Weight Loss

[Grace.mei]

Hi

i have been struggling with weight loss for the past few weeks as I have a caloric deficit but am still not losing weight.  Previously I lost approximately 20 pounds with a deficit between 500-1000 Over the period of 4 months. 

I exercise everyday and my Fitbit says I burn between 2,450-2,700 calories a day. However, I am not losing weight like I was previously and the scale says I am gaining. I drink a lot of water and tend to eat well. 

I try to maintain around a 750 calorie deficit but am not sure if it is too much or too little?

any advice would be helpful 

[Julia_G]

Hi, @Grace.mei , with a 750 daily calorie deficit yiu should certainly be losing weight - maybe not over a day or two, because day to day weight will always vary deoending on water intake, when you last eliminated etc.  

If you are consistently not showing a reduction at a 750 calorie deficit, then you are either eating more calories than you thnk, or burning fewer calories.

I would initially recommend on focussing what you are eating, as that is easier to check.  I would suggest for two weeks log everything.  There are good tools for keeping track of this with Fitbit.  If yu need help on how to do this, please post again.  There is always simeone here to help.

[cathm]

Hi @Grace.mei 

A weight stall can be frustrating!

Sometimes I look for contributing factors such as:

How far are you from your goal/ideal weight?  Is your goal weight reasonable?

What is your sodium intake?

How has your sleep been?

Have you tried increasing daily calories for a week to change things up?  After a week, lower daily calories back down. Sometimes that helps break through a stall.

[Julia_G]

There are so many approaches to losing weight and a best diet.  

What’s ‘best’ differs for each person.  Even though many programs emphasize breakfast, only this week I heard a highly respected top surgeon recommend skipping breakfast (not necessarily for weight loss, though he admitted that was often a side effect, but for best brain function).

Many people aren’t hungry in the morning, so if this is you, don’t feel guilty about skipping breakfast - just make sure you don’t make up for it by a load of sweet pastries at 11 am...

Of course calories matter.  But there is increasing evidence that the kinds of calories you consume, and when you consume them, also matters.

I am currently interested in the notion of restricting the calories you eat to certain hours of the day.

There is really good evidence for avoiding constant dieting with constant strict calorie restriction: that convinces your body to go into starvation mode in which it slows down the metabolism and “hangs on” to every calorie.  Apparently rewarding it with a full meal, but just once a day, or full calories during a restricted period, helps avoid this.  It turns out that feast a d famine might not be so bad after all.

Also, everyone needs to come up with a way of eating that they can live with.  The notion that you can never have a donut again (if that is what you crave, just for example) can be soul destroying.  On the other hand, many people can live with the notion that they can eat whatever they like, if they only do it within a 6 hour window.

The calorie theorists will claim that this (intermittent fasting) works because it is not possible to eat so many calories within this restricted window, and I agree that almost certainly partly explains it.  But it doesn’t explain everything.  

After 6 hours complete starvation the body moves on to ketones and there is increasing evidence that the combination of burning glucose and burning ketones, and switching between them produces maximum brain and body function.

It is highly likely that this is how we were evolved - to cope with periods of alternating feast and famine, rather than a constant 3 meals, 5 snacks a day that many ‘diets’ recommend.

The short answer: if anyone tells you that their way is the one, true way, treat them with a lit of scepticism.  Find the way that works for you.

It might be a continuous calorie restricted diet, with relaxed periods of “maintenance mode”.  It might be intermittent fasting, where you restrict eating to certain hours of the day (ideally no calories for at least 16 of 24 hours) or you might have 2 days of the seven when you eat a very restricted number of calories (e.g. only 500 for women on a “fast” day)

Or you restrict your foods longer term to a certain type if calories- e.g. low carb.

Each of these regimens has its merits.  

Recent evidence suggests that most people, on average, find the intermittent fasting easiest to stick to long term, and that it has other benefits, and fewer downsides, than other approaches.

But you need to find what works for you!  That will depend on your lifestyle, your daily routine, and your food tastes, among other things.

Good luch!  Let us know hoe it goes.

[Grace.mei]

I am quite diligent when it comes to counting calories and measure almost everything. Is it possible I am eating too few calories? My current weight is 135 lbs 

[DavideFitbit]

I experienced something similar at some point in my weight loss journey @Grace.mei, the body gets used to the workout routine and the diet, and that's when my weight loss stopped,

I went to the nutritionist and she gave some advise to change the diet a little bit, I was still eating protein, carbs and veggies, but I tried different options and changed things up, this helped me loose some more pounds, but I did feel how it got a little bit harder the more weight I lost.