Frustrated

htarasuik15

@jrushton12. thanks for the info, i will definitely eat more next time i exercise. i was wondering why i feel so tired and crappy today....

RyanDanielle5101

double post

akaMrsmojo

My mom did the same thing and lost her hair. You need 1200 calories with exercise. Remember weight loss is marathon not a sprint. Losing a pound a week is great, the slower you lose it, the easier it is to keep it off.

Your body will fight you, you won't want to eat your calories but you have to. Train your body to listen to you.

Good luck.

CMmrsfloyd

Yes, it is confusing b/c there's that saying 'you have to burn more than you eat', but if you are literally exercising off more calories than you take in, that is too much. You need positive calories showing at the end of the day b/c that's what your body runs on. (keeping organs functioning and healthy, etc). The old 'burn more than you eat' is right to an extent, but what a lot of people may not realize is that your body is burning calories constantly throughout the day just staying alive. That's what your BMR number is - its the amount your body uses on a daily basis even if you don't exercise or even if you don't roll out of bed that day. That's the amount a hospital would have to feed you to keep you alive and keep your weight stable even if you were in a coma. That BMR number is different for everyone - for me, being 5'4" and just under 140 lbs, my BMR number is right around 1340 caloris that my body will burn each and every day whether I actually do anything to purposely burn extra calories or not. Regular daily activities takes that number higher - for example even with my profile set at 'sedentary' MFP estimates that my normal daily activities mean that I burn an average of something like 1670 even without adding any exercise to my day. When I exercise, that is additional calories burned. Since 1670-ish is what my body burns just through the course of the day, if I eat less than that and don't exercise, I will lose weight. Or if I eat exactly that but then exercise off some calories, I will lose weight.

You do not literally have to exercise off more than what you eat, since your body is burning calories all the time on its own. Exercise helps, eating less than you did before helps, but too much exercise combined with too little food can actually be too much stress n your body if you do it on a regular basis. It all seems very complicated with all the various numbers, but basically MFP makes it easy and figures out all that stuff for you, so that if you just stick close to the goal MFP gives you, you should see results. So if your goal is 1500 net calories, it's a good idea to try and be pretty close to that net goal most days. Keep in mind that if you are a lot more active now than you were before, your body may actually really benefit from the extra nutrition you could get by eating more and being closer to your goal. Protein, vitamins, etc, all that stuff helps keep your body happy while you work on losing weig and getting in shape. Having a day under or a day a little over your calorie goal every now and then should not be a big deal as long as it kind of balances out. But you don't want to go way under all the time.

Hope that helps. ;-)

Russellb97

It's not a big deal and extremely normal.

Good chance you didn't lose 13lbs of fat in 3 weeks. An good example maybe you lost 9 pounds of fat and 4 pounds of water. This week you could have still lost 3lbs of fat but gained back 2.5 pounds of the water weight.

A good rule of thumb for weekly weight loss is:
1-3lbs lost FAT
3-5lbs water
5+ Lean muscle mass

So anytime you are over 3lbs of weight loss for a week, there is a good chance you will have a week where some of that water weight comes back. It does NOT mean you stopped burning fat.

htarasuik15

@CMmrsfloyd, yes that makes it more clear for me. So I know if I am going to have a hard workout then i will need to eat more. I will try to implement this from now on and will hopefully see the results I am looking for

kvns83

It is very difficult not to let it get you down. I know!!!! When I finally got back into gear (after reaching my highest weight ever) I lost nearly 8 lbs in the first week, and since then almost 2 months I've maintained, but I haven't stopped. DON"T STOP. While I am not losing, I am not gaining and mentally I feel good because I am doing the right thing. For myself I have really screwed my body up, it doesn't know what the heck I want it to do. I am a serial yo-yo dieter. If this has been the case for you give your body time. Like my trainer/ nutritionist says, your body sees weeks and months not days.

YOU CAN AND WILL BE SUCCESSFUL!!!! Give it time.

MellyMartinson

That you for showing that picture. It is gross to look at but just motivated me so much more!!

kmbrooks15

Hey, its possible you could be gaining muscle. Muscle weighs more than fat . Take your measurements every week that way you will know if you're losing inches

Just to clarify muscle does not weigh more than fat. While 5lbs of muscle is smaller in volume than 5lbs of fat, 5lbs of muscle = 5lbs of fat.

Example

THIS^^^^

If you look at the picture, 5 lbs. of fat takes a LOT more space than the 5 lbs. of muscle. That's why you can have two men of the same height and weight, but one looks much smaller than the other. A 6 foot man that is 200 lbs. of fat will look much bigger than a 6 foot man that is 200 lbs. of muscle. This is why taking measurements or looking at how your clothes fit is so much more important than the number on the scale.

