Gaining weight on 1800kcal diet

[Macce]

Hi!

I have been on a 1800kcal average diet for about 6 weeks now and I am surprised to see that I have not lost any weight. My weight is about 75 kilos and I am 174cm tall with a body fat of around 16%. I'm aiming for 500kcal daily deficit..

I work in front of a screen and usually do 30 minutes of cardio every day (as I chalk up as 280 kcal burnt according to my stair machine. 1800 is after the reduction for the cardio).

The scale actually says I have gained 0.2kg..

Is it possible that I have a daily calorie need of less then 1800kcal? I am 37 years old.. (male)

Cheers

[rhino71]

do you lift weights or is the cardio the only exercise you get? it possible that you could have gained muscle... do you look and feel trimmer?

[o2nguyen]

eat less

[ghattanj]

eat less

do not do this. wait at least a couple weeks before lowering calories at all. monitor weight closely

1800 is already pretty low

[liuzhoudragon]

1. Do not listen to the machine calorie burning reading........they are often very very inaccurate...normally overstating calories burnt.
2. Add green tea, coffee, and spicy peppers to your diet.
3. Cut out sugar and white bread....it will spike your insulin.

4. Drink more water.......forget water weight........go for being helathy......it will help you digest your food better and go to the bathroom regularly.

[NABlakley]

Are you sure you are counting your calories correctly? Maybe you are missing something somewhere?

[StrongMeat]

lifting > cardio

cutting BF% will mean nothing if you have no frame underneath

lifting is muscle sparing whereas cardio is not, your actual weight is irrelevant for fat loss(it can fluctuate based on water, fecal content etc)

eitherway, in my calculator your maintenance is 2000, so cutting should be at 1500-1600

we're roughly the same size, pics would help

-StrongMeat-

[TelusLob]

1. Do not listen to the machine calorie burning reading........they are often very very inaccurate...normally overstating calories burnt.
2. Add green tea, coffee, and spicy peppers to your diet.
3. Cut out sugar and white bread....it will spike your insulin.

4. Drink more water.......forget water weight........go for being helathy......it will help you digest your food better and go to the bathroom regularly.

Don't listen to this nonsense. ^^^

It's likely you're eating more than 1800 calories per day. If you don't WEIGH your foods and double check everything you eat you're likely under-reporting your intake.

[mikecrocop]

1800 is way to little, i cut on 2500 easy

[mikecrocop]

i suggest you bump your cals at 2500 for a couple weeks and then try 2000 again

[Jjacobclark]

1800 is way to little, i cut on 2500 easy

he weighs about 45 lbs less than u

[Reflexez]

Most likely you're eating more than you think and not burning as many calories as you think.

Also you have to consider that scales aren't a great tool overall, if you weighed yourself one time in the morning before eating and after using the toilet then you're going to weigh less than if you're doing it shortly after a meal or taking in lots of liquids, plus things like water retention can change a lot and add/subtract a few lbs here and there.

When I weigh myself on a morning I normally swing between 4lbs range and that can be over the course of a day or two.

[RotaPride]

I'm 172cm and weigh 70kg, cutting on 1600-1800 avg per day and losing avg 1/2 kilo a week. I had previously stalled @ 74kg & didn't get progress till I bought a digital scale and started weighing my food. Surprising how little 1600 cals of food actually is. Buy a food scale, you won't regret it.

[Jaks]

I have similar stats to you and agree with the above. I can go as low as 1300 - 1400 calories and still lose weight safely according to the calculators (currently on a zig-zag programme). It's really difficult the smaller build you are as the margins for going over are a lot tighter. Weight your food / use sites like fitday.com to measure everything you're eating, my guess would be it's more than you think.

[bama5584]

Do like Telus said and start weighing your food. You are most likely eating more than you realize.

[HealthResearch]

1800 is way to little, i cut on 2500 easy

OP is not losing weight..... and you tell him to eat more..... riiiiiight.

[HealthResearch]

Op probably has a daily maintenance of 2100 (cuz of the desk job). He is eating 2100. Burning a bit on the treadmill. (probably not as much as expected). And scale reads the same after 6 weeks.

Yup.

My math seems to work.

[Trigger543]

Op probably has a daily maintenance of 2100 (cuz of the desk job). He is eating 2100. Burning almost nothing on the treadmill. (definitely much less than expected). And scale reads the same after 6 weeks.

Yup.

You're eating too much.

Translated for OP.

[Macce]

do you lift weights or is the cardio the only exercise you get? it possible that you could have gained muscle... do you look and feel trimmer?

I usually lift weights alot, but Ive hurt my hand so now I'm trying a mid-seasong weight-loss periods just to have something useful to do with my body

[Macce]

1. Do not listen to the machine calorie burning reading........they are often very very inaccurate...normally overstating calories burnt.
2. Add green tea, coffee, and spicy peppers to your diet.
3. Cut out sugar and white bread....it will spike your insulin.

4. Drink more water.......forget water weight........go for being helathy......it will help you digest your food better and go to the bathroom regularly.

Do you think 280kcal sounds much for 30 min of workout with a pulse of 150? I think it sound reasonable.. I eat zero sugar, use Sambal Oelek on all my meals, drink tea every day and dont eat any bread at all. So I'm pretty much already following most of your advices..

