I’m Baffled...

So, I work out 5xs a week (Mon-Fri) 75 mins of cardio (not doing weight training right now as I’m pretty solid form years of working out)

I earn 800-1000 calories back for working out and NEVER eat them back.

I allow myself to exceed my calories on Sundays and sometimes Saturday (but, with the amount of calls I’m banking during the week, that should have zero effect)

I weigh/count everything!! Now, I’m in drinking 128oz water a day (I hadn’t been drinking enough)

So, that being said WTF I’ve lost 1.7 pounds in a month AND I weighed only once because I bloat so badly one week before AND after MC.

I damn near in tears, lol, not yet, but I feel like it... I WANT MY WHOOOSH!!!

Replies

seska422

It sounds like your weekends are using up most of your exercise calories so you are eating them back. Are you tracking weekends as closely as you do weekdays?

Weighing once only gives you two data points, your starting weight and your current weight. The more data you have, the better you can see your overall weight trend. You need to look at your weight trend over months. Fat loss can hide behind fluid variations.

betty_veronica4

I agree with the PP. Are you truly logging every morsel? You say that you allow to exceed on Sunday and sometimes Saturday but that it SHOULD have zero effect. If you are truly logging everything, you would know, with certainty, if it was having an impact. I suspect your weekend indulgences are setting you back more than you think.

I would suggest logging everything faithfully for a few weeks and then see if it has an impact.

erickirb

That seems like a lot of cardio! esp considering you are not eating any of the cals back, or strength training. If continuing this way, a large % of your loss will end up coming from lean muscle, not just fat.

Now on to your cals. Do you have the correct daily activity level set? maybe you picked active and should be lite active or sedentary?
How do you calculate calories burned from exercise? there is a good chance that you are overestimating as it is hard to sustain a burn of >10 cals/minute over 75 minutes, my guess is you are overestimating by 20-30%, unless you are 300+lbs.
When weighing your food and logging it, are you ensuring the journal entries or correct? much of the stuff in the database is user entered, and may not be accurate.
Do you log your higher calorie days with the same precision?

Dlrp1962

Have you done your measurements? So much of what I have read has said that measurements are a better indicator of fat loss than is weighing. But that said, I feel your pain. I am experiencing somewhat the same. I dont exercise to the extent you do and I follow a LCHF diet all week, I drink 100+ oz of water a day and I have yet to have the whoosh. I do feel good and ultimately that is the overall goal.

GoalGal50

seska422 wrote: »

It sounds like your weekends are using up most of your exercise calories so you are eating them back. Are you tracking weekends as closely as you do weekdays?

Weighing once only gives you two data points, your starting weight and your current weight. The more data you have, the better you can see your overall weight trend. You need to look at your weight trend over months. Fat loss can hide behind fluid variations.

If I’m going over on Sat and Suns its only by a 300-400 calories each day, BUT I’m burning 800-1000 calories 5 times which should give me damn near 4000-5000 calories in addition to my 1800 allotment. I’m not eating that back and I count / weigh everything every day for the last 65 days

zyxst

What are you using to measure your exercise calorie burns? IMO, you're not burning anywhere near 800 calories for 75 minutes of cardio, even running flat-out for your life.

NatalieHarr1993

This happened to me except I was maintaining my weight. I was so upset that I wasn't losing any weight after working so hard. I would eat a calorie deficit during the week (1000 - 1200 calories per day Mon - Fri) to make up for the eating I done on the weekends plus do at least 5 days training a week (Mixed cardio & strength). Eventually I had enough & start logging / weighing my foods over the weekends. Turns out I was eating back the calories I had saved up during the week so my weight was not going anywhere! Once I controlled my food 7 days a week I lost 17lbs in 2 months. It is possible you just have to really get a handle on calories in to calories out. I also done 2 weeks of the Keto diet to give my metabolism an extra kick. Feel free to message me for any tips needed.

Sharon_C

Sounds like you are overestimating your calorie burn and underestimating your calorie intake. In other words I think you're eating more than you think and burning less than you think. It's very hard to burn 1000 calories a day in exercise unless you are very overweight. And then come the weekends you're eating more than you think which is now putting you in maintenance calories.

seska422

Well, here are some possibilities:

1. You aren't burning as many calories as you think you are. It's hard to get a good estimate of actual calories burned.

2. You aren't tracking your calorie intake as accurately as you think you are. Calorie counting has a learning curve and I was still learning new things months after I started.

3. You've lost more weight than you think you have but you don't know because you don't have enough weigh ins yet to see your overall trend.

gamesandgains

Why so much cardio? Cardio should never be your primary tool to lose weight, it should be your diet. I agree with the other comments, if you're not tracking on the weekend, you're doing yourself a disservice. "Zero effect" does not work here. There is a cause and effect to everything, as you're seeing now.

GoalGal50

erickirb wrote: »

That seems like a lot of cardio! esp considering you are not eating any of the cals back, or strength training. If continuing this way, a large % of your loss will end up coming from lean muscle, not just fat.

