-700 calories deficit and not losing weight

[Jack.Defro123]

I'm am looking to lose some body fat while maintaining/gaining some muscle mass at the same time. I already have a basic understanding of nutrition however over the years I have been yo-yo dieting a lot only consuming about 800-1000 calories which has worked few times in the past but have bounced back after a while.

However recently I've decided to take a less extreme and health detriment approach by creating smaller deficit. Its been 2 months now and I haven't made any progress even though I'm adhering to my diet and track every single macro nutrient that's goes in my body, making sure I get sufficient protein and carbs to fuel my training in the gym and eat mostly whole foods. Some days I also do Intermittent fast for about 16 hours whenever I feel like it but will often break a bit early if my body is telling my I'm hungry. I make sure to take daily vitamins and fish oils everyday. I follow a flexible dieting approach so no food is off limits as long as it fixes my macros for the day, but will mostly aim to eat more nutritious foods like fruits and vegetables.

Although I'm eating only 1700 which is still a pretty big deficit for my height and bodyweight (5ft11" - 182.6lb). My weight has been stagnant for month and half. I regularly taken pictures to see if I can see any changes in muscle mass if I'm losing fat and gaining muscle, but I don't see much difference looking at the pictures. I'm worried that my body has adapted to this deficit but i haven't lost any weight since the start of the diet and my energy levels and performance in the gym hasn't been effected and mood levels are fine and I get at least 8 hours of sleep a night. I don't want to lower my calories again as I don't wanna lose muscle mass and it wouldn't be good for my health.

I don't know what to do now, it has become very frustrating that I can't lose weight on a extreme or small calorie deficit and I'm still over 20 percent body fat so it shouldn't be a issue. If I could get some guidance or insight that would be helpful thanks.

[kawaiiko]

@Jack.Defro123 Are you eating fried foods and carbs? (those negatively impacted me) Remember there are veggies which have carbs as well.  And are you working out daily? (Strength & cardio). 

Eating that little calories for me, actually gained weight.  You probably just need to figure out what your body needs.  

Don’t forget to eat your nutrients & stay healthy.  

[Jack.Defro123]

Hi, thanks for the reply. I eat little to no fried foods, most of the food I eat I cook myself with cooking spray or if I did use oil I'd weigh it first then track it on my calorie counter, even so I use very little. When it comes to veggies I eat mainly leafy greens, spinach, broccoli, peas, peppers etc which is where I get the majority of my carbs. 

In terms of exercise I do resistance training 4 times a week, targeting each muscle groups 2 twice a week for combination of hypertrophy and strength. However I don't do much cardio at the moment, so am thinking of incorporating light cardio in between workouts or include walking everyday for an hour. 

[Glenda]

I'm not very knowledgable or technical but I always thought you could multiply your weight by 10 and that would be approximately the number of calories it took to maintain your weight.  I believe your 1820 calories a day  less 500 would be 1320 calories a day to lose 1 pound a week.    1700 will  probably not work.

[Heybales]

It's all about the calorie deficit to cause fat loss. Not the workouts, not the exact foods. Those may personally help you stick to a diet, making it easier to adhere.

How much you eat in relation to how much you burn - and you know what Fitbit is trying to tell you for one side of that. While it's an estimate, no need for rough guesses because I'm betting that's why you use it afterall.

I will suggest though - a 700 cal deficit is extreme for the amount you have to lose to healthy weight - that can easily cause the body extra stress, not fully recovered from workouts, increased cortisol and retained water, ect.

You can slowly gain upwards of 20 lbs of water weight with body under stress like that. How many weeks of scale loss would that hide?

Now - you said no visible loss either - are you actually measuring several body parts? Because fat comes off where it will, perhaps not were you are looking.

That's my guess since you sound like you were doing more extreme diet before, and this actually is still extreme now. 250 cal deficit would be reasonable now. But you may require a diet break first.

But - it could be no measurements are going down, you aren't stressed, you are increasing weight on the bar and recovery is fine from the lifting.

In which case I'd examine each side of that equation CICO. Probably do that anyway, maybe the deficit isn't that great, or isn't there really.

If Fitbit is providing the calories burned for lifting, unless you have a specific model that does it right - it's using HR-based calorie burn, and that is going to be inflated for lifting.

Go to a past day and manually log Weight lifting for that workout - what you manually add will replace the workout already there. Fitbit is not an add-on system, but rather replace-only system. So the past day will now probably lower in calories.

Notice what the difference is between the Fitbit workout and your manually added for calorie burn.

How much?

Now, for the eating side - do you log all you eat by weight?

Because calories is per gram, not per spoon, cup, or "about 3 servings per package".

So if not stressed, it could easily be you are eating more than you log, and burning less than reported. If both things done wrong, that could wipe out what appears to be a 700 cal deficit.

Should be great lifting during that time though at least. Keep that up no matter how slow progress goes when actually in a diet.

[Heybales]

Considering that x 10 takes into consideration absolutely nothing regarding level or types of activity, and men are recommended to NOT go below 1500 calories for purpose of safe nutrition - that formula is pretty loosey goosey and this example points out perfectly why it's such a terrible initial estimate when there are so many more better ways to get an estimate out there.

Besides the Fitbit he's actually wearing.

Perhaps that is a bed-ridden formula. In which case standard BMR formulas already exist and at least take into account gender and height and age too.