I've had a slow April in terms of weight loss. I haven't wigged out about that because I started the month out of town for a few days and cheated pretty much every day I was gone. (Calories don't count in Orlando like they do in Oklahoma!)

Anyway, I've lost about 2.5 pounds on the month, as opposed to 5-8 the preceding months, so I've started to pay more attention to various things. One is my caloric intake, not just my carbs. The other is trying to understand my true caloric output, so I can calculate the deficit I need to achieve.

So, here is what FitDay says I use a day, sans any activities:

Calories Burned Today
source cals % total
Total: 3522
Basal: 2429 69%
Lifestyle: 1093 31%
Activities: 0 0%

This is before any exercise. I don't exercise most days other than yardwork and such.

So I've charted my calories rigorously the past few days:

Date.....Calories.....Est. Deficit
4/17.....1603..... - 1919
4/18.....2002..... -1500
4/19.....1437..... -2065
4/20.....1744..... -1758
4/21.....966 (dinner not in that yet, -2563)

The calories are usually in this 1400-1700 range, and get to 2,000 if I have lots of nuts or low carb treats like I did on the 18th. This is a fairly typical spread of days in my menu, so I wouldn't expect it to get out of this range very often. Carbs are typically 25 or fewer.

I realize we see ebbs and flows, and I also realize that FitDay's calculation on basal and lifestyle are probably high. But if they're anything close to correct, a 275 pound guy eating at an average 1,810 calorie deficit should be losing more than .5 pound per week (or less). Even given FitDay's very general estimation of what I'm burning, and assuming it's high, I should be at 1000+ deficit per day, but the net effect appears to be more like a 500 calorie per day deficit, if that.

Is anyone else tracking calorie deficits? What have you seen in terms of maintaining one over time and its effects?

Hi Kyrasdad!

I recently had my metabolism checked with a breath test. Comparing that with what fitday shows with no exercise for the day, fitday is high by 547 calories for the day. My bmr tested at 2411, fitday shows it to be 2958. That's a pretty big difference. With exercise I'm generally burning about 2700 cals a day. So on average my weekly defecit is about 4300 cals or 1.23 pounds a week.

I'm tracking calories as well. I stay around 2000 calories /25 carbs for the day and generally lose 1-2# a week or 5-6 each month. I have weeks where I don't lose at all and weeks where I lose 3 pounds. So that 1.23 pounds a weeks works out almost exactly to my monthly loss totals.

I recommend getting a breath test done, then you'll know without a doubt how many calories you're burning. It really helped me to know I was eating the correct amount of calories to lose weight and feel healthy.

I'm also wondering if you're getting enough calories, I'm female and a little heavier than you and don't think I could cut my calories back to 1700 or less a day. Sometimes people lose a little faster by raising their intake a little bit.


Hope that helps a bit! I know our bodies are all different! Just gotta keep plugging away to find out what works!

Yup, you are getting screwed in the weight loss numbers there. I feel your pain it seems to happen to me too.

I think fitday's calculations of calories burned are a little high, but then again, I also think you might be eating too little. There is a whole school of thought that says that you have to eat enough calories to keep your metabolism working at peak efficiency or it slows down and you don't burn as many calories as you should. Here's the link, it explains it better than I can.

http://www.countcarbs.com/advice/LC...s_WhatGives.htm

But it's a crapshoot. Some seem to respond really well the the calorie thing, Lynda (Upthehill) has great success with it, but then there are cases like yours where it doesn't seem to work.

Maybe it's the exercise component, I did have two weeks of great loss (7.6 lbs total) just recently and I had been eating higher calorie (close to my BMR, even over it a few days) and exercising alot. Maybe that is the ticket for me.

I think this whole weight loss thing is a lot less of a science than they want us to believe, personally.

Valerie

I seem to be in the same boat as you Kyrasdad. I average anywhere between 1100 - 1500 calories a day also averaging about 22 carbs/day. Usually I'm in the middle of that calorie range. I exercise about 5 days a week for at least 40 minutes a day. I've lost 2.5 pounds in the last 21 days so I feel your pain. I upped the exercising the last couple of days to see if it made a difference, de nada, nothing. Last time I lost something was nine days ago. I almost lost a 1/2 pound this morning (you know when the scale bounces back and forth and then settles) so maybe I'll luck out and be down 1/2 pound tomorrow but I'm not counting on it (call me a pessimist).

