Am I.. exercising too much??

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Zombriana
Zombriana Posts: 764 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hey guys!

I restarted my fitness journey AGAIN this year. January was glorious, popped off 4 lbs. February was kind of... meh, lost 1 lb?
Anyway, during that time I had my goals set to my BMR (1350) and eating back my exercise calories. But I found myself hungry on days I didn't exercise, or exercisng a rediculous amount to eat more. Or just binging in general.

Starting March I set my calorie goal to my TDEE calculated by my bf% which gave me 1675 calories. I've just been trying to hit that amount every day, maybe a wee bit more on very high burn days. Well, things went pretty well up until my birthday. I lost 1 more lb, leaving me at 136, great present right? Since then, I haven't lost anything. I've actually have yet to see that number show up again. I stopped tracking my sodium for a while, and just recenly started logging it again, and my scale went down from the 139 it was hoovering at to 137.

I talked with my trainer friend about some stuff and she suggested I switch my macros to 30p/50c/20f due to the amount of exercise I do a week.

What I'm wondering is.. what the heck? According to the log I've been keeping of my calories in and out I should be at least 133-134 lbs right now!

Can anyone give me some insight please?

Also, in case anyone asks.
I have a HRM, I weight and measure all my food, and I have a pooping problem. Sometimes I go 3 times a week, sometimes I go 0 times a week.
[edit] my diary is open! all my exercise is logged under my exercise notes since I don't actually log them, for macros sake.

Thanks! :flowerforyou:

Replies

  • tackie8383
    tackie8383 Posts: 59 Member
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    What activity level did you use to calculate your TDEE? Based on the amount you excersise, I don't know how your TDEE could be so low.
  • Zombriana
    Zombriana Posts: 764 Member
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    I use sedentary to know how much I should eat if I didn't exercise. I don't like the idea of guessing how much average more i'd burn a day being 'moderately active' 3-5 days a week, then having to do that minus "x calores to lose x lbs a week" and eating that much, and not logging my exercise at all. It throws off my math. :( I'd much rather know how much I really am burning and go from that. If, I'm making any sense. D:
  • Zombriana
    Zombriana Posts: 764 Member
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    Maybe I put this in the wrong forum?
  • sheltrk
    sheltrk Posts: 111 Member
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    You exercise a lot, but I don't think that is necessarily a problem. I think you may be overestimating your calories burned during exercise. If you're accurately tracking your food, but you're not losing weight as fast as you are calculating that you should... That seems like the most likely explanation. HRM formulas are nice, but they aren't 100% accurate for everybody all the time. Too many variables.

    You might try reducing your daily calorie intake a bit, and see if that gets you back on track. I wouldn't get hung up if your weight fluctuates by a couple of pounds day-to-day though. That's normal--water retention varies.
  • jmatsko19
    jmatsko19 Posts: 10
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    your going to lose your mind complicating this, stick with the basics. You currently are burning about the same amount of calories that you are eating because your weight is staying the same. Focus for a few weeks on tracking every little thing and staying within your calorie range, the weight WILL come off. Also your weight can fluctuate up to 5 lbs. from 1 day to the next, try weighing in weekly, same day, same time, same scale, keep all these variables the same and you will get an accurate weight
  • JessicaDumont2
    JessicaDumont2 Posts: 100 Member
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    Are you measuring yourself? Sometimes the scale does at change but the way you look will. You could be replacing fat with muscle and that could be a reason it isn't changing. :)
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    What I hate about the TDEE thing is that it's really hard to know what your activity level really is. I mean it says for me that I should be very active because I exercise 6 days a week but it's laughable. I sit on a chair most of the time otherwise, and my workouts are sometimes less than 200 calories. I wouldn't even know what to put frankly.

    The personal trainer I saw told me I would probably not lose as much while I work on strength. I didn't move for 2-3 weeks then it came down (3lbs in 2 days!). I'd keep doing what you're doing for now, and see if things change. Maybe change to 'lightly active' and see how it goes.
  • Zombriana
    Zombriana Posts: 764 Member
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    You exercise a lot, but I don't think that is necessarily a problem. I think you may be overestimating your calories burned during exercise. If you're accurately tracking your food, but you're not losing weight as fast as you are calculating that you should... That seems like the most likely explanation. HRM formulas are nice, but they aren't 100% accurate for everybody all the time. Too many variables.

    You might try reducing your daily calorie intake a bit, and see if that gets you back on track. I wouldn't get hung up if your weight fluctuates by a couple of pounds day-to-day though. That's normal--water retention varies.

