I burn 4000-4500 calories a day and eat 2000-2500 still not loosing weight It’s not making any sense

[Navi1980]

I m 37 ..5’11 ..211 lbs..I burn 4000-4500 a day 20000 steps and eat 2000-2500 calories a day ..still not losing weight ..my weight is stable ..why

[Daves_Not_Here]

Welcome @Navi1980 -- you are in a frustrating place, and people on this forum will have a lot of helpful advice, as your situation is very frequently reported.  Can you give some additional details?

• How many weeks have you been burning 4000-4500 and eating 2000-2500 calories without weight loss?
• How many days per week do you maintain this calorie deficit versus recovery and "cheat" days?
• Have you recently lost a significant amount of weight and stalled, or are you just starting out?
• What is your process for determining how many calories you are eating?  Specifically, are you logging 100% of your eating as you eat and weighing your food, or are you "eyeballing" it?
• What activities comprise the 4000 to 4500 calories, and are you taking the calorie burn estimate from Fitbit?
• Are you taking insulin or other medications?

[Navi1980]

From 10 week I m burning this much collies.. eating log from my fitness pal and calories burn from Fitbit 

[WavyDavey]

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@Navi1980wrote:

I m 37 ..5’11 ..211 lbs..I burn 4000-4500 a day 20000 steps and eat 2000-2500 calories a day ..still not losing weight ..my weight is stable ..why

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That's a 14000 caloric deficit, or 4 pounds of fat loss per week.

The answers to the questions above will likely shed some light on it. In the end, either your calories in or out are not being reported accurately. Since your intake sounds reasonable for an active person, I'm guessing you're not actually burning 4000+ calories every day.

Either way, you'll likely have to adjust the math, and it's probably on the food intake side.

[Daves_Not_Here]

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@Navi1980wrote:

From 10 week I m burning this much collies.. eating log from my fitness pal and calories burn from Fitbit 

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OK @Navi1980 -- are you willing to provide the details requested, or are you just posting your question to express frustration?  If you are unwilling to reasonably participate in the dialog you initiated, why should others emotionally invest in trying to help you?  The situation you have described is clearly impossible, therefore not happening, and it's a waste to try to help people who won't cooperate in their own assistance to solve impossible problems that are not happening.

Without your providing specifics, there is nothing constructive anyone can offer other than general recommendations such as "carefully log all your eating as accurately as possible", and "figure out why you are mistaken about your situation and bring your understanding into alignment with reality".

[Robinmasters]

I am having the sam issue I am 6’1” 222 lbs. I have been tracking with fitbit and my fitness pal for 4 weeks. I weigh all of my food. And enter it as accurate as possible. I consume the same meals for breakfast and lunch every day with dinner varying slightly. On average I burn 4,280 calories a day, but only consume around 2,000. Most of my activity is from work. I am a solar electrician and roofer, so I usually have a good six hours of active minutes and 12,000 steps by noon. I started out four weeks ago eliminating fast food and alcohol from my diet. My first weigh in was 224lbs. I am just baffled by the fact that I have only lost 2lbs. 

[Robinmasters]

I am 40 years old and am not taking any medications. I do not have cheat days. 

[Mukluk4]

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@Robinmasters wrote:

I am having the sam issue I am 6’1” 222 lbs. I have been tracking with fitbit and my fitness pal for 4 weeks. I weigh all of my food. And enter it as accurate as possible. I consume the same meals for breakfast and lunch every day with dinner varying slightly. On average I burn 4,280 calories a day, but only consume around 2,000. Most of my activity is from work. I am a solar electrician and roofer, so I usually have a good six hours of active minutes and 12,000 steps by noon. I started out four weeks ago eliminating fast food and alcohol from my diet. My first weigh in was 224lbs. I am just baffled by the fact that I have only lost 2lbs. 

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Which fitbit are you using?  IF it doesn't have a HR tracker, then your hammer swings, etc are being counted as steps and are therefore artificially inflating your calories burned.

