MyFitnessPal

yop

Hi
Male, mid 30's, 6ft.
Was circa 17st up until around 3 years ago, gradually over the last few years I have gone down to a low of 14st and now am 14.5 stone.
I was always deemed as "Big boned" or "solid". My mates would have referred to me as "big man" and that has stuck.
I shifted the weight by taking to running/weights/cycling and watching my diet to obession levels. I didn't calorie count but outside of once every few months it was also veg/salad/fish/meat and very little pasta/potatotes.
I do drink, but at most once every couple of months.
I suffered a slipped disc at the beginning of this year, left me 8 weeks on crutches and I had to spend a further 6 weeks trying to get back to walking 5 minutes at one go. Because of this I can't run, it puts too much pressure on my back and that was what I FELT was the only way I used to lose weight.
I trained very hard for a 500km 2 day cycle I did there at the end of Sept, I had to up my carb levels to sustain the energy required, the calories burned (I had a garmin on me while training) were;
May - 32,776
June - 22,933
July - 15,876
Aug (I had a relapse with back) - 4,553
Sept - 42,949
Oct - 13,059
Nov - 21,018

So from May to Nov instead of losing weight, I put on 1/2 stone, from 14st to my current weight. I was well frustrated so I started using this MyfitnessPal.
My "right" I should be anything from 12st to 13st for my height so I added all this to the app.
My question is though, how accurate is that app, as I said I have been recording intake and exercise and for example yesterday, I had a deficit of 695 calories (circuit training used 800 calories) after all the food I ate! Sunday was even worse as I was out on the bike for 3 hrs and it was 900 calories of a deficit.
That would all be great, but I am not shifting weight!!!! I have cut back on the carbs again, but what I find when i do that is that I am wrecked for the training sessions I do.
Could it be a case that I am not actually eating enough! On Wednesday I could have a treble training session, it will be 6.30am circuits and then double spinning session at 7pm-9pm, these work out about 3500 calories, I generally dont up my intake of food drastically.
Any more information please ask, but I am demoralised at this stage!

spodoinkle

yop wrote: »

On Wednesday I could have a treble training session, it will be 6.30am circuits and then double spinning session at 7pm-9pm, these work out about 3500 calories,

At 14.5 stone your maintainance without exercise is roughly 2800 so for Wednesday, including the exercise, your maintainance calories are 6300. Doesnt sound right does it?

yop

spodoinkle wrote: »

At 14.5 stone your maintainance without exercise is roughly 2800 so for Wednesday, including the exercise, your maintainance calories are 6300. Doesnt sound right does it?

I don't even think its 2800, on my fitnesspal to lose 1lb per week my allowance its saying 2600 calories per day!

Yesterday I consumed 1969 calories and then I burnt 800 calories! So in fact the deficit was higher, don't know something isn't right!!!

diegowhite

Food wise myfitnesspal is quite accurate, exercise wise it can be a bit off.

Grab yourself a heart rate monitor and plug the calories it gives you each day into myfitnesspal and eat back those calories.

The 500km cycle is probably your biggest goal right? I'd put precedence on that over losing weight and ensure you don't get injured or have setbacks in your training because you are not eating enough.

Assuming you are getting sufficient sleep and not overtraining, once you feel you are properly energized in your training start dropping your calories by 10% every 2-3 weeks until you see the weight shifting, probably shouldn't take long after that to see some results.

diegowhite

yop wrote: »

I don't even think its 2800, on my fitnesspal to lose 1lb per week my allowance its saying 2600 calories per day!

Yesterday I consumed 1969 calories and then I burnt 800 calories! So in fact the deficit was higher, don't know something isn't right!!!

Your deficit is way too big there!

yop

diegowhite wrote: »

Food wise myfitnesspal is quite accurate, exercise wise it can be a bit off.

Grab yourself a heart rate monitor and plug the calories it gives you each day into myfitnesspal and eat back those calories.

The 500km cycle is probably your biggest goal right? I'd put precedence on that over losing weight and ensure you don't get injured or have setbacks in your training because you are not eating enough.

Assuming you are getting sufficient sleep and not overtraining, once you feel you are properly energized in your training start dropping your calories by 10% every 2-3 weeks until you see the weight shifting, probably shouldn't take long after that to see some results.

Hi, thanks for the reply. I have a garmin watch with the HR strap so its accurate on that, so I have a good record on tracking that.
Cycle was Sept 2012, so done and dusted! Next year its going to be 500km in 1 day. That will be fun, burnt off around 11k calories on each of them big days this year.

