Appropriate calorie deficit?

[Allymoson]

So I've had fit bit about a month. I was at 288 when I started, now I'm at 277. And I'm stuck. I increased the weight/calorie goal to a 1,000 calore defict about 2 weeks ago. Since then I have had trouble with weight fluctuations up and down but no real weight loss. I get small bursts of walking that tallies up to about 2700 calories burned for the day according to fit bit and my intake is about 1200-1500 daily. Family and friends have been quick to say I've thrown my body into thinking its starving. Is my calorie deficit too much? Or is it within an appropriate range for someone with 100 lbs to lose? I have noticed some lethargy/ tiredness but not much more than my normal level. I am usually hungry about an hour before a normal meal time but drinking water is enough to squash it.

[Dominique]

If you started on May-8, as suggested by your profile:

then 11 lbs in 24 days is an average of 0.46 lbs / day or 3.2 lbs per week. This would be consistent with a 1600 calorie daily deficit, which would be a lot. Of course, since 24 days is still a very short time, it’s difficult to assess what part is real weight loss and what part is water loss.

Start with a more conservative deficit (one that feels comfortable / sustainable) and stick to it for some time before jumping to conclusions and making drastic changes. Also take body measurements (e.g. of your waistline), as they are often more telling than your weight. Check posts from people like @JohnRi, who have gone through a similar journey.

[JohnRi · Accepted solution]

Hello Allison,

I was 281 lbs 8 months ago. I lost about 11 lbs the first month too.  I had 98 lbs to lose just to get into the normal range.  So I relate to what you are going through. 

I got my fitbit on November 7th, and started logging my food intake.  At first I was doing the 250 calorie deficit, and once I was always under, I then switched to 500...  Once I was under, I switched to 750..   And then a 1000.  But it was a couple of months before I got to 1000.  I took it slow.  I gave my body time to adjust the drop in food intake.   Plus I was learning how to eat a healthy low calorie diet.  Something I continue to improve on even to this day.

It took me 3 months to lose 20 lbs.  I was walking sporatically, mainly weekends, 1 to 2 miles.  Really the diet change is what drove my weight loss.  After first I could only walk 1/4 of a mile.  I didn't hit 3 miles until the end of December.

In January/Early February, I changed my diet to 1800 calories a day.  I was tired of chasing calories at the end of the day.  I wasn't hungry at 1800, and 1800 was the minimum recommended calories for a man my size to eat.  I also increase my exercise to every day.  Walking 3-6 miles every day. 

By the end of February I was down to 240 lbs on the 27th.  I took me another 3 months to lose another 20 lbs.  This last month was frustrating.  5 weeks ago I strained the calf muscles on my right leg.  I was unable to exercise for 3 weeks.  I did ride my bike, it didn't hurt to ride, but I was very saddle sore after a while.  2 weeks ago I started walking again, and ended up losing about the same amount of muscle I ended up gaining, so net weight lose almost nothing.

With 35 more pounds to go, I can tell you it's a LONG and SLOW journey. 

Ok, as for eating 1200-1500 is ok for most women.  Eating less than 1200 can be a problem.  My wife used to eat one meal a day around 800 calories.  Now she eats around 1500-1800, with the same activity level, and she's lost 27 lbs.  So eatting too little is not good for weight loss.  I think you are ok in that department.

If you get hungry before meals, I suggest you take 100 calories out of each meal, so that you can have a 100 calorie snack of fruit, nuts, etc. between meals.  I usually eat 3 meals, and 2-3 or snacks a day.  I'm almost never hungry.  Only when I have a CRAZY day the before and burned a ton of calories that the next day I will be hungry.

Deficits, generally speaking 1000 calorie deficit is for those that need to lose more than 40 lbs.  A 750 deficit is for someone needing to lose 20-40 pounds  A 500 calorie deficit is for those needing to lose 10-20 calories.  And 250 deficit for those needing to lose 10 lbs or less.

Eatting a high deficit with only a small number of pounds to loss will result in mostly muscle loss, and not fat.  So as you lose weight, your deficit has to come down.  Technically I'm maintaining a 750 deficit now, but I'm over doing it with exercise at the moment.  So mine is closer to 1500.

Let's talk exercise, all exercise is good.  You say your fitibit is showing that you are buring around 2700 a day.  That looks good.  BUT....  your fitbit could be overestimating the caloried you are burning.  And if you make any errors with how much you eat, well, you could end up very quickly with no deficit.

So if I were you, I'd do the following.  First of all, I'd wouldn't worry about the deficit.  I would eat around 1800 calories for next week, and then scale that back to 1700 the second week.  And 1600 after than.  And then 1500...  Eventually getting your diet down to 1200-1300.  But take it slow.  If you start getting hungy, keep it at that level, until you are no longer hungry, and drop it again.  But if you stay hungry, add a 100 calories, and that's probably your lower limit.