    I figured burns might be off by a bit. I try only to eat my 1675, so if I burn say 600 calories as per my HRM, that's a net of 1075, which is a great deficit. But say my HRM is wrong, and I only burned 400, that's still a net of 1275, which is still a great deficit.

    I do record everything I eat, unless i randomly happen to have a bite of my husbands cereal, which may amount up to 45 calories, which shouldn't hurt. I'll try to be even more meticulous in my logging.
  • Zombriana
    Zombriana Posts: 764 Member
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    your going to lose your mind complicating this, stick with the basics. You currently are burning about the same amount of calories that you are eating because your weight is staying the same. Focus for a few weeks on tracking every little thing and staying within your calorie range, the weight WILL come off. Also your weight can fluctuate up to 5 lbs. from 1 day to the next, try weighing in weekly, same day, same time, same scale, keep all these variables the same and you will get an accurate weight

    I don't get upset when I see my weight not moving. I know it fluctuates due to water retention, poop, muscle soreness, ect. I just like to see if drinking a lot of water, or low sodium, or going to the bathroom affects my weight.

    As I said above, do I track everything. I weigh everything, I measure everything. It's almost OCD, but honestly it's because I like numbers. Sometimes, when I bring home food from somewhere, I'll weigh it before I eat it.

    My question is, basically, am I exercising soo much every day that my nets are getting too low and that my body is trying to hold on to my fat?
  • Zombriana
    Zombriana Posts: 764 Member
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    Are you measuring yourself? Sometimes the scale does at change but the way you look will. You could be replacing fat with muscle and that could be a reason it isn't changing. :)

    I am! Everything is pretty much the same, I may measure again because some of my bloat has come down though. And that's totally my goal! More muscle, less fat!! :D
  • Zombriana
    Zombriana Posts: 764 Member
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    What I hate about the TDEE thing is that it's really hard to know what your activity level really is. I mean it says for me that I should be very active because I exercise 6 days a week but it's laughable. I sit on a chair most of the time otherwise, and my workouts are sometimes less than 200 calories. I wouldn't even know what to put frankly.

    The personal trainer I saw told me I would probably not lose as much while I work on strength. I didn't move for 2-3 weeks then it came down (3lbs in 2 days!). I'd keep doing what you're doing for now, and see if things change. Maybe change to 'lightly active' and see how it goes.

    I know right?! I've gone through countless calcuators and just averaged them all out! I like to just use sedentary as well because, like you, unless I'm exercising, I'm not doing much else! So why not just use sedentary as my TDEE?

    Thanks, I'm gonna try to stick to what I have, and if by the end of the month, nothing changes, I'll start eating a little more so my nets aren't so low. :)
  • wendybird5
    wendybird5 Posts: 577 Member
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    When I do a lot of weights, I notice that my body often does an even swap of fat for muscle so I don't see a change in weight on the scale for a couple of weeks and then I'll get a big drop and then the cycle repeats. It may just be your body adjusting especially given how close you are to your goal weight. Eating clean and watching your macros is definitely going to make a big difference for you.
  • marthablare
    marthablare Posts: 1
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    My own version of exercising is more on a recreational type for me. Coz I find my previous routine already boring, so I decide to take mine as fun activity or hobby.. Sometimes the idea of losing weight can be frustrating .
  • jmatsko19
    jmatsko19 Posts: 10
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    it his unlikely that you are in starvation mode, this usually happens when cal intake is very low, ie less than 1000 cals, keep in mind you are close to a healthy weight range so at this point it is simply much harder to lose weight...weight loss boils down to 1 thing, cals in vs. cals out. 3500 cals in 1lbs., so if you have your weight loss goal set at 1 lbs. per week and you meet your cal goal everyday for 1 week, you will lose 1 lbs...and your fat is not turning to muscle, it takes about 6 months of intense weight training and proper eating to gain about 5 lbs. of muscle...cardio is by far the biggest cal burner, weight training burns much less and flexibility (yoga, pilates) burn even less...you can also boost your metabolism a little by eating before and after your workouts, working out in the morning also helps the rate that you burn calories
  • tackie8383
    tackie8383 Posts: 59 Member
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    The point of TDEE is to set it to your activity level. If you are setting it to sedentary, then you need to eat your exercise calories back. Netting in the 1000s is too low.
  • pinkraynedropjacki
    pinkraynedropjacki Posts: 3,027 Member
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    I exercise more than you. How are you exercising too much then? You burn about 600 or so with cardio.... no big deal that's normal. MFP tell me I'll weigh 53kg in 5 weeks.... I don't look at that crap anymore cause it tells a lie...every day for me is the same & I do NOT weigh that much after longer than 5 weeks.


    Just exercise like you are, the less you weigh the harder it is to get off.

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