What Am I Doing Wrong??

DHogan80

Hi All:

I've initially lost 3 kgs or 6.6 pounds to my other friends out of Australia. Now I've put it back on, plus a little more. I seem to be doing everything right, but obviously can't be if I'm gaining... Anyone got any suggestions please of where I could be going wrong??

Dana

Mokey41

House cleaning isn't exercise. You're logging huge burns and then eating it back wiping out your deficit. Only log dedicated exercise and stick to your budget.

81Katz

Possibly over-inflated calorie burns (if using MFP calculations) they are wayyyy high IMO.

Possibly over-eating by under logging, forgetful logging, not weighing food accurately, eye-balling portions.

Logging basic activity as 'exercise'.

pastryari

House cleaning isn't exercise. You're logging huge burns and then eating it back wiping out your deficit. Only log dedicated exercise and stick to your budget.

^ Yup.

Will_Thrust_For_Candy

House cleaning isn't exercise. You're logging huge burns and then eating it back wiping out your deficit. Only log dedicated exercise and stick to your budget.

^ Yup.

x3 + make sure that you are weighing/measuring/logging everything that goes in your mouth.

AllonsYtotheTardis

House cleaning isn't exercise. You're logging huge burns and then eating it back wiping out your deficit. Only log dedicated exercise and stick to your budget.

^ Yup.

x3 + make sure that you are weighing/measuring/logging everything that goes in your mouth.

^^^ - all of this

aliencheesecake

House cleaning isn't exercise. You're logging huge burns and then eating it back wiping out your deficit. Only log dedicated exercise and stick to your budget.

^ Yup.

You all must not clean very well. LOL When I scrub floors, that **** is exercise!

itsjustdawn

House cleaning isn't exercise. You're logging huge burns and then eating it back wiping out your deficit. Only log dedicated exercise and stick to your budget.

LOL

Cranquistador

House cleaning isn't exercise. You're logging huge burns and then eating it back wiping out your deficit. Only log dedicated exercise and stick to your budget.

^ Yup.

You all must not clean very well. LOL When I scrub floors, that **** is exercise!

look at her exercise diary...lots of cleaning logged.

suziepoo1984

Yes. Only log exercise calories that you burn doing dedicated exercises like walking that you have been doing. I play with my toddler a lot, running behind her..walk around carrying her..but i dont log them. I also take long walks all the time, but dont log them either. I just consider my lifestyle to be lightly active and then log exercise calories on top of it.

MickeyBoo

I have about 38 kg still to lose and the only way I find I effectively lose weight week to week is to not eat back my exercise calories. You can get away with it when you're at the tail end of things and getting to a maintenance weight, but for the first 3/4 of weight loss especially with a large amount to lose, the more you burn the better and I have never experienced 'starvation mode' even when burning over half of my eaten calories in a day, I think that ones a bit of an urban myth at higher weights.

Also MFP seriously over inflates calories burned, you'd be better off buying a HRM with a chest strap and logging them accurately or try finding an online exercise calculator that you can input specific data like time, distance covered, pace, average heart rate (all of which you can get off the readout on your machine if you use one).

skyyblue0

I log in any exercise I do however I don't eat any extra calories

gera368

I checked only 3 days of your diary, but i think you eat way to much.
And how can you eat apples (Granny Smith) without carbs?
Be honest to yourself and probably drink more water.
You can add me as a friend if you really like to go for it and I will try to help :-)

JazminGowdy

I see the exercises that you have been logging and the amount of calories you consume everyday. While you do burn SOME calories cleaning and walking, the amounts you are burning are actually quite insignificant compared to more rigorous exercises. Calorie amounts on this site are actually not that accurate, so to get the most accurate number you will want to set your activity level to "sedentary" if you have not already. I find it is better to underestimate your calorie amounts than overestimate.

Also I noticed that in comparison to the amount of calories you burn, the amount of calories you consume is much higher and very inconsistent. Your daily caloric intake fluctuates by as much as 1,000 calories. This is not good since you are trying to lose weight. Exercise means nothing if you keep eating back the calories you just burned.

I would recommend consistently consuming less calories (the amount depends on how often and how hard you exercise, and how much weight you wish to lose), eating less foods that are high in calories (sometimes the lasagna and cheesecake are just not worth it!), and more intense cardiovascular exercises. Cardio is what helps you drop the pounds. I hope this helps, and good luck to you on your journey!

PhoenixStrikes

House cleaning isn't exercise. You're logging huge burns and then eating it back wiping out your deficit. Only log dedicated exercise and stick to your budget.

