[quote]andersons wrote:
The Pencil Neck wrote:
<<<"But usually… if you’re not losing weight, it’s because you’re eating too much. You can always try to create a caloric deficit by doing more stuff (cardio, gpp, etc.) but the easiest way to create a caloric deficit is to eat less.
I like to look at it as a very basic process."
Human energy metabolism is not a very basic process, though. It’s very complex, in fact. If it were basic, every hypocaloric diet would always work for every person indefinitely.
Usually, when my fat loss stalls, it’s because my metabolism has slowed, and I fix it by eating MORE.
Also, food choices matter and meal timing matters. [/quote]
I didn’t say it WAS a very basic process, I said that I like to look at it as a very basic process. I understand about nutrient timing and how you can restart your metabolism by eating more for some period of time and all that crap.
That’s not the point.
USUALLY (and I used this word from the very beginning)… USUALLY when MOST people aren’t losing weight, it’s because they’re eating too much. USUALLY if you get someone to really analyze their diet when their weight loss slows, it’s because they’re not as clean with their diet as they think they are.
If you put people on a hypocaloric diet, they WILL lose weight. If they stop losing weight, then the diet is no longer hypocaloric. If you decrease the calories again, then they will start losing weight again.
When you start a diet, you have to eat X calories to lose weight. But then when you’ve lost some weight (which is fat and muscle), you have to steadily decrease the amount of calories that you eat to continue your weight loss because your metabolism is slowing for a variety of reasons (including the muscle lost). You can make that as complicated as you want but ultimately, you can’t continue eating the same things and continue to lose weight. You have to continually adjust your amount of calories.
Now, with that said, if your body starts thinking that you’re about to die of starvation, it will start losing muscle mass more than fat mass in an attempt to keep you alive. To keep that from happening, you have to occasionally refeed in one way or another and for one period of time or another.
Which is why… in the part of my original post that you conveniently cut out… I said that the original poster might want to experiment with eating more.
But I really think his weight loss has probably stalled because he’s still eating the same things that allowed him to lose weight initially and hasn’t decreased his intake to correspond with his body’s decreasing needs. He’s probably still basing his intake on his original weight.