[Macce]

Don't listen to this nonsense. ^^^

It's likely you're eating more than 1800 calories per day. If you don't WEIGH your foods and double check everything you eat you're likely under-reporting your intake.

I weight my food every day (except I eat lunch out on fridays (fish or chicken), I count that as 1000kcal as an estimation). I also add 100kcal extra every day for that additional olive the kids leave on their plate that you grab before picking off the table after dinner.

So I don't really feel I underestimate by much, but I have suspected that I somehow is missing something. Like a banana beeing 150 instead of 75 or a glass of white wine beeing 200 instead of 100, but I just can't find it.. (But I agree that it is more likely that I'm under-reporting than having a burn rate of less then 1800 kcal)

I also weight myself every day the exact same time inthe morning, so I always have a graph showing my weight, so I am sure that I have not lost any weight for the last 6 weeks.

Another thing is that on fridays I usually eat around 2600, of which 300kcal is beer or wine.. Could alcohol somehow make you less inclined to lose weight? 1800 is still the average including fridays.

Thanks alot for everyones advices!

[Macce]

I'm 172cm and weigh 70kg, cutting on 1600-1800 avg per day and losing avg 1/2 kilo a week. I had previously stalled @ 74kg & didn't get progress till I bought a digital scale and started weighing my food. Surprising how little 1600 cals of food actually is. Buy a food scale, you won't regret it.

We have about the same build it looks like.. Very encouraging to hear that you can actually lose fat on a 1600 diet around 70kg! I will go over my food intake once again and look for leaks.

Btw, how much would you say a 30min heavy/medium intense heightlifting session is in kcal? I hear everything from 100 to 400 ..

Great work with your current definition! Do you know what you BF% was around mid feb?

[HealthResearch]

We have about the same build it looks like.. Very encouraging to hear that you can actually lose fat on a 1600 diet around 70kg! I will go over my food intake once again and look for leaks.

Btw, how much would you say a 30min heavy/medium intense heightlifting session is in kcal? I hear everything from 100 to 400 ..

Great work with your current definition! Do you know what you BF% was around mid feb?

I'm pretty muscular, 185 and 6"1' My maintenance is about 2200 calories. I cut at 1500. I have a desk job and other than weights and some cardio, I don't get a lot of activity during the week. So, 2200 maintenance is real for desk job people.

Students who do sports, walk to class and go to the gym are easily 1000 calls higher.

Desk job = horrible maintence calories.

[DaniSP]

LOL @ people who mantain at 2500kcal, some of us will gain weight at 2000kcal so stop saying he eats low amounts of food (which is the inminent signal before talking of the so called 'starvation mode')

Bull****. OP needs to eat less and rise up his daily activity, for example sprints training can help you boost your calorie expenditure

[Macce]

I'm pretty muscular, 185 and 6"1' My maintenance is about 2200 calories. I cut at 1500. I have a desk job and other than weights and some cardio, I don't get a lot of activity during the week. So, 2200 maintenance is real for desk job people.

Students who do sports, walk to class and go to the gym are easily 1000 calls higher.

Desk job = horrible maintence calories.

Wow.. you are 10 kilos heavier then me and maintain @ 2200? Then it is very conceivable that I maintain @ 2000 or slightly less.. Need to quit computers and get a job as a mailman on a bicycle or something.

[JaymzZz]

Eat less.
Lift weights.

This isn't complicated.

Also, you are probably eating more than you realize.

[mpipes]

Unfortunately HealthResearch is right. For those of us who have desk jobs without much activity, 1500-1800 kcal intake is the reality. You don't get to eat 1800-2100 because you burned 300 at cardio then say your diet is 1500-1800... you eat 1500-1800, then do the cardio/training in addition.

If you ate 1800 you'd be losing.. slowly because of the desk job and 1800 is far from aggressive .. but still losing.

[outofmyhead]

for example i am currently @ around 262 pounds, trying to cut on 2000-2500 cals a and its just not happening, i have a deskjob i hit the gym 3 times a week 5 times a week of cardio.
Saying eat less and lift more makes no sense i dont have the energy for gym cardio or anything other then sleeping even @ this 2000-2500 calories a day i coudnt even think about 1500 or so i would be starving 24x7

[RotaPride]

We have about the same build it looks like.. Very encouraging to hear that you can actually lose fat on a 1600 diet around 70kg! I will go over my food intake once again and look for leaks.

Btw, how much would you say a 30min heavy/medium intense heightlifting session is in kcal? I hear everything from 100 to 400 ..

Great work with your current definition! Do you know what you BF% was around mid feb?

I started my cut end of jan after a big Christmas ) i don't know about body fat % but my waist measurement was 79cm 74-76kg and it's now down to 76cm @ 70kg. if i had to guess id say ive dropped from 13/15% down to 11/12% and will hopefully crack 10% by April. I don't take into account my cals burnt from exercise, I don't eat more back to compensate a big workout or a cardio sesh. I just eat an avg 1600 per day regardless.

Yeah we are very similar stats and like you I also sit down for a living - bloody office monkeys - but I try and get out of my seat once every hour and walk to the car or to the far end of the office just to get some light movement in during the day. 30 min weight sesh at the end of the day won't do much weight loss wise for me so my diet has to do all the work. Good luck with the plateau mate, keep trying till you find something that works for you.