Calorie deficit= Not losing weight ???

Hi Veeky Forums,

Longtime lurker, but never posted before...

Anyways I read the sticky, figured out a nice workout plan for my goals and all that, but I'm sorta stuck on something:

1. I am 240lbs want to cut weight down a lot. Up till this point I basically overate like a pig because I love food.

2. have prepared a nice gym routine with the help of a longtime gym goer; Basically starting strength + supersets + cardio - where I increase weight slower than you would with starting strength. Idea is to lose weight while maintaining muscle and if possible gain some strength as foundation for where I would move on afterwards.

2. Primary goal for now is to lose weight though; I have adjusted my diet, for a ~1000 kcal daily deficit. No sweet shit, no sugars, no fast food, etc. Just regular home cooked meals with smaller portions. Pretty much have an intake of everything you'd need. Sure the macros aren't optimal probably, but for the most part it shouldn't matter because I'm really overweight, and it's something I'd adjust along the way.

TL;DR: In any case here is my problem:

- Go to gym regularly, 3-5 times a week
- 1000kCal deficit
>Forever stuck at same weight.

It's been a month now and I'm still on the same 240ish lbs mark. I measured myself weekly and it would go a few kilos up a few kilos down, but overall converges to 240lbs. currently I weight exactly the same as when I started.

Any ideas on what might be wrong and what to fix?

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What's the actual amount of calories you're eating?

1500-1800 kCal depending on the day

thanks for the reply!

It's extremely simple:
Always measure your weight in the morning, directly after you got up, nothing before it.
Track your calories and count what exactly you are eating.

If you are not losing anything in a week, reduce the calories you are trying to hit.
Rinse and repeat until you are losing weight.
Done.
(Don't be a retard about counting calories. For every piece of food that enters your mouth, think about exactly what it contains. Example: many brainlets forget to consider the oil they cook their meat in).

You’re not on a calorie deficit

Two options:
1. You’re losing fat and gaining muscle at the same rate. (unlikely)
2. You’re vastly underestimating the calories you’re actually consuming (highly likely)
Get a food scale, only eat frozen prepackaged meals, count/log every single calorie.

>Calorie deficit= Not losing weight
If you aren't losing weight you aren't on a deficit retard.
EAT LESS
THREAD

oh shit thanks a lot. Come to think of it, I sometimes prepare my food in fat instead of oil.

Can you tell me around how much % the oil would contribute to the overall calorie intake?

So in a nutshell: cut shit down more -> test for a week -> check results -> repeat until satisfaction?

keep at it man, if you're pretty fresh with the routine, you're probably packing on some starter muscle which is countering any actual weight loss

take some progress pics and on to 'em for reference, get them guns out for 'em you'll see a lot of progress in your arms.

Most of my diet IS proteins though from what I can tell, could be a combination of both, with the latter having much more of an impact. Thanks. I will try the frozen method you mentioned, would certainly help to know the exact numbers!

I did see some progress on my shoulders, I have to admit. I used to go to the gym 2 years ago for around half a year non stop and gained some muscle, but stopped going. Not sure if noob gains would kick in again tho?

Reading some more of your posts, I wanted to touch on a few things.

Consistency is key. I see that you said your daily intake was 1500-1800? That's a variance of 300 calories which multiplied 7x a week is no small number. That could be removing nearly 3/4 of a pound from every week's measurement. You really need your daily intake to be exactly the same every day. No excuses.

The other deal is that although you're tracking your food, it seems like you aren't doing any sort of accurate measurements. A food scale is extremely helpful in this situation.

It also should be noted that although databases like MyFitnessPal are really helpful, there are just as many incorrect entries as there are certified ones. Double-check the nutrition info with what's listed on the packages, and then check the weight of each serving (usually in grams). You may have been eating more than a serving even though you measured by their serving suggestion.

>Do you have any idea how a calorimeter works?
i know it doesn't take into account the breaking down the bonds in your food, it is a measure of the energy present within, and not a measure of usable energy.

