If I eat more than 1000 calories

You have caused your metabolism to slow way down. Find out what your TDEE is and eat that for a month. Ignore the scale because you are going to gain no matter what you do. After a month, shave 300 calories off your TDEE and you body will burn mostly body fat.

So zig-zag my calories?

No... eat at TDEE for a month to reset your metabolism. Then, do not eat less than 300 calories below TDEE. Eating less than that will cause your body to use much more than stored body fat for fuel.

Be aware this 'resetting your metabolism' thing is 100% a forum theory. So is 'don't eat below your BMR'.

Your small fluctuations are almost certainly water. Ignore it and forge ahead.

They're hardly theories!

Ok, could you source out the idea that people shouldn't eat less than 300 calories than their TDEE? Because that's not even a lb a week, and I've never heard that a lb a week will cause your body to cannibalize you muscles.

And how accurate are these online TDEE calculators? 300 is such a small deficit any error in the numbers could eat it up.

First off, I learned this from someone with a degree in nutritional science. And I read it in the New Rules of Lifting for Women. While achieving weight loss is a matter of calories in/calories out, there is more at work within the body. What you are eating is also extremely important. The body produces hormones, such as cortisol and grehlin. Cortisol is a stress hormone that increases the body's efficiency at burning calories in order to force your body to function with fewer calories. Grehlin is the hormone that generates the feeling of hunger. If your diet is lacking in unsaturated fats (and you're in a calorie deficit), the body immediately assumes its starving and begins to generate these hormones.

Electrolytes also impact weight. The body uses minerals, such as sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium. A deficiency of any of these minerals creates an imbalance and in reaction, the body absorbs excess waters into cells and they swell. Women actually have additional water retention issues that are just mandatory, and can't be avoided.

People who are in a calorie deficit for long periods of time, inevitably, develop nutrition deficiencies that disrupt water balance or cause the body to generate hormones like cortisol and grehlin. The closer you are to TDEE, the easier it is to ensure that you achieve the balanced diet that your body needs. If you don't fulfill those needs, then your body will work against your efforts to lose weight.

You can call them theories, but all of this is based in science. If anything, MFP's "3500 calories = 1lb" and "deficits based on BMR" are more the forum theory than this. Sure, 3500 calories would and should equal a 1lb of weight loss, but that is total weight loss and NOT fat loss. Depending on whether your diet is balanced or not, that 1lb could be 3/4 fat + 1/4 water or 1/4 fat +1/4 water + 1/2 muscle or it could just be 1lb of water.

Besides... I ate a 300 calorie deficit below my TDEE for the last 3 weeks and lost 13 lbs. Sure, a lot of it was water, but what wasn't was a little muscle and a lot of fat.

OP - Even though I didn't mention it, protein is extremely important too. Really the message I'm hoping to get across here is that it is more important to make certain that your diet is nutritionally sound than it is to cut as many calories as possible from your diet. You can PM me if you want to talk about it more. I'm not going to continue to engage newbies who haven't even begun to do the research that I have.

Wait, so the answer to the question "could you source" was no.

You have caused your metabolism to slow way down. Find out what your TDEE is and eat that for a month. Ignore the scale because you are going to gain no matter what you do. After a month, shave 300 calories off your TDEE and you body will burn mostly body fat.

So zig-zag my calories?

No... eat at TDEE for a month to reset your metabolism. Then, do not eat less than 300 calories below TDEE. Eating less than that will cause your body to use much more than stored body fat for fuel.

Be aware this 'resetting your metabolism' thing is 100% a forum theory. So is 'don't eat below your BMR'.

Your small fluctuations are almost certainly water. Ignore it and forge ahead.

They're hardly theories!

Ok, could you source out the idea that people shouldn't eat less than 300 calories than their TDEE? Because that's not even a lb a week, and I've never heard that a lb a week will cause your body to cannibalize you muscles.

And how accurate are these online TDEE calculators? 300 is such a small deficit any error in the numbers could eat it up.

