Working out too much?
tllincoln
Posts: 14 Member
Hello, thanks for reading. I think I’ve hit a plateau and I’m not sure where to go from here. I work out for two hours 5-6 days a week. I like to burn 600-700 calories during a workout. I usually do cardio and weight training. Some days I run 3-6 miles before weights, some days I do sprints and jump rope between weight lifting sets. I’ve eaten really clean pretty consistently. No junk, no alcohol, trying to stay around 1500 calories. The scale and the tape measure will not budge. Could I be working out too much? Not eating enough? I’ve read so many articles and there is so much conflicting information. Any insight would be appreciated! Thanks
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Replies
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Maybe you're losing fat and building muscle at the same time. Do you feel that you're getting leaner?9
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How are you measuring your calories and food intake, and also the workout burn?4
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What's your current height and weight? Additionally how many pounds are you trying to lose a week and do you weight the food you eat?3
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I weigh all my food on a food scale, eat lean meats and complex carbs. I’m 37, 5’2” and 140 pounds. I have an athletic build, trying to get a little leaner while keeping some muscle. I used to strictly run and stayed around 125, then I got injured and started running less and weight lifting more. I know some of my weight is definitely muscle, but Some of it is also stubborn fat. I also have an Apple Watch and track my calories on that. Thanks for replying!0
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I weigh all my food on a food scale, eat lean meats and complex carbs. I’m 37, 5’2” and 140 pounds. I have an athletic build, trying to get a little leaner while keeping some muscle. I used to strictly run and stayed around 125, then I got injured and started running less and weight lifting more. I know some of my weight is definitely muscle, but Some of it is also stubborn fat. I also have an Apple Watch and track my calories on that. Thanks for replying!
That must be it, at least to a certain degree. According to the Body Recomposition megathread and other sources, getting leaner at the same weight takes time.
Another possibility is that you're really not deep into a calorie deficit. If you do mostly weights than cardio, then, maybe 600-700 for exercise calories is an overestimation. Is 1500 net calories? Do you think you can go a bit lower than that?0 -
Apparently, there is a better chance of losing more weight if you only workout for 30 minutes per day, than if you did more (source: Google). I do an average of 30-45 minutes per day, but give it some beans and get a proper sweat going.11
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Thanks! I have some pretty intense workouts. I try to keep my heart rate up between sets with sprints or jump roping, and i always warm up by running a mile then end with running or HIIT. That’s why i asked if maybe i am doing too much cardio. Everything i read says to give a change a month (change in macros, change in workouts, etc) so maybe I’ll try eating more, which scare me a little, and doing more HIIT on weight days and less weight on steady state days.. thanks again!3
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You don't really have a lot of weight to lose.
It's going to be very slow.
How long has it been since you saw any drop in weight? It's common to have weeks with no changes, especially for women.
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Ah, I'm mostly cycling and weight training. Never been much of a runner.
I'll stretch a little first. I don't count the time it takes for that, as it's just loosening-up. 10 min stationary cycle on the second-to-last setting at an average of +25kph, to get my pulse racing a little. Then a 25-30min cycle on the MTB (got a couple of good routes now, which have various grades). Finishing with a couple sets of 10 with various weight training exercises, either when I get back or after a rest (usually knackered because of the current heat lol).
Sometimes I might get up to an hour, if I feel I can do more weights in the afternoon, but rarely go over that. Seems to be working so far, at least for me. We're all different, I guess. There are some who will give the old cardio vs. weights argument, but I don't think either is better than the other. They can both aid with weight loss. It's just finding something that works for you.
Change it up each month? Hmm, I'll have a look at that, should I find it becomes a chore after the next month. Still quite early into my goals, but I'll remember that. Thank you also!0 -
Are you taking a proper rest day?
Are you drinking lots and lots of water?
Are you getting enough sleep?
There is more to the equation than CICO2 -
Yes, you are so right!! I try my best to get in all of the above. Falling short some days (especially sleep). I’m a nurse who works 13 hour shifts with two boys at home with so.much.energy!! But I’m trying to be more mindful of sleep and rest. I usually “rest” on two of my 3 work shifts. Some weeks I don’t workout at all before work though. Just depends on how early I get to bed.Are you taking a proper rest day?
Are you drinking lots and lots of water?
Are you getting enough sleep?
There is more to the equation than CICO
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Sounds like a little overtraining... cortisol release? Could you lower carbs, increase protein... then hold workouts to 1 hour... see what happens.4
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cmriverside wrote: »You don't really have a lot of weight to lose.
It's going to be very slow.
How long has it been since you saw any drop in weight? It's common to have weeks with no changes, especially for women.
QFT1 -
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kevinflemming1982 wrote: »
Quoted for truth.
OP is already at a healthy weight, is very active, and is a woman. Water weight fluctuations could easily be hiding fat loss on the scale for weeks at a time.1 -
kevinflemming1982 wrote: »Apparently, there is a better chance of losing more weight if you only workout for 30 minutes per day, than if you did more (source: Google). I do an average of 30-45 minutes per day, but give it some beans and get a proper sweat going.
Not logical, not reasonable. More activity burns more calories, all other things equal. (Not that one is expected to use exercise per se to increase weight loss rate, if precisely following the process that MFP is designed to support. Exercise is for fitness and health.)
