Confused..I lose when I DON'T exercise!

urso99 · February 2010

I have been doing really well with staying on track exercising, I rotate 3 different things, treadmill, recumbant bike, and weights during the week. I have only taken 2 days off since the beginning of Jan. I aim for 60 min a day, but some times it is 30-40 min a day. The scale is SLOWLY moving 1/2 lb every week 1/2 or so. But it goes up and down in between.

Yesterday I just did not have time to exercise, I ran errands all day long, So I stayed at 1200 cals, and to top it off, since it was Friday, I enjoyed a mixed drink and a beer, AND a few potato chips late at night!!!

Wake up this am and I am DOWN 1 lb??!!!!! I have avoided alcohol, snacks and fried food like the plague, and here when I have a weak day, I lose???!!

I am so confused. When I exercise and eat my ex cals, the scale goes up, I don't exercise, snack and it goes down?? ARG!!!!!!

pettmybunny · February 2010

Don't know what your base levels are, but maybe you're not eating enough on a daily basis. Then, on a day you don't exercise, and you go over a bit on cals, you're body is like "YES!" and lets go.

I know when I had my calories set to 1200 a day and was exercising, I had a hard time losing. I bumped my calories up by 100 and lost more. A few weeks later, I bumped them up again, and was still losing. I've recently gone to see a registered dietician, and she bumped up my calories even more.

Just an idea...

Jenna423 · February 2010

Wow this is actually really helpful! I've been doing ChaLean Extreme and am ALWAYS hungry, I think in part to all the muscle building. So its good to know that I can probably bump up my calories a little and still be okay. Thanks!!!!:flowerforyou:

ericaquin · February 2010

Wow, thanks to all of you. I have been having the same issue! My husband has been able to lose 20 lbs (I know men lose it at a faster rate) in the 5 weeks we have both been doing this and he works out less then me. I have cut my cardio down to 20 minutes of high intensity interval training and has switched up my circuit weight lifting up. The scale has not moved in over 3 weeks and I am almost always hungry and I do eat my exercise cals. I lowered my cals to 1200 2 weeks ago inhopes to move the scale. Maybe I'll move it back to 1500.

cmriverside · February 2010

Read this from banks (especially #6)

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/8977-your-body-s-thoughts-on-calories

tlynnweb · February 2010

Are you sure 1200 calories is enough? Are you eating your exercise calories?

Sometimes for me if I work out every day really hard, my muscles must retain a lot of fluid b/c the next day or so that I don't work out--I lose weight. I've also heard that dieting sometimes you need to have a day or a meal where you shock your system to help the metabolism. Who the heck knows! It's all crazy!

m0m2three · February 2010

Urso,
I have experienced the same thing & what I was told is... in essence I was losing inches b/c muscle weighs more than fat & on top of that, when you are weight training, & are sore, you can guarentee that there is extra water around thse sore muscles as it is part of the healing process. I also have had to bump my calories up, & sure enough saw results??? Go figure??? I think your just gonna have to experiment a bit with what your body wants... GOOD LUCK!!! Keep us posted :bigsmile:

FireMonkey · February 2010

That's a good post from Banks. But I would add that you don't always lose the weight the next day. Many of us have experienced the same thing: you work out for a week, the scale doesn't budge. You slack off for a day and the next morning the scale is down. I doubt you would get these same results if you HADN'T worked out throughout the week. That's why it's recommended to weigh weekly or even monthly instead of daily (I know, I do it too:blushing: )

m0m2three · February 2010

I thought I might add that I added calories b/c the scale wasn't moving, but I did it slowly so I could find results rather than jumping around... in other words I added like 25 calories at a time until I saw results, I guess my body was in starvation mode b/c it worked. I too have read many articles on shocking the system by having a reasonably free day once a week or so... sometimes trying to figure all this out is just nutts, but it'll all be worth it.

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ischmelle · February 2010

I have been doing really well with staying on track exercising, I rotate 3 different things, treadmill, recumbant bike, and weights during the week. I have only taken 2 days off since the beginning of Jan. I aim for 60 min a day, but some times it is 30-40 min a day. The scale is SLOWLY moving 1/2 lb every week 1/2 or so. But it goes up and down in between.

Yesterday I just did not have time to exercise, I ran errands all day long, So I stayed at 1200 cals, and to top it off, since it was Friday, I enjoyed a mixed drink and a beer, AND a few potato chips late at night!!!

Wake up this am and I am DOWN 1 lb??!!!!! I have avoided alcohol, snacks and fried food like the plague, and here when I have a weak day, I lose???!!

I am so confused. When I exercise and eat my ex cals, the scale goes up, I don't exercise, snack and it goes down?? ARG!!!!!!

Lots of good answers here that probably give good insight as to what could be the cause. The only thing I want to add is that the morning after I enjoy some drinks, I am a little dehydrated and the scale shows it. It's a false number though. As soon as I rehydrate, I'm back to normal. Just a thought, especially if you have been avoiding it recently. Hope you get it figured out! Good luck :flowerforyou:

urso99 · February 2010

Thanks for all your info!

I am at 1400 cal per day w/o exercise, and I have only had 1400 calories 1-3 times, all the other days have been more like 1600-1800 due to exercise cals. Funny how easy it is to hit 1400 like that, but those extra ex cals are almost impossible to meet!

Another thing I forgot to mention, when I eat ALL my ex cals, I stay the same weight, if I leave 100-200 at the end of the day, the scale goes down??!! It's so goofy!

mirandam1076 · February 2010

Ok now I' m really confused. I have been at this a month and the scale hasn't moved. I'm at 1220 cal/day. I usually eat all my exercise cal but I have been considering a few different options to get the scale moving.
1. Don't eat my exercise cal. and keep daily cal at 1220.
2. Increase daily cal by 50-100. and don't eat ex cal.
3. Decrease daily cal but eat exercise cal.
:frown: This is crazy! What option should I go with? I am moderate to very active. MFP estimates i burn 1800ish with daily activity but some days with my job I calculate 2800-3000ish. Not everyday though.

pettmybunny · February 2010

This is where you may have to experiment. Some people swear by eating all their exercise calories. Some only eat half. Since you're already eating all your exercise calories, maybe start by not eating 50 of them. Keep it there for a couple of weeks. Then take away a few more. Or go the other direction, and add 50 calories.

I started out at 1200 calories a day, eating my exercise calories. I wasn't losing. I bumped up to 1300 calories a day, eating my exercise calories, and I started to lose some. I thought I'd try 1400 calories a day, eating my exercise calories, and viola, I really started to lose. It's kind of a play with it and see what happens thing.

Confused..I lose when I DON'T exercise!

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