Am I working out too much?

trenzalours

I've been working out for the past 10 days straight since the start of my diet. I do yoga every single day(morning and night) and then I also do some dancing/aerobics routines. All together each day I'm burning about 900-1000 calories a day. I'm consuming a little under 1200cal but not on purpose..I generally try to keep my foods hearty and healthy. Eating mostly all vegetables and meat (lean chicken/swai fish/lean pork)

I currently weigh 269lb and my goal is 240lb in 5 weeks or so. My long term goal is to be 200lb or even less! I'm hoping to reach this in a healthy and fun way. I just never know when to rest? I'm VERY new to this kind of lifestyle since I've been living a sedentary lifestyle for almost a year after I moved.

Liftng4Lis

You're eating under 1200 PLUS you're exercising?? Or you're eating 1200 after including exercise calories?

dbmata

yeah, this is what one might call, "Doing it wrong."

30 pounds in 5 weeks is 6 pounds a week.
Or a 21,000 calorie deficit per week, 3k per day.

Sure you can do it. You might even be successful. However, you'll gain it back as you aren't really learning how to lose weight in a healthy manner, nor are you creating healthy nutritional and work out habits.

I'd say, slow down there turbo, shoot for 1-2 pounds a week, and realize this isn't a sprint. Or, hey, good luck, let us know how you do.

Keep in mind as well, rest is when your body recovers. Since you're working out a lot, you'll be breaking down your muscles, and they need to repair. Granted, with a 4 pound a week goal, you'll probably lose a good chunk of lean mass too.

EDIT - to revise math based on looking at the OP again. I see no probability of success here with this approach.

trenzalours

Liftng4Lis wrote: »

You're eating under 1200 PLUS you're exercising?? Or you're eating 1200 after including exercise calories?

I'm eating under 1200 and exercising. I'm just having trouble getting that extra 200 cals to push me into that healthy calorie threshold, my limit is set to 1890 cals though. Like today I finished my food at 1022 calories with 921 in exercise.

Liftng4Lis

trenzalours wrote: »

Liftng4Lis wrote: »

You're eating under 1200 PLUS you're exercising?? Or you're eating 1200 after including exercise calories?

I'm eating under 1200 and exercising. I'm just having trouble getting that extra 200 cals to push me into that healthy calorie threshold, my limit is set to 1890 cals though. Like today I finished my food at 1022 calories with 921 in exercise.

Okay, first thing is you need to eat more. The person who wins, is the person that eats the most and still loses. The person that learns moderation and sustainability, well thats the person that gets to keep this. The one who "crash" diets-they learn nothing and are the ones that usually put it back on and then some. Can you open your diary?

trenzalours

Liftng4Lis wrote: »

Okay, first thing is you need to eat more. The person who wins, is the person that eats the most and still loses. The person that learns moderation and sustainability, well thats the person that gets to keep this. The one who "crash" diets-they learn nothing and are the ones that usually put it back on and then some. Can you open your diary?

I know I need to eat more I'm finding it hard figure out where I need to eat more so I can reach that healthy spot. Of course you can open my diary! I'm very new to this so let me know if I need to add you as a friend or something else? Thank you for the advice I really need it!

Liftng4Lis

go to food, settings, diary at the bottom, make it public.

malibu927

How are you determining your burns, because that's a very high amount, and eating less than 1200 doing that is most likely not going to work.

trenzalours

Okay done!

higgins8283801

you are going to burn out. You need to find a healthy medium before you body says no more. I don't really know how 1200 is too much for you, I don't really get when people say that. If you are exercising as much as you say you are, your body is telling you it's hungry and you may be ignoring it.

You need rest days. You need to fuel your workouts. You will burn out at the rate you're going.

