Basically about to give up
Captainbodiddly
Posts: 2 Member
I am 5'11" and 300 pounds. I am in the process of quitting smoking and I've been going to a gym now for over a month, with personal training sessions 3 times a week. My HRM says I'm burning 1,000+ calories each session, and at least 400 calories a day just walking. My diet is around 1,700 calories a day, and 2,000 on days I work out. I have a cheat day once a week, but that rarely tops 2,500. I have made ZERO progress this month. I weight the same, my body fat has stayed between 36.9 and 37.1, my clothes fit the same, I look the same (pictures), and I feel the same. I am just so angry and frustrated right now. I feel like my options are cutting out food entirely or looking into illegal stimulants. I'd rather do it the "right" way but I'm making LITERALLY no progress at all.
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Replies
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before you give up, do you use a food scale to measure everything that you put in your mouth? If you are accurate and consistent with staying at your calorie goal, you will lose weight. Give it more time than a month.9
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Have you asked your personal trainer for any advice?
I imagine how discouraged you must be but talk with the trainer, discuss it with your doctor. Other than that, I guess I'd try to lower the amount of calories a bit because we can never be sure of the accuracy of calories we take in or burn. And hang in there!! You're going the right route and will get there!! Just get more info and do some tweaking, then you'll start seeing a difference. Accuracy is an important factor. Good luck!!1 -
No you have made great progress.
You are stopping smoking that is a huge and wonderful thing to do for your health (plus it is nice to everyone around you)
You have started going to the gym. I would log by activity in mfp and eat back only half the gym calories as heart rate monitors are notoriously bad particularly for recent smokers
How many calories is MFP giving you to lose 1 lb a week? Are you weighing everything solid or semisolid and volumes on calorie containing liquids? If not get a digital food scale and start
Also are you weighing yourself every morning after bathroom in the same attire? Because daily fluxes happen and trend lines matter most. I use libra on android but hear i people like happy scale.
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If you give up, nothing changes. Even if you don't see movement on the scale, you're doing other things to improve your health, and probably are starting to feel the positive changes of that? Stick with it, cutting out food altogether won't help, you'll crash and burn.
If the gym workouts are new and progressive in nature, you may be retaining water, if your logging is accurate and you're eating 1700 calories per day, the scale will reflect the changes eventually, it just sometimes takes a while to catch up.
Body fat is very hard to accurately calculate, body fat scale are not an accurate measure.
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I'm so sorry this is happening. I totally understand your frustration. Do you have any option to talk to a dietician or your trainer to see if you could change something in your daily calories? Maybe - I don't know for sure - you aren't eating enough. If you are that active and burn so many calories, perhaps your TDEE is higher than you think.
I hope you find some answers. And despite your frustration I hope you don't give up.4 -
Everyone's bodies are different. Some people lose weight almost immediately while others do not see significant progress until much later. There are many other things that will show improvement before you start to lose weight. At your size I would be very surprised if you are not diabetic. Are you tracking your blood sugar? My wife did not see results with weight for months, but her blood sugar numbers dropped dramatically into the normal range and she was able to get completely off of insulin. We do keto, but whatever method you use, you need to give it time. You didn't get to this size overnight, and it will take far longer for you to lose the excess than you would like. Finally, I would highly recommend seeing your primary care physician. It is possible that there is a medical reason which is slowing your progress. Don't quit. Your health is the most important thing you have.4
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just because someone is 300lbs does not mean they are diabetic.
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If you quit now, you just have to start again. You’ve been making some incredible choices that are doing a world of difference for your body. I don’t usually take the “tough love” approach, but in your case I’m going to. Suck it up buttercup. Sometimes it sucks. Sometimes it’s amazingly gratifying. As the saying goes, if it was easy, nobody would be far. Keep going.9
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Give yourself a break. You’re doing a lot.
Weight loss is mostly about problem solving and persistence. Calorie counting works. But no one was born counting calories. There a significant learning curve.
We have have to crawl before we can walk. If you can set a foundation where you quit smoking while adding regular exercise, that looks like big progress to me. Keep working.
You won’t get anywhere by quitting. Actually quitting is the only way to fail.10 -
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I'd rather do it the "right" way but I'm making LITERALLY no progress at all.
Wrong!!
You are making tremendous progress!! Your health is absolutely improving from all you are doing!!
Also- there is a lot of evidence that quitting smoking increases weight even if no change in calories consumed. It has to do with the drug- nicotine which elevates resting heart rate and increases resting calorie burn.
