Two weeks in 0 pounds lost.

juliebeth913

I have been logging religiously for over two weeks and I have been is a deficit everyday, and I have not lost any weight.
I am a triathlete so I do a lot of training (13-15 hrs a week, sometimes, more) and I have had some trouble getting my calories to balance out at the end of the day. I am 5'4" 160 lbs and have a good deal of muscle (strengh train 3-4 times a week). I am suppose to eat just under 2000 calories a day and I usually burn 1200-1800 more calories per day. I have been eating about 2400-2600 per day to make up for the calories I have been burning. I don't feel hungry and I feel like I eat plenty (eating all the time!) so I don't feel like I should be eating an additional 1200-1800 calories to make up for what I burn in order to net the 1980 calories. I suspect that maybe the calories I burn from exercise are off, I wear a HR monitor but the two figures are mostly similar. I am hitting my macros pretty much spot on every day (50% carbs 30% fat and 20% protein) I need some advice, am I eating too much? If you got a second, check out my logs and maybe give me some advice as to what I am doing wrong!

Liftng4Lis

You have a lot of generic items-don't use these, they are inaccurate. The homemade items, are you making them? Are you using a food scale?

AlciaMode

Patience is a virtue.

Cheri1218

You sound like you have a strong attention to detail so you might already be doing this, but are you weighing/measuring your food to make sure it is accurate? It is too easy for me to eat more than I should if I am not careful, and the extra calories add up quickly.
Also, I would say maybe it will take a little more time. Two weeks feels like a lot, but sometimes it just takes longer to see the scale move.

malibu927

Two weeks isn't enough time to determine whether or not what you're doing is working since weight loss isn't linear, but as Lis pointed out, you may need to clean up your logging.

ScottJTyler

By definition, if you are not losing weight then you are not in a calorie deficit.

If your activity and calories are constant and you maintain weight then that is your maintenance activity and calories. In order to lose weight you need to decrease calories consumed or increase activity.

In my experience, HR monitors and online calculators are extremely inaccurate for estimating calories burned. It would be best to keep track of the total volume of work you are doing, calories eaten and weight, then fine tune with trial and error as you go along.

Capt_Apollo

haleygray913 wrote: »

I have been logging religiously for over two weeks and I have been is a deficit everyday, and I have not lost any weight.
I am a triathlete so I do a lot of training (13-15 hrs a week, sometimes, more) and I have had some trouble getting my calories to balance out at the end of the day. I am 5'4" 160 lbs and have a good deal of muscle (strengh train 3-4 times a week). I am suppose to eat just under 2000 calories a day and I usually burn 1200-1800 more calories per day. I have been eating about 2400-2600 per day to make up for the calories I have been burning. I don't feel hungry and I feel like I eat plenty (eating all the time!) so I don't feel like I should be eating an additional 1200-1800 calories to make up for what I burn in order to net the 1980 calories. I suspect that maybe the calories I burn from exercise are off, I wear a HR monitor but the two figures are mostly similar. I am hitting my macros pretty much spot on every day (50% carbs 30% fat and 20% protein) I need some advice, am I eating too much? If you got a second, check out my logs and maybe give me some advice as to what I am doing wrong!

i'm a triathlete myself. my weight stayed pretty stagnant for a long time, until i read the book Racing Weight and learned a few things about nutrition timing, and appetite control. it's a good read, pick it up. i dropped 18 pounds in the last 3 months by implementing some of it's tips.

also, i'm not sure what level of training you are doing, or what kind of race you are preparing for, but a lot of triathletes have too many hard days. burning 1200-1800 calories a day sounds like you have a lot of hard days. your body might just be holding on to fat as it is trying to save itself. i know that i only have two long 90+ minute) workouts a week, and then all the others are about 60 minutes.

you might want to cut back on the strength training. for most endurance athletes, the concentration is to put on lean supportive muscle. it may also cause you to retain a lot of water that your body is using to repair. twice a week is good enough.

you seem to go over your sodium a lot, but that can be a fault in the database system, especially if you are entering food that is in the database even though you've cooked them yourself. i also see you're tracking sugar, which you go over, but that's because you're eating a lot of fruit mostly. stop tracking sugar, and start tracking fiber instead, which you want plenty of to help you stay regular. you don't need GI issues on your long runs.

healthy_life2015

It seems to me that you are not at a deficit. I would be surprised if you are truly burning 1200-1800 calories per day. How are you calculating that? You would have to be VERY vigorously working out for the full 13-15 hrs per week to hit that number. I plugged your info into a TDEE calculator. Your BMR is 1350 and if you were sedentary you would have a TDEE of about 1650. That means that if you burn 900 calories per day, you can eat 2550 and maintain your weight. You may be burning that much. If you want to lose, I think you will need to eat less.

All that said, two weeks is a short period of time. If you disagree with my numbers and think I'm wrong, then keep doing what you are doing and see if the scale starts to move. If it doesn't then you can try some of our suggestions. How much weight are you trying to lose per week? If you're shooting for a modest number like 1/2 lb per week, then you may not need to cut many additional calories at all.

