Seem to be gaining despite working out daily
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goatelope
Posts: 178 Member
Hi all,
I’ve tried before to lose weight, through calorie restriction. I always went too hard too fast and never got exercise, with the end result I was constantly losing 10lbs and gaining it back.
Since December I have been working out 6 times per week with The Body Project.
I notice I am fitter but strangely I do not seem to be losing weight which is worrying me - I started at 179 and I am still there, despite sticking to 1500 calories per day max and doing the workouts.
Can anyone help? I’m worried I am not losing and by week 4 it seems I should have? Please help - it’s so upsetting!
I’ve tried before to lose weight, through calorie restriction. I always went too hard too fast and never got exercise, with the end result I was constantly losing 10lbs and gaining it back.
Since December I have been working out 6 times per week with The Body Project.
I notice I am fitter but strangely I do not seem to be losing weight which is worrying me - I started at 179 and I am still there, despite sticking to 1500 calories per day max and doing the workouts.
Can anyone help? I’m worried I am not losing and by week 4 it seems I should have? Please help - it’s so upsetting!
1
Replies
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What type of workouts are you doing? Are you seeing any other changes such as muscle definition changes? Are you taking measurements of yourself to see if these are changing also? Lastly are you looking at the breakdown of macros for your daily food?2
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I've had a very high exercise volume for the last seven years and haven't lost weight - because I eat enough to maintain my weight. Which might be the case for you too.
Your diary is private so it's hard to judge your food or exercise logging accuracy but that's where I would start and making your diary public would allow people to help you with that.
Data helps.
Only you know your stats.
A few people might have an idea what your workouts actually entail but I'm not familiar with The Body Project at all.
Were you eating at the same level consistently before you started exercising?
Are you eating back exercise calories and if so how are you estimating them?
PS - congrats on getting fitter, that's what exercise really is for and it's an achievement to be enjoyed.
PPS - staying the same weight isn't gaining weight and it could be argued that maintaining weight over Christmas and New Year is a good result!5 -
What kind of routine is Body Project? Any new exercise regime can cause water retention, masking fat loss on the scale, but especially resistance training.3
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miallbena8190 wrote: »What type of workouts are you doing? Are you seeing any other changes such as muscle definition changes? Are you taking measurements of yourself to see if these are changing also? Lastly are you looking at the breakdown of macros for your daily food?
Hi, I’m doing a mixture of cardio and resistance. I think I don’t get enough protein but I do definitely stick to no more than 1400 calories (goal is 1500 but I leave 100 margin for error).
I am in week 4. I do notice more muscle but I’m worried about bulking up without slimming down. Any thoughts?0 -
What kind of routine is Body Project? Any new exercise regime can cause water retention, masking fat loss on the scale, but especially resistance training.
Hiya, it’s a mixture of cardio and resistance. A lot of standing HIIT and other low impact but high intensity work.
I’m definitely staying within calories although I know I have more carbs than protein which I need to address.
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Are you using a food scale and choosing correct database entries? Are you using cups and spoons and packaging info?
One thing: a new exercise can lead to water retention due to muscle healing. The year is still young. The weight gain can be due to water retention, thus not fat gain but a totally normal fluctuation.
Can you give us more info: What are your stats such as age, weight, size and gender?2 -
Hi - yes I am 40, 5’3”, 179 lbs, female
I am definitely entering correctly - I check and double check everything0 -
Are you using a food scale and choosing correct database entries? Are you using cups and spoons and packaging info?
One thing: a new exercise can lead to water retention due to muscle healing. The year is still young. The weight gain can be due to water retention, thus not fat gain but a totally normal fluctuation.
Can you give us more info: What are your stats such as age, weight, size and gender?
I answered above - thoughts welcome0 -
Your answer may lie here.
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Hi - yes I am 40, 5’3”, 179 lbs, female
I am definitely entering correctly - I check and double check everything
Sorry if you think you answered already but just to make sure, does that mean you are weighing all solids on a scale (in grams/oz)? I ask because a few options were posed, including cups, spoons, just scanning packages and it's not clear which you are doing.2 -
I am weighing everything on a scale - and I log it straight away. I also always round up.
I check the calories on MFP but also on the packets to make sure I’m right.0 -
Redordeadhead wrote: »Hi - yes I am 40, 5’3”, 179 lbs, female
I am definitely entering correctly - I check and double check everything
Sorry if you think you answered already but just to make sure, does that mean you are weighing all solids on a scale (in grams/oz)? I ask because a few options were posed, including cups, spoons, just scanning packages and it's not clear which you are doing.
See above - thanks :-)0 -
'I notice I am fitter'. That's all you need to know, keep doing what your doing and stop weighing yourself until 3 months have gone by. If you're doing everything you say you're doing, you'll have lost weight and gained better definition and won't need scales to tell you what you can see and feel.1
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I am weighing everything on a scale - and I log it straight away. I also always round up.
