You’re either overestimating the number of calories your body burns or underestimating the quantity of food you consume. When you’re working hard but not seeing results, it’s easy to get frustrated, discouraged, or confused, but it’s critical to remember that weight loss is all about creating a calorie deficit. You can track and calculate as meticulously as you can, but if you’re not losing weight, you need to consume less.
A “Calorie Deficit” is defined as burning more calories in a day than you consume. It is the foundation of many weights loss programs. The basic concept is that daily calories in minus daily calories out equals a caloric deficit. The first thing you should know is that one pound of fat contains 3,500 calories. As a result, to lose one pound of fat, you must create a 3,500-calorie deficit.
Each day, consume fewer calories than you burn. Keep in mind that your body burns calories all day long as part of your basal metabolic rate (BMR) because your body requires energy to accomplish essential living processes (breathing, digesting). Additionally, you burn calories by engaging in normal daily activities (working, walking, exercising). So, by just consuming fewer calories each day, you will have fewer surplus calories to burn off.
TDEE calculators are simply estimates, and they should never be considered holy if they contradict your scale results. Food, pee, fluids, and glycogen can cause bodyweight to change by five pounds or more every day. There’s no need to be alarmed just because your weight isn’t dropping all the time. Before you get too worked up, keep an eye on a trend spanning several weeks.
Calorie burn estimations, particularly those derived from electrical gear, are notoriously erroneous and vastly overestimate the real calories burned of physical activity. It’s almost certain that you’re not burning anywhere near as many calories as these figures suggest. You should avoid “eating back” calories or depending on them to achieve a deficit-based on those calculations.
If you’ve recently started a low-carb you’ve probably noticed that you lost weight quickly at first but then gradually slowed down. This was water weight and glycogen storage, not real weight loss, and should not be interpreted as a predictor of future weight loss.
You’re not getting enough protein in your diet. The single most important nutrient for weight loss is protein. A high protein diet increases metabolism decreases hunger and affects the levels of many weight-controlling hormones. Increased protein intake raises levels of the satiety hormones GLP-1, peptide YY, and cholecystokinin while lowering levels of the hunger hormone ghrelin.
If you’re convinced, you’re eating in a way that should result in weight loss but hasn’t for a long time, you should see a doctor because the only other option is a condition, disease, or disorder.