Is my body broken?

Dauntlessness · June 2013

So, my TDEE is 3039 and my BMR is 1762 right now.

I work out 6 days a week, 2-3 hours a day burning 700 - 1500 HRM calories per session
(the last month has been rough because of medical issues but I have been doing this for 3 years)

The thing is
If I eat 1800 calories a day or less I lose weight
If I eat 2000-2500 calories a day I maintain weight.
If I eat around 3000 calories or more I gain weight.
If I eat anything sugary or with gluten I gain weight or maintain weight no matter how many calories I consume.

If I don't work out 6 days a week I gain weight no matter what the calorie intake is and I tend to have more food cravings.

People write about eating their TDEE every day but it seems unreasonable to me because I don't see the results people claim it should have. Is there something wrong with me?

I do have muscles under this layer of fat as I do build at least 1 hour a day 6 days a week. How is that impacting my calorie goal too? Right now, I went to Vegas about 1.5 months ago, gained 20lbs over the last few months because I was sick and incapacitated so didn't work out. Plus the crazy high cal food there didn't help any.

Any opinions that can explain this?

Brunner26_2 · June 2013

TDEE calculations and HRM calories burned are only estimates. Also, are you sure that you're logging all of your food accurately? What are your goals for all of that exercise? If all you're trying to do is lose weight, it seems like overkill.

neanderthin · June 2013

Personally I don't see the point in allowing calories in our TDEE for the fat mass we carry around, but that's just me. Also the miscalculation in counting calories is fairly large as well as exercise calories burned...........if 1800 works for you, continue. imo

SideSteel · June 2013

TDEE calculations and HRM calories burned are only estimates. Also, are you sure that you're logging all of your food accurately?

^ This

and

Also the miscalculation in counting calories is fairly large as well as exercise calories burned

^ This.

psuLemon · June 2013

Keep in mind the numbers you have are estimates. It's quite possible the formulas do not work for you and your TDEE is actually less than you think. Also, it's quite possible you have a gluten intolerance. My wife does and found out be eliminating it for a few days. I couldn't even explain how much more energy she had when it was cut out of her diet.

BTW, if you maintain around 2200 calories, that is really your true TDEE.. not the estimate 3000. Which makes sense you are losing at 1800.

neandermagnon · June 2013

the weight gain is probably glycogen and water: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/993576-why-you-gain-weight-if-you-eat-more-than-your-cut

^^^ the opening post of that thread explains about glycogen and water weight gains that come from it very clearly. Most people don't understand about this, and they think they're gaining fat when they're not and that their metabolism has been slowed when it hasn't.

ETA: to lose weight you should eat 20% less than your TDEE. To maintain weight, eat your TDEE. Bear in mind the above posts that the calculators can only give you estimates and that you should be logging your food accurately or you could be eating more than you think. But re the glycogen stuff, initial weight gains after upping your calories, or doing less exercise while eating the same calories, in many cases come from glycogen/water gains, not fat gains. So if you're gaining at a lower number of calories than you think you should be, you need to be sure that you're really gaining fat and it's not just water/glycogen gains that will settled down after a while, and if you're still in a deficit you will start to lose weight again.

rummyqueen · June 2013

I notice to when I skip a day of working out omg I gain weight and the funny thing is I watcch what I eat.What I did was to lose weight.I didn't use weights at first ,I only did cardios for months high in pact and did all kinds of crunches ,sitting standing every thing,lost weight and I drank a bottle of water before every meal to fill you up,eat 6 small meals a day,you need a healthy breakfast,then a snack fruits or nuts,lunch another snack yogurt,fruits ,nuts dinner then another snack ,carrots nuts but always water,aftr my weight and inches went down I started working out with light weights,your weight wont go up as much but you will lose inches.Muscles weights more I just move up to 10 lbs weights so my weight went up but inches are going down,halt the time I only do a heavy cardio and my heart rate will go up to 150 to 155 and ab workouts.