The fact that you’re quitting smoking and not gaining weight is a huge accomplishment!!
Please keep up your hard work!!7 -
Don't give up!!! You can do this:
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Ditch the cheat day. Those wearable monitors vastly overestimate how many calories you burn, and then the cheat days are negating all your hard work. Please do buy an electronic food scale and use it for everything or else the food is kind of just a crapshoot. The food scale will give you the control you need to make progress.7
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runlaugheatpie wrote: »just because someone is 300lbs does not mean they are diabetic.
Right? At 300 lbs for me, my blood sugar was still firmly in the normal range.
OP, you quit smoking and started exercising. Both of these things lead to weight gain. Not to fat gain, mind you. You are definitely losing fat. But your scale weighs it all: fat, bones, muscle, poop, water. Etc.
Unfortunately, you won't see it for a while. Visceral fat, the fat stored in and around your organs, often goes first. This is a very, very good thing for your health. But not a great thing for your pants size. It took me four or five months of steady loss to see any change in myself also. Please try to be patient. Weight loss hard truth #1 is that its extremely slow, much slower than you expect.
Hard truth #2 is that your HR monitor is overestimating your burn by a lot. HR monitors are notoriously inaccurate but even when they aren't, HR is not a great way to estimate calorie burn.
ETA: and don't believe any scales telling you your body fat %. They use electric resistance to take that measurement, which can be thrown off if you're more or less hydrated, among other things.9 -
My HRM says I'm burning 1,000+ calories each session, and at least 400 calories a day just walking.
Noooo way that's happening. I'd expect you're really burning about 25-30% of that. Look up expected calorie burns on this site, and other sources. The ones here are even exaggerated, but they're nowhere close to what this monitor is telling you.
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I just realised I recognised your username.
Hey man you've lost 45 pounds from your start weight that's most definitely progress!
It's hard for people to see the difference in themselves, even in pictures, we are our own harshest critic. Plus when you're losing a couple of pounds from all over your body it's not necessarily obvious where it's come off.5 -
feisty_bucket wrote: »My HRM says I'm burning 1,000+ calories each session, and at least 400 calories a day just walking.
Noooo way that's happening. I'd expect you're really burning about 25-30% of that. Look up expected calorie burns on this site, and other sources. The ones here are even exaggerated, but they're nowhere close to what this monitor is telling you.
what makes you so sure of this? you don't know what he's doing to burn that. Let's say it is off, why only 25-30%? Then you say "look up the calorie burns on this site" and say that they are exaggerated in the next sentence. So what is it then?5 -
Ditch the cheat day. Those wearable monitors vastly overestimate how many calories you burn, and then the cheat days are negating all your hard work. Please do buy an electronic food scale and use it for everything or else the food is kind of just a crapshoot. The food scale will give you the control you need to make progress.
there's no reason not to have a cheat day if he's logging it.5 -
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feisty_bucket wrote: »My HRM says I'm burning 1,000+ calories each session, and at least 400 calories a day just walking.
Noooo way that's happening. I'd expect you're really burning about 25-30% of that. Look up expected calorie burns on this site, and other sources. The ones here are even exaggerated, but they're nowhere close to what this monitor is telling you.
Without knowing what OP's workouts entail you can't say it's not happening.
Is 1000 calories exagerrated for a 300lb guy, maybe, but if it's a long workout or quite an intense cardio workout, it could also be a pretty reasonable estimate.
An approximate TDEE for OPs stats would be around 3600 cals per day for maintenance/moderate exercise level.
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Listen you have gotten lots of information already I just wanted to say - You're my hero! Going to the gym, quitting smoking and dieting all at the same time. That's amazing. Hang in there. I lost weight, then quit vaping and even though I continued doing what had always worked I gained 15 pounds. I went back to vaping - I know, I'm a coward. You are doing fantastic that you haven't gained anything so don't quit. Trust the process and keep going. You are losing fat you just can't tell yet because the workouts cause you go hold water. Be patient and be proud!7
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One month? I've been at this for 4 years. I got close to my first weight goal, lost focus, gained half the loss, and now am again trying to lose. This game ends when we die.2
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Don’t give up. Not to be cliche, but the only difference between winners and losers is winner get back up and keep going after getting knocked on their butt. Getting frustrated at not making progress is getting knocked on our butt.
Keep accurate track of things, review the data and adjust as needed.
I think the most likely culprit other than your body going through some adjustments is “under estimating calories consumed” and “over estimating calories burned”.
