HELP before I chuck this thing in the bin!

[Tina1977]

Had the Alta hr for just over a week and set my weight loss goal to lose 1 pound a week. Have been counting calories in PRECISLY and been undertarget all week as haven’t felt hungry. NOTHING! Sick of eating food I don’t want to and getting no reward for it! This thing obviously doesn’t work and gives people false hope! Or is there more to losing weight than just eating under target?????! Please someone help as very very frustrated. I don’t do a lot of exercise apart from walking but then shouldn’t have to if I’m burning more calories than what I’m consuming!

[Dominique]

First of all, one week is a very short period of time to assess whether or not what you are doing is working. Weight loss is seldom fully linear (though there are exceptions, check @lavabelle’s trend here) and day-to-day fluctuations (whether up or down) are usually related to water weight. Then, you have the impact of your hormonal cycle (as a woman).

You chose a moderate daily deficit of 500 calories: there’s nothing wrong with this in itself, but because it’s relatively small, it’s less forgiving of inaccuracies in estimating both your energy expenditure and your intake (as explained in this reply of mine to another question of yours). Select a higher deficit (e.g. 750 or 1000 calories), understanding that the actual deficit may well be smaller than that (because of the above mentioned inaccuracies).

Also allow more time to assess your results, and use weekly averages rather than just individual daily values. TrendWeight is a great tool if your weigh-ins make it to your Fitbit account (whether automatically via a smartscale like the Fitbit Aria 2, or by being manually entered by you). TrendWeight works best with daily weigh-ins, and after being "primed" with data for a few weeks.

[Tina1977]

I will try the 750 calorie deficit next week if i still don’t see results by then. Thanks . Anyone else’s ideas would be appreciated too!

[Baltoscott]

Agree with @Dominique that you really need to give this process more time.  Especially if you aiming for the slow weight loss of a 500 cal/day deficit (which will result in about 1 lbs weight loss/week if you are really at that deficit).  Even if you are precise in what you eat, not all food values are accurate.  Even whole foods like a piece of fruit can vary by 25% or more from whatever the food database assigns.  And Fitbit may also be overestimating your burn rate as well.

If, over the course of a couple of weeks you still are not losing any weight, you should shoot for a higher deficit, and try that for a few weeks, and make adjustments going forward until you are losing weight.  

As far as being sick of eating food you don't like, you may want to try different food.  There are lots of options.  

[Tina1977]

Thankyou baltoscott. Will take your advise onboard too. 

[WendyB]

I agree with @Baltoscott and @Dominique

But you also said you were eating UNDER target which also is not good on a daily basis. You do need to eat to lose weight. You need to meet your daily target. By doing this you wont lose weight faster in most cases it will hinder you.

Your making it a diet and it really is more about a Life style change

[Tina1977]

But Wendy can I just mention that if I was going for a higher deficit , then I would be eating less each day anyway so how does what you say about eating less is hindering me, make any sense?

[TomH96]

The way I see things (possibly incorrectly) is that I need to give my body energy and nutrients to function properly. 

I exercise 5 times per week to keep my daily calorie deficit down, but I also eat well - I make good choices and give my body what it needs, Ill eat the right foods at the right times, I only have carbs after a work out, I drink around 3l of water per day also. My weight doesn't drop as it has done on diets previously but as someone mentioned above, its more of a lifestyle change and helping you to make a long term commitment to being healthier. 

My advice would be to set your calorie deficit to 1,000 calories. But, eat when you need to within reason and make the right choices. If you're looking like you will be over target then try and put some exercise in to bring you back on target. This will not only help you loose weight but also help your body inside and out as well as boosting mental health! Its amazing what some light exercise can do for the mind! 

Pop a reply back if you want to chat some more, just don't give up! You've got this! 

[Tina1977]

Just is frustrating when youve done your calorie deficit for the week and get no reward for it.

[bikerhiker]

@Tina1977

I agree with @WendyB that losing weight is more of a lifestyle change rather than just focusing on the diet.  I see one thing that is concerning and that is, you hate the food you eat now.  So what if you do lose weight and achieve your weight target goal, what then?  Keep eating the same food that perhaps allowed you to lose weight now and keep hating it?  I think that if you hate the food you eat now, you're more likely to keep hating the food you'll need to be eating to maintain your target weight goal.  

There are a number of possibilities that slowed down a person's metabolism rather than going to the drastic measures of going towards more caloric deficit.  One thing is that, we do not all have the same bodies.  Some of us are insulin sensitive (Hypoinsulinemia) (like most Asians and those thin super models) and they would have no issues in losing weight in whatever they eat.  Fitbit will serve them quite nicely.  Some of us (the majority of the Western population) is insulin resistance (Hyperinsulinemia).  Hyperinsulinemia is a metabolic disease and condition.  Fat burning will only occur when insulin level is low.  Fat burning will not occur, or occur much less when insulin level is high!  So no matter how much of an extra caloric deficit you will go through, you will still keep the fat.

