Need help from smart people!!

Minerva

Please explain to me why I can workout 1-2 hours/day (running 4-6 miles 3 X/week,) eating within the 1200-1400 calorie range, upping carbs on heavy workout days, fiber around 25-30g/day and not lose. But, after being confined to the house for 5 days due to ice and snow, (no running, really moderate workouts like shoveling snow, cleaning house, practicing TaeKwon-Do) I've dropped 3 pounds this week.

pkgirrl

Completely unrelated, but you look like one of the black belts where I take tae kwon do! Hard to tell though, your pic is kinda blurry =p

kingnatalie

Are you eating your exercise calories? You may not be eating enough, sounds odd, but true. You should always eat your exercise calories.

beqy12

My body weight changes with my cycle. I will eat and exercise the same week to week and it will go up and down as it feels because of bloating or whatever it's choosing to do at that time. I only weigh once a month because I get so discouraged to do really well with my diet and exercise and see the numbers go up.

ALSO... how often do you variate your fitness? Sometimes if you just do the same thing over and over again, your body gets used to it and it becomes less effective (or so I've heard). That shoveling, though it feels easier, may have been enough of a change to tell your body to kick it up a notch.

lotusfromthemud

When you exercise regularly, your muscles retain water and glycogen. When you take a few days off, you magically "lose" that weight.

but, it's weight you need for recovery and energy storage, so once you start working out again, you'll gain it right back. It's what I call "fake weight."

This water/glycogen retention is, from what I've read, the "pump" your muscles get. Which is why I do arms on a day I plan to wear a sleeveless anything.

HTH.:flowerforyou:

LittleSpy

When you're exercising a lot and steadily increasing your intensity, your muscles tend to retain water. When you stop exercising so much (decrease the intensity), they release that water = easy 3 pound loss.

Also, read through the posts pinned at the top of the "General Diet and Weight Loss Help" forum here (which means you may want to consider eating some of your exercise calories).

KatWood

Many possible reasons:
1) You may not be eating enough on the days you are working out - burning 400 cals per hr woould mean you are burning 600-800 calories in a workout and only eating 1,200-1,400 thus putting you under 1,000 for the day.
2) Week over week numbers can fluctuate due to many variables including your cycle, not weighing yourself at the same time of day with the same amount of clothes on, etc and also could be due to water retention.
3) Everybody is different. Some people lose consistently week over week others will see nothing and then a larger drop.

As long as the general trend is downward I wouldn't be concerned.

Have you concerned adding weight training to your workouts?

dsjolley

Sometimes what your body needs to repair, replenish and - yes, lose weight - is rest. You may be working out too much and not eating enough, ironically, forcing your body into starvation mode where it will not burn fat but store it for the long haul. Give yourself rest days, and make sure you are eating at your goal.

You may also want to shake up your workouts - are you doing the same thing you've been doing all along? If so, your body may now be too efficient at those exercises for them to have the impact they did at first.

You've hit a plateau and will have to do things just a little differently to break through it.

siobhannestor

Minerva, I was going to weigh in but others have already said what I might have said much better. As someone who really struggles with weight loss, even when doing all of the right things, I can understand the frustration. My only 2 cents at this point is to say, as a couple of other folks have, that if you're going down on the scale overall - that's what counts! Also, if you've got a certified trainer, trust her/his advice, even when it sounds counterintuitive! Anyway - congrats on the weight loss!