Gaining weight?
I started working out 10 days ago, I work out 6 days a week, 45 min on the elliptical. I have gained 7lbs since I started! I track everything I eat and stay constantly under my calories (1900 a day) I eat protein, some carbs.
I do have a couple drinks in the evening but it’s only vodka soda or tequila soda (and I track them all) and I am drinking about 4 litres of water a day.
why am I gaining weight??? And when will I start to see the numbers go down???? I’m so frustrated.
help!
Best Answers
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it’s water. You’ve stressed your body with new exercise (totally normal) and so your body holds water weight. You’ll pee it out at some point.
I’d also say that unless you’re sweating a lot more than normal, you don’t need 4 litres of water a day: the body needs c 2 lts of fluid every day - which includes liquids from food (ie fruit). Drinking too much can lead to electrolyte imbalance which - bizarrely - can lead to you retaining more water. Best way to gauge your fluid intake is thirst and pee colour (so if you’re thirsty after lots of exercise then do drink more).
re scale movements, it can take one month to see a drop in weight. That allows your body to adjust to new exercise, different foods etc.
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Individuals are individual. Your calorie needs shed no light on OP's. That's especially true given your demographic differences.
I'm glad that what you've done and are doing is working for you, sincerely. But that doesn't mean OP needs to do the same. (She doesn't need to do what I do, either.) Different tactics work for different people, because we all have different preferences, strengths, challenges, and lifestyles. Personalization of tactics is a key success factor.
If it were relevant - it's not 😆 - I'd point out this absolute truth: I'm 5'5", am active but don't go to gym daily, am old besides (69F) not to mention severely hypothyroid, and need around 2200 or so calories to maintain my weight, which was 130-point-something pounds this morning. My weight is about the same as yours, relative to our different heights, and I'm not much taller than you. Not everyone needs to eat ultra-low calories to lose weight at a sensible pace. Most days while losing, I ate more than you maintain on, and lost at a good pace.
Whether OP will or won't lose on her current calorie goal is unclear. She's only 10 days into this, as of the initial post. Yes, she's gained 7 pounds, but she's started a new exercise program (which adds water weight). If she has menstrual cycles, some women gain that much and more in water weight each cycle at some point(s). Yes, she may need to cut calories further, but it's too soon to say.
Cut-cut-cut can be punitively destructive to health. I'd never tell someone to do that on only 10 days worth of data, especially with exercise changes in the picture.
If she continues to finish a 4-6 week (one menstrual cycle) trial of her calorie goal, she'll have enough personal experience data to average, and use that to set a personalized calorie goal. That's true whether she gains, loses, or stays at constant weight over that time, as long as she logs consistently for the whole time period.
Eating exercise calories is fine; averaging exercise calories into a daily goal is fine. It's just a different accounting method. Either method is fine, as long as it yields a sensible weight-management outcome. There are pros and cons of either approach.
Just as a case-study example: I ate every carefully-estimated exercise calorie all through a year of losing from class 1 obese to a healthy weight, and have done the same for 9+ years of successful maintenance since. It has worked well, and as a bonus, I know how to maintain my weight at times when I can't work out. Also, I eat 225g+ of carbs daily in maintenance, nowhere even remotely near keto. Low carb/keto is perfect for some people, but it's not universally essential.
Like I said, no one needs to do what I did. But I'd strongly suggest that everyone needs to find their own best path, including OP. Different tactics work for different people.
Your experience can give her ideas to try if they sound good to her, so sharing experiences is good. If your tactics work for her, too, that's great. But she has other options that can also work. There's not "one true way".
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Answers
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welcome to MFP @fpy4xhcc75
this sounds like a silly question, but are you counting those drinks as part of your calories?It sort of sounds like they’re an afterthought.
Just asking because (😇 looks around innocently!) sometimes folks have the idea that something you drink goes in and out so fast it doesn’t have time to register, so to speak.
They most certainly do count.