CrankMeUp · June 2013

I notice to when I skip a day of working out omg I gain weight and the funny thing is I watcch what I eat.What I did was to lose weight.I didn't use weights at first ,I only did cardios for months high in pact and did all kinds of crunches ,sitting standing every thing,lost weight and I drank a bottle of water before every meal to fill you up,eat 6 small meals a day,you need a healthy breakfast,then a snack fruits or nuts,lunch another snack yogurt,fruits ,nuts dinner then another snack ,carrots nuts but always water,aftr my weight and inches went down I started working out with light weights,your weight wont go up as much but you will lose inches.Muscles weights more I just move up to 10 lbs weights so my weight went up but inches are going down,halt the time I only do a heavy cardio and my heart rate will go up to 150 to 155 and ab workouts.

lolwut?

neanderthin · June 2013

I notice to when I skip a day of working out omg I gain weight and the funny thing is I watcch what I eat.What I did was to lose weight.I didn't use weights at first ,I only did cardios for months high in pact and did all kinds of crunches ,sitting standing every thing,lost weight and I drank a bottle of water before every meal to fill you up,eat 6 small meals a day,you need a healthy breakfast,then a snack fruits or nuts,lunch another snack yogurt,fruits ,nuts dinner then another snack ,carrots nuts but always water,aftr my weight and inches went down I started working out with light weights,your weight wont go up as much but you will lose inches.Muscles weights more I just move up to 10 lbs weights so my weight went up but inches are going down,halt the time I only do a heavy cardio and my heart rate will go up to 150 to 155 and ab workouts.

lolwut?

You just forgot to breath...........but yeah, wut.

mamasmaltz3 · June 2013

the weight gain is probably glycogen and water: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/993576-why-you-gain-weight-if-you-eat-more-than-your-cut

^^^ the opening post of that thread explains about glycogen and water weight gains that come from it very clearly. Most people don't understand about this, and they think they're gaining fat when they're not and that their metabolism has been slowed when it hasn't.

ETA: to lose weight you should eat 20% less than your TDEE. To maintain weight, eat your TDEE. Bear in mind the above posts that the calculators can only give you estimates and that you should be logging your food accurately or you could be eating more than you think. But re the glycogen stuff, initial weight gains after upping your calories, or doing less exercise while eating the same calories, in many cases come from glycogen/water gains, not fat gains. So if you're gaining at a lower number of calories than you think you should be, you need to be sure that you're really gaining fat and it's not just water/glycogen gains that will settled down after a while, and if you're still in a deficit you will start to lose weight again.

Agree with the above if you are logging exercise and food accurately. I would also add that if you are restricting carbs your body is going to be glycogen depleted so when you go off diet your body will go through a period of storing extra glycogen and water. Do you have a history of very low calorie diets (vlcd)?

Joehenny · June 2013

So, my TDEE is 3039 and my BMR is 1762 right now.

I work out 6 days a week, 2-3 hours a day burning 700 - 1500 HRM calories per session
(the last month has been rough because of medical issues but I have been doing this for 3 years)

The thing is
If I eat 1800 calories a day or less I lose weight
If I eat 2000-2500 calories a day I maintain weight.
If I eat around 3000 calories or more I gain weight.
If I eat anything sugary or with gluten I gain weight or maintain weight no matter how many calories I consume.

If I don't work out 6 days a week I gain weight no matter what the calorie intake is and I tend to have more food cravings.

People write about eating their TDEE every day but it seems unreasonable to me because I don't see the results people claim it should have. Is there something wrong with me?

I do have muscles under this layer of fat as I do build at least 1 hour a day 6 days a week. How is that impacting my calorie goal too? Right now, I went to Vegas about 1.5 months ago, gained 20lbs over the last few months because I was sick and incapacitated so didn't work out. Plus the crazy high cal food there didn't help any.

Any opinions that can explain this?

That's because they are estimates and not your personal numbers.

