Extremely slow weight loss in a significant deficit
 

I'm in a large calorie deficit and have been for weeks now, and I exercise at least four days a week - either in the gym with weights, walking, or exercise bike-riding. I occasionally will eat at maintenance or very slightly over (perhaps once a week). I dropped in weight initially, but as time progressed it's slowed to a crawl now. My wife, on a similar diet and exercise regime once, lost an average of 3-4 pounds a week. Admittedly, she started out heavier, but her weight loss never screeched to a near-stop like mine has. I'm only losing about one pound every two weeks. I guess I'm about 15 pounds to my goal, and they say it gets slower, but this is ridiculous. How can my body be clinging to my existing weight for so long if I'm really losing? I've flucuated in weight for the last three weeks, but I weigh today what I weighed three weeks ago. Btw, I calorie-count everything. I eat mainly eggs, boneless, skinless chicken, broccoli, squash, watermelon, green beans, and a very seldom-treat - always keeping my calories in a deficit. I just don't know where calories could be sneaking in.

Congrats on your progress, tricon7. First, you could be losing fat and gaining muscle (are your clothes not as tight?). Men put on muscle much easier than women so that could be a factor. Second, as you're approaching goal, weight loss will slow down dramatically. How tall are you? Perhaps you don't feel like you're at goal, but you might be, according to your body. Still, as long as you maintain a caloric deficit, you will lose weight..it's just a matter of time.

With regards to calories, how many are you having? How many do you have once a week when you have more?

I recommend you hang in there because if you are, in fact, creating a deficit, you will lose the weight, unless something is medically different (medication, thyroid, etc.) in which case a trip to the doctor might be in order.

Best of luck and again, congrats to you and your wife for getting healthier.

Thanks for the encouragement. I eat a lot of protein to minimize muscle loss (and I'm in the gym a lot). I feel I am putting on some muscle, but I don't think the muscle gain is enough to outweigh what the fat loss should be. Or at least keep the scale from going down, though I would be delighted to find out I was wrong. I'm 5'10" and 178, with my target weight probably being around 160-165.

Current daily calories hover around 1100 - sometime less, sometimes more. Like I said, a significant deficit. I was losing pretty well until the last few weeks, when it stalled to almost nothing. The occasional time I ate more, it wasn't crazy - I might have had 2500-3000 calories. I did this twice in the last month, the last time being Sunday. Enough to gain water-weight, that's for sure, but that should have long since flushed out of my system by now.

I know I'm going to lose weight eventually - I just don't want it to be 1/2 lb. a week. When I get discouraged, the odds that I'll have a sympathy-eating day go way up.

What's the rush? I hate to be the bearer of bad news but the closer you get to goal the slower the weight comes off. 1/2 a pound a week is pretty ideal in the end.. That's 2p a month.

Also, eating at 1,100 isn't sustainable in the long run and more than likely you may experience a gain to get to a loss again. You really shouldn't be eating below 1,200 with as much as you're working out. Patience. Losing weight fast is recipe for regain.

I don't get the reasoning behind starving ones' self. Seriously, what's up with these extreme calorie deficits? I don't mean to be brazen but, don't people realize that our bodies actually need food?

Where have you come up with the idea that 1100 calories is a good idea? And what happens when you reach your goal, don't you think you're going to gain some weight back when you go back to "maintenance" calories?

Maybe I just don't get it, but it seems unhealthy and unsustainable to me.

It is really difficult to know exactly what is going on but it isn't out of the question that your body is retaining water longer than you would expect. You say weeks this has been going on? If it is 8 weeks or less it could be water. If longer than 8 weeks ... who knows.

If you haven't already done so I would go back and analyze the calories and make sure there isn't a mistake.

Ever tried a refeed? I have never done one, but anecdotal evidence suggests they might be effective. And I would think they are a great psychological break from the grind of daily calorie counting. I have posted one link because I like Lyle McDonald, but if you Google refeed, you''ll see a lot more.

