Exercise = slower weight loss?
purple4sure05
Posts: 287 Member
I have seen an overwhelming amount of posts on here from people who claim to be able to lose any substantial amount of weight when they exercise. I stopped weighing myself because I had a mild eating disorder in the past, and I took a month off to get back to a healthy way of thinking. I've been back on the wagon for two weeks and I've been running anywhere from 3 to 6 miles per day plus the 30 day shred or 6 week 6 pack DVD.
Should I be concerned that I won't lose weight this way? When I lost weight before, I was unhealthily eating 800 calories a day with absolutely no exercise and it was dropping me 2 pounds a week steadily. I'm still regaining the mentality of how to do this the correct, healthy way and would just like some input on what has worked for you.
On a related note, I'm going to start taking my measurements again in a month or so, or once I become happy with my body's appearance. I'm afraid that if I took my measurements now, I'd compare them to the old measurements from when I was underweight, and that would get me into some dangerous territory.
Should I be concerned that I won't lose weight this way? When I lost weight before, I was unhealthily eating 800 calories a day with absolutely no exercise and it was dropping me 2 pounds a week steadily. I'm still regaining the mentality of how to do this the correct, healthy way and would just like some input on what has worked for you.
On a related note, I'm going to start taking my measurements again in a month or so, or once I become happy with my body's appearance. I'm afraid that if I took my measurements now, I'd compare them to the old measurements from when I was underweight, and that would get me into some dangerous territory.
0
Replies
-
bump?0
-
Looking at your picture ticker and reading your profile, I'm confused by your goals.
But to your actual question, I find that I lose more weekly when I am eating enough and exercising. My loss slows down when I don't burn extra calories and eat less. In that sense, I think I am fairly typical. Some weeks I just don't have the extra time I'd like to spend on exercise and some weeks I do. I'm not in a hurry. I'm enjoying fitness goals as much as I am the results I see in the mirror. So the weeks my weight stalls, it's easy to shrug and remember I can lift more and go farther than I had before.0 -
My situation is somewhat different than yours in that I'm older (49) and a lot heavier (over 200 lbs.) That said, I find that I lose weight faster when I do NOT exercise (or at least keep the exercise to a minimum.) One reason for me is that when i do vigorous exercise I get very hungry and eat a lot more and it just doesn't seem to balance out in the end. Weight loss really is 80% what you put in your mouth. Maybe in your case, you may have been overdoing the exercise and your body went into starvation mode because you were not taking in enough calories to compensate. When this happens, weight loss is virtually impossible. Another possibility is that you were exchanging fat for muscle. I'm sure you've heard that muscle weighs more than fat so sometimes the weight loss slows down if you are really building a lot of new muscle as a result of exercise. This is not a bad thing, though! As far as your previous weight loss, even though you were losing weight at 800 calories a day, you probably lost a lot of muscle tone & not just fat. In the long run this would have backfired and you would either stop losing altogether and/or end up with health problems such as anemia, gallstones, heart problems, etc. Very low calorie diets should only be done for a short period or intermittently, and even then, it's generally for very heavy/obese persons. You sound (and look!) like you are getting to be in very good shape, which is not necessarily the same as losing a lot of weight. Keep it up!0
-
If you lose weight faster without exercise it's because you are losing fat AND muscle. When you exercise, you are ideally hanging onto your muscle (and possibly gaining some).
In the long run, exercise is much better. The retained muscle will help you burn fat faster and you will look healthier.
Keep exercising, and good luck on continuing to conquer your ED.
0 -
How much are you netting? 6 miles a day plus a DVD sounds a little excessive.0
-
"Exercise = slower weight loss" Yes. Always.
When you diet you lose fat. When you exercise you gain muscle. When you combine the two, you become more fit, but the muscle gain will make your "weight loss" slower, because you are gaining muscle. But weight loss shouldn't be your goal, losing fat, and getting fitter should be. In fact, the more fit you become, the more likely that exercise = no weight loss, or even, exercise = weight gain, because you have less fat to lose. So ditch the scale and the measurements, especially considering your history of disorder. If you're running faster/longer than last week and lifting more than last week, you're doing better. 0 -
I lose weight by exercising every day (run 3-4 miles 3x a week plus weight lifting, walk the other days) and eating at least 1400-1500 calories a day. Any fewer calories, I feel a bit icky. Any more, and I'm too full to move.
