Calories in vs calories out is just not working !

[noseriouslyguys]

Yes I know the principle is correct- I get it. But explain this to me then…

I’ve been weighing every bite I eat or drink for two months - PLUS exercising 5 times a week and I am not losing on the scale.

I have lost weight since the start of the year, without exercising at first, but now the scale is just standing still.

I create a deficit of 1000 calories a day and nada.

the scale teases me, it will say a certain low weight- then I get back on it and it says 2kg more the next day and it will show me that 2 kg more for another two weeks.

I have lost weight already by the way, without exercising since the start of the year- slowly. Maybe a kg a month- some months 2. I thought I would really tighten up my eating and track absolutely everything plus add in exercise. At first I thought it’s normal, water retention- but not after 2 months surely ?

I have gone to the gym a couple of times but mainly playing tennis. For 1-2 hours a day, 5 days a week. Sometimes 4. So it can’t be muscle gain from tennis.

anyway, I am not giving up- but it just makes no sense ?

I do agree with calories in vs calories out, but I have to drop down so extremely low- I mean 800 or so, to lose weight.

I currently eat between 1.200 and 1.500 a day ( max ).

I understand where you are coming from....its definitely peri menopausal thing too...i agree your TDEE must be on the floor..Something changes and what you did before doesnt work..I have found hot pilates more effective than previous gym classes and doing weights. Its depressing though how hard it is to lose weight !

Once you get to a healthy weight, it is much harder to lose more. It is fairly obvious really. If a 20 stone person sticks to a low calorie diet, they will lose 10 stone fairly steadily. If a 10 stone person sticks to a low calorie diet they won’t lose 10 stone and die, they will lose a bit gradually or maintain their weight.

@MyPinkTraybakei used to work out with a PT as well when I got super shredded.

she would be absolutely horrified by how little I eat. She always used to tell me to eat more. I did the first few months with her and I was losing weight but very very slowly. The last couple of months before my wedding I said sod it and went on a starvation diet and dropped the rest of the weight. I still have all my stats on my watch, on my fitness pal, every single little thing I did during that time. She wanted me to eat more to fuel the work in the gym. She did not believe in starvation at all. And she also believed in the calorie burn of the Apple Watch, more or less. So did I and it worked fine.

You have hit one of your body’s set points (read up on them).

this is good! You are doing really well and losing the weight slowly which means it is likely to stay off. If you get past this set point (which might take another month of feeling like you are going nowhere) then the good news is that it is hard to get past on the way back up as well. So reframe thinking about it to - this is you cementing all the good work you have done till now and making sure your body won’t go back up beyond this point). You can keep going down and get past this. You will start going down again but it takes time. hang in there!

If you’re in such a high deficit is it possible that you’re body is going into starvation mode and trying to hang onto anything you eat for as long as possible?

also I don’t believe that all Calories are equal, even if you are counting them. E.g 100calories worth of crisps won’t be as good for you as 100calories worth of veg.

of course everyone is different but the way I’ve been successful the few times I’ve had to shift weight is by not counting calories but ensuring about 3quarters of every meal is fruit/veg (never in blended form) and making sure work outs include strength training to build muscle as muscle burns calories even in resting state.

i hope you find something that works for you though because it’s bloody hard, and extremely frustrating when you start off well then plateau. I wonder if due to being so strict with your calories you’ve been eating the same foods for each meal? If yes I wonder if mixing things up for more variety might get you out of the plateau?

good luck op!

edited to correct typos!

It is likely overestimating your tdee. How old are you? Honestly as we age we need really little. I am 40 amd no longer lose anything at all unless i limit calories to 1000 a day and eat very few white carbs at all.

Late 30s. It will be that. Like I’ve said if I eat at 500 cals a day, I will get smaller.

Starvation mode doesn't exist.

Calories in, Calories out works.
So you're obviously miscalculation how many Calories you're consuming or how many you're burning.

Metabolism slows as we age and we need less Calories. Also the amount of people I see "working out" at the gym who arr actually just placidly moving around. Are you at 100% for 300calories and hour burn or are you at 20% so actually burning 50?

Starvation mode? People love to rubbish that it exists, stating famine.

of course if you don’t eat, you lose weight.

maybe There’s a point where you’re getting just enough so the body holds onto it and not little enough to actually starve.

Also op - ive found as i age exercise does not seem to contribute as effectively to weight loss as it did. It used to be i could keep diet the same, and go running 3-4 times a week and weight would fall off

Now the only thing that makes me lose weight is a significant reduction in what i eat.

Its why mounjaro has taken off. Because it stops you eating and the single big cause stopping most of us losing weight is that as we age, we just can't eat a small enough amount.

