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SammyBoo1980
Posts: 56 Member
I've been vegan for over a year now, I eat whole foods mainly, and try to keep my portion sizes in check. Not only have i lost absolutely no weight, but I have GAINED it! I am very sedentary and I know a lot of it is down to this, I also don't drink enough water or get enough sleep. There have been a couple of times in the past when i said enough is enough i'm going to give it my all, gone to the gym every day, jogged, done exercises at home etc, seen no changes and given up. Ugh, exercising just.... ugh. I know i can't cut calories long term, i just love my food too much and am already hovering around 1,500 - 2,000 per day, so somehow it#'s got to be through increased exercise. So can anyone please tell me the type of exercise to lose weight quickly, that doesn't take too long each time? I hate gyms and know i won't stick to running regularly. What about HIIT? Anyone see results within a month from this? I only need to lose about 15lbs but for some reason my body just won't lose weight 
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Replies
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What are your stats and how are you measuring your intake?8
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Hate to break it to you but losing weight is going to come from your calories in and your calories out. There's no exercise that's going to make it easier or quicker.
You say you're hovering around 1500-2000 calories. That's a large range, honestly. Also, how accurate are those numbers? Are you weighing your food on a scale or measuring them with cups/spoons? Are you logging everyday? I ask, because well, if you're not using a food scale, that 1500-2000 calories can easily be off a few hundred calories, which in turn is either going to make you maintain or gain over time. You need to get accurate. Weigh your food, log religiously, stick to a set number and not a "range".11 -
age 36, height 5"6, weight 133lbs. I scan the barcode of most of my foods into mfp and go off what it tells me. It's never exact as i don't use a scale and some foods aren't in the database so i have to guess. Also i make a lot of meals with multiple ingredients like stews, curries, veggies in tomato sauce with sprinkles of nuts and seeds, nutritional yeast etc. Logging every little thing is a nightmare, and very difficult as i don't know what should be cups/spoons etc (for e.g. how on earth are you supposed to log one knife spread of vitalite, or 3 shaves of vegan cheese??). The 1,500 - 2,000 range came from my diary here when i was logging more regularly every day.1
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You are at a healthy weight.8
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It may be healthy but it's heavier than i want or need to be. I want to drop at least 2 dress sizes to get back to where i used to be. Around 15lbs should do that. Cheers0
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SammyBoo1980 wrote: »age 36, height 5"6, weight 133lbs. I scan the barcode of most of my foods into mfp and go off what it tells me. It's never exact as i don't use a scale and some foods aren't in the database so i have to guess. Also i make a lot of meals with multiple ingredients like stews, curries, veggies in tomato sauce with sprinkles of nuts and seeds, nutritional yeast etc. Logging every little thing is a nightmare, and very difficult as i don't know what should be cups/spoons etc (for e.g. how on earth are you supposed to log one knife spread of vitalite, or 3 shaves of vegan cheese??). The 1,500 - 2,000 range came from my diary here when i was logging more regularly every day.
Start logging again. Set your goal to lose half a pound a week. Buy a food scale and weigh everything.15 -
SammyBoo1980 wrote: »age 36, height 5"6, weight 133lbs. I scan the barcode of most of my foods into mfp and go off what it tells me. It's never exact as i don't use a scale and some foods aren't in the database so i have to guess. Also i make a lot of meals with multiple ingredients like stews, curries, veggies in tomato sauce with sprinkles of nuts and seeds, nutritional yeast etc. Logging every little thing is a nightmare, and very difficult as i don't know what should be cups/spoons etc (for e.g. how on earth are you supposed to log one knife spread of vitalite, or 3 shaves of vegan cheese??). The 1,500 - 2,000 range came from my diary here when i was logging more regularly every day.
You need to start using a food scale to weigh everything every day. And watch the barcode scanner, too... all it does is takes you to a user created entry that may not necessarily be accurate. For shaves of cheese and 'spread' of vitalite, weigh it on a food scale. Then you'll know for sure. Weigh everything that isn't a liquid and you'll be more accurate that way. No more cups and spoons. Forget the cups and spoons. No more guessing. Food scale only, unless it is a beverage or stock...you can use cups for those.
As for recipes, just use the recipe builder. You can even post links in the recipe builder and it will take the recipe off the page for you. You have to check the ingredients mfp matches the ones you entered as it can be a little wonky.
