What am I doing wrong?

[lmeskill]

If you burn more calories than you eat, you should lose weight. I have been doing this for 6 weeks now and have not lost any weight.  So, I have to be doing something wrong.

I'm on the kinda hard program -- a deficit of 750 calories a day. I burn an average of 2200 cal a day and eat an average of 1200 cals a day.  Five days a week I walk on a treadmill for 45 min. On those days I eat more calories. I measure my food carefully. I drink water. I don't take medication and I have had my thyroid checked. I am also trying to increase my sleep. Am I missing something?

[Dominique]

Welcome to the community, @lmeskill!

Based on the date your account was created, you have been using a Fitbit for a little bit over two years. What has happened during that time in terms of weight (have you maintained, gained or lost) and activity (has your step count remained the same, or has there been big fluctuations)? The reason I’m asking is your Fitbit history should provide you with a baseline: if you have had more or less the same patterns in terms of activity and eating during that time, and have maintained your weight, changes from the baseline (e.g. increased activity and/or decreased intake) should produce results.

You may want to double-check whether energy expenditure as estimated by your Fitbit is in the right ball park, using an online calculator such as this one. You can use your average step count  to determine which of the five standard activity levels applies to you ("high" would start at 15k, based on my experience).

Walking is a fine activity for general health, but it’s low intensity and doesn’t really require extra "refueling", especially if you have excess weight to lose. For weight loss, you’d probably need more than 45 minutes for it to have a major impact. Also pay attention to your overall/informal activity during the rest of the day (what is known as NEAT, non-exercise activity thermogenesis).

Unless you’re a really petite woman, an intake of 1200 calories is very little. Most active people should be able to lose weight eating more than that.

I would consider the baseline at which you were previously maintaining your weight and go from there: slightly increase your activity  and slightly reduce your intake from that level. That should get things started.

[GershonSurge]

@lmeskill,

Many people make a similar first post to yours. Invariably, they hide their profile. Those of us who have been around a while can tell at a glance where the probable problem is.

Do you log all your food on Fitbit or one of the apps you can link to Fitbit? For instance, if you grab a few potato chips or peanuts, do you weigh and log them? Do you log every refill of sugared soda? Do you weigh the salad dressing you use? If not, it's easy to eat a few hundred calories more than you think. Couple this with a probable Fitbit error in measuring calories burned of about 15% and you can find yourself eating more than you burn.

The other valuable chart is the activities. How many total hours a day do you move? Can you work on improving this if it's low?

Let's take a look at what you eat. For the person who has what I call a famine reserve, any fat you eat is devoid of essential vitamins and minerals and will be quickly stored as fat. Your body will crave more food to urge you to get those nutrients.

Do you eat added oils like olive oil, etc? Do you use them in cooking and not count them? Do you eat frozen dinners with their added salt, sugar and fat? Do you eat dairy products that are high in fat? These give very little nutrition compared to the calories they contain. Even the "low-fat" versions usually contain just under 30% of their calories in nutrient-free fat.

For the first step, I suggest taking a hard look at what you eat and getting rid of the obvious problems. Replace those calories with real foods that you cook yourself. It's almost impossible to eat out or eat frozen meals and maintain a healthy diet.