Calories in
Calories out

What did you not understand?

>Y'know, you can consume literally nothing but protein and still get fat.
You can not.
At all.
And that's a big goddamned problem

OP Here, Sorry man had to go rub one out.

I am pretty much inconsistent because this is essentially how i "corrected" my diet: I realize 240lbs is like a ton. i basically have my own orbit. So I did research and figured out I would start by halving whatever I would usually eat in half and cut out junk food. Afterwards I figured sugars and alcohol are the worst so I threw them out completely.

At that point I was basically eating home cooked meals I usually would - but cut in half of what I usually eat. I figured this would turn out in SOME SORT of weight loss over a month.

After a week of that I figured why not weight food from time to time to get a grasp of how much I actually ate in calories. So during that week I got to see how much of each food on the plate translates to how much grams (and calories).

Based off that I put the visually same amount of food on the plate - to roughly hit the caloric intake of 1500 kCal per day. And I must say visually it looks a lot less than half of what I was eating before. "It should work" is what I thought.

The reason I said 1500-1800 however is because I would SOME DAYS eat a banana on top of all of that or some peanuts or something because I'd feel really really hungry and tired.

Usually im just feeling hungry as fuck and my stomach hurts. But I can handle that I guess; however sometimes i'd feel tired as fuck because i'd hit the gym 5 days straight for example.

This sort of routine & diet combo persisted for a full month which lead me to this point.

Thanks about weighing food. I guess I can't fail with that; I'm still curious to know how on earth does cutting my portions a lot, removing sweets and drinks not translate to weight loss. And on top of that I exercise :/

Option 1 is my case op, 6'3 fat guy here. Im doing SS and cardio and even though i haven't lost a lot of weight ive lost body fat and gained muscle mass. I recommend finding those machine that scan your body and gives statistics.

a calorimeter is literally what use to measure amounts of calories in food

you know how it does it?

By fucking setting the food on fire and measuring how many kj of energy it takes to destroy it. AKA, literally the same way we break down food.

keep being retarded.

You gotta think of weight loss like an equation because it is one.

You can't just assume that 2500 - (X + Y + Z) = 1500, because you don't know what those values are. Sure, you can assume, but by doing that you're not knowing the whole number, which leads to fuckups.

You have to weigh food. You've eaten your whole life without the knowledge of what a normal portion is or what a serving size is. You can't be obese, eat at a deficit, and not lose weight. It's physically impossible, even with a genetic defect. Your body doesn't defy the laws of physics.

Beyond that, next time you reach a plateau, instead of saying "I can't lose weight" ask "what am I doing wrong?"

>hurr durr I ate a surplus, didn't work out, and gained literally nothing but muscle
>thanks protein!

What's you're eating matters. Eat high-fiber foods and don't overdo the carbs. The fiber slows digestion and helps you to feel full longer and eat less.

Drink lots of water. Not only will this help you with your energy levels, it will also make you less hungry.

Focus on net calories rather than intake. If you consumed 1500 calories and burned 600 through cardio, your body is not getting enough to sustain and it will go into "starvation mode", making it harder to lose the fat. You'll just feel tired.

Set realistic goals. At 240lbs, you should be targeting around 2,000 net calories per day. If you burn 600 calories during cardio, consume 2,600. Dropping more than 1lb per week while strength training at the same time is not sustainable.

Get your mood levels checked. Too low of testosterone or too high of estrogen will make achieving your goals extremely hard and may land you bitch tits.

Buy a blender. Start making smoothies to help get vitamins and macros which you wouldn't get in your diet otherwise.

Take a multivitamin. Defficiencies in something like zinc can harm your testosterone levels and make your goals harder to achieve. There is no good reason not to take a multivitamin if you are working out.

Don't lie to yourself and don't lie to us. You're not consuming only 1,500 calories and working out and not losing any weight. You're still eating garbage and half-assing your workouts. Getting in shape from being a fatty is hard and grueling work and requires an autistic level of commitment. You have to change your lifestyle, otherwise you're wasting your time.

yea thats why im asking here in the first place.