As you don't have much to lose, aim to lose .5lbs per week. Losing fast is a sure way to burn out with so little to lose. Scratch that. See below regarding body recomp.
If you enter exercise calories, eat back only a portion as mfp exercise database calories are quite inflated. A good start is to eat around 1/3 to 1/2 of them back.
In that case, you don't need to lose weight. You need to eat at maintenance and start a progressive heavy lifting program. A recomp. You may not go down in scale weight, but you will certainly go down dress sizes for sure. This will save you from hitting underweight territory to get the body that you want.SammyBoo1980 wrote: »It may be healthy but it's heavier than i want or need to be. I want to drop at least 2 dress sizes to get back to where i used to be. Around 15lbs should do that. Cheers10 -
Thank you. I guess a food scale is a good place to start. I don't have much will power when it comes to anything that takes a long time, hence wanting to see results fast. If I start seeing the weight come off/ dropping dress size I don';t mind slowing down. 2lbs per week would be best for me at least. I have found that exercising regularly is more difficult for me to stick to than watching my diet/calories, but at least exercise can be exact, as in i know exactly how long im doing it for/ what i'm doing etc, and i just can get on and do it. It takes around 20-30 mins each time i try to log my food on here which is a right ballache. Can you really not lose any weight with exercise? I was thinking of HIIT for 7 mins every 3 days or something. I oculd cope with that lol0
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SammyBoo1980 wrote: »Thank you. I guess a food scale is a good place to start. I don't have much will power when it comes to anything that takes a long time, hence wanting to see results fast. If I start seeing the weight come off/ dropping dress size I don';t mind slowing down. 2lbs per week would be best for me at least. I have found that exercising regularly is more difficult for me to stick to than watching my diet/calories, but at least exercise can be exact, as in i know exactly how long im doing it for/ what i'm doing etc, and i just can get on and do it. It takes around 20-30 mins each time i try to log my food on here which is a right ballache.
As @queenliz99 said, you're already at a healthy weight. Losing 2 pounds a week would mean you would need a 1000-calorie deficit each day. At your size, that would be a dangerously low amount of calories, and MFP will not assign anything below 1200 calories. A 250-calorie deficit for half a pound a week is better for you to fuel your body and preserve as much muscle as possible. You likely didn't put it on quickly, so it won't come off quickly. And logging never takes me more than 2-3 minutes tops. I had tacos for dinner tonight...meat in my recipes, tortillas, sauce, sour cream, cheese, tomatoes. All weighed out.10 -
It all comes down to what you want, and how bad you want it. Pick up a food scale, and learn to weigh everything. Start moving your body more, and often. And stop making excuses, they burn no calories whatsoever. Yes you can lose weight with exercise, if you manage to burn more calories than you put into your body. 3500 calories = 1 pound, I believe, so you would want to burn approximately 500 more a day than you eat. But the only way to ensure that is to weigh all your foods and be sure you're in a deficit. A nice little tip is to overestimate your food numbers, and underestimate your burns when logging.6
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At a healthy weight, even if it's the high end, 2 lbs a week is not going to happen. You don't have the ability to create that kind of deficit with your stats. I'm on the high end of healthy too and I can't even dream of getting that at this point. When I was obese, yes. Now I can only achieve 1 lbs a week at best. It's important to have realistic expectations and knowing what you're actually capable of (not what you want, but what you're actually physically capable of).11
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SammyBoo1980 wrote: »Thank you. I guess a food scale is a good place to start. I don't have much will power when it comes to anything that takes a long time, hence wanting to see results fast. If I start seeing the weight come off/ dropping dress size I don';t mind slowing down. 2lbs per week would be best for me at least. I have found that exercising regularly is more difficult for me to stick to than watching my diet/calories, but at least exercise can be exact, as in i know exactly how long im doing it for/ what i'm doing etc, and i just can get on and do it. It takes around 20-30 mins each time i try to log my food on here which is a right ballache. Can you really not lose any weight with exercise? I was thinking of HIIT for 7 mins every 3 days or something. I oculd cope with that lol
Unfortunately, 2lbs per week may not even be possible for you, given your stats. You see, to lose 2lbs per week, you'd have to eat 1000 calories below your maintenance calories every day. For me, that means I'd have to eat 800 or so calories...not going to happen and I even have around 40lbs to go! I would risk becoming very hangry, would have no energy, and would be miserable eating that little, not to mention I'd become malnourished eating that little.
