How to lose weight!

[LuisEnrikee]

Hi, I've been working out for about 6 months now, I've only lost 20 pounds since I started, to me that doesn't sound enough. I work out A LOT but lately I've been stuck and can't seem to lose weight.

I am 17 year old, weigh 215lbs and I'm 5'6.

Can anyone help me? Tell me what I'm doing wrong? It's really depressing to work out so much and not lose a decent amount of weight.

[Turbo2]

Eat less
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hp?t=129247741

[MarkMaurice]

Hi, I've been working out for about 6 months now, I've only lost 20 pounds since I started, to me that doesn't sound enough. I work out A LOT but lately I've been stuck and can't seem to lose weight.

I am 17 year old, weigh 215lbs and I'm 5'6.

Can anyone help me? Tell me what I'm doing wrong? It's really depressing to work out so much and not lose a decent amount of weight.

Ok, first lets get things straight. "Weight" means nothing. Measure your body fat percentage, thats what matters most. You may be gaining muscle and losing fat but your net weight has increased. Take pictures every month, if you're body looks better then great and don't worry about the scale.

And its plain simple, calorie deficit = weight loss. But after 6 months of dieting, i recommend to take a short time off your diet, like 2 weeks or something to allow your body's metabolism to get back up and running.

[LuisEnrikee]

Ok, first lets get things straight. "Weight" means nothing. Measure your body fat percentage, thats what matters most. You may be gaining muscle and losing fat but your net weight has increased. Take pictures every month, if you're body looks better then great and don't worry about the scale.

And its plain simple, calorie deficit = weight loss. But after 6 months of dieting, i recommend to take a short time off your diet, like 2 weeks or something to allow your body's metabolism to get back up and running.

Here's the thing, when I see how many calories I need a day say its around 2,700 I only eat around 2000 is that why?

[MarkMaurice]

Turbo2, you are missing the point here! Eat less would NOT help at this stage obviously.

[MarkMaurice]

Try eating up at maintenance at 2700 for a week, then get back on your diet. Thank me later.
Our bodys were created to sense times of starvation where food levels are insufficient so we dont die and our bodys hold on even more to our fat! So do your body a favor, eat at maintenance for a while, get your metabolism back up and running and then get back on your diet. 2000cal for a 215lb on a cut sounds reasonable.

[Turbo2]

Turbo2, you are missing the point here! Eat less would NOT help at this stage obviously.

He's been losing less than a pound a week for the last 6 months and 215 lbs @ 5'6" is still pretty overweight.

He could easily be losing at a faster rate with just eating less.


Looks like he used a calculator to figure out his calories. Those are really just a guideline and you should adjust from your real-world experience.


LuisEnrikee, you've made some good progress losing 20 lbs, but I would guess that 2000 calories a day is not a large deficit for you.

[LuisEnrikee]

He's been losing less than a pound a week for the last 6 months and 215 lbs @ 5'6" is still pretty overweight.

He could easily be losing at a faster rate with just eating less.


Looks like he used a calculator to figure out his calories. Those are really just a guideline and you should adjust from your real-world experience.


LuisEnrikee, you've made some good progress losing 20 lbs, but I would guess that 2000 calories a day is not a large deficit for you.

SO should I eat like 1,500?

[MarkMaurice]

He's been losing less than a pound a week for the last 6 months and 215 lbs @ 5'6" is still pretty overweight.

He could easily be losing at a faster rate with just eating less.


Looks like he used a calculator to figure out his calories. Those are really just a guideline and you should adjust from your real-world experience.


LuisEnrikee, you've made some good progress losing 20 lbs, but I would guess that 2000 calories a day is not a large deficit for you.

He has lost weight on 2000 calories.......But now he is eating the same amount.... This concludes body went into starvation mode.... eating even less would be outrageous. Do this world a favor and stop giving advice.

[MarkMaurice]

SO should I eat like 1,500?

If you do, say goodbye to your muscle as well. And you are likely to regain all the weight you lost after you get off your diet.

[Turbo2]

He has lost weight on 2000 calories.......But now he is eating the same amount.... This concludes body went into starvation mode.... eating even less would be outrageous. Do this world a favor and stop giving advice.

Please link me a scientific study outlining starvation mode. I want to read up on it.

[LuisEnrikee]

If you do, say goodbye to your muscle as well. And you are likely to regain all the weight you lost after you get off your diet.

True, I might aswell just try to find healthier foods i guess

[Turbo2]

SO should I eat like 1,500?

Maybe just knock off a couple hundred from what you've been doing and try that. 1700-1800 for a couple weeks and compare.

Keep lifting hard.