Now on to your cals. Do you have the correct daily activity level set? maybe you picked active and should be lite active or sedentary?
How do you calculate calories burned from exercise? there is a good chance that you are overestimating as it is hard to sustain a burn of >10 cals/minute over 75 minutes, my guess is you are overestimating by 20-30%, unless you are 300+lbs.
When weighing your food and logging it, are you ensuring the journal entries or correct? much of the stuff in the database is user entered, and may not be accurate.
Do you log your higher calorie days with the same precision?

The calories burned from cardio are taken from the machine, which I know is subjective so I don’t eat them. I stick to my 1800 a day, BUT if I went over by 1000 a day, (which I don’t) I still would be in a range where I should be hitting goal. I only eat what’s countable. I don’t nibble. Either I eat or don’t eat. I log everything everyday.

When I wasn’t drinking enough water, meaning like 23 oz at the gym only, then I figure because I wasn’t drinking enough, I was retaining. So I picked it up to a gallon a day.

Not for nothing, but I’ve been a gym rat for 20+ years, I’ve been doing this cardio burn high intensity for years. Even when I’m off on my eating I’ve stayed loyal at the gym. Lol, I juts one of those people you see at the gym who looks exactly the same. However, I also don’t look like I weigh as much as I do. When I ask people to guess, they are usually around 175-180, but really I’m 241 with 65% muscle mass. That’s why I don’t weight train. 35% of my body is fat so I’d like to burn that. My body is very deceiving

GoalGal50

gamesandgains wrote: »

Why so much cardio? Cardio should never be your primary tool to lose weight, it should be your diet. I agree with the other comments, if you're not tracking on the weekend, you're doing yourself a disservice. "Zero effect" does not work here. There is a cause and effect to everything, as you're seeing now.

Again, I’ve been doing this for years so I definitely know that Exercise Period is not a weight loss tool. Weight loss is about CICO because you can lose weight with no exercise at all.

GoalGal50

Thanks everyone I’ll figure it out. I actually tried to delete this post almost immediately after writing it, but I couldn’t figure out how.

Tacklewasher

GoalGal50 wrote: »

Thanks everyone I’ll figure it out. I actually tried to delete this post almost immediately after writing it, but I couldn’t figure out how.

You can flag your own post, select other and ask for it to be deleted.

But I think you've gotten some good responses so I'd encourage you to leave it as is.

Machka9

GoalGal50 wrote: »

So, I work out 5xs a week (Mon-Fri) 75 mins of cardio (not doing weight training right now as I’m pretty solid form years of working out)

I earn 800-1000 calories back for working out and NEVER eat them back.

I damn near in tears, lol, not yet, but I feel like it... I WANT MY WHOOOSH!!!

The whole time I lost weight, I never had a whoosh.

GoalGal50 wrote: »

If I’m going over on Sat and Suns its only by a 300-400 calories each day, BUT I’m burning 800-1000 calories 5 times which should give me damn near 4000-5000 calories in addition to my 1800 allotment. I’m not eating that back and I count / weigh everything every day for the last 65 days

I think your calorie count is off.

First, it would take some effort to burn 800-1000 calories in only 75 minutes. Cycling, I would burn about 500 calories in that time.

Second, why 1800 calories? Are you very tall? At 5'6", my maintenance is 1500 calories.

Have you entered your info into MFP?

erickirb

GoalGal50 wrote: »

seska422 wrote: »

It sounds like your weekends are using up most of your exercise calories so you are eating them back. Are you tracking weekends as closely as you do weekdays?

Weighing once only gives you two data points, your starting weight and your current weight. The more data you have, the better you can see your overall weight trend. You need to look at your weight trend over months. Fat loss can hide behind fluid variations.

If I’m going over on Sat and Suns its only by a 300-400 calories each day, BUT I’m burning 800-1000 calories 5 times which should give me damn near 4000-5000 calories in addition to my 1800 allotment. I’m not eating that back and I count / weigh everything every day for the last 65 days

I doubt you are really burning 800-1000 each day, probably more like 500-600, but even then if you don't log on the weekend you won't really know how much you are over, plus if your TDEE is 100+ cals lower than MFP thinks it is that eating into 700 cals of a deficit. It is trial and error over time.

if you are not losing what is expected could be the entries you are using, calories burned not what you input, calories consumed higher than you think by using wrong database entry or estimating some days/things.

sschauer513

If you have been doing cardio and gym for so long your body does quickly adapt so your burn rate will be much lower. But it's all a struggle we all face but it is all CICO so log as best you can but the idea of cheat weekends should be first to go.

quiksylver296

Did you ever get a food scale?

ladyhusker39

I feel like this is more of a rant than a request for help, which is cool. We all need to vent occasionally. So I'll just say that I totally get what you're saying. Even if you're not strictly accounting for everything accurately it sounds like you are doing lots of great things and that maybe what's needed here is patience. Something I sometimes sorely lack myself.

