Discouraged...why do I even work out 3-4 times a week for hour or more!?!?
spfldpam
Posts: 738 Member
I am feeling very discouraged. I usually try to hit the gym at least 3 to 4 times a week after work or weekends and work out for 1 hour or more. My routine is 30 minute cardio usually the elliptical machine followed or mixed in with strength training that are some free weights and weight machines. I finish off with working up to 10 minutes more of cardio either Jacob's ladder or the stair stepper machine. I rejoined the gym Jan 10 so it's been about 2 months now and I am not seeing any results. My daily calorie intake is usually 1300 and sometimes not that, I don't eat back my exercised burned cals either. I keep track of my cals burn with my Polar FT7 Heart rate monitor watch. I am not loosing any weight??? I had lost alot of weight in 2012 and 2013 hit my personal weight goal in April 2013 and since then some pounds have came back on that I am trying to loose. I have gained instead of loss in the last two months also. I am very truthful about logging my food...the good and the bad! I am wondering why I even bother to hit the gym and pay the monthly fee!! HELP!!!
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The gym is for stregnth fitness and general health, it can aid in creating a deficit. If there is a hold up after two months it must be with your math concerning calories. Have some others look over your diary to see if something is amiss.0
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Is there the possibility that you are losing fat but gaining muscle (which is heavier)? Ignoring the scale, have your measurements changed?0
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Have you took any measurements? I used to run 4-5 times a week but last couple of weeks tried strength training... Ive gained 3lb but lost 1 1/2 inches from my waist an anch off my hips 1/2 inch from my arms... I was only 10lb off my target weight!
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Has your cardiovascular fitness improved, or your strength? Those are the reasons you should work out. Cardio is also fairly useful for burning a few extra calories to fit an extra bit of food indulgence into your diet. Careful logging coupled with a sensible calorie deficit is more useful for weight loss.0
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Four things:
1) What you eat and how much you eat will determine your fat loss. Exercise is designed to improve other facets of fitness (cardiovascular, strength, mobility, balance, speed, etc).
2) Your effort in the gym seems quite adhoc with no real emphasis toward anything other than taking up an hour.
3) What got you here, won’t get you there (that’s the title of a good book, but seemed appropriate here). The body has the really cool survival mechanism that says, if you’re going to starve me and try to do these things, I’ll just shut down other things until we find an adequate supply of food. You should always eat back your exercise calories, because you need to energy to do the next workout (see #1 above). Again, your eating seems quite adhoc.
4) Weight is a single data point, and not a very meaningful one at that. It is like seeing you have gas in the tank and not paying any attention to the other gauges (oil, heat, rpm, etc.). You should be more concerned with body composition. Instead of (or in addition to if you can’t help yourself) you should be taking body measurements (neck, chest, stomach, waist, hips, upper arms, upper legs). Your effort in the gym, and your eating plans should be designed to change these. We all carry fat a little differently, so you’ll know which of your measurements you’ll want to see move down.0 -
Make sure you enjoy your exercise because it is chiefly for energy and health. It won't directly help with weight loss.
Experiment with a slightly lower daily calorie restriction (assuming you are over the 1200 daily).0 -
I agree and was going to say this!!!Is there the possibility that you are losing fat but gaining muscle (which is heavier)? Ignoring the scale, have your measurements changed?
Ive been strict at 1200 cals staying under 100g carbs and exercising 3 x a week doing pretty much what you are but doing high intensity interval training as my cardio but ive only lost a pound here and there, sooooo disheartened but my brother told me that what I'm prob losing in fat im gaining back in muscle... So the hubby took pics of me and I used a photo editor to put them side by side and the differnce is noticeable!!! I suggest you take measurements and take pics???
Failing that you may need to mix your training up a bit as you may have hit the 'plateau' x
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AllanMisner wrote: »Four things:
1) What you eat and how much you eat will determine your fat loss. Exercise is designed to improve other facets of fitness (cardiovascular, strength, mobility, balance, speed, etc).
2) Your effort in the gym seems quite adhoc with no real emphasis toward anything other than taking up an hour.
3) What got you here, won’t get you there (that’s the title of a good book, but seemed appropriate here). The body has the really cool survival mechanism that says, if you’re going to starve me and try to do these things, I’ll just shut down other things until we find an adequate supply of food. You should always eat back your exercise calories, because you need to energy to do the next workout (see #1 above). Again, your eating seems quite adhoc.
4) Weight is a single data point, and not a very meaningful one at that. It is like seeing you have gas in the tank and not paying any attention to the other gauges (oil, heat, rpm, etc.). You should be more concerned with body composition. Instead of (or in addition to if you can’t help yourself) you should be taking body measurements (neck, chest, stomach, waist, hips, upper arms, upper legs). Your effort in the gym, and your eating plans should be designed to change these. We all carry fat a little differently, so you’ll know which of your measurements you’ll want to see move down.0 -
Is there the possibility that you are losing fat but gaining muscle (which is heavier)? Ignoring the scale, have your measurements changed?nataliejenkins123 wrote: »
I agree and was going to say this!!!Is there the possibility that you are losing fat but gaining muscle (which is heavier)? Ignoring the scale, have your measurements changed?
