Nutritionist has me confused.

Jennvandemark

So I went to see a nutritionist today (never seen a nutritionist before) I give her my results for my Bod Pod and let her look at my MFP diary (she only looked at yesterday). I just needed her to give me an idea of where I need to set my calories.

I have been sitting at a stand still for a few months on weight loss. I have been losing inches.

She changed my activity level and now MFP tells me to eat at 1570. I was eating at 1950 (that's with me adjusting the calories) I was going off my Pod report. TEE says Low active 2888 and active is 3306 I know if you subtract 1000 from either number you should lose 2 pounds a week. So I went some where in the middle. The sheet says RMR is 1900 (have no clue what that part means)

Anyway she tells me to eat at 1570 for 2 weeks and then bump back up to 1800 for two weeks and keep going back and forth till the body decides to lose some pounds. Okay I can do that.

She then looks at my calories burned on MFP. I spend almost 2 hours in the gym 6 times a week. I swim, c25k and strength train. MFP can calculate up to a 1300 calorie burn but I know better then that. I wear my HRM and like today I burned 700 calories. She tells me I didn't burn 700 calories it was probably more like 400. I don't understand I tell her my HRM says 700. She says yes but that is only measuring your heart rate not what your body is really burning. Because my body is used to the activity it is not burning as much as I think it is.

This is the part I am confused about. Is my HRM giving me false information? Am I really only burning 400 calories because if that the case I think we figured out why I am not losing weight.

Anyone got an insight on what in the world she is talking about or was she just trying to get me out of her office so she could go to lunch.

TAsunder

I'm hard-pressed to believe that 2 hours of swimming and c25k add up to 400 calories only. c25k is an interval program that by its design should be getting your heart rate up each week because you are progressing. And swimming is an exercise known to burn a decent number of calories.

ChrisLindsay9

She then looks at my calories burned on MFP. I spend almost 2 hours in the gym 6 times a week. I swim, c25k and strength train. MFP can calculate up to a 1300 calorie burn but I know better then that. I wear my HRM and like today I burned 700 calories. She tells me I didn't burn 700 calories it was probably more like 400.

I suspect that she's mistaken. And as she's a nutritionist, it's possible that her evaluation of caloric burn during exercise is out of expertise? An HRM may not be totally accurate, but I would put that device against someone eyeballing numbers on a website.

3dogsrunning

This is the part I am confused about. Is my HRM giving me false information? Am I really only burning 400 calories because if that the case I think we figured out why I am not losing weight.

Your HRM can give you false information, yes. A lot of people here put a lot of faith in them with little understanding how they work. There are a lot of cases where people are not using them correctly and getting high calorie burns. There are a lot of things that can affect accuracy.
They are designed to measure heart rate, as your nutritionist said. They also can estimate calories based on a relationship between VO2 max while doing steady state cardio. Intervals will affect accuracy.

These posts explain it very well
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Azdak?month=201003
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/773451-is-my-hrm-giving-me-incorrect-calorie-burn


ETA - what did you do today exactly that burned 700 calories?

DavPul

you didn't state your weight so it's impossible for any of us to guess what you may have burned. my bigger question is why are you working out 2 hours a day, 6 days per week? Seems like a lot.

I don't necessarily agree or disagree with what your nutritionist is advising. But if you have stalled and decided to give her a try, then go ahead and give her a try. You can't serve two masters. Either listen to her advice (within reason) and see how it goes after a couple of months, or don't waste the money and get your advice from us on the forums. Either way is a legit way to go. But if you pick and choose between both you're really not going to be able to figure out what works and what doesn't work.

Cyclink

I think your nutritionist is somewhere between mistaken and confused.

Yes, heart rate monitors can be off by a lot. They are totally inaccurate for weight lifting (they read WAY high). They are usually acceptably close for running and swimming.

If you are moving at the same absolute intensity, say a 10 minute mile, your body does get used to it over time and burns slightly fewer calories doing so. Like maybe 10 to 15% if you are really good, To be efficient enough to burn only 50% of the calories at that speed would require a mechanical device like a bicycle. If you are staying in a similar heart rate zone (say, 140 to 150 BPM), you will actually end up burning more calories as you get fitter because you are generating more force (going faster). Getting "fitter" does not negate basic laws of conservation of energy (it takes a certain amount of energy to move your body, and the human body at its best is about 22% efficient)

fluffykitsune

If you're spending 2 hours a day at the gym, 6 days a week.. I think you need a break.

mockchoc

If you're spending 2 hours a day at the gym, 6 days a week.. I think you need a break.

She is doing even more than that so yes to this. Overdoing it with exercise and your body is not happy. Slow down.

jaz050465

Not sure what country you are in. What does a nutritionist mean. What are her qualifications.

runnerchick69

Hmmm...I work out an hour to two hours pretty much 7 days a week and take a rest day when I feel I need it. I would say from my own personal experience that she is not correct when she says you are only burning 400 although you may not be burning 700. When I run I calculate about 85-90 calories burned per mile. When I work out on a machine I underestimate because I know the machine is overestimating as most do. When I lift I record my time, sets, weight etc...BUT I only calculate that as burning 1 calorie since it is so incredibly hard to know what I am really burning. I eat about 2000 calories a day, give or take, and I have kept over 100 pounds off for a few years now. I'm not saying do as I do but find a variation of it that works for you and go with it. I agree with the person who said give this a try for a couple of months. The worst that can happen is it doesn't work and you keep looking for what does. I know, I know this is a pain in the butt but I went through much the same thing when I was losing weight and suddenly I would stop losing but eventually through trial and error you figure it out. As for working out for a couple of hours, well each person has to do what is right for them. It may not be right for one person but for you it works and for someone like me I enjoy running, cycling and working out in general so I use it as a way to reduce stress in my life and relax.

