What am I doing wrong?

srusso2022
srusso2022 Posts: 8 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Am I eating too much? I think my metabolism is damaged or my fitbit GROSSLY overestimates my calories.
Stats:
Height: 5'1
Weight: 180 lbs
Female
Workout:
30 minutes on a 12 incline treadmill on 2.7 speed (I am DRIPPING by the end, estimated i burn around 250-300 cals)
30 Minutes of minor weightlifting using my dads equipment and youtube videos (fairly difficult)
Food:
(I am 16/8 intermittent fasting and its done nothing)
Oatmeal with some fruit and PB
Sandwich with deli meat/ cheese and lettuce/ or spinach
A protein bar
A protein Drink
Dinner (don’t have consistent count, its whatever my family makes, i take a small portion)
(My fitness pal guesses this around 1700 calories WITH the protein snacks, I’ve been trying to track meticulously)
Concerns:

I am literally exhausted all day, though my sleep hygiene is incredible (7.5-8.5 hours every night)
I am tired to the point i have to constantly stop in the middle of my workouts, then want to sleep after
2. Still very hungry at night ( I stop eating around 7, start again at 12 the next day)
3. Fitbit tells me I burn 2500-2600 calories in a day, I am supposedly eating in a reasonable deficit according to this number, and haven’t lost a pound/gained any muscle in almost 4 week long period (I have a body composition scale, muscle mass and fat content have not moved i literally weigh the same i did when i started)
If I'm supposedly in an 800 calorie deficit, how the hell have I not lost anything? Do I need to cut out the protein products? But then my calories go down to like 1400-1500, added to all that I burn with exercise that doesn’t seem safe
What the hell am I doing wrong? Is my metabolism damaged? Like I said, i think the protein products might be the problem but I’m still hungry and without them i'd be an extreme deficit.
Im going crazy. All input is welcome, clearly i need help.

Replies

  • srusso2022
    srusso2022 Posts: 8 Member
    spiriteagle99 wrote: »
    How long have you been doing all this?

    Almost a month :(
  • Dootzy1
    Dootzy1 Posts: 2,357 Member
    When was the last time you had a medical check-up? Thyroid function?
  • srusso2022
    srusso2022 Posts: 8 Member
    Dootzy1 wrote: »
    When was the last time you had a medical check-up? Thyroid function?

    All good and well according bloodwork
  • harper16
    harper16 Posts: 2,564 Member
    Are you eating back half your exercise calories, and what do you have say in what's cooked for dinner?
  • srusso2022
    srusso2022 Posts: 8 Member
    lgfrie wrote: »
    After a month, it's safe to say that if you're not losing weight, you're not in a calorie deficit.

    The TDEE calculator (tdeecalculator.net) says that based on your height/weight/gender, you are burning ~ 1700 cals/day, assuming that, excluding your workouts, you lead a generally sedentary life (office job, home quarantine, etc). Add in, say, 300-400 cals for exercise and you get 2000-2,100. That's your break-even. Definitely not the 2600 that Fitbit is telling you. No way. Not even close.

    My guess is that, when all is said and done, that's what you're eating, on average - around 2000-2100 ish. Otherwise, you'd be losing or gaining weight.

    The only way to get to the bottom of this would be to drill down on the caloric content of what's going into your mouth with much greater precision than you're doing currently, and take it from there.

    There is no such thing as a damaged metabolism. So that's one thing you don't have to worry about.

    It can take a while to adjust to intermittent fasting. If you're finding IF uncomfortable at night, maybe you'll want to back off of that for a while and just deal with one challenge at a time - the current one being, how to get the scale to start dropping. You can always return to IF later.

    I would replace those protein bars and drinks with real food. If you are tired, fatigued, and hangry, it's a good idea to dump the processed foods and diet products and eat real food. You may find that makes a huge difference for your energy level and so forth.

    But again, the key takeaway here is: if you're not losing weight, you're not in a calorie deficit, so see if you can start measuring your intake more carefully and nailing down your actual calories consumed.

    Suggestion: Go to the MFP Goals tool, put in your stats and your goal, it'll spit out a target calorie level for you to eat. Start getting more precision about your calories consumed and strive to hit that calorie level as closely as humanly possible every day, with no cheat/off/casual/unlogged meals. Then you'll get the weight loss you want.

    SO helpful. Thanks a bunch.
  • Avidkeo
    Avidkeo Posts: 3,211 Member
    There is a lot to unpack here.