I get what you are saying, thats a good plan. But if that fricking this is right then I am on a massive deficit every day already!

I thought it was around 200 calories per day to lose a lb a week, I am looking at days there with deficts of 6, 7, 800 calories a day!

yop

diegowhite wrote: »

Your deficit is way too big there!

Thats the thing, it sounds nuts! But I am not "Full" if that makes sense. I know if I made up that deficit I would have to eat a nice bit more food and I think that I would be as fat as a fool within a few weeks!!

diegowhite

yop wrote: »

Thats the thing, it sounds nuts! But I am not "Full" if that makes sense. I know if I made up that deficit I would have to eat a nice bit more food and I think that I would be as fat as a fool within a few weeks!!

Yes you will have to eat a lot, but you are training like an athlete and need to eat like an athlete too.

Thing is if you keep an eye on the scales, get to the advised calories and then start dropping if weight ain't shifting you'll know you aren't under eating.

A 500kcal deficit a day = 1 lb of weight a week, but that's just a guideline rarely ever works out like that as there are just too many variables.

yop

diegowhite wrote: »

Yes you will have to eat a lot, but you are training like an athlete and need to eat like an athlete too.

Thing is if you keep an eye on the scales, get to the advised calories and then start dropping if weight ain't shifting you'll know you aren't under eating.

A 500kcal deficit a day = 1 lb of weight a week, but that's just a guideline rarely ever works out like that as there are just too many variables.

I must tell the missus that one, it will keep her laughing for a week

So its 500 cals per day deficit to get 1lb per week?

Maybe I am not eating enough! I generally am RUINED after a big session, so maybe I am running out of fuel.
The funny thing is that on the 500km cycle I was regimental on the food I eat to ensure I didn't collapse, I was eating energy bars, sandwiches, carb drinks like a loon and I was not bad when I finished the cycle!
On usual Sunday spins I am generally in a real heap after them.

autotrader

what are you eating exactly, roughly?

I was 16 stone, got it down to 11.5 stone in a year and a half and it doesn't sound like i exercise as much as you at all.

I hit a plateau at one point and decided to change approach. I felt I had sort of got used to the exercise so I took up running to sort of get going again and it worked big time. I know you had trouble with your back so why don't you do an hour of swimming 5 days a week. I bet you'll shift the weight then

I did they myfitness pal for a while but I found that it over exadurated the exercise, it told me I had a big calorie deficit all the time due to my exercise which I don't believe I did.

yop

The cals on the exercise would be fine as I am using the garmin for it so its accurate.

Diet for last 2 days was as follows:
6.30am - pear and water then while I drive the 70 mins to work
9.30am - Porridge with water, little portion of honey, slice of soda bread and red jam tub.
up until lunch I drink around 1 litre of water
lunch on Monday was my dinner as I had circuits.
This was beef curry and boiled rice, canteen portion so not the biggest!
I also had a small bowl of pasta to give me a good kick later

3pm - lemon tea with a cereal bar

V intensive circuits, 95% upper body work without weights - max HR 179, avg HR 165

8pm - bowl of allbran and 1 litre of water

Tues - V similar except for lunch I had a small bowl of rice and beef stir fry.
For 3pm I didn't have the cereal bar.
I had dinner at home, 2 cups of pasta with tomotoe sauce and 2 sausages.

1 hr lowish weights, squats, bench, pressups, star jumps, planks, curls, lungs.

10pm - coffee with 2 choclate digestives

So thats the general run of the mill dinner.

Today its stew with mash.

diegowhite

yop wrote: »

The cals on the exercise would be fine as I am using the garmin for it so its accurate.

Diet for last 2 days was as follows:
6.30am - pear and water then while I drive the 70 mins to work
9.30am - Porridge with water, little portion of honey, slice of soda bread and red jam tub.
up until lunch I drink around 1 litre of water
lunch on Monday was my dinner as I had circuits.
This was beef curry and boiled rice, canteen portion so not the biggest!
I also had a small bowl of pasta to give me a good kick later

3pm - lemon tea with a cereal bar

V intensive circuits, 95% upper body work without weights - max HR 179, avg HR 165

8pm - bowl of allbran and 1 litre of water

Tues - V similar except for lunch I had a small bowl of rice and beef stir fry.
For 3pm I didn't have the cereal bar.
I had dinner at home, 2 cups of pasta with tomotoe sauce and 2 sausages.

1 hr lowish weights, squats, bench, pressups, star jumps, planks, curls, lungs.

