Is it best to stay within the zone or under

[Moale]

Hi all. Just wondering if any of you know if there is any such thing as eating too few calories, are you successful staying under budget or do most stay within the zone. I'm also wondering if it's enough calories when using the harder level. My weight loss has stalled, I've been under budget even at the hardest level and I'm wondering if there is truth to the "starvation mode" and metabolism, does eating too little cause your body to hoard calories in other words. Looking forward to hearing from you

[A_Lurker]

I suspect we need way more information to answer your question.  Depending how much you need to lose, your gender, your height, how much under are you eating, etc. will affect how much of a deficit that you should set.  We can talk about BMR (basal metabolic rate) and TDEE (total daily energy expenditure).  Basically you do need to eat less than you burn, but not too little.

In my case I have a lot to lose, still over 150 pounds, but I'm down 57.2 pounds since February.  For me not eating enough does tend to stall my weight loss. I definitely understand the desire to get rid of the rate quickly but you won't lose them overnight.  Also, I believe, the slower you take them off, the more likely you're going to keep them off.  I've probably spent 30 years trying every 'sure fire' diet plan out there.  All I did was end up heavier.  Under eating for me eventually slowed my weight loss, then I got discouraged and ate more, which resulted in rapid weight gain.  As I thought I knew more over the years I was somewhat more successful, however, I still under-ate for my activity levels and twice ended up with medical issues almost certainly caused by the dieting.

What I've done this time is try and make a point to stay on target by the end of the day.  However, 21 weeks in this time I saw a slowing of my weight loss.  I also noticed I was eating fewer and fewer of my calories burned.  I took a week off and ate every calorie I burned.  You know something, I didn't gain anything, in fact I was down 0.2 pounds at the end of 9 days.  An extra day of this and then back to -1000 calories, and trying to be very close to this number, and I'm down 3.6 pounds this week.  I'm assuming this is my roughly 2 pounds from last week and some of the weight I hadn't dropped before.

Now, all this assumes that your tracker is 100% accurate.  For me it seems to be, but others find it's not quite so accurate.  Stick to whatever deficit you've chosen for a couple of weeks, even a month, and see what happens.  Then you can adjust.

[FisiaH]

I'm so often over or under that when I check and see "in the zone" I do a lil happy dance lol. Not that I think it really matters for me tho lol. I can't gain or lose if I try to, my BMR is like "though weight shall not change!"

~FisiaH~

[Dominique]

I agree with @A_Lurker: more information needed. You said your weight loss has stalled: for how long have you maintained a deficit before that happened? How much weight did you lose during that time? What is your current weight and how much more do you need/want to lose? Metabolic adaptation does occur, but the extent of it depends on factors you haven’t mentioned.

[A_Lurker]

Okay, while waiting for my morning snack and/or lunch to settle (going outside to dig holes and plant stuff).  I played around a little online. With the exception of my fitbit Charge HR, this is probably my favourite 'what should I eat' calculator:

http://www.fat2fittools.com/tools/bmr/
Lightly active - 2489 calories

This is to reach 250 lbs, and then maintain it. If I choose a lower goal it warns me against that, setting an intermediate goal so I'm not eating below my BMR.

A couple of other calculators out there:

www.healthstatus.com/perl/calculator.cgi
Maintain - 2811 calories
2 lbs/week - 1811 calories

www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html
Maintain - 2740 calories
2 lbs/week - 1740 calories

www.healthyweightforum.org/eng/calculators/calories-required/
Maintain - 2582 calories
2 lbs/week - 1579 calories

www.supertracker.usda.gov/bwp/index.html
Maintain - 3193 calories
2 lbs/week - 2193 calories

This one didn't make sense as I picked 56 pounds in 196 days and it set the target at -1500. I think this was reasonably decent at estimating what I burn. Based on this (-1000) I've adjusted the recommendation.

livestrong.com
Maintain - 2459 calories
2 lbs/week - 1459 calories

This is the lowest so far, but just look at the range. 1459 calories to 2193 calories. No wonder people are confused out there. So, what I actually ate last week: 2237 calories a day (1847 at rest or sedentary, 1354 during activity). This gave me a deficit of 964 calories a day and a weight loss of 3.6 pounds. It's likely skewed as I just came off a maintenance week. However, it makes me think that the fat2fittools.com and the usda.gov suggestions are likely the best to use if you don't trust what your tracker is telling you.

[Fantine]

My doctor absolutely believes that if you eat too little each day, your body will go into survival mode and you won't lose any weight because your BMR will deliberately slow down.  When I was going to Weight Watchers meetings, they emphasized eating "all your points" to ensure that you had a sufficient level of calories and (equally important) nutrients on a daily basis.  Hope this helps.

[Lindy_Thomas]

So what is my target, I don't quite understand If it says I've eaten 1500 calories of 2000 is that taking into my daily weight loss calorie deficit? so it wants me to eat 2000 a day and that gives me a 500 calorie deficit? (or what ever my weight loss plan is?)

[A_Lurker]

If you've set a weight loss plan your target will be what you're supposed to eat.  I find mine fairly accurate, others don't always.  Stick to a plan for 3-4 weeks and then adjust based on results.

[Stephanieglinsk]

I've got a question too when it comes to being consistently within the zone is it ok to miss one day of being there cuz today my appetite just isn't up to par today

[Bozzdivine]

I'm not a pro, but I'll tell you from my own experience. If I consume less calories, I gain weight, plus I don't feel good, I get tired faster. And by the way, it takes me longer to lose that weight.