I think this weight loss thing is all about balance of food and exercise.0 -
Maybe slower weight loss, but much, MUCH healthier. What you were doing to your body before (eating too few calories) was very unhealthy (not trying to pick on you, but I'm so glad you figured it out). Building muscle and putting your body to work off the calories you intake (a healthy amount of calories, of course) is the HEALTHY way of losing weight, but maybe not as fast. Also, the less you eat the less vitamins and nutrients your body gets, and taking supplements in a more refined form is not always the answer. Our situations are different, but I've done a lot of studying on weight loss for years, really, and just finally lost weight for the first time 6 months ago because I figured out how to get my mind working properly, too. Let me tell you, it is SO rewarding to know you have lost weight the healthiest way possible with diet and exercise, and to know that you are prolonging your life in doing so. Although I'm no expert, I hope this helps! 0
-
Hi purple,
My name is Steven and I'm a Personal Trainer for the City of Wichita. I LOVE to help people reach fitness/weight loss goals so I would like to give you some advice. First I would like to commend you on your efforts! HIGH FIVE! Its also great that you're are trying to avoid going back to an unhealthy lifestyle.
"Should I be concerned that I won't lose weight this way?"
If you're enjoying running everyday, keep doing it. Running is great! My advice would be to invest in a good pair of running shoes. Take good care of those feet, ankles, knees...... and RUN FORREST RUN!
Question for you: Does the 30 Shred or 6 week pack DVD include resistance training ( aka weight training)? I ask this because you do a pretty good amount of cardio, which is definitely a plus, but if you couple cardio with resistance training you have a FAT BURNING, FIGURE SLIMMING, TONING DUO. When you have a weight loss goal, the object is to have the majority of that weight be body fat (adipose tissue) while losing minimal muscle tissue is the process. We want to keep muscle our so that not only do we keep our strength, and have that toned look, but we keep our METABOLISM up. With a higher metabolism, keeping the weight off won't be such a challenge because your expending enough calories through regular exercise and your muscles are burning calories through rebuilding themselves and becoming stronger.
If you think taking your measurements this soon will cause to go back to unhealthy habits, then do what you think is best for you and wait a lil while. One thing I would like to you to do is check other parts of body composition instead of only using a weight scale. Checking your circumference measurements and also check your body fat percentage. You have to take muscle into consideration when taking measurements because muscle tends to be more dense the fat so it weighs more but does not take up as much surface area as fat.
ex. Two 200 lb women standing side by side. Both are same height. Woman #1 is 35% body fat. Woman #2 is 10% body fat. We see that both women weigh 200 lbs but with 35% of her weight being body fat, Woman #1 will appear to weigh a lot more than Woman #2, but in fact she does not.
I hope my example was easy to comprehend. What I want to get across to you is too put so much focus on what the scale says. If you notice that you've been around the same weight for 2-3 weeks, go head and check your body fat percentage to see if it has decreased. If you get near underweight then you can either up your calorie intake or adjust your training program. I recommend you just eat more because a lot of people have a hard time not getting a good workout in on a rest day lol.
Okay i'll cut if of here because im starting to ramble. I invite you to have a one-on-one talk with a good trainer in your area and let them know what your goals are and they should get you on a resistance training program. You could find thousands of programs on line to get you started and headed in the right direction but if you speak with a trainer and tell them exactly what your goals are, they can get you on a program designed especially for YOU and YOUR GOALS. I hope this essay has answered your questions and helps others that come across this topic. Any questions feel free to email me at steven.roland89@gmail.com. CONQUER YOUR GOALS EVERYONE!
Steven Roland, Personal Trainer
City of Wichita
Wichita,KS0 -
Rachael, why worry about weight at all if you are happy with your body's appearance? I guarantee that no person, male or female, has ever looked at another person and said, "They look great, but I wish they were five pounds under their goal weight."