    First of all, you can't damage your metabolism. It's not breakable.

    Secong, how long have you been doing this routine? If it's only a couple of weeks, you need to be more patient. If it's months, then clearly you have found your maintenance calories.

    As far as exercise and calories go! I suspect you are burning less than you think, and eating more than you think.
    You can't use how much you sweat to figure out how much you burn. In winter, I'll do 14k run and be barely sweating, in summer a 2k walk will have me drenched.

    What's 2.7 speed? Is that miles or Km? Either way it's not particularly fast, and no way 30 mins at either speed will burn 250 - 300 calories.

    And sleep hygiene? Where did you get that phrase?

    Honestly you need to track everything. Why are you having protein suppliments rather than food? If you had a salad with some tuna or similar you will get similar protein intake without all the extra calories and be fuller. Protein bars and shakes can be full of hidden calories. This is why you need to track everything. You will be surprised at what you will actually be taking in.
  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,399 Member
    Igfrie really nailed it, so get a digital scale and start weighing and measuring everything you eat and drink. You shouldn't have to suffer to lose weight. This is a long haul thing, so start habits you can keep up for the rest of your life. Other than that I can't add to the advice you've been given
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,881 Member
    I would like to add that you shouldn't be doing strength training every day, unless you are making sure you're alternating muscle groups: your muscles need time to heal and recuperate. And even with alternating muscle groups, it's good to take rest days, especially if you're new to strength training. Combined with how exhausted you are, I would recommend taking one rest day per week (no exercise at all) and see if that helps.

    PS: body composition scales are unreliable, just weigh yourself and take measurements and pictures, those will give a better indication of your progress.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,985 Member
    Dripping from a workout is not really an indication of calorie burn unfortunately. Some people sweat easier than others, especially if not so fit. Level 2.7, is that miles per hour? (I need some numbers I understand. that's 4.7kmh) thus in half an hour you'd walk 1.35 miles, which isn't too much. Are you running or walking?
  • elealmond
    elealmond Posts: 1 Member
    Hey, I'm sorry for my eventually bad english but it's not my mother language. And sorry if that's a long comment I really hope that you will read and I'm sure that will be helpful :)

    I don't really think you are eating too much. I think that you can eat more in quantity if you start being smarter. I am a nutritionist and I often see that people's problem is that: they eat little but badly and exercise too much and that way they cant keep doing the diet for more than one mount and then they become desperate :'D It's not about the calories but the MACROS and the vitamins/minerals! then below I will list my general tips and advice to correct your meals. That's not medical advice because I should see your blood tests and hormonal analysis but I can swear to you that something will really change if you follow my advices. You should just change your nutritional habits FOR EVER. In the beginning it will be hard (I did that too when I was younger) but then you will never go back to your unhealthy habits. When I was little I was overweight and I always ate cheese, fried things...now my body got so used to a healthy diet, that I can't eat even a mouthful of fried or generally high-fat and processed foods, that makes me sick :)
    General tips:
    1) Stop intermittent fasting. It's not good if you are overweight and want to get lean, because you will need LOTS of energy (physical and mental) for that. It also doesnt basically work for everyone
    2) You mostly eat processed foods. Stop eating protein bars, deli meats, protein drinks. A "beautiful body" derives primarily from good health. Good health is not just the sickness that you will develop when you will be old. It's also the energy (that's the key word!) that you have now. Processed foods are usually full of chemicals, refined sugars and salt, that aren't good for your methabolism (= convert food to energy and burn that!). EAT WHOLE FOODS!
    Example of diet you may follow:
    BREAKFAST: It's already quite good. I suggest to drink a large glass of water when you wake up better if with some lemon in it, it will help your body get rid of fat and bloating. I don't know what PB is but I would recommend: 1 Use protein low fat milk for the oatmeal like soy milk (without added sugars) to feel fuller all morning and dont eat too much "bad" fat 2 Dont eat too much fruit, like 60g banana and 70g of strawberries or raspberries would be perfect 3 Add 10g of dried fruit like almonds or hazelnut 4 Dosage for oatmeal: 70g oats
    SNACK: one fresh fruit + 15g dried fruits
    LUNCH: THATS BAAAD GIRL! The largest part of your meal should be made up of fresh vegetables, better if greens; cabbage is also reeeeally good for your health. If you don't like vegetables, you are not used to eat them, just go on the web and learn how to cook them with spices to make them yummy. If you want to eat meat, you should eat chicken or turkey (low fat meat), NEVER deli meat. I suggest you to avoid also cheese for a little bit of time; it's full of bad fats and doesnt help you with your goals; when you will get leaner and develop muscles, you can start to eat A LITTLE BIT of that again. Examples of lunch: a LARGE plate of vegetables + 120g chicken/200g legumes + 50/60g of whole/rye bread or 60g of brown rice + 1 tsp of olive oil to cook. If you have to eat outside you can cook in the morning and carry food with you in a box made for that
    SNACK: 10g dark chocolate 85% + 125g yogurt low fat and no added sugars (better soy yogurt)
    DINNER: if you want to eat what your family makes, make sure that you mostly take vegetables (that souldnt be cooked with oil, or cheese, or things like that), and protein (NOT cheese or deli meat) and a small portion of cereals. If your family isn't used to cook like that, just cook your stuff like: always LARGE plate of vegetables + 100g tofu or seitan, maybe cooked with some soy sauce and thurmeric (that's how i cook them to make them tasty) + 40g of whole bread or whole pasta + 1 tsp of olive oil to cook.
    If you feel you need a dessert after dinner (not everyday) you can go for another yogurt like the ones I mentioned before, or warm up one cup of soy milk with some honey or stevia (NOT sugar) + eat ONE biscuit you like/10g of dark chocolate. Dont starve yourself! We are women I know sometimes we need a sweet hug :P