First off, I learned this from someone with a degree in nutritional science. And I read it in the New Rules of Lifting for Women. While achieving weight loss is a matter of calories in/calories out, there is more at work within the body. What you are eating is also extremely important. The body produces hormones, such as cortisol and grehlin. Cortisol is a stress hormone that increases the body's efficiency at burning calories in order to force your body to function with fewer calories. Grehlin is the hormone that generates the feeling of hunger. If your diet is lacking in unsaturated fats (and you're in a calorie deficit), the body immediately assumes its starving and begins to generate these hormones.

Electrolytes also impact weight. The body uses minerals, such as sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium. A deficiency of any of these minerals creates an imbalance and in reaction, the body absorbs excess waters into cells and they swell. Women actually have additional water retention issues that are just mandatory, and can't be avoided.

People who are in a calorie deficit for long periods of time, inevitably, develop nutrition deficiencies that disrupt water balance or cause the body to generate hormones like cortisol and grehlin. The closer you are to TDEE, the easier it is to ensure that you achieve the balanced diet that your body needs. If you don't fulfill those needs, then your body will work against your efforts to lose weight.

You can call them theories, but all of this is based in science. If anything, MFP's "3500 calories = 1lb" and "deficits based on BMR" are more the forum theory than this. Sure, 3500 calories would and should equal a 1lb of weight loss, but that is total weight loss and NOT fat loss. Depending on whether your diet is balanced or not, that 1lb could be 3/4 fat + 1/4 water or 1/4 fat +1/4 water + 1/2 muscle or it could just be 1lb of water.

Besides... I ate a 300 calorie deficit below my TDEE for the last 3 weeks and lost 13 lbs. Sure, a lot of it was water, but what wasn't was a little muscle and a lot of fat.

OP - Even though I didn't mention it, protein is extremely important too. Really the message I'm hoping to get across here is that it is more important to make certain that your diet is nutritionally sound than it is to cut as many calories as possible from your diet. You can PM me if you want to talk about it more. I'm not going to continue to engage newbies who haven't even begun to do the research that I have.

Wait, so the answer to the question "could you source" was no.

Actually, I did source... "New Rules of Lifting for Women" by Lou Schuler

Pick up a book!

I read a library copy of the book but googling around turned up a spreadsheet of the eating plan for NROL4W.

maggiewang.com/nrolfw/nrolfw_log_sheets.xls

It has me eating around 1280, which is under my BMR.

If anyone can tell me what section it talks about 'resetting your metabolism' I'd like to stop and pick up a library copy and read it.

"My initial instinct is to suggest that you don't try to cut calories at all at first. You'd calculate your maintenance level, and then stick that for four weeks... (omitting for lack of relevance) ... I recommend that for these reasions:

1. We have no idea if that's your real maintenance level. It is, as I said, just a paper-pencil estimate.
2. You probably don't know if the predicted maintenance level is more than you're used to eating, less, or about the same.
3. ... (again, relevance, he refers to the workouts which weren't a part of my original recommendation)

I read a library copy of the book but googling around turned up a spreadsheet of the eating plan for NROL4W.

maggiewang.com/nrolfw/nrolfw_log_sheets.xls

It has me eating around 1280, which is under my BMR.

If anyone can tell me what section it talks about 'resetting your metabolism' I'd like to stop and pick up a library copy and read it.

I think you read the sheets wrong. I opened it up and for a 33 year old woman that is 142 lbs and 5'6", her RMR (resting metabolic rate) is 1258. Her maintenance (without exercise) is 2013. Fat loss (minus 300) is 1713 without exercise. If you add in exercise, you increase those calories (it's given on the sheets).

UsedtobeHusky- I think 'stabilizing your metabolism' is pretty much the same as resetting it.

I don't know why anyone trying to lose weight would calculate their estimated burn and then eat at it for four weeks to check their math. You'd get the same info from eating 500 calories under it, plus you'd probably lose 4 lbs. I can't see the context of the book excerpt, though.

jackjackattck - (Cute name!) We're all trying to be supportive by giving the OP reasonable advice. I don't think the 'metabolism reset' thing is reasonable. Just an opinion, nothing personal to anyone. I've heard from a lot of people that said this 'metabolism reset' thing put 5-15 lbs. on them and the proponents still said, "You just didn't stick to it long enough."