Can you actually lose weight by only being in a calorie deficit

[dawn16]

@donna8558 Yes. The only way you lose weight is in being in a calorie deficit.

If you're trying to lose fat, not just weight, you'll need to add some muscle maintaining/building activities into the mix.

The advantage of exercise is that it increases the deficit. That's all.

It doesn't have to be complicated.

 

[preston055]

@donna8558 Yes

Also remember as you lose you have to re adjust your intake as it’s changes. The tdee calculators online are close enough to get you a number that’ll work.

 

[emperorsolo]

@donna8558 Yes.

Because you cannot create mass from nothing.

 

[jdprice]

@donna8558 Calorie deficit as well as generally increasing daily physical activity is the best bet. I aim for over 10000 steps per day and calorie deficit of 500. I slowly decrease my deficit more as I lose weight.

 

[primitivebaptist]

@donna8558 Yes.

I lost 80bs in 9 months, I'm a male 47, 6ft, 165 now, down from 250. I look at calories but it was a bit of a process, getting my breakfast right same with lunch, so I could enjoy my wife's dinners. I just keep the portions small. So about 150 in the morning, another 250, at lunch and a properly portioned dinner.

The biggest change I made personally for my diet was stop drinking anything that wasn't pure water. I eat a light breakfast and lunch, then a descent dinner. For me water fills the gap and takes away a lot of sugar and helps cleanse you out. After a while your feel more full and take less portions.

I'm just beginning to start working out. I always did in the past but never lost weight with cardio or weights, only got stronger.

 

[faithbuilder]

@donna8558 Yes! I cleaned up what I ate and when! I no longer eat after 8 p.m. , and I stopped eating most sugar, and I stopped eating a lot of cheese. I changed my creamer from regular to sugar-free. I used to use oat milk, but that made me more bloated, so I stopped. If you're working out AND have a calorie deficit even better!

 

[monjess]

@donna8558 The only way to lose weight is to be in a calorie deficit

 

[thnkful]

@donna8558 Calorie deficit is the ONLY way you lose weight. It's just thermodynamics, nothing magical about it. Energy in must be less than energy out.

You actually burn way less calories working out than most people think. That doesn't mean you shouldn't because both aerobic and muscle building activities have tons of benefits for your body, weight loss just isn't high up on the list. You were concerned about gaining muscle and not moving the scale, which means you were using the scale wrong. If you are at a point where you are doing body recomposition then stop using the scale and start using the mirror, the calipers, and the tape. Track your gains that way. The scale is only useful if you are tracking dumping extra fat.

 

[okegold]

@donna8558 One nitpick perhaps: you CAN change your body composition (ie body fat %)which will result in a different look.

That said, if you’ve got a high body fat %, losing weight will have more of a noticeable look and will require a deficient.

 

[speed112]

@donna8558 200lbs --> 193 since the 1st. Just got rid of soda and started eating more often, bout like 1600ish calories.

 

[donnamae0]

@donna8558 Yea you don’t want too many calories but cutting back on other things your body doesn’t want a lot of will help such as probably the biggest culprit sugar. Google how much sugar we are supposed to consume in a day and then check the nutrition label for your foods especially junk foods and you will see just how much sugar you overeat. I myself am going to cut back down to maybe 1/5 of the sugar i use eat/drink just a few years ago because nutrition science has proven sugar is the main culprit since our bodies actually need fat and calories to sustain life but only a certain limit. A personal trainer themselves advised to at all cost avoid ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS because they are worse for your health than sugar and also that it’s a loophole how “Zero/Low Sugar”/or“No/Low calorie” drinks and food can be loaded with them since artificial sweeteners technically isn’t sugar. It wasn’t till i heard that in 2 months ago i stopped drinking my zero calorie poweraid and he did point out how they keep those things sweet when sugar isn’t technically in there. You might want to download the Lose it! App as the personal trainer before the last trainer recommended to keep track of your calories and exercise trust me my app works with my Apple Watch when i am exercising, uses that info and my app deducts how many calories i burned over the ones i consumed throughout the day

 

[undone]

@donna8558 I don't have advice as I'm just starting myself but what calculator did you use and what are you using to track your intake?

 

[donna8558]

@undone I just use https://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html

I track my calories manually. I look at the calories on each food label and account for them that way. I’m eating only serving sizes to make it easier to keep up with. If I make a dish, I’m account for calories per serving size and dividing by how many servings of something I made.

 

[undone]

@donna8558 Thank you! I've used myfitnesspal app to track my caloric intake before and it was easy enough to use. I'll use that calculator to plug into MFP thank you!

 

[kaiisbae]

@donna8558 Short answer: yes, it works and is the only way to lose weight.

Weighing yourself can be stressful, I get it, but I think one of the skills of losing weight is not attaching too many feelings to the number each day. Fluctuations happen. What's important is the average rate of loss per week. Without knowing that, it's hard to adjust your calorie amount to make sure you're in a deficit. You're aiming for 1 lb per week lost for good progress.

I use an app called Happy Scale to see the rate of gain or loss.

 

[lineman75]

@donna8558 I don't exercise, but I eat in a deficit and have lots of protein. I've lost almost 50 lbs doing it

 

[wippmadeed]

@donna8558 You can lose weight by only being in a calorie deficit and you cannot lose weight only exercising, but exercising can make being in a calorie deficit easier. Muscle burns more calories than fat and that extra 200 calories can make a big difference.

 

[rainie67]

@donna8558

because I was gaining muscle as I lost weight (I

The recommended rate of weight loss is 2 lbs per week. You were not gaining 2 lbs of muscle per week.

Aside from that, if you're at a deficit, you're losing weight even if you're gaining muscle. That's just basic physiology. Fat and muscle in a very basic sense are just stored calories. If you're eating less calories than you are using, you'll be burning fat or muscle for the energy you need. Thats how weightloss functions.

 

[marfamu]

@donna8558 Don't count on the scales. Go off of the way your clothes fit...inches lost

 

[kamwira]

@donna8558 Yup. The only way actually.