I think you are on the right track by ditching the scale and focusing on how you feel about your body without a number or measurement. Please be careful of your prior history (full disclosure: I was a former wrestler and I understand how an obsession with hitting weight targets can make you do *very* unhealthy things. Please, please, please don't put yourself through that). Try to focus on enjoying being fit and healthy as opposed to just skinny. In the end though it's all about confidence: if you are confident in who you are and how you look, numbers on a scale mean nothing. 0 -
Great post and congratulations for taking control of your life! Keep it up!0
-
Is your goal to see a certain number on the scale, or to have a really rocking and healthy body?
If it is the scale one, then it doesn't matter if you lose as much muscle as fat, so do not workout and it will go faster. You will be flabby and squishy, but weigh the amount you wanted.
If it is the rocking healthy body, then you are targeting fat lose. Workout and keep the muscle you currently have, maybe even add some on, so there is something to show the world when you get the fat out of the way.0 -
Purple, I looked at your diary. You are still eating 800 calories per day or less. What exactly are you doing healthier this time around?0
-
You need to eat more you are still only hitting 800 calories a day. You are not giving your body enough fuel for the exercise. If you are still struggling with your ED (which it sounds like you are) you need to seek professional help.0
-
I started losing faster when I started eating more and exercising more. I lost 3 lbs last week and I don't think I had a day where I ate less than 1600. I feel super and I have tons of energy. I tried eating less in the past and just found that it made me cranky and lethargic with minimal weight loss that I would soon gain back. Please eat more, if only the minimal 1200.0
-
Hun im no expert but looking at your diary flags up some problems. Most days you only eat around 700kcals and then you exercise and burn nearly all of those calories off? Your going to burn out yourself and your body out doing it like this.. Your body needs calories to function!xox0
-
Hi purple,
My name is Steven and I'm a Personal Trainer for the City of Wichita. I LOVE to help people reach fitness/weight loss goals so I would like to give you some advice. First I would like to commend you on your efforts! HIGH FIVE! Its also great that you're are trying to avoid going back to an unhealthy lifestyle.
"Should I be concerned that I won't lose weight this way?"
If you're enjoying running everyday, keep doing it. Running is great! My advice would be to invest in a good pair of running shoes. Take good care of those feet, ankles, knees...... and RUN FORREST RUN!
Question for you: Does the 30 Shred or 6 week pack DVD include resistance training ( aka weight training)? I ask this because you do a pretty good amount of cardio, which is definitely a plus, but if you couple cardio with resistance training you have a FAT BURNING, FIGURE SLIMMING, TONING DUO. When you have a weight loss goal, the object is to have the majority of that weight be body fat (adipose tissue) while losing minimal muscle tissue is the process. We want to keep muscle our so that not only do we keep our strength, and have that toned look, but we keep our METABOLISM up. With a higher metabolism, keeping the weight off won't be such a challenge because your expending enough calories through regular exercise and your muscles are burning calories through rebuilding themselves and becoming stronger.
If you think taking your measurements this soon will cause to go back to unhealthy habits, then do what you think is best for you and wait a lil while. One thing I would like to you to do is check other parts of body composition instead of only using a weight scale. Checking your circumference measurements and also check your body fat percentage. You have to take muscle into consideration when taking measurements because muscle tends to be more dense the fat so it weighs more but does not take up as much surface area as fat.
ex. Two 200 lb women standing side by side. Both are same height. Woman #1 is 35% body fat. Woman #2 is 10% body fat. We see that both women weigh 200 lbs but with 35% of her weight being body fat, Woman #1 will appear to weigh a lot more than Woman #2, but in fact she does not.
I hope my example was easy to comprehend. What I want to get across to you is too put so much focus on what the scale says. If you notice that you've been around the same weight for 2-3 weeks, go head and check your body fat percentage to see if it has decreased. If you get near underweight then you can either up your calorie intake or adjust your training program. I recommend you just eat more because a lot of people have a hard time not getting a good workout in on a rest day lol.
Okay i'll cut if of here because im starting to ramble. I invite you to have a one-on-one talk with a good trainer in your area and let them know what your goals are and they should get you on a resistance training program. You could find thousands of programs on line to get you started and headed in the right direction but if you speak with a trainer and tell them exactly what your goals are, they can get you on a program designed especially for YOU and YOUR GOALS. I hope this essay has answered your questions and helps others that come across this topic. Any questions feel free to email me at steven.roland89@gmail.com. CONQUER YOUR GOALS EVERYONE!
