Why am I losing weight?

hazardouskys

I've been attempting to gain/maintain my weight and have managed to lose 3 lbs. I've recently started working out a lot more aggressively but have been eating back the calories it is saying i'm burning. My workouts are typically just a little bit of cardio (a light jog) for about 10 minutes just to get me warmed up and then about 45 of weight training. Some days are an hour of pilates. I have been eating between 1600-2000 calories per day. (Mostly bad stuff, shame on me) but I have somehow managed to lose 3 lbs this morning. I am normally 117 and weighed in at 114 this morning. Am I just burning fat and slowly putting on muscle so it's taking longer or do I really need to be eating more than 2000 calories. I am 26, female, 5'8". Help?

TavistockToad

5ft8 and 114lbs? You should be eating ALL the food

hazardouskys

I am! I'm seriously eating 6 times a day. Am I maybe underestimating the calories I'm burning during the day and in my workouts?

Shuuma

Usually, we overestimate calories burned and underestimate calories consumed. My recommendation is a digital food scale and a heart rate monitor. These will help you more accurately get the right calories in/out. If you're losing weight, you're simply burning more than you consume.

Good luck and have more pie! :bigsmile:

JesterMFP

The TDEE calculators can only estimate. I tend to burn more in a day than predicted by online calculators. If you're sure you're logging your food accurately, you'll just have to keep gradually adding calories until you stop losing. If you're struggling to get the food in, go for food that's higher in fat (and therefore more calorie dense) like nuts, peanut butter and full fat dairy.

moontyrant

Read an article geared for weightloss tips. You can find these in magazines with titles relating to women, fitness, health and/or beauty. Proceed to do the opposite. Drink some of your calories. Consume a meal replacement bar/shake in addition to a meal. Lift weights. Eat in excess of your total daily calorie expenditure. Fill up on bread in restaurants. Add calorie-dense condiments to everything (within reason). Monitor your progress. If someone offers you a salad, politely decline, say that this would be contrary to your goals, and request a creamy soup. A beer after dinner never hurt anyone. Drink that beer with a friend. Challenge him/her to a drinking contest that involves taping 40 ounces of something to your hands.

You know. Just normal stuff.

hazardouskys

Thank you these are all very helpful. I go out to eat all of my meals right now so I believe they are fairly accurate on the logging portion. I am extremely fidgety though so maybe I should be calculating that in to calories burned? I'll definitely try all of the recommendations out. I'm trying to get back up to at least 125.

mccindy72

I've been attempting to gain/maintain my weight and have managed to lose 3 lbs. I've recently started working out a lot more aggressively but have been eating back the calories it is saying i'm burning. My workouts are typically just a little bit of cardio (a light jog) for about 10 minutes just to get me warmed up and then about 45 of weight training. Some days are an hour of pilates. I have been eating between 1600-2000 calories per day. (Mostly bad stuff, shame on me) but I have somehow managed to lose 3 lbs this morning. I am normally 117 and weighed in at 114 this morning. Am I just burning fat and slowly putting on muscle so it's taking longer or do I really need to be eating more than 2000 calories. I am 26, female, 5'8". Help?

As you build muscle your metabolism will increase, as muscle even at rest requires more than fat does. This is one of the issues with BMI calculators, they don't always account for muscle mass vs. fat mass. if you are eating bad stuff that is high in sugar this could be affecting your metabolism as well. Try to hit your calories using healthier foods like whole-grain pastas, breads and brown rice, as well as plenty of lean protein like chicken or 93/7 beef.

TR0berts

I've been attempting to gain/maintain my weight and have managed to lose 3 lbs. I've recently started working out a lot more aggressively but have been eating back the calories it is saying i'm burning. My workouts are typically just a little bit of cardio (a light jog) for about 10 minutes just to get me warmed up and then about 45 of weight training. Some days are an hour of pilates. I have been eating between 1600-2000 calories per day. (Mostly bad stuff, shame on me) but I have somehow managed to lose 3 lbs this morning. I am normally 117 and weighed in at 114 this morning. Am I just burning fat and slowly putting on muscle so it's taking longer or do I really need to be eating more than 2000 calories. I am 26, female, 5'8". Help?

There's two possible things here: you lost 3 lbs of water weight, or you simply need to eat more.

geebusuk

Ok, I'm a good bit heavier than you and male, though a few years older - as an idea, I could maintain on around 3000 calories or a bit more every day @ 175lb while doing weights.
For me, the weights do seem to boost my BMR a good bit - measured the day after a weights session, it came in at 2400 calories.
So just lying in bed all day not moving I'd burn the recommended daily calories for a bloke if I'd done weights the day before.

Remember that your weight will fluctuate with the 'time of the month' for a female (blokes do fluctuate from hormonal changes too I believe, but not nearly as much.)
The very best measure of how much you should be eating is your weight. If it keeps going down, I'd start upping your calories.

If you have trouble eating that much (I could easily eat several 2000 calorie meals in a day if I wanted ) - then some of that 'bad food' might be a good idea - nutrient dense foods will fill you up less for more calories.