10pm - coffee with 2 choclate digestives

So thats the general run of the mill dinner.

Today its stew with mash.

Forget what I said about looking at calories for the moment, first thing I'd do is clean up what you eat, there's lots of processed food above, even just trying to move towards eating more naturally occurring foods and avoiding stuff with refined sugar and I would expect to see some results on the scales

yop

diegowhite wrote: »

Forget what I said about looking at calories for the moment, first thing I'd do is clean up what you eat, there's lots of processed food above, even just trying to move towards eating more naturally occurring foods and avoiding stuff with refined sugar and I would expect to see some results on the scales

Could you elaborate a bit more on what to cut out?

Eats in the morning aren't an option as the canteen don't do them.
The jam and soda bread I can drop for sure.
Today for lunch its a salad, as cold as it is!!!!

thegreatiam

yop wrote: »

Diet for last 2 days was as follows:
6.30am - pear and water then while I drive the 70 mins to work
try eggs, boil them the night before and eat 2 or 3 on the drive in
9.30am - Porridge with water, little portion of honey, slice of soda bread and red jam tub. this is all sugar. try some nuts or cheese, anything with protein.
up until lunch I drink around 1 litre of water
lunch on Monday was my dinner as I had circuits.
This was beef curry and boiled rice, canteen portion so not the biggest!
I also had a small bowl of pasta to give me a good kick later
make food at home and bring it in, you will know what is in it then
3pm - lemon tea with a cereal bar these are not great, nuts, beef jerky greek yoghurt etc would all be better

V intensive circuits, 95% upper body work without weights - max HR 179, avg HR 165

8pm - bowl of allbran and 1 litre of water try something like a chicken salad

Tues - V similar except for lunch I had a small bowl of rice and beef stir fry.ditch the rice, eat the beef stirfry in a bowl. or bring your own
For 3pm I didn't have the cereal bar.
I had dinner at home, 2 cups of pasta with tomotoe sauce and 2 sausages.not a great balanced meal, the sausage is high fat, and could be anything in it depending on brand. try bacon, chicken turkey or tuna

1 hr lowish weights, squats, bench, pressups, star jumps, planks, curls, lungs.

10pm - coffee with 2 choclate digestives

So thats the general run of the mill dinner.

Today its stew with mash.

All in all your diet is not balanced great, but most importantly you need the calorie deficit. no deficit no weight loss.

The main problem is that you eat in the canteen. so you have no clue what youre eating. you have no idea if it is loaded with salt or sugar or fats.

Try to eat and prep your own food, and eat whole foods.

On my desk right now is a home made tuna salad and a bag of mixed nuts.
I cook and prep my food for the week on sundays, make a big bowl of tuna, boil 12 eggs and make a mix of lettuce, peppers and onions. each morning i build the salad and eat 2 eggs. in the evenings i use the peppers and onions with some pre-sliced chicken or turkey for a quick stirfry.

you also make some bad snack choices, cereal bars are loaded with sugar, check the ingredients list. youll see something like this
"oats 25% fructose, glucose, sucrose,"
they have to by law put the biggest ingredient first. Those last 3 are all sugars but they have broken them up into different types of sugar. that means the bar is more than 25% sugar.
so it should read
"sugar 26% oats 25%

yop

thegreatiam wrote: »

All in all your diet is not balanced great, but most importantly you need the calorie deficit. no deficit no weight loss.

The main problem is that you eat in the canteen. so you have no clue what youre eating. you have no idea if it is loaded with salt or sugar or fats.

Try to eat and prep your own food, and eat whole foods.

On my desk right now is a home made tuna salad and a bag of mixed nuts.
I cook and prep my food for the week on sundays, make a big bowl of tuna, boil 12 eggs and make a mix of lettuce, peppers and onions. each morning i build the salad and eat 2 eggs. in the evenings i use the peppers and onions with some pre-sliced chicken or turkey for a quick stirfry.

you also make some bad snack choices, cereal bars are loaded with sugar, check the ingredients list. youll see something like this
"oats 25% fructose, glucose, sucrose,"
they have to by law put the biggest ingredient first. Those last 3 are all sugars but they have broken them up into different types of sugar. that means the bar is more than 25% sugar.

Thanks for that. I can't eat at my desk and I can't bring food into the canteen I am afraid! I cud eat in the car!!!

Is a pear bad?
The brown bread is generally once per week, but I was trying to bump up the cals when I realised I was so far off!

Is honey bad also?

#Only after seeing your underlined posts!

