Consistently in calorie deficit but still not losing

[ButtOutBobsMum]

Yes, yes I know! I'll hold my hand up and admit that until a couple of weeks ago I wasn't religiously tracking everything on Nutracheck and I was losing the odd pound or half a pound but mostly STS. But for the last two weeks I have logged everything. Right down to every mug of tea and coffee. I even poured a glass of wine on the scales last weekend but I've still gained 0.5lb 😤

My Apple Watch says I burn between 2300 cals (on a sedentary day) and 2900 cals (on a workout day). I have a calorie target of 1500 but I've been doing 16:8 so my daily calorie intake tends to sit at around 1300 during the week and on a weekend might creep up to 1800.

I honestly don't understand where I'm going wrong? The obvious answer is to cut my calories even further but it's pretty miserable living on 1000 to 1200 cals per day, particularly when you've got a fair bit to lose so are in it for the long haul.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I'm 51 years old and 14st 10lbs, 5' 3" so in the 30+ BMI category and desperate to get back down to healthy weight.

It can be really tough calorie counting. I'm no expert but my observations would be...

Most women need only 1600-2400 calories per day. If you are at the lower end when taking into account weekend and week days you may not have enough of a deficit.

Apple watches and the like often vastly over estimate calories burned. Do not let this make you think you have burned loads so can have a treat!

What are your calories made up of? 1300 calories made up of mainly carbs will have a different effect to ones with more protein and healthy fats. Similarly 1300 calories of processed or diet food is very different to 1300 calories of fresh produce.

It's interesting about the Apple Watch because I have wondered how accurate it is but how do you accurately assess how many cals you're burning per day in order to establish an effective deficit?

Since doing 16:8 I admit I have been eating more bread. Never used to bother but now seem to be craving something like a toasted sandwich for lunch. However evening meals are pretty much all fresh. We are using HelloFresh at the moment so 3 meals a week come from them. I do wonder whether my carbs are too high but I loathe low carbing with a passion!!

Work out your TDEE using one of the online calculators. At 51 I'd be surprised if it was more than 1,400, which is mine and I'm 46. Unless you do a LOT of exercise you probably only need about 500 cals over TDEE and above that will either slowly gain, or at least not lose weight.

Exercise doesn't burn as many cals as people think. E.g. a 5k run burns around 300 cals only.

I find losing weight so so hard since reaching 40. Basically it's no alcohol, no sugar, no snacks and 1400 cals a day, to lose 1lb a week. So boring.

tdeecalculator.net/
either your tdee is too high, you are logging exercise, and it is overestimating, along with you eating exercise calories back and/or you are just eating too many calories in total.

how do you accurately assess how many cals you're burning per day in order to establish an effective deficit? don’t worry about the exercise you are doing, ignore the ‘burn’ figures. You are exercising for fitness, nothing more. Focus on eating no more than 1,500 calories in total and forget tracking exercise.

2 slices of bread are a couple of hundred calories, if you are sticking cheese in that toastie it will be calorific.

Could you cut out all drinks with calories? Then have a banana for breakfast, one round of sandwiches for lunch and a normal, non-greedy dinner (no dessert) with a 200 cal treat afterwards. I lost 3 stone on that diet and it wasn't hard to stick to.

Just done the TDEE calculator and jts brought in a figure of 1800 so a 500 cal deficit gives me 1300. I knew of these calculators but wrongly assumed that my Apple Watch would be more accurate as it was monitoring my heart rate! Shows how much I know!!

TBF I don't eat back my exercise calories but I had presumed that regular exercise raised my TDEE.

I'll cut back to 1300 next week and see how I get on.

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Forgot to say - can snack between meals on raw fruit (not bananas) or veg

If you're cutting back to 1300 next week, don't cut it every day. Try 1300 and 1500 alternative days to avoid your body getting used to 1300.

Also, if that doesn't work, you have somewhere to go next.

I was on 1200 every day all of January and apart from an initial water loss of about a kilo I lost nothing.

So for February I actually upped my cals 2 days in 3, to 1300 and did 800 (as in fast 800 diet) 1 day in every three. I didn't buy his book or do a fortnight of 800 first. I'd alrady been eating really healthily so I wanted to see if this would work and it did. I'm finally losing.

