3 weeks dieting and not a lb lost - check my diary?

zekerella

Hi! I am a 26yr old female 5'5" 136lb Ironman triathlete who is looking to drop 10-15lbs to reach my race weight of 16% body fat.

I started weighing/counting/logging seriously about 3 weeks ago to achieve my goal...netting 1500 calories a day. Sometimes a little over sometimes a little under.

I've seriously not even lost 1/8th of a lb. I'm feeling discouraged. Can someone look at my diary for the past week and let me know their thoughts?

I drink 8-10 glasses of water a day. And eat mostly lean proteins/whole grains/veggies and a small treat (because deprivation blows) like 1/2c of sherbet or a bite/fun sized Hershey chocolate. Nothing crazy.

Can't help but feel hopeless when you feel like you're doing everything right but nothing is changing.

AmyRhubarb

It's only been three weeks - not always enough time to see results on the scale, especially when you don't have a lot to lose. Have you taken measurements? Noticed any difference in how your clothes fit? If you're not tracking your measurements, start - especially when targeting fat loss rather than just generic weight loss, you are more likely to see results on the tape measure than on the scale.

Good luck!

becs3578

You are a training athlete... so you need the calories and your diary looks great. What I will tell you is that I am doing a self imposed 100 day challenge and I during it I am cutting back on my nut and peanut butter consumption, since one of my friends suggested it. Trying to get that protein from other things like lean meats etc. Perhaps that is something you could try.

I wont lie.. 2 weeks in and I do miss my peanut butter.

rudexvirus

I did not go back all three weeks, so it may look different in prior periods, but one big thing that struck me was the amount of total calories you have been eating. It's great to log, but you are going over your goal, past the calories earned from working out. If it's not a deficit, you won't lose the weight.

holothuroidea

Your daily deficit is probably pretty small because your BMR is low because of your size, it's probably only around 250 calories.

That means when you go over one day by more than 250 you're just breaking even and if you go over by 500 you've lost 2 days worth of deficit. Looking at your diary in the last week you have gone over your calorie goal by 1189 calories, so you are probably eating at or around maintenance.

At your weight and BF% it is a long, slow road to lose 10lb and your margin for error is very small. You need to be more careful of reaching your target calories.

annette_15

The burns seem a little high.. 900 burned on a 70 min run? Maybe try eating back a little less of your calories... I dunno, everything else looks good :ohwell:

libertychoury

I will concur with what someone else said about the nutbutter, however, I would say that your protein intake looks low to me, while your carb intake looks pretty high. Also, are you measuring precisely? It appears you have the banana, for example, every day. But are you weighing it? Because I find it hard to believe a banana weighs exactly 152 grams every day. I have one every day myself, and every day the number can vary. Weighing your food, all of the food, will tell you if you are really eating what you are logging.
As an athlete you need the calories, so I would say if you know around what you're burning on a day, then you can estimate your TDEE and that will give you a more realistic idea about how many calories you should be consuming.

kgeyser

It looks like you just upped your before-exercise calories to 1500. Prior to that you had it set at 1200, which is far too little, even if you do add exercise calories.

I would recommend calculating your TDEE and eating a small deficit. I think it might be a better approach for you as a training athlete than the traditional MFP method.

Branstin

Try this info:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

FireOpalCO

Hi! I am a 26yr old female 5'5" 136lb Ironman triathlete who is looking to drop 10-15lbs to reach my race weight of 16% body fat.

Not to derail, but why are you assigning yourself a 16% body fat for "race weight"?

Your diary is showing that you are eating back 100% of your exercise calories, and some days eating into your deficit as well. Considering that MFP is estimating your calories earned back, it's probably not a good idea to eat back 100% of them. (50% is frequently recommended here.) I also don't see any drinks logged. Are you only drinking water?

Now take everything I say with a grain of salt, because I am not a hard core athlete, I'm just looking at numbers:

I see that you are eating around 400-500 calories for breakfast. Is that right after a workout? I'm usually at 300 calories for breakfast: a protein shake plus a non-fat coffee (and this is after a morning workout, granted probably nothing like what you are doing). Adjusting your breakfast to be a little less caloric might be a good small start (dump the peanut butter, eat different fruit then a banana like blackberries or strawberries). Especially because of what's in my next paragraph.

It's looks like you are eating 5 meals, instead of 3, which works well for some people, but not if your meals are putting you over your goal calories for the day. I'm also seeing not nearly enough vegetables or fresh fruit. Looking at Friday, your mid-morning meal was 491 calories and very well, processed. If you had swapped the pancakes or the gel for carrot sticks or cucumber slices, that would shave some calories. At dinner you lost 200 calories to whole wheat bread. You could have gotten the same fiber and been a lot more full with steamed broccoli, and only 30 calories a serving.

I hope this helps.

lthames0810

The people I know in endurance sports (cycling) do their weight losing during their off season from competition, when their training volume is less. They can then eat at a deficit without it affecting the quality / quantity of their traning.

heybales

The people I know in endurance sports (cycling) do their weight losing during their off season from competition, when their training volume is less. They can then eat at a deficit without it affecting the quality / quantity of their traning.

^^^^ This.

OP-
You missed your best chance for this not being difficult. Diet is a stress, intense frequent exercise is a stress (and that definition depends on diet too), lack of sleep, illness, life, ect - all stress that will make fat loss difficult.

That being said - you are doing some things right - small deficit, 1/2 lb weekly is best at this point.
Small margin of error as mentioned, so must have more done right to succeed.
Is your activity level correct for your non-exercise time - really a 45 hr week desk/job commute for sedentary, or really a kid and lots of moving around for Lightly Active? Be honest.

