weight loss and calorie counting....

[dondiego]

My wife and I have been using our fitbits for 2 months and we average 10,000 steps a day. In addition we are consistently UNDER our calorie goal daily and we have not lost A POUND!! I hear all these stories about weight loss and I think they are a myth, unless the individual has been totally sedate. We don't eat bread, pasta, potatoes, rice, refined sugar, soda or diet sodas. We drink TONS of water and yet nothing.....we don't get it!!!

[karenitalia]

Ive lost 43 pounds doing exactly you do. low carbs, 10,000 steps daily.

[JesseH]

Hey, I have had the same issue. I am currently trying to lose 15 lbs. I have been using my fitbit for 3 weeks now in conjunction with eating healthy. I walk 15,000 steps a day burn 3000 calories and only eat between 1300-1600 a day. I have lost a pound then gained a pound back. I just this week started excersicing. Making sure that the intensity level is moderate to high so that I am burning calories and raising my heart rate. Most of weight control is genetic unfortunatly. My family has issues carrying weight in the belly and hip area so I have struggled to loose this last 10-15 lbs, it just doesnt want to go! I am staying positive and continuing forward because no matter how hard it is to loose the weight I feel better every day I exercise. It is not all about loosing the weight its about gaining the metal accuity, energy, and happiness that being healthy brings !! Good Luck. 

[fifofum]

Sorry to hear that. I follow a similiar plan as you, since starting my Fitbit journey one month ago. I don't eat red meat, breads, pasta, rice (except brown), sweets of any type except greek yogurt. My diet is low glycemic fruits and vegtables, chicken and fish. I also cut out all achohol. I do the 10K steps but also weight lift for only 10-15 minutes and also swim. I have lost 10 pounds.

I mean this in a kind way, but maybe you need to exercise more. I am a 62 year old man, trying to lose weight with my metabolism which has always been slow has been tough. I push myself to work hard for my 10k steps on a treadmill at a fast speed.

Hope that helps.

[fifofum]

Well said, I totally agree. Each day I feel stonger to. Remember a 10 pound mass of fat is about the size of a bowling ball and a 10 pound mass of muscle is about the size of a baseball. So by exercise, you turn that fat to muscle, imagine how much better that will make your body look. I try to stay off the scale because I find it discouraging. I think how my clothes fit again and how I can wear a tighter shirt and flex my muscles from weights. I'm saying that it builds confidence when you are in good shape.

Hang in there, this is a tough journey to lose weight. We have to change the way we think about food.

Reminder to myself - Eat to live, don't live to eat!

[MusicMaker]

Hi, I am new to this group, but I need to be accountable with writing down my calorie intake, I'm very bad at that part.   I'm moving over 10,000 steps a day and hitting all the major goals, active minutes, stairs, steps, and miles logged, but not writing down how many calories I'm putting in my body.  I have been losing weight, I'm down 28 pounds, so far, with many, many, many more to go.  So, my goal is to keep a log for one week and let you all know how I'm doing with that.   Don't let me get away with being lazy, I'll run 3.1 miles, I'm training for a 5k, and put in an hour of step class, but won't write down my food, insane.  Thanks for helping me and for letting me join this group.

[SunsetRunner]

You are at a good start. It is good that you are cutting out bad drinks and foods, but I have some advice that might help with your weight loss.
1. Dairy and grains can slow your metabolism down. I used to be very overweight before I cut out all grains and dairy. After I did so, the pounds came flying off. Although slow metabolism is frequent in my family history (and I have it myself), I can still lose weight if I avoid certain foods.
2. How many calories do you eat per day? If you eat less than anywhere from 1200-1500 calories a day, that can severely affect your weight loss. To keep your metabolism revved, you have to feed it. It's like you have to give a car gasoline to keep it going.
3. Never skip breakfast, or any meal for that matter. What we've all heard is true- breakfast really is the most important meal of the day. It gets your metabolism going.
4. I would recommend exercising after meals, not before. That gives your body a chance to begin burning calories after you eat breakfast, with the addition of you burning more calories when you exercise after you eat.
5. It might be a good idea to burn off two meals a day, such as breakfast and dinner, but no more. If you exercise too much, your metabolism will suffer.
6. Natural sugars (fruit, raw honey, etc.) are good for you in moderation, but if you eat too many of them, it can cause weight gain. I've experienced that firsthand. I would recommend two servings of fruit daily and the occasional natural sweetener, such as raw honey or organic stevia.
7. Dairy and grains are not the only foods that can mess with your metabolism. Soy, corn, and other GMO foods can slow your metabolism down.
I hope this helps.

