Is it possible I'm putting on muscle?
Replies
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I agree with taking rest days and continuing lifting heavy. Give your body a break now and then. I usually dropped a good amount of weight immediately following rest days.0
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Ask there. Super-helpful and a great group to be a part of!0 -
I apologize if someone mentioned this already, but just pointing out that if you set your activity level for "active" because you workout a lot, and ADDITIONALLY you log your workouts, you're counting your exercise TWICE which means MPF would be giving you significantly more calories than you should actually eat to lose weight and you might actually be eating above maintenance and on a gain cycle even with the amount you workout.0
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^^This too, after looking at your diary.I apologize if someone mentioned this already, but just pointing out that if you set your activity level for "active" because you workout a lot, and ADDITIONALLY you log your workouts, you're counting your exercise TWICE which means MPF would be giving you significantly more calories than you should actually eat to lose weight and you might actually be eating above maintenance and on a gain cycle even with the amount you workout.0 -
I apologize if someone mentioned this already, but just pointing out that if you set your activity level for "active" because you workout a lot, and ADDITIONALLY you log your workouts, you're counting your exercise TWICE which means MPF would be giving you significantly more calories than you should actually eat to lose weight and you might actually be eating above maintenance and on a gain cycle even with the amount you workout.
:drinker: annnnd there you go! :laugh:0 -
Sometimes women have additional problems with weight loss - we don't all convert calories to energy by the same formula, and particularly not when compared to men.
If you keep eating healthy, low and working out, and nothing happens, you should go see a doctor. Your lack of sucess may be due to intolerance or illness, or an hormonal imbalance, for instance caused by PCOS.
Get your doctor to help you put together a healthy diet, and advice you on exercize. Even if it turns out you are prefectly OK, you just need to be even healthier and stricter about your life-style, you will have learned something valuable. It can also take away some of the stress and frustration, as a doctor will be able to give you good, qualified and educated advice about how your body functions.
Good luck!0 -
No No No, none of you are looking at the whole picture (re. my diary)!
I don't set my MFP calories as if I was active. I set MFP to my TDEE (based on being active) -500 calories therefore creating enough of a deficit to be able to lose 1lb per week. My MFP daily calories are actually set to 1600 in total.
I do log my workouts but only so I know how many calories I've burned in total through exercise for the week as I NEVER eat back my exercise calories.
I am definitely not eating above maintenance as maintenance for me at the moment is 2300-2400 calories. In terms of my weekend calories yes I am eating 2000-2100 calories on Saturdays and Sundays (so about 300 less than maintenance) generally, mainly because of a few glasses of wine and possibly a bigger meal than normal BUT during the weekdays I'm eating 1600 calories or less in order to counteract this.
This means that by adding up my total weekly calories needed and then subtracting 3500 to be able to lose 1 lb per week means that overall I am creating enough of a deficit. each week.0 -
Regarding my training I was doing Jillian Michaels Body Revolution for 7 weeks and that consisted of 6 workouts with 4 of them containing weights and body weight exercises and the other 2 were pure cardio. In addition I was adding in 2-3 days of additional cardio on the running machine, elliptical etc.
I stopped BR last week as I wasn't happy with the speed of my results so I'm now doing Insanity plus I've added weight training for 45 minutes 2 x a week when I do Insanity also on that day. My new weights routine includes all the things you've said ie. legs, biceps/triceps, chest, back, abs etc. and I have a fully equipped home gym so I can lift heavy. I have started doing this twice a week for 45 mins to 1 hour per workout.
Isn't it really common to gain a lot of water weight the first week of Insanity? It's probably masking any fat loss right now. Give the poor program a chance to work before you change things again!0 -
Regarding my training I was doing Jillian Michaels Body Revolution for 7 weeks and that consisted of 6 workouts with 4 of them containing weights and body weight exercises and the other 2 were pure cardio. In addition I was adding in 2-3 days of additional cardio on the running machine, elliptical etc.
I stopped BR last week as I wasn't happy with the speed of my results so I'm now doing Insanity plus I've added weight training for 45 minutes 2 x a week when I do Insanity also on that day. My new weights routine includes all the things you've said ie. legs, biceps/triceps, chest, back, abs etc. and I have a fully equipped home gym so I can lift heavy. I have started doing this twice a week for 45 mins to 1 hour per workout.
