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Introduction

onlineschool2190
onlineschool2190 Posts: 2 Member
in Introduce Yourself

Hi! I'm Shelly. A 51yo menopausal woman on HRT, that who has always been slim. To be expected, I quit smoking 4mos ago and in that time I gained over 20lbs. So I've been exercising at least 3x's/wk for at least 30mins (cardio, core & resistant band target area exercises) for the last 4wks now. Unfortunately, I've found that I've gained a lb in that time.

I'm strictly following the app. Low/no carbs, no sugar (expect naturally in fruit, etc), high protein & fiber.

What am I doing wrong? 😕 Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated! Thx in advance!

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Replies

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 35,532 Member

    Not really enough information in your post to comment. What's your calorie intake, how tall/old/active are you (including non-exercise activity like job/home stuff), and what do you weigh now? Are you estimating exercise calories and eating those back, i.e., following the process MFP recommends? If so, how many calories are you estimating for that exercise?

    Gaining 20 pounds in 4 months implies that you'd been eating roughly 625 calories above weight-maintenance calories daily on average over that time period. That may sound like a lot, but it's surprisingly easy to do, and a person might not notice if not calorie counting meticulously. I won't speak for others, but I could crush 7x625 excess calories in one weekend "cheat day" (if I believed in cheat days 😉).

    New exercise can add water retention for a while, so gaining a pound in 4 weeks might not even be fat gain, but after that long a time period, it seems reasonable to infer that you're at least not losing much if any fat . . . i.e., are eating at around maintenance calories. One pound of fat gain in 4 weeks - if fat it is - would imply about 125 calories above maintenance daily on average.

    Without knowing what's happening on the eating side of the equation, it's hard to tell what the issue is. You mention exercise, but from my own experience as an active woman, 300 calories in half an hour would be a quite intense workout, more than I'd usually expect to burn in that amount of time. Exercise is good for a body, and can help burn some extra calories as well as gradually improving fitness and body composition, but the calories involved for most of us aren't a huge factor arithmetically.

    I'm not trying to be discouraging when I say any of this. I'd like to help you succeed with this, but more information would help.

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