The maths don't work ! Help !

[metsudo]

Hi all,

Here's me... 33 year old, 5'11" male weighing a little over 18st :sigh:

I want to get down to the region of 12-13st but I'm having problems getting my head around this whole calorie counting thing.

I signed up at My Fitness Pal as the phone app for checking foods and logging calories seemed pretty useful. So I enter all my details and after playing with the calculators a while I find the following:

The MFP goal calculator suggests that my daily calories burned is 2650 (although on a separate page it suggests my BMR is 2117?)

At 900 calories per day (deficit 1750) I should lose a hypothetical 3.5 lbs per week
At 1200 calories per day (deficit 1450) I should lose a hypothetical 2.9 lbs per week
At 1650 calories per day (deficit 1000) I should lose a hypothetical 2 lbs per week (actually the suggested level)

So... I was originally going to do the Exante Total Solution (600 calories per day) but I wanted to see if I could lose a reasonable amount off my own back first.

After a week at a daily intake of around 1000 calories (and an initial loss) I'm now already starting to put weight back on ! The forum denizens of MFP tell me I'm eating too little, that my body has gone into starvation mode and that has resulted in weight loss stopping and reversing. Now, I'm quite happy to accept this and increase my calories... BUT... the maths they are giving just don't give up.

Let's assume for arguments sake I lie in bed doing nothing all day (I don't by the way!) and take the BMR figure of 2117 from MFP. Now according to the forum peeps my body is in starvation mode and my metabolism has decreased by approx 40% (their words). That would mean that my body would be consuming 60% of 2117 = 1270 calories. I'm taking in approx 1000 calories per day. Surely this means that I still have a 270 calorie deficit and that therefore I should be losing some (albeit very little) weight ?! Of course if we use the daily figure of 2650 calories the site gives that leaves a deficit of 590 calories (2650 * 60% - 1000) !

Can someone please explain what I'm missing here ? Even in starvation mode I shouldn't be putting weight on according to the maths ! I really want to just figure this out and start losing weight, ideally without having to go onto Exante ! The MFP'ers want me to increase my calorie intake... what say you MiniMin'ers ?!

Thanks all in advance !

 

[Artemis2007]

Hi metsudo - I don't know why you're gaining weight on such a low calorie diet, but I wonder if you can possibly get all of your minimum nutritional requirements met at 1000 calories a day. Also, in my experience, fast weight loss is initially exhilarating but then followed by feeling of food deprivation, binging and weight re-gain. As far as the metabolic calculations go, I don't think it's that precise - there are too many variables with each person. The math isn't the point so much as finding what works for you.

I agree with the MFP'ers that increasing your caloric intake makes sense. Can you increase your calories and also increase your activity, which might boost your metabolism a bit?

 

[Starlight]

You definitely need to eat more. You cant just pick a random calorie amount to eat and go with it. 1000kcals is as MFP says putting your body into starvation which will stop you losing. It could be other factors too... 1000kcals if far far too low for you.

If you want to calorie count, do it properly and have the correct amount of calories. Otherwise you need to do a proper VLCD like Exante etc. Youre going to make yourself ill if you keep doing it this way

 

[Shimmies]

1000 calories at day is way too low for a women let alone a man!!! A male should never eat less than 1800 calroies a day to stay out of the body starvation zone. Women should never drop more than 1200. Below this you need doctors supervision becuase it can cause serious medical problems in your body. Especially if someone is not perfeclty healthy to begin with.

Your body is going into a starvation zone and metabolism has dropped and that is why you are not losing any weight. If you are adding exercise on top of this and weight training you are making it even worse. Your body is holding onto everything it can, storing fat, plus lowing your metabolism to compensate because it knows it is not receiving enough to survive you BMR requirements. Depending on how much your exercise you will actually have to eat more than you think to lose weight because your body requires more. I would advise never going below your BMR and make up the extra calorie loss though exercise and weight training.

You will be putting on weight because when your body goes into starvation mode you can throw all the calculations and math you do out the window. Those number and calculations only work when you are NOT putting your body into the starvation zone. Trust me over the last 7 years I've tested this starvation zone theory because I was curious and I'm a researcher so I wanted data. The math and numbers I was actually getting for data just didn't match up at all while I had my body in the strvation zone. As soon as I at enough calories for my BMR and changed nothing else about my exercise then I started loosing weight as per the math.