Daily deficit 988 calories for a week, gained 1.3lbs

[JamesWilbysAbs]

Third week of diet. Lost around 2lbs each of the first 2 weeks. Moderate carbs, higher protein.
This week I ate 10,878 calories and burned 17,798 (3 x 5km slow swims helped).
That's an average daily deficit of 988 calories over the last 7 days. Surely I should have lost something???? I GAINED over a pound!
I'm eating over 1500 calories a day - and not hungry. Have just been disciplined about cutting out the crap.

Could it be water retention? Hormonal changes? I always gain a couple of pounds the week before my period, and then they go instantly.

If you weigh weekly, it is possible that the weight loss is not being accurately reflected by once a week snapshot weigh ins.

I have realised that if I weight myself every day, it works far better for me. Some days I can be up or down by a couple of pounds depending on time of the month/ how well I hydrated the day before, high salt meal etc.
There are apps that calculate your weekly average if you weigh daily, eg happy scale or garmin connect.

I was always told it was unhealthy to weigh yourself every day, but I personally find it works far better for me. I don’t pay much attention to the day to day numbers, just look at the weekly trends. When I weighed once a week I used to get really demoralised if i thought I hadn’t lost weight that week (even though in hindsight I may well have done) and quit the diet.

Just hit my goal weight this morning 😀

I'm 54. Never had water retention before.
This month will be 12 months without a period so I'll be officially menopausal. Hurrah. I've had no problems at all beyond a bit of brain fog and occasional sleep issues... No hot flushes, no mood problems etc- though obviously hormone changes have been happening even if I haven't noticed them.

Interesting about the daily weigh in. Never tried it- though my Fitbit will do a weekly average calculation. I'll weigh myself again tomorrow morning and see if there's any change.

I do weigh myself every day for this reason, that you might just be having 1 bad day on your allocated day. I can put on 3lbs in one day for no apparent reason but then the next day it’s gone

You've lost 3lbs in 5 weeks. That's a loss.

You’re not doing anything wrong-stuck with it. It’s not always easy but try to see your loss over a month rather than week by week

How do you know you burned those calories? I never factor in exercise calories because it's hard to measure and many people tend to eat them back.

I honestly think this is where people go wrong. They say 'oh I swam 60 lengths/walked 5km' etc but unless you are really going for it and have an elevated heart rate you're hardly 'burning' anything, probably the same as just doing normal everyday movement.

and burned 17,798

Are you sure it wasn’t 17, 997? As said above, estimating calories burned during exercise is extremely difficult. Certainly to that level of detail. It doesn’t help that fitness trackers are notoriously optimistic.

Do you weigh your food?

I would bet your estimated output is off. Use James Smith Academy calculator online for an estimate of your required intake to lose weight and ignore what you think you have burnt.

I don't count exercise to give me extra calories, I found it really set me back. If I go for a run, I'll maybe have an extra bite of cheese or something that equates to about 200 cals max (taking me from 1300cals to 1500 cals a day).
That and weighing everything

Your calorie burn estimate is 2500 per day. That seems very very high. At your age it would be unusual to burn that much on a daily average unless your weight is high.

I'm eating over 1500 calories a day

How many do you need to maintain a steady weight?

Also 5k slow swim will burn next to nothing in terms of calories (sorry). It's still good for your overall health. For context, my Fitbit estimates I burn 280 calories for a 5k run at a very decent pace - and I reckon that's an overestimation.

i only burned enough calories for a bigmac meal when i ran london marathon....we overestimate what we burn/use massively

You didn’t lose weight because you didn’t eat 998 calories a day. Your stats are wrong. :)

You can’t take into account calories you’ve burnt, no fitness watch or machine at the gym will ever be accurate as there are so many variables like age, weight, height etc.

We never know what we’re truly burning in any given day but all we can do I use numbers to help us figure it out.

So you eat 1500 calories a day & going about your regular exercise so getting steps in, doing your swims etc - do this for a good few weeks, weighing regularly and at the end of those three weeks assess what’s happened. Despite a few fluctuations did you lose weight? Maintain? Or gain?

You can then adjust either your calorie intake or up your exercise accordingly in the right direction.