Fit bit calorie deficit not losing weight

[nancybotwinbloom]

From 1st January I have decided to follow a vegetarian diet.

I'm eating lots of fresh veg, small amount of fruit and I'm not eating meat replacements a lot. Maybe once every three days. I'm not even eating bread. I've had three slices of dry toast in 12 days.

I'm not eating dairy except cheese and even that is reduced fat halloumi or feta.

I've been in a 1000 calorie deficit everyday by walking in the fat burn zone for an hour and a half every day. I'm racking up 20k steps as a minimum. The walks are 70 -90 percent in the fat burning zone.

I've had one day where I was over a 1000 calorie deficit (I was in a 500 deficit not 1000).

I'm drinking between 2 and 3 litres of water a day.

I've lost half a kilogram.

I am gutted.

I'm 41.

Is it my age?
What am I doing wrong?

It's a combination of your age and relying too heavily on what your Fitbit is telling you you're burning calorie-wise.

You also need to eat more protein, less carbs and ditch the low fat for full fat. (Personally I would ditch dairy full stop as it can inhibit weight loss.) As the terrible adage rightly says, you can't out train a bad diet, and even though you think your diet with its 90% veg is good, it is not.
If you want to lose weight and burn fat, you need to feed your muscle to burn said fat. Also, and unfortunately for you, you're a woman in her 40s which makes losing weight even harder.

Lastly, as a PP said, weight loss isn't linear. You need to give it more time.

This is all very helpful thank you everyone for your advice so far.

I am going to continue with the walking as it's better to do something daily than nothing.

I'm going to cut the carbs and lower my calories and ignore the calories burned on the fit bit as it is giving me a false sense of I can eat more.

You shouldn't really need to lower calories if you ditch the carbs

I easily eat 2000 calories a day - all high fat stuff - and I am just under 9 stone and 5'6

My weight has not fluctuated at all in 3 years since ditching high carb food. And I am 46.

Calories are a con

I'd give it more than 12 days. Your body doesn't go 'Right! It's midnight! We're 200kcals down today, so chuck 200kcals of fat off the hips, now!'

The body goes... 'WTF??' Until it is able to understand the new average kcal intake, and then adjusts weight accordingly. Give it time to recognise an average in what you're giving it, and what it's being asked to do.

Also, if you're feeling like it's crazy hard work to maintain this regime, how do you expect to.. well, maintain this regime?

I'd give it more than 12 days. Your body doesn't go 'Right! It's midnight! We're 200kcals down today, so chuck 200kcals of fat off the hips, now!'

That is exactly what the calorie deficit model invites you to believe.

But as people are rightly pointing out, it is bollocks. Our bodies do not work like a combustion engine, with a fuel gauge in a linear way.

Our hormones regulate our weight - and the biggest hormone of all in this is insulin.

Why do we have insulin? To reduce blood sugar levels when we eat sugar and carbohydrate. If you have an excess of sugar in the blood, insulin's job is literally to store it as fat.

You achieve low insulin by reducing the amount of sugar you put in your blood (low carb), creating gaps between the times you put food in your mouth (fasting) or by exercising

Oh have you only been at it 12 days? Don't worry! I had exactly the same when I started out - it's very demoralising but after that, I lost pretty consistently at 1-2lbs a week. I don't know why there was such a delay (although I know it took me a few goes to accurately log some things but I don't think that completely explains it...)

@Eckhart

I've been enjoying it to be honest. I'm
Listening to audio books and stuff so I'm looking forward to getting out and seeing what happens in the books.

Also, it's a bit of alone time which I desperately need during lock down.

I do think I will keep it up because I feel
Refreshed when I get home.

It does feel like hard work and I ache when I get home but it's a good ache.
I feel like I've achieved something.

I am determined to maintain this.

I've set myself 100 day challenge to rework my diet and lifestyle as I want to live longer and feel better. If I'm not losing the weight I need to change more about my diet. I've scheduled calendar reminders every ten days to remind me I'm 10, 20, 30 days in.

I'd gotten into a terrible rut of crap
Food and too much wine in October, November and part of December.

I feel much better after starting this, mentally and even if not lighter on the scales my bloating has gone and my waist is making a tiny appearance again.

I'm lowering my calories now as of today and I will weigh myself again on 20th and see where I am.

@hamstersarse

We are fully on the same page

The diet industry leads us to believe that our bodies' only response to having less calories is to lose fat, but what about things like 'being more tired' or 'having poorly nourished skin' or 'circulation being a bit crap' or 'having low levels of concentration'?