[Dominique]

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@MusicMaker wrote:

I need to be accountable with writing down my calorie intake, I'm very bad at that part.

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Like you, I’ve found it very hard to log my intake. What has worked quite nicely for me is logging just proteins, without worrying about total calories. For that, I’m not even using any dedicated app like MyFitnessPal or a fancy spreadsheet, but just an old-fashioned notebook. I shoot for 120-140 grams of protein per day (using the common recommendation of 0.8 to 1.2 grams of protein per pound of body weight). I’ve found that – at my exercise level (I’m pretty active) –  when I reach that goal, my total calories put me either at maintenance, or at a slight deficit (I’ve been slowly losing weight since I started logging, about 2.5-3 kg in two months). This is because of the satiating effect of protein: by the time I’ve reached my protein goal, I’m full and don’t feel the urge to eat any more. Outside proteins, I mostly eat minimally processed food, like veggies, fruits, rice.

[Dominique]

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@LeeanneH wrote:
1. Dairy and grains can slow your metabolism down. I used to be very overweight before I cut out all grains and dairy. After I did so, the pounds came flying off.

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You’re confusing correlation with causation: "pounds came flying off" when you cut grains and dairy because you eliminated enough calories to put you in a deficit, not because your metabolism got boosted all of a sudden (in fact, when losing weight, metabolism usually slows down).

You became overweight because you overate (possibly mostly grain and dairy, if they were a big part of your diet, but overeating anything will cause gain weight), not because specific foods brought your metabolism down. You lost weight because you were able to undereat over a long enough period of time. 

[OCDOC]

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@Dominique wrote:

You became overweight because you overate (possibly mostly grain and dairy, if they were a big part of your diet, but overeating anything will cause gain weight), not because specific foods brought your metabolism down. You lost weight because you were able to undereat over a long enough period of time. 

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Question for you:

3 people have identical everything, and they each overeat exactly 500 calories a day. One has 500 cals excess sugar, one has 500 cals excess pure protein, and the other has 500 cals excess fat eg butter.

Everything else being exactly equal including exercise, which of these 3 people gain weight fastest?  

[Dominique]

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@OCDOC wrote:

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3 people have identical everything, and they each overeat exactly 500 calories a day. One has 500 cals excess sugar, one has 500 cals excess pure protein, and the other has 500 cals excess fat eg butter.

Everything else being exactly equal including exercise, which of these 3 people gain weight fastest?  

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It doesn’t matter much IMO: all three will gain weight, because in the hierarchy of things, total calories prevail over macronutrient split.

Now let me ask you a question: what macronutrient split would allow someone to gain weight while being in a deficit? And what macronutrient split would allow someone to lose weight while being in a surplus? I’m asking since you seem to imply that macronutrient split is more important than total calories (as a cause of weight gain/loss), and that weight gain is not caused by a calorie surplus, but rather by a suboptimal/unfavorable macronutrient split.

[OCDOC]

My question was phrased 'gain weight fastest'? Implicit was they would all gain.

You ignored the actual question, so I'm not positioned to respond (to your non-answer).  R

[Dominique]

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@OCDOC wrote:

My question was phrased 'gain weight fastest'? Implicit was they would all gain.

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I don’t know. But are people commonly in a race to gain weight as fast as possible? Well, some actors may need to gain large amounts of weight as required by a certain role. Gérard Depardieu comes to mind.