ScottJTyler

Capt_Apollo wrote: »

your body might just be holding on to fat as it is trying to save itself.

Hmm..

I would also add that weight by itself can be an inaccurate gauge of progress and a stable weight is not necessarily indicative of no fat loss. You may be holding on to more water so make sure you are not wildly varing carb and salt intake from day to day. And make sure you are weighing at the same time of day in as similar conditions (before or after toilet, same hydration level etc.) as possible.

If you are in a reasonable calorie deficit and are weighing yourself accurately, you should be able to see your weight decrease by a small degree everyday.

mikeyrs

I'm not a Triathlete, but in general, I avoid eating back my burned calories as I've learned the estimates of the burn from HRM data are unintentionally misleading. Originally, following a bike ride, I have seen Garmin report my ride burned 3500 calories, which would translate to a pound lost. But after some investigation, I discovered that the calculated calorie burn based upon my HRM data is representative of the TOTAL calories burned (representing a proportional amount of calories attributable to TDEE based upon duration of the activity). My estimated daily TDEE is slightly over 2000 calories which includes my BMR. When I ate back calories burned, it seemed that I was compensating for calories that are already accounted for in my TDEE. So, I no longer eat back any of my calories burned. Perhaps in your case where you are training daily, you should eat back only a third of the reported burn for a couple of weeks. If you lose more than two pounds in a week during those two weeks, you can up that to half the calories burned during training until you optimize toward a steady loss between 1 to 2 pounds each week.

juliebeth913

Thanks for all advice!

To answer some questions- yes, I have a food scale and I use it. I mostly eat whole foods and make things from scratch. The strength training I do is a lot of functional strength stuff (burpees, box jumps, thrusters, squats with lighter weight, push ups, different ad stuff) I do this for injury prevention, I am prone to lower leg injuries (calf and Achlies). I have thought about my sugar levels, and my next step will be cunning that down a bit. I don't know how to accurately measure the calories I am burning. My workouts are at high intensities and I realize that calculators often over estimate. And yes! I own the book Racing Wight! What parts were most helpful for you?
I can drop down my calorie intake but I want to make sure my workouts are fuled. My main reason for wanting to lose weight is for increased preformance, so I don't want to sacrifice my workouts by being under fuled.

janejellyroll

haleygray913 wrote: »

Thanks for all advice!

To answer some questions- yes, I have a food scale and I use it. I mostly eat whole foods and make things from scratch. The strength training I do is a lot of functional strength stuff (burpees, box jumps, thrusters, squats with lighter weight, push ups, different ad stuff) I do this for injury prevention, I am prone to lower leg injuries (calf and Achlies). I have thought about my sugar levels, and my next step will be cunning that down a bit. I don't know how to accurately measure the calories I am burning. My workouts are at high intensities and I realize that calculators often over estimate. And yes! I own the book Racing Wight! What parts were most helpful for you?
I can drop down my calorie intake but I want to make sure my workouts are fuled. My main reason for wanting to lose weight is for increased preformance, so I don't want to sacrifice my workouts by being under fuled.

To clarify: the things like the mac and cheese, the fish tacos, the caramel sauce, the duck fat fries -- those are entries that you created or those are things you're choosing from the database because you think they are close to what you are eating?

juliebeth913

<sigh> choosing from a date base....I just don't know how I would log restaurant food or food from a pot luck (Final 4 watching at a bar, and Easter pot luck) if I make it I log parts of my food individually, if I don't I try to estimate and often try to over estimate to make up for the fact that I probably eat more than I think and that restaurant foods have more calories than I think.

I struggle with having a social life and staying on track. Also because of the amount of training I do I get the 'you exercise so much you can eat whatever you want' from friends and sometimes I think that should be true, but I know it's not.

janejellyroll

haleygray913 wrote: »

<sigh> choosing from a date base....I just don't know how I would log restaurant food or food from a pot luck (Final 4 watching at a bar, and Easter pot luck) if I make it I log parts of my food individually, if I don't I try to estimate and often try to over estimate to make up for the fact that I probably eat more than I think and that restaurant foods have more calories than I think.

I struggle with having a social life and staying on track. Also because of the amount of training I do I get the 'you exercise so much you can eat whatever you want' from friends and sometimes I think that should be true, but I know it's not.

I don't think anyone expects you to avoid having a social life. It's just that if you're choosing items from a database that might not match your food, that could really could be one of the factors behind you not losing weight. I had a two week stretch of travel where I knew some of my entries were just educated guesses and decided that I would just continue making the best choices I could and look at any weight loss as a bonus.

You don't have to be accurate all the time, but if you aren't accurate, it can easily be the cause of a "stall."

