Calorie deficit but almost no weight loss?

[squeak52]

Around 5 weeks ago, I weighed 134lb with the hope of getting down to 125lb (my weight pre-kids - youngest is 5, I'm 39)

I'm using MyNetDiary to calorie count and it calculated that I should be eating just over 1300 calories to lost that weight over a couple of months. I've also done 1 hour of HIIT, burning 400-450 calories about 5 times per week (to be fair this is more the last 2-3 weeks, initially I was doing 30 mins and burning 200-250).

I sometimes eat slightly more on the exercise days but nowhere near my total allowance.

And yet ive only lost 1 pound! I do look leaner but I'm so demotivated that the weight isn't coming off - does anyone have any suggestions? It is the weight of new muscle?!

If you’re eating at a deficit then it won’t be new muscle. Maybe you are overestimating the calories burned from exercise? Or maybe you’re retaining some water at the moment. You have lost weight, just slowly, so what you’re doing is working.

It's a number of things.

First, the calorie deficit - logging is good, but are you weighing and measuring each portion accurately with a food scale? And what did you use to calculate the calorie deficit? At that weight, your maintenance TDEE is 1500-1700 (height dependent), so that gives you a smaller deficit than you've been anticipating.

Second, one hour of HIIT won't burn that many calories. HIIT is great and I swear by it myself, but at your weight, that's an overestimate by 20-30% based on the research - and the longer you've done HIIT, the more efficient your body becomes, and that reduces the number of calories you're burning per session. It happens less quickly than with steady state cardio, but it still happens.

Third, when you are exercising in that kind of full-on HIIT way, your body hangs on to water like crazy for muscle repair. So if you're hydrating appropriately, you're likely hanging on to more of it.

Since you are losing weight, it's working - just slowly.

Thanks for replying! I use an Apple Watch which could potentially be overestimating my calorie burn, but I don't eat all the calories back anyway.

It just seems so little to have lost over a whole 5 weeks! And difficult to stay motivated when I'm hungry 😂

Thank you @gwenneh that's really helpful! I entered all my height details etc for it to calculate my maintenance calories and it came out at about 1800 - is that incorrect? (I'm 5'5)

I know this won't be something you want to hear - but maybe your body is just happy at the weight it currently is?

Alternatively, you probably just need to do it for longer. 5 weeks is not a very long time when you don't have much to lose, so just keep at it I guess?

That does sound like an overestimate for your TDEE because most of the "calculators" are incredibly imprecise. There really are very few ways to get an accurate read on this short of something like the BodPod service, because your latent body fat, water intake, etc. all impact it.

Apple Watches are a good guide, but fitness trackers in general overestimate calorie burn by 10-30% depending on which academic paper you read. So you're definitely starting with good general information, but don't assume it's precise.

If you're hungry, that would be a sign to me that your nutrition was off, and not appropriately fueling the work you're doing. I'd look there first, since weight loss is about what you eat far, far more than what you do.

@locke360 noooo don't say that haha! I will keep at it and hope that something starts to happen!

At least I do feel more toned and have lost a couple of inches - would just love to see it reflected on the scales at some point!

@gwenneh thanks so much, that definitely makes sense.

I've stopped snacking l, also because I've recently got Invisalign braces which makes snacking a pain to do anyway, so I think I'm mainly adjusting to having to go a long time between what are now smaller meals! I definitely think I could look to increase the protein content etc to make them more filling though.

Really appreciate your advice, thank you!

@gwenneh is bang on in my view. Very rare that I entirely agree with what someone else writes on here!