Presuming you are trying to put on muscle, I would try upping your protein a bit to around 1g/lb and see if that helps.

cmeiron

This is pretty straightforward: if you're losing weight then you're burning more than you're consuming. You need to either reduce the exercise or increase your intake, or both. FWIW, I'm 5'9 and 139 lbs and am gaining very slowly (like 10 lbs in 4-5 months) on 2650 calories/day, and I only do weights three days a week for about an hour, zero cardio.

burtnyks

I have the same problem. I ate at 1650 calories per day for about 4 months before switching to maintenance. I slowly increased by 100 calories each week until I hit 2000 calories. Each week I am still losing weight and plan to increase again in the new year (I got plenty of extra calories over the holidays so I decided to hold off). I think its just taking my body some time to recalibrate and stabilize. How long have you been eating the increased calories? Like others have said I would just increase a little bit each week. 100 calories or so.

I kind of wondered if my body is just absorbing all those extra calories like a sponge since I had been eating at lower calories for several months.

whitebalance

I'm seriously eating 6 times a day. Am I maybe underestimating the calories I'm burning during the day and in my workouts?

How many times you eat has very little to do with weight gain or loss. If you're losing when you want to be gaining, and it is actual weight loss rather than daily scale fluctuations, then you need to eat more calories.

And yes, I would bet you're underestimating what you're burning. You say you've recently added weight training, by which I assume you mean progressive overload. Have you adjusted your calorie intake to account for that? As geebusuk pointed out, weight training will cause you to burn more, even on your days off.

sijomial

As you build muscle your metabolism will increase, as muscle even at rest requires more than fat does. This is one of the issues with BMI calculators, they don't always account for muscle mass vs. fat mass.

Sorry but the effect of adding a few pounds of muscle is so small it is negligible.

The answer is simply to continue walking up your calories until you find your maintenance level.
Go for calorie dense foods if you are struggling with food volume.

hazardouskys

When i was originally trying to maintain weight at 130 I wasn't working out but was eating healthy such as you stated but even at 1800-2000 calories I was still losing weight. Right now i'm eating whatever I can grab at lunch (fast food) but after looking back at my logs i'm eating well into 2000 calories a day. Are MFP calculations correct on calories burned during strength training? Currently I am focusing on weight lifting and pilates with barely any cardio in the mix. Even with my activity factor (1.5) my nutritionist calculated my necessary calories for slow gain at 2000 calories. Although @cmeirun, it looks like we have similar builds and i'm working out a few hours more than that a week so I suppose I may need to up to about that as well?

I just can't imagine eating more than I have been. I feel so stuffed all the time.

hazardouskys

I have the same problem. I ate at 1650 calories per day for about 4 months before switching to maintenance. I slowly increased by 100 calories each week until I hit 2000 calories. Each week I am still losing weight and plan to increase again in the new year (I got plenty of extra calories over the holidays so I decided to hold off). I think its just taking my body some time to recalibrate and stabilize. How long have you been eating the increased calories? Like others have said I would just increase a little bit each week. 100 calories or so.

I kind of wondered if my body is just absorbing all those extra calories like a sponge since I had been eating at lower calories for several months.

It's been about a month now. I started going back to the gym regularly at the same time i increased my calorie consumption. I'm glad i'm not the only one having this problem.

rabblerabble

Might just be that if you've added a lot of muscle and eat frequently, that your metabolism is racing and burning more than the calories you are consuming. Wonder if you couldn't start eating more calories (healthy calories of course) each day.

Try munching on nuts. Very healthy and loaded with calories. Peanut butter has a lot of protein and will add some calories too. And try to add a few pieces of fruit to your diet and/or add a few slice of whole grain bread to a meal each day.

Seems it would be easier to stop losing weight than to stop gaining it.

geebusuk

I have found very little useful information in regards to calories burnt from weight training - I'd suggest it's the significant increase in BMR for the following 24-48 hours that makes the real difference.
And this is one of the reasons so many people (myself included) go on about weight training for weight loss - these extra calories rarely get registered, so it may put a lot of people at a much lower net calories. However, doing it this way should still help to minimise muscle loss, while a high deficit alone will likely be the opposite.
Because so many bits are various amounts of guesswork, in the end the best answer you can get for you is "If I eat this food for two weeks my weight stays the same" - long term logging of food and weight shows a better picture than day by day or even week by week.

livingleanlivingclean

What are you eating - do you stick to a certain macro breakdown? Perhaps you're not getting enough protein? If you're looking to build muscle, and eat to support your body whilst training, I'd suggest working out specific macro goals and not just going on calories.

whitebalance

I have found very little useful information in regards to calories burnt from weight training - I'd suggest it's the significant increase in BMR for the following 24-48 hours that makes the real difference.
And this is one of the reasons so many people (myself included) go on about weight training for weight loss - these extra calories rarely get registered, so it may put a lot of people at a much lower net calories. However, doing it this way should still help to minimise muscle loss, while a high deficit alone will likely be the opposite.

Agree. In my experience, the roughly 300kcal/hr burn rate listed for my stats seems to work out about right when I'm lifting heavy a couple times a week -- which makes me think the BMR increase for me is maybe an extra 5-6 kcal/hr for the following couple days, since I'm pretty sure I'm not burning near that much in the weight room. That does add up. If you're using MFP's NEAT tracking method, strength training intensely and frequently and not logging any kind of burn for it, that could easily put you into a quarter- to half-pound weekly deficit.

pusheen12

If you don't want to lose weight, it's the opposite, eat more. You need to figure out the right balance for your body. Everyone is different. Perhaps you have a quick metabolism or are burning more than you think.