Reverse dieting

mrsberries

Hi all
I know there's some great advice given here so thought I might get some guidance. In a nutshell I just can't seem to lose weight/ get lean despite constantly tracking my diet and going to the gym 4 times a week. My training involves 2 lifting sessions, 1 strength and condition class and one fasted spin class.

Im almost 40 and a ad cannot shift the one stone I gained from my first pregnancy 6 years ago. I have dieted my ass off to lose some of it and then regain over the last few years. I've been through two online nutritional coaches the last year. They were both great but I could only lose weight on a 1350 daily allowance but I just can't stick with this as I weight train and my hunger levels are through the roof these days.

So, at this stage I've considered that I have two options to lose this stone - quit training or work on improving my metabolism. I'm aiming to get my maintenance up to about 1700 so that I could lose weight on 1500 at least. Does this sound doable? I track macros so get my protein in and eat clean about 80% of the time.

I know it's just one stone but my confidence is very low as I carry all this weight on my stomach and can be uncomfortable at times.

bladespin

Try some hiit sessions along with your normal training, worked great for me.

njs030

Have you seen a doctor to make sure there's no medical reason?

Tigger99

You mention that you track your macros and eat clean 80% of the time. But are you currently tracking calories? Do you know exactly how many you are eating?

mrsberries

notjustsweet wrote: »

Have you seen a doctor to make sure there's no medical reason?

No, not yet but plan to over the next few weeks.

mrsberries

Tigger99 wrote: »

You mention that you track your macros and eat clean 80% of the time. But are you currently tracking calories? Do you know exactly how many you are eating?

I do. 1350 on MFP which I stick to. I also track the bold 20% to keep an eye on it

Alf Veedersane

mrsberries wrote: »

I do. 1350 on MFP which I stick to. I also track the bold 20% to keep an eye on it

Just curious about the line in the OP where you said you can't stick to 1350...?

marialouise

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

mrsberries wrote: »

I do. 1350 on MFP which I stick to. I also track the bold 20% to keep an eye on it

Just curious about the line in the OP where you said you can't stick to 1350...?

I think she means can't take it any more as opposed to adherence...

bladespin

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

Just curious about the line in the OP where you said you can't stick to 1350...?

It's not much tbh, very hard to still enjoy your food on such a limited budget.

Alf Veedersane

bladespin wrote: »

It's not much tbh, very hard to still enjoy your food on such a limited budget.

I'm not questioning that.

Just questioning where the tracking is in relation to it.

mrsberries

marialouise wrote: »

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

mrsberries wrote: »

I do. 1350 on MFP which I stick to. I also track the bold 20% to keep an eye on it

Just curious about the line in the OP where you said you can't stick to 1350...?

I think she means can't take it any more as opposed to adherence...

That's the number I've stuck to over the last year but I can no longer stick to it mentally or adhere as my hunger levels are through the roof with my pre work training. Often find I've consumed 2/3 of my cals by lunchtime after I've had shake/breakfast/snack and lunch !

Any chance you could mess around with nutrition timing
e.g. have later breakfast at work
have more protein with it

AllForIt

mrsberries wrote: »

Hi all
I know there's some great advice given here so thought I might get some guidance. In a nutshell I just can't seem to lose weight/ get lean despite constantly tracking my diet and going to the gym 4 times a week. My training involves 2 lifting sessions, 1 strength and condition class and one fasted spin class.

Im almost 40 and a ad cannot shift the one stone I gained from my first pregnancy 6 years ago. I have dieted my ass off to lose some of it and then regain over the last few years. I've been through two online nutritional coaches the last year. They were both great but I could only lose weight on a 1350 daily allowance but I just can't stick with this as I weight train and my hunger levels are through the roof these days.

So, at this stage I've considered that I have two options to lose this stone - quit training or work on improving my metabolism. I'm aiming to get my maintenance up to about 1700 so that I could lose weight on 1500 at least. Does this sound doable? I track macros so get my protein in and eat clean about 80% of the time.

I know it's just one stone but my confidence is very low as I carry all this weight on my stomach and can be uncomfortable at times.