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ah. You do specify that you track them, so assume they’re included in your diary.
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hi guys. Yes I count every drink on my tracker. I even measure them out so I know exactly what I am drinking and the calories I am taking in (97 calories per shot)
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Thank you! I thought this, and I have been taking diuretics to counter act the water retention but that’s not making any difference? Wouldn’t that be helping?
I naturally drink a lot of water, I love my Stanley and probably go through 3 or 4 naturally in a day.
also, it seems crazy but I didn’t eat a lot before now I am eating three meals a day, while working out, could I be eating too much?Sorry I am just frustrated I want my clothes to fit again and feel like all this effort is for something!
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Bodies are weird! If you’re eating more than you used to (perhaps more bulky fibrous foods) then your body will be holding water with them, and you’ll have more food waste in your system. This is weight but it’s not fat - that’s the difference, and it can be frustrating.
If you are in a calorie deficit then you will, absolutely, over time lose weight. But it won’t be linear, you might go up a few pounds then down. Your body will hold water for lots of reasons and they are all natural - including if you have a monthly cycle. Personally I wouldn’t use diuretics unless prescribed by my doctor.
Patience is going to be your friend here. Think of this as calibrating your body and settings. Keep recording everything you eat and drink accurately* for one month then review. If you haven’t lost weight then you need to adjust your calories a little downwards. If you’ve lost too fast, eat a bit more.
*accurate tracking is a real skill. You need to weigh everything - don’t estimate or use measuring spoons or cups. You need to double check entries online as they are often wrong, and accept that it can only be an estimate. It took me a while to learn to track accurately, it’s not a diss - it can just take a bit of time. Seeing how many calories are in a tablespoon of peanut butter using a spoon vs weight is sadly eye opening.
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Thank you so much! I have been doing that, I even bought a scale.
I appreciate the feedback. Jumping up 7lbs in 10 days has really made me feel like “what am I doing this for?!” But I will stick with it because I actually feel a lot better in myself overall. I just want to feel better in myself physically. Is 7lbs in the first 10 days a lot to go up by??
this is the first time I’ve really committed and stuck to working out and tracking my food consumption. So I am a “newbie” even though I have tried and failed many times in the pastI have one cheat day where my husband and I go out but I still track everything I eat and drink to the best of my ability. But he likes a drink and so do I, I just have changed what I drink to be more health conscious
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People hold different amounts of water - and food - weight, and I have heard 7lbs before on MFP.
Look it this way - if your cheat meal included a lot of salt (and you have no way of knowing how much salt a restaurant puts in), your body will hold water. You’ve taken up vigorous new exercise - so your body holds water. You’re eating a higher volume of food (500cals of veggies will weigh a lot more than 500 cals of cheese or alcohol) and that food has to be processed by your body. This is why the month is important - and even if you don’t lose weight in one month - that’s still a huge success as you now know exactly what your calorie needs per week are. That allows you to work out what deficit you want to go for - it’s difficult to do that without knowing your baseline.
I’ve been maintaining for 8 years and I still track. I estimate some things now as a rough daily average works for me, but I know that higher intensity exercise days, my period, and higher carb or salty meals will give me a rebound on the scales.
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So a couple of observations from this struck me. First, in order to gain 7 lbs of fat you'd have to overeat by about 24,500 calories in that 10 day period. That would be a bit aggressive for anyone to accomplish so it's probably coming from a number of different sources.
First is the new exercise. Anytime I start a new routine (or even a new exercise) I try to ease into it slowly and not go 110% on it because I know my muscles are going to react, get super sore, and retain a bunch of water for days which in turn makes the scale go up. I just have to be emotionally prepared for that bump and realize its a false reading from a fat loss perspective. Its temporary but sucks having to see it.
