Not burning calories even though working out at 80% of max heart rate!!! HELP!!!
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Thanks! I'll have a look at the page you mentioned.just a word of warning OP. Scales measure total body weight and not just fat. If you drop 14 lb in a month then I'm guessing this will be 4 lb water, 5 lb fat and 5 lb lean body weight (muscle etc) . If you drop too fast you lose muscle which makes you weaker and less fit :-( do a search for MFP Sexypants in google and you will bump into a brilliant thread by sidesteel and sara which explains a lot of stuff :-)
My HRM is a Polar FT4 btw and the PT I've been using worked out that my maximum heart rate at 100% would be 180.
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LisaJayne71 wrote: »daydreams_of_pretty wrote: »OP, have you considered maybe trying therapy? You seem to have unrealistic expectations related to weight loss and an obsession with the idea that you have PCOS and need to commit to radical things to overcome it. You lost 14 pounds in one month, though. That's a lot, even for someone who is 60lbs overweight. That's about a quarter of what you have to lose, which is kind of insane.
You're making yourself crazy.
Did you really spend so much money on a weight loss program?
I completely agree with this advice.
It's not an idea that I have PCOS, I do have it. I've seen the scan with the cysts on the ovaries and I've had the blood work done with my testosterone levels being too high and I have all the symptoms of it so please don't say it's all in my head. I don't need therapy. I hadn't looked at the fact that 14 pounds was a quarter of my goal so that does help a little putting it into perspective for me and I know I am being hard on myself but I need to keep pushing myself. But to be told it's all in my head and no way will I gain weight on 1200 calories a day is insulting when it has happened to me.
Neither of us said that the PCOS was a mental issue. In fact, I specifically wrote up above that having PCOS does mean having a lower BMR. However, your BMR is not so low that a 1000 calorie diet is required and a 1200 calorie diet will cause you to gain fat. Might you have retained water for reasons other than eating 1200 calories (i.e., sodium intake, carb intake, hormonal fluctuations due to your menstrual cycle, etc.)? Absolutely. That is not only common but to be expected. And it's not insulting. It's just reality and biology and physics.0 -
LisaJayne71 wrote: »daydreams_of_pretty wrote: »OP, have you considered maybe trying therapy? You seem to have unrealistic expectations related to weight loss and an obsession with the idea that you have PCOS and need to commit to radical things to overcome it. You lost 14 pounds in one month, though. That's a lot, even for someone who is 60lbs overweight. That's about a quarter of what you have to lose, which is kind of insane.
You're making yourself crazy. Did you really spend so much money on a weight loss program?
I completely agree with this advice.
It's not an idea that I have PCOS, I do have it. I've seen the scan with the cysts on the ovaries and I've had the blood work done with my testosterone levels being too high and I have all the symptoms of it so please don't say it's all in my head. I don't need therapy. I hadn't looked at the fact that 14 pounds was a quarter of my goal so that does help a little putting it into perspective for me and I know I am being hard on myself but I need to keep pushing myself. But to be told it's all in my head and no way will I gain weight on 1200 calories a day is insulting when it has happened to me.
I don't think anyone is saying you don't have PCOS, rather it seems that you're focusing too heavily on that one aspect of your health--which doesn't seem very healthy or helpful...... I don't think the therapy suggestion was intended to imply that you're crazy or imagining things (or that it's all in your head). Therapy can help get all of life's pieces into perspective and balance and it seems like things have gotten a bit out of balance for you right now (as happens to all of us at one point or another!).0 -
LeslieB042812 wrote: »LisaJayne71 wrote: »
Well, that's part of it, then. If that's what you're doing, then you're only running about 1.55 miles (assuming you make it the whole 30 minutes). Depending on weight and speed and incline, running a mile typically burns 75-110 calories, which means that you would be burning approximately 135 calories per 1/2 hour (assuming the average of those two numbers)--less than your estimate of 300/hour!
Yep, that's what I thought. You're barely covering any miles and therefore wasting a lot of effort. Stop the intervals for now, and focus on covering more miles. Your intervals are reducing you to a 3.1 MPH speed, which is 1.55 in 30 minutes. This is the reason you're not burning a lot. Work on steady running for a while. If you can handle a steady 5 MPH, you'll cover 2.5 miles in 30 minutes. That will add almost 100 more calories!! Then you can work on improving your speed. More miles = more calories.0 -
Fellow PCOS sufferer here! Frustrating, isn't it, when your body just doesn't respond the way it's supposed to?