What actually is true: It's probably a good idea for beginners to start at a manageable level of exercise, then gradually increase exercise as their fitness improves, and it becomes manageable to add more duration, intensity, or pace. It may not help weight loss, in practice, if one exercises to complete exhaustion, but the level that will cause exhaustion is very individual. One's usual exercise should leave a person feeling energized for the rest of their day (other than maybe a few minutes of "whew!" feeling right after the workout).
Exercising routinely and consistently to exhaustion can cause us to do less in everyday life, through simple fatigue. We may do less around the home (simplify chores), be less enthusiastic about hobby activities that involve even mild movement (window shopping, say), rest more, fidget less, put off projects, maybe even sleep more. Doing less in daily life means burning fewer calories in daily life, and can potentially offset a significant portion of exercise calories.
I don't know whether the OP is new to exercise, but it doesn't really sound like it. Only she can evaluate her fatigue level. More than 30 minutes a day is entirely consistent with losing weight, if it's not an excessive amount of exercise for the person's fitness level. I'm not an extreme exerciser in the slightest, but lost weight just fine doing an hour or so of fairly energetic exercise 6 days most weeks while losing 50 pounds in a bit less than a year . . . I was used to exercising at that level, had been doing it for over a decade (yes, while obese), and it was fine.5 -
warukimedesu wrote: »Maybe you're losing fat and building muscle at the same time. Do you feel that you're getting leaner?
Possible, but both would be happening very, very slowly.
For a woman like OP, under ideal circumstances (but without performance-enhancing drugs), a quarter pound of muscle-mass gain per week would be a really good result (half a pound for a male). Ideal circumstances include relative youth, good genetics, a well-designed progressive weight training program, good nutrition including adequate protein, and a calorie surplus.
A quarter pound a week of fat loss would be about the slowest loss rate one could perceive, and that probably only with a weight-trending app used over a period of quite a few weeks. It would represent a calorie deficit of about 125 calories daily, a deficit so small it would be difficult to hit precisely because of the unavoidable error factors in tracking. (Note: I'm not saying such a small deficit can't happen. I'm saying it probably can't be accurately targeted/tracked with precision.)
Note that increasing strength doesn't necessarily mean muscle mass is increasing; neuromuscular adaptation, especially in relative beginners, is a potentially quite quick cause of strength gain. (Neuromuscular adaptation is essentially better recruitment and utilization of existing muscle fibers.) Neither is appearance improvement necessarily an indication of muscle mass increase. Sometimes people are deceived into thinking they're gaining muscle mass faster than realistic, based on signficantly improved strength, a bit of muscle fullness from the water retention, and related improvements to appearance.
I wish it were so easy to gain muscle mass that it could mask fat loss at any reasonable rate! Unfortunately, if anything is masking fat loss on the scale, it's usually either water weight or changes in average digestive contents.0 -
Apple watch calorie burns aren't accurate, they can be up to 30% out so don't rely 100% on what it says you've burnt.1
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kevinflemming1982 wrote: »Apparently, there is a better chance of losing more weight if you only workout for 30 minutes per day, than if you did more (source: Google). I do an average of 30-45 minutes per day, but give it some beans and get a proper sweat going.
Only possible if you are leaving something major out. Please provide an actual link. Google is a search engine, not a source
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Exercise won't halt your ability to lose fat - you may have body composition issues and/or appetite/hunger issues if you're not fueling yourself properly. There are plenty of sources for macro breakdowns, but there's also a little bit of what your body wants/needs which the fine tuning can take some experimenting.
Not eating enough while working out tends to lower your TDEE in small ways, little things that add up over time, which is why people get the impression they aren't "eating enough" to lose weight. Over training without proper fuel means your body and mind start to conserve energy in other ways by reducing tiny, small activities and movements you may not even notice you are no longer doing.
Chances are you're over estimating your burn or your tracking is off. It's not hard to miss a few hundred calories a day in tracking - a nibble of this, an extra small taste of that, an overflowing teaspoon of those and pretty soon, the small deficit someone your size/activity should have disappears. Add in slightly off burn numbers, and you could easily be at maintenance or just barely in a deficit, which can be VERY hard to track over time without several other tools in your pocket.0 -
I weigh all my food on a food scale, eat lean meats and complex carbs. I’m 37, 5’2” and 140 pounds. I have an athletic build, trying to get a little leaner while keeping some muscle. I used to strictly run and stayed around 125, then I got injured and started running less and weight lifting more. I know some of my weight is definitely muscle, but Some of it is also stubborn fat. I also have an Apple Watch and track my calories on that. Thanks for replying!
Remember your watch cannot measure calories.
It can very roughly estimate energy use by using other metrics and then making a series of assumptions but that rough estimate can be miles away from reality.
Your routine does sound very hit and miss though - the idea of lifting is not to wear yourself out between lifts, would suggest stop trying to just burn more calories and think of the quality of your training and the return on the effort you put in, that doesn't mean panting for breath all the time!
Could you be over-training? Maybe.
(Which can affect your scale weight through water retention, but won't affect your rate of underlying fat loss if your logging is accurate and you are in a true deficit.)
The way to find out would be to have a couple of easy weeks.
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