Almost 3 months and very little success.....
looberella
Posts: 2 Member
Hi everyone,
This might be a stupid and obvious question but I have been entering my exercise and most days using up all the calories. Should I stop doing this and only enter food? I wonder if it's cancelling out the benefits of the exercise?
I have been sticking to my recommended daily calorie intake each day (1300 cals based on my stats), exercising 5-6 days per week doing a mix of running, swimming, aerobics and strength and I am yet to see any real results. I've lost about 3cm but that's about it. I'm starting to get really disheartened but I am determined to do this. I have 25kg to lose.
Help! Any ideas?
This might be a stupid and obvious question but I have been entering my exercise and most days using up all the calories. Should I stop doing this and only enter food? I wonder if it's cancelling out the benefits of the exercise?
I have been sticking to my recommended daily calorie intake each day (1300 cals based on my stats), exercising 5-6 days per week doing a mix of running, swimming, aerobics and strength and I am yet to see any real results. I've lost about 3cm but that's about it. I'm starting to get really disheartened but I am determined to do this. I have 25kg to lose.
Help! Any ideas?
0
Replies
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Open your diary.0
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Yes firstly open your diary so people can see what you are eating,
Secondly MFP tends to over estimate cal burns on exercise so I rarely eat back more than 50% of the stated cals burned. Maybe you are eating more than you have burned and therefore reducing your calorie deficit.
Make sure you weigh and measure all your food and log accurately. Take measurements and have weekly weighs and give it another couple of months at least.
Good Luck
Jules x0 -
Personally I don't see the point of burning up all those calories and then eating them back. It's different once you're on maintenance. Give yourself a couple of weeks just on your calorie allowance and see how you do then. Don't forget as well, if you are doing a lot of excercise you'll be building muscle. It weighs more than fat.0
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No and no.Personally I don't see the point of burning up all those calories and then eating them back. It's different once you're on maintenance. Give yourself a couple of weeks just on your calorie allowance and see how you do then. Don't forget as well, if you are doing a lot of excercise you'll be building muscle. It weighs more than fat.0 -
In100 days of logging I have lost 5 pounds by limiting calories to 1500 and exercising 5-6 days a week. I underestimate the burn fromMFP and try to log accurately or over estimate portions and calories. I rarely if ever hit the 1500 mark, am below and often have to work to get the calories in. It is a sloooooowwwwww process but I am so much more fit, and am now way more comfortable about eating in general,. In it for the long haul. Slow and steady is not a bad way to get it done.0
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Since you are active you should shoot for about a 500 cal deficit each day from your TDEE. You can eat 250 calories less and burn 250 calories or you can eat all your calories and burn 500 thru exercise. 500 a day X 7 days = 3500 a week and that is roughly 1 pound a week loss.
Fat and muscle weigh the same. A pound is a pound is a pound, however muscle is more dense and takes up about 1/3 less volume for the same pound vs fat.0 -
I wouldn't say you've had little success, you should count the fact that you're exercising and logging your food as a huge success. It can take some people a lot longer to lose weight and you don't want to measure your efforts against someone elses. I know for me it takes a while before I start seeing the results (took me a year to lose 20lbs but I managed to keep that off for quite a few years and I equate that to learning how to manage my food better). If you haven't already, open your diary. Weigh ALL your food, as portions can be hard to eyeball. Get a HRM to get a slightly more accurate read on your calorie burn from your workouts. But mostly, keep going. Don't give up because your results aren't as fast as you'd like them to be.0
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+1
No and no.Personally I don't see the point of burning up all those calories and then eating them back. It's different once you're on maintenance. Give yourself a couple of weeks just on your calorie allowance and see how you do then. Don't forget as well, if you are doing a lot of excercise you'll be building muscle. It weighs more than fat.
You can't build muscle while eating at a deficet.
You need to open your diary.
typically when you think you are doing everything right and not losing weight one of two things or a combination of the two is happening.
