@annmarkerls I’m 180 lbs and without exercise my caloric intake is about 1200kcal and with “heavy” exercise (≈90 minutes in the gym, plus the 30 minutes of walking to and from) it’s closer to 1600 kcal. I’m not even really pushing to lose weight.
My point and tip is we don’t need to consume that many calories. Also, exercise doesn’t burn a lot of kcals. Running 6 miles burns about 600 kcal and that’s less than a single 8 oz cheeseburger. It’s unlikely you are doing 800+ kcal worth of exercise.
If you’re not losing weight, there could be a variety of reasons, but most of them revolve around dietary choices. My diet is basically a “raw” diet, only I cook things. But I use basic ingredients that are unprocessed, for the most part. Examples of foods I eat:
Vegetables (mostly raw or steamed/pan seared), fruits both fresh and dried, seafood (plenty of raw, I ate 1 lb of raw salmon and 0.8 lb of cooked this week), chicken (I bbq or pan-fry w/ avocado oil), cottage cheese, homemade milk kefir (milk that is fermented by a *SCOBY), homemade kombucha (sweet tea that is fermented by a *SCOBY), sugar-free beverages or water, nuts.
I also include occasional treats like dark chocolate, ice cream, or a smoothie-shop smoothie. But mostly I practice delayed gratification with these treats and if I pass by the smoothie shop or think of it and want a smoothie, I tell myself “next time”. I do this “next time” trick pretty often. For example there is a place that makes an espresso milkshake I love near my house. I have had 2 shakes in the last year.
A good tip is to add more fiber foods, as they are filling but don’t have a lot of calories. A bag of spinach or greens, or carrots are good examples. A 2lb bag of carrots is also pretty cheap. Another tip is to reduce toppings, things like salt, sugar, dressings, sauces. This is just added salt, sugar l, and fat. Stick to sugar free, and low sodium options. Salt is actually fine, but we usually get plenty as is in our diet without adding. Lately, I’ve taken to eliminating salad dressing entirely and it’s surprising how great salads taste without it!
My sugar-free protein shake recipe: milk kefir, sugar free protein powder (60g of protein) , spirulina, moringa, turmeric, psyllium husk, creatine.
*Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast: removes sugars like lactose and sucrose from food and produces probiotics and acid (good for gut health)
A non-diet tip is get good sleep. You didn’t mention your age, but younger people need more sleep than older people (8-10 hours), and everyone needs solid, uninterrupted sleep. Sleep helps our metabolism, burns lots of calories, and is essential to health.
You’re doing great with the amount of water you’re drinking, anywhere from 100-128oz is really optimal, especially if you’re not intaking any other fluids.
There is a lot of conflicting info out there and also a lot of beliefs that don’t have scientific support. Continuing research, and reading or listening to audiobooks is a good practice to get various perspectives, but also I wouldn’t take any as gospel, but more as a piece of a puzzle to build a picture of what the truth might look like. “Burn” is a great book that exposes some interesting data about energy expenditure.
Back to diet: do what you can to promote good gut health. One example is to avoid unnecessary use of antibiotics. Another is to reduce (more or less attempt to eliminate) processed sugar from your diet.
Lastly, regarding your pushups: I think you will make better progress if you do exercises that you can at least do in sets of 10. That said, you can modify pushups to do them a little easier by finding a place where your hands are elevated, such as a stair, curb, or a bench.
Good luck and hmu if you want more detail or have questions!