I do between 2 to 3 hours of cardio a day and I'm still gaining weight, please help.
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Most likely water weight, and additional waste. You ate more, part of it is probably still in your intestines. Of course that also has a weight.1
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SportyKirsty wrote: »HI
3500 is about 1000 more calories than the average sized man requires to sustain their weight so by eating 3500 you are likely to gain in many instances. Note i say average sized - perhaps at your original starting point 3500 was a suitable consumption for weight loss but as you've worked out and lost weight that initial figure isnt going to be the same. A smaller man wont need the same calories to sustain their weight, so do you need to review youer needs?
When you exercise, what exercise are you doing? cardio, strength and conditioning? these can vary greatly in the calorie burn, after burn, are you drinking fluids throughout your workouts? is your salt intake too high so are you retaining water? are you weighing yourself in the same clothes and at the same time of day.
Also how are you recording your food and exercise are you under estimating food and over estimating exercise? ive noticed a lot of the exercise readings on this are incorrect as its specific perhaps to the person who created the entry and I don't know their stats.
Also the more exercise you do the more muscle you can build, muscle is more dense than fat. don't just rate your success and failures on your weight do a measure of how you feel in your own clothes, get a measuring tape.
Hope all this helps! xx
3500 is on average with 2-3 hours of cardio.
Treadmill elliptical up outside running. I'm in the Washington DC area so it's been really cold and I haven't been able to run outside as much. When I use a cardio machine I always enter my info and jack up the intensity and resistance.
I track on my fitbit, the machine I'm using and my heart rate. Also for outaide runs I use Samsung health.
Yes under estimate my workout and over estimate my food. For example, I had coffe with almond milk this morning, i loged a half cup of the milk even tho I know it's less than that but can't say for sure.
Thanks for the detailed reply.3 -
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speedingticket wrote: »How much of your cardio is running, and how many miles are you running a week? It's not massively relevant to your weight gain, I would just be concerned about injury risk (which is obviously very relevant to keeping weight off). I understand wanting to exercise more than is strictly necessary for weight loss- I am a runner/triathlete, and I train for my health (physical and psychological) not weight loss (if anything it can make it much harder)...but 2-3 hours is a lot. I am hoping/assuming that a lot of those hours are cross training and/or resistance training (although that wouldn't count as cardio so maybe not?).
Conservatively I'm in the low 40's high 50's each week for miles.
2-3 hours is all running. Once a week I do abs, chest and back via weight training. Maybe 25-30 minutes.4 -
You're at a healthy weight and have a BMI of 23. Losing weight beyond that is very challenging. You have to be very strict and there can be no slip ups. Your sedentary TDEE is 2,200 calories and you say you're eating 3,600.
You also say you're doing cardio three hours a day, but don't say what that means. Are you spending 180 minutes a day with your heart rate > 160 beats per minute seven days a week? If not, you're not doing three hours of cardio. Also, you say you're boring between 2,400 and 2,600 calories a day. Even with 180 minutes of true cardio, theres no way you're burning that much. More like 2,000 calories.
So it sounds to me like you're overeating slightly and overestimating exercise calories slightly, which when you were heavier still resulted in weight loss, but now that you are within a suggested weight range, it results in maintenance instead of weight loss.11 -
charlied8817 wrote: »I work out 1 hr / day. I'm 6'1" about 205 lbs, and my settings put me at 1810 calories per day. I don't eat the additional calories for Net Calories. I stay at 1810, or a hair lower. I have my set a sedentary since I work at my desk most of the day, and set at 1 lb / week loss. I am set a 40% carbs / 35% prot / 25% fat. Are you watching your Macros as well?
To me 3600 calories a day is way too much, don't trust that it says your are burning 2600 calories each day. You are eating double what I eat per day. I would try dropping down to 2200 calories per day and watch your macros.
I under estimate my exercise calories and RARELY eat anywhere near my total for the day. I normally eat 35-50% back.
I'm normally at 23-26k steps daily.
You put this in your post though?
"I eat about 3,600 calories ( 45-50 carb 25 fat rest protein- I rarely hit my fat )on average"
Also, if you are trying to lose weight just stick to your Calories, not the Net Calories.7 -
You're at a healthy weight and have a BMI of 23. Losing weight beyond that is very challenging. You have to be very strict and there can be no slip ups. Your sedentary TDEE is 2,200 calories and you say you're eating 3,600.
You also say you're doing cardio three hours a day, but don't say what that means. Are you spending 180 minutes a day with your heart rate > 160 beats per minute seven days a week? If not, you're not doing three hours of cardio. Also, you say you're boring between 2,400 and 2,600 calories a day. Even with 180 minutes of true cardio, theres no way you're burning that much. More like 2,000 calories.
