I dont get it!

Brandongood

I've been eating under my calorie goal, lifting heavy in the mornings and doing Insanity at night all this week. Nothing changed on the scale or my waist measurement this morning! I don't get it! Can someone please check out my diary and help me out? I weigh on a scale and measure my neck and waist every Friday. I usually drop at least a pound or 2 each week.

Brandongood

Starting to think this eating back your calorie thing isn't for me.

Matt_Wild

Starting to think this eating back your calorie thing isn't for me.

Its a load of old cobblers. Only on MFP does one do it. Its madness.

Lozze

First off give it longer than a week. Try it for a month and then reevaluate.

Second your muscles are probably retaining water. This is normal. Your body needs to repair itself.

HisMissus

You have a high protein intake, is this to help you build muscle? They do say muscle weighs more than fat (not sure how true this is, I'm no expert) Maybe your lack of weight loss is due to muscle gain.

Brandongood

Thanks guys. I have been lifting for a while now. Im not sure if the water retention in the muscle is something that is always occurring or only when you're first starting out. By the way I had my RMR checked and it is currently at 2360. No idea what my TDEE is or what that even means for that matter.

jewelswye

give it another 3 weeks to give ur body chance to adjust and if still no results try eating only half of ur exercise calories xxx

Brandongood

Im not currently trying to build muscle just want to maintain the muscle I have while cutting fat.

Brandongood

Thanks everyone!

appleseeds

Starting to think this eating back your calorie thing isn't for me.

Its a load of old cobblers. Only on MFP does one do it. Its madness.

Pretty sure when my mum did WW if she exercised, she didnt have to, but she was allowed to eat more.

Aperture_Science

First off give it longer than a week. Try it for a month and then reevaluate.

I think this is good advice.

But I would also ask you to consider your exercise and how many cals you are logging against it. From your exercise diary (I've not looked at your food diary) I can see that you are pretty fit. You are capable of running 50 mins at a 7.5 min mile pace for example. I'm in a similar situation (although I spend much less time that you working out per day) but find that MFP overestimates calories expended*. So, I regularly scale down all cardio recorded by 1/3 and then eat those cals. This seems to work for me, but there are many ways to skin a cat and another way wold be to only eat back some of your exercise cals.

The point I'm trying to make here is that for people with above average fitness levels I feel that MFP overestimates cals and that you should monitor for a few weeks and, if you are hitting your goals, keep everything the same, if not tweak the diet and re-monitor. Rinse and repeat.


* I'm pretty new to MFP but was a member of a rival site for three years. My observations on calorific burn are based on data from that site, but when moving over to MFP I ran the two sites in parallel for a few weeks and the cal expenditures were almost identical. how do I know that these sites overestimate the cals? Well, when on a weight loss program if I eat all my cals I maintain. When on a maintenance program and I eat all my exercise cals I gain.

Best wishes with it.

sexyminxinthemaking

if i eat my exercise cals back i gain weight :sad:

so i never eat them back now i stick to 1200 cals a day and my exercise is a bonus :glasses: :glasses:

mommynmotion

I think 2360 is probably your TDEE not your RMR (resting matabolic rate).

Why don't you set your goal on MFP to maintain your weight, put your exercise in an dthen leave about 400-800 calories left over every night. I have doen this, along with several other MFP friends...it gives you a clearer picture of whay your deficit is. I was leaving 500-1000 calories uneaten every day and MFP had already put a deficit in place for me....that was way to big of a deficit for me! So, after you subtract what I wasn't eating from what I was eating, my bosy thought I was only eating about 500 calories per day!

I think if you could see your whole deficit, you would get a better picture of what's going on.

ladyraven68

Thanks guys. I have been lifting for a while now. Im not sure if the water retention in the muscle is something that is always occurring or only when you're first starting out. By the way I had my RMR checked and it is currently at 2360. No idea what my TDEE is or what that even means for that matter.

TDEE = Total Daily Energy Expenditure

Do you really mean RMR?

your RMR is just your Resting rate - you need to apply a muliplier to get your actual energy requirements, depending on whether you are active, sedentary etc.

http://www.caloriesperhour.com/tutorial_BMR.php

Matt_Wild

[/quote]

Pretty sure when my mum did WW if she exercised, she didnt have to, but she was allowed to eat more.
[/quote]

Don't mean to sound rude or the like or a big head (which it comes across as no doubt - sorry) but I'm a body building prep coach and competitive body builder. I coach people (including myself) to sub 10% body fat each, often close to 5% and every time and you NEVER get to eat more because you are doing exercise.

Smuterella

Pretty sure when my mum did WW if she exercised, she didnt have to, but she was allowed to eat more.
[/quote]

Don't mean to sound rude or the like or a big head (which it comes across as no doubt - sorry) but I'm a body building prep coach and competitive body builder. I coach people (including myself) to sub 10% body fat each, often close to 5% and every time and you NEVER get to eat more because you are doing exercise.
[/quote]

but does that include a built in deficit like MFP provides?

ladyraven68

Pretty sure when my mum did WW if she exercised, she didnt have to, but she was allowed to eat more.
[/quote]

Don't mean to sound rude or the like or a big head (which it comes across as no doubt - sorry) but I'm a body building prep coach and competitive body builder. I coach people (including myself) to sub 10% body fat each, often close to 5% and every time and you NEVER get to eat more because you are doing exercise.
[/quote]

Did you tell them it was OK to build up a huge deficit, or was there a maximum deficit you allowed?
MFP already builds in a deficit, by calories, so for some people on a low calorie goal anyway, doing a huge amount of exercise would put them in negative calories if they did not eat extra.