.5 s the perfect number for you...actually, your best bet is to eat maintenance and lift heavy. This would give you the best results. You get to eat and get slimmer and stronger at the same time. Us females do not hulk up, so don't worry. The number on the scale should not mean a thing. You need to change your expectations. Fast loss is not the best way to go.
Weight loss IS NOT a race. I've been losing for a couple of years now and am almost 100lbs down. I have 40ish to go and I suspect it will take me a year. I do know that I am prepared for maintenance as I took the time to 'ready' myself. Going fast can be counterproductive.
And logging doesn't have to be a ballache, trust me. It took me about a week or so to get used to it. I had a little booklet I'd write my food and weights in, then I'd transfer it to mfp diary. Now, I log a day in advance. SO much easier. No ballache.
ps... We're not jumping down your throat. We're just working with the stats you gave us as well as our own experiences. Running your stats in the sailrabbit TDEE calculator, using the 'slightly active' option, your TDEE would be around 1800 calories (for lightly active your TDEE would be around 1900). To lose 2lbs per week, you'd have to eat 800 (or 900 if you're lightly active) calories a day. Not reasonable, or safe...setting yourself up for failure. The recommended minimum for women is 1200 calories.6 -
I'm a big fan of HIIT and strength training. I'm totally hooked on orangetheory. I never did anything on my own until I found that. It doesn't have to be that class, but definitely something that elevates heart rate. I like being coached through a workout. You can try a free class. I dropped weight pretty fast doing HIIT, although I did also clean up diet a lot! You shouldn't need to reduce calorie intake anymore than what you are at now. Are you eating clean foods or focusing more on overall calorie intake?0
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Thanks so much everyone! Totally welcome all the advice, I do realise i sound really lazy and not really giving it my all (both are true lol). I have extremely low will power for anything that takes a long time. I know once i start seeing any kind of results though i will gain more enthusiasm.
divcara that's really interesting and exactly what i was wanting to hear about. When you dropped weight fast were you also focusing on taking in less calories? Did you follow a specific plan for hiit? I am eating mainly whole foods - i'll have oats for breakfast, salads for lunch, tofu and veggies or roast veggies and quinoa for dinner etc. I find vegan mayo, hummus, and nuts are where I really mess up though as i always go over calorie with these.
I am very interested in lifting and not at all worried about bulking up, but i can't afford to go to a gym and i know i just won't do it at home if it will take longer than 10 mins. Heavy lifting you can't really do at home anyway.0 -
We would ALL love for it to be fast anD easy. Unfortunately, few things in life are that way.
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SammyBoo1980 wrote: »age 36, height 5"6, weight 133lbs. I scan the barcode of most of my foods into mfp and go off what it tells me. It's never exact as i don't use a scale and some foods aren't in the database so i have to guess. Also i make a lot of meals with multiple ingredients like stews, curries, veggies in tomato sauce with sprinkles of nuts and seeds, nutritional yeast etc. Logging every little thing is a nightmare, and very difficult as i don't know what should be cups/spoons etc (for e.g. how on earth are you supposed to log one knife spread of vitalite, or 3 shaves of vegan cheese??). The 1,500 - 2,000 range came from my diary here when i was logging more regularly every day.
I am also 5'6" and if I ate between 1500 and 2000 calories a day + being extremely sedentary I would also gain weight.
Eat less
and/or
Exercise more
Exercise doesn't have to be a massive gym workout - it can be as simple as going for a brisk 30 minute walk, and then maybe increasing to a brisk 60 minute walk. Or climbing several flights of stairs in a day. Or going for a bicycle ride.3 -
SammyBoo1980 wrote: »Thanks so much everyone! Totally welcome all the advice, I do realise i sound really lazy and not really giving it my all (both are true lol). I have extremely low will power for anything that takes a long time. I know once i start seeing any kind of results though i will gain more enthusiasm.
divcara that's really interesting and exactly what i was wanting to hear about. When you dropped weight fast were you also focusing on taking in less calories? Did you follow a specific plan for hiit? I am eating mainly whole foods - i'll have oats for breakfast, salads for lunch, tofu and veggies or roast veggies and quinoa for dinner etc. I find vegan mayo, hummus, and nuts are where I really mess up though as i always go over calorie with these.