Second, the comment about the "cheat meal" once a week. When I was in maintenance prior, this is how I kept my weight in check: I would eat at a deficit 6 days a week, as well as the first 2 meals on Saturday, then go out Saturday night for drinks and a "normal" meal (burgers, fries, etc). That one "cheat meal" and drinks was enough to bounce me up 3-4 lbs in one day and it would take me the next week to work it back off and then I'd repeat the next week. Did this for a long time. It worked for me at that time, but do NOT underestimate the power of one meal. It can undo an entire weeks worth of work.
Do with that info as you wish. If you are trying to lose weight seriously, and you are in the beginning stages of your journey, I would tread wearily into the world of "cheat meals" for a while. As stated above, the amount of sodium, carbs, fat, etc., in a restaurant/bar food setting is impossible to guestimate. You very well could be undoing all of your efforts in one night.
Everyone is different, everyones body reacts differently, everyone here will have an opinion and have of what is posted is anecdotal information at best. You have to try things and see what works through trial and error for you and your lifestyle and your body, but some truths here are universal: you have to take in less calories than you burn. Period. Exercise for the health benefits, eat at a deficit to lose weight. All those sayings about, "Abs are made in the kitchen, not the gym" or, "You can't out run a bad diet" are there for a reason.
Stick tight with the diet, measuring, weighing, and logging. That water weight will "whoosh" off at some point!
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the diuretics are also probably contributing to the fluctuations. You’re trying to drink more yet you’re trying to flush it out at the same time.
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I'd be stronger in this part of the situation than those above: If you weren't prescribed diuretics for a serious health condition, don't take them.
Water retention fluctuations are part of how a healthy body stays healthy. They know what they're doing. Don't try to game that. It's water, not fat.
If you have a meaningful amount of weight to lose, pick a sustainable plan, not something that requires white-knuckled "discipline". Then settle in for the long haul. Meaningful fat loss takes weeks, months, maybe even a small number of years for those severely overweight. Even for a small amount of intended loss, 10 days is just getting started. A change in eating habits and an increase in exercise will make the scale roller-coaster unpredictably for at least the first couple of weeks, perhaps a full menstrual cycle for women who have those.
Moreover, if you're someone like me with a tendency toward overweight, weight loss isn't a project with an end date. It's a forever endeavor. In that scenario, a good solution is finding happy long-term eating and activity habits that can continue almost on autopilot forever, rather than thinking about tactics for losing weight fast, then going back to normal. In that scenario, "normal" is regain.
Best wishes - you can succeed. Hang in there.
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@briscogun thank you very much for this!!
when you say stay in a calorie deficit, I have 1900 a day, I burn on average 400 in the gym. I stay under 2300 consistently. So would that count as a deficit?Also, when I say cheat day, I’m not one for burgers and fries and that stuff. My biggest vice is alcohol. Even going out I still eat healthy (sashimi, salad, maybe a fish taco, grilled fish etc., or worse case pasta) so I don’t eat a lot of “crap” food.
I’m so overweight per se, I’m 5’ 10” and 149lbs. But recently the scales read 157. I am not eating bad either. My breakfast is satires tomato, garlic, spinach and either 100g of chicken or two eggs, and that’s after a work out. I measure everything. I don’t have a lot of carbs. Maybe pasta at dinner but only a cup. I am doing the right things I think? Am I missing something?
like I said o will have a couple vodka sodas or tequila sodas in the evening but that’s it and I track all of them.
any advice or what I’m doing wrong or could do better please tell me!1 -
thank you @AnnPT77
see above. Any feedback or help as to what I’m doing wrong is appreciated!Thank you!
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Whether 1900 is a deficit or not is highly individual…
Person A needs less than 1900 to stay the same weight, so eating 1900 would add weight
Person B needs 1900 to stay the same weight, so eating 1900 would not change weight
Person C needs more than 1900 to stay the same weight, so eating 1900 would lower weightWhich person are you? There are multiple online calculators which can give an estimate, but every human is different. (For example, online estimates say I should be eating far more than 15 years of tracking my meals say I actually need.) This is why the above posters recommend picking a number (you chose 1900) and try to stay there for an entire month; hopefully after that time, changes like water will have settled down. Compare the weight at the end of the month to the start weight. If you have gone up in weight, then 1900 is too much for you; if you have gone down, 1900 is a deficit.