Isn't it really common to gain a lot of water weight the first week of Insanity? It's probably masking any fat loss right now. Give the poor program a chance to work before you change things again!
From experience there's not much weight loss in the first month of Insanity.0 -
Hey, here is my quick story so maybe there will be something of interest for you!
I have been close to my goal weight always - only wanted to lose about 10 pounds (i.e. belly fat!). I have found only now, after about 6 weeks of really trying, that I am noticing a difference. I eat approx 1200 a day (sometimes a little more) and always eat most of y exercise calories back. You need to make sure you are logging absolutely everything, including sauces and cooking oils etc etc because it's easy to miss stuff and to also be incorrect with your portion sizes.
One thing I noticed made a HUGE change with my bloating with cutting out gluten. Now when I have it, I get horrible stomach cramps and really bloated and feel like crap, so I think this was hurting my system to some extent and now my body is mostly clear of it (still give in once a week to a little bit of something bread-based) I am feeling much better. On a side note, doing this has helped a skin condition I have had for about 8 years, which wasn't cured even by the strongest medications - there is definitely a connection here. I have also been much better taking my vitamins as I have a couple of deficiencies, most notably vitamin D but also calcium, magnesium, fish oil and a general multi.
To add on to this, I am currently on a snowboarding trip, working 1000+ cals a day on the slopes. I have also before this trip started to do lots of core workouts and a bit of work on my legs. After a week here eating very good food - rice and egg for breakfast, some veggies + meat + rice for lunch and then meat/fish for dinner, I have really been able to notice a difference. Note that before this is was much MUCH more sedentary as I was in my dorm room studying/on the laptop a lot.
One thing I have changed also is how much water I am drinking. I am just drinking and drinking and DRINKING I can't believe it. I have upped my protein intake a little, having 2 shakes instead of 1, which means I really do need that water.
I haven't weighed myself yet as the scales here are the ones I am used to using, but I have noticed just from looking at myself when I sit down etc that my stomach fat has really reduced a lot. (I go to the hot springs every day and am in my birthday suit rolling around in the water, so I see my body at every angle whether I like it or not). I don't remember ever having a stomach as small as this!
I have been working HARD. My legs, especially calves, upper body shoulders/arms, core and even bum are sore. For me it was that extra exercise that I really needed to kick my metabolism I think (I never got official measurements). I have another 7 days here so fingers crossed I can keep this up and wow my boyfriend when I'm back in his arms
Good luck
tl;dr increase exercise (overall strength training + cardio), drink more water, cut out gluten, be sure to take appropriate vitamins (vitamin D, calcium, multi, magnesium, fish oil in my case).0 -
I suppose it's one option but I've been working out pretty intensely for the last 7 weeks anyway. I have to say that so far Insanity is more intense though and I'm finding that my heart rate is definitely higher than it was with my previous Jillian Michaels workout. I'm drinking loads of water though so hopefully that will flush out the excess water.0
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If you keep eating healthy, low and working out, and nothing happens, you should go see a doctor. Your lack of sucess may be due to intolerance or illness, or an hormonal imbalance, for instance caused by PCOS.
this! I have a hypothyroid which makes weight loss just that much harder for me
get your bloodwork done 0 -
I take vitamins and Omega 3 daily. I usually force myself to drink a lot of water. Maybe I'll try eating more vegetables. I think generally what's made me stop doing this lately is how aware I am of trying to eat more protein. As I mentioned before I don't like the veg here as most of it is covered in chemicals which are hardly healthy and a lot of the veg you can buy doesn't taste of that much. I don't really feel bloated from gluten and I eat wheat/bread generally only about 3-4 times a week.
I am going to stick with everything for now and if nothing changes in a month I will really start to worry!0 -
Can I ask how you calculated your maintenance calories? I think you might be kind of way off and you're basing everything off that. Let me show you where I'm coming from, and you can correct me if I'm wrong. I don't claim to be a professional - I only know what works for me:
I have MFP set to 'sedentary" and log my exercise/anything I do that I wouldn't NORMALLY do during the day if I weren't trying to get fit. (i.e. I don't log housecleaning or anything like that, but if I walk a couple of blocks to get my lunch, I might log that). You have yours set to active, log everything, but don't eat any of it back - so far it sounds like it would even out, but please keep reading
I currently weigh almost 50 lbs MORE than you do.
