Consistently high calorie deficit and still gaining weight

[Mollyh17]

I am feeling so down. I got my fitbit Inspire HR a few months ago and have been stuck fluctuating in the same 10 pound range the whole time. I consistently have anywhere from a 700-2000 calorie deficit since I am very active. I try to stick to about 1500 calories a day and don't adjust that to match calories burned, in case the heart rate monitor is inflating how much I've actually burned. Today was the last straw! According to my fitbit I burned ~4,000 calories yesterday because I did three hours at the gym (cycling, weights, and yoga) yet this morning I weight a pound more than yesterday!!! Any ideas?? I doubt water weight would account for that much excess since I had a deficit of 2500 and gained an entire pound. Any ideas? I just don't know what I'm doing wrong!

Btw,I am vegan and eat strictly whole foods, so I don't regularly eat anything processed or high in sodium, mostly veggies, beans, and whole grains.

I currently weigh 226 and am 5'9"

Also I am only 22 years old

[Heybales]

Fat weight is not fast coming or going.

Daily water weight fluctuations can easily be more than 1 lb.

Shocked you haven't experienced that yet.

I can lose 8 lbs on a 1.5 hr hot bike ride while I still drank 3 lbs of water during the ride.

I don't even bother weighing the next morning since it would be invalid, like logging my weight with 1 leg on scale and 1 on the ground - why even bother with bad data point.

Only valid weight logging is day after rest day eating normal sodium levels, not sore from last workout.

Anything else is just introducing known water weight fluctuations to the data.

Stress induced cortisol can cause slow weight gain of up to 20 lbs of water. You sound stressed.

How many weeks of fat loss could that mask on the scale?

Of course if the body is that stressed, upwards of 25% of what is lost can be muscle mass - very bad setup for future success.

And that kind of stress is usually due to bad recovery of workouts - so then the workouts start sucking because while it feels hard, it's only feels that way because body is wasted.

And if you are really allowing a 2000 daily deficit, even if you are really burning 4000 - a body isn't going to be happy about eating 50% of what you burn - that is extreme, and 80% of failed diets or maintaining usually involve extremes.

You really don't want to be doing this year after year, getting a bad relationship with your body and food until you are older and realize that part of life was whittled away from some happiness.

That being said, wondering about accuracy of your figures, eaten and burned.

Do you log everything that you eat - by weight?

Calories is per gram - not cups or spoons or "about 2 servings per package".

Are you confirming the accuracy of the food entry you are using?

If you are using workouts that are using HR-based calorie burn for those workouts you listed - they are inflated calorie burn, to some degree, guaranteed.

If you did 20 min 3 x weekly in an active lifestyle - no big whoop.

But if you spend that much time most days of the week in otherwise sedentary lifestyle - big deal.

HR-based calorie burn calculations are ONLY valid for steady-state aerobic exercise, same HR for 2-5 min at a time. The more removed from that the workout - the more inflated.

For instance, cycling is Spin class? That is not steady-state, HR all over the place.

Weights - that's anaerobic if done correctly, again HR all over the place.

Both inflated calorie burns.

Yoga probably causes a rise high enough to be using HR-based too, and while likely steady-state, it's at the bottom of aerobic range, where you get inflated calorie burn, same as the top of the aerobic range, right before going anaerobic.

So I'm doubting your calorie burn since it's mostly exercise that is not best served with HR-based calorie burn.

Your Spin class - what amount of time and calorie burn did you get for it?

Biking you can reverse the math to how many watts is required to produce those calories - and that will instantly tell you if even possible to accomplish.

Weights would be more accurately dealt with by manually logging from the database and replacing whatever Fitbit came up with.

Weights is for 2-5 sets and 5-15 reps with 2-5 min rest between sets.

Circuit is for 1-2 sets and 15 up reps with 1 min or less rest between. It is higher calorie burn.

If you manually do that for yesterday - how does that change the 4000 estimate for the day?

Of that initial 4000, what number did all the workouts provide, showing how much was due to daily activity?

Because there again, daily would be by distance based calculations - and while very accurate, distance must be accurate. Default stride-length setting could be off, and if you get a lot of steps outside the workouts - your daily could easily be wrong too.

So I do believe you have still an unreasonable deficit trying to be reached.

1000 avg daily would be reasonable. Yours may not be 2000, but still probably stressful.