Mishka1977

Hey there, so I am like you in many ways.. full force into the working out and trying to balance my calories at the same time. So when I wasn't working out, the 1200 was deemed acceptable by my nutritionist and now that I am up to the 300-500 burn days I am up to 1400-1500 calories as my minimum each day. Not to sound like a commercial, but the best thing I did was get things going with emeals.com The nutritionist at my doctor's office told me about it. We started with clean eating meal plan and then a low carb one and it actually works for us... we have the whole family eating this way. I also have to start every morning with a protein shake.. the one I do has 160 calories in it and 30g of protein, I have a health issue that makes this like required medication for me, but it gets me going the right way each morning without adding alot of calories of sugars. Be sure you are getting plenty of protein in your diet and not just from shakes- eat red meat, chicken, etc... It's hard to find that right balance, but you will have more success the closer to the balance you get. I am proud of you for wanting to get things changing in your life, just be careful to not burn yourself out or overdo things. Take some time to lose the weight, it didn't all come on overnight so don't try to press too hard to try to lose it so fast. I was up and over 300 pounds when I started a few years ago to lose the weight and then was as low as 165, but then medical garbage happened and I am back at 214 as of today again, with my most recent high having been 232... it's a hard journey but worth it. Let me know if you ever want to chat more.. I am in your corner, you will do great!

Liftng4Lis

Okay here's what you need to do: you have a daily goal of 1800 calories you need to be eating at a minimum. You can add avocados, nut butters, more meat, fruits, veggies. Whatever it is you need to to get to those calories. Do not trust burn calculations, as they are always high. Most people would eat back half to account for miscalculation. Weigh and measure everything, and you will lose weight. As I mentioned earlier, you won't do yourself any favors by eating too little. You want sustainability. YOU can do this!

EFMcG

To answer your question, you can do yoga everyday no prob. That's a gentle, low impact exercise. However, what others have stated, you need to have enough calories to fuel your activity (dancing, more calorie burning exercises). Your weight loss goals are a bit too ambitious, and not healthy. You didn't put on the weight overnight, don't expect it to fall off overnight.

33Freya

You are most likely losing fat that way, but also, lean mass (muscle). If you keep it up, you will suffer with a lower metabolism, plateaus in losses no matter how you work out, vitamin/mineral deficiencies, and ugly loose skin.

Maybe you should rethink your goals and the speed at which you attain them. Talk to your doctor and get his/her opinion.

trenzalours

First of all- Thank you all for your kind words and encouragement! Moving on I'm going to start trying to add protein shakes and more avocados and such. Should I start adding nuts to my diet as a snack? I'm a HUGE fan of fruits also. I'm just so worried now about over eating or even binging since I have had a problem in the past with it. It's causing me to be extra cautious.

Also my goals are pretty flexible. I've been going by what MPF says when I complete my entries. I know this isn't going to be an overnight thing and I'm in for the long haul. I don't ever want to stop living my life healthy and happy.

Also my Doctor believes me being on a steady diet and changing my lifestyle to lose weight is what I need. I just need to get my stuff balanced and I'm having some issues. Should I be adding strength to my regime- Just these little things are whats stumping me.

jenilla1

It doesn't sound sustainable long-term. If you want to get it off and KEEP it off, whatever you do to lose the weight needs to be something you're able and willing to do for the rest of forever. Slow and steady works best. Don't crash and burn!

P.S. I've been maintaining easily at goal weight for over three years now. The key is to look at this as a long-term investment or a permanent lifestyle change. You have all the time in the world to make these changes, so do it gradually and do it right. Aggressive diets and extreme exercise programs tend to be short-term and temporary - and so are the results. Good luck! (*)

Kalikel

It's really great that you're starting off super enthusiastic, but when you begin that heavy (and I was heavier, I'm not knocking you!), it's going to take a loooooong time to lose all that fat.

The fat doesn't come off real fast. It takes a lot of work for a really long time.

First things first - see your doctor. Get a good target weight, a daily calorie limit, find out what foods you should and shouldn't be eating and get cleared to do exercise. If you're serious about losing weight, do it the right way! And the right way means seeing the doctor first, as every expert will tell you.

If you don't know anything about eating healthy, get a referral to a dietician. This is something that happens a lot. The doctor will know one, for sure.

If you don't have a scale that weighs things to the gram, it's off to amazon you should be clicking...or off to Walmart you go, lol. Get the scale. Weigh every pice of food and measure the liquids. This will let you know how much you're eating. When you log, compare the label to the MFP entry to be sure it's correct.

