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After doing it for a while, you get a rough feeling for the calories involved - you can tell just by looking at your dish if it's 500 or 1,000 calories. That m

After doing it for a while, you get a rough feeling for the calories involved - you can tell just by looking at your dish if it's 500 or 1,000 calories. That means you don't get high precision data, and the nutrients may be off, but it's more than enough to keep yourself in a caloric deficit/surplus as you choose. (Also, don't eat lunch at work if you can avoid it. It's greasy, over-salted, and not the best food for you. No matter what corporate propaganda tells you)

tootie 7y ago
I tried this for a while. I was hitting the gym for HIIT and weights and counting calories with MyFitnessPal. I estimated a pretty huge calorie deficit and it felt like it (felt woozy more than once). Lost zero pounds. After that I stopped being so careful with counting and just tried to eat right and keep exercising. Lost zero pounds. I wanted to get some hormone levels tested but my doctor said not too.
- brogrammernot 7y ago
  See a new doctor. Getting blood work is super important and can help pinpoint if you’ve got something else going on. When dieting it’s also important to weigh yourself once a week, ideally in the morning about 20-30 minutes after you wake up. You may not lose weight your first 2-3 weeks on a caloric deficit as your body adjusts. Coming back to the bloodwork, you should get a full panel at least 1x/year if not twice a year. I realize not everyone is fortunate enough to do so, but most of the time insurances cover a large portion of it as preventative care. Blood work can show if you’re out of range on items like your test/estrogen levels, thyroid function & many more areas. If your current doctor doesn’t support that, I’m sorry but that’s not a great doctor. Blood work is important.
  - gjs278 7y ago
    blood work would not clear up why this guy isn’t losing weight. he’s just not sticking with the diet long enough and not actually eating a deficit.
- shantly 7y ago
  Weight lifting's more effective for me at controlling fat than it "should" be according to charts and calculators and such, cardio and calorie deficits, even largish ones (1400 calories/day was one I kept up for 60ish days straight, once, and no, I didn't once cheat, so yeah, I've actually tried) OTOH are way less effective than they "should" be. Flat-out not eating for a day or two at a time does work, though. IDK why, that's just how my body works. Sucks, because dieting's easy for me and saves time & money, versus lifting weights, which uses up time (and space, if you do it at home, and sometimes money). At least straight-up fasts work.
- Darkphibre 7y ago
  You can be losing fat while gaining muscle. Net lbs stay the same, but the circumference of your arms/legs/stomach/hips will be shrinking, and the fat % (if you have a scale that reports that) will be reporting a noisy-but-changing value.
- nxc18 7y ago
  You won't lose weight if your sleep or hydration aren't right. Composition of what you're eating matters; I personally find a low-carb low-calorie diet more sustainable than a high-carb low-calorie diet. You also won't lose weight if your diet has too few calories. Its counterintuitive, but if you go too low, your body will compensate by dropping metabolism and raising your appetite; bad combo. Also, you need to consider that you may be gaining muscle and that's offsetting any fat loss. Sorry if you've heard this all before, I know how tiring it can be to get the same canned advice over and over. I'd be curious to hear your numbers (calorie intake, weight, height) Also, one last thing, _DO NOT_ trust the calorie estimates from those apps. If I ate as much as fitbit told me to, I'd gain weight _very rapidly_ despite having set the program to make me lose 2 lbs per week. E.g. fitbit wants me to eat 2500(!!) calories today to lose 2 lb per week. In practice I need to eat < 1400 calories to lose ~1 lb per week and <1200 to lose the 2 lbs per week. I'm 6' 210lb.
  - tootie 7y ago
    Sleep has definitely been a problem. But I just feel like my body is not responding to exercise like it should (or like it used to). I've been pretty consistent doing barbell squats and dead lifts at least once a week. I've stepped up the weight and think my form is decent enough but I still feel like a ton of bricks. I haven't seen any obvious muscle growth or seen my waist shrink. I'm not one for fads but I may give intermittent fasting a go.
    - groby_b 7y ago
      Heh - as you age, your body most certainly doesn't respond to exercise like it used to. On top of that, it's more responsive to food :( Lifting once a week does little for your muscles if you're in your twenties. It does pretty much nothing once you've reached your forties. (It's still better than doing nothing, but it won't show much in terms of visible change) And no, exercising once a week won't make your waist shrink. Losing one pound requires a caloric deficit of ~3,500 calories. If you're the average desk-bound adult male, that means eating no more than 1,500-1,700 calories a day to lose a pound/week. (Your deadlifting burns around 500 calories/hour, so if you do an hour a week, that barely influences what you can eat) Intermittent fasting is a way to get there, but... it's a fad. It can easily lead to eating disorders. I'd look at what you eat, and how healthy it is, first.
- jbc1 7y ago
  Keep in mind that when you first start lifting you're going to be putting on muscle a lot faster than someone who has lifted for years and thus what average data tells you it will be. It's not going to balance out the kind of fat loss an obese person dieting can be losing but if you were just a little pudgy with a completely sedentary lifestyle/no muscle previously, potentially you were just gaining muscle at a rate you lost fat.