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/mus...ng-part-2.html

I can relate to your frustration. Are you hungry? That can lead to increased frustration. I think if you increased your calories to 1600-1700 but over the course of a week and cycle those calories, you won't feel as deprived (assuming you're feeling that way) and the weight would still come off, considering you're a male and you're exercising. Also, how's your sodium intake? I forgot to ask you about it on my last post.

My daily variety is pretty much the same. Three extra-large eggs for breakfast (240 calories), four oz. white-meat chicken with ketchup (~180 calories) for lunch with 10 oz. squash (100 calories) and 7 oz. of watermelon (70 calories); dinner is four oz. white-meat chicken (or tilapia) with ketchup (180), can of green beans (70), and a 100-calorie bag of popcorn, and 150-200 remaining calories of my choice before bed (chicken, veges, popcorn, whatever). Butter-flavored spray-Pam on the popcorn. Maybe there's error somewhere, but I don't think it would be huge.

To address some miscellaneous points, my salt content stays the same every day, so it should have leveled out a long time ago. I think I "binge" often enough for it to count as a "re-feed" (eh, maybe a 2500-3000 cal. day every two weeks). All it does for me is make me gain several pounds in water-weight, I gain back everything I lost, and I spend the next two days in the bathroom. It is nice to eat cake and cereal and stuff, though. But I'd just as soon get to my goal (a flat stomach and maybe abs) so I can get to work on building muscle in a calorie surplus with plenty of protein.

It's amazing how many people can predict my future and tell me that I'm going to gain this all back. I've been a calorie-counter for years now, and I know how to eat healthy and what my maintenance calories are, thanks.

After tedious trial and error, I determined that my maintenance calories are about 1800. At 1600 a day, with my rate of weight loss, it would take me the better part of a year to reach my goal. I'm not in a rush, but I don't plan on going at a snail's pace, either. Nor do I expect sympathy for my diet here. It's either "you're going to go into starvation mode" or "you're going to gain it all back when you're done" (got that one already).

It's a tricky situation - I have so many calories to work with. I need protein for muscle repair, but I feel much more full with a plate full of squash and zucchini vs. two oz. of chicken. I think I'm going to experiment tomorrow - eat primarily protein and see how satiating it is for me. They say protein is filling. I'll see how true it is. And I won't forget to take a spoonful of mineral oil. :D

How many weeks?

Join the club. You're 5'10" so I'd just live with it.

I am 5'8" and have been bouncing around 170 since time began.

It's definitely a muscle gain issue combined with the fact that you are very close to an "ideal" weight for your height.

BTW, be careful. If you keep your calories too low and with all that exercise you will start to lose muscle.

Do you really want the skinny fat-guy look? I don't.

And if you want my (biased) opinion on how to get better results, eat more fish. Ditch the chicken and go for sardines, salmon, anchovies, trout etc. Omega 3s baby. You are not getting enough.

I think about 10 weeks so far. Pretty steady weight loss until the last few. I've lost one pound in the last nine days. But interestingly enough, my waistline has been declining without any real slowdown. Strange how that can happen. If that's going down, then it obviously means there's less fat there than before. The only alternative explanation is water weight or muscle gain - or both. I think I'm down to my last area of fat storage (a small gut), but it's going fast at this point. I've lost an inch off my waist in just over two weeks, and I've dropped three pants sizes. In all honesty, as long as my waist keeps disappearing, I don't care if my weight doesn't move.

Re: eating fish and Omega-3s, I eat tilapia pretty regularly, and I take a fish oil capsule daily. And a multivitamin and St. John's Wort.

You seem to have answered your own question. You are losing inches quickly and just might be at the right weight for you, considering the amount of muscle you have gained. Perhaps when your body has adjusted to the weight you have already lost you will start to drop weight again, but in the meantime it sounds to me as if you are doing everything right.

Good luck to you.

I don't know many men who can gain, develop more muscle on a 1100 calorie per day eating regime.

Ditch the ketchup! Full of sugar. Try salsa instead. More flavourful, and healthier.