Over esitmating burns and/or under estimating intake (which happens when you don't weigh your food on a kitchen scale)0 -
+1
No and no.Personally I don't see the point of burning up all those calories and then eating them back. It's different once you're on maintenance. Give yourself a couple of weeks just on your calorie allowance and see how you do then. Don't forget as well, if you are doing a lot of excercise you'll be building muscle. It weighs more than fat.
You can't build muscle while eating at a deficet.
You need to open your diary.
typically when you think you are doing everything right and not losing weight one of two things or a combination of the two is happening.
Over esitmating burns and/or under estimating intake (which happens when you don't weigh your food on a kitchen scale)
I disagree, people new to exercise CAN add weight from their muscles, though some of it is water, it can be significant and offset fat losses.
I wouldn't open your diary, either, or you'll get all kinds of comments about things that don't matter to weight loss-- water intake, sugar, protein, processed foods, meal skipping, etc.
I would forget 'eating back' and just shoot for eating around 1500/day. Good luck!0 -
+1
No and no.Personally I don't see the point of burning up all those calories and then eating them back. It's different once you're on maintenance. Give yourself a couple of weeks just on your calorie allowance and see how you do then. Don't forget as well, if you are doing a lot of excercise you'll be building muscle. It weighs more than fat.
You can't build muscle while eating at a deficet.
You need to open your diary.
typically when you think you are doing everything right and not losing weight one of two things or a combination of the two is happening.
Over esitmating burns and/or under estimating intake (which happens when you don't weigh your food on a kitchen scale)
I disagree, people new to exercise CAN add weight from their muscles, though some of it is water, it can be significant and offset fat losses.
I wouldn't open your diary, either, or you'll get all kinds of comments about things that don't matter to weight loss-- water intake, sugar, protein, processed foods, meal skipping, etc.
I would forget 'eating back' and just shoot for eating around 1500/day. Good luck!
Still no. It's been said before and I'll say it again; you can't gain muscle while eating at a deficit.
OP, you need to open your diary, it's the only way you can get any specific advice.
You don't know how many calories you are burning so don't just shoot for a random number. Either buy a heart rate monitor for accurate calorie burns, or many people if using MFP calculations only eat back 50 - 75% of them.0 -
+1
No and no.Personally I don't see the point of burning up all those calories and then eating them back. It's different once you're on maintenance. Give yourself a couple of weeks just on your calorie allowance and see how you do then. Don't forget as well, if you are doing a lot of excercise you'll be building muscle. It weighs more than fat.
You can't build muscle while eating at a deficet.
You need to open your diary.
typically when you think you are doing everything right and not losing weight one of two things or a combination of the two is happening.
Over esitmating burns and/or under estimating intake (which happens when you don't weigh your food on a kitchen scale)
I disagree, people new to exercise CAN add weight from their muscles, though some of it is water, it can be significant and offset fat losses.
I wouldn't open your diary, either, or you'll get all kinds of comments about things that don't matter to weight loss-- water intake, sugar, protein, processed foods, meal skipping, etc.
I would forget 'eating back' and just shoot for eating around 1500/day. Good luck!
The first area I bolded above is probably the case.
As for the second area I bolded, that is false. Newbie gain, especially in a woman, are not significant. A pound or 2 at most if strength training. More info here on this http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/adding-muscle-while-losing-fat-qa.html
Looks like some people need a lesson in basic biology and physiology.0 -
This discussion has been helpful. I have been on only from Nov. 12th but have seen weight gain due to eating back calories burned due to exercise. I think it will be best to not to do that if I want to lose weight. Currently 152.6lbs and aiming for 140lbs. Thanks All!0
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This discussion has been helpful. I have been on only from Nov. 12th but have seen weight gain due to eating back calories burned due to exercise. I think it will be best to not to do that if I want to lose weight. Currently 152.6lbs and aiming for 140lbs. Thanks All!
