No Weight Loss On Deficit

[AnnieRhi]

It's your intake. That's the issue. No matter how many times you insist its on point, it's not. Your calculations are not right.

A couple things:
8oz chicken. 220 calories only?
1 cup of rice. 400 calories? That can't be right. Is that 1 cup of dry rice? Or cooked?
Mayo. Salad dressing. Creamer. You are really putting all that's stuff on the scale?
A small piece of chocolate for 45 calories? Really? How small is this piece of chocolate for it to only be 45 calories? Did you weigh that chocolate?

I'm with Mr M on this. 8 oz of cooked chicken breast is most definitely closer to 400 calories... And there are a lot of cup/tablespoon measurements with the mayo/creamer/salad dressing; weighing high calorie condiments is a definite eye-opener about the inaccuracy of tablespoons and eye-balling.

You might this vid helpful:

You insist it's wrong, but it's not.

1 serving of chicken is 4 oz., I measure 1 breast and it's 3.9-4.1 oz., and 100-110 calories depending on the brand.
1 serving of Rice Bowl rice is 1/2 cup of dry rice and 200 calories, I make 1 cup.
I measure 0.5 tbsp. of mayo, 2 tbsp. of dressing, and 2 tbsp. of creamer each time I use them.
A small piece of chocolate as in a mini size piece. I take 1 serving size (3 uniform pieces), and divide by 3.

So you're not cooking it yourself? You're buying pre-cooked chicken? What brand is this pre-cooked chicken that is half the calories of the chicken breast I cook at home?

[Mystery105]

You insist it's wrong, but it's not.

1 serving of chicken is 4 oz., I measure 1 breast and it's 3.9-4.1 oz., and 100-110 calories depending on the brand.
1 serving of Rice Bowl rice is 1/2 cup of dry rice and 200 calories, I make 1 cup.
I measure 0.5 tbsp. of mayo, 2 tbsp. of dressing, and 2 tbsp. of creamer each time I use them.
A small piece of chocolate as in a mini size piece. I take 1 serving size (3 uniform pieces), and divide by 3.

Ok, 2tbsp of dressing? That is an inaccurate way to measure. It needs to be weighed on a scale. 1 cup of rice, are you weighing it? Most people fill a cup, with a little over the top. Do that,then weigh it. See how much of a difference there is? It all adds up.

Put everything on the scale, even the scotch, track it all. If you still are not losing in a few weeks, come back.

Your way of measuring food is wrong. Period.

[xRyanSwanson]

So you're not cooking it yourself? You're buying pre-cooked chicken? What brand is this pre-cooked chicken that is half the calories of the chicken breast I cook at home?

Just frozen, boneless, skinless, chicken breasts, I cook them myself. Daily Chef mostly, but Perdue from time to time. The bags of Perdue I have have a serving of 4 oz. at 120 calories.

[toddmclain02]

Just frozen, boneless, skinless, chicken breasts, I cook them myself. Daily Chef mostly, but Perdue from time to time. The bags of Perdue I have have a serving of 4 oz. at 120 calories.

Re-read your original post OP. From what I'm reading no one is putting together the facts. You said you are 14% bf. At 6'1 @ 178lbs that is a small frame. Secondly you are not going to the gym but only 1-2 times a week? If you are eating at a deficit and not putting up a heavy lifting routine how are you expecting your body to fight its natural desire to retain bodyfat? Third, why do you want to be 6'1 and 165lbs? I'd recommend finding the time to do a bulk routine and increase your calories.

[xRyanSwanson]

Re-read your original post OP. From what I'm reading no one is putting together the facts. You said you are 14% bf. At 6'1 @ 178lbs that is a small frame. Secondly you are not going to the gym but only 1-2 times a week? If you are eating at a deficit and not putting up a heavy lifting routine how are you expecting your body to fight its natural desire to retain bodyfat? Third, why do you want to be 6'1 and 165lbs? I'd recommend finding the time to do a bulk routine and increase your calories.

The intent was to eat at a calorie deficit, since I'm out of the house for work 12 hours a day and can't always make it to the gym during their hours of operation, to try and lose as much fat as I can before I resume lean bulking to put on lean mass.

I'm not fat or anything by any standards, but I have too much fat for my own personal liking.

[toddmclain02]

The intent was to eat at a calorie deficit, since I'm out of the house for work 12 hours a day and can't always make it to the gym during their hours of operation, to try and lose as much fat as I can before I resume lean bulking to put on lean mass.

I'm not fat or anything by any standards, but I have too much fat for my own personal liking.

Without the heavy lifting or cardio only thing you can do is decrease calories further. Start doing a lot of bodyweight exercises, IE push-ups, pull-ups, core exercises. Any type of workout is better than none. Get the P90x videos, plenty of places to get them for free or cheap. At your height, weight I bet you would burn about 500 calories doing an hour of cardio.