    You can replace the protein portions that I suggested with: [(one time a week) 1 egg + 100g of egg whites only] or [(two times a week) 120g fish (NOT breaded fish or things like that. You should still see the form of the fish before you cook it :'D)]

    That's a diet of almost 1700 kcal but as you see you would eat much more in quantity and variety than now.

    Things that you shouldn't eat as "vegetables": potatoes (high in carbs, you can eat them sometimes instead of bread or rice), avocado (high in fat, you can eat 100g once a week).
    Do not put too much salt, just try to put less and less everyday (but find the way to keep things tasty for you or you will binge).
    You can freely add spices that are good for methabolism and maybe 2 tbsp of seeds like flax seeds or sunflower seeds.
    DRINK WATER! At least one liter and a half.

    Just start eating like that and you will see that your energy will boost and you will do your things better (and burn more calories). This also will help you develop muscles, to increase your methabolism. Muscles are heavier than fat, so, especially in the beginning, you shouldn't normally weight yourself. If you can't be patient to see results, just go to a doctor and measure your body fat percentage like one time a mounth. That will show your progress and maybe suggest you that you have to exercize more (more weight lifting/free weight to increase muscle mass!). Of course when you will get leaner and develop muscles, you will need to increase your portions. Just listen to your body for that. I'm just a little taller than you and now I can eat about 2100/2300 kcal a day. It took me two years of workout and healthy diet to get here but now I'm happy and full of energy. We can all do that!

    A HUGE HUG AND I WISH YOU ALL THE BEST FOR YOUR MIND AND BODY :)
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,688 Member
    srusso2022 wrote: »
    Workout:
    30 minutes on a 12 incline treadmill on 2.7 speed (I am DRIPPING by the end, estimated i burn around 250-300 cals)
    30 Minutes of minor weightlifting using my dads equipment and youtube videos (fairly difficult)

    Try entering 200 calories instead.

    srusso2022 wrote: »
    Food:
    (I am 16/8 intermittent fasting and its done nothing)
    Oatmeal with some fruit and PB
    Sandwich with deli meat/ cheese and lettuce/ or spinach
    A protein bar
    A protein Drink
    Dinner (don’t have consistent count, its whatever my family makes, i take a small portion)
    (My fitness pal guesses this around 1700 calories WITH the protein snacks, I’ve been trying to track meticulously)

    MFP ... or YOU guess?

    Do you weigh your food?

    srusso2022 wrote: »
    Concerns:
    I am literally exhausted all day, though my sleep hygiene is incredible (7.5-8.5 hours every night)
    I am tired to the point i have to constantly stop in the middle of my workouts, then want to sleep after

    Go to the doctor and get a complete physical.
    You may also want to consider some things like wearing a sleeping mask and ear plugs if you think you're sleeping restlessly.
    And is there anyone who can tell you what your breathing is like while you sleep? You may need a sleep clinic for this.
    Or you may simply be the type of person who needs 8.5 -9 hours a night.
    srusso2022 wrote: »
    3. Fitbit tells me I burn 2500-2600 calories in a day

    You're 5'1" and 180 lbs ...
    In addition to the treadmill, what else are you doing to burn that much?