I'm very similar to you in age, height, and goal weight to lose. I'm down nearly 30 lbs over the last six months, which probably seems slow for your schedule, but I spent a couple of months at a plateau that I couldn't break until I start using MFP to log my food, and really keep track of my carbs and protein. If I can offer my experience (YMMV, of course) you might be putting in TOO much time in the gym. If you are making yourself anxious and exhausted over weight loss, losing sleep and upping your stress hormones (cortisol), you might be undermining some of your efforts (also making yourself unhappy, and life is WAY too short for needless unhappiness).
Additionally, you might want to refocus your efforts on more intense strength training. You might have progressed beyond what the Curves routine can offer you, and would benefit more from a comperable amount of time with free weights or machines. I work with machines, without a trainer, one to three times per week. I love it! I can see so much progress in terms of strength, body shape, and endurance, that it got me through the months when my eating plateaued. And the more lean muscle I have, the more calories I burn even when I'm sleeping, which I get a real lift reminding myself. I only do cardio two or three times a week, a combination of walking (boring) and aqua aerobics (so much fun!). Finding an hour long cardio class that I looked forward to, made all the difference for me.
Sorry for the long post, but I know the misunderstood plague that is PCOS, and hope some amateur insights from a comrade in arms might give you a few useful new ideas. As others have said, 14 lbs in one month is a great result for your amazing effort! Congratulations on all your hard work so far, and good luck in the future!0 -
LisaJayne71 wrote: »
I did it for 2 weeks with exercising 5 days a week and I gained 6 pounds. Dropped it down to 1000 and lost 4 pounds over 2 weeks with the same level of exercise.TavistockToad wrote: »LisaJayne71 wrote: »
How much did you gain over what time frame?
2 weeks isn't long enough to judge any diet or exercise changes. I gained 4lbs when I started working out and it took about 4 weeks to lose any of it. Since February I have lost "just" 16lbs, I am a slow burner but it's still a steady 0.5 - 1lb per week loss, reasonable and sustainable. Your expectations are unrealistic and you're giving up before you start or going too hard too fast and again giving up. You must also track your measurements, I have lost a ridiculous number of inches, about two dress sizes so the scale doesn't tell you everything.
As for the HIIT training, you're only really running for at best 15 minutes, so 300 calories burned from that is pretty damn good! (And probably a gross overestimation in all honesty).
As for Curves, from what I know it's fairly low impact and weights machines, which again isn't going to give you a massive burn.
You need to up your calories a bit for at least a month and/or workout more effectively and eat those realistic calorie burns back.
Up to this point you seem to have had a lot of bad or ignored advice coupled with an over-reliance of blame on a medical condition which others can and do successfully lose weight with without starving themselves the way you are. You may not like what people here are saying but it's all true, good advice.0 -
I guess I am not seeing a need for thyroid tests or blood panels. OP lost 14 pounds in a month. That is nothing to sneeze at. I don't see any indication of a medical problem causing her weight loss to be more difficult than anybody else's.
People really make things more difficult than they are. You don't have to futz around with your heart rate or wearing an HRM 12 hours a day. Weigh/measure/accurately estimate your food. Log it accurately. Add in exercise if you'd like. Create a caloric deficit. Lose weight.
ditto to all of that.
and 14 pounds in a month is freaking AMAZING
youre doing everything right, stop giving people your money trying to make it faster than it will be.0 -
CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »to be honest try weight training on days you dont do cardio, I would alternate every other day. maybe you are doing to much exercise? I know when I was working out twice a day,I got to the point that I stopped losing anything. once I toned it down to once a day for 30-60 min,I started losing again.low calories doesnt mean below 1200 or at least it shouldnt. my daughter sees an endo for a few different issues and they told her 1200 calories although now some days she eats more,she is losing weight,but shes losing inches quicker than the weight, I know everyone is different and different things work for them.I would take a rest day or two as well. any dr that tells you to eat only 500 calories to me is a nutjob. your body cannot survive long on that,you will waste away.
Thank you! I spoke to a doctor the other day who was visiting a friend and she suggested I was possibly exercising too much but didn't want to give much advice as I'm not her patient. Who would have though too much exercise would have that effect!0 -
I hear you OP. I feel your exasperation.