[xRyanSwanson]

Without the heavy lifting or cardio only thing you can do is decrease calories further. Start doing a lot of bodyweight exercises, IE push-ups, pull-ups, core exercises. Any type of workout is better than none. Get the P90x videos, plenty of places to get them for free or cheap. At your height, weight I bet you would burn about 500 calories doing an hour of cardio.

I can manage to get to the gym like 2-3 times a week, depending on recovery since I'm doing full body instead of my normal body split, and whether or not I work 5 or 6 days a week.

[SolorzanoJose]

You are not looking for help, you are looking for someone to tell you it's not your fault, it's bad genetics... it's not going to happen.

Stop ignoring advice and stand up to the fact that your eye-balling and calorie count is wrong.

[Njustice4all]

I'm 180 lbs. with about 14% or so of BF, I don't think it's the lack of LBM.

Just the combination of lack of time due to work and conflicting information I've received from here prevents me from getting into the gym and increasing my calorie deficit.

If you're 6'1" at 180 pounds, and still concerned about fat, you could certainly benefit from more LBM. I won't try to assume anything about your BF and frame, but as someone taller than you, trust me when I say that being over 6 feet tall and under 170 ain't a good look.

As for your second paragraph, I'm not saying you need to find the increased activity solely in the gym. Like others have pointed out, any type of activity will help create that deficit cushion, especially in the event that you're calorie counting becomes skewed or off.

Not sure about conflicting information, but if it's regarding metabolic damage, I would say don't read that much into it. I believe it certainly exists, but in extreme cases only. The fact remains, being at a caloric deficit will result in weight loss... To what end is completely up to you.

[Nicod3mus]

People here won't tell you you're going to damage your metabolism, that's stupid. Want to lose? Not losing? Eat less or move more, those rules don't change.

yup yup yup....


If you not losing eat less or burn.... all minutia aside.

[Neg_Train]

Prolly because of hidden calories from dressings, creamers,etc..

Easily add a few hundred to your overall diet.

[iamelias]

I'm with Mr M on this. 8 oz of cooked chicken breast is most definitely closer to 400 calories... And there are a lot of cup/tablespoon measurements with the mayo/creamer/salad dressing; weighing high calorie condiments is a definite eye-opener about the inaccuracy of tablespoons and eye-balling.

You might this vid helpful:





So you're not cooking it yourself? You're buying pre-cooked chicken? What brand is this pre-cooked chicken that is half the calories of the chicken breast I cook at home?

8 oz of chicken is 400 cals? I dun goofed

[cmrock207]

To continue beating the dead horse, I'll chime in too and say weigh everything. Use your measuring cup for liquid only, and use your measuring spoon(s) to scoop stuff out, but leave the measurements to your scale, and don't always rely on the nutrition labels. I hadn't really considered quantity vs. weight when it comes to serving size until I watched one of Vismal's videos. I had just been operating on the assumption that almonds (for example) were 28 to 1oz a serving as the label says, but I started weighing them and found that 28 was closer to 1.5 servings, the difference between 160 cals and 240 cals. It adds up over the course of a week/month/etc.

[xRyanSwanson]

Wanted to bump this because I am still at 177-179 lbs., eating about 1700-1800 calories a day, and have been picking up biking 30-45 minutes every few days.

Still think that I'm miscalculating my calories only a little bit to yield baseline calories, or do you think my actual metabolism requires less calories to lose weight?

Also, I've been 179 since August.

[Luciu5]

Wanted to bump this because I am still at 177-179 lbs., eating about 1700-1800 calories a day, and have been picking up biking 30-45 minutes every few days.

Still think that I'm miscalculating my calories only a little bit to yield baseline calories, or do you think my actual metabolism requires less calories to lose weight?

Also, I've been 179 since August.

If you are not losing weight than you are eating too many calories.

You either:
A. Are counting wrong
B. Overestimating TDEE
C. Have a medical issue

You can:
A. Reduce calories until you are losing
B. See a doctor
C. Give up

Pick one.

[xRyanSwanson]

If you are not losing weight than you are eating too many calories.

You either:
A. Are counting wrong
B. Overestimating TDEE
C. Have a medical issue

You can:
A. Reduce calories until you are losing
B. See a doctor
C. Give up

Pick one.

I'll just keep going down until I start seeing steady weight loss or I start seeing medical issues.

[jackbravo]

8 oz of chicken is 400 cals? I dun goofed

I don't know man, I think you were right the first time.

[Pronger865]

Are you actually weighing out the chicken breast or assuming 1 breast is 4oz?

[xRyanSwanson]

Are you actually weighing out the chicken breast or assuming 1 breast is 4oz?

Like I've stated before, I would weigh out everything.

Weighing chicken: put plate on scale, zero out, add chicken = boom.
Weighing milk/creamer: put bowl/cup on scale, zero out, add milk/creamer = boom.

At most I would probably have a realm of error of about 100 calories or so, but when I'm on a 500-600 calorie deficit, that shouldn't even matter, I should still see steady progression.

I'm lowering my calories more now, until I start seeing negative side effects on my day to day life, to see if anything will help resume the rate of loss.