So far the following is what could be wrong:

1. I didn't count the "secondary shit" like cooking oil and grease into my equation
2. My "eh that chicken tit is around 300 kcal" method could be wrong and I should actually measure everything before eating
3. I could be getting muscle while losing fat which explains my shoulders boom
4. I could be counting calories wrong altogether and should just cut things down a bit and try that for a week; rinse and repeat
5. If all else fails just buy frozen food with the calories listed correctly 100%

I still have one question and it might be stupid but whatevs i just want to make sure:

>Do I measure food before putting it in my mouth or before putting it on the skillet to cook

Because 300g chicken fillet often translates to like 180g after cooking it up; (but I get some oil/grease on that from cooking)

>3. I could be getting muscle while losing fat which explains my shoulders boom
this is the least likely reason. You could be gaining muscle but a pound a week is a joke. No one can gain that fast, not even roiders.

oh I forgot to mention I also consume multivitamin and vitamin D supplements.

How would I raise my Test levels if im too much of a pussy?

Thank you for the post, ill try correct everything people have said so far and see how it goes :)

Gotcha. that one's off the list tho. I will still do everything else...just listing things i've learned so far. tnx man

For raw food, measure it raw. You still have all the nutrients with additional water weight. If you add anything to it during the cooking process (oil, seasoning, grease, etc) add that as well unless neglible (such as spray which is less than 5 cal per 1/4 second spray)

Try to avoid frozen food. Learn to cook.

>oh I forgot to mention I also consume multivitamin and vitamin D supplements.
you absolutely do not need either of those unless you aren't eating veggies or don't see the sun.

>How would I raise my Test levels if im too much of a pussy?
Low T affects a very small minority of people. I doubt you are involved.

You should see the fasting general

So if I buy RAW 300g of chicken breast and cook them with a bit of spray; And it turns out to be 180g of Chicken in the end, what I do is:

>Translate 300g of Chicken Breast to kCals and add it towards my daily caloric intake, but ignore the oil spray?

Most people don't see too much sun in January and winter depression is a real thing. There I really no reason to advise OP to not take vitamin D. At best he doesn't really need it and will save a couple of bucks a month. At worst he will need it and can't figure out why he feels like shit, perhaps blaming his diet or training instead of deficiency.

You don't NEED to ignore the spray, just don't sweat it with things that contain almost no calories. I would advise you to count everything, and weigh everything, at least in the beginning. Assuming that you can correctly guess the caloric value of food with no prior experience is optimistic, especially if you're overweight.

And yes, always add all you eat before you do anything to it. Whoever tested that bird tit cant know what you are going to do to it, so they measure the values as it comes in the packages.

sorry if i sound retarded but did I understand right - measure food calories based on weight BEFORE cooking, even though it will end up much less grams after cooking it?

this could very well be the root of my problem. I always measure food AFTER cooking it. So basically if I want to eat 300grams of chicken, I actually take 600 grams, cook it down to 300 grams and then eat it and say "I ate 300grams worth of chicken calories"

That and not measuring fats properly(seriously weigh every oil and fat you cook with, most underestimate how much they use) could easily be what is causing you trouble.

click clack pow pow who ya man NOW

>1. I am 240lbs want to cut weight down a lot. Up till this point I basically overate like a pig
Energy in foods is IN the bonds, you dumb nigger. Breaking the bonds is what releases the energy to be used by the body to charge ATP. You're so fucking dumb. YOU WILL NEVER MAKE IT.

Thanks Joe. see ya later guys! Appreciate all the input :)

OP here btw, that guy's not me fyi. Whenever I post on Veeky Forums seeking info I try to be as polite as possible in order to get thruthful information.

Always measure before cooking, user. Different cooking methods will leave different levels of moisture in the food, so the only way to be relatively accurate is to measure raw.