Things I would consider if I were you: 1) Be patient so you don't give up or burn out. 2) Don't EVER go less than 1200 calories. At your weight, IF you are consistently weighing, measuring your food this is a place of loss. Even with medical issues. You don't want to add a serious malnutrition problem ON TOP of any medical issues. That will not do your body any favors. 3) In PCOS, your "cycle" is seriously compromised. This means: you have no idea when your body has decided to retain water weight - and that means you will be 5lbs off at any time without warning. Not to mention the dreaded carb cravings that go along with it. Also, when water retention happens, I know I don't sweat at all. 4) You have time to do this. I know you took time off to lose 60 lbs. But that is a good amount of weight to lose in a year - not a couple of weeks, or even a couple of months. Think long term, you can still want it, but you should consider doing this without adding damage to an already compromised system.0 -
LisaJayne71 wrote: »It was suggested I have my thyroid tested but when I came back to the UK the private doctor I saw refused to take it seriously and made some comment along the lines of "oh everyone seems to blame the thyroid"
This surprises me (not in a good way unfortunately). Can you work with a different doctor? There's a possibility that thyroid issues and PCOS are related. And, any hormone-related issue can really mess things up, thyroid or otherwise. Perhaps you could find a physician with more expertise--maybe an endocrinologist?0 -
I hadn't looked at it like that!! I was just seeing that it meant my HR was alternating between about 60% - 90% of max HR for a prolonged period of time so that in turn would have to be more beneficial to me. I didn't think about the straddling part would bring down the all over speed. Someone else just mentioned that HIIT was supposed to help with the Insulin Resistance that comes with PCOS so I probably need to do some HIIT but also as you suggested and cover more distance.LeslieB042812 wrote: »LisaJayne71 wrote: »
Well, that's part of it, then. If that's what you're doing, then you're only running about 1.55 miles (assuming you make it the whole 30 minutes). Depending on weight and speed and incline, running a mile typically burns 75-110 calories, which means that you would be burning approximately 135 calories per 1/2 hour (assuming the average of those two numbers)--less than your estimate of 300/hour!
Yep, that's what I thought. You're barely covering any miles and therefore wasting a lot of effort. Stop the intervals for now, and focus on covering more miles. Your intervals are reducing you to a 3.1 MPH speed, which is 1.55 in 30 minutes. This is the reason you're not burning a lot. Work on steady running for a while. If you can handle a steady 5 MPH, you'll cover 2.5 miles in 30 minutes. That will add almost 100 more calories!! Then you can work on improving your speed. More miles = more calories.0 -
Thank you for that. You're right about the HIIT being good for helping with Insulin resistance.HIIT is more difficult to measure because of the stop start nature and the guess work that goes along with the afterburn epoc effect, which can be very individual. HRM are for steady state which is what rabbit first said this morning. Perhaps the 300 you are looking at just reflects the calories you have burned during the time exercising and no epoc. In that sense it would increase over time as epoc takes effect, but difficult to say by how much.
Not disputing your maxhr, no idea about your pt, there are many formulas for calculating it and 220-hr is the least accurate, but often used.
I have just looked up PCOS and HIIT and see it is recommended. I think its more for the claimed benefits on insulin resistance as opposed to extra calorie burn.
http://www.nature.com/ijo/journal/v32/n4/full/0803781a.html
http://www.clinicalendocrinologynews.com/index.php?id=12128&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=310705&cHash=0a02844dd1f632526de8624b080ef696
Id add the following:
1. Dont worry too much about calorie burn, even at an hour a day continuous exercise of 500 a day thats 3000 or under under 1lb a week. You have to do a lot of exercise.
2. People have pointed you towards logging and accurtaely controlling your food intake becayse its more influential and easier to manage. You should get accurate in that area first.
3. Start managing your expectations, as it will just be slower with pcos, but not impossible. Friend some other pcos members as they will be able to adbise on how they coped. Jemh is always sensible, but am sure there are some active groups.
4. Be patient, but determined. You cna do it and the pcos is just soemthing you have to imo.
Good luck and try not to beat yourself up or stress.
I do log my food accurately and I control calories, carbs, protein, sugar and fat on my diary so I know I'm there with the food and doing what I've been reading up on.
I know I'm beating myself up... but it's something I need to do to push myself on... I will however try to go a bit easier on myself!!! I have lost a lot of inches and I can feel that I am fitter in the last 9 weeks alone so for that I am happy with myself
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I think HIIT has been way over exaggerated. I thought I was doing it when I ran close to the same way you do. That's not actually HIIT. You would have to be running MUCH faster to get the HIIT benefit. You and I are nowhere close to that, so I would switch to something else.0
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You mention that you eat between 1000-1200 calories a day. But what is your macronutrient breakdown? And how many calories do you typically burn in a day?
