What to Do When a Calorie Deficit Isn't Burning Fat?

Diet and Nutrition
42

In the day she has these healthy ready meals (organic, chicken, veg etc.) but I just looked at those recently and they’re like 190 kcals :confused:

Then she’ll have some almonds, protein shake, then something else (possibly a protein bar).

Evening meal is pretty routine, something like chicken legs with sweet potato, or turkey mince made into burgers with salad, or a stir fry made with veg and tempeh and maybe some curry paste or a drizzle of some other sauce.

Anything fried is done in coconut oil, like a tablespoon. Baked I’ll spray olive oil. Occasionally I’ll add a tiny bit of grass fed butter. I’m thinking I should add more of that actually.

43

You could add some avocados occasionally, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, linseed oil (all rich with healthy fats and cheap…at least in my country), some fish would be nice, sauerkraut, pickled cucumbers (they’re just generally healthy and low on calories).

44

I’m not qualified in any way to give dietary recommendations.

That said, that’s not enough fat! Try more oil, more butter, and more heavy cream. 20-30% of calories from fat. Someone more educated should be able to help you more.

These articles probably aren’t super useful, I just did a quick search. But they talk about getting around 30% of calories from fat.

45

I don’t think this has been addressed yet:

How are you “tracking” calories? Has every meal, every day, been weighed on a food scale to the gram? Have you factored in oils for cooking? Knowing this will provide great insight for sure.

Looking into user active thyroid could be helpful, mine was slightly under active and upon testing and starting a low dose of thyroid meds, I do feel I can eat more and maintain weight. However, I was still able to get into contest condition with an under active thyroid.

I would have to assume there’s more calories being consumed than you think, but again, informing us on how you’re tracking your calories exactly is an important piece of the puzzle.

46

I will admit it’s not super thorough, but, this is because we will take a sample day (every day is very very similar) and count up (she has these read meals which show you calories, same with a protein bar etc.) and often by the time she comes home, she’s at something silly like 700kcal. And then yes I will take a typical meal and weigh it up, count the fats, and I’m like, shit, the total calories for the entire meal is only 750Kcal, and that’s divided by two! and she’ll only have the appetite to eat 2/3 of it while I’m stand over her going “light weight, light weight, you can do it!”

So it’s not like the goal is 1600 and we’re getting to 1600 ever day and wondering what’s going on, and it’s because we didn’t track properly and really it’s 1850.

47

If I understand correctly, it sounds like every single meal is not weighed, and you take a day where you do weigh it, and try to duplicate that throughout the week? I’m confused by your reply as to whether you weigh the food or not.

If you’re not weighing every single bit of food that goes in your mouth, there’s no way to know exactly what you’re getting. You can easily be a few hundred calories minimum out of your zone.

There’s nothing super mysterious or scientific about it. Barring any underlying medical conditions, consume less than you burn and you’ll lose weight. If it’s not happening, more calories are being consumed than you think. Again certainly worth checking thyroid/hormone levels as well.

I can’t stress enough the importance of weighing everything if you want to be accurate.

3 Likes
48

yeah I’m afraid I don’t agree with that stance as I’ve seen first hand on multiple occasions where someone is measuring and hits a plateau at a drastic under-eating levels, but starts losing again once they go higher.

I am saying that each day is pretty much the same, and we’re not getting near the daily goals for a deficit, let alone a break-even.

If you read through this thread, check out the comments by mertdawg. The body can and will conserve energy if the deficit is high enough, and the individual has established a pattern of under-eating. There are many processes in the body that cost calories, including physical movement and NEAT and sleep that get the ‘volume’ adjusted. Makes sense that this is a survival mechanism. The body isn’t going to mindlessly burn through all it’s fat and then kill you and then turn around and say “what did you want me to do about it, you should have eaten more?” the human body has been around for long enough to figure out adaptive thermogenic tricks.

And note that the vast majority of the “just eat less” proponents are young and fit and have probably never crash dieted, so their body responds very differently (and likely more strictly) to the calorie/body weight formula. So to them it’s evident, in both them and their peers.

I wish there was more studying done in this field. I strongly believe that some day we’ll have a better model. Like, here’s another thing to bear in mind. There’s an assumption in the “just eat less, bro” world that anyone who can’t burn fat efficiently is a fat fuck who’s never seen a weighing scale, or is so dumb and ignorant that they think cake doesn’t count. And I think that’s maybe true for the majority of fatties to be fair, but there really are some who are like, fuck this, I’m just gonna eat as little as possible, and count it, and I don’t give a shit about hunger or cravings, I just want that goal. And they drop their intake drastically, and they hit a plateau. I guarantee they would give their house and their dog if the model was “just track better, yo and eat less” coz they’d do it with pleasure.

49

You are really good at giving excuses when someone gives you sound advice.

If you’re worried about hormone disruption, get bloodwork done so you can rule it out.

Point blank, this does not add up. Outside of hormone issues, you and her are fucking her diet up somehow.

Figure that part out. You’ve been given countless suggestions in this thread.

I’d put a paycheck on you have no clue how much she’s eating and she’s not putting forth enough effort to burn energy/cals.

6 Likes
50

well this thread is done but people are adding to it.

I’d put all my life savings on it not being a calorie-surplus issue. Will get blood work done when I get the income.

51

Let’s be honest, you didnt need to create the thread.

But you did, and here you are in the same place as where you started.