My maintenance calories would be about 1900 and you've got yours set to 2300-ish you said? Subtract 500, and you're eating at MY maintenance almost. Maybe "active" is just too "active" for your actual expenditure?
I workout HARD 6 days/week (I'm doing Body Revolution, I run two extra flights of stairs every time I have to leave my office for something just to get more activity in, and I have an exercise App on my phone that gives me a mini-workout that I can do in my cubical once an hour like 30 pushups or 100 knee highs or whatever). I burn a total of around 600 extra calories a day. I am in fairly good shape even though I'm still overweight.
I eat between 1200-1600 calories a day and consistently lose 1.5 lbs a week on average. I've lost 60 lbs since June 2012. You eat significantly more than me a day and aren't losing
Everyone's different, but I think you're making this more complicated than it needs to be. A nutritionist calculated my maintenance calories at around 2300 when I weighted 230lbs using a device that measures metabolism and extrapolates that kind of information from there. You weigh almost 90 lbs less than I did at that point and I was working out six days/week then, too and had been doing so for 4 months.
Take from that what you will, but my advice is to put your actual stats into MFP (if you have a sedentary job, tell it so). Log your exercise. Put in your weight-loss goal. Eat how much it says you should eat. Let it do the work for you. If you don't listen to MFP then you can't really be surprised when the system doesn't work how it's supposed to. Please also be aware, like others have said, that you aren't overweight enough for super fast/significant results if your ticker is correct. It's going to take you longer to lose than someone in the obese range because you're closer to goal.
I would see a nutritionist with the proper equipment/credentials to give you your stats or your doctor if they provide those kinds of services and find out what your ACTUAL maintenance calories are and go from there if you'd like to go with the 500 cal deficit method.
Again, take with a grain of salt. I'm not a professional, just trying to help.0 -
Join this group:
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Ask there. Super-helpful and a great group to be a part of!
Definitely!
BEST GROUP ON MFP!0 -
Expert here. How much rest and sleep are you getting?
A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition0 -
There must be something wrong with your calculations or you would be losing weight.0
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I'm in the same boat as you....
Here is my 2cents....
Keep doing what you're doing, exercise, eat clean, drink water, sleep!
Stop stressing about the number! I've really had to let that go.
If you're gaining I'm more for eating low and eating back my exercise calories which I calculate with a HRM....this week I lost 1.7 doing this! I gave up on IPOTRM as it just didn't work for me.... We are all different after all:)
Keep up the the good work.....0 -
Expert here. How much rest and sleep are you getting?
A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
Here,Well for the last 4 weeks or so I've been very stressed as my dog was really sick and I was extremely worried about him plus not sleeping much as he was ill in the night and then we had to have him put down 2 weeks ago so don't know if that would have anything to do with it. Having said that I'm continuously stressed anyway really due to money worries so don't know if that's having any kind of effect. Plus I'm on the pill so maybe that makes my weight loss slower than most.
I can't see a doctor about this as I don't have medical cover except for in case of emergency unfortunately at the moment.
I will try cutting down by 100 calories per day and see what happens and maybe I'll try not to double up on the two days I do weight training or just go for a walk instead of doing Insanity so I don't run out of energy.
I generally sleep around 6-6.5 hours per night and I usually have a good night's sleep too.0 -
Just a forewarning...I have been doing Insanity for almost 4 weeks and I have only dropped 1 lb. I hear that this is pretty typical. But I will say that I can see a change in my body composition.0
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You can actually do serious harm to your liver and kidneys with too much protein. Excess protein in a meal will get converted into what the body needs but that's overall that's too much protein for your nutritional needs.Why is it bad to eat so much protein? I could eat less and decrease calories but I thought that with all the training I'm doing I needed more protein to help with fat loss?
I would be happy to decrease protein to 100g per day if I thought that was enough.
As for dairy, I'd also be happy to eat less but I can't seem to find protein rich foods which are as cheap. I have 1-2 protein shakes per day plus some meat/fish once or twice a day but other than dairy I don't really know what I could add that's high protein. I have nuts and eggs a lot too but can't think of any alternatives that are fairly low in carbs and are also low in calories.
By the way if you're looking at my food diary I log my exercise calories but I don't eat them back. I try and stick to around 1600 per day and around 2100 at weekends which works out to 1742 calories per day if I was to eat the same every day. That's due to being active and burning off at least 3000-3500 calories per week through working out 6-7 days.