It sounds to me that you'r having trouble with how much you eat, portions sizes etc.

This is only a suggestion but would you consider going on a Keto diet. The effect of going on a Keto is that the high fat content is very effective at repressing your appetite. As a result you eat less in portion sizes and feel satiated for longer which helps to reduce the number of meals you eat in a day.

I have found myself personally that even when I eat the healthiest of meals , if it is made up of a substantial percentage of carbs then I will overeat and it was simply the volume of food I was eating that prevented weight loss. Only a suggestion, you could try it for a couple of months and see how you get on.

Pterosaur

What is your height and weight? This will help determine your calories.

I'm an average enough weight and height for a male and would lose weight on a 2000 calorie meal plan, sometimes even 2500 calories with an intensive exercise and long walks. It's all relative. You can mess up your metabolism though by eating too little for too long - I have read; and have anecdotally experienced this.

seefin

I'm currently reverse dieting. I ate 1000 calories for years and years, the occasional day I'd eat upto 1500 but never lost that elusive half stone. Got my rmr tested and discovered I had a high rmr and potentially could be eating well over 2000 calories as am quite active. I'm now at 2200 and will increase by 50 calories a week until i start to gain weight. I'm then going to stay at that number for 6 months or so before I try to lose a few pounds. It's definitely worth a shot trying to reverse diet slowly, but be vigilant about counting and try to stay consistent in calories you eat every day eg don't eat 1000 one day and 1500 the next as if like me,your body is primed to store any extra calories as fat. I also lift weights but I've slacked off on that a bit. This is only based on my experience but if you search the web you'll find reverse dieting is recommended for people like us who underate and over exercised for years with no budge in weight

bladespin

Very much me too, always exercised regularly but diet was poor then every few years I'd panic and end up starving myself trying to get weight down, not sustainable (for me anyway - always eneded up getting pissed off and in the chipper) only in the past year I've put a lot more research into nutrition, raised my cals and used macros to be in a proper defecit, lost stacks and then had to find a balance point, reversed up to about 2400 and found maintenance (amazingly at what the calculators said it'd be lol), since then I've found it very easy to control weight, I can pretty much drop at will now (doing a summer cut at the moment).

For anyone who's messed around on low cals for years I'd highly recommend reversing.

seefin

That's fantastic news to hear a success story about losing. I'm thrilled I can eat so much but I still want to lose those 5 lbs and good to know if I'm patient I'll acheve that goal in a year or so and still be eating more than I ever imagined. I did reverse diet over a year ago,got upto 2500 with minimal weight gain and was stable. I stupidly only maintained for 6 weeks before decided to try a cut-no patience . Went back to 1600 and didn't lose a pound!! So this time I'm going to be patient and maintain for at least 6 months before attempting to lose a few lbs. This is the long haul game

marialouise

Those last few posts are very refreshing! Revers dieted after Christmas and am maintaining weight around 700kcal above what I was previously eating (though I was still losing in the run up to Christmas). Maintaining here for a little while longer but like others, it's nice to know that when I need to cut again, I have plenty of calories to play with and it's a long term process.

marialouise

marialouise wrote: »

Those last few posts are very refreshing! Revers dieted after Christmas and am maintaining weight around 700kcal above what I was previously eating (though I was still losing in the run up to Christmas). Maintaining here for a little while longer but like others, it's nice to know that when I need to cut again, I have plenty of calories to play with and it's a long term process.

Did you increase any activity

marialouise

bluewolf wrote: »

Did you increase any activity

My personal story is rather messed up so I'd rather not go into detail as it won't help anyone. I should add that I've gained a lot of weight (intentionally) but am successfully maintaining now at around 2200, so when the time is right to lose again, I have plenty of room for calorie/activity adjustments.

mathie

seefin wrote: »

That's fantastic news to hear a success story about losing. I'm thrilled I can eat so much but I still want to lose those 5 lbs and good to know if I'm patient I'll acheve that goal in a year or so and still be eating more than I ever imagined. I did reverse diet over a year ago,got upto 2500 with minimal weight gain and was stable. I stupidly only maintained for 6 weeks before decided to try a cut-no patience . Went back to 1600 and didn't lose a pound!! So this time I'm going to be patient and maintain for at least 6 months before attempting to lose a few lbs. This is the long haul game