You are likely overestimating intake and/ or burn calories. Also, you will gain some water/ glycogen weight if you started an exercise program. This is not fat.0 -
The answer is here http://www.acaloriecounter.com/blog/why-am-i-not-losing-weight/0
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Surely if you're working your muscles and eating a good amount of protein you will build muscle?
You are correct. You are no expert. Did you read the bodycomposition.com link above?0 -
As others have said all these calculations are estimates and not exact. You need to find what works for you. Personally I only eat back about 1/2 the calories I get from exercise because I find the estimates to be a bit high. You can do it. Exercise for me is primarily for reshaping and strength.0
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OP, are you weighing your food with a scale? And what are your stats (height and weight)? What is your specific workout, how often do you weight train vs cardio?0
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+1
No and no.Personally I don't see the point of burning up all those calories and then eating them back. It's different once you're on maintenance. Give yourself a couple of weeks just on your calorie allowance and see how you do then. Don't forget as well, if you are doing a lot of excercise you'll be building muscle. It weighs more than fat.
You can't build muscle while eating at a deficet.
You need to open your diary.
typically when you think you are doing everything right and not losing weight one of two things or a combination of the two is happening.
Over esitmating burns and/or under estimating intake (which happens when you don't weigh your food on a kitchen scale)
I disagree, people new to exercise CAN add weight from their muscles, though some of it is water, it can be significant and offset fat losses.
I wouldn't open your diary, either, or you'll get all kinds of comments about things that don't matter to weight loss-- water intake, sugar, protein, processed foods, meal skipping, etc.
I would forget 'eating back' and just shoot for eating around 1500/day. Good luck!
The first area I bolded above is probably the case.
As for the second area I bolded, that is false. Newbie gain, especially in a woman, are not significant. A pound or 2 at most if strength training. More info here on this http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/adding-muscle-while-losing-fat-qa.html
Looks like some people need a lesson in basic biology and physiology.
Nice manners. This is from your own link:
"There are a handful of situations where the combination of muscle gain and fat loss occur relatively readily. The first of those is in overfat beginners. I want to really stress the term overfat in the above sentence. This phenomenon doesn’t happen in lean beginners for reasons I’m going to explain in a second.
A second situation where this phenomenon occurs readily is folks returning from a layoff. "
I'm not saying she built 10 lbs. of muscles out of thin air. I'm saying water and some slight muscle changes could be at play.0 -
In all honesty, it doesn't even matter. Water retention and slight muscle gains wouldn't result in a 3 month plateau... a few weeks, maybe, but not months.
+1
No and no.Personally I don't see the point of burning up all those calories and then eating them back. It's different once you're on maintenance. Give yourself a couple of weeks just on your calorie allowance and see how you do then. Don't forget as well, if you are doing a lot of excercise you'll be building muscle. It weighs more than fat.
You can't build muscle while eating at a deficet.
You need to open your diary.
typically when you think you are doing everything right and not losing weight one of two things or a combination of the two is happening.
Over esitmating burns and/or under estimating intake (which happens when you don't weigh your food on a kitchen scale)
I disagree, people new to exercise CAN add weight from their muscles, though some of it is water, it can be significant and offset fat losses.
I wouldn't open your diary, either, or you'll get all kinds of comments about things that don't matter to weight loss-- water intake, sugar, protein, processed foods, meal skipping, etc.
I would forget 'eating back' and just shoot for eating around 1500/day. Good luck!
The first area I bolded above is probably the case.
As for the second area I bolded, that is false. Newbie gain, especially in a woman, are not significant. A pound or 2 at most if strength training. More info here on this http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/adding-muscle-while-losing-fat-qa.html
Looks like some people need a lesson in basic biology and physiology.
Nice manners. This is from your own link:
"There are a handful of situations where the combination of muscle gain and fat loss occur relatively readily. The first of those is in overfat beginners. I want to really stress the term overfat in the above sentence. This phenomenon doesn’t happen in lean beginners for reasons I’m going to explain in a second.
