I’ve been tracking my calories now for about 6 months to lose weight and it hasn’t been easy.
Initially everything was great for the first few weeks. I calculated that I needed to average eating 2100 calories to lose about a pound a week. Over the few months I lost exactly 12 pounds! (I started at 5’11, 200lbs, and am 20 years old).
Unfortunately around the middle of my third month I noticed my scale wasn’t budging at all. My weekly weight averages had plateaued despite my dieting and careful calorie counting. Turns out, after digging deeper I learned that my maintenance calories had probably decreased as I had lost weight. I felt like I wasted valuable time and energy not preemptively decreasing my calorie intake further as I progressed along my weight loss journey. I did some research and found that this is a result of having less body mass overall (less cells burning energy) and “metabolic adaptation”.
You must figure out your TDEE and reevaluate it periodically to make counting calories worth your while long term. I know this subreddit recommends to use the spreadsheet in the FAQ and that’s an absolute must. The online tdee calculators out there are okay for a baseline estimate using a formula to get started but if you want to get serious about losing weight long term you need to track both your calories and your weight as rigorously as possible.
I feel like I’ve tried dozens of paths to losing weight but personally calorie tracking alongside weighing in often into adaptive TDEE calculator has been the most predictable and accurate way for me to ensure I am consistently below my TDEE regardless of how my body changes over time.
If tracking on a spreadsheet is annoying, I also recommend using this site called calorietracker.io. I’ve been using it for the past few weeks since finding it on the myfitnesspal forums and it appears to be more or less 1:1 with the spreadsheet in the sidebar in terms of accuracy with the benefit of an easy interface and can automatically sync with myfitnesspal which I do all my calorie counting in because of its massive database.
Cheers. I wish everyone well on their own journeys.
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