It's as if people think that all a well nourished body does is regulate its fat levels. Eating food provides fuel for so many functions, and any of them can be done in a lesser way to conserve energy. One of the last things a body wants to do is lose fat; fat is its savings account of energy in case of famine. Who wants to see the balance in their savings account drop? Nobody. And no body.

Your diet is ridiculous. Your body needs nutrients to function. Cutting types of foods out will leave your body lacking these and risking other issues.

I would burn 500 calories if I ran hard for 90 minutes. eating 1700 calories on average a day I think is a lot for someone trying to lose weight. It is more than I eat to remain consistent.

@hamstersarse

You shouldn't really need to lower calories if you ditch the carbs

I easily eat 2000 calories a day - all high fat stuff - and I am just under 9 stone and 5'6

My weight has not fluctuated at all in 3 years since ditching high carb food. And I am 46.

Calories are a con

Erm, your example is the opposite of what OP is trying to achieve though. You may eat 2000 and not fluctuate but OP wants to lose weight, not maintain. OP needs to eat less calories.

unless you get sweaty and breathless from exercise it burns dissapointingly little calories.
even running you only use about 300cals for half a hour (which is about a snack size meal!).

many women need a lot less calories than the 2000 generally recommdended. especially after the age of 40.
I agree with pp, you need to calculate your tdee and go from there.

My tdee said 2600 cals to maintain. Surely. That can't be right .

I feel much better after starting this, mentally and even if not lighter on the scales my bloating has gone and my waist is making a tiny appearance again

The scales are a crap measure of condition anyway because of water and muscle levels changing. It's better to go on the fit of your clothes/the comfort of your digestive system and, dare I say it, calipers?

www.amazon.co.uk/Tester-Calipers-Measure-Fitness-Analyzer/dp/B07TXFMJVK/?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

These are brilliant, and totally lacking in modern nonsense to confuse matters.

Flip the bird to the scales - sounds like what you're doing is doing the trick, and they can't even tell!

My tdee said 2600 cals to maintain. Surely. That can't be right.

What did you put in to come up with that number? That seems very high.

Sorry OP but 1700 cal per day is a maintenance level diet for most women in their 40s.

@nancybotwinbloom

My tdee said 2600 cals to maintain. Surely. That can't be right .

Why?

Am I reading it wrong?

It could also be that you are toning up. Muscles weigh more than fat after all. If you can I would add some muscle building exercises too as that will burn more fat throughout the day, even if you are just sitting down. Perhaps keep up with your diet and you walks and add three or four 1 hour weight lifting and toning classes per week. Should do wonders. Also, make sure you eat regularly. At least every 3 hours. Otherwise your metabolism slows down.

@Eckhart it just seemed so high!

If you are heavy, it can be right.

I'm 51 and just over 10 stone and maintain on1900

That's because you've put your exercise in. It's what you have to eat to stay the same weight as you are now, including fueling the exercise. If you put in that you run a marathon a day, it'll be another 2620 higher!

Muscles do not weigh more that fat

A pound weighs a pound no matter what it is made up of

If you have lots of muscle you will look smaller than someone of the same height and weight with no muscle as muscle is more dense

If you have lots of muscle you will also lose weight more easily as it takes more calories to maintain muscle

@nancybotwinbloom

My tdee said 2600 cals to maintain. Surely. That can't be right .

That does seem very high (unless you are a very tall or heavy person, bigger bodies do need more calories to maintain). What activity level did you put it? With your walking I would say you are lightly active, or towards the lower end of moderate.

I'd try putting in your 'goal' weight rather than your actual, and then eat to that, or with a small calorie deficit, at least to start with. If you find you still aren't losing weight you can gradually reduce (or as others have said carb reduction can work very well as a weight loss strategy, just watch out to make sure you get enough fibre).

One thing that stood out from your posts was that you said you'd lost 4.5 lbs and then 'regained' it in a week - it's highly unlikely even if you binged a bit in that week that you regained 4.5lbs worth of fat. When you are losing weight you do tend to see ups and downs with metabolic changes, bloat, water retention, constipation etc and this can really vary based on the kinds of foods you've been eating, how much alcohol you've had, TOTM, dehydration, even low mood or stress can affect how our bodies process food intake and energy output. So try and view it as a long term endeavour for better health rather than a race to get to goal weight as fast as possible, and so long as the overall trend with your weight is down don't worry about blips or fluctuations too much!

It's because you have put in moderate exercise. Use the baseline figure which is 1700 calories to maintain. I'd aim for 1200 tbh (with no counting exercise ones back).

@Eckhart thank you I have removed all exercise and it's 2040!