Fed up and disheartened

Brige2269

Seems your logs are incomplete. Don't use quick add calories, cos that doesn't log your fat and sodium. Also, you should use a scale for your food. Seems you needs protien at breakfast to get energy for all the workouts. I say the same, you may be retaining water since you're not sure how much sodium you have. Try logging exact for two weeks and see if it makes a difference.

Mr_Knight

All figures are accurate according to myfitnesspal. I do swim 60 minutes without stopping and fitness pal gave me the calorie loss.

For starters, switch the swimming activity to "freestyle, light effort". I know it doesn't feel like a light effort to you (or me!) but that will get you a much more realistic calorie burn. The activity you have is targeted towards someone swimming like Michael Phelps.

Also, if I've understood correctly, the cycling and walking is done on machines. That's not the same motions as doing "for real", so I would suggest that for walking, you enter 1 mph lower than the machine says you're doing, and for cycling do it two categories of speed lower than the machine is saying (eg, if you're 14-16mph, use 10-12 mph).

That will get you into a more realistic burn ballpark.

9jenn9

I am going by the logging exercise on here. I get my heart rate between 111-129

Please don't go with the mfp calorie estimates. For many people, they are very inaccurate. How many calories you burn depends on your heart rate, weight, age, fitness level, etc. Think about it: how could one calorie estimate be accurate for a wide range of people working at different intensities?

A heart rate monitor (or fitbit/ body bug, etc) is an excellent tool if you want to be accurate. A heart rate monitor is to exercise what measuring cups are to cooking.

Iron_Lotus

Been to gym 4 times this week been swimming 7 hours this week been to water aerobics class this week. Maintained very healthy eating not going above 1200 calories a day sometimes as low as 900 and I have put 3 lb on could someone please please explain as I am nearly in tears here.

Eat.

THIS dagnabbit!

AlongCame_Molly

1. You are not eating enough. Calculate your TDEE and eat 20% less than that number.

2. You are not burning as many calories as you think you are, I can almost guarantee that.

guessrs

That's disheartening, I feel for you.
I've had weeks like that. Keep eating your bmr, keep exercising and the loss always happens just a little later than you expect it.

AlongCame_Molly

That's disheartening, I feel for you.
I've had weeks like that. Keep eating your bmr, keep exercising and the loss always happens just a little later than you expect it.

I hope you meant to say OVER BMR, because nobody should be eating AT or under it, especially given the amount of exercise OP's doing. That's just insane. OP, please do NOT do this.

holly1283

What kind of strokes re you doing swimming? I can only burn 815/hr. and I do some vigorous freestyle and lots of breaststroke. I also havea fair amount to lose yet so it isn't because of my bmi. I also use MFP calculations.

CyberEd312

All figures are accurate according to myfitnesspal. I do swim 60 minutes without stopping and fitness pal gave me the calorie loss. Bike exercise is pedling very fast to get my heart rate up which has been worked out by my personal trainer.

Hubby does all the cooking and he weights everything and we don't use any cooking oils at all. He reads all packet details and is very accurate. The first week of diet I was on fluids only for a week then introduced one meal a day then back to normal. I think I will have to eat more and see how I get on. Thanks for all advice.

I think you need to invest in a heart rate monitor so you can see that MFP can grossly overestimate calorie burns... I use a Polar FT60 hear rate monitor and I weigh 250 lbs. and swim 2 miles in the pool at the YMCA a few times a week... It takes me around 90 minutes and my calorie burn is just over 1000 calories for that workout.. but regardless to the calorie burns, you just are not eating nearly enough food even if you wasn't exercising.... I personally think you need to recalculate your caloric intake.... 1200 calories (which you aren't hitting most days) is low.... Best of Luck...

paucoe

"swimming is good for fitness, but not for weight loss--you aren't burning as many calories as you think there."

:noway: Seriously!? Swimming is an excellent workout for weight loss as long as you get/keep your heart rate up.

mspoopoo

I suspect you aren't burning as many calories as you think you are. I would just count about 400 calories for the day and eat back half.