Up or down, the size of the weight change allows us to calculate an actual number to replace our first estimated number. Then starting in month two we can adjust our calories to the calculated number, plus a little bit if we want to gain, or minus a little bit if we want to lose.
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With dressings, butter, oils, etc you’d be surprised at the calorie count on a salad or fish taco or grilled tilapia! I do best if I eat out once a month rather than once a week for sure!
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@fpy4xhcc75 if I'm understanding correctly, MFP is giving you a daily goal of 1,900 calories, you are saying you burn 400 in the gym so you are eating 2,300 calories a day, correct?
My first thought is that if this is true, you are leaving zero room for error in your logging. You would have to be 100% accurate in weighing and measuring every little bite and morsel that goes into your mouth, and you would have to be using a chest strap heart rate monitor (or something VERY accurate) to try and get your calories burned as accurate as possible.
Most calorie burning estimates (online calculators, activity tracker/watches, even MFP) are WILDLY inaccurate and overestimate calorie burns. Most people either only eat back 50% of the calories burned or in some cases zero (unless you are starving yourself or a highly competitive athlete that burns thousands and thousands of calories you probably don't need to eat them all back).
And regarding the diet info, depending on how you make (or order) a salad, they can be some of the worst offending items from a calorie standpoint. You can go to Chili's and get a 2,000 calorie salad easily. And 1 cup of pasta is about 800 calories before you've even put anything on it. It gets tricky fast.
That might explain some of the additional weight spikes lately, if the logging isn't tight and accurate, you might be eating closer to maintenance and adding new exercise on top.
What goal did you set for your weekly rate of loss in MFP?
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So much to unpack! So many people helping. So much thinking to do!
First of all, objectively, if your height measurement is correct (and my quick lookup correct), you are not only not overweight but not even past the midpoint of normal weight.
So direct weight loss is probably not even an appropriate goal!
Now feeling better? Exercising? Taking care of yourself? Maybe even recomposition? All these seem to make more sense to me than direct weight loss.
Then we have the weight issue: do you weight once a week or every day and use a weight trend app? Are you accounting for time of the month? Are your bathroom habits err, regular and daily? I mean anything that's on your body is also on the scale. And each and everyone of us has a body weight range. Not an exact weight.
Even more so (a weight range) for someone on diuretics.
They are often given (to my layperson's knowledge) to control things such as blood pressure and manage water retention in the body that may be caused by various health conditions.
But they also have a cost to the system, can create electrolyte balance issues, but generally relieve or manage more serious issues so the cost is deemed acceptable.
I haven't heard of a people being told to drink more liquids while being prescribed diuretics.
Now then. Males of the species tend to carry more muscle mass (not necessarily as compared to some of the awesome ladies on MFP; but as a general observation). And they tend to have a higher TDEE (daily burn, essentially the amount of calories they can consume before gaining weight)
The consequence is that it is very hard for (most) females to one on one eat and drink the same stuff all the time 24/7/365 and split it equally. Either the guy better be sneaking some candy bars on the side; or the gal be more active and athletic; or exercise some food and drink management by either subtle or not so subtle substitutions and plate management. This is not universal for every single individual. It is a more generic observation that I'm almost sure will get me accused of mansplaining.
But here is when it sometimes breaks down. Are you sure that my burger (no cheese, no mayo, add bacon) and fries (or salad with dressing on the side) is actually less Calories than your "cowgirl salad"? Because I can have a burger and fries for under 1000 Cal but the cowgirl salad I recently saw at a restaurant clocked in at 1100 with all the healthy nuts, add ons, and dressings
So healthy food is good. Independently. And you don't need to lose weight objectively, so excessive worry over calories may or may not be needed. But healthy eating does NOT mean you end up eating less calories always.
