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Can someone tell me what I'm doing wrong?
MariCarrie
Posts: 27 Member
I started my "lifestyle change" a few weeks ago and it's been going so well. I have about 70 lbs to lose. I eat about 1200 calories each day and I've been exercising for two hours nearly every single day. I've been eating a healthy and well rounded diet. Lots of veggies.
Now for the problem: If I go one day where I eat a little bit more, like 1400 calories and only exercise for one hour instead of two... I will gain about 2 pounds. This just doesn't make logical or scientific sense to me. Why do I only see progress if I go REALLY hard? This is exhausting and I'm always so hungry. I've only ever seen results when I'm super strict with the caloric intake, and exercise an extreme amount. If I falter even slighly... nearly a weeks worth of progress is lost. Am I doing something wrong?
Now for the problem: If I go one day where I eat a little bit more, like 1400 calories and only exercise for one hour instead of two... I will gain about 2 pounds. This just doesn't make logical or scientific sense to me. Why do I only see progress if I go REALLY hard? This is exhausting and I'm always so hungry. I've only ever seen results when I'm super strict with the caloric intake, and exercise an extreme amount. If I falter even slighly... nearly a weeks worth of progress is lost. Am I doing something wrong?
1
Replies
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No, you aren't. Weight loss isn't linear. And I hope that with two hours of exercise each day you're eating those calories back.8
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Well, when you eat more you will have more food in your system the next day (as well as potentially having temporary water weight if you ate more sodium or carbohydrates than usual). I would stop judging your results by what you see the next day and focus on the long term trend. It's completely normal to have days when your weight goes up when you're losing weight.11
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No, you aren't. Weight loss isn't linear. And I hope that with two hours of exercise each day you're eating those calories back.
Here's a good link that talks about weight loss not being linear: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10084670/it-is-unlikely-that-you-will-lose-weight-consistently-i-e-weight-loss-is-not-linear/p11 -
MariCarrie wrote: »I started my "lifestyle change" a few weeks ago and it's been going so well. I have about 70 lbs to lose. I eat about 1200 calories each day and I've been exercising for two hours nearly every single day. I've been eating a healthy and well rounded diet. Lots of veggies.
Now for the problem: If I go one day where I eat a little bit more, like 1400 calories and only exercise for one hour instead of two... I will gain about 2 pounds. This just doesn't make logical or scientific sense to me. Why do I only see progress if I go REALLY hard? This is exhausting and I'm always so hungry. I've only ever seen results when I'm super strict with the caloric intake, and exercise an extreme amount. If I falter even slighly... nearly a weeks worth of progress is lost. Am I doing something wrong?
The thing you're doing wrong is reading too much into perfectly normal fluctuations. For a long time I would only weigh myself once a week because then I could see the trend, not the daily up/down/all over the place.
I'm also concerned about the bolded. If what you're doing is making you miserable, you probably won't be able to sustain it. If you're not eating back your exercise calories, please start eating at least some of them.11 -
You might not be eating enough. Also, try only weighing yourself once a week. My weight changes so much day to day10
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cbowman1114 wrote: »You might not be eating enough. Also, try only weighing yourself once a week. My weight changes so much day to day
Not eating enough will not cause someone to gain weight11 -
for a start youre doing too much exercise and not eating enough food, simple as that.
You cant live like that forever and as soon as you start eating more youll just end up being fatter than you started out as.
sorry but thats the harsh reality8 -
cbowman1114 wrote: »You might not be eating enough. Also, try only weighing yourself once a week. My weight changes so much day to day
Not eating enough will not cause someone to gain weight
well, youre wrong32 -
New exercises make you retain water.
Ignore the scale and measure yourself for awhile.
Same thing happened to me for awhile, and I got discouraged, but I knew I looked better and felt better.
Sounds like you're in a deep deficit too, if you're measuring your food all accurately. Don't be afraid to eat more.5 -
CarlsbergLewis wrote: »cbowman1114 wrote: »You might not be eating enough. Also, try only weighing yourself once a week. My weight changes so much day to day
Not eating enough will not cause someone to gain weight
well, youre wrong
It's impossible to gain weight if you aren't eating "enough" (unless you're using some bizarre alternative definition of "enough.").
Your body can only store energy when you're consuming more than you burn.10 -
You need to take it one day at a time, I agree weight loss/life style change is a long term commitment. When I first started I weighed myself daily, recorded my weight loss progress every Monday. Had a reminder on my calendar every 5 weeks I would do a weigh in/measure day to check my measurement progress as well. I also got myself a scale that measures BMI/Fat/Water/Bone which I also log. When I finally hit my final goal I changed to log my weight weekly and on the 1st of each month I do a progress check of my measurements. Also set small goals, my first goal was to loose 30lbs, then 10lbs, when I hit the 40lb weight loss goal I some how lost another 5 vanity lbs as I call them. When I first started this journey I started walking to eventually running and ran my first marathon this past summer. I remember those first few weeks when I first started of being hungry at 8pm at night and had to tell myself I am just thirsty would drink a glass of water and would be fine. Hang in There and don't give up. It is a lifestyle & not a diet & Stay the Course as I would always tell myself.5
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CarlsbergLewis wrote: »cbowman1114 wrote: »You might not be eating enough. Also, try only weighing yourself once a week. My weight changes so much day to day
Not eating enough will not cause someone to gain weight
well, youre wrong
Nope I think you'll find they aren't. You don't gain weight from under-eating. If you're in a long term deficit you may experience adaptive thermogenesis which may slow weight loss, but it doesn't stop it altogether or cause gains.6 -
I am the same. I am on 1,200 calories a day and go to the gym for at least an hour doing cardio and weights. I spoke to a personal trainer today and she said I am not eating enough and should be eating 1,600 which I feel is a bit much so have opted to increase to 1,400 for a week or two to see if that makes a difference6
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yes, yes it does..
