Feel like I'm doing everything wrong? Not losing weight

obcindy

I just started last week and I do have to admit I can be impatient. I have not lost any weight at all this week. I was aiming to lose 2 pounds per week and nothing happened. I don't know maybe I'm not eating "healthy" enough or I dunno BUT I got depressed after I stepped on the scale. Nothing had changed.

So NOW I decided that I will try to lose 1 lb per week. After I changed all my settings and what not. I noticed that now I have to at least eat 1500 calories. Plus I do Cardio at least 6 times a week. Is it better for me to start off at 1500 or go back at 1200 calorie intake?

Also, I do Cardio (On a stationary bike) for an hour a day at 12-14mph and I usually burn 260-270 calories. Which is great but now here is the part where I'm so confused at! I've got an issue.

- After exploring around the forum on MFP. I noticed that some people say that you should eat the calories you burned after exercising? I do not understand why? (If you want to explain please to do so)

- I explained this to my friend who used to be very overweight and has lost all the weight. She told me I should not eat the amount of calories I burned with exercise. (Should I go with what she said?)

So I'm hearing two totally different things. It's so confusing!
What do I do? Who should I believe?


2. How do I know if eating at least 1500 calories is right for me? (because it feels like I'm eating too much and I don't want to go on "starvation mode")

3. I know there is a debate about starvation mode, I guess I'm curious to know how many of you believe in it and has that helped you lose weight?

Crystal817

People say eat your exercise calories because mfp already sets your at a calorie deficit.

If you search the forums, you will find thousands of threads on this.

papastu

Im sure this eating back calories only matters if you have ran 10 miles or other really demanding exercise, I dont eat back mine and Im doing stuff much like yourself.

You will hear a LOT of conflicting stories about this subject on here, good luck , I just stayed with what my trainer advised.

all the best


Stu

Pandorian

MFPs program intends for you to eat your exercise calories as they give you a deficit based on your chosen goal (2 lbs per week as you stated) to lose the weight without any exercise at all. Exercise increases that deficit to the point it may be an unrealistic rate of loss.

Your goal should depend on how close you are to your goal, if you're within 40 lbs of your goal weight I'd expect 1lb /week or 0.5 lbs to be a realistic goal. Check your diet too, if you're having a lot of sodium that can slow your weight loss too.

As for the 1500 calories, I don't know about you but I didn't get to over 300 lbs by eating the 1800 calories I'm eating as per the program here. I was eating far more than that and not realizing it because I was underestimating my portions, that stopped once I got a food scale.

That_Girl

Just play around with things until you find a system that works for you. Every body is different. Find your balance.

Pandorian

As for the "threads already exist" if you're tired of them no one makes you read them I just did a search myself to confirm before responding, "doing" such a search comes up with ONE thread from a week ago and goes to 4 month old posts in the first 20 results... that doesn't look like a topic that comes up almost daily (or multiple times a day). There's no way that I've found to change search criteria without going to something like google and doing an advanced search where limiting my results to within the last week it throws back 19,000 threads ( I don't have time in the scope of a response to see how many unique threads that is or how many are links to responses back to the original post) SO the search feature here IS a little lacking

RoanneRed

Try to push yourself to do some higher intensity intervals within your time on the exercise bike as that is not a lot of calories to burn in an hour - short intervals of really hard work will also help improve your cardiovascular system and you can work on increasing the length of the intervals over time.

Try to do some resistance/weight training as well as cardio, otherwise the weight you lose will be muscle, bone and water, not just fat. Building/maintaining lean muscle mass (this doesn't mean big muscles) also increases your base metabolic rate - so your body needs more energy even when asleep - and also provides long-term health benefits. Your body will need protein to build muscle so some of your exercise calories could be eaten as high-protein foods.

natoya_j

I agree with one of the posts... 1500 may seem like a lot until you check the amount you were eating before you started your diet. So, how many calories were you eating before the diet? I bet it was not 1500. Also it has only been 1 week. When I started I didn't see results until the 2nd or 3rd week. Patience is key; you will see results.

