I think I'm doing this wrong...

sayhitostephz

Can you guys look at my diary and tell me what I'm doing wrong here?

32 yr old female
5'8" and ~266 lbs
Not sure what my BF% is

I've been at this for most of the year trying to shed some pounds, but no results so far (have actually put on a few lbs).

Jan did Paleo, no counting cals - lost a few lbs, but I think just water weight bc it came right back when I went off Paleo
Feb - break
March - combo of MFP/Paleo starting with 1400 cals and then moving to 1900 cals, no real results (water weight came off again, but came right back when I started a metabolic reset...)
April/May - tried to eat at theoretical maintenance (2400), but still don't have my discipline 100% under control so I went over a few times and ended up gaining a few lbs (+~3 lbs)
June - tried the TDEE - 20% (= 2400 cals with exercise) method and also joined a gym and started exercising 4-5 times a week. Have gained another 3-4 lbs.

Diary is open for perusing. I'm open to all suggestions.

My exercise routine is usually 1 hour Body Pump class Tues/Thurs and 1 hour steady state cardio (switched up between walking, bike and elliptical) on Mon/Wed and every other Fri. Most weekends I take off of formal exercising to spend time with my family, but we do go on walks occasionally.

I try to eat just above my BMR Mon-Thurs so I have some leeway on the weekends, but my average for the last 4 weeks has been around 2500 cals, so I'm still in a deficit and should be losing, right?

Heybales spreadsheet suggests I eat 2,000 cals instead of 2,400. Not sure what to do at this point. Weight just seems to be creeping upwards =\ My next move was going to be to try to lower my cals by 200 and see how that goes for the next few weeks.

Also, thinking about giving Crossfit a go now that I have a consistent exercise routine and have built up strength with Body Pump. My new routine would be Crossfit 3x a week plus the cardio 2-3 times a week still.

Suggestions?

Greenrun99

Going to make some suggestions, just my 2 cents.

First, you need to stick with something for more than a month.. you really need to get used to your routine and let your body adjust to it so you can start losing weight. Second piece is calorie amounts and food.. I would eat 1800-2000 daily, Don't eat any exercise calories, and try to get higher protein, lower carb items in your diet.

I also looked at your diary and I am going to give an honest opinion that other's may disagree with but hey.. I don't sugar coat it.. Everyday you are over your calorie goal (looked at 7 days).. Looks like most of the days you also had fast food or something from take out.. Got to get the diet under control before anything starts changing.. (I am not saying never eat out, but cut back to figure out your numbers).. Also try not to drink your calories. Cook your own food, eat some veggies..

Exercise do what your doing, or do crossfit.. it all sounds fine.. its your diet that is derailing you.

sayhitostephz

Cool thanks. This past week was a little out of the normal because I had family staying with me Tues and Thurs-Sun. I normally do not eat out that much and eat more at home. When we went out, I did get salads though, so it's not like I was going buck wild.

And I just lowered my calorie goal, so it shows me going over, but that isn't totally accurate. And that calorie goal is my BMR (or 200 below my BMR now) so I can have more leeway on the weekends. I go by the weekly average as my target, so my weekends will always be over the target calorie goal.

But yes, I let my diet get a little messy since I stopped doing Paleo. I will have to be more careful about it now that my target will be 200 cals lower. My diet usually consists of higher calorie, lower carb items and veggies (aside from this week), so that won't be a problem.

Thanks for your advice.

heybales

Follow the spreadsheet - if you entered in a BF%.

You say you don't know it, but if you entered your measurements, you should know it.

In which case the math is all based on your Lean Body Mass, rather than age, weight, height.

I'm going to suggest you are eating to an inflated BMR, and have little to no actual deficit in place.

Eat the 2000 recommended and do your workouts, try for a month and see what happens to those inches.

And to Greenrun's comment, try to get the diet under control by indeed eating the same daily. If you have a weekend meal that goes over, than eat a smaller breakfast and lunch and snacks to allow it.
At the start, don't try to balance days yet. You can do that later.

sayhitostephz

Ok, so when you say "see what happens to those inches", are you implying that there might not be a change in weight? Because I am very overweight (100+ lbs), I would expect to see some change there also (in addition to inches) to get into a healthy BMI.

Also thank you for your advice, I will give it a try for the next month.

heybales

It totally depends on if your workouts are still considered so new to your body it has to make improvements based on them.

Body improvements rarely have weight loss, rather weight gain as result. Even as inches drop.
Once that is done, so established workouts, then inches and weight together will drop.

The spreadsheet is self adjusting too.
As inches are lost along with weight, it may appear the BF% goes up, but actually it's just reflecting better accuracy of what was already there. In that case you eat even less, creating better deficit, so even more loss.

But the idea is to draw the line in the sand for NOT losing muscle mass, only fat mass. And that sometimes means you start on the high side and lower eating level faster.
Which is what happens when it self adjusts.

I've had many where the weight dropped 5 lbs first month, but inches dropped so much more, but in places that made the formula's increase the BF%, so now eating even less.
Second month was 10 lb loss and inches, and BF% adjusted again, going down while LBM actually went up, so now eating more.
Third month was 8 lb loss and inches. Those 3 examples like that aren't past their 4th month, so I'm waiting what is next.

Also depends on if your metabolism was fulling firing. At least you got a reset in there, so hopefully that is fine.

After a month of sticking correctly to a plan (weighing food) and not doing a new exercise routine that can cause water retention in new muscles used, then at least you've been on the high side if honest with activity.
May be time to cut another 100 calories.

sayhitostephz

Ok, that makes sense. Thank you so much for breaking that down for me.

I will dig out my food scale, take measurements and give this a go for a month and see how it plays out.