Last but not least the little pink elephant in the room!🤣 I guess two elephants because I see you are also manipulating carbs.
Again a reminder: carbs -+ no carbs is water weight manipulation and let's not even forget that it gets to be dangerous if you start introducing going into keto, coming up from a hangover, and taking diuretics that can disturb your electrolytes in top.
Ugh. Before going for vodka: cabs are not some sort of voodoo magic. They are food like anything else. Maybe you have issues that your selection of carbs makes you eat more of them. Maybe not eating them helps youbetter manage your food selection and calorie intake. All that is great. And maybe makes you happier eating or not eating lower carbs.
But in the end what will count for your long term weight level is Calories in and out as you can manage them.
Temporarily transitioning from carbs to no carbs can account for several lbs of water weight fluctuations. Not because of the water you drink. But because of how carbs are stored near your muscles and in your liver in order to be available as quick energy sources.
When you go low carb you release the water molecules that are stored together with this ready energy. You see a scale drop. You intake some carbs, they bind to extra water molecules again if they were previously depleted, and your weight shoots up.
You're not manipulating fat levels even though you see the scale move. You are manipulating your fat free mass and your water content.
Honestly? You probably need to take a minute and review a lot of things you are doing and SEE, EVALUATE, and decide whether they are things you LIKE doing, or whether you're responding to things you think you need to do to achieve certain goals without necessarily having a coherent plan.
Flailing around works great when you're young and have lots of energy. As time goes on perhaps deciding what is worthwhile to pursue and what is not will better help you achieve your goals by only spending energy on high value objectives!🤔
The other long term elephant is obvious!🤣 When you start counting in years not months even a 200 Cal a day deficit is taxing and will have some effects on you by itself. 2 x 7 = 14(00)
That frees 1400 Cal for drinks and candy bars.
(1200/1400/2000 this is just a thought experiment so that you can consider the trade offs you're making --technically you're still taking in energy when drinking vodka and diet tonic even though it may be suboptimal energy)
I have old acquaintances (you notice that I don't say friends) who still drink "a six pack a day" There does exist a reason why people tend to reduce their drinking as time goes on; or see health effects because of it.
Same applies to candy bars--and yes I do eat 1400 Cal's worth of them a week! Arguably candy bars do have a few more nutrients than alcohol... 🤔🤣😉
Honest. I would love to see you succeed and be more happy. I think you're trying to get all this stuff in your life in better order. But I also think I sense a bit of flailing around and a lot of energy directed at things that may appear to help but are neither the root causes nor necessarily as high value in terms of their effects as the effort that is going into them.
I don't want you to end up frustrated and giving up, hence I urge you to take a breather and consider the whole picture! 🤷🏼♀️
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No no no I’m not consuming 2300 a day, I struggle to consume 1900. I usually have between 600-300 calories left over at the end of the day.
I tried several online calorie deficitCalculators and they’re all saying I should be around 2100 candies a day based on my workouts but I can’t do that it’s just too much.
I live in Dubai so we don’t have a lot of those heavy fast food restaurants, so when I say I have a salad, I mean green lettuce some fresh veg and maybe a portion of grilled salmon. No dressing I tend to have olive oil and lemon. That’s how I eat. I always have. I maybe have spaghetti with clams sometimes that only has garlic and olive oil and chilis and parsley. (And yes I know olive oil has calories and I do try to guesstimate the portion based on what I know from cooking but can be wrong I understand that)
but at home it’s healthy. And I always, always have calories left over every day, even on a cheat day.
my goal I think is set at either .5lb or 1lb a week.0 -
thank you very much that was incredibly informative. I’m regards to what I mean about eating out, see my reply above. Any feedback?
also, you mentioned “flailing about” several times, what exactly do you mean by that?
I haven’t deliberately gone from carbs to no carbs. I have never had a card heavy diet, besides having pasta. It’s just the way I eat.1 -
I’m so overweight per se, I’m 5’ 10” and 149lbs. But recently the scales read 157.