[MarkMaurice]

Please link me a scientific study outlining starvation mode. I want to read up on it.

There you go! Hope it helps your understanding.

http://www.burnthefat.com/starvation_mode.html

[MarkMaurice]

Please link me a scientific study outlining starvation mode. I want to read up on it.

This part especially

"Ancel Key’s Minnesota starvation study is the classic work in this area, which dates back to 1950 and is still referenced to this day. In this study, there was a 40% decrease in metabolism due to 6 months of “semi-starvation” at 50% deficit."

[lunchboy]

Yeah and they got down to 5% bodyfat. It slowed 50% after an extreme deficit for a long period of time, him eating at 2000 calories a day is not going to cause starvation mode.

[MarkMaurice]

Yeah and they got down to 5% bodyfat. It slowed 50% after an extreme deficit for a long period of time, him eating at 2000 calories a day is not going to cause starvation mode.

for a 220lb person...in 700 calorie deficit for 6 straight months.... im sure his metabolism slowed down.

[nlite2000]

Yeah and they got down to 5% bodyfat. It slowed 50% after an extreme deficit for a long period of time, him eating at 2000 calories a day is not going to cause starvation mode.

this.

OP---You aren't accurately counting calories. Also, you are growing, so that might have masked some fat loss. But you aren't counting calories correctly.

[lunchboy]

Since he is 17 and growing I find it hard to believe that his metabolism is slowing down. The only reason it would get messed up is from too low a fat intake during that time which would screw over his T levels. It sounds like this more has to do with diet then the so called "starvation response". Is he counting/measuring every calorie/macro? If yes then we can talk about lowering calories, its more than likely that he isn't measuring calories correctly.

OP do you measure your foods/plug your food into a food calculator daily to get a true picture of what you're eating?

[Mightymuff]

He has lost weight on 2000 calories.......But now he is eating the same amount.... This concludes body went into starvation mode.... eating even less would be outrageous. Do this world a favor and stop giving advice.

The irony in this post is amazing considering how much BS you have spouted in this thread.

If you do, say goodbye to your muscle as well. And you are likely to regain all the weight you lost after you get off your diet.

He's short and obese, he could easily sustain a lower calorie intake than 2000 (if that's what he's actually consuming). You don't suddenly start losing muscle at 5ft 6 and 200+ lbs eating 1500 calories.

There you go! Hope it helps your understanding.

http://www.burnthefat.com/starvation_mode.html

This part especially

"Ancel Key’s Minnesota starvation study is the classic work in this area, which dates back to 1950 and is still referenced to this day. In this study, there was a 40% decrease in metabolism due to 6 months of “semi-starvation” at 50% deficit."

You self owned here considering you have clearly miss understood what the article actually says. I will link some bits you conveniently missed out:

This is the paragraph under the one you linked

"Much or most of the decrease was due to loss of body mass, (which was much more pronounced because the subjects were not weight training), but not all of the metabolic decline could be explained simply by the loss of body weight, thus “metabolic adaptation” to starvation was proposed as the explanation for the difference."

So as you can see most of the 40% is due to the person just not being as fat as before which is intuitive. You lose weight, you weigh less, your meatbolism goes down. MOST is due to weight loss that means a small % drop is due to eating less calories and the subjects were at a 50% deficit.

"Another myth about starvation mode is that adaptive reduction in metabolic rate (where metabolism slows down in response to decrease calorie intake) is enough to cause a plateau. That is also not true. it will cause a SLOW DOWN in progress but not a total cessation of fat loss."

Oh look, not enough to plateau (which is what OP has done), but clearly this is caused by starvation mode right?





TL;DR You're fkn clueless.


To OP - Eat less

[alex2363]

less cals = less weight

[bdrusse]

Everyone is jumping to conclusions and selling this poor kid their advice as if it's gold.

I don't think anybody has asked him what I feel is a pretty important question.

OP, has your 20lbs weight loss been consistant over the 6 months, or did it drop fast then platue?

I would believe a fast drop then stopping could suggest starvation.

A gradual consistent decline could suggest not enough deficit. Seeing how you never mentioned a quick drop then plateu, I am inclined to believe it is not enough deficit? Or, the better of the two, a nice deficit and swapping fat weight with muscle weight. Even then, I would bet you could go minus another one or 200 a day and retain all his muscle if you are hell bent on seeing progress on the scale.

A caution flag will be if your energy levels drop, motivation drops, fatigue more easily than normal. Then I would say up your calories again because you probably are in fact burning muscle.

You also mentioned needing to clean up your diet? True, 2k in Micky d's cheese burgers and ice cream is not equal to 2k in lean chicken, fish, nuts and veggies.

