I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong

[Ashym]

 Hi. So I have a lot of weight to lose before January (I'm getting married in Feb) and I'm struggling. I've always struggled to lose weight and all my blood tests say the hormones are normal. 

Now I see a dietician and currently eat between 1500 and 2000 calories a day. 2500 if it's a cheat day. I set my fitbit to a 750 cal defecit and it always tells me I'm under budget. 

I also spin for 35min a day keeping my HR between 145 and 165 bpm. I walk the full 10 000 steps a day at the minimum and I do a minimum of 10 flights of stairs a day. I do this 6 days a week.  All in all I burn between 3000 and 3800 calories a day and yet I am not losing weight or centimetres.  Am I doing something wrong?

[Mukluk4]

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@Ashym wrote:
It's just difficult fitting exercise in between work and maintaining a home. 

Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

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Only if you make it so.  I have a 2 and 1/2 hour commute 4 days a week, normal 40 hour a week job, 3 crazy boys with a tons of activity and I can find at least 2 hours almost every day.

I get up EARLY to put in the cardio.  I take a cross fit class over lunch.  After the dishes are done and the kids in bed, I try to get in at least a 30 minute run (even in the dark if I have to).  I've got basketball 3 nights a week in the winter (which are no touch for my wife).  If/when my wife goes out I have an exercise bike and weight machine in the basement and a nice driveway for pylo work (I'm sure the neighbors think I'm looney) 

That doesn't even include family activities (hikes, sports, bike rides, etc.)

My boys also see how hard I work to do the things I enjoy, so we have a house rule that if they want to do something, they need to put in the work.  If they don't, then I'm not committing to it.

[AuroraKat]

@Ashym I also had hypothyroidism, but my labs are now normal. I lost 110 pounds in the last year. Here's what I did (for reference, I am female, starting weight 253 pounds). 

I calculated my TDEE (https://tdeecalculator.net). I used the "sedentary" option (I exercise, but more on that later). Using your stats, I got 2317 calories to maintain your current weight. Because you do have hypothyroidism, your numbers may be slightly lower, but not by much. This is the baseline.

Using the number I got for my sedentary TDEE, I picked a deficit. I started out pretty aggressively, but the deficit you pick is entirely up to you. Suppose you want to go for a pound per week loss, subtract 500 calories from your TDEE, which comes out to 1817 calories per day. I used this number (based on my own stats, of course) as my daily calorie budget. I ignore Fitbit's "over budget/under budget" prompts. 

I did exercise (walk, eventually run, strength train, MMA), but I did not eat back my exercise calories. Calories burned during activity are just estimates, imperfect ones at that. At my high weight, I was getting plenty of calories eating at "sedentary minus deficit" to feel perfectly fine during exercise. Plus, this way, I was sure that I'd still be losing even on days that I didn't exercise. Now that I am at a much lower weight, I do eat back some of the exercise calories, but that's only because my sedentary TDEE is so much lower now and I need more to sustain my desired level of activity (which includes running and racing on top of everything else I've been doing). 

For all this to work, I weighed my food on a food scale. I weighed everything. Condiments, fruit, veggies, meat, ice cream - everything. I avoided "bites" and "tastes", but if I did have a taste of something, I'd estimate and log. Precision is key here. Additionally, keep in mind that many food entries found on My Fitness Pal are user-submitted and can be wildly inaccurate. If you are logging chicken breast, for example, weigh it raw and search for "raw chicken breast, usda" in the MFP database - this will pull up the USDA values, which are much more accurate and reliable. Here's a direct link to the database - https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/ - this is the only reference I trust for calorie counts. If I log a new food, I always double check it against the USDA database to make sure that Fitbit and/or MFP data is accurate. I have found many inaccuracies this way. 

Hopefully my experience will be helpful to you. Starting out with weight loss can be overwhelming, but it does get easier with time!

[DavidSchneier]

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@Ashym wrote:

Proper calorie counting, I rely on the fitbit calculations and other online calculators like myfitnesspal.com to calculate the average calorie count of what I'm eating. I manually enter what I eat based on the average between the 2 apps .

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If you are relying exclusively on devices to estimate calories burned, you're never going to lose weight. This article was published today, reflecting on research released this week: Is your Apple watch or Fitbit making you fat?.

I have always adjusted the FitBit estimated calories burned, first by 600 and more recently by 800. Using the adjusted number and tracking my calorie numbers compared to my actual weight loss results I am confident that I can budget calories consumed accurately.

[alcarcalimo2364]

Gershon, I don't think you should be giving any nutrition advice lol. Not to come for you or anything, but the links you posted are very biased. And saying that "fat turns into fat" is a huge over simplication. That is not how our body processes food. There are advantages and disadvantages to low-carb and low-fat dieting.

But to say you can't lose weight on a high fat, lower carb diet is bull. I've been eating primal for the past 4 months and have lost 35 lbs, the majority of it fat mass, not lean mass. 50% of my calories come from fat on a 2000 calorie diet, 20% from carbs.