I’m hoping there is a typo somewhere in this sentence?0 -
How old are you, and how active besides the elliptical (job, home chores, other exercise)?
If I assume you're young (20), 157 pounds, 5'10", female, your sedentary (normal life activity) maintenance calories would be under 1900 by a bit. 400 calories for 45 minutes of elliptical is possibly, but also possibly generous. You may not have much of a deficit, which is fine, but it will take longer for that loss to show up on the scale in the weight trend over multiple weeks.
If you set for half a pound a week of weight loss, that's a sensible loss rate for someone like you who is not even technically overweight at all - BMI 22.5, middle of the normal weight range for your height. But it will also take more time to show clearly in scale weight trends, especially since you've added new exercise, which will add water weight.
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weight fluctuations are NORMAL
You need to give it more time
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Please appreciate that generic comments from people who have a very small picture of you are just that: generic comments.
Sometimes the shoe fits. Sometimes the comments are off the mark. Sometimes they make you think before you choose to either incorporate them or reject them because you've either modified or re-affirmed your own thoughts or decisions. If they make you think then they've accomplished their intent! ;-)
If you changed your way of eating to one that doesn't have many carbs normally but is occasionally carb heavy with pasta and you did so recently to lose weight; to me it would be an approach with inconsistencies. If this has always been your way of eating—as you've since clarified—then that's another story!😉 My personal take is that your way of eating seems to have worked well enough for you over the years.
If you always drank 4l of water while taking diuretics that would be different than doing so as an approach to trying to lose weight.
Even more so, trying to get healthier for someone around the BMI 22 mark may involve a lot of different things and direct weight loss may not even be high up on that list.
Just as an aside, olive oil is about 0.92g per ml so a tablespoon is about 13.8g. Alternatively, every 13.8g of olive oil that left your bottle… is a tablespoon of olive oil consumed.
But again, as mentioned, there is nothing particularly wrong with your initial weight! So I am not sure why you're trying to reduce it with extreme prejudice!
Exercise is good. But adding new and intense exercise may temporarily increase your weight if your muscles are hurting. Admittedly 7lbs up in 10 days is definitely on the high side.
Then again 7lbs up in 10 days is very much a non fat weight change unless you are literally consuming an additional 2400 Cal over and above your daily requirements each and every day (1lb of fat is, by convention, assumed to approximately require 3500 Cal of either deficit or surplus)
So the "flailing" comment is from an impression I got of you potentially attacking the problem in multiple ways regardless of whether they are optimal and regardless of whether you've correctly identified the problem and the best remedies to pursue.
One thing I may walk back is the 4L if you're spending most of your day outside in the desert! In that case it may be a necessity.
But again I would be even more concerned about electrolyte imbalances if you're flushing water via perspiration, alcohol and diuretics while intaking huge quantities.
Don't make things too difficult for yourself when you don't have to!
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actually in 36, with a 5 1/2 year old son. I’m a stay at home mum, but do a lot around the house.I used to be rather sedentary but I am making an effort now, even if it’s little things like standing and walking more while cooking rather than sitting and chopping etc.
im on day 11 now. Knowing I have a night out I did an hour on the elliptical. Just because I know there will be alcohol tonight.
but I also am inpatient so there’s that….1 -
Thank you very much! You are so insightful and informative I really appreciate it.
I hope you’re right, and it will start to drop off.
I am sure my weight doesn’t sound bad but I hate what I see when I look in the mirror, and I still have my post baby “pouch” and I just want that gone as well. It’s been 5 years!
but also just feeling better in myself, and feeling more confident in how I look. If I can get to 135-140lbs I’ll be happy, and just getting a waist back.
any tips of food that I should or shouldn’t eat to help achieve these goals?1 -
Healthier food may be independently health promoting but in terms of long term weight level energy balance determines your direction.
Weight level is an important concept because weight fluctuates faster because of non fat level reasons than it does because of changes to your long term fat levels.