Capt_Apollo

i found the whole book useful. every part. everything from the chapter on nutrient timing, to intuitive eating, to what kind of staple foods you should have on the regular.

do you have a HRM? you probably do, but if you don't get one. a good one. i have a Garmin 910xt with the triathlon kit. worth every cent.

i understand wanting to have a social life and staying on track. it can be hard. i go out once a week with friends to a bar. i try and pre-log some foods and beverages. i stick to IPAs or stouts, higher calories, but more filling so that i'm not pounding beers. also, i try not to eat at the bars, as the food isn't all that healthy, but if i do, no big deal.

and i used to say to myself, "i work out so i can eat more" and that works for a while, but until i started putting in the right kind of food into my body, that is when i started losing weight.

btw, i took a look at my weight loss graph for the last few months. when i started to be more disciplined, logging everything and cooking more and avoiding packaged and processed foods, it took almost a solid month for the weight to come off. i stayed pretty much the same weight for about 40 days, and then bam, it all started melting off. so stick with it longer.

juliebeth913

Thanks! I have read parts of the book, and I am excited to take another look at it now. I do have a HR monitor, I actually have the 910xt as well. I think I will change my settings to have me eating a little less, and stick with that for two weeks and see what difference that makes. I have lost a bunch of weight when I first started racing 3 years ago and I did it with a very low fat diet under the supervision of my coach (I no longer have a coach). I may try lower fat eating again? I basically elimated cheese, nuts, and store bought full fat salad dressings, and ate a lot more beans and rice, veggies, yogurt, soup, etc.

Capt_Apollo

i lost a lot of weight when i first started too, dropping down to about 209, but gained it back over that first winter when i stopped doing as much cardio and lifting. i spent about two years at about 220-230 pounds.

back at the end of december i started eating more fruits and veggies, and i started having a post workout protein shake almost every time. i also seriously cut back on my alcohol consumption. i drink 2-3 times a week now, tops, and no more than 2 drinks a day (sans holidays like yesterday).

as far as training goes, i've started to learn the benefits of slow and low (zone 2-3) cardio. they don't all have to be super speed workouts. the slow and low cardio can force your body to tap into it's fat stores to burn, instead of the muscle. the muscles are an easier energy source for your body, so when you push hard, it want the quickest energy source possible. when you're going slow, it will take from the fat.

like i said, i've lost 18 pounds in the last two months, but it all started with changes i made a three months ago.

Chrysalid2014

Capt_Apollo wrote: »

i'm a triathlete myself. my weight stayed pretty stagnant for a long time, until i read the book Racing Weight and learned a few things about nutrition timing, and appetite control. it's a good read, pick it up. i dropped 18 pounds in the last 3 months by implementing some of it's tips.

Any chance you could post a little nutrition timing summary or maybe start a new thread about it? I'm very interested in this and have posted on MFP about this subject before and been told it doesn't matter what time you eat or whether it's before/after a workout.

juliebeth913

I switched my settings from Very active to lightly active and that dropped my calories down by about 500. So I am going to try that for a couple weeks. I will prolly try to go no higher than 2000 on normal training days (2 hours) and go a little higher on longer days.
All winter long I was marathon training so I was doing long slow running (12 min miles usually), I was training for a hard uphill trail marathon (Black Mountain Marathon). Now I am training for Challenge Knoxville, olympic distance triathlon in May, then Ironman Canada in July and Beach 2 Battleship iron distance in October. The marathon training did a number on my running speed, I am working on increasing that again for Challenge Knoxville, with a goal of winning my AG, but I gotta run faster which means getting lighter!

Capt_Apollo

actually, i switched my calories to "Sedentary" because i realized that except for working out, i'm a pretty lazy dude. and i did a "1lb per week loss" which pretty much forced me to eat a lot less for three months. so it took my body a month to catch up. i also ate back my exercise calories.

now i'm still at sedentary, but at "0.5 lbs per week" loss jsut because i was getting hungry again, and am going to start upping my training for the season.

Capt_Apollo

Chrysalid2014 wrote: »

Capt_Apollo wrote: »

i'm a triathlete myself. my weight stayed pretty stagnant for a long time, until i read the book Racing Weight and learned a few things about nutrition timing, and appetite control. it's a good read, pick it up. i dropped 18 pounds in the last 3 months by implementing some of it's tips.

Any chance you could post a little nutrition timing summary or maybe start a new thread about it? I'm very interested in this and have posted on MFP about this subject before and been told it doesn't matter what time you eat or whether it's before/after a workout.

it's nothing super complicated. i guess i'll write what i remember...

- have a protein shake within 30-60 minutes after your workout. for some reason your body responds to nutrition after your work out to help replenish itself.
- have some kind of protein filled meal within 2 hours after your workout.
- the best time to have your shake is after your work out. the second best time is to have it in the morning for breakfast.
- of all the triathletes he studied and documented, the ones that did best ate some kind of breakfast within a couple of hours of wating up.
- carbs are good. they are the primary source of energy for the endurance athlete. best time to have them is in the morning and early in the day.
- there is no perfect all encompassing carbs/fats/protein ratio


honestly, you should pick up the book. lots of great info in it, even if you're not at iron man status yet (i'm not).