So it sounds to me like you're overeating slightly and overestimating exercise calories slightly, which when you were heavier still resulted in weight loss, but now that you are within a suggested weight range, it results in maintenance instead of weight loss.
To clarify, the two to three hours of cardio a day is a mixture of cardio machines like the elliptical as well as outside running. According to Fitbit and manually taking my pulse my rates it's between 145 and 165. Fitbit says I'm approximately 50% in fat burn and Cardio.
On days when my work out there towards the top, the three hour a day or longer, if I eat under 3000 calories I feel like a zombie.
Thanks for the input , I really appreciate your detailed response.4 -
charlied8817 wrote: »I work out 1 hr / day. I'm 6'1" about 205 lbs, and my settings put me at 1810 calories per day. I don't eat the additional calories for Net Calories. I stay at 1810, or a hair lower. I have my set a sedentary since I work at my desk most of the day, and set at 1 lb / week loss. I am set a 40% carbs / 35% prot / 25% fat. Are you watching your Macros as well?
To me 3600 calories a day is way too much, don't trust that it says your are burning 2600 calories each day. You are eating double what I eat per day. I would try dropping down to 2200 calories per day and watch your macros.
I under estimate my exercise calories and RARELY eat anywhere near my total for the day. I normally eat 35-50% back.
I'm normally at 23-26k steps daily.
You put this in your post though?
"I eat about 3,600 calories ( 45-50 carb 25 fat rest protein- I rarely hit my fat )on average"
Also, if you are trying to lose weight just stick to your Calories, not the Net Calories.
I rarely eat all my calories back from exercise according to my fitness pal is what I meant. I normally finish each day with about a thousand calories in the green. Also I it's very common for me to miss my fat macros by quite a bit.
Sorry for any confusion and I appreciate your multiple responses.2 -
charlied8817 wrote: »You're at a healthy weight and have a BMI of 23. Losing weight beyond that is very challenging. You have to be very strict and there can be no slip ups. Your sedentary TDEE is 2,200 calories and you say you're eating 3,600.
You also say you're doing cardio three hours a day, but don't say what that means. Are you spending 180 minutes a day with your heart rate > 160 beats per minute seven days a week? If not, you're not doing three hours of cardio. Also, you say you're boring between 2,400 and 2,600 calories a day. Even with 180 minutes of true cardio, theres no way you're burning that much. More like 2,000 calories.
So it sounds to me like you're overeating slightly and overestimating exercise calories slightly, which when you were heavier still resulted in weight loss, but now that you are within a suggested weight range, it results in maintenance instead of weight loss.
To clarify, the two to three hours of cardio a day is a mixture of cardio machines like the elliptical as well as outside running. According to Fitbit and manually taking my pulse my rates it's between 145 and 165. Fitbit says I'm approximately 50% in fat burn and Cardio.
On days when my work out there towards the top, the three hour a day or longer, if I eat under 3000 calories I feel like a zombie.
Thanks for the input , I really appreciate your detailed response.
Just curious on your zombie comment. Are you making sure you are getting in enough fiber and protein?1 -
charlied8817 wrote: »You're at a healthy weight and have a BMI of 23. Losing weight beyond that is very challenging. You have to be very strict and there can be no slip ups. Your sedentary TDEE is 2,200 calories and you say you're eating 3,600.
You also say you're doing cardio three hours a day, but don't say what that means. Are you spending 180 minutes a day with your heart rate > 160 beats per minute seven days a week? If not, you're not doing three hours of cardio. Also, you say you're boring between 2,400 and 2,600 calories a day. Even with 180 minutes of true cardio, theres no way you're burning that much. More like 2,000 calories.
So it sounds to me like you're overeating slightly and overestimating exercise calories slightly, which when you were heavier still resulted in weight loss, but now that you are within a suggested weight range, it results in maintenance instead of weight loss.
To clarify, the two to three hours of cardio a day is a mixture of cardio machines like the elliptical as well as outside running. According to Fitbit and manually taking my pulse my rates it's between 145 and 165. Fitbit says I'm approximately 50% in fat burn and Cardio.
On days when my work out there towards the top, the three hour a day or longer, if I eat under 3000 calories I feel like a zombie.
Thanks for the input , I really appreciate your detailed response.
Just curious on your zombie comment. Are you making sure you are getting in enough fiber and protein?
I ate a lot of veggies so I finish with about 50 grams of fiber a each day.
35 to 40% of my daily end up being protein.1 -
charlied8817 wrote: »charlied8817 wrote: »You're at a healthy weight and have a BMI of 23. Losing weight beyond that is very challenging. You have to be very strict and there can be no slip ups. Your sedentary TDEE is 2,200 calories and you say you're eating 3,600.