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions. I’ll give them a try. I foolishly thought calories in vs calories out would do the trick!

I was just reading this and think there's a lot to it. It might be worth cutting out processed foods rather than focusing on calories.

https://joinzoe.com/learn/why-calorie-counting-doesnt-work

No one burns 2300 being sedentary

Thanks, that’s really interesting. I mean, I pretty much know all of what they were writing about but I definitely needed reminding. I know I’m guilty of just looking at calorie rather than nutritional values, particularly when it comes to lunch. I also know that my digestive system has become quite sluggish and I’ve gone from opening my bowels a couple of times a day to every other day.

I eat tons of food but it is all unprocessed - protein, vegetables and fruit. I'm sure I eat loads of calories but BMI is about 20.5.

How accurately are you tracking? Can you share some screenshot of your diary

No advice op but this is me!! I would say I'm actually averaging about 1000 calories a day and I've not lost anything over the last fortnight. What @xJoy says is very interesting but why oh why does it have to be so complicated!!!!

That 1000 cals is usually something like soup for lunch and a cook ready meal for dinner - they seem fairly healthy - lots of fresh veg, beans and lentils with limited carbs. Then some fruit and greek yogurt with honey. That's fairly average so I'm really not overloading on sugar or carbs.

We're a similar weight too although I'm slightly taller.

Here are my thoughts and what works for me:

Your calorie tracking isn’t as accurate as you think and you’re forgetting to track some foods or you’re not weighing them properly. I really don’t think it’s advisable to go below 1400 cals as over restriction leads to over consumption. Hence why someone says they are only consuming 1000 calories and not losing weight. Unless they’re only 3 foot tall that’s not possible. Another thing that happens when we restrict is that we naturally reduce our energy output.

Try pre-tracking on Nutracheck, so log today what you’re going to eat tomorrow. Try eating the same breakfast and lunch everyday and change up your evening meal. Go for volume of food. There’s evidence that humans are programmed to eat a specific volume of food, not calories. Aim for protein at every meal, 80-100g each day in total. It’s more satiating, pulls in less water than carbs and fats and has a higher thermic effect (25% of protein calories consumed are used in digestion). Drink lots of water.

Instead of calories per day, think about the whole week and start your tracking week on a Friday not a Monday.

increase your energy output - minimum 8k steps a day or averaged over the week. Ignore cals burned on your watch and just use it to track steps(movement).

Weigh yourself daily on rising after you’ve had a pee and make peace with the fluctuations as everyone’s weight fluctuates every day. Log your weight on an app like My Weight. Take your lowest weight of the week.

Start strength training - to feel good.

My view, given your current weight, would be to set your calories to 1700 per day/11,900 per week and aim for 10k steps per day. The less variation you have in your meals the easier it is to track. So try same breakfast, lunch, dinner plus 2 snacks for 4 days and see how you get on. 1000 steps is about a 10 minute walk, so split it across the day.

Good luck

Thanks Portia-that's brilliant.

I can honestly say I logged absolutely everything these last two weeks. If I missed anything it was very minor.

I am recovering after a period of ill health culminating in surgery just before Christmas, but I'm now back in the gym doing strength training which I love.

I agree I could up my protein and that's definitely something I'm going to work on. I'm also going to be upping my fibre and water intake.

I'm pleased to hear someone recommend increasing calorie intake rather than cutting it further. I know I said I'd drop to 1300 a day but I'm not sure I could sustain that. Weekly calorie counting makes much more sense so I can have more relaxed days at a weekend and perhaps a couple of strict days in the week to compensate.

All in all I think the reality is we just need to hit on the thing that works for us. We all have different bodies and metabolisms plus we're at different stages of our lives. What worked for us in our 30s probably isn't going to work in our 50s.

Anyway thanks everyone for your advice, I'll keep battling on and if I do find a magic answer I'll let you know!!

100% agree with upping protein and water intake. I read a scientific paper that had looked at weight loss as they concluded you loose fat faster with a higher protein diet.