    I'm 5'6" and when I'm 180 lbs, maybe about 1800 calories is maintenance. In order for me to burn an additional 700-800 calories, I need to do some decent exercise.



  • mandycat_florida
    mandycat_florida Posts: 60 Member
    I've read that "calories burned through exercise" is usually a very dubious measurement. There are too many variables to arrive at an accurate number without elaborate personal evaluation, the kind of evaluation that people like us as opposed to Jennifer Anniston can't afford. I think it's better to rely on a calorie level based on age and current weight for weight loss purposes and on exercise for general health and strength. Pretend NO calories are burned with exercise.
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,881 Member
    Estimates for calories burned can be off depending on the source of the number and the type of exercise. But zero calories is ALWAYS wrong.
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,439 Member
    prkdwk09c2au.jpg
  • Muscleflex79
    Muscleflex79 Posts: 1,917 Member
    sounds like you aren't weighing or even logging all your food - start there.
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,439 Member
    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10634517/you-dont-use-a-food-scale/p1
  • knightmagic
    knightmagic Posts: 100 Member
    Ok as others have said there is a lot take in here so I'll start off with the basics and then some strategies that will set you up for success.

    First if you made all these changes at once then congrats you're doing what I and 90% of the others did in the beginning when we kept trying over and over again. Time to upgrade your status from beginner to lets get this *kitten* done! Start off by making 1-2 itty bitty tiny changes. Some examples: I'll go for a walk for at least 5mins I can walk more if I want however it must be for at least 5 mins. Do this for a week or two. Your mind will eventually trick you into staying out longer. Other example is weigh food. If the family is making food ask if you can be a part of it and help them by getting the ingredients for them and weigh them. You can ignore weighing spices. Meat, carbs, and veggies, etc always need to be weighed. (pro tip, you can create a Recipe for future use to make it easy to add to your list although you still need to weigh the food every time).

    Now some things to remember, those calories on the treadmill are nice but those are to be left alone. Whether your using a fitbit, heart rate monitor, etc. 90% of your success will come from the food(calories) you eat. The other 10% will come from the gym/workouts. Food is for losing/gaining weight and working out is for sculpting it. Your body is like clay it can be shaped and molded you either add more clay (calorie surplus) or you take clay away (calorie restriction) and then you use a chisel (workouts) to define the overall look. There are no ways to pinpoint certain areas to lose fat faster.

    Things to remember:
    Eat less calories (figure out your tdee or use mfp estimations)
    Don't eat back calories
    your going to screw up it's part of the process
    workouts are for shaping your body
    Calories matter most then macros (define your goals)
    Protein has been shown to help most out of macros with weightloss and it's needed for muscle gain.
    You can lose weight and gain muscle at the same time (body recompisition).
    MAKE ITTY BITTY TINY CHANGES :)
  • srusso2022
    srusso2022 Posts: 8 Member
    elealmond wrote: »
    Hey, I'm sorry for my eventually bad english but it's not my mother language. And sorry if that's a long comment I really hope that you will read and I'm sure that will be helpful :)