Ive been strict at 1200 cals staying under 100g carbs and exercising 3 x a week doing pretty much what you are but doing high intensity interval training as my cardio but ive only lost a pound here and there, sooooo disheartened but my brother told me that what I'm prob losing in fat im gaining back in muscle... So the hubby took pics of me and I used a photo editor to put them side by side and the differnce is noticeable!!! I suggest you take measurements and take pics???
Failing that you may need to mix your training up a bit as you may have hit the 'plateau' x
NO NO NO
Why do people insist on this???
You are NOT gaining muscle mass (at least not enough in sufficient quantity to mask weight loss) eating 1200 or 1300 calories a day.
Please for the love of all that's holy stop repeating this nonsense.
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nataliejenkins123 wrote: »
I agree and was going to say this!!!Is there the possibility that you are losing fat but gaining muscle (which is heavier)? Ignoring the scale, have your measurements changed?
Ive been strict at 1200 cals staying under 100g carbs and exercising 3 x a week doing pretty much what you are but doing high intensity interval training as my cardio but ive only lost a pound here and there, sooooo disheartened but my brother told me that what I'm prob losing in fat im gaining back in muscle... So the hubby took pics of me and I used a photo editor to put them side by side and the differnce is noticeable!!! I suggest you take measurements and take pics???
Failing that you may need to mix your training up a bit as you may have hit the 'plateau' x
NOOOOOOOOOO0 -
OP, you are underestimating what you eat and overestimating your calorie burn.0
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To the NOOOOOOO people. Then, how do you account for those whose weight hasn't significantly changed but their measurements have dropped? Are you saying that it's solely due to toning?0
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Are you weighing your food before you log it, or just logging how much you thought it was?0
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Sorry you CAN lose weight directly from calories burned, its not much different from food not eaten. Exercise can be highly valuable for that and increasing metabolism.
The thing that people forget is you have to do a lot of it and tbh most people overestimate the amount they do and the effort they put in. They then use inflated numbers from some of MFP or some machine readings which has the potential to be inaccurate.
If you do enough then calories burned can be a real boon.
Agree with Allanmisner on points 2 and 4.0 -
herrspoons wrote: »To the NOOOOOOO people. Then, how do you account for those whose weight hasn't significantly changed but their measurements have dropped? Are you saying that it's solely due to toning?
Water loss, fluid redistribution, localised fat loss. Toning doesn't exist - you lose fat OR build muscle outside some pretty specific exceptions, which do not apply here.
^^ This
Or...even more likely... they're eating more/burning less than they think they are and are just not that accurate at measuring0 -
Thank you. Screaming Nooo is not helpful. Explaining why a commonly held misbelief is wrong is.0
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Sorry you CAN lose weight directly from calories burned, its not much different from food not eaten. Exercise can be highly valuable for that and increasing metabolism.
The thing that people forget is you have to do a lot of it and tbh most people overestimate the amount they do and the effort they put in. They then use inflated numbers from some of MFP or some machine readings which has the potential to be inaccurate.
If you do enough then calories burned can be a real boon.
Agree with Allanmisner on points 2 and 4.
Who said said you couldn't? Lol
All we are are saying is you need to be in a in a deficit. Plain and simple.0 -
Sorry you CAN lose weight directly from calories burned, its not much different from food not eaten. Exercise can be highly valuable for that and increasing metabolism.
The thing that people forget is you have to do a lot of it and tbh most people overestimate the amount they do and the effort they put in. They then use inflated numbers from some of MFP or some machine readings which has the potential to be inaccurate.
If you do enough then calories burned can be a real boon.
Agree with Allanmisner on points 2 and 4.
Sure you can...but for long term success I think it is really important to understand point 1 as well...basically diet for weight control, exercise for fitness.
As an example, I ride my *kitten* off and I hit the weight room 3x weekly...I've done this while losing weight, maintaining weight, and gaining weight in my most recent bulk...the difference between those weight control objectives was my consumption, not what or how much exercise I was doing.
I would also say that finding a fitness purpose that goes beyond just trying to burn calories opens up so many doors and most people find it to be much more enjoyable to get out there and do their thing...that's my experience anyway.0 -
Wow. What a response. I'm am now really confused. I've been logging in here since Feb 2012 every day.
Yes I measure my food.
Yes I log all of it the good and the bad
I use a Polar FT7 heart rate monitor at my gym and it's pretty a curate and I input my own cals burned in her and not use MFP ones that are over inflated.
I went from 280 pounds in Feb 2102 to around 126 pounds April
Yes I had weight loss surgery Gastric Sleeve after being obese my entire life. I weighed almost 11 pounds at birth and been fat entire life. I've tried every diet there is before wls. It is usual for wls patients to gain 10 to 15 % back after they quit loosing and go to into maintenance due to raising their calorie intake.
I do exercises I like at the gym. If I didn't like them I wouldn't go or do them.
I was taking my measurements and pics when I was loosing weight but haven't lately. Pants fit tighter so I don't think I'm gaining muscle as some say.
1300 cals is about the right amount fore due to wls. I can only eat so much at a meal or snack. I eat the meals a day and have Am and afternoon snack and sometimes pm snack if I worked out that day.
Thanks for all the posts.
More confused than before I posted this !!!!
Was just seeking some help and guidance is all.
Please don't say I took the easy way out having WLS. It is far from easy before during and after. I have no regrets having it except that I waited till I was 50 years old to have it done after being morbidly obese my entire life.
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