone else's estimate for the dish. Log the ingredients you used. Check the database entry you use against the food label, or a source such as:

    https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/

    Once you log a good entry, it will stay in your recent/frequent foods in MFP as long as you eat it semi-frequently, and come up first on searches. You won't have to do a lot of checking forever, just more at first to populate the recent/frequent with good entries.

    Best wishes!
  • californiagirl1969
    californiagirl1969 Posts: 57 Member
    edited September 22
    Congratulations on the 30 lb weight loss, and continuing to work out. You've already been given good advice on figuring it out. But myself I weigh and measure my food with a scale and cups sometimes the measuring spoons and log my food and liquid intake here.

    From there I can figure out if my calories is to much if I'm not losing but gaining or bouncing back and forth between pounds. If I need to eat additional I choose better foods for myself such as salads and fruits and sticking with lean protein and I do my best not to drink my calories. I also add a little more exercise if I have the time and energy in my busy schedule.

    Best of luck you can do this since you already have, 10 lbs should be easier, although I realize that's not always the case. Stick with it and you will reach goal..,🏋🏽‍♀️🚴🏽‍♀️🧘🏽‍♀️🏌🏽‍♀️🧗🏽‍♀️🍽️🥕🍅🌽🧅🍍🍉🍓🌶️

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