Good luck.

livingleanlivingclean

GoalGal50 wrote: »

erickirb wrote: »

That seems like a lot of cardio! esp considering you are not eating any of the cals back, or strength training. If continuing this way, a large % of your loss will end up coming from lean muscle, not just fat.

Now on to your cals. Do you have the correct daily activity level set? maybe you picked active and should be lite active or sedentary?
How do you calculate calories burned from exercise? there is a good chance that you are overestimating as it is hard to sustain a burn of >10 cals/minute over 75 minutes, my guess is you are overestimating by 20-30%, unless you are 300+lbs.
When weighing your food and logging it, are you ensuring the journal entries or correct? much of the stuff in the database is user entered, and may not be accurate.
Do you log your higher calorie days with the same precision?

Not for nothing, but I’ve been a gym rat for 20+ years, I’ve been doing this cardio burn high intensity for years. Even when I’m off on my eating I’ve stayed loyal at the gym. Lol, I juts one of those people you see at the gym who looks exactly the same. However, I also don’t look like I weigh as much as I do. When I ask people to guess, they are usually around 175-180, but really I’m 241 with 65% muscle mass. That’s why I don’t weight train. 35% of my body is fat so I’d like to burn that. My body is very deceiving

In my experience, the people who train a lot who never change their physique are the ones who aren't eating appropriately for their goals....

erickirb

GoalGal50 wrote: »

erickirb wrote: »

That seems like a lot of cardio! esp considering you are not eating any of the cals back, or strength training. If continuing this way, a large % of your loss will end up coming from lean muscle, not just fat.

Now on to your cals. Do you have the correct daily activity level set? maybe you picked active and should be lite active or sedentary?
How do you calculate calories burned from exercise? there is a good chance that you are overestimating as it is hard to sustain a burn of >10 cals/minute over 75 minutes, my guess is you are overestimating by 20-30%, unless you are 300+lbs.
When weighing your food and logging it, are you ensuring the journal entries or correct? much of the stuff in the database is user entered, and may not be accurate.
Do you log your higher calorie days with the same precision?

The calories burned from cardio are taken from the machine, which I know is subjective so I don’t eat them. I stick to my 1800 a day, BUT if I went over by 1000 a day, (which I don’t) I still would be in a range where I should be hitting goal. I only eat what’s countable. I don’t nibble. Either I eat or don’t eat. I log everything everyday.

When I wasn’t drinking enough water, meaning like 23 oz at the gym only, then I figure because I wasn’t drinking enough, I was retaining. So I picked it up to a gallon a day.

Not for nothing, but I’ve been a gym rat for 20+ years, I’ve been doing this cardio burn high intensity for years. Even when I’m off on my eating I’ve stayed loyal at the gym. Lol, I juts one of those people you see at the gym who looks exactly the same. However, I also don’t look like I weigh as much as I do. When I ask people to guess, they are usually around 175-180, but really I’m 241 with 65% muscle mass. That’s why I don’t weight train. 35% of my body is fat so I’d like to burn that. My body is very deceiving

FYI, having a BF% of 35%, means 65% is fat-free mass, not muscle, bone is there as well as organs etc. So at 35% BF%, that is a reason to lift weights lower the bf% with keeping muscle

Spliner1969

Sharon_C wrote: »

Sounds like you are overestimating your calorie burn and underestimating your calorie intake.

That's the solution. Log it all. No biggie if you go over on the weekends, but accurate and complete logging will give you the answer. Also, cut your calorie burn in half, you're not burning what you think you are burning most likely. Also, doing the same cardio over and over means your body will get more efficient at that same exercise over time. So if you're hitting an elliptical for 75 minutes a day, try changing it up to something different every other time, run on a treadmill, or switch to power walking. Either way your calorie burns are way too high most likely. My apps will tell me in a 100-110minute session of circuit training that I burn 1000+ calories. Not. More like 500ish. Always figure your app or device estimates to be 50% inflated and you will be closer to your actual burns.

WinoGelato

Everything you’re describing sounds extreme - you are doing more cardio than needed, estimating very large burns, not eating back any of those calories, then going over the top on the weekends and only weighing yourself on an infrequent basis. Why the big extremes? Why not try for a more modest approach all the way around - a little less cardio, more conservative burn estimates, eat back about 50% of the calories daily. Don’t have big cheat days on the weekends, and weigh yourself regularly to be more attuned to your body’s natural fluctuations.

mom23mangos

Sharon_C wrote: »

Sounds like you are overestimating your calorie burn and underestimating your calorie intake. In other words I think you're eating more than you think and burning less than you think. It's very hard to burn 1000 calories a day in exercise unless you are very overweight. And then come the weekends you're eating more than you think which is now putting you in maintenance calories.

^Agree. I know I only burn about 300 calories from 75min of cardio. And if you've been doing it for years, your body has become very efficient and you will burn way less calories than you expect.