I am very interested in lifting and not at all worried about bulking up, but i can't afford to go to a gym and i know i just won't do it at home if it will take longer than 10 mins. Heavy lifting you can't really do at home anyway.
yes,you can lift heavy at home I do(I have bars,weight plates,dumbbells,etc) and to see results with heavy lifting you will have to do it more than 10 mins,same with most other exercises. its not about what you eat its about how much.you can gain weight eating "healthy" foods too. lots of people here are vegan/vegetarian and became overweight eating more than they burned.7 min of hiit I dont think will accomplish much either.if you want to see results you have to put in the work,you dont have to workout to lose weight,just eat at a deficit but the exercise will help you in more ways than one.2 -
I'm doing heavy lifting at home, have been for 4 months or so. I don't like gyms and I hate pretty much all cardio.
You really need to get over the whole 10 minutes thing lol. If you want to lose the inches/dress sizes, it's gonna take longer than 10 minutes at a time. If you can't manage to do that, you don't want it enough. And I'm saying this as one of the laziest people in the world (which is how I put on the weight I've lost). If you can't commit to putting in the effort, you just don't want it enough.7 -
SammyBoo1980 wrote: »Thanks so much everyone! Totally welcome all the advice, I do realise i sound really lazy and not really giving it my all (both are true lol). I have extremely low will power for anything that takes a long time. I know once i start seeing any kind of results though i will gain more enthusiasm.
divcara that's really interesting and exactly what i was wanting to hear about. When you dropped weight fast were you also focusing on taking in less calories? Did you follow a specific plan for hiit? I am eating mainly whole foods - i'll have oats for breakfast, salads for lunch, tofu and veggies or roast veggies and quinoa for dinner etc. I find vegan mayo, hummus, and nuts are where I really mess up though as i always go over calorie with these.
I am very interested in lifting and not at all worried about bulking up, but i can't afford to go to a gym and i know i just won't do it at home if it will take longer than 10 mins. Heavy lifting you can't really do at home anyway.
I've eaten mainly whole foods for decades, and been vegetarian since 1974. I got fat that way, then obese, then stayed obese, and finally lost weight . . . eating mostly whole foods. It may be more healthful food, but too many calories worth of it still leads to excess weight.
As far as weight training at home, bodyweight exercises can work for starters - minimal or no equipment. Nerdfitness and Convict Conditioning are two pretty popular approaches. You can find out more about them on the web.
As far as how hard it is to weigh/log sprinkles of this'n' that: I do it every day, and it's dead easy. You just need to know a few tricks. For example:- Knife spread of vitalite: Put the container on your scale, zero the scale, take out your vitalite with your knife, note the negative value on your scale - it's the amount you took out.
- 3 shaves of vegan cheese: Put the hunk of cheese on the scale, zero, cut off hunk, record the negative.
- Making a mega salad or stew with slices & sprinkles of stuff: Put the salad bowl or pot on the scale, zero, add one ingredient, note the weight, zero, add the next ingredient, note the weight, etc., etc. I write this stuff on a junk mail envelope while cooking & record after, so I don't have to keep washing my hands to type on my device.
- Corn on the cob, whole apple eaten out of hand, something like that? Weigh the whole thing, eat the yummy parts, weigh the inedible bits that are left, and subtract.
- Keep a couple of clean vitalife lids (if they're plastic) on hand, and use them if you need to weigh some small amount of something before you add it to a pot on the stove. Just a rinse, and you're done.
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Unfortunately, the old saying "You can't out-exercise a bad diet" holds true. There's no exercise that burns a "lot" of calories in a short time - even running, which is one of the more strenuous ones, will burn somewhere in the vicinity of 100 calories/mile for most people (maybe even a bit less than that at your weight). So you'd have to run 5+ miles to create a 500 calorie deficit, which (if you can run steady 12-minute miles) will take about an hour a day. And trying to run 5 miles a day, every day, would be a sure recipe for injury and/or burnout.
HIIT is much more intense, but *if done right* it's also very strenuous, even unpleasantly painful for most people. It's also much shorter duration, so the higher calorie burn is attenuated by the fact that you do it for less time - still only going to burn maybe 70-100 calories (at most!) out of a 10-minute HIIT workout. And most people who think they're doing HIIT aren't really - they're doing aerobic intervals, which aren't anywhere near as strenuous and don't burn as many calories.
There's no shortcut. Weight loss is created by calorie deficit. You either have to induce that deficit by eating less, moving more or a combination of the two. Weight loss is simple, but it's not easy. Either way, it takes some work and dedication to be successful at it.7
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