Azdak

So I went to see a nutritionist today (never seen a nutritionist before) I give her my results for my Bod Pod and let her look at my MFP diary (she only looked at yesterday). I just needed her to give me an idea of where I need to set my calories.

I have been sitting at a stand still for a few months on weight loss. I have been losing inches.

She changed my activity level and now MFP tells me to eat at 1570. I was eating at 1950 (that's with me adjusting the calories) I was going off my Pod report. TEE says Low active 2888 and active is 3306 I know if you subtract 1000 from either number you should lose 2 pounds a week. So I went some where in the middle. The sheet says RMR is 1900 (have no clue what that part means)

Anyway she tells me to eat at 1570 for 2 weeks and then bump back up to 1800 for two weeks and keep going back and forth till the body decides to lose some pounds. Okay I can do that.

She then looks at my calories burned on MFP. I spend almost 2 hours in the gym 6 times a week. I swim, c25k and strength train. MFP can calculate up to a 1300 calorie burn but I know better then that. I wear my HRM and like today I burned 700 calories. She tells me I didn't burn 700 calories it was probably more like 400. I don't understand I tell her my HRM says 700. She says yes but that is only measuring your heart rate not what your body is really burning. Because my body is used to the activity it is not burning as much as I think it is.

This is the part I am confused about. Is my HRM giving me false information? Am I really only burning 400 calories because if that the case I think we figured out why I am not losing weight.

Anyone got an insight on what in the world she is talking about or was she just trying to get me out of her office so she could go to lunch.

Lets go through this point by point:

1. Anyone can call themselves a "nutritionist". Unless you were talking to a registered, licensed dietitian then you were not talking to a professional. The quality of the "advice" will vary---considerably.

2. A Bod Pod measures your body fat percentage. All other information is an estimate--no more accurate or better quality than any number of online calculators. It is common for a single-use devices such like this to add a lot of filler to "fluff" up the experience to justify the expense. Our Tanita scale does the same thing. I would not use Bod Pod calories to structure my program.

3. The calorie cycling routine she is describing is not supported, to my knowledge, by professional organizations such as the American Dietetics Assn. I don't think that approach is necessarily detrimental, but I believe it is based more on pop culture than science.

4. The stuff about the HRM calories is a key tell. I am not saying that either the MFP or your HRM calories are correct, but her explanations suggest a lack of basic knowledge. The assertion that the HRM "is only measuring your heart rate not what your body is really burning" is correct, but the assertion that your "body is used to the activity it is not burning as much as I think it is" is a Shape-magazine-level cliche that is not true.

I suspect that, overall, your calorie counts are off--both intake and expenditure--and that is why you are in a plateau. Without knowing your body fat %, it's hard to say exactly what you should do about exercise calories, but I would try the 1600 per day level and eat them back sparingly and see what happens. And add some higher-intensity workouts, if you are not already doing them. One of the potential problems with spending so much time in the gym each day and week is that the quality of the workouts can sometimes suffer.

Jennvandemark

Thank you all for the great info.

3dogsrunning and Azdak: I checked my HRM and I have a Polar FT60 but it was not set up with the VO2. It took 5 minutes to set it up. Thank you so much and I can't wait to see what my reading will be now.

As for my exercise today, I swam for 40 minutes; crawl one way and breaststroke back. I wear my HRM in the water also and it read 250 burned 40 minutes. after swimming I completed week 4 day 2 of C25K. I'm slow but it's still a very hard work out for me. My total time on the treadmill was 35 minutes and 30 minutes of strength training lower body. As soon as I was finished I stopped my HRM and my results were: Average HR 128; Max HR 170; Total cal burned 704; cal. fat 32%.
I just did the VO2 test in my HRM and my results were 27 low but the original (Default) setting was 21.
The pod gave me a Body fat % 44.1 (bod pod was done in late Jan) Body fat free mass 55.9%. I still have a ways to go. Seeing as I started with a body fat% of 56 I have come a long way.

I have been on my weight loss adventure for a year now and have lost 89 pounds. I'm down 104 from heaviest. The weight was coming off fast at first like it should have with me going for slug to active. But has slowed down to a stand still in the last few months.

The nutritionist is a military nutritionist so really not sure of her qualifications. I work out on a military base so I am fortunate to have a lot of resources at my finger tips for free.

I came to the forum because the nutritionist's answers didn't seem quite accurate to me. I know that playing with the calorie intake and intervals will help kick start the weight loss again, I just wanted to know about where my calories should be set at. (by the way, she told me not to eat my exercise calories but that's a whole can of worms I am not going to get into. To many topics on that one and to each their own).

It was the HRM statement that got me wondering. I don't trust the MFP calculations or the machines results but I fully thought my HRM was giving me a true number to work with. Maybe not right 100% accurate but close enough to give me an idea of my work.

I am going to drop my calories and see where that gets me. This is the hard part, figuring out what does and doesn't works for you. By the way, I work out 2 hours a day because I'm a stay at home mom who's kids are in school, so I have time to burn. Before i decided to work on health I would just sit at home and watch TV, eat, and FB. So that's why I work out so much.

Thank you again for all the great advice and info everyone. I would quote and respond to you all but I have not a clue how to work that quote thing.