It's scary as you get older, the reality of what your TDEE is, and also it's scary how many hidden calories there are - or calories you ignore.

My TDEE is 1350. Which means I have to drop to around 850 calories a day if I want to lose weight. I never count any exercise calories as they are wildly inaccurate.

I love condiments like mayo but there is a horrific amount of calories in that - I can easily eat 2-3 tbsps with a bowl of chips and that could be 250-300 calories etc. When loosing weight you really do have to think about the milk, oil, dips etc everything.

According to everything I tried I should have been eating 1300 calories. I never lost a thing until I consistently went under 800 everyday.
Everyone’s different and these diets don’t tend to account for this.

I’ll do 800 a day and update you guys on my progress.

I don’t ignore calories. I’ve done this before. I’m very diligent.

I’m 38. My maintenance calories are 2019 - yes I’m tall and fat.
My daily calorie allowance at the moment is 1680, so just over 330cal deficit. I religiously track every single food/drink and my only activity is walking, usually I do between 12-15k steps a day. I eat everything, but just make sure it fits inside my daily calorie allowance, I haven’t excluded any food groups, because that’s just the path to toxic and unhealthy relationship with food and so far I’ve lost 35lbs.

Just my experience with calorie counting because it was literally the only thing that saved me.

There is so much disordered thinking and misinformation within this thread, alongside some sensible and reasonable thinking.

Building muscle through lifting heavy and eating more will allow you to lose the weight and keep it off. Eating under 1000 calories a day is very often not sustainable. You mention going back to eating normally, but you have to find a way that allows you to sustainably and slowly lose weight and basically not ever stop.

I may have missed it, but have you been to the GP and had all of your bloods done? Thyroid, liver, iron, vitamin d, b12, folate all of that sort of thing. You will almost certainly have deficiencies unless you are supplementing and that won’t help either

With weight loss injections the guidance is usually if you are losing to go up the doses, so perhaps have a discussion with your prescriber.

Op is on WLI.

Have you actually spoken to whoever prescribed them to you Op? Doesn't sound like they're working for you

By Starvation mode I mean if you have a few days of being really restrictive, then maybe a couple of meals that are all the way at the other end of the spectrum or like a mini binge.

that’s not to say this is what you’re doing but you mentioned being inconsistent but it might not be as inconsistent as this. And I don’t mean to offend by saying that. I just know that I wouldn’t have the will power to stick with something so rigidly for months and in the past when I have tried to restrict I ended up doing the binging part for the occasional meal (or day!)

but like I said, really hope you manage to figure it out as you know how much hard work and effort you’ve put in so it must be really annoying to not see the changes you’re expecting.

Building muscle through lifting heavy and eating more will allow you to lose the weight and keep it off.
This is true but it becomes incredibly hard for some women to build muscle as they go into perimenopause. Testosterone levels crash and your body is also trying to force you to increase body fat as a way to get more oestrogen.

Eating under 1000 calories a day is very often not sustainable.

No calorie level that you lose weight at is "sustainable". The whole point of it, is it is a deficit level such that you lose weight. Its a perfectly ok level for a healthy middle aged woman to eat when looking to lose weight.

As a few rare posters here have said, calorie restriction is a myth for losing weight.

You will lose weight in the short term but unless you're prepared to starve yourself for the rest of your life, you will put back the weight and even more afterwards. That's why yo-yo dieting doesn't work.

The body's in-built mechanism for survival in times of famine is to slow down the metabolism. Eventually you cut calories so much you starve, like those people in Gaza as pointed out here. This is not a healthy nor sustainable way forward.

The opposite of calorie restriction is true. If you overeat, your body will ramp up its metabolism to get rid of the excess calories. In general, we overeat in the West and we would have put on a lot more weight through excess calories than what we weigh now as a group.

All this info above is not from me but from a well-researched book which was recommended here on Mumsnet, Why We Eat Too Much:
https://www.whyweeattoomuch.co.uk/whats-in-the-book.html

So if you don't agree with what I wrote, write back to the author and argue with him that you know better.

I’m 58 and similar size and I agree with your calorie count. The problem with the tdee is it adjusts very little for age - it doesn’t adjust the calories down enough as age goes up. I’m sure your tdee would tell you more calories than you are actually having. I’ve had to reduce my calories down a lot from 48 to 58. Which coincides with menopause. Not sure if I’ll flatline over the next 10 years or go down even more. What I do know is my mum, who is 78 eats very little and she’s not slim.

There isn't. It's been disproved. Laws of thermodynamics are pretty clear. Your metabolism will slow if you lose muscle for sure, and your TDEE will go down, but that's not 'starvation mode'.

Same I have to eat less then a 1000 calories to lose weight and about 1200 to maintain

Don't do that 🙄 that's just starvation and really unhealthy.