Venting - One Week, 8400 calorie deficit, 6 pounds gained.

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  • FeelingLessChubby
    FeelingLessChubby Posts: 152 Member
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    Well done on your re-evaluation... I think this food diary is invaluable when you need to assess eating habits - it helped me to no end, and I don't watch any macros - only calories and fat! Best of luck going forward! :)
  • djbrink21
    djbrink21 Posts: 97 Member
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    Is it possible you are over estimating your calorie burn with exercise?

    I only looked at a couple of days, but your burn states 900 + per day and yesterday was around 1400 calories burned through exercise??

    I am very suspect of the calculations that MFP comes up with. If I run 6 miles in one hour, MFP says I burn 993 calories. If I run 9 miles in 90 minutes it says around 1400.

    Go out and grab a HRM. Wear it every time you work out. It will give a MUCH more accurate number for what you are burning.

    Also, put down the donuts. :) Try some yogurt or cereal instead. And fruit, more fruit.
  • mojohowitz
    mojohowitz Posts: 900 Member
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    [/quote]

    Also, put down the donuts. :) Try some yogurt or cereal instead. And fruit, more fruit.
    [/quote]

    Yeah. Donuts and pizza. :embarassed:
  • mojohowitz
    mojohowitz Posts: 900 Member
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    I've even thrown in a few rounds of light weightlifting but not enough to stress my muscles or cause soreness or water retention.

    can i ask what the point of this was?

    if you're not stressing the muscles you're not doing anything.....

    I didn't articulate this very well. I do my regular stressful weight workout but its been nothing unusual that would cause extreme muscle soreness or contribute to water retention.
  • grandevampire
    grandevampire Posts: 242
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    I don't watch any macros - only calories and fat! Best of luck going forward! :)

    Sorry to be nitpicky but just for the sake of putting as much helpful information out there as possible, fat is a macronutrient, so if you watch it, you are watching a macro. Protein and carbs would be the other two macros.

    Great work OP for getting something positive out of the feedback! Best of luck as you continue, I'm sure you'll do great, seeing as you are receptive to advice and care about making changes!
  • nopeNOEP
    nopeNOEP Posts: 5
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    Just a few things to note and I apologize if any of these are repeats. There are two major culprits that will affect your scale (weight) results.

    1- Not drinking enough water
    2- To much sodium in your diet. I have this problem sometimes when I'm really going hard on the protein.

    Both will cause you to retain water.

    Water in - water out. Drink bottle after bottle throughout the day to help flush your system. If your body sees water going in there won't be a need for the body to hold on to it's stores and you will urinate more.

    Whenever I talk to people who work out and do not lose weight and are eating healthy or within their calories this is usually the reason they don't see the weight loss on the scale. As many have said..you didn't gain the weight in fat.

    Stick with it. This is a long term thing. You will have bumps in the road. Keep on driving :-)

    Joe


    this.
  • askeates
    askeates Posts: 1,490 Member
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    I will admit my nutrient intake looks pretty terrible but I typically do not log the salad, cauliflower and carrots I snack on. I do add my fruit because of the sugar.

    Salad, veggies (btw, carrots are high in sugar) and fruits all have calories, some more than others. If you really are following calories, you need to count those calories as well. Do you put salad dressing on your salads? That can be a ton of calories right there that are not accounted for if you're not logging.

    Just a thought :wink:
  • dustyhockeymom
    dustyhockeymom Posts: 537 Member
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    Is it possible you are over estimating your calorie burn with exercise?

    I only looked at a couple of days, but your burn states 900 + per day and yesterday was around 1400 calories burned through exercise??

    I am very suspect of the calculations that MFP comes up with. If I run 6 miles in one hour, MFP says I burn 993 calories. If I run 9 miles in 90 minutes it says around 1400.

    I find the calorie counts on MFP to be way over estimated for many activities. I realized this when I invested in a HRM which often estimated about half the amount of MFP.
  • murphy612
    murphy612 Posts: 734 Member
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    Thanks to everyone. You have shed light on an area I subconsciously did not want to see.

    I just went through my food from last week and I am horrified at how crappy I have been eating. It's one thing to track everything but it means nothing if you don't go back and look at it. Holy crap! I was lulled into this false sense of satisfaction that I was eating well by watching my sodium and calories. That may or may not not account for the weight gain but at least I see some areas I can remedy.

    Things to fix:
    Less crap food. More macros.
    Find a better way to calculate calories expended.

    Thanks again! Your replies have really really helped me!!!

    Excellent response :-) You can do it, but you're right your diet was atrocious if you are trying to eat healthy and lose weight. It would be hard for me to exercise eating that way, I think I'd be tired all the time. You did well with the calories but now just work on what you're eating, a little substitution here and there at a time will make a huge difference. Good luck, you can do it!!
  • mojohowitz
    mojohowitz Posts: 900 Member
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    I manually update my calories burned on MFP - I decrease the number to 25 percent if what it says, So if I run 10.5 miles and it says I burned 1000 calories -- I under report it to 250 calories. I also do NOT eat back the exercise calories

    I just ran some online calculators using my stats and standard runners rules for target heart rate and you are spot-on with your numbers. MFP says I am burning 1000 calories running 6 miles in an hour. According to more accurate measures, it is closer to 700-750.