Keep at it...it does slow down the more you lose, but it will come off eventually.

H_Factor

lots of things going on in the OP and this thread that I want to address:

1. when you start and have a fair amount to lose, its not uncommon to dump a lot of weight quickly...understand, though, that a lot of the early weight loss is water loss and not fat loss. Its EXTREMELY DIFFICULT and NEAR IMPOSSIBLE to lose 14 pounds of fat in 3 weeks. In short, be very happy with the quick pop to start things off, but its EXTREMELY UNREALISTIC to expect an average of 4.7 pounds lost each week. Its just not going to happen.

2. You lost 0.6 pounds in week 4....be happy for the loss. On your journey, its going to be important to appreciate that you won't lose weight consistently and that there are many factors that affect weight loss on a week to week basis. Understand that if you do things properly, you will eventually reach your goal EVEN IF each week doesn't net the result you were hoping for.

3. When you start to exercise, sometimes your body retains a little more water for muscle repair. Unlike what several folks have said, you ARE NOT adding muscle fiber after only a few workouts (especially if the workouts do not involve lifting heavy weights, which kickboxing does not). So, as to those who suggested "muscle weighs more than fat", hog wash...that has nothing to do with what is going on with you right now.

4. exercise brings with it a lot of benefits unrelated to weight loss....exercise decreases the risk of several diseases as it improves your cardio system. Also, exercise burns calories....meaning that you can AND SHOULD eat more when you exercise. Your body needs those additional calories for repair and recovery. Exercise itself, however, does not lead to weight loss unless you are maintaining the PROPER caloric deficit. As alluded to in this thread, the proper caloric deficit is the NET number determined by MFP based on your desired weight loss each week. Its important to come close to your net number each day. Soooo, I think you said MFP calculated your daily intake at 1500 calories. On days you do not exercise, you should come close to 1500 calories. On days that you do exercise, you should come close to 1500 PLUS the additional calories you burned during exercise.

5. A word about exercise calories burnt. If you are relying on MFP estimates, understand that they can be overstated by between 30 and 50% because MFP has no way of evaluating your effort level throughout the exercise (likewise, sometimes MFP's estimates are understated). The best way to accurately gauge calories burned during exercise, especially aerobic exercise, is to get a heart rate monitor. However, if you don't have a HRM and until you get one, I would eat back only 50-75% of the MFP estimated calories burned during exercise. This means that if MFP says you burned 1,000 calories and your normal intake should be 1,500 calories, then you should eat 1,500 + (500-750) = 2,000 = 2,250 calories for that day.

cjm109

Hey, its possible you could be gaining muscle. Muscle weighs more than fat . Take your measurements every week that way you will know if you're losing inches

Just to clarify muscle does not weigh more than fat. While 5lbs of muscle is smaller in volume than 5lbs of fat, 5lbs of muscle = 5lbs of fat.

Example

Thank you....I was just telling someone the same thing and they just couldn't grasp the concept...So I said what weighs more a ton of bricks or a ton of feathers??

H_Factor

Hey, its possible you could be gaining muscle. Muscle weighs more than fat . Take your measurements every week that way you will know if you're losing inches

Just to clarify muscle does not weigh more than fat. While 5lbs of muscle is smaller in volume than 5lbs of fat, 5lbs of muscle = 5lbs of fat.

Example

Thank you....I was just telling someone the same thing and they just couldn't grasp the concept...So I said what weighs more a ton of bricks or a ton of feathers??

sigh...I think the real point about muscle weighing more than fat is NOT that 5 lbs of muscle weighs any different than 5 lbs of fat....but that while you are burning fat, you may also be adding some lean muscle. or, sometimes, you are adding lean muscle without burning fat. The point is that a little bit of added lean muscle will affect your scale weight. Regardless, as I mentioned above, OP's issue has nothing to do with adding lean muscle because she's not lifting heavy weights over a consistent period of time.

LilLolo22

From my personal experience using MFP, I've learned that the most difficult thing to get correct is eating. Making sure you're eating enough vs. too much, making sure you're making wise food choices, and since our bodies are not all the same, using trial and error to see which foods work best for you. I was stuck in a 5 MONTH plateau shortly after joining here in the spring. I kept exercising (cardio & strength training), switched up my workouts every several weeks and played around with my food. Finally the scale is moving again. It is frustrating when you see people on here who are dropping weight so easily...but the most important thing is to stick to it!! :flowerforyou:

htarasuik15

@ Russell... Thanks that really puts things in prospective for me

htarasuik15

@H_Factor. Thank you very much. Very informative and very helpful. It definitely helps to be educated on all of this. My dietician educated me on what food to eat, now i am understanding how much I should eat and how exercise effects my caloric intake. You all are awesome! THANKS