In reference to calories burned, I only eat calories burned if it doesn't take me over my daily calorie goal (although, I don't always eat back the calories). Realistically, some of the calorie goals can be hard to meet and exercising helps to either burn calories that took you over the goal or give you extra calories to eat if you won't meet the 1500 goal. You do not have to eat back the calories burned. If you choose not to, you might help your diet go a little faster. And If you do, make sure it is only when you meet or go under the daily goal. One last thing to consider, don't just consider daily calories goals/burned also consider weekly goals, they can give you a better perspective of your progress. Good luck and sorry for the long response.

chillijam1

hi i tend to eat around the 1200 cals a day ,reason being as you lose weight your calorie intake will also drop so my logic thinking is why eat the calories back youve exercised off the idea is to lose the weight not eat it back.I also tried making my net calories upto 1200 calories and i ended up putting weight back on ,so now i stick to eating around the 1200 on my goal if you have calories left then at least you have some spare if you are still hungry.I also log my day in in the morning and exercise for the day so that i stick to my plan ,i find this works better than if you log in as youve eaten it because if you go over you cant get it bakc if youve already eaten it ,so at least you know how much calories you have left at the end of the day after you basic food for the day .
hope this helps you

wintermama13

I hate to say it but it will take time to figure out what your body will respond to the best. Some people are able to workout and not eat any excercise calories back and keep losing and others won't lose unless they hit their sweet spot on the numbers. As others have said, the deficit to lose X amount of calories a week is built in but if you want to help yourself along a little (or give yourself a little wiggle room) there's nothing wrong with that. I don't have a heart rate monitor so I dont' fully trust the calorie burns I get off the website so I figure if I can stay a little under I should be ok. And I have been! Best of luck to you!

KatieCuth

Just play around with things until you find a system that works for you. Every body is different. Find your balance.

That is good advice, it takes time to learn about ourselves and what works espeacially if you are changing your eating habits. Everybody wants a quick fix..

brat68

I have just come off a programme where my calorie intake was 1200 a day regardless of the amount of excercise i did the breakdown is 300 cals for breakfast lunch and dinner and then 300 for snacks. I have lost 14 kilos(in 14 weeks) doing it this way but you do need to look at ur exercises gyms can be expensive but you have to add that toning side too. Have you tried a spin class? This should give you a few ideas on how to utilise ur bike more...........Good luck:flowerforyou:

Crystal817

*steps away...slowly...*

risefromruin

Sometimes I eat my calories back and sometimes I don't. I don't think there is one exact answer, but do what feels right to you. If you've worked out insanely hard and you are extra hungry that day, maybe eat half of them back. As for kickstarting your weight loss, try doing some weights and circuit training style exercises, that really helped me start losing weight quite rapidly. I generally always keep my cardio the same, and then when I stop losing weight I switch weight training routines and voila, I lose weight again. Good luck to you!! Don't give up.

Pandorian

19,000 in 7 days seems far more than 3 times a day.

I know it comes up, I used to respond to it a lot more frequently, but then haven't had as much time to respond lately

The search function AS it exists in MFP is broken. I looked 4 pages into the search results, it gets to 12 month old posts before it gets to 3 days. It LOOKS like this subject doesn't come up IF you use the built in search function.

When you click search do you really scan 4 or more pages of results looking for what you want? Or do you refine your search terms to make what you want come up in the first page? I know if I searched a forum for a topic and saw a week and older for posts on the topic I'd be quite willing to post a new thread on it.

When you search using a "smart' search something more powerful than the basic search here yeah you can see that it comes up regularly, 19,000 times in a week, 76,000 times in a month, I didn't bother looking more than that.

The subject DOES come up a lot. I'm not disputing that. I'm expanding on the

If you search the forums, you will find thousands of threads on this. "

you stated. Yeah it brings up results but they LOOK old using MFPs search. If it came up with the most recent threads first people could add their comment to a recent thread instead

monkeysmum

most health based professionals recommend a minimum of 1200calories a day however after speaking to my doctor puzzled on this starvation mode she told me that starvation while not so much a myth isnt really based on calorie intake but what you eat exapmle i could eat 3 chocolate bars get my 1200 calories and go into starvations mode a si am not getting nutriants needed or i could eat 1000 calories cover all aspects of health fruit veggies vitamins proteins etc and be perfectly fine that does not mean i recommend eating less than 1200cals a day just please dont panic if youve had a good eating day with lots variety and havent quite reached that

as for eating exercise calories that i think is a trial and error of what works for you eating mine didnt work at all i only burn maybe 200-300 most days maybe 500 on a weekend when i can exercise more i usually manage my 1200cals in the week and eat 1200-1300 at weekend and im losing half a pound a week as set by mfp
if your burning off excessive amounts calories like my hubby does in his workouts sometimes 2000+ he eats back at least half and that works for him along with his usuall calorie allowance so he gets 2500cals a day with exercise
just tweak things around until you find what works for you the weight didnt come on in a week so it wont vanish that fast more sthe pity