Thats sounds great. Will certainly try that.

thegreatiam

fruits like pears, apples etc are not bad, they are simply high in sugar.
this means your body will use that energy very quickly. same for honey etc

a protein based option is always better, eggs and bacon in the morning are probably your best bet. peeled eggs can be eaten easily in the car and you can pop them in the fridge for a few days. (maybe in some water if you like) a small handful of nuts or some beef jerky are great snacks.

You can still eat fruit, just be aware that it high in sugar. Myfitnesspal will show you this in the summary.

I would go as far as to guess that you are over estimating the calories in your canteen food. once you begin to avoid that and make your own then you will probably see better results. Weigh everything for a few weeks to be more accurate. and type each ingredient into the app separately.

rather than "tuna salad-250 cals" you should type in
"115g tuna"
"25g peppers"
"15g lettuce" etc, that way you will be more accurate with your calories.

I know all of this sounds like extra work, but believe me it adds up to a hell of a lot less effort than trying to out-train a poorly thought out diet.

yop

thegreatiam wrote: »

fruits like pears, apples etc are not bad, they are simply high in sugar.
this means your body will use that energy very quickly. same for honey etc

a protein based option is always better, eggs and bacon in the morning are probably your best bet. peeled eggs can be eaten easily in the car and you can pop them in the fridge for a few days. (maybe in some water if you like) a small handful of nuts or some beef jerky are great snacks.

You can still eat fruit, just be aware that it high in sugar. Myfitnesspal will show you this in the summary.

I would go as far as to guess that you are over estimating the calories in your canteen food. once you begin to avoid that and make your own then you will probably see better results. Weigh everything for a few weeks to be more accurate. and type each ingredient into the app separately.

rather than "tuna salad-250 cals" you should type in
"115g tuna"
"25g peppers"
"15g lettuce" etc, that way you will be more accurate with your calories.

I know all of this sounds like extra work, but believe me it adds up to a hell of a lot less effort than trying to out-train a poorly thought out diet.

ok, i did as you said re the entry and I eat a fair amount of good food today.
I did the spinning and power circuits this morning and its reading 2300 calories burnt.

But the food intake totals 2288 according to fitnesspal

So my intake was meant to be 2600 outside of the exercise. So after today I still have another 2640 calories to eat other wise I am WAY off the board.

Sure that couldn't be right!!!

And I measured everytthin today as I was working from home. The scales is in working order!

thegreatiam

I only use myfitnesspal to log my food.

Exercise totals etc i go elswhere, you are using your reader for that?
did you work out your correct BMR for yourself?

To be honest, I find myself in a similar position. I eat the required amount. come in waaay under my total. I frequently get the message 'you are eating too few calories' but i don't feel hungry.

If you are not feeling hungry, or getting other side effects then don't worry.
One effect of eating right is you dont feel as hungry.

If you do need to get up to the calorie total then try to aim for protein or fats/oils to get there rather than carbs.

spodoinkle

yop wrote: »

I did the spinning and power circuits this morning and its reading 2300 calories burnt.

To me this sounds crazy, how accurate are these garmins, is this even possible?

If your soul goal is weight loss, it might make more sense to have one session of either circuits or spinning per day, or every other day and assume one session burns around 600cals and work from there, by training so much, its harder to work out calories.

I used my fitnesspal to register cals, ate a 500cal def per day, lifted weights 3 days a week, and went from 13.5st to 11.5st, losing a steady 1lb per week. I worked out maintainance by multiplying my bodyweight in lbs by 14 and worked from there.

yop

spodoinkle wrote: »

To me this sounds crazy, how accurate are these garmins, is this even possible?.

Possible? To burn that much calories? These are cycling club spinning classes so would be a good few levels above what you have in gyms.
Same with the "Power circuits", we use them to build leg muscle and core so they are pretty intensive.

Using that calc there I am looking at over 2800 cals per day, so need to get it to 2300 to lose a lb per week.

Yesterday I had a home spinning session using videos from "Sufferfest" (great work outs", that worked out at 1300 calories.
My food intake was only 1600 calories and I was precise as hell in measuring as I was at home.

We will see, a "good" start his morning with my 2 eggs in the car, porridge with water and black coffee in the canteen

So its saying just under 500 calories there.

thegreatiam

spodoinkle wrote: »

To me this sounds crazy, how accurate are these garmins, is this even possible?

