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Skinjob 11-12-2011 08:08 AM

Calorie Defecit Question
If it is a scientific fact that you absolutely MUST take in less calories than you use to lose weight, how is it possible that I was able to lose 40 lbs and even become underweight eating up to 3000 calories per day on Atkins? Granted, this was 10 years ago and that WOE doesn't work for me anymore, but how did I become rail thin eating 3000 cals per day and not exercising? It flies in the face of calorie Defecit science. I've always been curious about this. Any JUDDDers have a theory?

Dottie 11-12-2011 08:11 AM

Honestly, unless you have your metabolism professionally profiled, it would be hard to say what your actual calorie usage per day would be, I'd think.

SoHappy 11-12-2011 08:30 AM

Not a clue. Metabolism is fascinating! If science can figure this out, someone will make a fortune.

Why can two people of the same size eat the same number of calories, and the one will become obese and the other will lose weight?

Why are there skinny men and women out there who are desperate to gain some weight and stuffing thousands of calories into their mouths daily in a vain effort to gain some pounds, and their metabolisms burn up the calories as fast as they can eat them?

Why are there fat people out there who can eat 3000 low carb calories per day, and more, and lose weight on it, while the identical fat person standing next to them can eat 1500 low carb calories a day and remain in a stall forever?

The thing about calories is.. they work.. but you have to start at each individual's metabolic level, and that's the part that varies so greatly between people. So you can only put people on the same level field for weight loss when you have the correct handle on their current rate of calorie burn. Because of the difference in metabolic rates among us, the playing field is not remotely level for all of us, and that means the calorie numbers to make weight loss work are also not level. Not that they don't work. Just that the numbers aren't at the same starting point for everyone.

That's why we also have to take the numbers these calorie calculators give us for our UD calorie numbers with a big grain of salt. We use that number as our baseline for all of our JUDDDing, and if it's actually too high for us, because we have a much slower metabolism that the calculator couldn't factor in, we will be basing our JUDDD diet on a calorie figure that is too high for us. And that will probably mean either really, really slow weight loss, or even no weight loss. :sad:

That's why we tell folks they just have to start in somewhere, and then adjust their UD calorie number downward a bit if they aren't losing. Eventually they will find the place where their rate of metabolic burn is more than their caloric intake, and here comes weight loss.

vilanteira 11-12-2011 08:57 AM

What makes it even more confusing is that metabolism changes from time to time or even day to day depending on countless factors and reasons, so it's never an exact science.

Skinjob 11-12-2011 10:44 AM

Interesting. And it was so very very frustrating... until I found JUDD. :)

ravenrose 11-12-2011 08:15 PM

see Gary Taubes' books.

Skinjob 11-13-2011 06:11 AM


Originally Posted by ravenrose (Post 15170828)
see Gary Taubes' books.

If his theories were true, then anyone at any time should be able to lose weight by restricting carbs. I, however, cannot. And neither can a lot of struggling low carbers. So there has to be more to weight loss than controlling carbs. And it doesn't take a genius to know that spending the rest of my life not eating fruit (because I had to be below 20 carbs to lose anything at all) is hardly a healthy way to live. I restrict refined carbs but a diet that demonizes fruits and veggies is not sustainable, nor healthy, for me at least. It's just interesting that the diet stops working for most people eventually - especially since they tend to gain it all back if they start eating normally again.

paulabob 11-13-2011 06:33 AM

I think any time you radically shift your carbs/fats/proteins, it throws your body for a loop and you may lose more weight than calories in and out says you should.

And again, if you've been on the same ratios or diet for a long time, you may start losing less than calories in/out says.

Our bodies are simply not calories in / out calculators. Although a group of people overall may lose what those calculators say, as individuals we just don't work that way. Only in fits and starts.