What's your BF%?  Just because you weight 220 lbs doesn't mean you are out of shape by any means.

When you vary your dinner, are you logging that with as much detail as necessary.  When you say around 2000, to me that reads that you are not as accurate as you should be.

Are you hydrating appropriately?  It's hot as hell on those roofs

Are you getting enough sleep?

Have you had your hormones tested?

[Robinmasters]

I have the same problem. I am wondering if we are supposed to be consuming the calories burned along with our regular calories? For instance, are our bodies going into starvation mode?

~Jessie Dinkins

[Daves_Not_Here]

Hi @Robinmasters -- you have a perplexing situation that is often reported here.  I believe there are 2 possible explanations for what is happening when a theoretical model is contradicted by empirical evidence.

1. The theoretical model is sound but there are experimental errors.  In your case, that could mean that you have significant sustained errors in your estimates of how many calories you eat and/or burn.
2. The theoretical model is flawed.

I will admit to a HUGE personal bias: I am skeptical of theories that are contradicted by physical evidence.  I've now read hundreds of reports here and elsewhere from people who became stalled in their weight loss and have even experienced it myself.  So I'm curious about what is really going on, and if perhaps some of my original assumptions may have been incorrect. 

[Baltoscott]

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@Robinmasters wrote:

I am having the sam issue I am 6’1” 222 lbs. I have been tracking with fitbit and my fitness pal for 4 weeks. I weigh all of my food. And enter it as accurate as possible. I consume the same meals for breakfast and lunch every day with dinner varying slightly. On average I burn 4,280 calories a day, but only consume around 2,000. Most of my activity is from work. I am a solar electrician and roofer, so I usually have a good six hours of active minutes and 12,000 steps by noon. I started out four weeks ago eliminating fast food and alcohol from my diet. My first weigh in was 224lbs. I am just baffled by the fact that I have only lost 2lbs. 

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@Robinmasters - Not sure what it going on.  Sometimes your body hangs on to what its got and it just takes a while to get the weigh loss started.  Even so, fitbit is probably over-estimating your calorie burn.  The NIH calculator has someone your size/age doing heavy work burning around 3300 calories, so the intake  to burn gap may not be as wide as you think.  Still, eliminating fast food and alcohol usually makes a pretty big impact for most people, at least if you were eating/drinking a lot of it, and I expect you will begin to see results fairly soon.  How big a drop in calories do you estimate occurred when you changed your eating habits four weeks ago?  What are those 2000 calories coming from?  Do you weigh daily?  It would not be uncommon for someone your size to vary 4 or 5 lbs/day because of hydration levels etc. The 2 lbs may not be accurate unless it is consistent over many weigh-ins.

[Mukluk4]

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@Baltoscott wrote:

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 Still, eliminating fast food and alcohol usually makes a pretty big impact for most people, at least if you were eating/drinking a lot of it, and I expect you will begin to see results fairly soon. 

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That all depends on what you are replacing it with.  

[Baltoscott]

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@Mukluk4 wrote:

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@Baltoscott wrote:

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 Still, eliminating fast food and alcohol usually makes a pretty big impact for most people, at least if you were eating/drinking a lot of it, and I expect you will begin to see results fairly soon. 

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That all depends on what you are replacing it with.  

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Contrarian 😉

Agree though, that swapping a Pizza Hut (fast food) for something you cook at home, when that something is a frozen pizza, will probably not result in much weight loss.

[Yme]

You're not losing weight because fitbit isn't counting calories in a reliable way. It sometimes even doubles what you've actually burned.

Try dropping your calories to 2200 for 2 weeks, and see if you start losing weight.

Remember that 1 day of overeating can make you gain back an entire week of perfect weight loss.

Weigh your food yourself. If you eat fast food, you can't trust the calories the restaurant states are in the food.

Also, you can loose weight perfectly fine while eating crap foods like pizza, burgers and cake, but you will be really hungry if you do that, and you will most likely develop nutrient deficiansies, so eat nutrient rich foods like fruits and greens, as much as you possibly can. They are low calorie and high fiber, so they will fill you up a lot better!

