Calorie deficit not working

Your calorie deficit isn’t deficit enough. Regardless of all our western spin on it, hormones, type of food, exercise, macros. etc etc etc… if you eat less calories than your burn you will lose body fat. That’s how hunger strikes and famines work, It’s really is that simple. Eat less calories than you burn. Folk die without enough calories. Sorry

You say 'pasta salad' but whwta exactly is this??

What are you actually eating?

Unfortunately it might be age-related. I used to simply be able to stop snacking and the weight would drop off. Now only sticking strictly to 1200 calories a day and no alcohol whatsoever will work - and even that’s slooooow.

Which bit isn’t correct? The amount of deficit needed by someone is entirely individual, you are losing on 1614 (I assume you don’t mean that you are 1614 cals in deficit but your calorie intake after deficit is 1614 cals), but it will be totally different from someone else with a different height, starting weight, activity level. Some people’s maintenance calories aren’t far off 1600 if they are short and sedentary. That’s why it’s important to work out your personal requirements, not just take the ubiquitous 2000 cals that everyone supposedly needs and subtract.

The rest of your post agrees with what I’m saying about eating the right foods. So which bit is wrong?

This is not 100% correct at all. My deficit is 1614cals per day and I’ve lost nearly 7kg in 3 months following that.

OP, you should use a proper macros calculator and then consider the types of foods that you are eating. Bear in mind that everyone has a different experience to you so anyone who says 100% one way or the other isn’t considering your reality.

Recommendations are the MacrosInc calculator, their associated FB group and the MM Plus app for macros tracking. Joe Wicks Body Coach app is also a good shout but be prepared to follow it strictly because otherwise you will lose your deficit.

Good luck!

Jogging is great for mental health and raising heart rate but it won’t tone you up. Slow running raises cortisol and will also waste muscle.

Have you not heard of the jogger’s flat arse?!

How old are you?

Exactly. Good luck getting people to listen to this on MN though! They’re all like ‘a calorie is a calorie’.

OP - listen to this ⬆️

How accurate is your app?
A lot of resources the apps use data like "a portion of lasagne is x calories " which is just inaccurate generic nonsense. For example, Sainsbury's Taste The Difference lasagne is 562cals per portion. Their regular one is 464cals per portion (going by suggested serving sizes on the packs). That's a 21% increase !
I had a lot of success with calorie deficit, when I needed to lose weight for sport, cooking for myself. Although it was quite a lot of work to start with, calculating the calories in the recipes I wanted to use, it did teach me a lot about balancing calories with nutrients, what kinds of food make me feel sated (not everyone is the same), and how to trim calories here and there by using a bit less of some ingredients and a bit more of others.
I'd also echo PP and find a resource that gives you a baseline low-activity caloric intake for your height, build and target weight, and use that as your guide. You can up it a bit more if you're running that day but not by more than the run burns which can be checked online by size & weight. But please don't get carried away. It's easy to become obsessed with this stuff, and that's really not healthy either.

Sorry I should explain further, if you weigh stuff out it also helps to see what food you can have a larger volume of to help fill you up. For me I still eat the not so healthy stuff, but much smaller portions, then fill up on masses of veg.

weigh out crisps etc, a portion is smaller than expected but as long as you stick to a portion size, it perfectly possible to eat crisps as part of a calorie controlled diet.

It shocked me how high potatoes were, and how small a portion is.

Rice is still carby, but it feels like i get a better portion fir the calories

It's highly likely that the op is eating more calories than she thinks,

There are lots of food with low calorie density you can fill up on. Low fat cottage cheese and zero fat greek yoghurt are my go to

In that case, wouldn't it be better to stay as you are? You are losing weight. It's going to continue to drop, just very slowly. If you go to 1200 you might lose 2lbs a week instead of 0.75 but how long is it going to last if you are starving hungry? Especially with your history of disordered eating. I get it, I have had an eating disorder for more than half my life and my BMI has flown about between 15 and 25 so often. I can restrict really, really low and have weight fall off me - for about 1 - 4 months. Then I end up in a horrible binge or binge-purge cycle and gain weight again. Finding that balance point of eating a sensible diet and maintaining weight or losing it slowly is a pipe dream for me. If you've got there ... maybe keep going? I know it must be hard to be that patient though. But if it comes off that slowly and you can sustain the diet you'll probably keep it off.

There's no need to be hungry on 1200 calories. There is no way I could possibly eat 1200 calories of say cucumber, lettuce tomatoes. It would be a bucket full. I could easily eat 1200 calories of chocolate or a kebab, McDonalds etc. do you see the difference. If you are hungry fill up on salad or low calorie vegetables 😋

If it’s a consultation, I’m 5’ 11” and can’t go over 1,300kcals/day if I want to lose weight. Anything over about 1,700 and I gain.

Thyroid issues. Grr.

This woman has good ideas
https://youtube.com/shorts/-lN0XJEGawU?feature=shared

I 100% agree with this.

DH & I have been over weight for years. I’ve done all the slimming world, weight watchers etc on and off but we started a calorie deficit ‘diet’ before Christmas but have totally overhauled our diet and lifestyle. We have never felt better.

@Username06 , well done with the jogging. You'll be amazed at how quickly it gets easier, and it is so good for mental wellbeing. Keep at it.

I log every single thing and need to be at around 1,200 to lose weight. I found this out by gradually reducing my calories until I started to lose weight. There isn’t a fixed number that suits everyone. If you aren’t losing weight at 1,400 then drop to 1,300 and see what happens.
I’d use MyFitnessPal so that you can make sure you are eating enough protein, etc etc.

It is working. You’ve lost three pounds. You haven’t lost more because you’re not in much of a deficit, so it’s taking longer.

Three pounds works out to 10,500 calories. If you’ve lost that in a month, you’re at about a 350 calorie deficit per day. Increase the deficit and you’ll lose faster.

We should feel hungry some of the time, when its time for a meal.