    I don't really think you are eating too much. I think that you can eat more in quantity if you start being smarter. I am a nutritionist and I often see that people's problem is that: they eat little but badly and exercise too much and that way they cant keep doing the diet for more than one mount and then they become desperate :'D It's not about the calories but the MACROS and the vitamins/minerals! then below I will list my general tips and advice to correct your meals. That's not medical advice because I should see your blood tests and hormonal analysis but I can swear to you that something will really change if you follow my advices. You should just change your nutritional habits FOR EVER. In the beginning it will be hard (I did that too when I was younger) but then you will never go back to your unhealthy habits. When I was little I was overweight and I always ate cheese, fried things...now my body got so used to a healthy diet, that I can't eat even a mouthful of fried or generally high-fat and processed foods, that makes me sick :)
    General tips:
    1) Stop intermittent fasting. It's not good if you are overweight and want to get lean, because you will need LOTS of energy (physical and mental) for that. It also doesnt basically work for everyone
    2) You mostly eat processed foods. Stop eating protein bars, deli meats, protein drinks. A "beautiful body" derives primarily from good health. Good health is not just the sickness that you will develop when you will be old. It's also the energy (that's the key word!) that you have now. Processed foods are usually full of chemicals, refined sugars and salt, that aren't good for your methabolism (= convert food to energy and burn that!). EAT WHOLE FOODS!
    Example of diet you may follow:
    BREAKFAST: It's already quite good. I suggest to drink a large glass of water when you wake up better if with some lemon in it, it will help your body get rid of fat and bloating. I don't know what PB is but I would recommend: 1 Use protein low fat milk for the oatmeal like soy milk (without added sugars) to feel fuller all morning and dont eat too much "bad" fat 2 Dont eat too much fruit, like 60g banana and 70g of strawberries or raspberries would be perfect 3 Add 10g of dried fruit like almonds or hazelnut 4 Dosage for oatmeal: 70g oats
    SNACK: one fresh fruit + 15g dried fruits
    LUNCH: THATS BAAAD GIRL! The largest part of your meal should be made up of fresh vegetables, better if greens; cabbage is also reeeeally good for your health. If you don't like vegetables, you are not used to eat them, just go on the web and learn how to cook them with spices to make them yummy. If you want to eat meat, you should eat chicken or turkey (low fat meat), NEVER deli meat. I suggest you to avoid also cheese for a little bit of time; it's full of bad fats and doesnt help you with your goals; when you will get leaner and develop muscles, you can start to eat A LITTLE BIT of that again. Examples of lunch: a LARGE plate of vegetables + 120g chicken/200g legumes + 50/60g of whole/rye bread or 60g of brown rice + 1 tsp of olive oil to cook. If you have to eat outside you can cook in the morning and carry food with you in a box made for that
    SNACK: 10g dark chocolate 85% + 125g yogurt low fat and no added sugars (better soy yogurt)
    DINNER: if you want to eat what your family makes, make sure that you mostly take vegetables (that souldnt be cooked with oil, or cheese, or things like that), and protein (NOT cheese or deli meat) and a small portion of cereals. If your family isn't used to cook like that, just cook your stuff like: always LARGE plate of vegetables + 100g tofu or seitan, maybe cooked with some soy sauce and thurmeric (that's how i cook them to make them tasty) + 40g of whole bread or whole pasta + 1 tsp of olive oil to cook.
    If you feel you need a dessert after dinner (not everyday) you can go for another yogurt like the ones I mentioned before, or warm up one cup of soy milk with some honey or stevia (NOT sugar) + eat ONE biscuit you like/10g of dark chocolate. Dont starve yourself! We are women I know sometimes we need a sweet hug :P

    You can replace the protein portions that I suggested with: [(one time a week) 1 egg + 100g of egg whites only] or [(two times a week) 120g fish (NOT breaded fish or things like that. You should still see the form of the fish before you cook it :'D)]

    That's a diet of almost 1700 kcal but as you see you would eat much more in quantity and variety than now.

    Things that you shouldn't eat as "vegetables": potatoes (high in carbs, you can eat them sometimes instead of bread or rice), avocado (high in fat, you can eat 100g once a week).
    Do not put too much salt, just try to put less and less everyday (but find the way to keep things tasty for you or you will binge).
    You can freely add spices that are good for methabolism and maybe 2 tbsp of seeds like flax seeds or sunflower seeds.
    DRINK WATER! At least one liter and a half.

    Just start eating like that and you will see that your energy will boost and you will do your things better (and burn more calories). This also will help you develop muscles, to increase your methabolism. Muscles are heavier than fat, so, especially in the beginning, you shouldn't normally weight yourself. If you can't be patient to see results, just go to a doctor and measure your body fat percentage like one time a mounth. That will show your progress and maybe suggest you that you have to exercize more (more weight lifting/free weight to increase muscle mass!). Of course when you will get leaner and develop muscles, you will need to increase your portions. Just listen to your body for that. I'm just a little taller than you and now I can eat about 2100/2300 kcal a day. It took me two years of workout and healthy diet to get here but now I'm happy and full of energy. We can all do that!

