Didn't lose weight during first week of the cut

[marilines]

So at the end of bulk I was eating 3400 calories, got tired of food and decided to do a mini cut. I started eating 2200 calories (reduced carbs intake and reduced a little of fat intake, didn't touch protein), and after a week my weight didn't change. I didn't change volume and intensity and was doing cardio almost every day. How can this be? Should I Reduce even more calories? I thought after a week of diet some fat and a lot of water should go out and weight should be reduced by around 2% first week and 1% next week.

P.S. I don't think this is because miscalculation with calories because during the bulk I was getting like 0,5 kg per week as intended and when it was slowing down every time I adjusted calories it was working

 

[roman1982]

@marilines I'm not an expert, but I'd keep calories the same for one more week. Your body might need time to react to the deficit. Also, plateaus are normal during weight loss. So I'd wait for another week and then reassess

 

[thetruthoftruth]

@marilines Don't cut anymore calories than that. Give it another week and see.

 

[mommajulesberry]

@marilines one week. see one more week. take daily measurements to cover water fluctuations

 

[maliabean]

@marilines No protein! That spares muscle

 

[dinafrancis]

@marilines You can give it another week, but still sounds like a miscalculation in calories or a swing in water weight. Do you weigh daily? If not, start weighing daily whenever you swap calories around so you can get a better picture.

Did you have something saltier than normal yesterday perhaps? This combined with not weighing daily could have you retaining much more water weight than normal, which could possibly make up for no change in weight.

Did you eat dinner later than normal? Was it a large meal? Aka... you haven't pooped it out yet and it could be adding some weight in addition to the previous comment above.

So if nothing changes in a week... you just gotta decrease your calories further. Somewhere along the way you weren't tracking correctly! Maybe your 3400 had you massively overestimating on your carbs, and so when you cut them back, you thought you cut more calories than you actually did.

 

[letgodlead]

@marilines It took me 2 months before my weight started to go down.. so be patient.

 

[dawn16]

@marilines If you didn't lose weight then you weren't cutting, which means you were eating more than you needed to.

 

[firoz]

@marilines Muscle is heavier than fat. So if you’re working out as well as watching the scale, it’ll only go up. The best way to track fat loss is either by measurements or progress pictures.

 

[dinafrancis]

@firoz This is wrong on so many levels.

Muscle is denser than fat, so 1lb of muscle is physically smaller by volume than 1lb of fat.

And you also cannot create mass out of nothing, so if you are in a calorie deficit, you WILL lose weight. Doesn't matter how much you work out, you cannot make the scale go up from muscle gain to counteract a calorie deficit. Period. If you are maintaining weight, then you can slowly build muscle and lose fat at the same time, but this is the most inefficient method. And the scale wouldn't move regardless.

 

[kandi117]

@firoz False. Muscle is more dense than fat. It doesn't weigh more. Muscle can be smaller in size and weigh the same as a larger size of fat because of density.

 

[mommajulesberry]

@firoz thats not the worst advice for a total skinnyfat noob. experienced lifters intentionally cutting shouldnt really be hoping for “im just recomping” as an excuse for their scale weight stalling