Need help with weightless...burning more calories but not losing

[hailgirl92]

Ok, so I started out at 358 two weeks ago.  I was down to 342 but had a cheat weekend, and went back to 347 monday. I am down to 344 yesterday, but stil 344 today. I am eating 1200 calories, and fitbit says Im burning 3800 calories, 900 from exercise. I am burning a lot more than I am taking in, so what gives? Why am I stalling out?

[Dominique]

Your weight can fluctuate on a daily basis for a number of reasons, regardless of what you eat or the exercise you do on a particular day. You should look at the big picture (time scope of one year) and not focus too much on what happens from one day to the next. Also take body measurements, so the scale isn’t the only tool in your arsenal. 

[Ukase]

You're stalling out because, as hard as it may be to believe, you're not eating enough. 

Kudos for working off 900 calories from exercise - but you'll want to aim for a deficit of no more than 1000 to 1250 calories. If you don't, what happens is your body thinks there are a lack of resources and your metabolism will slow down, and you'll have to work even harder. 

Consider this - each caloric deficit of 225 calories is one ounce of weight loss. Every day of a 1000 caloric deficit gives you a loss of 1lb every 3.6 days. So, I would say a loss of 14 pounds in 2 weeks is pretty good - almost too good. 

Consider the latest research which confirms that great efforts to lose weight by strict dieting and a lot of exercise in the short run  - will ruin your metabolism. 

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2016/05/03/contestants-on-biggest-loser-regain-weight-due-to-damaged-m...

So stop killing yourself trying to lose weight so fast. The more weight you lose, the lower your caloric deficit should be. 

Also - a cheat meal is okay. A cheat weekend - that will put all the weight back on and then some if you're just a bit "out of control". 

Also - when you lose weight - you're not losing fat cells - they just get smaller. And each time you eat more than you burn - you get more fat cells, making it harder and harder to lose fat and reduce in size. 

Go ahead, have something sweet - but try very hard to limit that intake. Keep an eye on that data that the fitbit tells you. 

I'd say good luck - but that's got nothing to do with it. It takes work - very hard work. Do the work, you'll get results. But you cannot give up. 

[JohnRi]

First all, don't worry about the scale.  Our bodies can go up or down 3 lbs a day, based on water weight gain alone. Then there is how much we pass each day in the bathroom...  Plus you probably have a menstral cycle that can cause weight gain too.

1200 calories is the bare minimum calories you need to eat.  I hope you are eating a TON of vegetables, otherwise you are going to get hungry. 

FYI, there are no cheat days.  Eating a healthy diet, is every day.  Cheat days typicall take 3 days to recover from.  Since instead of losing weight 7 days, you only lose weight 3 days a week... 

You have a lot of weight to lose.  And are doing a pretty extreme calore deficit.  While that is safe when you have as much you need to lose, you are going to lose a lot fo weight fast.  This does not give your skin time to shrink.  You are going to end up with a ton of loose skin, that will have to be removed by a surgeon. 

I would advise you to eat more.  Around a 1000 calories below your calories burned.  You say 3800, then I would eat 2800. 

I was 281 lbs, and I'm down to 219 in 8 months.  And I have some loose skin. 

But back to your question.  Forget the scale.  Weight yourself daily at the same time, but look at weekly averages on your fitbit app on Saturday.  This will show the trend and give you better idea of your weight loss.

Even better get a clothing tape measure and take your measurements on Saturday too.  Often at first when we are very out of shape, we gain muscle, and lose fat at the same rate.  So the scale doesn't show weight loss but the tape measure will.

The more weight you lose, the slower your weight loss will be.  So you say you burn 3800 calories today.  Don't be suprised if that falls below 3000 before you know it.

Good luck and stay active.

[emili · Accepted solution]

you are not stalling you are still working off your cheat. you got rid of the extra water and sodium on Monday and Tuesday. Today you normalized so you should see a loss by Friday. Probably not huge, but enough to make you smile. As someone who has gone through weight loss successfully, I would just caution you about too many cheat days during the loss. You will have plenty of time when you are in maintenance. its hard enough to lose what you set out to, no need to add stress on top of it. have a little cheat every now and then, but I would stay away from going all in. it only feels good while you're chewing.