Fed up and disheartened

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Replies

  • mspoopoo
    mspoopoo Posts: 500 Member
    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
    jonnythan Posts: 10,161 Member
    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
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
    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
    jonnythan Posts: 10,161 Member
    [wrong thread]
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,487 Member
    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
    gebhart4 Posts: 24 Member
    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
    pavrg Posts: 277 Member
    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
    RebeccaHite Posts: 187 Member
    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
    Mouseanonymous802 Posts: 76
    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
    mimieon Posts: 182 Member
    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.

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