Bodybuilders usually only have one re-feed day a week and they only give themselves maybe another 100-150 carbs which nets to only one day they add 400-600 calories. I think your energy expenditure is too high. I think your execution is fine, but you've been mislead in calculating your nutritional needs by the online calculators.
the liver and kidey damage from eating too much protein is not true....0 -
About my maintenance calories.
I have calculated my maintenance cals using at least 4 different TDEE calculators so I don't use MFP for this, I only use it for logging calories and food.
I used one particular online calculator where I had to put in the things I do every minute of every day (except exercise) and that came out at a maintenance amount of 1950 cals. The lowest online calculator I've used put me at maintenanceof 1750 also without exercise.
Based on a TDEE of being active and working out 6 days a week I am told that my maintenance is 2300/2400 which would be about right as I normally burn off anything from 450 to 800 calories daily through exercise.
I have then taken off 500 calories from my active maintenance figure of 2300 to get my daily calories in order to lose weight. To the previous poster who said I was overestimating my maintenance I can't see given these figures how that can be the case.0 -
Okay sleep doesn't sound like the issue. Next question is are you doing high intensity training everyday (that includes cardio)?Expert here. How much rest and sleep are you getting?
A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
Here,Well for the last 4 weeks or so I've been very stressed as my dog was really sick and I was extremely worried about him plus not sleeping much as he was ill in the night and then we had to have him put down 2 weeks ago so don't know if that would have anything to do with it. Having said that I'm continuously stressed anyway really due to money worries so don't know if that's having any kind of effect. Plus I'm on the pill so maybe that makes my weight loss slower than most.
I can't see a doctor about this as I don't have medical cover except for in case of emergency unfortunately at the moment.
I will try cutting down by 100 calories per day and see what happens and maybe I'll try not to double up on the two days I do weight training or just go for a walk instead of doing Insanity so I don't run out of energy.
I generally sleep around 6-6.5 hours per night and I usually have a good night's sleep too.
A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition0 -
At the moment I'd say it's high intensity at least 5 days per week as Insanity is 6 days and one of those days is a recovery day with mainly stretching and not high intensity cardio. On the 7th day I normally clean the house and burn off quite a bit (per HRM) plus an hour long walk some Sundays but it's not as high intensity as the Insanity or weight training days. On cardio days (6 days Insanity workouts) I can get my HR up to 185 and on weight training days it easily gets up to 160.0
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I'd possibly also try to get over the notion that fruit and veg in Spain is 'covered in pesticides' and start eating some. Rinse it if you must. It is probably no more or less 'covered in pesticides' than American fruit and veg - all the fresh stuff I have eaten in Spain has been pretty good.0
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About eating vegetables, despite not feeling happy about eating a lot of the veg in Spain, every week in my weekly shop (which I've just done) I always buy onions, mushrooms, garlic, carrots, sweet potatoes, avocados, red/green/yellow peppers, tomatoes, aubergine, asparagus and green beans. I also eat frozen mixed vegetables, tinned tomatoes, frozen mediterranean vegetables and with my breakfast I usually have blueberries. raspberries or grapes. Every day I have these vegetables in some combination or another.
I'd hardly say that's not eating any fruit or veg, would you?0 -
Bump0
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It may be too much high intensity training. Try cutting back by doing alternating high/moderate intensity days.At the moment I'd say it's high intensity at least 5 days per week as Insanity is 6 days and one of those days is a recovery day with mainly stretching and not high intensity cardio. On the 7th day I normally clean the house and burn off quite a bit (per HRM) plus an hour long walk some Sundays but it's not as high intensity as the Insanity or weight training days. On cardio days (6 days Insanity workouts) I can get my HR up to 185 and on weight training days it easily gets up to 160.
A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition0 -
I might try switching two of my cardio days with weight training instead of doubling up on those days. Plus with the recovery day in the middle of the week it will mean I'll only be doing 2 intense cardio days, 1 low impact day in the middle of the week, 2 weight training days and a day off with low impact cardio ie. walking/cleaning.0
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What I have noticed for me is that on days where I don't eat as many fresh veggies, even if I exercise, drink all my water, and stay under calories, I don't lose anything at all. Also, when I have salty food at night or bread and pasta at night, I don't lose anything, (even with all of the previously mentioned good habits).0
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