Switched jobs, exercised way more, lost 0 weight

AspenDan

Went from walking like 2000 steps a day to 10k-20k this whole week. Expected to make some real progress while eating about the same as always, but didn't lose anything...boooooo...any ideas?

DemoraFairy

My first idea would be it's only been a week, give it a bit more time!

peleroja

All the exercise in the world isn't going to help if you're still eating as many calories as your body expends in a day. Exercise is great for fitness and overall well-being, and it can help give you a little wiggle room for a treat sometimes but walking is not going to be a miracle cure without some adjustment to your intake. It is your diet that is going to help you make the major changes, especially at first.

There are a bunch of very, very helpful sticky posts at the top of this page. Read through a few of those to begin to learn about controlling your calories and creating a safe, effective calorie deficit that will result in sustained weight loss.

AspenDan

Eh..I eat few enough calories..I'm just wondering if there's anything about a new exercise regimen that might cause water weight or something at the start..also I'm mostly just venting impatience

peleroja

danieltsmoke wrote: »

Eh..I eat few enough calories..I'm just wondering if there's anything about a new exercise regimen that might cause water weight or something at the start..also I'm mostly just venting impatience

Are you accurately weighing (solids) and measuring (liquids) everything you put in your mouth, including condiments, beverages, and cooking oils? Do you solely eat food you have prepared yourself? If not, you have no idea if you are eating "few enough" calories (that is, calories under your total daily energy expenditure or TDEE). Looking at your diary I can see skipped meals and plenty of generic non-weighed entries, so I'm guessing that you are not, which means that you can and probably are eating much more than you think.

I know it's much easier to blame the increased exercise than really take a long hard look at your calories, but you know that saying "if you hear hooves, think horses, not zebras?" Your diet is the most obvious and simplest solution and where you should be looking WAY before you start looking at other causes.

Exercise can cause your muscles to temporarily retain some water, yes, but a bit of walking isn't likely to do much of that.

ETA:

Check out this youtube video with some more information in this subject.

ncboiler89

danieltsmoke wrote: »

Went from walking like 2000 steps a day to 10k-20k this whole week. Expected to make some real progress while eating about the same as always, but didn't lose anything...boooooo...any ideas?

I'm confused. 2000 steps per day is 14,000 steps per week which is in line with what you walk in a week now. Doesn't seem like much has changed.

atypicalsmith

ncboiler89 wrote: »

danieltsmoke wrote: »

Went from walking like 2000 steps a day to 10k-20k this whole week. Expected to make some real progress while eating about the same as always, but didn't lose anything...boooooo...any ideas?

I'm confused. 2000 steps per day is 14,000 steps per week which is in line with what you walk in a week now. Doesn't seem like much has changed.

I'm pretty sure he means he now walks10-20k a day, not a week. And yes, even if you don't eat one calorie less than you were before (provided you were maintaining and not gaining weight), that's the part of CO that will burn calories. But a week is a very short time for results, and yes, muscles do retain water when used more than usual. Check back in another week or two and let us know what happens.

SueInAz

Walking burns about 70 calories per mile or so depending on your mass. It's about 2000 steps per mile so a 10K step day would burn about 350 calories and a 20K step day about 700 calories. Subtract the 2000 or so steps you were already taking before the job change if you're only looking at the difference. It takes 3500 calories to equal a pound of fat gained or lost. You can figure the math from there for your actuals but you'd need to take an extra 100K steps or so to equal a pound of fat lost.

Of course, you said "eating about the same as always" which means you aren't sure it was the same or less so there's a good possibility that the little bit of extra fat you did burn with the extra walking was negated by eating a little more than usual, too. That's often what happens when we move more; we get more hungry, too.

Focus on your calorie intake for weight loss. Exercise is such a small part of it that you can't count on it to create enough of a calorie deficit to lose a significant amount of weight. Especially in only one week.