Can anyone who subscribes to calories in / calories out explain this one?

seefin

I'd like it explained too as defies all logic to me. The guy who measured my rmr using breathing thingy ,said that if undereat for years, the body will resist losing fat and any extra calories will be preferentially stored as fat. Meanwhile metablism conserves calories by keeping a low body temperature, not replacing bone etc.I was a religious calorie counter for 15 years and only very occasionally would hit 2000 mark, 98% of time I kept at 1200 max ( and that was me overestimating) . Even though I never ate anough any day as i should/could have been, I maintained body weight but at a high price as my hair, nails, bones etc all suffered. There are loads of stories on the internet of people who underate and did too much cardio yet couldn't lose weight.
Im sure calories in/calories out rule works for majority of people who are 'no' eaters but there are alot of people who's bodies defy that rule because of chronic undereating

Alf Veedersane

There are several factors such as hormonal response, thermic effect, NEAT, etc.

CICO is a model. It doesn't capture everything bit it captures enough to hold true for the vast majority. But there will always be outliers.

mrsberries

Pterosaur wrote: »

What is your height and weight? This will help determine your calories.

I'm an average enough weight and height for a male and would lose weight on a 2000 calorie meal plan, sometimes even 2500 calories with an intensive exercise and long walks. It's all relative. You can mess up your metabolism though by eating too little for too long - I have read; and have anecdotally experienced this.

5ft2 and bouncing around the 11stone mark

mrsberries

seefin wrote: »

I'm currently reverse dieting. I ate 1000 calories for years and years, the occasional day I'd eat upto 1500 but never lost that elusive half stone. Got my rmr tested and discovered I had a high rmr and potentially could be eating well over 2000 calories as am quite active. I'm now at 2200 and will increase by 50 calories a week until i start to gain weight. I'm then going to stay at that number for 6 months or so before I try to lose a few pounds. It's definitely worth a shot trying to reverse diet slowly, but be vigilant about counting and try to stay consistent in calories you eat every day eg don't eat 1000 one day and 1500 the next as if like me,your body is primed to store any extra calories as fat. I also lift weights but I've slacked off on that a bit. This is only based on my experience but if you search the web you'll find reverse dieting is recommended for people like us who underate and over exercised for years with no budge in weight

I have been reading up a bit on it and what you are doing is what I have in mind. I think doing it over a decent period of time is a worthwhile exercise and will pay off eventually

seefin

mrsberries wrote:

I have been reading up a bit on it and what you are doing is what I have in mind. I think doing it over a decent period of time is a worthwhile exercise and will pay off eventually

Yeah taking it really slowly is what's working for me. I'm actually finding it hard to eat so much as I eat healthily so find myself having to pack in 600 calories worth of nuts and seeds most evenings just to reach my target. Count everything you eat and apparently lifting weights helps prevent much fat gain during the reverse. If I try to lose weight in a year's time after my reverse diet and fail, I'll resign myself to being 5 lbs heavier than I'd like but hey at least I can eat alot and maintain which is alot better than eating feck all and maintaining!!

Mellor

mrsberries wrote: »

Hi all
I know there's some great advice given here so thought I might get some guidance. In a nutshell I just can't seem to lose weight/ get lean despite constantly tracking my diet and going to the gym 4 times a week. My training involves 2 lifting sessions, 1 strength and condition class and one fasted spin class.

The issues here are likely completely down to diet and not training.
Outside of the gym, how active is your day job?

They were both great but I could only lose weight on a 1350 daily allowance but I just can't stick with this as I weight train and my hunger levels are through the roof these days.

1350 sounds about right.
Your maintenance is probably 1700 when sedantry. So 1200 cals per day would be the line for 1lb/week loss.
1350 really shouldn't be that hard to stick to. For the last two weeks on my low carb days I've been easily sticking to 1500 calories. And still training.

If you find that number hard to stick to, the issue could be the food choices. Certain foods are perfectly healthy, but not conducive to a calories deficit.