So first, you need to determine if you are insulin sensitive or insulin resistant.  The only way to do that is to have your blood work done and obtain your BFS (Blood Fasting Sugar), your Hemoglobin A1c, your triglycerides, your HDL and LDL levels and talk to your GP first before you go to the drastic measures of inducing even higher caloric deficit.

Why I do not recommend going on a higher caloric deficit?  The reason is, our human body requires certain macronutrients and micronutrients plus the necessary nutrients to allow optimum function of our circulatory system, immune system, bowel system and cell to cell functions, communications and genesis and they all need certain amount of macro, micronutrients and minerals.  Most people in the Western world already started out with a large deficit of certain macro, micronutrients and minerals, namely Potassium.  When you cut your caloric deficit to 750 or 1000 calories however, you will also cut the minerals and nutrients that your body needs for survival.  Which in turn signals the body that you are in famine mode, meaning that you are not getting enough of the daily value of nutrients and minerals the body needs to function in its optimum capacity.  So therefore, your body will weaken and while you may lose some weight doing this, you may also not as the body protects its fat content for the impeding coming famine.  Unfortunately though, the side effect to an extreme caloric deficit is that your body will begin to shut more of the vital organs down as it needs to preserve whatever it gets in from you feeding it to survive. If you see what is happening in poor countries like Africa for instance, this is what happens when you have a caloric deficit diet with poor nutrition.  Yes they look skinny, but not healthy in any sense and they usually die of malnutrition.  I work in healthcare and see way too often people (young people) come in and blood tests after blood tests showed them to suffer from malnutrition! 

I would suggest that you keep the current deficit, as the current diet you are now on does not make you hungry, which is a good sign and maintain this for maybe 1 month.  If you do not see any sign of change in your weight or your waist circumference, then I highly suggest that you see a GP or a medical professional to ascertain if you are hyperinsulinemia (insulin resistant) or not and then have him or her recommend you a proper diet and exercise routine to go about losing weight.

Hope this helps..

[Alicat2104]

@Tina1977

" Or is there more to losing weight than just eating under target?????! "

There's a lot more to it than just calories.

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/debunking-the-calorie-myth#section1

[Tina1977]

Ok so just eating less calories than your burning is not enough then? Why is this?

[Dominique]

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@Tina1977 wrote:

Sick of eating food I don’t want to

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I didn’t pay attention to that part of your original post. I believe successful long-term weight management is about finding ways of eating that are enjoyable, including when dieting down to a lower weight. Thinking there’s "diet mode" with despicable foods you must force yourself to eat vs. "regular mode" with all the delicious foods you can enjoy without restriction is not the right mindset IMO. It’s possible to develop a taste for foods you previously didn’t particularly enjoy, and likewise become less addicted to foods you’d love to eat, but know don’t align optimally with your goals.

[Dominique]

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@Tina1977 wrote:
Ok so just eating less calories than your burning is not enough then? Why is this?

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You will see and read things like "calories don’t matter", "all calories are not created equal" and the like, but in the end, energy balance is still the primary factor in weight management, whether the goal is to lose, maintain or gain.

I’ve mentioned a couple of e-books on nutrition in another topic that attempt to rank the various factors (calories, macronutrients, food composition, nutrient timing, supplements etc.) according to their impact on health and on body composition. In both cases, calories came first, by a wide margin.

[bikerhiker]

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@Tina1977 wrote:
Ok so just eating less calories than your burning is not enough then? Why is this?

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The purpose of eating food is not only to restore spent energy the body used, but to maintain nutrients and minerals levels.  It's like owning a car, you need gas to get your car moving and yet gas is not the only thing the car needs to runs smoothly.  It also needs engine oil, coolant, transmission oil and wind shield wiper fluids to ensure your car is running smoothly.  If you just feed your car gas and neglect topping up or even replacing those fluids, eventually your car will breakdown.

This is the same analogy with the food we eat.  Our body needs the right amount of carbohydrates, protein and fat as well as food high in nutrients and minerals to maintain our satiety longer, plus ensure our systems (like the internals of a car) function properly.  If you lack some of the nutrients and minerals like Potassium for example (which is quite common among many North Americans), then your body won't be functioning optimally to metabolize the food you ingest, digest and absorb into the bloodstream ready for energy oxidation.