There's a lot to do and you have a lot to learn as you go. It's kind of fun, IMO. A LOT OF WORK...but fun. And you'll be so proud of yourself, being sensible, following the doctor's instructions - losing weight, being healthier and getting stronger every damn day.

If you continue the path you're on, you're going to fail and have to come up with a new approach, so just do the smart thing now.

It's a long, hard road. You can't go on no calories for as long as it will take. Come to terms with it, commit to it and do it right so that you can be a thinner, healthier, happier you.

999tigger

You sound like you will burn out. We understand you wnat to get to target, but you are most likely to do that by making it sustainable. id think you cna do yoga every day if you want, but you should have one complete rest day and one mostly rest day a week imo. If you burn out then you wont bedoing any exercise. Looking after yourself is impornat so aboid overdoing it.

I prefer it if I see people eating more than 1400, 1200 is too low and then you can just use some of your exercise calories if needed. Ecentually you might wnat to shift the exercise to some resistance training as well, to give you strength,tone and to help prevent muscle loss.

You cna see everyone is saying the same thing and you seem to be listening. If you do then you cna lose the weight safely and hopefully learn to sistain it. good luck.

Unknown

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trenzalours

Thank you all! I'm going to be adding more to my diet and spreading my meals out so I can eat more without feeling so full so quickly, which is my main issue to why I don't eat as much. It's not to lose weight faster..I'm just full and don't want to feel sick.

I want to do this properly and I want to do this healthy so I am going to be taking all of your advice and working to integrating it into my life. I've seen a doctor and they agree on my weight loss and that I need to take it slow. I guess I just got excited with all of this and took it a little far. I'll be adding at least one rest day a week to give my muscles a break! I really need to learn more about resistance exercises and strength!

I have no idea when I'll get to the weight I want to be but I know I can do it!

higgins8283801

I started out like you did. It was completely overwhelming to me and I had to learn how to lose weight. 4 months in, and I am down 29lbs. I work out 3 days a week for 1 hour and I eat between 1400-1600 calories a day and i'm short! I eat pretty much what I want, with moderation of course. Like tonight for dinner my family went to a Mexican restaurant, and I got a burrito and I had it on a wheat tortilla, no cheese, chicken and only ate half of it. was it a lot of calories, yes, but I still worked it in and ate it. 4 months ago, I would have felt like a failure for eating that. You have to learn how to eat. learn how to exercise and you will! trust me! it will become natural after awhile. You want to be able to stay fit and healthy for life, and most people cannot exercise every single day for the rest of their life. Most people can't be restrictive the rest of their life.
You will get the hang of it!

Kalikel

You really should see a dietician. They're worth every penny. But here's a little primer on healthy eating:

http://www.fitness.gov/eat-healthy/how-to-eat-healthy/

Fiber is very filling and helps to keep you regular. If you don't get a lot now, increase it slowly so you don't bloat and fart a lot. But don't forget our friend, Fiber.

dbmata

OP, you mentioned bingeing. Do you have a history of treated or untreated eating disorder?

trenzalours

dbmata wrote: »

OP, you mentioned bingeing. Do you have a history of treated or untreated eating disorder?

About 10 years ago when I was 13, I was bulimic but overcame it through the support of my family. I haven't had a relapse with it for almost 6 years now but I still get the fear I'm going to binge even though I haven't purged in 6 years(and have no thoughts of doing so either).

Kalikel wrote: »

Fiber is very filling and helps to keep you regular. If you don't get a lot now, increase it slowly so you don't bloat and fart a lot. But don't forget our friend, Fiber.

I'm gonna start my morning off tomorrow with a bowl of All Bran! I have been neglecting my friendly fiber

dbmata

trenzalours wrote: »

dbmata wrote: »

OP, you mentioned bingeing. Do you have a history of treated or untreated eating disorder?

About 10 years ago when I was 13, I was bulimic but overcame it through the support of my family. I haven't had a relapse with it for almost 6 years now but I still get the fear I'm going to binge even though I haven't purged in 6 years(and have no thoughts of doing so either).