A second situation where this phenomenon occurs readily is folks returning from a layoff. "
I'm not saying she built 10 lbs. of muscles out of thin air. I'm saying water and some slight muscle changes could be at play.
The more likely culprit is under estimating calories in vs out.0 -
Surely if you're working your muscles and eating a good amount of protein you will build muscle?
What the **** did I just read
You may as well have just said "Surely if I run for 30 minutes I will lose fat"0 -
In all honesty, it doesn't even matter. Water retention and slight muscle gains wouldn't result in a 3 month plateau... a few weeks, maybe, but not months.
+1
No and no.Personally I don't see the point of burning up all those calories and then eating them back. It's different once you're on maintenance. Give yourself a couple of weeks just on your calorie allowance and see how you do then. Don't forget as well, if you are doing a lot of excercise you'll be building muscle. It weighs more than fat.
You can't build muscle while eating at a deficet.
You need to open your diary.
typically when you think you are doing everything right and not losing weight one of two things or a combination of the two is happening.
Over esitmating burns and/or under estimating intake (which happens when you don't weigh your food on a kitchen scale)
I disagree, people new to exercise CAN add weight from their muscles, though some of it is water, it can be significant and offset fat losses.
I wouldn't open your diary, either, or you'll get all kinds of comments about things that don't matter to weight loss-- water intake, sugar, protein, processed foods, meal skipping, etc.
I would forget 'eating back' and just shoot for eating around 1500/day. Good luck!
The first area I bolded above is probably the case.
As for the second area I bolded, that is false. Newbie gain, especially in a woman, are not significant. A pound or 2 at most if strength training. More info here on this http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/adding-muscle-while-losing-fat-qa.html
Looks like some people need a lesson in basic biology and physiology.
Nice manners. This is from your own link:
"There are a handful of situations where the combination of muscle gain and fat loss occur relatively readily. The first of those is in overfat beginners. I want to really stress the term overfat in the above sentence. This phenomenon doesn’t happen in lean beginners for reasons I’m going to explain in a second.
A second situation where this phenomenon occurs readily is folks returning from a layoff. "
I'm not saying she built 10 lbs. of muscles out of thin air. I'm saying water and some slight muscle changes could be at play.
The more likely culprit is under estimating calories in vs out.
Correct. A pound or 2 of newbie gains would not cause this.0 -
I do agree the main culprit is most likely measurement error. Though if she really has lost 3cm (assuming that's off one body part), she's changed something, unless that too is measurement error.
I also wonder about 'almost 3 months' and 'no real results'. Has it been 2.5 months and 'no real results' means only lost 5-7 lbs.?0 -
Surely if you're working your muscles and eating a good amount of protein you will build muscle?
I'm no expert but from my experience over the last 2 months I have been eating at a deficit and can definitely feel more muscle and have seen a marked increase in strength and endurance. I'm in my last week of insanity and whilst I have not lost much scale weight I have lost inches, gained muscle and my fit test results have all improved massively.
I measure calories burned using my hrm, religiously log and weigh all my food/drink and aim for a daily net of 1300 so even if my calculations are out a little I am sure I'm at a deficit and gaining muscle. That said I totally understand your frustration, I feel the same over my lack in weight loss!
No. To actually gain muscle you need to eat at a slight surplus.
You can't feel more muscle, you've just lost fat so your existing muscle is more obvious. Your endurance should be improving, but that's a sign of fitness levels improving, not muscle gain. You also certainly wouldn't be gaining muscle from doing Insanity.0 -
Surely if you're working your muscles and eating a good amount of protein you will build muscle?
I'm no expert but from my experience over the last 2 months I have been eating at a deficit and can definitely feel more muscle and have seen a marked increase in strength and endurance. I'm in my last week of insanity and whilst I have not lost much scale weight I have lost inches, gained muscle and my fit test results have all improved massively.