The Fitbit model, like any other fitness app, rely on equations to estimate your calorie burn based on a number of factors.  All of which assume that you have no medical issues, in perfect health and your internal organs are functioning in perfectly working order.  If this is the case, then yes Calories In and Calories Out is an easy to understand concept of energy balance.  Unfortunately, modern humans aren't mostly in perfect health.  And this is due in part based on our diet rich in saturated fats and rich in refined sugar which overflowed our subcutaneous adipose tissues, visceral adipose tissues, liver, pancreas, the heart etc with excess fat.  In fact, the reason insulin resistance is so prevalent in the Western world is that, the insulin level had to be kept high in order to recycle fat into the body system because there are no places for the extra fat to store in your fat cells anymore.  In fact, this is how diabetes drugs work -- by expanding the fat stores so insulin does not have to be so high but at a certain cost!  So yes, you may be burning calories, but as fast as you burn the calories you exercised, you replace back the same calories to achieve an energy balance.  But this is a zero sum game as you never touched your fat stores, because when your insulin level is high, you are not burning fat.  You are still burning glucose!

To make matters worse, when people see this they don't really consider why they are not burning a higher proportion of fat as they should when you induce a caloric deficit.  So instead they go into a much higher calorie deficit, thus forcing the body to tap into the muscle storage for much needed energy and fat storage as well.  This may work for awhile, but you also will lose lean muscle mass.  And then, while they may end up losing weight, they tend to gain all their weight back and then some when they stopped dieting and went back to the same food they loved.  Or while they may end up losing weight, they also lose vital minerals and nutrients that weren't adequately replaced and they feel hunger, anemic and eventually they usually collapse and end up in E.R.

The body also has a way to tell you that if you are not providing it with the necessary nutrients and minerals, it will force you, through hunger, to keep eating UNTIL all those missing nutrients and minerals are provided and properly absorbed.  Then you achieve satiety, at a cost of excess calories you don't need, but took in anyways to replenish the missing nutrients and minerals.  So you see here; it's not as simple as Calories In and Out.

The solution is not to cut calories alone.  The solution is to restore your proper body metabolism by making sure you have all your internal issues resolved, know exactly the nutrients and minerals you are lacking and then adopt a proper diet that will address those and also help your body oxidize fat while making sure you are getting the highest nutrient and mineral content in your food, which modern processed food no longer provide!! 

[Tina1977]

So to put it briefly, take a multivitamin and mineral supplement and go for a low carb diet , yes?

[GershonSurge]

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@Tina1977 wrote:
So to put it briefly, take a multivitamin and mineral supplement and go for a low carb diet , yes?

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Multivitamins are often dangerous. An excess can be just as bad as a deficit. Vitamins don't even need to be proven safe or effective. To be safe, don't take any vitamins. 

Get your vitamins from vegetables of all kinds. Starches, greens, cruciferous. Also, add two or three fruits a day. 

Carbs in the form of food and not refined sugar have all the vitamins and nutrients a person needs. 

The idea that a person can perfectly balance vitamins is ludicrous. A single type of vegetable has over 200,000 phytochemicals (Vitamins). Only a few are categorized. There are over 200,000 types of enzymes in each cell, and they change every nanosecond. The idea that a person can take a pill to properly regulate these is ridiculous. 

I'd suggest the first step towards a healthy diet is to get rid of everything that comes with a list of ingredients. That means all snacks, boxed food, dairy, canned food, frozen meals, etc. Go one step at a time. Buy foods in the produce department and learn how to cook a few simple meals. Starches for calories; vegetables and fruits for vitamins. If you desire meat, keep it to a pound a week. 

Don't worry about proteins. It's impossible to eat a diet of natural foods and get too little if you are getting enough calories. (BMR minimum). 

[bikerhiker]

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@Tina1977 wrote:
So to put it briefly, take a multivitamin and mineral supplement and go for a low carb diet , yes?

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To put it briefly, if you eat natural vegetables and fruits in your desired portion for weight loss, you will be in a lower carb diet with pretty much all the vitamins and minerals your body needs compared to a normal hi-carb diet of refined sugar and fats.  Multivitamins and mineral supplement are meant to be used as such, as a supplement.  They aren't meant as a replacement for the real plants because, these pills are chemicals and as such need an intermediary conversion process before it gets absorbed into your system.  Supplements are meant to supplementing your normal diet when you are not able to get what you need while travelling or in a natural disaster emergency.  Supplement is like a car's spare tire.

There are however exceptions where supplements are the only means for a certain population of people who are financially challenged, because studies had shown that high mortality rates of people are mainly from the poor and the disenfranchished.  In this case, taking supplement is better than taking none at all to reduce the risks of mortality rate.