Matt_Wild

but does that include a built in deficit like MFP provides?

Naturally yes, 300-400 below maintenance. Then 50 mins cardio in the morning (20 after weights) 6x a week, weights 4x a week. When required, an extra 50 mins in the evening too.

Smuterella

Matt - i'm genuinely interested here. MFP tells me to east 1370 for a 0.5lb a week loss (I don't have much to lose).

If I don't eat back my exercise calories I'll be netting less than the "magic" 1200. Is that OK?

BerryH

First up, I'd add to the "try it a bit longer" debate. Using MFP exactly as designed works well for many of us here!

There is a law of diminishing returns as far as calorie burns go when you exercise long and/or hard, especially when you're fit. I try to leave a good margin of error, and anything over an hour is 50% at best. Otherwise I'd weigh 7 stone from burning 1,600 calories on my long runs!

Don't bother using a HRM for calorie burn on lifting - your HR spikes but without the same burn ratio as with cardio. MFP's best guest is sometimes better, if disappointing!

For the way you eat and workout, you might be better off eating at maintenance for your target weight or setting yourself to an active lifestyle and not registering exercise calories.

But try it a bit longer first :flowerforyou:

mommynmotion

I loooked at your diary and didn't see any fruits or veggies for the last 3 days, atleast? You must eat those!

What are you set up to lose on MFP 1 pound? two pounds per week? Whatever the deficit is, might be too much. I have heard that when you only have a little to lose, your deficit shouldn't be more than about 250 cals per day.

Of course you can eat more and still lose if you exercise, otherwise the deficit would be about 1500 calories per day. When I was set to lose 1 pound per week, I had about 1400 cals for the day (I'm 5'3 and 123 lbs). I would burn about 800 per day with exercise. If I don't eat those back, my body is starving and thinks I am only eating 600....because that's all the fuel it has left after my workout!

Brandongood

Thanks! Bottom line is there must not have been as much as a deficit that MFP led me to think. Gonna try and slice the calories off by a third cause I have heard before that MFP overestimates burned calories.

Brandongood

I am currently set to lose a pound a week.

Brandongood

My plan has been to maintain a daily deficit of 500 calories. Is that too much?

littledumplings

What I dont understand is when you do your settings, it asks you how much exercise you do...I put in 3 x 30 mins pw....so in the calorie allowance it has surely made some adjustment for this in the first place iyswim?

BeautyFromPain

You have a high protein intake, is this to help you build muscle? They do say muscle weighs more than fat (not sure how true this is, I'm no expert) Maybe your lack of weight loss is due to muscle gain.

The most muscle you can gain whilst on a deficit is 12lbs per YEAR, one per MONTH! when on a strict, perfect diet...

morthon

I loooked at your diary and didn't see any fruits or veggies for the last 3 days, atleast? You must eat those!

What are you set up to lose on MFP 1 pound? two pounds per week? Whatever the deficit is, might be too much. I have heard that when you only have a little to lose, your deficit shouldn't be more than about 250 cals per day.

Of course you can eat more and still lose if you exercise, otherwise the deficit would be about 1500 calories per day. When I was set to lose 1 pound per week, I had about 1400 cals for the day (I'm 5'3 and 123 lbs). I would burn about 800 per day with exercise. If I don't eat those back, my body is starving and thinks I am only eating 600....because that's all the fuel it has left after my workout!

I was gonna say the same thing - there is absolutely no fruits or veg in your diary.... are you just not recording them or not eating them. (I used to make the mistake of thinking an apple and asparagus cant count for many cals) but when i record them and add them up they sure do add up ?

mommynmotion

Last week, I changed my goal to maintenance, so I could see my deficit. I started leaving just a few hundred leftover everyday for my deficit and I lost a pound, after not losing for almost 2 months. I tried eating less (no exercise cals) and scale stayed almost exactly the same.

I burned almost 27,000 calories in January, left a pretty big deficit almost everyday and weighed the same on the 31st as on the 1st. I had a huge deficit at the end of the month...the only explaination is that a smaller deficit works better.

Matt_Wild

Matt - i'm genuinely interested here. MFP tells me to east 1370 for a 0.5lb a week loss (I don't have much to lose).

If I don't eat back my exercise calories I'll be netting less than the "magic" 1200. Is that OK?

I don't know your weight and bodyfat percentage or even approximate, so I couldn't say hun. Message me and I'm more than happy to help. Would rather not post on the message board as people like to shoot people down without any understanding of nutrition!

The most muscle you can gain whilst on a deficit is 12lbs per YEAR, one per MONTH! when on a strict, perfect diet...

I would personally be surpised if you put on 1lb of muscle whilst cutting back calories unless you are a genetic freak or a newbie trainer.

mommynmotion

What I dont understand is when you do your settings, it asks you how much exercise you do...I put in 3 x 30 mins pw....so in the calorie allowance it has surely made some adjustment for this in the first place iyswim?

MFP asks for lifesytyle because someone who exercises or moves a lot (as opposed to a desk job), has a higher BMR. You burn more calories at rest when you exercise regularly.

MoogieOh

You have a high protein intake, is this to help you build muscle? They do say muscle weighs more than fat (not sure how true this is, I'm no expert) Maybe your lack of weight loss is due to muscle gain.

1kg of muscle is the same a 1kg of fat. Muscle just takes up less room then fat, so measurements should go down when weight stays the same