I measure calories burned using my hrm, religiously log and weigh all my food/drink and aim for a daily net of 1300 so even if my calculations are out a little I am sure I'm at a deficit and gaining muscle. That said I totally understand your frustration, I feel the same over my lack in weight loss!
Losing inches, feeling more muscle, increase in strength, and increase in endurance doesn't mean increase in muscle mass.
By performing strength training while in a deficit you can lose inches of fat while maintaining muscle mass. By doing this it can give the illusion of gained mass. Gains in strength doesn't indicate gains in mass. The body is adapting to the exercise.....becoming more efficient, not actually getting bigger.
Also, with being a female it is extremely difficult to pack on muscle mass, especially enough to stall out the scale. A professional body building female would be hard pressed to put on more than a lb of muscle in 4-6 weeks, of heavy lifting.0 -
MFP is designed for you to eat back an estimate of your exercise calories...however, most people rely upon shoddy data base calorie burns that greatly exaggerate their burn and make no allowance for estimation error. Also, people routines underestimate their intake...the combination of the two is why "it just doesn't work" for a whole lot of people.
Calorie counting for weight loss and using the MFP (NEAT method) method in particular requires a lot of precision. Until you have a really good feel for you actual burn you should be comparing it to a few different sources...people simply do not burn as much as they think they do and when you're eating back exercise calories as per the MFP method it is very important to make some allowance for estimation error. If you're not using a food scale to weigh out foods, and in particular, calorie dense foods then it is further likely that you are underestimating your intake significantly.0 -
I think females have an easier time packing on the water weight, easily enough to stall the scale for 4-6 weeks of loose measuring. They're not journal articles but I see a lot of bodybuilding sites that mention it. Anecdote is meaningless but it's been my own experience, too... I gain and lose in big whooshes.Also, with being a female it is extremely difficult to pack on muscle mass, especially enough to stall out the scale. A professional body building female would be hard pressed to put on more than a lb of muscle in 4-6 weeks, of heavy lifting.
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/of-whooshes-and-squishy-fat.html
It looks like the Minnesota starvation study and Brad Pilon both refer to it as dieter's edema.
I wonder if it's partly behind the popularity of the 'eat more' thing here--- because people avoid the edema plateaus?0 -
Do you weigh all your food? If not, it could be why you're not seeing much progress. It's easy to overeat if you don't. Or you could be overestimating your exercise calories. You're supposed to eat some back though... Or use TDEE-20% (http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/) so you don't even have to worry about it.0
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You are going to get some strong opinions on this. Please listen to your body...it'll let you know if you are hungry. My trainer says no to eating burned calories... but if you work out intensely and feel hungry...then eat...
Also watch your sodium and drink lots of water!!!!0 -
You are going to get some strong opinions on this. Please listen to your body...it'll let you know if you are hungry. My trainer says no to eating burned calories... but if you work out intensely and feel hungry...then eat...
Also watch your sodium and drink lots of water!!!!
Eating back exercise calories depends upon what you're using. If you're using TDEE -%, then no you wouldn't because your exercise is built into your daily goal. If you're using MFP you would because exercise isn't built into your daily goal. The calories MFP gives you has a deficit built in for you to lose without exercise at all. That's why you get exercise cals back. Now, with that said, MFP can greatly over exaggerate caloric burns, so it's good to start by eating back a percentage of your exercise cals (I do 1/2 to 3/4) and adjust from there.
If I didn't eat exercise cals back, I'd net anywhere from 850-1100 per day.0 -
You are going to get some strong opinions on this. Please listen to your body...it'll let you know if you are hungry. My trainer says no to eating burned calories... but if you work out intensely and feel hungry...then eat...
Also watch your sodium and drink lots of water!!!!
Your trainer has no idea what he's talking about. You need to eat at least 1200 calories NET a day... more if you have a lot to lose.0
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