Dauntlessness · June 2013

I found that an HRM (A heart rate monitor is a watch type device usually with a wifi strap around your chest that estimates your calories burned on your sex , height and weight and how fast your heart is beating for those who don't know) is the most accurate way for me to record calories burned compared to MFP estimates and machines. I realize nothing is ever going to be 100% but we gotta work with what is available to us. The machines at my gym and MFP tends to over calculate my burns about 30-50% so I'm almost positive my exercise estimations are okay. I hope.

As far as measuring my food, I am pretty good at that too. At least I think I am. I have a food scale and I use my spoons and measuring cups all the time. If I am cooking something homemade I create a recipe on MFP and program all the ingredients in so I am accurate. I'm actually one of these people who get annoyed when people get lazy and instead of creating a recipe of what they are making they go by someone else estimated recipe. I mean how do you know what they put in the dish because most of the time the ingredients are not shown? haha. :laugh:

I do have a gluten sensitivity and I am really struggling with not eating it. That is one of the biggest downfalls I have because I am a baker. Ironic huh?

I'm thinking that some of you are 100% on when you said that my TDEE is off. Maybe it is 2200 instead of 3k. I mean, you cant believe everything on the internet right?

I think that will be my plan. I will switch my calorie intake to 2200 and start from there and see how things go. (of course this is with working out almost every day so I will have a substantial deficit )

I really appreciate your time to help me figure this out.

kr1stadee · June 2013

The thing is
If I eat 1800 calories a day or less I lose weight
If I eat 2000-2500 calories a day I maintain weight.
If I eat around 3000 calories or more I gain weight.
If I eat anything sugary or with gluten I gain weight or maintain weight no matter how many calories I consume.

If I don't work out 6 days a week I gain weight no matter what the calorie intake is and I tend to have more food cravings.

How often have you been sticking to each theory? I'd bump it somewhere between 2000 to 2500 cals (if your TDEE is correct) and do that every single day for 4-6 weeks. No less. You need to give your body time to adjust to the changes you're throwing at it

Hendrix7 · June 2013

The thing is
If I eat 1800 calories a day or less I lose weight
If I eat 2000-2500 calories a day I maintain weight.
If I eat around 3000 calories or more I gain weight.

If your food logging is accurate, then your maintenance is somewhere between 2000-2500 per day.

If you take the average, 2250, then a 20% deficit would be 1800 per day, which all stacks up.

Dauntlessness · June 2013

the weight gain is probably glycogen and water: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/993576-why-you-gain-weight-if-you-eat-more-than-your-cut

^^^ the opening post of that thread explains about glycogen and water weight gains that come from it very clearly. Most people don't understand about this, and they think they're gaining fat when they're not and that their metabolism has been slowed when it hasn't.

ETA: to lose weight you should eat 20% less than your TDEE. To maintain weight, eat your TDEE. Bear in mind the above posts that the calculators can only give you estimates and that you should be logging your food accurately or you could be eating more than you think. But re the glycogen stuff, initial weight gains after upping your calories, or doing less exercise while eating the same calories, in many cases come from glycogen/water gains, not fat gains. So if you're gaining at a lower number of calories than you think you should be, you need to be sure that you're really gaining fat and it's not just water/glycogen gains that will settled down after a while, and if you're still in a deficit you will start to lose weight again.

Agree with the above if you are logging exercise and food accurately. I would also add that if you are restricting carbs your body is going to be glycogen depleted so when you go off diet your body will go through a period of storing extra glycogen and water. Do you have a history of very low calorie diets (vlcd)?

Actually no. I've never been one for fad dieting at all. Funny enough I never really dieted at all until 3 years ago even though I was over weight. I have never been on a diet less that 1500 calories and have never restricted myself from any food group. I have this belief that if you cant maintain the regime you are on now for the rest of your life, don't do it now. So, basically if you can drink shakes twice a day until your 80 years old, just dont do it because your not learning balance in your diet.

Cherry_T · June 2013

If you want to use weightlifting to burn fat, my advice would be to go heavy and high volume!