It doesn't look like you are logging everything. Do you have drinks like soda, milk, tea,alcohol?

I saw you listed cereal for breakfast. Are you just eating dry cereal or do you have milk on it?

Do you have butter, cream, tomato sauce on things?

jonnythan

You don't appear to be actually weighing your portions of food.

Buy a food scale. Weigh your food. Don't just eyeball it.

3dogsrunning

Are you logging everything?
How are you measuring?

Ill be totally honest, if I was eating like you, I would be breaking down and eating other stuff on the regular. Your diet as logged is really, really strict.

You don't need to be at 1200.

I also agree with others that you should switch to the lower speed of swimming.

jonnythan

[wrong thread]

Ready2Rock206

Over exercising and under eating won't do you any favors. Make sure you are eating enough and accurate logging your exercise calories (and eating them back).

gebhart4

This is probably not what you want to hear, but MFP's accuracy on the exercise portion of the site is REALLY off. Try the free app, Endomondo if you have a smart phone. I clip my phone to my waist when I go walking and have the app running. Then compare your cal count from mfp to Endomondo and I promise you will be amazed.

pavrg

Looking at your log and reading your post, the answer is simple: you aren't measuring properly.

1) 1500 calories in exercise? Are you an ameteur or pro athlete? Because if not, there's not a chance you are burning close to that many calories in a workout. You might be getting 1/5 of that, if you are lucky.

MFP calculates swimming as if you are doing laps constantly as fast as you can, which I guarantee you aren't doing for an hour.

2)

"I eat food my husband prepares which I think is healthy."

Is your husband measuring or weighing EVERYTHING in the food you eat? Even that tbsp of oil or butter he used to grease the pan? That isn't reflected in your log. In fact, other than today your log generally looks like you have missed entering foods quite a bit in the last 5 days and there's no rhyme or reason to the entries...I can't actually tell what you ate through your log.

3) In the past week you have a couple days in your log that are incomplete.

So the solution is: log stuff accurately and adjust your diet accordingly. The concept that eating too few calories leads to weight retention is a myth. You are eating more than you think and expending less than you think during exercise. It's that simple.

Also, 1200 isn't this magic starvation number even though MFP thinks it is. Many women will need to eat under 1200 calories to lose weight. And I feel for you for that, because I have a hard enough time meeting my 1600 cal/day goal as a man unless I run 3 miles. I couldn't imagine eating 1000-1200 calories, but alas God created us differently.

Eating under your required calories/nutritional needs can make you feel weak, lathargic, and generally crappy. This can affect your exercise performance and how you feel about yourself. It also may make you lose more lean body mass than you want to, which means you won't look as good as you think you will when you get to your goal weight. But you will STILL LOSE WEIGHT until your body runs out of stored fat. There is no voodoo magic your body will perform to stay at the same weight when it needs to consume stored energy (ie fat) to maintain metabolic processes until it is out of that energy source entirely.

So to sum up again, because it's important: Your problem isn't eating more. If you eat more when you are maintaining your weight now, you will gain weight.

The calories in a pound of fatty tissue are not based on a % of your TDEE...it is approximately 3500 calories.

RebeccaHite

Been to gym 4 times this week been swimming 7 hours this week been to water aerobics class this week. Maintained very healthy eating not going above 1200 calories a day sometimes as low as 900 and I have put 3 lb on could someone please please explain as I am nearly in tears here.

Check with a Doc...Thyroid and hormone imbalances maybe

Mouseanonymous802

As said above simply not burning as much as you think you are and eating more. Starvation mode exists but not in the way most people think it is
Read this :
http://www.aworkoutroutine.com/starvation-mode/

mimieon

I am going by the logging exercise on here. I get my heart rate between 111-129

There is no way that you are burning 300 calories in 15 minutes with an exercise heart-rate that low. Myfitnesspal is not accurate in exercise calories at all, and it usually overestimates the amount of calories.

It also sounds like you are not logging your food very accurately, so start weighing and counting everything that goes into your food (including what your husband makes).

And eat a reasonable number of calories, preferably based on your BMR and TDEE.