I check the calories on MFP but also on the packets to make sure I’m right.
That's great.
How about on the other side of the coin, how are you estimating your calorie burns?
(The exercises you mention are not easy to get reliable estimates for.)2 -
I am weighing everything on a scale - and I log it straight away. I also always round up.
I check the calories on MFP but also on the packets to make sure I’m right.
That's great.
How about on the other side of the coin, how are you estimating your calorie burns?
(The exercises you mention are not easy to get reliable estimates for.)
I don’t include them in my calorie count, because I am aiming to lose weight. So what I do is set the calorie goal at 1400 on the basis that I should have 1500 but may under estimate things by accident.
The workouts are all low impact so I would estimate I burn 100-180 per session, but as I say, I don’t include them.
God I feel so demoralised.0 -
I am weighing everything on a scale - and I log it straight away. I also always round up.
I check the calories on MFP but also on the packets to make sure I’m right.
That's great.
How about on the other side of the coin, how are you estimating your calorie burns?
(The exercises you mention are not easy to get reliable estimates for.)
I don’t include them in my calorie count, because I am aiming to lose weight. So what I do is set the calorie goal at 1400 on the basis that I should have 1500 but may under estimate things by accident.
The workouts are all low impact so I would estimate I burn 100-180 per session, but as I say, I don’t include them.
God I feel so demoralised.
There's nothing obviously amiss and as others have said a new exercise routine can cause some water retention.
If you are certain you are in a deficit you must be losing fat and that must eventually show up on the scales - you can't keep replacing it with water forever!
One thing I'd be tempted to do when things seem illogical is to verify your bathroom scales are working correctly, replace the batteries perhaps? Make sure they are on a firm and level surface......
Must be very frustrating for you.
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I am weighing everything on a scale - and I log it straight away. I also always round up.
I check the calories on MFP but also on the packets to make sure I’m right.
That's great.
How about on the other side of the coin, how are you estimating your calorie burns?
(The exercises you mention are not easy to get reliable estimates for.)
I don’t include them in my calorie count, because I am aiming to lose weight. So what I do is set the calorie goal at 1400 on the basis that I should have 1500 but may under estimate things by accident.
The workouts are all low impact so I would estimate I burn 100-180 per session, but as I say, I don’t include them.
God I feel so demoralised.
There's nothing obviously amiss and as others have said a new exercise routine can cause some water retention.
If you are certain you are in a deficit you must be losing fat and that must eventually show up on the scales - you can't keep replacing it with water forever!
One thing I'd be tempted to do when things seem illogical is to verify your bathroom scales are working correctly, replace the batteries perhaps? Make sure they are on a firm and level surface......
Must be very frustrating for you.
Yes, this!
Sorry, I should have come back here earlier. Either the scale is wrong, or it's water retention if everything else is spot on.
How often do you weight? If it's once per week then you might start on a day where your weight is a bit lower, and a week later a bit higher due to water retention. Not fat, but just water masking fat loss. It's totally normal, and it happens to all of us; especially women. A new workout leads to water retention, maybe a bit more salt, a day with more carbs, certain points in your cycle, moving more or less, the weather, everything. Totally normal, and nothing you can and should do about it. The only thing that helps is patience. Hey, some of us a whooshers: we don't seem to lose for 1-3 weeks but the tissue starts to feel a bit more squishy. And then there's the dreaded night where we ran to the loo a few times and in the morning we're at the expected weight. And then the cycle starts again.3 -
Don't forget your body needs time to adjust. Lots of things are happening that you cannot see. You feel fitter and you are doing all the right things. It will happen for you, well done and keep at it. Maybe try measuring your waist or using calipers to see some losses.1
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Thanks everyone. I am going to keep at the workouts and also track the calories vigilantly. If it’s still the same in a week then I dunno what I will do!1
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Thanks everyone. I am going to keep at the workouts and also track the calories vigilantly. If it’s still the same in a week then I dunno what I will do!
Please, trust the process. Weight loss is not fast, and, as we said often masked by water retention. Going from maybe no to a lot of exercise can have a profound influence. You said you don't want to do a crash diet, but you still seem to have a bit of a all or nothing mindset. For weightloss to stick you need to build healthy habits that you are able to keep up and not lose a lot of weight in a short time and go back to where you started. Slow and steady. It might also help to use a weight trending app. There's Happy Scale for iOS and I think Libra? for Android. Sometimes we don't notice small changes in weight due to those fluctuations in water weight, but a trending app will show them.1 -
I have happy scale and it shows slow gain over two weeks0
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I really think you will get a woosh!! where you suddenly lose a few pounds over night : ) This has occurred with me many times over the last year. I must hold water, especially when I change exersise routines or up the intensity. Trust the process and keep logging. Once you have enough data to look back on you can trust your stats, and plateaus will not feel quite so frustrating....good luck!2
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I'm going to ask how big a deficit have you asked MFP to make for weight loss, and how much bigger are you making it by not correctly eating more when you do more?