I do believe your body is probably stressed with whatever deficit you really have and types of workouts being done and it's backfiring.

And all that stress is causing water weight.

Curious how much protein you usually get in - because the 3 pillars to retain muscle mass is reasonable deficit, enough protein, and resistance training.

You have 1 pillar, you for sure don't have 1, curious about the 3rd.

[Mollyh17]

Thanks for the answer! The likely inflation of calories burned during workouts is exactly why I don't increase my caloric intake on workout heavy days. I stay within 100 calories of 1500 pretty much every day and never feel hungry or unsatisfied so it feels sustainable. And I do not weigh ingredients, but I always find a listing on the fitbit app that has cups, tsp, etc. as an option. Are those ingredients not correct on the fitbit database? If so, that could be an issue. But yeah, if I'm ever unsure about calories I always inflate what I think it is just in case. 

Stress is certainly a factor as I am currently a student and I do have anxiety. If it had been 2 or 3 weeks without progress I would just wait it out, but it has been months.

I do get solid protein amounts, I always make sure to get at least the daily recommended amount, even if that means supplementing with a plant based protein powder. 

I have definitely dealt with and experienced water weight fluctuations, but you'd think that after months of consistently working out and eating clean, I'd at least see overall decreases.

Anyway, I should probably see a doctor if living a healthy lifestyle isn't leading to gradual, sustainable weight loss, but I figured I would try this forum first since I use a fitbit product. 

[Glenda]

@Mollyh17  Molly, since you are trying to eat  1500 calories every day, you might want to consider an idea mentioned on calculator.net; "Zigzag calorie cycling".   That is like intermittent fasting to keep your metabolism from slowing to a low amount of calories.  If that web address doesn't get you there try calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html  

[Heybales]

Cups and other volume measurements is purely for convenience - they can be highly inaccurate except liquids, compared to true weight measurements which calories is based on.

The entries may be correct - I hope you are comparing to the nutrition label to confirm. Or using USDA entries for fresh food.

Now if you weigh out what you eat (which is usually faster than volume anyway if you learn how to use a scale), it doesn't matter if the database entry says a cup was a serving. You took say 45 grams eaten / 30 gr per serving and know you had 1.5 servings to log. That is accurate.

Trying to fudge the factors means you are in a state of not knowing actual numbers which is needed to look at now.

Suggest accurate as best logging - you can apply correction factors after you have best accuracy numbers if you discover the estimates are wrong.

Fitbit is trying to teach a life lesson about weight management.

You do more, you eat more.

You do less, you eat less (that is the kicker for most).

In a diet a tad less in either case.

You not increasing calories on heavy workout days means you are saying that workout was 0 calorie burn basically.

You may not have absolutely accurate calorie burn - but I can guarantee what is absolutely NOT an accurate calorie burn - 0.

Actually, anything at BMR or below is incorrect, because you are doing way more than sleeping during workout hopefully!

So if you don't want to log something that is possibly inaccurate - are you aware nutrition labels are allowed to be upwards of 20% incorrect.

So does that mean logging those as 0 too?

In which case the logging method of weight loss will not be for you, might as well not even deal with numbers if all inaccurate and made up.

Or you can follow successful people and log as accurately as you can, and take into account what is showing up.

Right now you have nothing to go on, because you don't know your best-estimate amount burned, you don't know your best-estimate amount eaten.

You could easily be gaining stress-induced water weight.

Considering your BMR is around 1850, and as active as you describe - I'm betting on extreme diet stress.

Healthy lifestyle includes the amount you eat, not just what you eat. The what can at least help reduce stress compared to poor nutritional diet - so that's good on your part.

Here's recommended amount of protein while in a diet so you can run the numbers and know if the recommended amounts when not in a diet are even close.

0.8 g/lb of body weight, so for you 180 grams daily, or about 723 calories worth.

Are you close to that in complete usable proteins from your proper mixing of them?

I don't think you are dealing with anything outside what many others have dealt with, but if you have the means it can be useful to confirm with Dr no other health markers are off and get cortisol measured. But do be aware your general MD gets 6 months of schooling on nutrition and so they should not be recommending anything for diet unless specializing in that (especially if they throw out general 1200 minimum be very concerned), same as they would refer you to podiatrist or ENT, they should refer you to dietician if really needed.