[GershonSurge]

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@alcarcalimo2364 wrote:

Gershon, I don't think you should be giving any nutrition advice lol. Not to come for you or anything, but the links you posted are very biased. And saying that "fat turns into fat" is a huge over simplication. That is not how our body processes food. There are advantages and disadvantages to low-carb and low-fat dieting.

But to say you can't lose weight on a high fat, lower carb diet is bull. I've been eating primal for the past 4 months and have lost 35 lbs, the majority of it fat mass, not lean mass. 50% of my calories come from fat on a 2000 calorie diet, 20% from carbs.

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Whenever I see an "lol" in a post, I know falsehoods are coming and your only purpose is to try to discredit me with ad hominem attacks and false information about me. Some people respond well to that. Their problem.

Let's take the most obvious falsehood. I never said "You can't lose weight on a high fat, lower carb diet." Why don't you retract that statement as a start and expose your own falsehood.

As for Dr. McDougall being biased. Yes he is. Towards a healthy diet. If you watched the videos, you will know he didn't start with that conclusion. He is treating and saving the lives of real life patients. There are other people who are biased, like Dr. T. Colin Campbell, who was one of the first to demonstrate the benefits of a whole food plant based diet. He is treating real-life heart disease and preventing, arresting and reversing it.

You could look into Dr. Esselstyn who is successfully treating real-life heart disease.

If you would read their works, you would discover how heavily USDA food recommendations are influenced by the meat and dairy industry. 

You can disagree with these old, healthy doctors who have been curing diseases for decades, or you can make yourself feel good by posting "lol's" and clear misstatements of facts about people who post other information. Really makes no difference to me. It's your health. 

By the way, why don't you show your numbers on your profile? 

[A_Lurker]

@Dominique- I'm just under 250, 5'4" and in my 50s.  I'm working on a just over 3000 calories today.  I'm just over 10,000 steps (this did include some strength training as well) with 72 active minutes.  I know from experience that this is likely a 2700 calorie burn, but the numbers aren't abnormal.

[beth411]

hi, maybe you can tell me what Im doing wrong.. it seem like you have more info..

Im 48 years old and very active woman.. my exercise is a lot more than the average person.. Im at the gym atleast 2 hours a day sometimes more.. I do jog at the park with my dog..I dont snack or drink pop.. my coffee is black no sugar..drink red wine over dinner..I was a smoker then I gain weight when I stopped.. I cant seem to drop it to my normal weight..Im a 135lbs now. I need to drop atleast 20lbs or even a little I will be happy..Im taking meds for my blood pressure..

thank you for any advice..

[Dominique]

@A_Lurker: I didn’t know @Ashym’s weight/height/age when I wrote 3000-3800 sounded high for a female. I agree with you it’s not unrealistic, if/when the conditions are met. Given her weight/height/age, it’s quite plausible her TDEE would be around 3000. For 3800, I think a higher activity level would be needed. 

[Dominique]

@beth411: how tall are you? When did you stop smoking? Do you currently log your intake? If so, how much do you eat in average? What’s your average step count?

One small glass of red wine (12 cl) can be 85 calories. If you need to eat 1500 calories to lose weight and are having two glasses of wine with dinner, that’s 11% of your daily allotment with hardly any nutrients.

[beth411]

Im 4'11 height and I stopped smoking 17years ago..my steps count on the daily basis is over 12k.. I normally meet my target of 100k a week.. I dont know how to count calories..that is why I dont log my intake..

[Dominique]

@beth411: your calculated energy expenditure (using this online calculator) would be 2037 calories at the moderately active level (which would correspond to 12k/day - 100k/week IMO). It’s possible your Fitbit reports a number higher than that, but I would rather use this more conservative number. This means if you want to lose 1 pound a week / 4 pounds a month, you can only eat 1537 calories per day (it’s generally considered you need a 3500 calorie deficit in order to lose one pound; it’s an approximation, but good enough for most purposes).

If you want to lose weight, you’ll have to restrict your calories, one way or another, even if you don’t count them. I don’t count calories either, but I’ve become very calorie-aware. I read labels on products that have labels, I google those that haven’t got one (typically unprocessed foods), I weigh items like pasta or rice so my portions don’t get oversized etc. So many people are using MyFitnessPal it can’t really be rocket science.

The fact you quit smocking so long ago means the impact (on weight) from nicotine severance should have disappeared a long time ago. Just congratulate yourself for that smart decision.

[alcarcalimo2364]

Gershon, you are very aggressive. I was lol'ing because saying "carbs don't turn into fat" or "fat turns into fat" is NOT how our body processes food. That isn't how the physiology works.. I did misspeak when I stated you were saying that you can't lose weight on a low-carb diet. What you did say is that they are killing people, which is just not true. I've been eating low-carb for six months, and I just had a physical and my blood work came back the best it has in years. I realize this is just one case, mine, but it's most certainly not killing me nor the millions of other people that eat low-carb.

I'm not advocating low-carb or low-fat over the other. I know that low-carb works for me. As for posting my numbers publicly, I don't share them because they are my own, thank you very much. I don't need to prove anything to you or anyone else. You, however, are spreading false information put out by one "doctor" who isn't a credible source.