you are talking about WEIGHT.. you can quite easily gain weight from not eating enough and not keeping your body hydrated.
you wont gain FAT, but you can easily gain weight20 -
We can't see your food diary, but it really does sound like you are trying to do too much too soon. Unless you are short, 1200 calories will not be enough to sustain you especially if you are not eating back your exercise calories.
As to weighing, don't focus on today's weight but use a trending app (Happy Scale for IOS, Libra for Android or Trendweight.com) and focus on having a good average weight loss. Remember you want to lose no more than 2 lbs a week on average but that you will see up and downs and wooshes just based on how your body works. TOM will impact as well. Read the thread linked above on weight loss not being linear. It's good information.
You're in this for the long haul so make sustainable changes that you can stick with and don't try to lose all 70 lbs in 6 months. It doesn't work that way and is not healthy. Better to take a couple years and keep it off forever.6 -
CarlsbergLewis wrote: »cbowman1114 wrote: »You might not be eating enough. Also, try only weighing yourself once a week. My weight changes so much day to day
Not eating enough will not cause someone to gain weight
well, youre wrong
If she is wrong, anorexic people wouldn't lose weight.
OP--I can tell you from experience, 1200 calories can really wreck you, especially if you don't eat exercise calories back. I've lost most of the weight I want to lose, but there was a time there that I netted under 1200 for a while and ended up with a vitamin D deficiency, skin issues, and my hair started falling out. I was losing a crapton of weight, but I felt like *kitten*.
I started at 256lbs and I'm now around 158lbs. My weight fluxuates up to 5lbs any given day, whether I was eating 1200 or eating 1500. I weigh daily and track my trending weight on an app called Libra so even though my numbers go up and down, the overall trend is down and I can see that's the case in the data.
Once I started eating more, I felt better and could do more. Like fuel exercise and feel great.
Your mileage might vary, but I feel like my anecdotal experience is pretty accurate.10 -
impossible to talk sense to people on here haha, just good luck on your journey17
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CarlsbergLewis wrote: »yes, yes it does..
you are talking about WEIGHT.. you can quite easily gain weight from not eating enough and not keeping your body hydrated.
you wont gain FAT, but you can easily gain weight
Dehydration may cause some temporary water weight gain (which isn't relevant for people who are focused on actual weight loss), but I don't know how one could gain anything from not eating enough.
When you look at situations when people actually don't get enough to eat, documented conditions of privation, are people in those situations gaining weight?5 -
CarlsbergLewis wrote: »impossible to talk sense to people on here haha, just good luck on your journey
How is it impossible to talk to people who value the science of our bodies?12 -
I agree that it is just normal weight fluctuations. Are you eating back your exercise calories? If not, that's scary--two hours of exercise on 1200 calories. If you feel hungry and exhausted you need to slow your loss and eat more, or stop exercising so much.2
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If you drink a pint of water, you become a pound heavier. There is a daily variation in your weight. For me my weight can swing as high or as low as +/- 5 lbs depending on what I've eaten, done, or how long I've slept. (you will not have as much variation as I do)1
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CarlsbergLewis wrote: »impossible to talk sense to people on here haha, just good luck on your journey
IT is indeed, especially the ones who cling to dogma like eat more calories and you'll start losing weight.9 -
MariCarrie wrote: »I started my "lifestyle change" a few weeks ago and it's been going so well. I have about 70 lbs to lose. I eat about 1200 calories each day and I've been exercising for two hours nearly every single day. I've been eating a healthy and well rounded diet. Lots of veggies.
Now for the problem: If I go one day where I eat a little bit more, like 1400 calories and only exercise for one hour instead of two... I will gain about 2 pounds. This just doesn't make logical or scientific sense to me. Why do I only see progress if I go REALLY hard? This is exhausting and I'm always so hungry. I've only ever seen results when I'm super strict with the caloric intake, and exercise an extreme amount. If I falter even slighly... nearly a weeks worth of progress is lost. Am I doing something wrong?
You're exhausted and hungry because you are not eating enough. Don't worry about seeing a few pounds fluctuate, that happens normally during the day - if you've just added food and drink to your body, you're going to see the scale go up from that food weight, and if you use the bathroom, the scale might drop. The long term trend is what matters.