[caused2lovechri]

Look at the whole picture. I am a 57 year old male.  Most family members have not made it past 55.  Yet, I'm on my way to good health. My blood numbers are finally normal, blood pressure normal (first time since middle school, yes middle school, down 60 life time pounds, could out run (distance) my 16 year old self and that's no joke. I'm off all meds and still have 40 pounds to go.

I have been where you are. This is what i suggest to get to a lower weight and better health:

Look at the whole picture:

     a. Calories: what you eat is so much more important than how much

     b. Nutrition: real, unprocessed, protein and veggies

     c. Cardio Exercise before Weight Training

Calories are important but not anywhere near as much as we think. 1000 calories of cane sugar and it's derivatives are very different than 1000 calories of steak. I am off sugar entirely and feel great. Your protein intake should out weigh your carbohydrate intake by about 2 to 1. This balance helps me feel like I have eaten and without thinking I eat fewer calories.

Nutrition: sugar, other than in a naturally occurring fruit is a killer. When i crave sweet i grab a handful of raisins. I have to be careful to measure out how much I am going to eat before hand. Eat more protein than carbs. Meat on bone is best. Get plenty of veggies and high fiber like lettuces. God made the apple, he did not make the Heresy bar, eat what God made. Cardio is what gives you longer life. Weight training keeps you moving gracefully. Cardio first. What good is having great muscles while you lie in the coffin? They will file by saying; "Doesn't he make a handsome corps..." Look at the whole picture!

[Craigside]

Good info...  I’m also 57, been regular weight training to maintain myself for 32 yrs. 6’2” tall, 14St 12Ilbs.  Only thing I would say is weights first THEN cardio, in my experience this is better;

The energy needed for weight training is available in your muscles to enable you to make a difference... then next stage, the energy needed for cardio then has to be drawn from your reserves during the cardio...

Personally I find if I do my cardio first I then seriously struggle with weight training because of lack of energy?

my Fitbit blaze says I burn average 3800 calories which ‘feels’ right? I don’t log my intake but I workout seriously doing 1-2 hours for 5 days a week...  if I don’t train I am less hungry so I eat less, but I do lose weight if I stop my regime...

[JimC_99]

Also don't forget about "extras" - A 4oz lean chicken breast on wheat is good, but not if it is cooked in oil and then topped with cheese, mayo and catsup...

[LucyB62]

Yes it's all about the nutrition. Weighloss and weight management is 80% about WHAT you eat and only 20% about the energy you expend.  Ditching the carbs and replacing them with healthy fats will have a dramatic effect on your weight.  Most of us are insulin resistant to some degree, due to the poor diets we have been encouraged to consume in the past few decades, and you need to tackle that at its root cause. Try these two articles:

https://www.dietdoctor.com/first-law-thermodynamics-utterly-irrelevant?fbclid=IwAR1XsHLYQt46T6h1ahjj...

https://idmprogram.com/the-failure-of-the-calorie-theory-of-obesity/?fbclid=IwAR2nbFDcF_ifxUEDeFCu7w...

[caused2lovechri]

Thanks for the suggestion Craigside! I'll have to try weights first. I have several friends who only weight train, no cardio. They want to bulk-up, all of us in our 50's.  My goal is longevity first, freedom of movement second. Muscles only for definition not to win contests. That's what prompted the post.

[Kooze]

I’m new to this and even I know this cannot be right. I’ve been actively counting calories since October. I consume 1200-1500 a day and most days I get to around 8000 steps and 30min active. I use the wiifit a few days a week. Im 43, I’m 5ft11 and female, I have no thyroid. Yet I’ve managed to drop from 104kg to 95kg since October. Without any additional exercise due to health issues. I take chemo every day and I am eating out still at least once a week and have a sneaky ice cream with waffle cone most nights. You really need to make sure what you are saying is accurate because it sounds pretty far fetched to me. You can’t just lose weight without trying or everyone would be slim.