Here’s my piece of advice:

Not everyone’s meant to be shredded, or lean with appreciable muscle. Most will fail because they are mentally weak. Not because they couldn’t achieve it physically. It’s even more difficult for women. She gets two strikes against her from what I’ve read in this thread. I’m going to go ahead and give her a third strike, and that’s you. I dont think you’re helping her actually get to and understand the root cause. You’re not coaching her well, and that’s evident in this thread.

3 strikes you’re out.

2 Likes
52

I seriously doubt you’ve seen this numerous times where someone is weighing all of their food to the gram, every day, consistently, for months, without one bit of variance, and stalls out. I’m sure you have seen numerous times people completely guessing and not knowing for sure.

If food isn’t being weighed every day, all the time, that’s a huge red flag, and any opinions on what’s working or not working are simply uneducated guesses, rather than informed, educated opinions.

You’ve had super experienced people, natural bodybuilding competitors, and coaches, on this thread, offer advice that you seem to butt heads against. When you add the words “bro”, “yo” and “cuz”, it seriously undercuts the validity of the advice given here. I didn’t say, “yo cuz, eat less bro cuz u obviously ain’t eating enough.” I pointed out the glaringly obvious weakness that food isn’t being weighed every day, so it’s quite impossible to know exactly how many calories are being consumed daily.

So you’ve never competed, and you’ve probably never been shredded, yet you’re arguing with people who have first hand experience of doing it themselves, and coaching others successfully.

Well said.

Again, it is possible something medically is impacting this, which would be impossible to know until tests are performed and certainly worth looking into. But you most certainly have not done enough to rule out the fact there’s something amiss nutritionally/training/calorically.

2 Likes
53

I’ll humor the idea just because my SO just got diagnosed with something that sounds like it could be similar. I cant for the life of me remember what it’s called. I’ll add at the end of this post when I ask her.

So basically, my SO has always had auto immune issues. She spent a lot of time in hospitals as a kid, and simple things like UTIs have been life threatening to her.

She also got diagnosed with narcolepsy recently, may be unrelated, but adding it for detail. Basically she was always tired. I’ve seen her sleep for the better part of 48 hours straight. Always weak and sick and sluggish feeling.

Shes never eaten a lot. Provided shes awake, shell get down about 2 square meals a day l, maybe a snack in there.

She started gaining weight. Nothing extreme, but she didnt like it. She hit a cap, if I had to guess around 175-180, and just sat there. I’m not big on my diet and she couldnt give a rats ass about lifting. So she tried multiple diets, some with my help some without, and just wouldn’t move off that mark. I did convince her to completely come off sugar, and she lost probably around 10 lbs over the course of a year. Then just got stuck again.

She proceeded to get more sick feeling, and all around just not great. She started missing her periods, which finally threw up a big red flag for us, because she definitely wasnt pregnant.

FINALLY a doctor caught something. It’s a condition that has multiple effects:

Inability/extremely difficult to have kids

Extreme insulin resistance

Tanked sex drive

So her doctor put her on keto, something along the lines of under 15g of carbs a day, along with some random medication. Seems obvious after the lack of sugar reduced her weight, but shes lost 15lbs in… about 45 days? Let’s say 5lbs is waterweight, still, 10lbs is a significant improvement for her.

Theres not really advice here, but essentially what I’m saying is, for the first time in my life, I can confidently say there are cases where a caloric deficit just isnt enough. Her condition quite literally makes her diabetic without actually being diabetic, and it fucks with her caloric processing.

Sorry for shitty typing, this forum tanks my phone for some reason.

1 Like
54

As an add on, its hereditary, her mother had it, and by the grace of whatever god managed to have a kid. After which she promptly had her uterus removed.

I should add, this is the first time I’ve ever heard of something like this, and it’s very new to us, so we dont know all the details yet, I’m only adding input because i thought the idea of not losing weight in a caloric deficit was fucking ludicrous until very recently.

55

  1. I would be interested in knowing the name of the disease.

  2. Based on what you wrote there is no way of knowing if she was in a caloric deficit. Diagnosed with narcolepsy, slept for the better part of 48 hours straight, always weak and sick and sluggish feeling, and she couldn’t give a rats ass about lifting. Why would her body need more calories? She wasn’t doing anything.

56

You’re absolutely correct. It’s possible and I can’t argue any case saying otherwise, but we discovered the ailment before any more diet testing could/would be done. And the disease is known to have effects making it next to impossible to lose weight. Apparently removing pretty much all sugar from your diet is the only way. Like I said, by no means an expert, I cant even remember the name of it lol. I’ll post the name when I ask her.

57

I’m such a firm believer in… I guess it’s called intuitive eating now? Short of getting to low teens/single digit bodyfat I’ve just never seen how it’s hard to eat for your goals. I eat when I’m hungry, and if I want to gain weight I eat a bit more, if I want to lose weight, i eat a bit less, or refine what I’m eating. It boggles my mind that people have such a hard time grasping a caloric deficit or surplus. (My SO possibly included)

58

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)?

59

Was it related to PCOS?

Metformin is sometimes recommended and it often leads to type II diabetes, and gestational diabetes, but I don’t think that PCOS reduces appetite (as with the OP). Maybe reduced appetite is more the result of gaining weight and has a psychological component.

60

People can tout calories in/calories out and “macros” as being 90% of the weight gain/loss equation. It is axiomatically true! However calories OUT is very dependent on food choices and other factors. This is why I would always look at the food choices that someone is making and not just a report of caloric intake and/or macros.

2 Likes
61

Hey you guys nailed it, that’s exactly what it is!