What is wrong with my plan - gaining instead of losing!?

theguy12

Uggg - been working out and eating right since August 8th.

Stepped on scale for first time today - 2 pounds heavier than when I started. Very disheartening.

Not sure how this can be considering I have cut about 7500 calories per week from my old unhealthy diet to my new healthy diet and started working out three times a week for an hour (30 minutes interval training on treadmill + 30 minute hard core circuit training workout). I am pouring sweat when I leave - I work hard - people even walk by and comment on how heavy I am breathing and how much I am sweating.

What could be going wrong? Any ideas?

I will just keep it up and see what happens. Sucks to not see results though.

bwogilvie

Go to http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/e4/ - John Walker's online book "The Hacker's Diet" and read the chapters on "The Rubber Bag" and "Signal and Noise." It's possible that you were just unlucky: that on August 8 you had a particularly low amount of water in your body, and today was particularly high.

It's also possible that you're overestimating calories burned by exercise. Even when I'm doing high intensity intervals or tempo workouts on my bike, I burn many fewer calories than MFP estimates.

I'd advise daily weigh-ins using Walker's exponentially smoothed weighted averaging, to get a sense of whether there's a real trend in your weight, and if you really are maintaining at your current level of activity, cutting back more on the calories.

Good luck!

nomeejerome

A calorie deficit is all that is needed to lose weight and exercise for fitness. If you are not losing there is a miscalculation somewhere along the line. Do you log accurately? Do you weigh everything? Would you be willing to open your diary? Also, it is been a bit over a month and you have added a new fitness routine, which can mask true loss because of water weight.

theguy12

I track everything I eat - no exceptions. I use whatever calories/nutritional info that MFP has under that item.

My typical day is:

---

BREAKFAST SHAKE or BREAKFAST SANDWICH (200 calories)
MORNING GRANOLA SNACK BAR (200 calories)
LUNCH (usually a healthy choice as I can't leave work) - (450 calories)
AFTERNOON SNACK BAR + FRUIT (300 calories)
DINNER (varies) - (800 calories)

Workout routine is 3 times a week:

---

30 minutes of interval training on treadmill (run for 2 minutes - walk for 3 minutes - run for 2 minutes - walk for 3 minutes,,,,,,,,,)
30 minutes of circuit training
10 minutes stretching and cool down

Not sure how I open my diary but sure.

mybonnieliesovertheocean

If you are logging in all of your foods (including snacks and such), then you're probably gaining muscle.

Muscle is more dense than fat so you can gain at some point during your exercising.

When I had a personal trainer, I dropped two dress sizes and never lost a pound.

Stick with it, it's not the weight that matters, it's the measurements and your improving health!

P.S.

Great job for deciding to make a change!

_Resolve_

Looking at your diary i would suggest to eat more consistently throughout the day and cut way back on the sodium intake.. Try having a breakfast lunch and dinner with snacks in between.

Mine typically are around:
Breakfast 500c
Morning Snack 250c
Lunch 500c
Afternoon Snack 250c
Dinner 500c

Lots of water and stop eating 4k mg of sodium a day.

Hope this helps.

nomeejerome

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/872212-you-re-probably-eating-more-than-you-think

Greenrun99

He's probably not gaining muscle.. he looks like a bigger guy.. and if your over 5'6 the calorie amount seems right (lower to where he should see some difference). I looked at your diary after you opened it and there are somethings I can recommend.
Log everything you eat, make sure you measure it (digital scale) and record it.. Homemade stuff make sure you enter it in the recipe builder thing to get an accurate calorie count. Try to reduce your out to eat meals/take out items, try to cook from home until you get your numbers under control (those are estimations for what your eating you could be 500+ over) and Stop eating your exercise calories for the moment until you get your numbers under control.

Roxanne_Hennessy

You probably gained muscle

nomeejerome

You probably gained muscle

doubtful

eeyore9394

Have more calories earlier in the day. Breakfast=biggest meal of the day. Also you may still be eating too much. Try 1500 instead of 2000. Another thing is your body is not used to eating that much less and is trying to hold on to weight as it goes into 'survival mode'.

Sassyallday

You have a high sodium intake and, unless you are not logging it, drinking virtually no water. I find that my water intake really does make a difference in what I see on the scale.

rileysowner

I was looking at your diary, only a few days though, and I see things like "Generic bacon cheese burger". The problem with entries like that, unless you entered that food, is that the amount of variation between bacon cheese burgers can be huge. That generic entry could be way off the actual calories. That would be true for things like home made mac'n cheese and a bunch of others. Unless they are your recipes, I would not use those sort of entries. At times they may be close, but I am guessing that they are not close to what you are eating at all. Meaning you are not eating as little as you think you are. Careful measurement and confirming calorie amounts is important.