    Looks like I will be running an extra 15 minutes each time. Thanks for the info!!
  • mojohowitz
    mojohowitz Posts: 900 Member
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    I will admit my nutrient intake looks pretty terrible but I typically do not log the salad, cauliflower and carrots I snack on. I do add my fruit because of the sugar.

    Salad, veggies (btw, carrots are high in sugar) and fruits all have calories, some more than others. If you really are following calories, you need to count those calories as well. Do you put salad dressing on your salads? That can be a ton of calories right there that are not accounted for if you're not logging.

    Just a thought :wink:

    Thanks! I do log my light ranch dressing. But its the only thing I put on the salad. I will start logging the carrots.
  • cingle87
    cingle87 Posts: 717 Member
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    Don't trust MFP to keep track of your calories burned, it vastly overestimates what you have burnt which many have said, so when It come to eat back calories with MFP dont eat all of them, 50% would be my advice.

    Keep going dieting is a marathon not a sprint, there are time when we all feel like giving up but we have just to power through, think of the rewards when you get there!
  • jen6ward
    jen6ward Posts: 10
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    Don't trust MFP to keep track of your calories burned, it vastly overestimates what you have burnt which many have said, so when It come to eat back calories with MFP dont eat all of them, 50% would be my advice.

    Keep going dieting is a marathon not a sprint, there are time when we all feel like giving up but we have just to power through, think of the rewards when you get there!


    Great advise!!!
  • astronomicals
    astronomicals Posts: 1,537 Member
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    MFP says I am burning 1000 calories running 6 miles in an hour. According to more accurate measures, it is closer to 700-750.

    Looks like I will be running an extra 15 minutes each time. Thanks for the info!!

    that time would be much more productive if spent weight training.... 2-3 hours of cardio a week is more than enough...
  • cingle87
    cingle87 Posts: 717 Member
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    MFP says I am burning 1000 calories running 6 miles in an hour. According to more accurate measures, it is closer to 700-750.

    Looks like I will be running an extra 15 minutes each time. Thanks for the info!!

    that time would be much more productive if spent weight training.... 2-3 hours of cardio a week is more than enough...

    This for me I only use to gym for weight lifting 4/5 days a week and its working, the fat is going and my strengths increasing, get your cardio through normal day to day activities if you can or like said above a 2 hours cardio session would be perfect
  • mojohowitz
    mojohowitz Posts: 900 Member
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    MFP says I am burning 1000 calories running 6 miles in an hour. According to more accurate measures, it is closer to 700-750.

    Looks like I will be running an extra 15 minutes each time. Thanks for the info!!

    that time would be much more productive if spent weight training.... 2-3 hours of cardio a week is more than enough...

    I will include more weight training. However, I just can't give up any running time. It's more like meditation than a cardio thing.
    http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/336390.The_Zen_of_Running
  • ctinawilson
    ctinawilson Posts: 127 Member
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    Hiya,

    Buy yourself a HRM, mine has literally changed my whole perception of fitness.

    MFP is working off some averages for your weight / height I imagine, when it comes up with exercise calories, but we're all different, and I have actually found myself to be burning a lot more than it predicts, and have been able to manage my diet accordingly.

    No expert here, just found a HRM incredibly helpful - my next step is to understand how to use the heart rate info to improve my workouts.

    :flowerforyou: Good luck to you!
  • mojohowitz
    mojohowitz Posts: 900 Member
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    I am buying the Mio Alpha this weekend. It's a bit more than I want to spend but I figure it is cheaper than heart surgery and blood pressure meds. I am very curious to see how MFP's calorie calculations compare to the Mio Alpha's.
  • mojohowitz
    mojohowitz Posts: 900 Member
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    Final Report:

    I started bringing my lunch instead of eating the salad and pizza option in the cafeteria of the hospital where I work. (There is no MFP entry for their pizza so I used Papa Murphy's as a surrogate.) For lunch, I am typically bringing a salad with light dressing and either grilled chicken or pork. Breakfast is light yogurt, banana, fiber one bar.

    In four days I lost the water weight and returned to normal. I can only imagine the pizza at work had an unbelievable amount of salt. I guess this hospital is trying to drum up some cardiology business with its employees.

    Anyway, things are back to normal. Sort of. According to MFP's math I should be down 3-4 pounds but I have learned their numbers are sometimes whack. Also, I may check back again after I test the Mio Alpha for a week.

    Thank you all for your help!
  • rotomo
    rotomo Posts: 1
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    the thing is it takes 3-5 weeks to see the result of all that work. but it does eventually show up on the scale. and yes you body will put on weight first because it thinks you are starving since you are not eating as many calories as you before. for this reason sometimes the needle on the scale will tilt the other way sometimes. keep at it. the tides will turn. the other thing is you do need to focus on things like vegies and what my friends call the one ingredient food ( foods where the only ingredient is the food itself.) example, rice potato, chicken fish etc. last invest in in a multivitamin high in antioxidants. that reminds me......... I should do this too.

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