    A HUGE HUG AND I WISH YOU ALL THE BEST FOR YOUR MIND AND BODY :)

    THANK YOU! BEST to you :)
  • srusso2022
    srusso2022 Posts: 8 Member
    jm_1234 wrote: »
    Some general tips to consider, may or may not be good for you. YMMV.
    • Get a food scale and weigh your food
    • Log your food in MFP (including dinner)
    • Try to hit your calorie and macro goals in MFP. You probably need ~60 grams of protein per day which should be easy to get without shakes or bars.
    • Find an eating schedule that works for you and your hunger. Don't worry about when you eat, just focus on the daily calories and macros.
    • Read up on LISS
    • Walk at .5% incline, at a normal walk pace (3-4.5 mph), for an increasing amount of time (i.e., 1 week 30 min daily, 2 week 45 min, 3 week 1 hour...). Just watch a show or listen to a book on your phone. Compare what your Fitbit calorie burn estimates to general google estimates
    • I wouldn't worry about doing weights right now. Just focus on your eating and walking. These are two easily controlled variables. Add weight lifting once you see results and have these controlled.
    • Drink the recommended water
    • Get the recommended sleep
    • In general I wouldn't go below 1100 net calories per day, assuming you hit your macros


    maybe I need to stop killing myself during the workout, I know ill burn out
  • srusso2022
    srusso2022 Posts: 8 Member
    sijomial wrote: »

    Overall work at making this long duration challenge easier, not so hard and miserable that you fail.

    Nailed it, I hate doing this everyday and it shows.
  • srusso2022
    srusso2022 Posts: 8 Member
    yirara wrote: »
    Dripping from a workout is not really an indication of calorie burn unfortunately.

    so this I actually didn't know? even it seems like common sense I have it drilled into my head that if im not dying afterwords I didn't do enough
  • charlottemilton
    charlottemilton Posts: 144 Member
    Hi srusso2022

    I am 5' 4" and 247.5 lbs. About a month ago I got a scare from my doctor and the only possible cure is losing significant weight. His nurse emailed me a list of foods I should and shouldn't eat with my immediate diagnosis which is severe gastritis. One of the points stressed to me was the need to eat at least 6-9 servings of vegetables plus fruit, NO processed foods, No sugar substitutes, No caffeine, and No carbonated beverages. The first few weeks were hard but I lost weight easily and when I was eating on the program my stomach didn't hurt. If I ate poorly, I had pain within an hour or so of eating. I had never connected the pain with eating some foods. I feel so much better getting nutrition from food. Other than your breakfast which is almost identical to mine most mornings (40 grams of old fashioned oats, 20 grams of golden raisins, 1 tsp of brown sugar and cinnamon), I don't see much real non processed foods. I am eating about 1400 calories a day, up and down a ladder painting, and am not hungry. In a bit more than a month, I have lost 17 lbs. Friend me if you would like.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,600 Member
    edited March 2020
    srusso2022 wrote: »
    yirara wrote: »
    Dripping from a workout is not really an indication of calorie burn unfortunately.

    so this I actually didn't know? even it seems like common sense I have it drilled into my head that if im not dying afterwords I didn't do enough

    That is a very common myth. <== Note the word "myth".

    If the goal is calorie burn, routinely doing very high intensity workouts mostly isn't really worth it.

    For example: Close to the maximum intensity I can sustain at my well-calorie-metered sport (close to race pace), 10 minutes would burn around 125 calories, and I'd be feeling some effects from that for the rest of the day (maybe even enough to be less energetic the rest of the day, wiping out some daily-life activity calories).

    At very moderate pace, same activity, I'd burn 88 calories in 10 minutes. You can think of that as "wow, 42% more calories per minute" at high intensity. But I can easily do another 10 minutes at that same moderate pace, so 176 calories . . . and repeat that several times over, if I want to, plus still be fine afterward. To get the same 125 calories working at my moderate pace, I just have to keep going for 14 minutes and 15 seconds. Afterwards, I won't even be fatigued for minutes, let alone the rest of the day.

    (I've been working out routinely for a long time, BTW. Everyone finds it exhausting working very near their maximum capability; what differs among people is the definition of "maximum" in terms of objective output (such as speed, say). To third party readers thinking those are low per-minute calorie burns . . . jeez, I'm old, female, and not very big! :lol: )

    If the goal is fitness improvement (rather than calorie burn), then the best route for cardiovascular (CV) improvement is to start by building an aerobic base, which one does by doing relatively longer durations of lower intensity exercise (or low/moderate intervals, as in the classic C25K programs - and even those often suggest you reach the point of being able to do a 30-minute continuous walk before starting, I believe).

    Only after there's a CV base in place do you start mixing in small doses of higher intensity work. Even elite athletes don't go hard every single workout (though their "easy" work would be our "very hard", in terms like speed/pace ;) ). Typically, they do large volumes of relatively easy to moderate intensity, and seasoned with smaller bits of high intensity.

    So, calorie-wise or fitness-wise, going hard every single workout is not your best bet.

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