Have the "rules" changed?? What am I doing wrong?

tigerblue

So, I have been doing MFP for two years now. I finished losing about a year ago and have been maintaining ever since. About 3 months ago, I noticed my weight creeping up a bit. It is only about 3-5 pounds, but it has been consistently up for the past 3 months. I am staying within my calorie goals, and I continue to log my food and exercise just as I have since I started. I did lower my calorie goal after seeing the weight creep up. But other than that nothing has changed.

Maybe I'm obsessing, but adding a few pounds at a time is how I gained back all my losses after my last wieght loss battle (7 or 8 years ago.). This time I felt so much more confident that I wouldn't gain it back, since I continued to log, just with a maintenance goal instead of a loss goal. And it worked so well, until October!!

What am I doing wrong? Have I killed my metabolism? I am very active, with lots of cardio and some weight/circuit training. I thought that should take care of the metabolism! Please help.

heybales

How do you calculate your calories burned from exercise?

And do you eat those calories back for the most part?

Cardio doesn't increase your metabolism much beyond your actual workout.
Actually, opposite effect. Your heart and body get so efficient that your metabolism is lower during periods of rest, and most likely even during your workouts unless you are doing something to keep your HR up.

tigerblue

I use a Polar Heart Rate Monitor. It is pretty consistent with this website.

I do like my cardio (especially running), and I'm in really good shape.

So do I need to add more resistance training? (Soooo boring!!)

Aviendha_RJ

Any chance at all you could be pregnant? :noway:

tigerblue

And as for eating my exercise calories, that varies from day to day. I don't want to eat "junk" if I'm not hungry just so my numbers come out. But some days I eat most of my exercise calories. That's one of my main exercise motivators. I don't like being hungry!

tigerblue

Not pregnant. It is TOM!

Huskeryogi

Are you doing too much steady state cardio with your running? I have dropped down to only one day of steady state cardio. All other days I do intervals for 15 min and then walk 15. This article explains why.

http://articles.elitefts.com/articles/training-articles/women-running-into-trouble/

CrystalMarie253

Not pregnant. It is TOM!

Oh god I think I just peed a little laughing so hard! LMAO!!!!!!!

DannyMussels

Not pregnant. It is TOM!

I thought I banned this word a few threads ago.

PrettyLydie

Could it be that you've gained more muscle mass? Is it just the weight? Or have your measurements increased too?

heybales

I use a Polar Heart Rate Monitor. It is pretty consistent with this website.

I do like my cardio (especially running), and I'm in really good shape.

So do I need to add more resistance training? (Soooo boring!!)

More muscle sitting there all day long, even if more efficient, will raise your metabolism, as it burns fat constantly.

Have you noticed in your workouts that your HR doesn't get as high now with similar workouts?

Meaning, you run 7mph avg, and HR used to avg 156, now at 140?
Resting HR now at 45, was at 60?

Or similar. Or do you press yourself faster and HR has stayed the same, just running faster?

Longer isn't going to give much benefit except for training for a race, and the pure joy you get from doing it.

So throw in a day of weight lifting for an hour. Biggest muscles first (even though those are the legs too, alternate with upper).
Throw in another day of intervals as suggested.

Get the protein in ya after that strength day within 30 min.

psmd

I agree, measure your body fat to know how much muscle vs. fat you have. Also if you don't do any resistance or weight training you definitely should, as it will bump up your metabolism. You can't get too stagnant, for example if you run 30 minutes 3x/week for the past year, you have to keep upping the ante by doing something more, different, harder, etc. Our bodies adjust too easily and your metabolism will slow down naturally if you don't do anything to challenge it over time.

heybales

Not pregnant. It is TOM!

tigerblue
44 years old
Female
Memphis, TN

Tom, you aren't perhaps having sympathy weight gain because tigerblue is pregnant? ;-)

gregavila

I would also agree with the poster who noted putting some form of interval training into your workout schedule. After a period of time your body gets used to steady state workouts, and actually burns less calories. The intervals keep the metabolism up.

1a1a

Along with proper strength training, have a crack at some circuit stuff, not as dull.

tigerblue

Thanks to all for the feedback. Sounds like I need to shake things up a bit in my workouts. They tend to be the same.

Right now all of my strenght training is circuits via dvd. Because of my schedule, and my kids' schedules, I have to get most workouts in at home, or very close to home.

I'm hopeful that perhaps some of the gain is muscle, as suggested. It's hard to tell, since I can convince myself that I am smaller or larger at will (it's definitely a girl thing, I think). I can even convince myself that I'm the same size---I had two pairs of pants that I wore for 30 lbs of weight gain!! (from 125lbs to 155 lbs) as I was gaining weight, before MFP. And I managed to convince myself that I really wasn't gaining fat. I can only imagine how I looked in those pants at my highest point!! There are some things that you CAN wear (as in squeeze into), but that doesn't mean you SHOULD wear them!

So for me, I have to go by the scale, b/c it doesn't lie! I do hope to get a body composition analysis soon, though.