doublecheese's Journal, 07 January 2014

One thing's for sure Doublecheese, it pains me to say this but, if you are consistently not losing weight, that definitely means you have to eat less. Don't let the numbers like "net calories" fool you into thinking you are already eating low enough. I'm not suggesting you to do this Doublecheese, but I would just like to share with you my conclusions on this website's calorie burn section. I found that, when I counted my daily activities such as sitting, walking, standing, driving etc. on my exercise section, that the net calories obtained seemed far from realistic. If you look at it, since you are not losing weight right now but your net calories suggest that you are losing calories, this means that something has to be wrong with either the food that you are logging (not likely), or with the burned calories logging. By "wrong", I don't mean that you are incorrectly logging foods or exercise. I just mean that the way the website translates these two things into calories in or out, has to be somewhat exaggerated and I'm guessing that probably happens on the exercise part. I found myself in the same situation as you in the past. I was gaining weight but my net calories were also saying that I had a comfortable calorie deficit. So what I did to respond to this was I stopped logging daily activities in the exercise section and started logging exercise only. Now my represented net calories do a much more accurate job at figuring out whether I'm going up or down. Unfortunately I don't know anything about calorie cycling but, if you find your weight keeps maintaining/ going up, you know you have to eat even less. Don't let the website fool you thinking you are losing more calories than you are consuming. Even if the daily activities are accurate as calorie burning activities, there has to be something that's unaccounted when you are not losing weight but the "paperwork" says you should. First thing to trust is the results :) If the results say you are gaining weight, trust that over the numbers you see here. And if you want to get more accurate results, adjust those numbers to what you actually observe in your weight.  

Oh, and good luck! :) 

What's more, with the exercise regime you are following right now, I can definitely say metabolism isn't the problem. Your metabolism has to be elevated right now in result of your present physical activity. :)  

I am an avid IF fan since December 1, I also agree with Euheide observations and for some time have been thinking that some of the calorie burn calculations are on the high side when I log, sitting, desk work, standing etc it seems to be unrealistically high. The one thing that I KNOW feels right to me is fasting, I do at least two 24 hour fasts per week (evening meal to evening meal) I find it easy, and less stressful than working out what to eat on my feast days of 2400 calories. My weight drop has been good with fluctuations for weekend alcohol consumption, Christmas and new year festivities etc, but the really good thing about all of that is working in an extra fast day around those times to 'balance' everything out and keep the overall trend going of a real, and gradual weight loss that will be sustainable. BTW I am discovering so many other health benefits to IF over and above weight loss as Ive mentioned in previous posts, so for me its a no brainer. there is an English documentary called Eat Fast and live longer by Michael Moses I encourage everyone to find and watch on line, it changed my life. Good luck DC :) 

But 90% of the articles on the internet say that if you go below 1200 kcal on average, you'll get vitamin deficiencies etc.? + I don't really pay attention to the 'calories burned' section and the 'net kcal' ^^ Only to the calories I'm eating. :D  

I think the burned calories aren't really accurate because FS doesn't know your BMR, and even when it does I don't know how accurate the BMR formula is and if I should trust it 

Thanks for agreeing KingStephen! IF is definitely not for me but I do admire your discipline to withstand it! :) Those documentaries are definitely worthy of taking a look at! That man has helped me to understand how weight loss works and also how nutrition is important.  

I certainly agree this lifestyle is not for everyone. For myself I find it easy, but then I found it easy to give up smoking (from 60 per day) once I made the decision for myself, for my reasons that that was what I wanted to do for me. For sure if someone told me a month before I started IF I would be fasting twice a week and loving it I would have phoned for an ambulance for them, yet here I am, and I do love it, and the more often I do it, the easier it gets, and the more enjoyable it is - Crazy I know :) 

Oh and Euheide, how are you so sure that there's no such thing as a lower metabolism due to not eating enough? (not talking about my case cause you're right about exercising etc). Is there any research or anything about it? Because I've read a lot about people losing weight again by eating a bit more 

Oops, I've just noticed that you (Doublecheese) had already posted before I inserted my last post. If that's the case Doublecheese, then you have to try to eat less than you are now, even if by just 100 or 200 calories. If that doesn't work, keep going down until you start losing weight. That's what I would do :) If your number of calories eaten seems too small to you, there is always the chance that some of the foods you are eating, are not correctly inserted on this website. It has happened to me before with a brand cereals from Quaker lol. Whatever you do, don't confuse your hunger with your need to eat. When I was eating sweets I wouldn't be satisfied until I got to 2500 calories!!! and now I'm only eating around 1500 and I'm on the tipping point. ;) 

That's very interesting KingStephen. Do you take any supplements on fasting days? Like fiber, vitamin or protein? I would be a little scared to go a day without any of that heheh. Also you probably drink a lot of water on those days right? :) 

I'm actually never hungry, I know that I get dizzy etc if I don't eat enough, and that I *want* pizza and doughnuts etc., but I don't get hungry :P And I'll go back to 1150 kcal/day for a while and maybe take vitamin supplements, just in case 

I don't think you should eat anything on fasting days but make it up by eating a LOT on the days you do eat. But even thinking of doing a workout on an empty stomach makes me feel sick lol 

Doublecheese, your metabolism lowers when you are eating below a certain point but, if you exercise, it elevates again. When you have a low metabolism due to low calories you feel very lethargic. ;) If you ever feel like that, then you have reached that stage heheh. Regarding testimonies on the internet. It can be a problem because there are people who swear on all kind of stuff. Some people will say stuff that's not true unfortunately, even if they themselves don't realize it sometimes. When you eat more, not only your metabolism goes up, but you are also consuming more calories ;) don't forget that. I know this is a sad example but think about anorexic people. These people get a horribly low metabolism as they don't even exercise, but they still lose weight because calories always win VS metabolism :) 

*all "kinds" of stuff 

DC I don't think there is any doubt that the body is fantastic at adapting, to me what you are doing seems amazing, your fitness level and calorie counting seem to me to be sensational and I applaud you for it. You probably know more about fitness and muscle weight than I do and I think your fitness regimen would mean you carry a lot of muscle mass which may be throwing the scales out. Maybe you are just at a plateau and can either keep going as you are and wait for it to start working again, or do something to shock your system back into burning fat. people like Kingkeld and draglist are vastly more knowledgeable than me, I only responded because you asked about IF. I guess really it comes down to how you view yourself in the mirror, and if you feel you look great what else matters? 

Doublecheese, the fact that you get dizzy, means that you get hypoglycemia. You have to be very careful with that since it's very dangerous and it also hurts your body, especially your brain. You can go without eating having hypoglycemia episodes as long as the last thing you ate wasn't a sweet ;) If you play your nutrients right, I think that, with 1150 calories, you have enough space to fit everything (proteins, vitamins and fibers) without needing supplements. Just make sure you also drink plenty of water because most of the water we get is in the food. :) 

* ...You can go without eating "without" having hypoglycemia episodes as long as... 

But they gain it back (& more) when they start eating a healthy amount of calories again. So if we eat a low amount of calories, (something like 1000, 1100,...) you'd have to stick with that amount of calories for the rest of your life if you don't want to get it back..? :/ Or maybe gradually increasing it again, I don't know if that'd help 

By this: "You can go without eating without having hypoglycemia episodes as long as..." I mean that, eating small, shouldn't be reason to get hypoglycemic by itself. I'm not saying that you can go without eating, I'm just saying that, if you would go without eating, that you could still avoid getting hypoglycemic lol. Sorry for the confusion.