I know I'm supposed to eat more but I am having problems with that. I am physically chowing down on more food but since I've cut out all the carb crap I used to eat the calories have stayed low. I'll give it a couple more days but if nothing happens I'm going to have to start playing around to see if I can get some results, this is ridiculous. I'm not going to give up the diet but I'm putting a lot of effort into this, monitoring food and exercise and it seems like a lot of effort for no results. Something has got to give. Instead of being frustrated I'm just getting mad, it's making me more determined. lol, I wonder what that says about my personality? I'm usually this quiet little laid back thing.

I have thought about eating more, but it's so counterintuitive. Plus, I've followed Dr. Atkins' advice of eating until I was full and eating no more. I don't deprive myself, but I don't eat for the sake of it (most of the time anyway). It just doesn't seem natural to shoehorn more calories in when you're not hungry.

I'm continuing to track it -- it's good to understand what's going on.

CindyG: Speaking of the BMI breath tests for calorie usage, where did you get that done? Was it expensive? I might be interested in that, just to see what I truly burn on an average day.

Scott

Hi Scott,

I got my test done from www.metabocheck.com. I'm in Northern California and just did a google search for metabolism testing or metabolism check. They actually came to my office to do the test. It cost $65.00, but the guy spent an hour here (actual test takes 10 min) going over what I have been doing diet wise, how to increase weight loss etc. I found it very reassuring that I was on track and doing well.

It does seem counterintuitive but I know for me, I have had whooshes when I have upped the calories a bit, especially if those extra calories are from fat, like salad dressings or cream. That seems to really have an effect for me. But YMMV.

I am just starting to count calories. I do think they count. I haven't yet determined the magic number of how many are "too few" and cause metabolism to slow down. I think it's less than BMR, but don't really have any proof of that.

I think the real key is to increase caliries burned rather than decrease calories eaten to achieve optimal weight loss. So maybe a good goal would be to eat the same number of calories as BMR (or even slightly less), then exercise enough to get the "right" number of calories burned to achieve your weekly weight loss goal. Right now, I'm targeting to burn 741 calories more per day than I eat, which equates to 1.48 pounds per week weight loss.

Good luck!

kyrasdad,

My stats from fit day are that I burn 4511 calories per day - so if it's high by about 500 then 4000. I generally consume the same amount of calories as you, between 1500 and 1900 per day (sometimes a few more). So my deficit is somewhere between 2000 and 2500 calories a day.

Based on that I am losing 3.5 pounds per week. I think that there must be something more to the speed of the weight loss than simply the numbers. I think that genetic makeup influences how fast we lose. I have had the 3 hour glucose tolerance test recommended in the book and found that my blood sugars were elevated after 3 hours indicating that I don't process carbs very well. I think that is why my body responds so well to this diet. It could be that you are simply more metabolically resistant than others are to this WOE.

As a side note - I agree with you about amount of calories per day. You may try upping it for a test period - it does help some people lose. Try it for a week and see what happens, a week should be enough time to figure out if that is the problem.

I too am very comfortable on this amount of calories - I don't feel deprived at all, nor do I feel stuffed ever. I love the lack of carb cravings!!!

I've given up trying to make the 3000 cal/pound forumla work on my body and trying to figure out my metabolism. In addition to being hypo-thyroid, I believe that after years of abusing my metabolism with crash dieting, liquid diets, phen-fen, and other stupid things, my body just doesn't want work like the owner's manual suggests . I have been tinkering lately with avoiding sugar alcohols (LC candy and ice cream), lowering the amount of cheese I eat and sticking to meat, poultry and fish with salads and green veggies. Once in a while I will have a LC tortilla, but otherwise avoid the LC breads, etc. I do use the carb options BBQ and Teriyaki sauces, tho. This seems to have been working for me lately after having an extended stall in Jan-Feb. Good luck to you. (PS - Scott - love your daughter's photo - too cute!).

I read that one lady actually set her Fitday lifestyle to "bedbound" just to get a more realistic BMR since she said she was metabolically resistant and very slow to lose. She seemed to have good results by making that adjustment.
On days I dont exercise I set mine to bedbound so my calories don't go too high.

Great idea! I'm going to get the metabolism test, but I've set FitDay up that way in the interim. That still gives me a 2,915 per day usage, and a deficit of 1,000-1,300 per day by current standards. I notice that my ring has started slipping off my middle finger (it long ago moved there from my ring finger) and my clothes are now looser, without much weight loss. I suspect I'm in an inches-losing mode.

Just an observation. My first post in this tread and I didnt introduce myself, sorry. Our stats are very similar and I hung up at the exact same weight 270s for about 3 weeks, maybe its just where the body takes a time out.
I would love hear from you about if upping the cals help the weight loss. I've been to afraid to try it. I'm staying between 1200 1500 cals.