Now, as far as the not eating enough - you need to fuel your workouts. I would suggest ditching the 1200 calories and 2 hour workouts, and finding a happy medium. Put your info into MFP, eat the calories given, and eat back half of your exercise calories (calorie burn estimators tend to be off, I found half or a little more works for me), and try that for a few weeks. See how the scale changes as an overall trend, and keep track of how you feel. It feels counterintuitive at first, but it works. Good luck.8 -
Nutritional needs aside, you might not be a good candidate for daily weigh-ins if normal fluctuations trouble you that much.6
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Only thing I can add is I think you need to stop weighing in daily. The weight you see isn't a directly correlation to what you did the day prior. Weight lose isn't linear, so weight weekly or even once/twice a month and focus on the new lifestyle you are creating/fitness goals you are working towards and eating within your calories (eat back at least half your exercise calories) and look for a downward trend in weight over time.3
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What are you eating daily? I have been eating ~1200 calories a day for the past 2 months. Occasionally, I’m 100 over or under. I’m almost never hungry. I eat foods that are filling and healthy. Are you eating junk? That takes up a lot of calories quick.2
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Only thing I can add is I think you need to stop weighing in daily. The weight you see isn't a directly correlation to what you did the day prior. Weight lose isn't linear, so weight weekly or even once/twice a month and focus on the new lifestyle you are creating/fitness goals you are working towards and eating within your calories (eat back at least half your exercise calories) and look for a downward trend in weight over time.
This is a personal preference, and not a hard and fast rule. Many here weigh daily, but use a trending app, and find it helps them understand what their weight is doing. I know I prefer daily (first thing in the morning) weigh-ins but have learned to look at the bigger picture. Sometimes my weight is higher this week then last, but it's because I had a big carb meal and not because I have more fat on me. I've learned to predict these days so there is no surprise. If I was only weighing weekly, it might be more upsetting.
But that is me and the OP will need to figure out what works best for them.4 -
I also weight daily, but I don’t get upset if it’s +1-2 pounds. I know it’s impossible for me to have put on that much fat based on what I’ve been eating, so I try not to let it stress me out. Plus, it’s always fun seeing the scale go down a couple pounds the next day!1
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MariCarrie wrote: »I started my "lifestyle change" a few weeks ago and it's been going so well. I have about 70 lbs to lose. I eat about 1200 calories each day and I've been exercising for two hours nearly every single day. I've been eating a healthy and well rounded diet. Lots of veggies.
Now for the problem: If I go one day where I eat a little bit more, like 1400 calories and only exercise for one hour instead of two... I will gain about 2 pounds. This just doesn't make logical or scientific sense to me. Why do I only see progress if I go REALLY hard? This is exhausting and I'm always so hungry. I've only ever seen results when I'm super strict with the caloric intake, and exercise an extreme amount. If I falter even slighly... nearly a weeks worth of progress is lost. Am I doing something wrong?
OP, it has only been 2 weeks, your body is still trying to get used to all this new stuff you are doing. You are no doubt experiencing some pretty dramatic water weight fluctuations at this point.
Your body does not immediately respond tomorrow to what you do today. Body processes take time, and there are multiple things happening at the same time. You need to take a long term view and focus on the change from one week to the next and one month to the next. I know it's hard to be patient, but that's how it works.
To protect your sanity, you might want to dial it back a little and work up to full strength. Change your goal to lose 1 lb per week and eat all those calories. Exercise for a more reasonable amount of time, log that exercise and eat back some of those calories. And take a rest day every week.
Do that for at least a month. Once you feel like what you're doing is not making you hungry and tired, decide if you want to try for more than 1 lb per week, or if maybe that pace along with the lifestyle required for it is perfectly fine. It is not necessary to run yourself into the ground and be stressed out all the time to lose weight, in fact it's counter-productive. Slow down, take a deep breath, and use this time to find a way of eating and an activity level that you can use to maintain a healthy weight for the rest of your life. Good luck!8 -
Tacklewasher wrote: »Only thing I can add is I think you need to stop weighing in daily. The weight you see isn't a directly correlation to what you did the day prior. Weight lose isn't linear, so weight weekly or even once/twice a month and focus on the new lifestyle you are creating/fitness goals you are working towards and eating within your calories (eat back at least half your exercise calories) and look for a downward trend in weight over time.
This is a personal preference, and not a hard and fast rule. Many here weigh daily, but use a trending app, and find it helps them understand what their weight is doing. I know I prefer daily (first thing in the morning) weigh-ins but have learned to look at the bigger picture. Sometimes my weight is higher this week then last, but it's because I had a big carb meal and not because I have more fat on me. I've learned to predict these days so there is no surprise. If I was only weighing weekly, it might be more upsetting.
But that is me and the OP will need to figure out what works best for them.
I agree- I weigh myself 2-3 times a week and use a trending app as well. If I only weighed myself, say every Friday, I know I'd get discouraged if I didn't see a loss- sometimes I'll go 10 days with no loss, than BAM-down 2 pounds. I mostly walk for exercise-usually an hour (in PT for messed up shoulder). I eat between 1300-1400 cal. a day. Also first 3 weeks were really sketchy-up and down. Give your body time to adjust.1
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