Dauntlessness · June 2013

The thing is
If I eat 1800 calories a day or less I lose weight
If I eat 2000-2500 calories a day I maintain weight.
If I eat around 3000 calories or more I gain weight.
If I eat anything sugary or with gluten I gain weight or maintain weight no matter how many calories I consume.

If I don't work out 6 days a week I gain weight no matter what the calorie intake is and I tend to have more food cravings.

How often have you been sticking to each theory? I'd bump it somewhere between 2000 to 2500 cals (if your TDEE is correct) and do that every single day for 4-6 weeks. No less. You need to give your body time to adjust to the changes you're throwing at it

The last month since coming home from vaca has been a bad month actually. Before I left I was averaging about 2500 ish and maintaining. I started binging for the last 4-5 weeks around 3k and gained like 10lbs. Yeah, this is all making sense now. Thank you

myofibril · June 2013

Any opinions that can explain this?

Yes, your TDEE isn't 3039 and your BMR probably isn't 1762 either.

Do what works - forget everything else. Eat 1,800.

Livdoesketo · June 2013

If I eat anything sugary or with gluten I gain weight or maintain weight no matter how many calories I consume.

What meal plan are you following? If you are having issues with sugar and gluten then I'd consider a low carb/ketogenic diet which switches your body into fat burning mode by relying on fat as your primary source of energy. It might also deal with the hunger issues you are having as fat is generally more sating than carbs.

CoderGal · June 2013

I find that everyone I've personally talked to and inspected about this topic one of the following was broken:
The food was grossly estimated (not using scales). You'd be surprised how off I can be when I stop using mine even if I think I have the eyeballing down. After they got a scale it all worked out.
They were fluctuating their food a lot and made up something in their head where they were eating a solid number.
They think they've been eating that number for much longer then they actually have.
They have been going over the number a fair amount and ignored it.
They gained weight over 1 day and made the assumption they would continuously gain weight ignoring how the human body is proven to actually function
They don't know how the body works, glycogen and all that jazz, and assume their temporary post exercise gains are because of food.
They had their metabolism suppressed by a lot by under eating for a long period of time and didn't give themselves any time to adjust. Moving your cals up a tinsy bit would get your body excited enough to cling to all the glycogen it could hold which starts to look a lot like weight gain.
They didn't log certain items like coffee with milk or sugar, or condiments and stacked up they were actually eating a fair bit of it.
They were grossly over estimated their exercise like using MFP's numbers when they were a lot off, or logging 'vigorous' when it wasn't, or using HRM burns for strength training and they were exercising excessively.
They were exercising excessively. There's a point where you're going to have gains doing this if you do anything weird because your body is over stressed and trying to gain so much glycogen etc for repairs. Stick to it for a long time and you'll still lose weight or you'll end up getting a injury because your body didn't have a chance to repair.

Try to be as honest and accurate as you can. Remember, these are all averages. That boxed cookie could have had an extra nut in it, that recipe estimate may have been off etc. If you stick to trying to be as accurate as possible and still find your TDEE is much much below calculated, then I'd see a doctor for metabolic diseases. In my experience, so far everyone who has come to me ended up figuring out what they were doing wrong and it wasn't related to any disease.

jonnythan · June 2013

I knew there was an HRM involved.

CoderGal · June 2013

I knew there was an HRM involved.

I just noticed that AFTER I mentioned HRMs. I have one myself...They're good...for estimating flat out cardio only burns.

jonnythan · June 2013

I knew there was an HRM involved.

I just noticed that AFTER I mentioned HRMs. I have one myself...They're good...for estimating flat out cardio only burns.

They're also notorious for vastly overestimating calorie burn in untrained individuals like the OP.

jonnythan · June 2013

OP also seems to be doing some kind of strength training, which HRMs also significantly overestimate.

I'd say the HRM is a key element of her confusion. It's telling her she's burning way more calories than she actually is.

Dauntlessness · June 2013

I knew there was an HRM involved.

I just noticed that AFTER I mentioned HRMs. I have one myself...They're good...for estimating flat out cardio only burns.