Remember as you lose weight, your body will naturally burn fewer and fewer calories.  My BMR, the number of calories my body burns just breathing, and keeping warm, used to be around 2400 calories a day.  Now it's just under 2000.  Since my diet hasn't changed, for me to have the weight loss as I did at 2400, I have to burn another 400 calories!  I just can't do it, so that's another reason my deficit changed. 

And also why as we lose weight, sometimes we have to increase the calories we burn, if we can.  Weightloss is pretty simple, you have to cut how much you eat, or increase the amount your burn, or both. 

So as your body gets used to new calorie intake, exercise, and exercise a lot.  I lost the most weight when I was exercising every day, walking 90-120 minutes, 5-6 miles a day.  I've returned to that right now to try to kick start my own weight loss, which has been stalled due to my injuries. 

Getting enough sleep is critical.  As is drinking lots of water.  2000 ML or more a day.  I recommend avoiding all soda, diet too.  I avoid caffiene too.  I drink mostly water, a glass of 1% milk at breakfast.  I also have diet minute maid lemonade once in a while, an very rarely, caffiene free Coke Zero.  But I only drink them with meals.  Fake sugar messes with your sugar levels, and should be avoided as much as possible.

I remember being tired at first, but as my body got used to the calorie changes, that disappeared.  I'm only tired now sometimes after exercise.

So you body will tell you when are eating enough calories.  Once it does, then increase the exercise.  I burn around 900-1200 calories when I walk 90-120 minutes.  I know you won't be able to burn that much, so you will have to find your number you need to burn.  But right now it's not enough to create any weight loss.  So you need to increase it.

So adjust your calories, and exercise more.  Take it slow, and remember it's a journey.  It took you months, years to gain the weight, it will take you months to years to lose it.  I think it's going to take me over a year to lose 98 pounds...

Good luck and stay active!

[Allymoson]

I really appreciate your response. I think its what I needed. Its easy to get discouraged when the scale stops moving.

[jess_i_can]

I totally understand where you're at. I started at 287 and am now down to 220 which I achieved by eating clean and some pretty light exercise (workout DVD's at home to be honest, was too embarrassed to go to the gym or anything). I also used the app myfitnesspal along the way. I decided I was seeing success with weight loss and wanted to get more accurate about it because I have no true idea how on (or off) point the mfp app was in terms of calorie counting intake and burn, so I got my fitbit a little over 2 weeks ago and have also been hitting the gym finally. About 90 minutes per day, 4-5 days per week. 

First of all, the fitbit tells me that to meet my weight loss goals, I should be eating around 900 calories per day. I found this shocking, as it is pretty common knowledge that eating under 1,000 calories per day is not recommended for anyone, especially those that are exercising heavily. Obviously, it gives me more calories to eat after I exercise, sometimes what I would consider too many. By evening, after a workout and a couple long walks with my dog, it will tell me I have nearly 2,000 calories remaining. This is only a couple of hours before I should be going to sleep, so I am wondering if my defecit is too big. I have been very confused about all this and continue to read through the threads of others that are also confused by it. I am not sure if my body is perhaps just in shock from suddenly going hard in the gym versus jogging in place in the living room or what. Like you, I've also been concerned that I'm putting my body in "starvation mode". 

The scale has kind of frozen for me too at 220 but in the last two weeks I have gone from a size 16 to a 14. My pants are falling off, the measuring tape tells me I am smaller, but the scale stays the same. At the end of the day, I just try to listen to my body and make sure I am generally in line with what fitbit is guiding me to do but not get overly crazy with the numbers. Maybe taking body measurements will show you different results than the scale too. 

🙂 

[katunkatun]

Consider what you are eating. In my experience, calorie quality matters. E.g. Wheat Bread bad, Ezekiel Bread much better. Yogurt with lots of sugar with low calories and low fat will spike incline levels and negatively impact your metabolism. Fruit is better choice. Also in my experience, exercise that increase men's testosterone e.g. Free Weight Bench Press, Dead Lifts, Squats will really help with weight loss. FInally, for men, I would recommend more focus on shorter period HIIT or Tabathas

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@Allymoson wrote:
So I've had fit bit about a month. I was at 288 when I started, now I'm at 277. And I'm stuck. I increased the weight/calorie goal to a 1,000 calore defict about 2 weeks ago. Since then I have had trouble with weight fluctuations up and down but no real weight loss. I get small bursts of walking that tallies up to about 2700 calories burned for the day according to fit bit and my intake is about 1200-1500 daily. Family and friends have been quick to say I've thrown my body into thinking its starving. Is my calorie deficit too much? Or is it within an appropriate range for someone with 100 lbs to lose? I have noticed some lethargy/ tiredness but not much more than my normal level. I am usually hungry about an hour before a normal meal time but drinking water is enough to squash it.

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vs. pure Cardio training. Takes less time and much bigger impact on fitness and weight loss in my experience.

[kflip]

Don't forget that muscle weighs more than fat! Sometimes when the scale stalls (which sucks, I know!), take a look at other achievements. I've had a scale stall recently, and my clothes size was the same...BUT, I can actually RUN interval training now, instead of walking and power walking my interval training! And that's something worth celebrating too! 

🙂