You also say you're doing cardio three hours a day, but don't say what that means. Are you spending 180 minutes a day with your heart rate > 160 beats per minute seven days a week? If not, you're not doing three hours of cardio. Also, you say you're boring between 2,400 and 2,600 calories a day. Even with 180 minutes of true cardio, theres no way you're burning that much. More like 2,000 calories.
So it sounds to me like you're overeating slightly and overestimating exercise calories slightly, which when you were heavier still resulted in weight loss, but now that you are within a suggested weight range, it results in maintenance instead of weight loss.
To clarify, the two to three hours of cardio a day is a mixture of cardio machines like the elliptical as well as outside running. According to Fitbit and manually taking my pulse my rates it's between 145 and 165. Fitbit says I'm approximately 50% in fat burn and Cardio.
On days when my work out there towards the top, the three hour a day or longer, if I eat under 3000 calories I feel like a zombie.
Thanks for the input , I really appreciate your detailed response.
Just curious on your zombie comment. Are you making sure you are getting in enough fiber and protein?
I ate a lot of veggies so I finish with about 50 grams of fiber a each day.
35 to 40% of my daily end up being protein.
You may want to target 2200 calories for a while, and see if your body adjusts. Or drop to 2500 for a bit, then 2200. You may have slowed down your metabolism at that many calories and your body adjusted to it.9 -
It sounds like you're a bit too quick to think something's wrong. The body can indeed hold onto water and waste weight for a while certainly more than a few days if the condition are right. As others have said, don't change what you're doing if you were steadily losing and then suddenly gained. Give it 2-3 weeks and then evaluate what's happening.
As far as your calorie burns, it's very hard to burn more than 600 calories per hour, 3 hours a day, six days a week, while eating at a deficit, and be able to maintain that long term. It's a ton of stress on your systems. So you're either overestimating your calorie burns, underestimating your eating, our your body really is hitting the wall and holding tons of water in an attempt to repair all that damage. Maybe some combination of all three.
Anyway, stick it out for another couple weeks and see how things change.8 -
charlied8817 wrote: »I eat about 3,600 calories ( 45-50 carb 25 fat rest protein- I rarely hit my fat )on average, I have an active lifestyle
Are you by any chance a miner or work in the fields like digging the ground all day? 3600 calories is a huge lot! "active lifestyle" as walking around all day doesn't warrant you all that food! Well, unless you do manual labour, really heavy manual labour.
If you gained it means you are still eating more than you burn and to be honest I'm not surprised.
Review that daily goal, it's a huge lot of food, really -it's too much. Set your daily activity to something lower.3 -
Looking at this thread in its entirety, I'm left with a nagging question: what are you trying to accomplish exactly?
You've done great with your weight loss. More cardio isn't going to be the ticket. It's a much smaller component of weight loss than calorie deficit. If you have not lost weight over a significant period of time, it's because you do not have a caloric deficit (whatever the reason).
But.....back to the original question. What is your goal? Is it a specific look? Is it a number on the scale (I hope not)? Is it body composition?
Cardio is great for conditioning. It aids in weight loss to an extent, but at the same time it can inhibit it some. It does not make you stronger so your body composition is not likely to change much. It also produces cortisol, a hormone that serves to regulate your metabolism lower. This is not "starvation mode", but it is also not insignificant. When your body is stressed, it holds water - sometimes for a long time.
You mention weight training and specific areas you are targeting. What's your program? Is it heavy? Is it progressive overload? (If it's not both of those things, it's not likely building any muscle). What's your goal when it comes to lifting?
Your numbers don't suggest to me that your weight is any kind of problem. And, given your height, my hunch is that you would look better above 200 than at 180 - especially if you train for strength.10 -
It sounds like you're a bit too quick to think something's wrong. The body can indeed hold onto water and waste weight for a while certainly more than a few days if the condition are right. As others have said, don't change what you're doing if you were steadily losing and then suddenly gained. Give it 2-3 weeks and then evaluate what's happening.
As far as your calorie burns, it's very hard to burn more than 600 calories per hour, 3 hours a day, six days a week, while eating at a deficit, and be able to maintain that long term. It's a ton of stress on your systems. So you're either overestimating your calorie burns, underestimating your eating, our your body really is hitting the wall and holding tons of water in an attempt to repair all that damage. Maybe some combination of all three.
Anyway, stick it out for another couple weeks and see how things change.
I know my work out routine might be a little crazy. I'm in the gym/ running three times a day. Before work, at lunch and after. Although I use carsio machines I under estimate my calories burned. I do the machines alot to limit the stress on my joints and to this point , knock on eood, I've not had any injuries.
Is there a formula i can use to better estimate?