[Mightymuff]

Everyone is jumping to conclusions and selling this poor kid their advice as if it's gold.

I don't think anybody has asked him what I feel is a pretty important question.

OP, has your 20lbs weight loss been consistant over the 6 months, or did it drop fast then platue?

I would believe a fast drop then stopping could suggest starvation.

A gradual consistent decline could suggest not enough deficit. Seeing how you never mentioned a quick drop then plateu, I am inclined to believe it is not enough deficit? Or, the better of the two, a nice deficit and swapping fat weight with muscle weight. Even then, I would bet you could go minus another one or 200 a day and retain all his muscle if you are hell bent on seeing progress on the scale.

A caution flag will be if your energy levels drop, motivation drops, fatigue more easily than normal. Then I would say up your calories again because you probably are in fact burning muscle.

You also mentioned needing to clean up your diet? True, 2k in Micky d's cheese burgers and ice cream is not equal to 2k in lean chicken, fish, nuts and veggies.

-_-

[NeedANick]

Everyone is jumping to conclusions and selling this poor kid their advice as if it's gold.

I don't think anybody has asked him what I feel is a pretty important question.

OP, has your 20lbs weight loss been consistant over the 6 months, or did it drop fast then platue?

I would believe a fast drop then stopping could suggest starvation.

A gradual consistent decline could suggest not enough deficit. Seeing how you never mentioned a quick drop then plateu, I am inclined to believe it is not enough deficit? Or, the better of the two, a nice deficit and swapping fat weight with muscle weight. Even then, I would bet you could go minus another one or 200 a day and retain all his muscle if you are hell bent on seeing progress on the scale.

A caution flag will be if your energy levels drop, motivation drops, fatigue more easily than normal. Then I would say up your calories again because you probably are in fact burning muscle.

You also mentioned needing to clean up your diet? True, 2k in Micky d's cheese burgers and ice cream is not equal to 2k in lean chicken, fish, nuts and veggies.

Sigh... In this thread alone I've already spent all my negs/reps.

[nlite2000]

Everyone is jumping to conclusions and selling this poor kid their advice as if it's gold.

I don't think anybody has asked him what I feel is a pretty important question.

OP, has your 20lbs weight loss been consistant over the 6 months, or did it drop fast then platue?

I would believe a fast drop then stopping could suggest starvation.

A gradual consistent decline could suggest not enough deficit. Seeing how you never mentioned a quick drop then plateu, I am inclined to believe it is not enough deficit? Or, the better of the two, a nice deficit and swapping fat weight with muscle weight. Even then, I would bet you could go minus another one or 200 a day and retain all his muscle if you are hell bent on seeing progress on the scale.

A caution flag will be if your energy levels drop, motivation drops, fatigue more easily than normal. Then I would say up your calories again because you probably are in fact burning muscle.

You also mentioned needing to clean up your diet? True, 2k in Micky d's cheese burgers and ice cream is not equal to 2k in lean chicken, fish, nuts and veggies.

choo choo! I hear the neg train comin'

[bdrusse]

Sigh... In this thread alone I've already spent all my negs/reps.[/QUOTE]


Enlighten me. What was so messed up on it?

I will take a stab at the food choices...you will say a calorie is a calorie? Yeah, great advice. Run a deficit, you'll lose weight, I get it. But there is a difference in 160 loose sloppy, and fat as opposed to 160 lean with a good muscle base.

[CDub73]

this.

OP---You aren't accurately counting calories. Also, you are growing, so that might have masked some fat loss. But you aren't counting calories correctly.

^---this

You say you've been going for 6 months. So lets say you've been dieting/training for 26 weeks. At a 500 deficit per day you would've lost roughly 26 lbs. At a 700 deficit it'd be a little under 1.5 lbs per week. So as quoted, you're not counting calories correctly (or you are and you're gaining muscle as well) BUT you are losing weight at a little under 1 lb/week so be PATIENT. (20 lbs in 26 weeks is progess) If you want to speed it up try dropping a few hundred calories by diet or cardio and work on accurately counting your calories.

If you are indeed worried about starvation mode...make sure you try cutting more calories for a few months while listening to your body before eating at maintenance. I'm sure you're fine though. Even if your body did go into "starvation mode", you're still going to make progress. A slower metabolism is only going to drastically effect people at extremely low BF% levels, us big boys are safe

Side note: Here's a link that references the Minnesota Starvation Experiment as well as Lyle McDonald's viewpoint on it. More legit sources are included in it as well if further clarification is needed.

caloriecount.about.com/truth-starvation-mode-ft28742