2000 calorie deficit + workout no change in weight.

[Ikataur]

Hey guys, I'm getting a bit demotivated about this whole thing. 

Right now I'm on 2000 calorie deficit.

I workout at home. 50 burpees and 30 minutes of intense rope jumping. This gets me up to about 170bpm.

Fitbit shows me I burn about 700 calories while doing that. Yet I don't seem to be losing any weight on the scale.

My steps are over 6000 daily and sleep is fine.

What am I doing wrong?

[Dominique]

Can you provide a bit more info about yourself: height, current weight? Your age is stated in your profile, and you sound like a guy to me. When did you start your journey?

Generally speaking, diet plays a more important role in weight loss than exercising, yet you don’t mention anything about your eating (other than your deficit is 2000, which sounds extreme to me).  That is not to say exercising is pointless, it’s just that it should be viewed for its impact on fitness and health.

[Ikataur]

Hello, I'm 23, male, 95kg and 177 cm.

I started about 2 weeks ago.

I put everything I eat on myfitnesspal.

Past 2 weeks I have been eating fruit in the morning, blue berries strawberries and raspberries. Lunch either chicken with broccoli and brown rice or tuna salad.

I prep food for a week. Daily I consume about 700 Calories out of 2700 needed to maintain my weight.

[riverchick]

That calorie deficit seems extreme. Your body could be going into starvation mode and trying to preserve itself. Your diet sounds healthy, maybe you should just eat a bit more. Especially if you are exercising you can't expect to live on 700 calories a day even for just a couple weeks. You might try a couple eggs in the morning instead of fruit, to increase your protein intake. Fruit is sugar. Or add some good quality yogurt/cottage cheese/protein to your fruit at the very least.

[Dominique]

Your BMR alone is 1946, so eating 700 calories doesn’t make any sense. Besides, I was under the impression MyFitnessPal doesn’t even let you create a plan in which you eat less than 1200 calories.

Your diet sounds like the stereotypical "clean eating" diet bodybuilders would eat. Nothing wrong with that, but you may ask yourself whether it can become part of your lifestyle in the long term. Same with workouts: are you going to be able / willing to jump rope everyday for half an hour?

I would revert to the regular lifestyle you had prior to starting this extreme program, and make incremental changes/improvements to it. Nothing crazy, but the kind of changes that have the potential to become a permanent part of your lifestyle. Consistency always beats perfection.

Calories-wise, you should at least double, if not triple, the number of calories you are eating (if you are really eating 700 calories, which is nothing, given your age and size). That you burn 2500 or more, even with light activity (6000 steps isn’t that much for a healthy guy your age) is credible.

[SunsetRunner · Accepted solution]

As everyone else suggested that’s an extreme calorie deficit that will likely backfire on you later on.  However, if you are new to working out it could be Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS). This doesn’t imply you will be sore but it’s the body’s protection mechanism that can cause weight gain or lack of weight loss in the beginning due to retained water. DOMs can have this effect 24-48 hours after your workout but usually goes away about 2 weeks or longer of consistent exercise in which you may see a sudden drop in weight.

[Ikataur]

I think this is literally what just happened. I went from 95kg to 89kg in 2 days? After I reach the wanted weight I will correct my diet to fit with workout. But for now this is helping me.

Thank you everyone!

[Dominique]

You wrote yesterday you saw no change in weight, so you dropped 6 kg in one day, not two. It is generally considered you need a cumulative deficit of 3500 calories in order to lose 1 pound of real weight (real = coming from tissue, not water). 6 kg is 13.2 lbs, so you lost 6.6 lbs a week / 0.94 lbs a day, which implies a daily deficit of 3300 calories. If it’s indeed what’s happening, you will hit a wall rather quickly. However, it is likely a significant part of the loss came from water. Do report how things turn out for you, but I would personally switch to a more reasonable plan. 

[Ikataur]

I do understand that this might seem like a lie, but I stood on the scale 4 days ago not when I originally wrote this thread. I'm keeping diary on my fitness pal which tells me that daily I eat 700 calories out of my 2000. Than I burn about 800-900 from walking, intense 50 burpees and 30 minutes of rope jumping. Today I looked in the mirror and first thing I noticed how slim my love handles have gotten which gave me very big boost. Than I stood on the scale and saw that I was 89 instead of 95 like 4 days ago. I added Greek yogurt to my morning fruit mix so in total my breakfast is around 250cal now instead of 150. Later at 5 I'm going to eat chicken brown rice and broccoli which is about 500cal. There has and will not be dinner for a while. For 2-3 weeks I haven't eaten after 5.