Calorie deficit not working

[Username06]

I am a lifelong yo-yo dieter, if truth be told I definitely have some issues with food, I've been on/off a diet since my teens, basically I'm either on a diet losing weight or eating like food is going to become non-existant hence the constant yo-yoing.
I've always gone to slimming groups, always lose the weight and think I've changed my life around and then end up back at square one.

So i have decided now to try a calorie deficit in order to eat the things I still love in moderation and try to learn to eat healthy with occasional treats and lose weight. I have also started jogging a couple times a week as I'd like to be able to exercise and then have a treat without putting on the weight again when i reach my goal. At present I have a stone to lose to get back to a healthy BMI.

Here's the issue, in a month I've lost a couple of pounds despite feeling starving everyday and bloody exercising! I lose weight much faster following slimming world, what is going on, do calorie deficits just not work on some people, feeling so disheartened 😔

I'm 5'2, a couple of stone overweight but I lose weight at 1800 calories a day!

I was just listening to the Zoe podcast today and they were discussing a study where they had people eating cheese sandwiches: one with ultra-processed white bread and processed cheese and the other with multi-grain bread and cheddar. They found that the participants burned far more energy after eating the whole food option, despite the calories for both being the same.

There was a lot more about it but I found that really interesting, because there doesn’t seem to be much out there about how the calories in/calories out equation can actually be potentially disrupted or altered by the type of food eaten, due to thermodynamics. It’s quite a niche area I think but there’s so much we don’t understand about metabolic science and so much new science that is upending all the previous stuff we thought we knew.

So my TDEE is apparantly 1,800 so I could shave off 100 calories more of what I've been eating.
My diet isn't going to be what anyone thinks is 100% perfect I am trying to have a better relationship with food and not restrict all these 'naughty foods' that slimming clubs have made me think are off limits so breakfast is either fruit/yogurt or weetabix/porridge usually with a measured amount of jam or peanut butter. Lunch can be anything from a tuna/egg salad sandwich (made at home), a salad, cheese and crackers, sometimes a mugshot if I'm strapped for time etc with fruit or jelly. Dinners for example this week I've had tuna pasta salad, pork stir fry, chicken, veg & rice, omelette & the odd ready meal on days my DD has clubs and I have a busy day etc.
I do have a small sweet treat in the evenings, using about 200 cals as evenings are my downfall and without this I can fall into a bit of a binge.

Absolutely everything is weighed and measured, milk portioned for my tea and no butter/oil used in cooking.

I’ve been on a calorie deficit since Xmas and am
a few pounds off two stone now.
I worked out my deficit using James smith/tdee calculators and stick that daily.
But - I weight train two to three times a week ( at home or the gym) and walk 18k steps 6 days a week. I’ve also began looking at what sorts of food I eat and keep macro nutrients in check with salt, fat, carbs and sugar and I aim for 130g of protein daily. I’m loosing steadily but no fast and my body composition is changing, it’s actually fascinating to look back at photos of me even a month ago as my body shifts shape.
Its an effort, it’s a daily plan and process but I feel
amazing! I use nutracheck and chat gpt to help

I do 10,000 or more steps a day about 4/5 times a week, the other days maybe 7-8,000. My job is completely sedentary so alot of my steps are actually done round the house doing housework/ tidying etc and walking to/from school runs.
I've only started jogging as I want to get to my healthy weight and be able to enjoy a few treats guilt free knowing I've burnt a few calories to earn it. I have NEVER exercised before in my life. 2 years ago I lost 4 stone on slimming world in 9 months without a single bit of exercise aside from the walking I do as above.

I 100% know that but struggle to understand why I can lose about 10 pounds in a month on slimming world yet have only lost 3 pound in a calorie deficit with exercise 😔

Try. The Carbon app. It's brilliant. Designed by some scientists biologists at Stanford uni.

What do you think 10k steps a day will do or what its purpose is?

From what I read on here on countless threads people think pottering around the house counts as step activity anyway. Pointless.

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

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.

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.

@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 think I just need to stop comparing too! I follow a lady on instagram who is very similar height and deficit to me and she is losing loads and I just thought I'd be the same 😆

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.

1,200 just seems so low but I guess I might have to try it, my stomach is angry growling at me in constant hunger as it is lol

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

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.

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 😋

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.

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

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.

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 old are you?

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?!

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!