Logging food accurately was pointed out, weigh all those loose things, even packaged items since that weight is usually more than the supposed 1 serving in it. And with calorie dense food especially so.

How are you getting your calorie burns for exercise that you are correctly eating back?
That will depend on if you follow the standard thrown out advice to eat 1/2 or some % of it back. Because 1/2 would be killer for your training and that extra large deficit would not do fat loss any good.

Contrary to prior comments, those calories burns could be realistic depending on your fitness level, which some cheaper HRM's (including Polar) assume badly, others have the required VO2 stat to make them more accurate.
Many aren't aware how many calories you can really burn when fit and moving at good effort.

Now, even if those are great estimates, now that you are in a diet, those calories burns include what MFP is already accounting you were going to burn already.
Look at your MFP - Home - Goals - calories burned daily activity - that's your non-exercise maintenance. Divide by 24. That's how many calories per hr MFP is figuring you are burning already that your eating level is based on.
Take your HRM reported calorie burn, and subtract those calories per HR, because of course the HRM isn't reporting what you burned in addition to that, it's reporting what you would have burned and what extra you did.

Now from that figure that is left, take 10% off, or only 90% of those calories. You get a deficit off non-exercise calories, you get a deficit off exercise calories too.

So using my figures.
non-exercise maintenance 2180 / 24 = 90.8 per hr average burn per hr account for already.
2 hr bike ride Sat for 2320 calories - 91x2 = 2138 burned above accounted for - 10% = 1924 to eat back.

Are you also getting the carbs in at right time, so you can still hit enough protein for being in a diet?
So you should have a 200-400 cal snack or meal after a workout within 30 min of carb : protein ratio of 4:1, next meal along those lines too. That will allow max uptake end replenishment of carb stores for next workout. And should allow increasing protein during some other meal where it doesn't matter as much, or like 30 min before bed a protein shake for sure.

I noticed the gel's and such, were you really doing an over 2 hr long workout that needed it? You've done the distance, shouldn't need extra carbs for 2 hrs or less, unless you are training at above race pace. Those calories could be applied to meals before or after to accomplish the same thing.

sparkly_blonde

Maybe you're not eating enough calories? I am not training, however I hit a severe plateau when I first started out. I was eating around 1900 calories a day and not losing a dang thing. After two months of this my doctor sent me in for a MedGem which tests your resting metabolic rate. It turned out that just to lay in bed and be alive would take me a little over 2000 calories. Add in walking to classes, walking home, water aerobics and normal life and I was needing around 3000 calories if I wanted to maintain. My dietician bumped me up to 2100 calories a day and since then I have steadily been losing weight.

Mr_Knight

Looks to me like you're on a razor-thin deficit margin (which is appropriate for where you are!). And you're looking to lose relatively small amounts of weight. So even your week-to-week changes are small enough that they can get lost in measurement error from your scale, slight water retention changes, etc.

With the volume of training you are doing, I would not suggest a significant reduction in calorie intake from where you are. If this goes another 3-4 weeks with no visible change, then you can probably reduce intake by maybe 200 calories/day and see what effect that has.

Also keep in mind that by having a high volume of exercise, you've introduced another source (burn estimates) into the mix. If the error on those is on the high side, it could easily wipe out the small deficit you are aiming for.

I know it's frustrating - but these things take time, especially if done during the racing season! Good luck! :drinker:

zekerella

but I rarely go over by more than 50 calories. 2 times last week i went over by 200 because i was starving. 200 over puts me still at negative 300 calories for that day….i should still be losing and i def should be eating my exercise cals

zekerella

just FYI 900 calories on a 70 minute run is low. I ran 12 miles in 70 minutes. Thats a higher HR and effort than joe schmo running for 70 minutes.

FireOpalCO

but I rarely go over by more than 50 calories. 2 times last week i went over by 200 because i was starving. 200 over puts me still at negative 300 calories for that day….i should still be losing and i def should be eating my exercise cals

Wednesday you were over 573 calories
Friday you were over 526 calories

You should be eating back a portion of your exercise calories, but if you think (because MFP tells you) that you earned back 500 calories but in reality you earned back 375, you ate 125 more calories then you should. Add in any variances due to not weighing all portions, and you could be over by 700 on those two days.

Some of the substitutions I suggested could take care of the "starving" sensation (since you are coming in below your goal for fiber).

FireOpalCO

just FYI 900 calories on a 70 minute run is low. I ran 12 miles in 70 minutes. Thats a higher HR and effort than joe schmo running for 70 minutes.

Your body is also more efficient than Joe Schmo, who is also possibly hauling around more excess weight.

SLLRunner

Where are you getting those calorie burns from? They seem a bit high to me, considering you are a smaller person. Also, you've been eating over your calorie limit by quite a bit. Those two things can kill a deficit.

Finally, isn't 16% body too low for a female?

SLLRunner

just FYI 900 calories on a 70 minute run is low. I ran 12 miles in 70 minutes. Thats a higher HR and effort than joe schmo running for 70 minutes.

Your body is also more efficient than Joe Schmo, who is also possibly hauling around more excess weight.

This. The smaller you are the less calories you burn.

zekerella

I purposefully already underestimate my exercise calories to make up for some calories deficients throughout the day. Like if i have a larger banana or whatever.

also everyone is saying that I have a razor thin magian of error - not true? I have a 500 calories deficient. My maintenance is 2000 calories a day and I'm netting 1500 a day.

Just saying.

Some people here have a more athletic view on things and have made some good suggestions tho. But if I go lower in my caloric intake Ill be in starvation mode. (netting 1200 or below….not safe.)

Also just FYI on the carb thing. my breakfast is large to sustain my long morning workouts and break my fast, same with my second snack. Also triathletes are suggested through studies to eat a diet of 60% carbs.