^ Yup.

You all must not clean very well. LOL When I scrub floors, that **** is exercise!

Yes, cleaning is exercise but I don't log it I just chalk it up to part of my daily activity. I only log exercises that are set and timed and purposefully done. Then I try to eat a portion of it back to keep a good deficit without going to far over or under. If I logged my cleaning or taking care of the children I nanny I would show a lot more exercise and trick myself into think I can eat all of that back.

Mokey41

House cleaning isn't exercise. You're logging huge burns and then eating it back wiping out your deficit. Only log dedicated exercise and stick to your budget.

^ Yup.

You all must not clean very well. LOL When I scrub floors, that **** is exercise!

Yes, cleaning is exercise but I don't log it I just chalk it up to part of my daily activity. I only log exercises that are set and timed and purposefully done. Then I try to eat a portion of it back to keep a good deficit without going to far over or under. If I logged my cleaning or taking care of the children I nanny I would show a lot more exercise and trick myself into think I can eat all of that back.

Cleaning may be moving around which is better than sitting on the couch but it doesn't significantly raise your heart rate enough to burn much in the way of calories and it isn't a sustained burn for a length of time that would make it matter. It's great to get up and get your cleaning done but there's no way that it equates to dedicated exercise or burns the types of calories being logged.

Athijade

Your exercise calories are impossible to be quite honest. There is no way that cleaning has burned that many calories. I think you are drastically over estimating calories burned and then eating them all. Take that out totally. Only log any purposeful exercise that you do. Then, when you eat back your exercise calories, only eat back a portion. This is because MFP's numbers for exercise are inflated. They are not accurate. I personally have done about 50%.

herblackwings39

I probably wouldn't log cleaning as exercise. My understanding is that even sedentary activity level, desk job, also includes the every day incidental activities we all do through out the day.

Mokey41

I probably wouldn't log cleaning as exercise. My understanding is that even sedentary activity level, desk job, also includes the every day incidental activities we all do through out the day.

Sedentary setting includes:

Sleeping - 8 hours
Personal care (dressing, showering) - 1 hour
Eating - 1 hour
Cooking - 1 hour
Sitting (office work, selling produce, tending shop) - 8 hours
Driving car to/from work - 1 hour
General household work - 1 hour
Light leisure activities (watching TV, chatting) - 3 hours

Sedentary doesn't mean lays on the couch all day watching TV and eating candy. Most people are actually sedentary and you can always log any intentional exercise you do beyond the above.

I_Will_End_You

You must have the cleanest house ever. Come live with me.

SweetLilyR

The only cleaning I ever log is the "above and beyond" cleaning, such as when I scrubbed the outside of our camper from top to bottom in the middle of the day in August or when I was sanding down the plaster in my newly renovated bathroom two weeks ago.

Everyday cleaning/activities like hanging laundry on the line or chasing around two small, insane children is a normal caloric burn...and sadly, they don't count.

Eat less, and try to maintain a steady average of daily calories. Get a HRM to accurately log your exercise - trust me, MFP makes their "calories burned" way too high in some cases. Learned that the hard way and it seriously undermined my efforts. If you can't afford one, try not to eat back all the burned calories. Drink a LOT of water. And good luck...

DHogan80

Hi Everyone:

Thanks for all the input you've posted - certainly made it worthwhile asking the question and receiving another perspective. My exercise consists of walking, walking, and more walking as I'm not really do much else due to my disability (left sided hemiplegia). Having said that I'll certainly be measuring out my portion sizes to what they should be and try no to over eat, as has been suggested. I try to drink at least 8 glasses of water everyday, but occasionally fall short by one or two. If anyone has any other exercise tips for me - I'm all ears...

Dana

marysidneyherbert

Have you gotten physical therapy for your hemiplegia? A good physical therapist will be able to suggest and teach you good exercises that you can do with that condition.

DHogan80

Hi,

I have home exercises available from the Rehab that I went to, but that's more to do with strengthening my core, hips and stretching for my arm. I have nothing else really except the walking....

marysidneyherbert

Well, walking is great. How about stair climbing? Sometimes I just run up and down the stairs in my house for 10 minutes to get a little exercise boost. When I lived near a stadium, I would go up and down all around the whole place, listening to music or an audiobook. Just wondering if since walking works if there would be a way for you to take that up a notch and burn some additional calories while boosting heart rate more.

DHogan80

I could certainly do both of those while the kids are school. I'll set up the Wii also, with the fitness games and go from there. Thanks for the added boost....