[OCDOC]

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Dominique wrote:

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OCDOC wrote:

My question was phrased 'gain weight fastest'? Implicit was they would all gain.

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"I don’t know. But are people commonly in a race to gain weight as fast as possible? Well, some actors may need to gain large amounts of weight as required by a certain role. Gérard Depardieu comes to mind."

If one doesn't know which macronutrient (if any) causes the fastest weight gain (ie is the most obesogenic), then how can one possibly know which macronutrient reduction will cause the fastest weight loss (ie the most obesolytic).

People are actively studying this, and the jury is still out. However, I don't know any nutrition scientists who report anything resembling "a calorie is a calorie"....it's immensely complex from what I can tell.

Just asking your view, since you are probably the most enthusuastic commenter on this site. 

BTW..ask any farmer what they feed their cattle if they want to 'fatten them up'...spoiler..it isn't grass or oilseed..

PS DeNiro pigged out on milkshakes and ice cream to fatten for "Raging Bull"...fat AND sugar 🙂

[Dominique]

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@OCDOC wrote:

If one doesn't know which macronutrient (if any) causes the fastest weight gain (ie is the most obesogenic), then how can one possibly know which macronutrient reduction will cause the fastest weight loss (ie the most obesolytic) 

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But again, why would it matter to know this? If overeating any combination of macronutrients, you will eventually become obese. And people don’t eat individual macronutrients anyway, they eat food, or rather combinations of foods that make dishes and meals. Let’s take a cheeseburger: it has a couple of buns, which are mostly empty carbs (maximally processed, with most of the good stuff - micronutrients, fiber - removed); it also has meat (protein), and cheese (fat and protein), with some nasty stuff (e.g. sodium) due to processing; the cheeseburger typically comes with ketchup (= sugar), french fries as a side (more empty carbs, with trans fats) and a coke (more sugar); there is possibly a lone leaf of lettuce (as an alibi). Do people eating this every so often gain weight because of the "evil" carbs, or because of the total calories (when you add everything? My answer is: total calories. Michael Phelps is known to eat a lot of such junk food (to the tune of 8000-9000 calories a day). Yet he’d hardly qualify as obese. Why is that? Again: total calories. Due to his size (he’s really tall), his relatively young age and his activity level (several hours of swimming), his TDEE is huge (8000-9000). He can eat the most obesogenic macronutrient and still maintain his weight, as long as calories are in balance.    

[OCDOC]

Ok D, you are a die hard 'a calorie is a calorie' proponent. It's also clear that 'eat less exercise more' is the only thing that matters when you discuss weight loss. No prob.

However, if a financial expert held the position that 'a dollar is a dollar' and that the way to be wealthy is to 'earn more money, spend less of it' without having much else of substance to say, would you consider that helpful? 

'Earn more, spend less' is a great way to get rich..no argument! But how does that really help people who are in dire poverty? I'm still searching for better answers to my first question. Nobody wants to be fat. If it was as easy as 'eat less burn more' then we wouldn't have a disease (obesity) which recently passed tobacco as the leading preventable cause of death in North America.

Regards

[BWright1175]

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@OCDOC wrote:

Nobody wants to be fat. If it was as easy as 'eat less burn more' then we wouldn't have a disease (obesity) which recently passed tobacco as the leading preventable cause of death in North America.

Regards

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No disrespect, but it really is that easy (medical conditions aside, i.e. people who have physical ailments that affect their weight).  The problem is that actually implementing that plan (or lifestyle change) is not easy.  It's all about the mindset and actually making those good choices.

It's easy to hit a drive-through on the way home from work or order a pizza.  It's easy to not go to the gym, exercise, get moving.  It's harder (meaning, one has to actually make an effort) to get up off the couch and actually prepare a healthy meal.

It's easy to get fat, because it takes so little effort.  Losing weight is the opposite.