They're also notorious for vastly overestimating calorie burn in untrained individuals like the OP.

OP also seems to be doing some kind of strength training, which HRMs also significantly overestimate.

I'd say the HRM is a key element of her confusion. It's telling her she's burning way more calories than she actually is.

Can you have anymore of a condescending tone?

I honestly believe my HRM calories burned are pretty accurate. I maintain a heart rate of 155-160 during cardio and I burn around 600-650 calories an hour when MFP and the machines say it should be 900-1100. I am one of those girls that have a moderate-high resistance on the elliptical while I am moving pretty fast. It takes so much work to get my heart rate up because my body is used to intense cardio. I know when most people exercising their HR numbers are high because its a shock to their system. The sign of someone who is fit is if their HR takes a while to warm up to the desired number. I take at least 10 minutes of really pushing myself to get my HR up and to level out at 160.

I do wear an HRM when I strength train but it says I burn like 300-400 calories an hour. My routine consists of the smith machine, barbells, dumbbells and free-weights. I only use a few stand alone machines because if your pushing weights with both sides of your body it can be easy to overcompensate with your prominent side therefor giving you an uneven build. I don't take many breaks. I usually take 30 seconds between sets, maybe 1 minute if I am hurting. I move from one machine to the next and do it all over again. I truly believe I earn those calories. Plus, you have an after-burn that never gets counted.

I have been lifting 6 days a week for 3 years. I am not talking about "lets do 10 minutes of 5lb dumbbells and we will call that strength training". No. My ST runs around 40 minutes-1.5 hours a day depending which part of the body I am working on. I know its not as much as some others but I squat 130 (2 sets of 20 reps), I use 15-20lb dumbbells, etc etc and I lift heavy most of the time. I have muscles underneath this layer of fat and when I do lose the rest of my weight I will finally look like the athlete I am. They are just waiting to be shown

So, This is what I have to say to you. I am NOT "untrained". I have worked my *kitten* off almost every day for 3 years. I really don't care for you or for your advice because you are giving it without all the info. You had no idea at which level of intensity I was exercising but you still said the HRM was inaccurate? I am guessing you just assumed I was not working hard. You seem to have this mentality that all HRMs are bad or something. I will be fair, you get what you pay for and some HRMs just plain suck. I have a polar with a chest strap which has an excellent rating. Maybe next time you should ask what the person is doing for exercise and the intensity they are doing it at before you give your 2 cents.

Thanks.

.

jonnythan · June 2013

Well I guess that explains the large calorie discrepancies described in the OP. Oh wait...

My post wasn't a criticism of you. You're not a trained athlete. Neither am I. You HRM is clearly giving you inflated results if the info in the OP is correct.

magerum · June 2013

Mostly good advice here, I don't think anyone mentioned that spoons and measuring cups are not accurate. Weigh everything.

WaxMama · June 2013

I think I'm broken, too! I know for a fact that I burn more than I consume thanks to my Up band's calculations (which underestimates and yet I still come out on top). I weigh my food and count everything that goes into my mouth and even if I was off a bit with that, I still burn more than I eat. I call BS on the whole "calories in vs. calories out" crap. I have lost weight, about 50 lbs, so I know I'm doing something right... but I definitely have to have a HUGE deficit to lose weight. It's rediculous. I've tried eating anywhere from 1200-1900 calories and I stick with it for months before moving on to a new tactic. *sigh* I wish I had an answer for you!!! Good luck!!! :flowerforyou:

myofibril · June 2013

I honestly believe my HRM calories burned are pretty accurate.

It might be but the likelihood is that it is probably not - see here:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Azdak/view/the-real-facts-about-hrms-and-calories-what-you-need-to-know-before-purchasing-an-hrm-or-using-one-21472

psuLemon · June 2013

The biggest thing I want to know is why people are over complicating things? The OP already knows she loses at 1800 calories, which means the calculators/hrm are over estimating. So if she eats 1800 calories, she is good.

Is my body broken?

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