tootie 7y ago

I tried this for a while. I was hitting the gym for HIIT and weights and counting calories with MyFitnessPal. I estimated a pretty huge calorie deficit and it felt like it (felt woozy more than once). Lost zero pounds. After that I stopped being so careful with counting and just tried to eat right and keep exercising. Lost zero pounds. I wanted to get some hormone levels tested but my doctor said not too.

brogrammernot 7y ago
See a new doctor. Getting blood work is super important and can help pinpoint if you’ve got something else going on. When dieting it’s also important to weigh yourself once a week, ideally in the morning about 20-30 minutes after you wake up. You may not lose weight your first 2-3 weeks on a caloric deficit as your body adjusts. Coming back to the bloodwork, you should get a full panel at least 1x/year if not twice a year. I realize not everyone is fortunate enough to do so, but most of the time insurances cover a large portion of it as preventative care. Blood work can show if you’re out of range on items like your test/estrogen levels, thyroid function & many more areas. If your current doctor doesn’t support that, I’m sorry but that’s not a great doctor. Blood work is important.
- gjs278 7y ago
  blood work would not clear up why this guy isn’t losing weight. he’s just not sticking with the diet long enough and not actually eating a deficit.
shantly 7y ago
Weight lifting's more effective for me at controlling fat than it "should" be according to charts and calculators and such, cardio and calorie deficits, even largish ones (1400 calories/day was one I kept up for 60ish days straight, once, and no, I didn't once cheat, so yeah, I've actually tried) OTOH are way less effective than they "should" be. Flat-out not eating for a day or two at a time does work, though. IDK why, that's just how my body works. Sucks, because dieting's easy for me and saves time & money, versus lifting weights, which uses up time (and space, if you do it at home, and sometimes money). At least straight-up fasts work.
Darkphibre 7y ago
You can be losing fat while gaining muscle. Net lbs stay the same, but the circumference of your arms/legs/stomach/hips will be shrinking, and the fat % (if you have a scale that reports that) will be reporting a noisy-but-changing value.
nxc18 7y ago
You won't lose weight if your sleep or hydration aren't right. Composition of what you're eating matters; I personally find a low-carb low-calorie diet more sustainable than a high-carb low-calorie diet. You also won't lose weight if your diet has too few calories. Its counterintuitive, but if you go too low, your body will compensate by dropping metabolism and raising your appetite; bad combo. Also, you need to consider that you may be gaining muscle and that's offsetting any fat loss. Sorry if you've heard this all before, I know how tiring it can be to get the same canned advice over and over. I'd be curious to hear your numbers (calorie intake, weight, height) Also, one last thing, _DO NOT_ trust the calorie estimates from those apps. If I ate as much as fitbit told me to, I'd gain weight _very rapidly_ despite having set the program to make me lose 2 lbs per week. E.g. fitbit wants me to eat 2500(!!) calories today to lose 2 lb per week. In practice I need to eat < 1400 calories to lose ~1 lb per week and <1200 to lose the 2 lbs per week. I'm 6' 210lb.
- tootie 7y ago
  Sleep has definitely been a problem. But I just feel like my body is not responding to exercise like it should (or like it used to). I've been pretty consistent doing barbell squats and dead lifts at least once a week. I've stepped up the weight and think my form is decent enough but I still feel like a ton of bricks. I haven't seen any obvious muscle growth or seen my waist shrink. I'm not one for fads but I may give intermittent fasting a go.
  - groby_b 7y ago
    Heh - as you age, your body most certainly doesn't respond to exercise like it used to. On top of that, it's more responsive to food :( Lifting once a week does little for your muscles if you're in your twenties. It does pretty much nothing once you've reached your forties. (It's still better than doing nothing, but it won't show much in terms of visible change) And no, exercising once a week won't make your waist shrink. Losing one pound requires a caloric deficit of ~3,500 calories. If you're the average desk-bound adult male, that means eating no more than 1,500-1,700 calories a day to lose a pound/week. (Your deadlifting burns around 500 calories/hour, so if you do an hour a week, that barely influences what you can eat) Intermittent fasting is a way to get there, but... it's a fad. It can easily lead to eating disorders. I'd look at what you eat, and how healthy it is, first.
jbc1 7y ago
Keep in mind that when you first start lifting you're going to be putting on muscle a lot faster than someone who has lifted for years and thus what average data tells you it will be. It's not going to balance out the kind of fat loss an obese person dieting can be losing but if you were just a little pudgy with a completely sedentary lifestyle/no muscle previously, potentially you were just gaining muscle at a rate you lost fat.