Kalikel wrote: »

Fiber is very filling and helps to keep you regular. If you don't get a lot now, increase it slowly so you don't bloat and fart a lot. But don't forget our friend, Fiber.

I'm gonna start my morning off tomorrow with a bowl of All Bran! I have been neglecting my friendly fiber

I would strongly suggest that you follow a more reasonable dietary program. If you have a history, it wouldn't be unheard of for extremism to cause a relapse.

Might want to talk to a registered dietitian, eh?

Sued0nim

Liftng4Lis wrote: »

trenzalours wrote: »

Liftng4Lis wrote: »

You're eating under 1200 PLUS you're exercising?? Or you're eating 1200 after including exercise calories?

I'm eating under 1200 and exercising. I'm just having trouble getting that extra 200 cals to push me into that healthy calorie threshold, my limit is set to 1890 cals though. Like today I finished my food at 1022 calories with 921 in exercise.

Okay, first thing is you need to eat more. The person who wins, is the person that eats the most and still loses. The person that learns moderation and sustainability, well thats the person that gets to keep this. The one who "crash" diets-they learn nothing and are the ones that usually put it back on and then some. Can you open your diary?

DawnieB1977

If you're really burning that many calories, then you definitely need to eat more. How are you working out the calorie burn? I'd have to do spinning for example for over 2 hours to burn 900 calories, and that would be doing it hardcore.

There's also nothing wrong with having a rest day from exercise so your body can recover. If you have a rest day, you can push yourself more the next day.

galprincess

ok I weigh less than you im 140lbs and I lose weight on 1660 calories I don't exercise anywhere near what you do and ive lost 35lbs. Ive been doing this 7 months and haven't gained back its a healthy regime that's achievable all year round and part of my daily life. You need to find something sustainable and eat more, I had ED as a young teenager suffered anemia I would collapse a lot and feel dizzy and the headaches I would suggest seeing a doctor or nutritionist to help guide you if you don't see how unhealthy you are. Im not being mean or nasty I would just hate for you to be poorly and undo the good you want to achieve.

trenzalours

DawnieB1977 wrote: »

If you're really burning that many calories, then you definitely need to eat more. How are you working out the calorie burn? I'd have to do spinning for example for over 2 hours to burn 900 calories, and that would be doing it hardcore.

I've been doing Zumba by watching videos and routines on youtube and I'll try to do about 45 minutes of it and I do my morning and night Hatha Yoga. I also walk and bike my neighborhood which is about 2 miles(unless I can't do these I'll do one of my Zumba Routine's).

But if the burn calculator is estimating to much or too little than I could understand why it could be a bit wonky. When I'm eating though I always just watch my food intake because I know the added calories from the exercising could be wrong. I still want to log it though to generally keep some form of track.

galprincess wrote: »

ok I weigh less than you im 140lbs and I lose weight on 1660 calories I don't exercise anywhere near what you do and ive lost 35lbs. Ive been doing this 7 months and haven't gained back its a healthy regime that's achievable all year round and part of my daily life. You need to find something sustainable and eat more, I had ED as a young teenager suffered anemia I would collapse a lot and feel dizzy and the headaches I would suggest seeing a doctor or nutritionist to help guide you if you don't see how unhealthy you are. Im not being mean or nasty I would just hate for you to be poorly and undo the good you want to achieve.

I have seen a doctor and he believes that me eating at least 1600 calories would be best. My goal hasn't been "Oh well if I eat less I'll lose weight etc". It's just after all that I do I feel full from the food's I've eaten. After reading everything here I can see why this way isn't going to work and I'm starting to feel okay adding that extra bit of food to push me in the direction.

Kalikel

If you have an ana/mia history, you have to be very careful not to slip back into old habits and should consider seeing a therapist who specializes in EDs while you lose. Be on the safe side there!

It's too easy to relapse. For many people, the love for the empty feeling never goes away. They get sucked back into starving so fast when they start losing weight. Don't let that happen to you. Stay safe!

trenzalours

Thank you guys! I plan on revamping this whole thing and taking it in a more healthy direction. Much love for everyone and I hope you have a good day!