Easy options are omelettes for breakfast or egg muffins if you’re in a rush. I have been opting for poached eggs on a slice of toast. You can add nuts as a snack or there’s loads of great nuts that are flavoured specifically for salads.
Theres obviously meats a good option and chicken is better for a calories / fat / protein ratio.

oh and babybel lights are surprisingly low cal but high protein!

I mean fundamentally, it is exactly that simple. It's just that getting an accurate measurement of calories in vs calories burned is actually very difficult and involves a lot of trial and error. But if over a period of weeks you're eating at what you think is a calorie deficit and either maintaining or gaining weight, then you're not in a calorie deficit, it's that simple.

I mean fundamentally, it is exactly that simple. It's just that getting an accurate measurement of calories in vs calories burned is actually very difficult and involves a lot of trial and error. But if over a period of weeks you're eating at what you think is a calorie deficit and either maintaining or gaining weight, then you're not in a calorie deficit, it's that simple.

I agree that on a basic level that's correct. However I think it's important to recognise that not all calories are equal. Some people can lose weight eating cake and takeaways if they're still in a calorie deficit but some won't. And I think that's where age and metabolic rate plays a part. So I think my calorie allowance needs to be made up of less carbs and more protein and fibre.

Something can be a fact but far from simple.

Calories in calories out is true but I can only limit my calories to 1200-1300 if I keep carbs very low and up protein and allow fats. No wonder I was always starving when I dieted before. Diets that worked, for a while, but then starving of course I couldn't keep it up.

Still now, I can only keep it up if my choices are protein and healthy fats and veg for fibre. There's no way that thinking only about calories in and calories out could be sustainable.

Calories in and calories out drives me crazy. We have to get behind ourselves, psychologically, understand why we're hungry, understand why it's easy to reduce cals to 800 twice a week if you know you can eat ''normally'' (as in, healthily but less restricted) the next couple of days.

There's a lot of psychology in the successful execution of weight loss imo.

In the past month I've lost 2.6kg. I'm
5'3" and weigh 58.6kg. I'm very active and I eat around 1600 calories a day. I weigh and log everything on MFP using barcodes on packaging, not what other users have inputted. Every day I eat porridge for breakfast made with semi-skimmed milk, chia seeds and golden syrup. Lunch is Greek yogurt with berries and honey. Dinner is soup, veggie fajitas, falafel and couscous, cheese and tomato pasta, sometimes a veggie burgers and a few chips, just normal food. The size of the portion is relatively small to fit the calorie allowance but we eat together as a family and nothing is banned from my diet. Before lent I was eating chocolate occasionally. I snack on snackajacks at the moment. I've been doing this since before Christmas but have stated my weight loss for the last month. That month includes a holiday where I ate doughnuts, sweets, pizza, and cream eggs, garlic bread and wasn't sticking to my calorie allowance. I walk around 40-60 miles a week at pace and up and down some big hills. I don't usually eat after dinner around 5-6pm. I need to recalculate my tdee now I've dropped a bit more weight but I'm still losing weight on the 1600 ish a day.

I think you have had good advice. It's not just calories, it's the quality of the calories, gut health, hormones etc. etc. I really only lose weight when I ditch booze and chocolate!

Apple Watches do over estimate calories.

Weight can fluctuate daily so don't think that a 0.5lb gain is significant.

And crucially, are your scales even reliable?

@ButtOutBobsMum glad that was helpful. Also I really like Emma Storey-Gordon’s output. She’s a PT and comes from an academic sports science background. She’s on Insta as esgfitness and she also does a good podcast of the same name.

I find my tracking week starting on a Friday works for me as Mon - Thursday I pretty much eat the same thing everyday. It also removes decision fatigue.

I’m a bit like the PP and I’m losing fat on 1600 calories at 5ft 4 so I’m in a small calorie deficit.

My diet’s quite different though and it’s what suits me as it keeps me feeling full and satiated. Typical day for me is: brown toast and mashed banana, 2 eggs for breakfast; one chicken breast, half pouch microwave rice, veggies/salad for lunch; one piece salmon, half pouch rice or potatoes/sweet potato fries, veggies/salad. That comes to about 1100 kcal and 85g protein so still leaves 500 kcals
for snacks, fruit, chocolate, yoghurt, whatever I fancy. So I can carry over some of those kcals for the weekend.