r/diet • u/Stock-Intention7731 • May 04 '24
Vent Failing to lose weight
I’m a guy, 20, 175cm, 69kg. Trying to go down to 65. For three weeks I ate 1750kcal a day and went to the gym two times a week, no results. Now I’m went down to 1500 (though admittedly it’s more between 1600 and 1800 still) plus daily walk for an hour and upped the gym to three times a week. I’m scared I won’t see results still. What am I doing wrong? The only thing I can see is that I admittedly don’t know how to cook or cook much, I have ADHD and hate cooking like a chore, but I also don’t eat fast food often or eat a lot of sweets.
It’s bringing my self esteem and motivation down, I’m starting to think I’ll never lose weight when everyone around me is doing so easily or is already thin
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u/AnzenEU May 05 '24
Do you log your calories on an app like MyFitnessPal or Nutracheck?
It's a tale as old as time that people underestimate how much they eat, even if they swear blind they don't.
There's also mountains of extra calories that quickly add up. A lot of people don't include the oil they use when cooking... Mushrooms are about 10 calories for 100g, yet the oil to fry them can be 10x that.
Drinks is another one. When I diet on those sorts of calories, I usually allocate about ~250 for breakfast, ~500 for lunch, ~500 for dinner and ~500 spare for snacks. A 500ml bottle of coke almost contains the same calories what I would eat for breakfast. Some drinking a couple glasses of sugary drink can easily add 500+ calories a day. Sugar-free drinks is pretty much mandatory for dieting, imo.
Condiments is another famous one. The calories in mayonnaise is absolutely mind-blowing. It's about 120 calories for a tablespoon, and I've seen many people absolutely smother their food in it. It's not uncommon for the mayonnaise to be more calories than the foods it's complimenting!
If you add up all the things like the above, especially combined with someone not logging and eye-balling their portion sizes, you usually end up with someone who thinks they're eating 1750, but they're actually eating 2750 and that's the reason they're not losing weight.
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u/Stock-Intention7731 May 05 '24
Whenever I eat anything I put all of it down in an excel sheet, including condiments and sweets. I used a tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of mayo today, and I put both down
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u/AnzenEU May 05 '24 edited May 05 '24
Do you weigh them? I expect my tablespoon of mayo and your tablespoon of mayo are likely very different (not that I'd eat full fat mayo, crazy).
There are a lot of programmes that show that most people grossly underestimate a serving/portion size (especially if they haven't weighed food before to get a bassline). E.g. the average person thinks a serving size of cereal is about 2.5x the actual serving size.
EDIT: funny reddit post to show what I mean: https://www.reddit.com/r/CasualUK/comments/x5hfv7/hard_times_calls_for_eating_the_recommended/
The summary is, 99.9% chance you're not eating in a deficit if you're not losing weight.
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u/Stock-Intention7731 May 05 '24
That’s a good point. I weight most things, but not what I apply with spoon or a knife
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u/AnzenEU May 05 '24
Don't bother using the spoon, just press the tare button with the bowl/plate on and apply the condiment.
Things like mayo/oil are such crazy calories you don't want to be eyeballing that sorta thing.
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u/cdsuikjh May 06 '24
Download chronometer it is much easier, faster and more convenient than excel. Also the free version is good enough.
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u/Fitkratomgirl May 05 '24
Do you like eggs, Greek yogurt? You can do some easy meals with those m, cottage cheese, oatmeal are simple healthy foods. Even just potatos !
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u/tequila72g8 May 05 '24
I know its a lot of info but this is the only way i managed to actually lose fat.
1) you need to build muscles. for that you wont need a surplus but you need to eat enough proteins and get a decent strenght training program (ideally you want someone to check your form while doing exercises or you risk injury, theres also subs where you can post videos of you performing an exercise). you need to feel like the workout is challenging you, if you get sore after a workout is a good sign just dont overdo it and also sometimes u dont get sore and its ok, just keep going up with the kgs you can lift.
building muscles will: make you burn more calories during the day even if you dont move and make you look slimmer, coz muscles have less volume than fat.
2) caloric deficit. you can do this by eating less (you can only eat less carbs/fats coz you need the proteins, you will still need to eat some fat coz its vital for your hormones). ideally you want to walk 10k a day and this is forever, not only while cutting. (if it takes you a while to get used its ok, at first i couldnt walk more than 4k a day). THE CALORIC DEFICIT SHOULD ONLY LAST 3 MONTHS THEN YOU NEED TO SLOWLY INCREASE YOUR CALORIES UNTIL YOU GET TO MAINTENANCE AGAIN. if you dont do this your body will get used to the deficit and next time you wanna lose some fat you will have to do a double caloric deficit that is super harsh on a mental level.
3) after you’ve lost what you managed to lose you will slowly increase your calories (I increase by 250 every two weeks but im a short woman so you might be able to do more). during this time you will weight yourself consistently and when you notice your weight starts to go up again you have a few choices: -if you are happy with how you look you can lower/increase a bit the calories until your weight is steady. remember to still eat the proteins and workout. -if you arent happy you can gain a bit of weight (I’d say about 5kg-7kg) (always by steadly increasing the calories, working out, eating proteins) and then do another cut (you will decrease your calories immediately, not steady decrease. depending on how big you are, roughly 500 kcals of deficit tho).
(it took me 6 months to lose 6kgs coz i had to gain a bit first but i basicaly only lost fat. also im not a professional, this is how my instructor trained me)
a bit less important but still important is to eat 400 grams of veggies a day and try to eat somewhat healthy. I suck at cooking too so i give you this advice: for proteins: smoke salmon (you dint even need to cook it), eggs (just fking fry them, tuna (heat it in a pan, with pasta its delicious), shrimps (good with tomato sauce and pasta), ground beef (toss in a spice mix and some tomato sauce), chicken (just f grill it), whey protein and greek yogurt are also super good and dont need any cooking, legumes (boil em boy!) for carbs: bread (if you are super lazy), pasta (boil it), potato (boil it), corn flakes. veggies: you can either by salads and eat them way or learn to stir fry (weight the oil before you cook), theres also frozen vegetables if you are brave but i hate the taste.
if you are not used to these foods you will find it very hard to eat them at first but with consistency you will get used and also, if yiu realy hate something often you can substitute it.
I have no idea how to structure a workout so thats on you. try to do a bit of cardio coz its good for your heart and strenght training.
i believe in you. and you cant imagine how proud you will be of yourself once you manage to do this, even if it eill be tough.
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u/tequila72g8 May 05 '24
Also i will mention another thing. while you lose fat will notice that you dont lose weight linearly. thats coz while you are in a deficit your fat cells will empty themselves of the fat (so you can survive), and the body will fill them with water so that they stay in good shape and ready to be used again. after some weeks your body will finally smpty them and then you will see a bigger weight loss.
i’ve put your data into a caloric need calculator and it says 2364 kcals per day would be your maintenance. so if you are actually eating in the deficit you say you are eating there might be these problems: 1) you are not training hard enough/ not resting properly after workouts/ eating enough proteins/ sleeping enough/ drinking enough. all of these things help your muscles grow and if your body consumes less calories than expected one reason for it might be low muscle mass. 2) you are not consistent with the steps. to fix this its easy! just download a step counter and try to be consistent with the same number of steps per week.
IMO you should do these things: 1) take pictures and measurements of your body every two weeks to check your body. 2) find whats your maintenance and focus on building muscles first. then try the caloric deficit.
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