Even if yoru weight stays the same regular exercise will make your heart and body stronger at the least, so you are still making progress. Make sure you get enough protein in to capitalize on the exercise. I use .83 times my lean body weight goal, not my current weight. Fat doesn’t need protein
I am over weight because I am terrible at portion and calorie control on my own winging it, I must track every morsel that goes in my body and use measuring and weighing devices where needed to be accurate or I will eat more than I think.
Personally I figure about 50% of what my Apple Watch tracker says I burned for calories and even less for regular weight lifting sessions. I don’t even consider regular walking around calories burned either, only a dedicated exercise session.4 -
runlaugheatpie wrote: »feisty_bucket wrote: »My HRM says I'm burning 1,000+ calories each session, and at least 400 calories a day just walking.
Noooo way that's happening. I'd expect you're really burning about 25-30% of that. Look up expected calorie burns on this site, and other sources. The ones here are even exaggerated, but they're nowhere close to what this monitor is telling you.
what makes you so sure of this? you don't know what he's doing to burn that. Let's say it is off, why only 25-30%? Then you say "look up the calorie burns on this site" and say that they are exaggerated in the next sentence. So what is it then?
What is it? Nobody knows! Calorie burns are "impossible" to get accurately. But I'd bet money that's what the problem is. Do you have a better guess? 'cuz that's all we're doing here.
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Please hang in here. I have quit so many times and here I am again. I have tried many things and never stuck the course but here I found a group of people who always are encouraging and they have been successful as was I then. My main goal is to live so I can care for my son. I am stumbling but trying. AND if you have lost 45 already, then WOW. Maybe think of it as you are already too thin to qualify for those tv shows about weight loss so just do what you have been. Can you add 1 more or different thing? Sort of change a thing and see if that bumps you along? Best wishes.0
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Exercise is a big part of my weight loss. It sounds like it is for you too.
Most trackers, gym machines and MFP over estimate caloric burn for exercise. My first month was no progress because I ate back inflated calorie estimates. I was using default MFP estimates which are really bad (off by 50%+). And I got frustrated and then posted and the MFP police/evangelists all MFPsplained that I must be miscalculating my food cals...get a scale etc (I was in fact being extremely accurate about cals in...)
(NB: I like MFP as a tracker and for the food database....and think it's a good tool overall and it's worked for me.)
A HRM is not a good estimator. What worked for me is finding very accurate cal estimates for my exercises. For walking, its 0.32 x weight in lbs per mile. I cycle a lot and for that its ave watts x 3.6 x time in hours (accurate within 2%).
Once I got accurate estimates...I still eat back my exercise cals. But weight loss has been consistent.
This may not be your issue. But I burn 500-900 cals a day exercising...and if exercise is a big component of your plan...its much more important to get accurate cal estimates of burn. And most estimates are wildly inflated (sometimes intentionally because it makes you like whatever did the estimate more...).
Lastly, dont let the "weight loss and exercise are not related" crowd get to you. Pretty much any major study about healthy weight has correlation with consistent exercise. And most MDs will encourage exercise within your ability as part of a healthy weight loss program. So, dont give up on it.
Hope that helps and good luck.
(And did I mention your a badass while doing this and quitting smoking?)2 -
If it were me, here's what I'd do.
I'd stay at it. But for Month 2, I'd weigh all my food (even bananas, broccoli, grapes) on a digital food scale and enter it into MFP in grams and ounces. I'd make sure my logging was perfect.
If that didn't result in weight loss, I'd make Month 3 about assuming the calories I'm being told in my workouts are too high. I'd shave 200 calories off of that estimate, then see how Month 3 went.
It's a long game!
When I work out for 60 minutes at OrangeTheory, my HR monitor tells me I burn about 600 calories. However, I'm always skeptical so I only enter about 450 calories into MyFitnessPal to eat back.
When you say you burn 400 calories walking, do you mean power walking for fitness? Or do you mean just walking around the world?1 -
Okay, let's just say it's "unlikely" that anybody burns 1000 cals in a workout. And if you're stalled in your loss, it does stand to reason that the calculations are off somewhere, right?1
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I was right where you were man...
And I'll tell you, I never tracked calories... I cut out junk food, fast food, everything I knew wasn't good for more, not all at once but gradually over time...
It was small changes over time that worked for me...
I also tried hard not to eat any late meals and walked every day after dinner...
I know there are a ton of people on here who will go on and on disagreeing with what I just said but results don't lie...
Don't give up, make small changes, have patience and be persistent...1 -
Welp, looks like our protagonist has deleted his account.
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