Your 1 comment makes it sound like you think you have to exercise for weight loss - like why would you count those calories if you want to lose weight.
That is a misunderstanding of how things work.
Because stress induced water weight retention has been shown to slowly add on 20 lbs.
How many weeks of scale fat loss could that hide?
Of course if the body is so stressed it is slowly increasing cortisol like that - that's a negative long term.0 -
I'm going to ask how big a deficit have you asked MFP to make for weight loss, and how much bigger are you making it by not correctly eating more when you do more?
Your 1 comment makes it sound like you think you have to exercise for weight loss - like why would you count those calories if you want to lose weight.
That is a misunderstanding of how things work.
Because stress induced water weight retention has been shown to slowly add on 20 lbs.
How many weeks of scale fat loss could that hide?
Of course if the body is so stressed it is slowly increasing cortisol like that - that's a negative long term.
I’m not sure I have understood you, sorry!0 -
Leonie_M234 wrote: »I really think you will get a woosh!! where you suddenly lose a few pounds over night : ) This has occurred with me many times over the last year. I must hold water, especially when I change exersise routines or up the intensity. Trust the process and keep logging. Once you have enough data to look back on you can trust your stats, and plateaus will not feel quite so frustrating....good luck!
I really hope so - thanks for the support! Feeling so demoralised - every day it creeps up! Like today and yesterday I was WELL under 1400 calories consumed, I went for walks and I worked out... but still the gain!!! Grrrrr0 -
Hey goatelope! You and I are very similar! I'm 5'3.75" (gimme that three quarters of an inch!) and started out this time around at 172 lbs. I am not working out as much as you- I work out three to four days a week and I am logging dutifully with food scale and all. I think there are a few things possibly going on with you:
(1) you are retaining water due to a new work out routine- this is TOTALLY FINE! Any day I lift weights, the scale is up the next day because your muscles retain water as part of their healing process. If you are doing resistance work five days a week, this could easily account for a few pounds. So think of it this way: you probably lost a few pounds of fat you don't realize because you're holding on to a few pounds of water. This is great!
(2) You are probably doing body recomposition- you noted yourself that you are fitter! You are losing fat and gaining muscle. This is great! You don't really want to lose "weight," you want to lose "fat." And you are doing that.
(3) the BESTEST news is that all the hard work you are doing WILL SHOW UP ON THE SCALE in time. As you increase muscle mass and continue to lose more fat than your body retains in repair water, you will see the scale go down.
It sounds like you are doing everything right. If you have been at this for two weeks and no change, I'd say stick with it. If you have been at this for six weeks and no change, here's some things to think about:
(1) are you actually eating enough? You say 1500 cals max. If that means that most days you're only eating 800 cals, that's bad news. You need to fuel your body or it will eat itself.
(2) Should you see a doctor to make sure you don't have a medical condition contributing to your situation? Perhaps you need way more than 1500 calories. Perhaps you have a hormonal issue.
All that being said, if you want to friend me since we are on similar paths, please do!0 -
I'm going to ask how big a deficit have you asked MFP to make for weight loss, and how much bigger are you making it by not correctly eating more when you do more?
Your 1 comment makes it sound like you think you have to exercise for weight loss - like why would you count those calories if you want to lose weight.
That is a misunderstanding of how things work.
Because stress induced water weight retention has been shown to slowly add on 20 lbs.
How many weeks of scale fat loss could that hide?
Of course if the body is so stressed it is slowly increasing cortisol like that - that's a negative long term.
I’m not sure I have understood you, sorry!
What I believe Heybales is saying is that you might be undereating.
What weight loss rate did you select in MFP? What activity level? MFP is intended to be used like this:
- you enter your personal stats
- you select a weight loss rate
- you select an activity level that corresponds with how active you are not including intentional exercise
- MFP gives you a base calorie goal for days when you don't exercise
- when you exercise, you add (a reasonable estimate of) the calories burned to your calorie goal. If your don't, you create a larger deficit (faster weight loss rate than three one you chose)
Creating a deficit that is too big
- might be unhealthy depending on your circumstances: obese people can lose weight safely at a faster rate than people with less to lose. Risks are: brittle nails, hair loss, loss of muscle mass,...
- but also creates more stress on the body. More stress on top of the stress of working out 6 days a week, which can lead to water retention, masking fat loss on the scale.
Judging from the new thread you created, you are very worried about your weight trend, even more stress 😉
I would suggest taking a break from working out for 3 or 4 days to give your body a break. And don't stay 'WELL under' your calorie goal, you don't need to be exactly on your goal, but aim to be close to it. Undereating is not a good thing.1
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