I based my calories on heart rate mostly. AI if my work out that day was lighter amd my heart rate wasn't in the 140's or 50's consistently I'll record less than if it's in the higher range.5 -
Since you are tracking the exercise calories you burn and logging it to increase your calorie allowance, then you need to make sure that your activity level selected is in line with your activity level when you are not exercising. If you consider yourself highly active because of your 2-3 hours of cardio per day, then you are double counting your calories when you log the exercise separately.7
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Silentpadna wrote: »Looking at this thread in its entirety, I'm left with a nagging question: what are you trying to accomplish exactly?
You've done great with your weight loss. More cardio isn't going to be the ticket. It's a much smaller component of weight loss than calorie deficit. If you have not lost weight over a significant period of time, it's because you do not have a caloric deficit (whatever the reason).
But.....back to the original question. What is your goal? Is it a specific look? Is it a number on the scale (I hope not)? Is it body composition?
Cardio is great for conditioning. It aids in weight loss to an extent, but at the same time it can inhibit it some. It does not make you stronger so your body composition is not likely to change much. It also produces cortisol, a hormone that serves to regulate your metabolism lower. This is not "starvation mode", but it is also not insignificant. When your body is stressed, it holds water - sometimes for a long time.
You mention weight training and specific areas you are targeting. What's your program? Is it heavy? Is it progressive overload? (If it's not both of those things, it's not likely building any muscle). What's your goal when it comes to lifting?
Your numbers don't suggest to me that your weight is any kind of problem. And, given your height, my hunch is that you would look better above 200 than at 180 - especially if you train for strength.
I had a number of 175 in mind. I still feel like I'm heavy.
Long story short, like most people on here, I woke up ine day and stopped making excuses for being unhealthy and turned my life around.
So I started running. At first it was 30 minutes a day and gradually increased to a few hours a day. It's very time consuming, but the routine works for me.
I'd like to run a half marathon in the next year. In terms of body type, I still feel even at 182, I have about 10lbs to go.
I would say my weight training is light. 3 sets 8 reps of bench, row, lat pull, bi's tri's and a few ab work outs.
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charlied8817 wrote: »I eat about 3,600 calories ( 45-50 carb 25 fat rest protein- I rarely hit my fat )on average, I have an active lifestyle
Are you by any chance a miner or work in the fields like digging the ground all day? 3600 calories is a huge lot! "active lifestyle" as walking around all day doesn't warrant you all that food! Well, unless you do manual labour, really heavy manual labour.
If you gained it means you are still eating more than you burn and to be honest I'm not surprised.
Review that daily goal, it's a huge lot of food, really -it's too much. Set your daily activity to something lower.
Very insightful. I thought the active lifestyle was all in, work out and non gym life.
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You likely weighed at a dehydrated state for a low point of 182.4, then had a salty meal followed by working out which stimulated increased cellular uptake (water weight). Then you weighed in at a hydrated state. Nothing unusual. Stick to the routine. Hydrate as needed and check back in about 5-7 days. For reference my weight fluctuates ~5 lbs throughout the day at 6'4" 226 lb.
It does seem that your CI is a bit high, but I don't know the intensity of your sessions. Focus on long term trends, not fluctuations over a few days.
Need to focus on primary goals and then primary factors first.
1. What is your end goal?
Once you define this ensure you have an overall strategy and tactics to support this goal.4 -
OP, you are in the healthy weight range, so weight loss (real weight loss, meaning fat) will be slow. You are never one weight, your weight fluctuates all the time every day. There is lots of stuff in your body other than fat, and that stuff's weight fluctuates as a normal part of your body functioning. Most people have a weight range of 5-10 lbs.
Water weight can come on suddenly and leave slowly. It can come on slowly and leave suddenly. It all depends on why it's there. You really don't need to (and probably) shouldn't do anything to try to force water or still digesting food out to see a nicer number on the scale.
You started out heavy, and it was easy for you to lose weight fast enough that you didn't even notice your body's normal fluctuations. Now that you are at a healthy weight, the weight loss slows down, and can be hidden or amplified by those normal fluctuations. Now is the time that you need patience and faith in the process.
Weigh yourself every day, first thing in the morning after you use the bathroom. Do not weigh yourself at any other time. I would give the water weight jump you experienced until at least 1 week later before considering there might be some weight gain in there. (Alternatively, you can try only weighing once a week if you can't wrap your head around waiting patiently through daily fluctuations.)
Watch your weight trend over weeks. If you continue to see a slight rise or maintenance at this higher level, reduce your goal by 250 calories and give it another couple of weeks to see what happens. Lather, rinse, repeat. You are doing a ton of exercise, and the amount of calories you burn in all that time could be highly variable based on all sorts of things. If your body has gotten a little more efficient in the last year of exercise, you simply might not be burning quite as much as you used to.
If you're doing all that exercise because you think you need to to lose weight, you don't. It would be fine to dial that back a little and eat a little less if it's a chore for you. But if you enjoy it or you have fitness goals it contributes to, more power to you! Hang in there9
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