Over-training and under-eating is probably what's stopping you from losing weight as quickly as you'd like. Physically exerting your body and then not feeding it proper nutrients will cause your body to hold on to whatever fat is present because you're entering starvation mode. 14 pounds in one month is definitely impressive, but maybe you need to rethink WHAT you eat versus just focusing on HOW MUCH you eat. I'm curious what the ratio of protein/carbs/fat is for your low-calorie intake.
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I will be doing soon. I have been living in the Middle East and Russia for the last 6 years so I have been relying on seeing different doctors in that time.. now I am back in the UK I am going to push to see an endocrinologist. A friend has given me a name for a referral.ScreeField wrote: »LisaJayne71 wrote: »It was suggested I have my thyroid tested but when I came back to the UK the private doctor I saw refused to take it seriously and made some comment along the lines of "oh everyone seems to blame the thyroid"
This surprises me (not in a good way unfortunately). Can you work with a different doctor? There's a possibility that thyroid issues and PCOS are related. And, any hormone-related issue can really mess things up, thyroid or otherwise. Perhaps you could find a physician with more expertise--maybe an endocrinologist?
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And there was me so proud of my 10kph!!! Lol!I think HIIT has been way over exaggerated. I thought I was doing it when I ran close to the same way you do. That's not actually HIIT. You would have to be running MUCH faster to get the HIIT benefit. You and I are nowhere close to that, so I would switch to something else.
I'm clearly doing the tortoise version!!
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athelemaque wrote: »You mention that you eat between 1000-1200 calories a day. But what is your macronutrient breakdown? And how many calories do you typically burn in a day?
Over-training and under-eating is probably what's stopping you from losing weight as quickly as you'd like. Physically exerting your body and then not feeding it proper nutrients will cause your body to hold on to whatever fat is present because you're entering starvation mode. 14 pounds in one month is definitely impressive, but maybe you need to rethink WHAT you eat versus just focusing on HOW MUCH you eat. I'm curious what the ratio of protein/carbs/fat is for your low-calorie intake.
Starvation mode as you are describing it doesn't exist.0 -
athelemaque wrote: »You mention that you eat between 1000-1200 calories a day. But what is your macronutrient breakdown? And how many calories do you typically burn in a day?
Over-training and under-eating is probably what's stopping you from losing weight as quickly as you'd like. Physically exerting your body and then not feeding it proper nutrients will cause your body to hold on to whatever fat is present because you're entering starvation mode. 14 pounds in one month is definitely impressive, but maybe you need to rethink WHAT you eat versus just focusing on HOW MUCH you eat. I'm curious what the ratio of protein/carbs/fat is for your low-calorie intake.
really, so if I net 500 calories a day and my TDEE is 2000, I wont lose weight??
go review the Minnesota starvation experiment and check back in ...0 -
athelemaque wrote: »You mention that you eat between 1000-1200 calories a day. But what is your macronutrient breakdown? And how many calories do you typically burn in a day?
Over-training and under-eating is probably what's stopping you from losing weight as quickly as you'd like. Physically exerting your body and then not feeding it proper nutrients will cause your body to hold on to whatever fat is present because you're entering starvation mode. 14 pounds in one month is definitely impressive, but maybe you need to rethink WHAT you eat versus just focusing on HOW MUCH you eat. I'm curious what the ratio of protein/carbs/fat is for your low-calorie intake.
THE PART OF YOUR POST IN BOLD IS WRONG !!!!
If she isn't eating enough to properly fuel her activities and her body isn't looking to stored reserves, where does the energy come from? Please keep your answer to the realm of possibility according to the laws of physics.0 -
athelemaque wrote: »You mention that you eat between 1000-1200 calories a day. But what is your macronutrient breakdown? And how many calories do you typically burn in a day?
Over-training and under-eating is probably what's stopping you from losing weight as quickly as you'd like. Physically exerting your body and then not feeding it proper nutrients will cause your body to hold on to whatever fat is present because you're entering starvation mode. 14 pounds in one month is definitely impressive, but maybe you need to rethink WHAT you eat versus just focusing on HOW MUCH you eat. I'm curious what the ratio of protein/carbs/fat is for your low-calorie intake.
40% protein/ 40% fat/ 30% carbs.
I eat carbs through veg and some fruits and eat lean meats and fish
I was having protein shakes but they were high in sugar so I stopped having them
I'm unclear on what calories I burn in a day as with PCOS I have a lower BMR than normal women but I am exercising 1 hour a day with a mixture of cardio and resistance training.0
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