I assumed yop was doing 120 mins of spinning like he said, but it you're right it seems excessively high, id reckon more like 15-1700 for 2 hours of spinning and power circuits[/QUOTE]

spodoinkle wrote: »

I worked out maintainance by multiplying my bodyweight in lbs by 14 and worked from there.

can i ask where you got this sum from? do you know if it is accurate, other methods seem very have more complex formulas. Id like to know which is more accurate

spodoinkle

can i ask where you got this sum from? do you know if it is accurate, other methods seem very have more complex formulas. Id like to know which is more accurate[/QUOTE]

I just use this as a base, as mentioned there are that many variables its very hard to define your true maintanance. If I work it out threw the Harris-Benedict formula it works out the same give or take a few calories.
I think I read it on the leangains website, but I cant rememeber.

Hanley

thegreatiam wrote: »

can i ask where you got this sum from? do you know if it is accurate, other methods seem very have more complex formulas. Id like to know which is more accurate

Do that complicated Harris Benedict equation enough times and you'll see that as a rough approximation, bodyweight in lbs x12 = weight loss, x14 = maintenance and x16 = gaining

So it's an estimate, but it's pretty accurate most of the time and in the weight loss hierarchy it's the third thing I'd look at.

(the first being diet adherence, the second being the correct calculation and recording of consumed kcals)

yop

Just checking them calories and I have a cadence sensor and a HR monitor on, have 2 garmin devices the 205 and the 500 (this is always on the bike).
AVG HR is 172 for the 60 minute (well 58 min) spinning;
I checked this site to see
http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/calculators/heart-rate-based-calorie-burn-calculator.aspx

At a heartrate of 172 bpm, or 94% of your estimated maximum heartrate (183 bpm), your calorie burn is an estimated 1131 calories per hour. In 60 minutes and 0 seconds you will burn approximately 1131 calories.

LIVESTRONG have this formula, its under 1100
Compute the calories burned if you're male. You can accomplish this with the following equation: calories burned = (0.2017 x age in years + 0.09036 x weight in pounds + 0.6309 x average heart rate - 55.0969) x elapsed time / 4.184.

spodoinkle

yop wrote: »

Possible? To burn that much calories?
.

Ive always had the impression that the body shuts down burning calories after a certain space of time e.g. if you did spinning for 24 hours solid, its no more benificial than doing it for one hour.

Hanley

spodoinkle wrote: »

Ive always had the impression that the body shuts down burning calories after a certain space of time e.g. if you did spinning for 24 hours solid, its no more benificial than doing it for one hour.

Your body has to produce energy from somewhere to keep going. It doesn't just run on positive thoughts. If you're doing 24 hours of exercise, it's getting fuel from somewhere. Fat stores, liver and muscle glycogen stores and muscle - a combination of all.

spodoinkle

yop wrote: »

Using that calc there I am looking at over 2800 cals per day, so need to get it to 2300 to lose a lb per week.

Yesterday I had a home spinning session using videos from "Sufferfest" (great work outs", that worked out at 1300 calories.
My food intake was only 1600 calories and I was precise as hell in measuring as I was at home.

Assuming this is all correct, your maintanance levels per day without exercise is 2800.
If you are burning 1300cals a day extra, your maintance is now 4100cals
If you are eating 1600cals a day, your defecit is 2500cals which is just too high.

spodoinkle

Hanley wrote: »

Your body has to produce energy from somewhere to keep going. It doesn't just run on positive thoughts. If you're doing 24 hours of exercise, it's getting fuel from somewhere. Fat stores, liver and muscle glycogen stores and muscle - a combination of all.

Apologies, I meant buring fat.

yop

spodoinkle wrote: »

Assuming this is all correct, your maintanance levels per day without exercise is 2800.
If you are burning 1300cals a day extra, your maintance is now 4100cals
If you are eating 1600cals a day, your defecit is 2500cals which is just too high.

Seems so, but you would wonder what effect if any it has on a body?
I don't go around looking like a zombie (i think ) or that.

But this is my normal intake of food for the last few years.

But what is "funny", but I put this down to muscle loss, is that when I did my back at the end of last year, I was unable to train for a lot of months and I went down in weight to 13.5 stone.

I don't go around feeling hungry, though I do get the odd bout of light headedness when I stand up.

Wonder what Dr Ava on Operation Transformation would do for me!

yop

spodoinkle wrote: »

Ive always had the impression that the body shuts down burning calories after a certain space of time e.g. if you did spinning for 24 hours solid, its no more benificial than doing it for one hour.

Umm, doubt that to be honest, so your saying that the likes of wiggins, for example, are as well to do and hour on the bike as its all the same after that
Or are you talking about fat burning only?