So while the actions themselves might not be "easy".... the solution itself really is.

[SunsetRunner]

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@dondiego wrote:
Thanks for your reply. We eat healthy, chicken, fish, grass fed beef, vegetables, fruits, nuts, etc. We cut out refined products, sugar, wheat, rice, pasta long ago and only have those on rare occasions.
I think the problem is that we were very active prior to fitbit and I believe that we didn't have that"water weight"to lose and are at the point where most people get when they lose a lot of weight and plateau. We are only looking to lose about 10-15 pounds. We average 5 miles a day and just seem to maintain
We will keep at it.





From my Android phone on T-Mobile. The first nationwide 4G network.

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Highligted in red may be the culprit for not seeing weight loss.  How much fruits are you all eating?   I eat a piece of fruit once a month or not at all.  Some fruits are very high in sugar.   Try cutting back on fruits and see what happens.   Given everything else you all are doing there should be some weight loss occurring.  Switch up your fitness routine whatever you all are doing to get 10k steps.  

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[OCDOC]

@BWright1175  I used to think the same. Maybe it's an age thing. When I was in my twenties, all I had to do was skip a few beers and go to the gym and BOOM...weight loss. Aging makes the 'eat less move more' much harder, and anything lost bounces back tickity-boo.

Probably the best thing I've ever read about losing weight as an 'older' person is this:

http://www.thefitblog.net/ebooks/LetterOnCorpulence/LetteronCorpulence.pdf

Written in 1863-4!!  No TV, no fast food, no nothing that is around today. It's worth chewing through the Victorian style and reading the entire thing. I'm basically doing what that guy did (without the 7!! glasses of claret--red wine), and am enjoying the same impact he describes.

Please give it a look..very very entertaining!  Rob K

[BWright1175]

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@OCDOC wrote:

@BWright1175  I used to think the same. Maybe it's an age thing. When I was in my twenties, all I had to do was skip a few beers and go to the gym and BOOM...weight loss. Aging makes the 'eat less move more' much harder, and anything lost bounces back tickity-boo.

Probably the best thing I've ever read about losing weight as an 'older' person is this:

http://www.thefitblog.net/ebooks/LetterOnCorpulence/LetteronCorpulence.pdf

Written in 1863-4!!  No TV, no fast food, no nothing that is around today. It's worth chewing through the Victorian style and reading the entire thing. I'm basically doing what that guy did (without the 7!! glasses of claret--red wine), and am enjoying the same impact he describes.

Please give it a look..very very entertaining!  Rob K

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@OCDOC, The whole "eat less, move more" concept doesn't have to be a "do both" concept, so I hope you weren't getting that impression.  Both would be "better," but either is good.  And as to why people tend to put back on what they lose, it's because they're most often doing fad diets that take the weight off, then go right back to their old behavior instead of making a conscious change to get healthier.  Many don't see that last part as a goal... they just want to see that weight go down.

As per your link.. aside from a few "fad" diets, techniques, etc, he basically decided to eat less (and better), right?

His diet consisted mainly of lots of bread, butter, milk (presumably whole milk, being in the 1860s), sweets and alcohol.  And he changed that diet... mainly cutting out a lot of the bread, milk, butter, sweets and alcohol... and noted that he began to portion his meals, and ate more vegetables.

Sounds an awful lot like the "eat less" portion of the equation, in addition to what I mentioned of being one of the harder aspects of actually choosing to eat better.

[OCDOC]

@BWright1175

It takes at least twenty minutes to read this letter carefully..the Victorian style slows me down, so forgive me if I am wrong in assuming you haven't done so.

He actually cuts sweets and carbs, eats more meats, and drinks up to 7 glasses of wine a day.

I did an MFP calorie count of his sample day, and it is NOT low cal!!  His calculated BMR at start (according to 65 yo, 5' 5", abt 215) is less than 1700/day.

I'm tempted to drink the wine amount he suggests, but I have been off booze for so long I am afraid it may backfire on me 🙂  R