A night out or time of month can be several lbs of fluctuation. At your current normal weight a 0.5lb a week loss would already be very aggressive in terms of long term weight level adjustment.
There are a couple of ideas swirling through my mind.
Sometimes it is better to not make things worse by trying for an incremental improvement.
It is extremely common for people who apply caloric restriction, especially aggressively, to lose weight and then regain it with friends. And a cycle of restriction and gain can extend to many years and progressively result in negative results.
Address your 80% instead of trying to optimize via your 20%
-- post baby pouch. I will let the ladies discuss. There is a very informative thread on this.
-- change of food types and restriction. Don't for the purpose of losing weight. That's not where your problem is.
You stated about a relatively small weight change over years but heading in the wrong direction.
You also stated that you were sedentary and getting to be more active and starting to exercise more.
Within reason and limits.
If you start exercising for multiple hours a day like a professional athlete would, yet without particularly aspiring to be one, then I would personally cast a wider self reflection net in terms of what I am doing and what is driving me to do it🤷🏼♀️
So. A bit (bit can be quite a bit but too much can be excesive ;-) more activity and exercise: that's awesome 👍🏼 excessive? Not as much.
Now weight. Do yourself a favour and count them drinks as a totalkity.
You've been at this less than a couple of weeks.
Something tells me that the drinks thing is not once a week. 4 out of 14 is 29%. Every night two or three is even more. And in terms of healthy nutrition? There is not a single oz of it in the ounces.
Hey, many people around here drink a bit. Some, I am sure, do so a lot. Personally I changed all my coke to coke zero and all my multiple creams and sugar to black 🤣🤣🤣
Ok lame joke. But the calories still count and it is the same issue.
Your "sane" deficit in a week, in your case, is 1000 to 2000 Calories. In total. Just moving more without changing anything else might do this, though admittedly that plan rarely works for direct weight loss (works great for decomposition)
Well i saved over 200 Cal a day by removing sugar and cream from my coffee. That's more than 1400.
How much COULD you save by exercising improved drink management?
In any case: that is where your non nutritional calories are coming from.
Protein you need. I don't remember you stresssing it too much and you don't want to be too low. You seem to intake some healthy fats which you do need. Carbs have nothing inherently wrong with them--excess carbs most certainly do, as does pretty much any other true excess.
My concern would be that by applying the wrong remedy to something that may not be a direct issue you may trigger a worse result long term instead of getting benefits.
Anyway: not being there (or part of an expat community other than through hearsay) I have no way of knowing how close my impressions are to reality.
Imagine yourself 10 or 20 years from now... and have a chat with yourself from that perspective about how you can best benefit from the strength, vigor, and opportunities you have right now!👍🏼
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Suggest that if you’re actually eating 2300 cals. You’re not in deficit! Don’t eat your exercise earned calories… because the estimates of burned calories aren’t accurate! I’m 5 3 and go gym daily and do 4 strength and 3 cardio sessions and need c1700/1800 cals to MAINTAIN my weight of 121 pounds…. If want see difference… start putting running into your routine - uses most calories. And reduce calories to 1500ish. My fav recipe book. Michael Moseley 800 keto. Tonnes great recipes meals all under 400 calories! X And track your drinks - they really add up. Try peppermint tea … and another great fav of mine is. 5% Greek yog 100g and blueberries.
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thank you so much. Yeah I am now basically two weeks In and do have my period so that doesn’t help. I had a a day and night that I wasn’t as good but I am going back to the gym this morning and getting back on in.
The app actually suggested my calories a day should be 2160, but I lowered it to 1900 because that seemed just too high to lose weight but maybe I’m wrong?
im learning, and it’s hard, especially because it’s like speaking and learning a foreign language.
I appreciate the help! Any recommendation on how to lose my “pouch”?0 -
also, I cannot run as I have very bad knees and have had 7 knee surgeries. So what I can do cardio wise is limited
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