Glitter

Hanley wrote: »

Do that complicated Harris Benedict equation enough times and you'll see that as a rough approximation, bodyweight in lbs x12 = weight loss, x14 = maintenance and x16 = gaining

So it's an estimate, but it's pretty accurate most of the time and in the weight loss hierarchy it's the third thing I'd look at.

(the first being diet adherence, the second being the correct calculation and recording of consumed kcals)

Just wondering if this calculation is considered accurate for women too?
Because I am currently eating 1260 cals a day + my exercise cals to lose 1lb a week. (Figures myfitnesspal gave me).

By the calculation above I should be eating 2016 cals + my exercise cals to lose weight, that's a serious difference. :eek:

Stats:
Female, 5' 1", 31 years old
Starting weight, January 2012: 220lbs (15' 10)
Current weight, December 2012: 168lbs (12')
Goal weight, December 2013: 130lbs approx

I walk 50 minutes a day in and out to work Monday to Friday and do around a hour of cardio (water jogging) in the gym twice a week. I started lifting weights over the summer but have gotten off track the last couple of months (while I was getting married) and will pick it up again after Christmas.

Hanley

Glitter wrote: »

Just wondering if this calculation is considered accurate for women too?
Because I am currently eating 1260 cals a day + my exercise cals to lose 1lb a week. (Figures myfitnesspal gave me).

Yes. Apart from our wobbly bits, we're largely the same.

I get the most success with female clients when I dial back their activity level and come into the 10-12kcal per lb of bodyweight range.

Most girls come to me overtrained, exercising 6+ hours a week and seeing no results. Typically a reduction in volume and modification in kcal composition makes a huge positive change very quickly.

Glitter

Well I'm still seeing results, albeit much slower ones now than in the beginning, but if I ate 1700+ cals a day I wouldn't. I took a month off doing that in the run up to my wedding and over the course of my honeymoon. Put on about 5lbs in a month. Granted I let myself eat bread everyday again for a couple of those weeks so part of it might have been bloating...

I just wonder when I see these figures, because even eating clean 100% (I only manage about 70% as it stands) of the time I can't see how I wouldn't gain weight eating that much.

Also, are you saying I might be exercising too much? The walking plus the gym would come in around 6 hours a week alright.

Hanley

Glitter wrote: »

Well I'm still seeing results, albeit much slower ones now than in the beginning, but if I ate 1700+ cals a day I wouldn't. I took a month off doing that in the run up to my wedding and over the course of my honeymoon. Put on about 5lbs in a month. Granted I let myself eat bread everyday again for a couple of those weeks so part of it might have been bloating...

I just wonder when I see these figures, because even eating clean 100% (I only manage about 70% as it stands) of the time I can't see how I wouldn't gain weight eating that much.

Also, are you saying I might be exercising too much? The walking plus the gym would come in around 6 hours a week alright.

I'm saying that you may be under estimating the actual kcals you consume, you may be eating the wrong types of food (you can reduce your effective kcal load by 20-25% just by biasing towards protein, so 2 people eating a 2,000kcal diet may get totally different results) and it's hard to say whether your training is too much or not.

One thing I CAN say for sure tho is that any girl I've coached (and it's quite a few) who has trained 2-3x per week and stuck rigidly to 10-12kcal/lb bodyweight and weighed/measured their food to ensure accuracy has seen outstanding results. ANY GIRL.

There's a lot of things that can play into your mileage varying - diet adherence (one day off per week can have a SERIOUS effect on your net deficit), the composition of the foods you eat, and the type of training you do.

hope that makes sense

Glitter

Hmm... I weigh and measure everything that goes into my mouth - have built up a database of ingredient-by-ingredient recipes that I make regularly on myfitnesspal, count fluids like diet coke even though the cals are negligible etc.
I really doubt I'm under-counting by 700+ cals a day every day. A hundred+/- I could believe, being human and all!
I do eat plenty of protein, and have drastically reduced grain-based carbs especially and other starchy carbs in general, although not to a paleo extent.

As I say, I've lost 52 lbs in less than a year and I'm still seeing results so I know what I'm doing is working for me.
It's just the idea of being able to eat 2000+ cals a day again is slightly appealing.

One more Q: when you say 'one day off per week' do you mean a change in composition of food consumed or a caloric surplus? I tend to arrange my week so that I calorie cycle and am able to eat (and enjoy a few glasses of wine) way more at weekends than I would during the week. But my calorie average for the week is always within my goals.