Calories out - calories in <> weight loss?

B

Boodysaspie

New member
Hi everyone,

I'm 53 years old, 6'1" tall and before I started to diet I weighed 243lbs. I started to diet about five weeks ago, and I'm keeping a food and exercise diary to predict how the diet is progressing. I must be doing something wrong because my predictions don't match the scales.

I have some Omron scales which give weight and BMR. I then allow myself a "sedentary" factor of 1.2. I also have a chest strap heart rate monitor which links to the Wahoo app, and this tells me how many calories I burn during my brisk walks. I add these two numbers together to give me a weekly calorie burn.

I have another sheet on a spreadsheet where I log all food and drink, and so I know my weekly calorie, fat, carbs, fibre, protein and salt intake.

I'm now in a position to calculate my weekly calorie deficit, and, by dividing that by 3500, my expected weight loss. However, the scales don't give the same answer, and I don't know why.

Here's my summary:

Week ending_____Expected Loss______Actual Loss
18/10/15________2.64______________3.8
25/10/15________2.61______________3.6
1/11/15_________2.87______________3.8
8/11/15_________2.54______________0.8
15/11/15________2.70______________1.8

Any ideas about what's wrong?

Cheers,
Alan
 
Last edited:
There is nothing wrong, weight loss is complicated, calories burned based on heart rate is just an estimate, as is any estimate of BMR. The calories in the food you eat is also an estimate unless your testing all of your food in a lab. Also consider that at times the body will retain or loose water weight in a mostly unpredictable way, although there are some foods which are generally known to make you retain fluid, eg salt. Bodyweight also fluctuates throughout the day. There is nothing exact about weight loss.
 
The numbers I'm getting aren't even close to being estimates. This week I ate 9130 kcal (according to the packets they came out of), BMRed my way through 16268 kcals and walked off 2516 kcals. It's quite likely that these figures aren't completely accurate, but at least they are credible.

Er, no. I lost 9654 kcals, which should be a weight loss of 2.76lbs. I actually gained a pound, so the error is 3.76lbs or 13160 kcals. To put that in perspective, that's two Big Mac meals (make 'em large) every day for a week. Some estimate.

I totally agree that this method is a simplified model of what's actually happening. I also expect that more sophisticated models are available, a) because otherwise a three-year nutrition degree could get boring and b) because I don't accept that top sportsmen like Usain Bolt, Novak Djokovic and Wladimir Klitschko get dietary advice that's only accurate to 3.5lbs per week.

Maybe I would need more sophisticated equipment. Maybe I wouldn't be able to follow the maths. Nevertheless, if anyone can point me in the right direction I would be very grateful.
 
Just continue as you're doing Alan - you're doing great! You've had a really good start to your weight loss journey.
 
I think huge chunk of your initial weight loss are water loss. Probably by 4th week you body water retention amount optimized, cannot be any lower hence the results on week 4. I was also puzzled when I first started my weight loss journey, the first few weeks are fantastic but then the reduction went minimal and sometimes I recovered the grams that I lost despite of the diet control & exercise. So now I always categorize my weight as wet weight (after meals) & dry weight (morning before breakfast or evening before dinner, after my exercise routine). Sometimes the difference between my wet & dry weight can be up to 1.5 Kgs. I'm more wary of my wet weight.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top