Second, the scale is only one measurement. Start measuring with a tape measure as well. Chest, waist and hips at the very least since weight can fluctuate a lot from factors that have nothing to do with fat loss. The more things you can measure, the better idea you have on your progress.

cwolfman13

My typical day is:

---

BREAKFAST SHAKE or BREAKFAST SANDWICH (200 calories)

Who's breakfast sandwich...is it homemade...some commercial brand that clearly has labeled calories and serving proportions? Just because the data base says, "breakfast sandwich 200 calories" doesn't mean YOUR breakfast sandwich is necessarily 200 calories. You'll either have to go off of labels of a commercial brand or do a recipe builder. Also, watch your servings...I shouldn't have to say this, but so many people log 1 serving of something because the package says 1 serving = 120 calories or something...but they don't read below that where the package says it contains multiple servings...so people eat 2 or 3 servings thinking they're only eating one.

The most important aspect of all of this is consistency in logging and weighing and measuring everything and being as accurate as possible. that said, my guess is that your initial weigh in was on a light day and your second weigh in was on a "heavy" day. Weight fluctuates all of the time and day to day with just water (among other things)...so you could have weighed in initially while retaining less water than you did on your second weigh in. This is why your weight loss needs to be tracked as a general trend over a much longer period of time.

oboeing

i also took a look at your food diary (i went back about a week), and i have a couple notes...

your breakfast shake has half your allowable sugar for the day.
you're either missing a lot of meals or not tracking some. some days you have lunch and dinner, and that's it.
most days, it looks like you're either over on your fat and/or sugar, but you're under on your protein. it's not just the calories that's important, but what kind of nutrients you're feeding your body.

less sugar and fat, more lean protein (and water!)

fit4lifeUcan2

I agree with the sodium explanation. You are eating way too much sodium. And watch those home made meals that your putting them through the recipe calculator. Especially soups, stews and casseroles.

If your having a burger you're better off entering each individual ingredient used such as 2 strips of bacon, 4 oz ground sirloin or 4 oz's ground chuck (can make a big difference) or 2 slices of cheddar cheese vs 1 slice of american cheese.. and the bun can make a difference as well. Some buns are whole grain, some are multi grain and then there is the all white bread or kaiser roll types which are larger and denser than most regular buns. I have a feeling your not only way over in sodium but way over in calories as well.

theguy12

Hmmm - I thought I was doing good with food. Used to eat about 5000 calories a day. Now I am eating 1950 or less a day. I thought 1500 was unhealthy - some people said my 1950 is too low.......

I wasn't going to eat my exercise calories but someone on another post said I am supposed too! Uggg.

Breakfast is always a WEIGHT LOSS SHAKE (unless it's a random weekend as we go out for breakfast but that is rare).
Two snack bars throughout day to control hunger.
Lunch is always a frozen meal - I can't leave the office for lunch and have no time to cook and pack my own lunch to take.
Dinner - this is random - my fiance is not trying to lose weight so we eat whatever but I try to control my portions of these items.

I input food based on the calories listed on the packaging OR on the recipe OR from the nutritional info at the place I am eating or their website. That is about as accurate as I can get.

You don't see a lot of GENERIC CHEESEBURGERS (was stuck at hospital menu) or PIZZA (birthday party). For the most part I always stay under my calories and eat pretty well.

I will try to do better though!

theguy12

P.S. I track every meal. If it's not there it means I didn't get a chance to eat.

Mr_Knight

...my guess is that your initial weigh in was on a light day and your second weigh in was on a "heavy" day. Weight fluctuates all of the time and day to day with just water (among other things)...so you could have weighed in initially while retaining less water than you did on your second weigh in.

This is entirely possible. I log everything, including weight and BF%, everyday, and I have found a 7 day cycle in the readings that corresponds to my exercise schedule. Mondays are my rest day - and like clockwork, Tuesdays are always the day I set new lows for weight.

knot_enough

I'm going to have to agree with the majority here and say that your logging is not as accurate as you think. You may be consuming more calories than you think but justifying it by logging it as less calories than it actually is. My advice is to make more food at home, log it, so that you can get used to the portions you should actually be eating. Your diary is full of vague entries.

Also, water is the best weight loss supplement. I gained 5 lbs over the weekend, drank over a gallon on monday, then found myself back to the weight i was before the weekend. could be water weight.

Also, for a guy your size, i think you should consume more protein, because if you lose muscle mass, you will decrease your own metabolism. With the increase in muscle size, you increase your body's ability to metabolize calories for energy. boom.

oboeing

instead of prepackaged frozen meals, you have a few options. if you don't have time to make a sandwich before you go to work, you can use a crock pot, make a full size batch of something healthy (lots of healthy recipies you can find online), then portion them, and freeze. pull one a day for your lunch. it will have way less preservatives (sodium) than any prepackaged stuff. i work 2 jobs and am often not home for 14 hour stretches. i cannot leave my work for lunch either, and this has been a great compromise. also, i make a huge salad for the week, and have some everyday, including for lunch sometimes.