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Muscle? Fat? Water? Eternal doom?

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Replies

  • Muscleflex79
    Muscleflex79 Posts: 1,917 Member
    you are only trying to lose 3-5 lbs but you want to lose 1lbs per week? not realistic! 3-5lbs is really nothing - within the daily fluctuations.
  • Jeyradan
    Jeyradan Posts: 164 Member
    Muscleflex79 wrote: »
    you are only trying to lose 3-5 lbs but you want to lose 1lbs per week? not realistic! 3-5lbs is really nothing - within the daily fluctuations.

    Don't worry - I don't expect to lose 1 lb/week. I'm just worried at not losing anything. I've been in the same 3 lb range for about six weeks now. I'd like to either see at least a slight downward trend over that kind of time or, if I'm just not going to lose any more weight, I would really like to be able to maintain at a higher calorie limit. It'd be nice to be able to have the occasional snack!
  • WBB55
    WBB55 Posts: 4,131 Member
    Adding new exercises always cause me to gain or plateau for a couple weeks.
  • not_a_runner
    not_a_runner Posts: 1,343 Member
    What kind of doctor are you going through to determine your calorie goals? Most aren't trained well in that area... A dietitian is usually a better choice to work with than a GP. (My GP would have me vastly under eating if I followed his advice.)
    I also noticed in your previous post that you said there had been days when you ate over your calorie goal. How many of those days have you had during this "plateau"? For me, a really bad day of eating can blow any loss that I might have seen for the week. A few of them can easily add up to a gain.
  • Jeyradan
    Jeyradan Posts: 164 Member
    WBB55 wrote: »
    Adding new exercises always cause me to gain or plateau for a couple weeks.

    Good to know! I didn't think it was possible to put muscle on that fast (especially for me, as I tend toward hypotonia), but more research reveals that adding new exercise can also cause muscles to retain water, which seems like a more realistic idea about what might be going on. Thanks for the reassuring words!
  • Jeyradan
    Jeyradan Posts: 164 Member
    TresaAswegan wrote: »
    What kind of doctor are you going through to determine your calorie goals? Most aren't trained well in that area... A dietitian is usually a better choice to work with than a GP. (My GP would have me vastly under eating if I followed his advice.)
    I also noticed in your previous post that you said there had been days when you ate over your calorie goal. How many of those days have you had during this "plateau"? For me, a really bad day of eating can blow any loss that I might have seen for the week. A few of them can easily add up to a gain.

    I'm afraid it is my GP - I don't have access to a dietitian, unfortunately. We went through the process of determining my calorie needs in terms of BMR/no exercise (which I later cross-checked with several different online calculators, not that I'm claiming they're accurate, but they were all within the same approximate range) and then discussed the need to eat back calories if I exercise.

    Your question actually got me thinking. If a pound really is 3,500 calories, then the calorie overage from my "bad" days definitely shouldn't counteract the loss from my "good" ones just by the numbers - but it's possible that my body gains more easily or loses less easily than average. Unfortunately, I'm not always in a position to make good choices when I'm not at home (business dinners where I can't choose the orders; venues where there are no options with a low enough calorie count), but I've stepped up the vigilance at home, and will continue to do so.
  • beatyfamily1
    beatyfamily1 Posts: 257 Member
    It makes sense you gained weight if you started this new exercise regimen recently. The only way to help with that is to drink more water. I've read it's theoretically possible to put on 2 pounds of muscle per week, but that is highly unlikely for most of us here. For the average person it's more likely to put on 2 pounds of muscle per month. Here's an article for other reasons that could apply to you: http://www.completehumanperformance.com/slow-fat-loss/
  • oocdc2
    oocdc2 Posts: 1,361 Member
    I can only share my experience here, and take from it what you will: I'm 5' 3", and I eat 1270 on non-exercise days, 1420 on exercise days. I'm still dropping weight. With all the love in my black little pagan heart, I humbly submit that you're not eating enough calories. There's a reason MFP's minimum calorie goal is 1200/day.

    Also, I tend to lose pounds in fits and starts, and the cycle gets longer in duration the closer I get to my ideal weight (125 lbs). Mayhap your body needs a little more time...?
  • Jeyradan
    Jeyradan Posts: 164 Member
    beatyfamily1 wrote: »
    It makes sense you gained weight if you started this new exercise regimen recently. The only way to help with that is to drink more water. I've read it's theoretically possible to put on 2 pounds of muscle per week, but that is highly unlikely for most of us here. For the average person it's more likely to put on 2 pounds of muscle per month. Here's an article for other reasons that could apply to you: http://www.completehumanperformance.com/slow-fat-loss/

    Thanks very much! Yes, it seems to make more sense now that I know that increasing strength workouts = increasing muscle water retention. (I know that for me, over a pound of actual muscle in a week is totally impossible, but I didn't know exercise could add weight in other ways!)

    Thank you for that article, too. I'm going to keep that as a reference!
  • Jeyradan
    Jeyradan Posts: 164 Member
    oocdc2 wrote: »
    I can only share my experience here, and take from it what you will: I'm 5' 3", and I eat 1270 on non-exercise days, 1420 on exercise days. I'm still dropping weight. With all the love in my black little pagan heart, I humbly submit that you're not eating enough calories. There's a reason MFP's minimum calorie goal is 1200/day.

    Also, I tend to lose pounds in fits and starts, and the cycle gets longer in duration the closer I get to my ideal weight (125 lbs). Mayhap your body needs a little more time...?

    Yep, I definitely need to work on patience. (I'm not so much impatient as over-anxious. If I can just convince myself that a speedbump is only a speedbump, I don't mind a long wait!)

    As to the calories, I think I'm hesitant to bump up the calories without consulting the doctor again, but I'm managing to "let go" of the anxiety enough to eat back my exercise calories without obsessing over "did I log enough exercise? am I overestimating my burn? do I need to do some more jumping jacks just in case?" Hopefully that'll help!

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