Steven Roland, Personal Trainer
City of Wichita
Wichita,KS
Thank you!! this was extremely helpful. I can't quite afford a personal trainer as I'm in college, but I may send an email your way if i have any questions 0 -
Hi purple,
My name is Steven and I'm a Personal Trainer for the City of Wichita. I LOVE to help people reach fitness/weight loss goals so I would like to give you some advice. First I would like to commend you on your efforts! HIGH FIVE! Its also great that you're are trying to avoid going back to an unhealthy lifestyle.
"Should I be concerned that I won't lose weight this way?"
If you're enjoying running everyday, keep doing it. Running is great! My advice would be to invest in a good pair of running shoes. Take good care of those feet, ankles, knees...... and RUN FORREST RUN!
Question for you: Does the 30 Shred or 6 week pack DVD include resistance training ( aka weight training)? I ask this because you do a pretty good amount of cardio, which is definitely a plus, but if you couple cardio with resistance training you have a FAT BURNING, FIGURE SLIMMING, TONING DUO. When you have a weight loss goal, the object is to have the majority of that weight be body fat (adipose tissue) while losing minimal muscle tissue is the process. We want to keep muscle our so that not only do we keep our strength, and have that toned look, but we keep our METABOLISM up. With a higher metabolism, keeping the weight off won't be such a challenge because your expending enough calories through regular exercise and your muscles are burning calories through rebuilding themselves and becoming stronger.
If you think taking your measurements this soon will cause to go back to unhealthy habits, then do what you think is best for you and wait a lil while. One thing I would like to you to do is check other parts of body composition instead of only using a weight scale. Checking your circumference measurements and also check your body fat percentage. You have to take muscle into consideration when taking measurements because muscle tends to be more dense the fat so it weighs more but does not take up as much surface area as fat.
ex. Two 200 lb women standing side by side. Both are same height. Woman #1 is 35% body fat. Woman #2 is 10% body fat. We see that both women weigh 200 lbs but with 35% of her weight being body fat, Woman #1 will appear to weigh a lot more than Woman #2, but in fact she does not.
I hope my example was easy to comprehend. What I want to get across to you is too put so much focus on what the scale says. If you notice that you've been around the same weight for 2-3 weeks, go head and check your body fat percentage to see if it has decreased. If you get near underweight then you can either up your calorie intake or adjust your training program. I recommend you just eat more because a lot of people have a hard time not getting a good workout in on a rest day lol.
Okay i'll cut if of here because im starting to ramble. I invite you to have a one-on-one talk with a good trainer in your area and let them know what your goals are and they should get you on a resistance training program. You could find thousands of programs on line to get you started and headed in the right direction but if you speak with a trainer and tell them exactly what your goals are, they can get you on a program designed especially for YOU and YOUR GOALS. I hope this essay has answered your questions and helps others that come across this topic. Any questions feel free to email me at steven.roland89@gmail.com. CONQUER YOUR GOALS EVERYONE!
Steven Roland, Personal Trainer
City of Wichita
Wichita,KS
Thank you!! this was extremely helpful. I can't quite afford a personal trainer as I'm in college, but I may send an email your way if i have any questions 0 -
Rachael, why worry about weight at all if you are happy with your body's appearance? I guarantee that no person, male or female, has ever looked at another person and said, "They look great, but I wish they were five pounds under their goal weight."
I think you are on the right track by ditching the scale and focusing on how you feel about your body without a number or measurement. Please be careful of your prior history (full disclosure: I was a former wrestler and I understand how an obsession with hitting weight targets can make you do *very* unhealthy things. Please, please, please don't put yourself through that). Try to focus on enjoying being fit and healthy as opposed to just skinny. In the end though it's all about confidence: if you are confident in who you are and how you look, numbers on a scale mean nothing.
I wouldn't be looking at the scale in search of reaching a certain number, I just would like to be able to see a number and not be upset by it. I go to the doctor every few months, so seeing my weight isnt something I can easily avoid. Thank you for your help 0 -
You need to eat more you are still only hitting 800 calories a day. You are not giving your body enough fuel for the exercise. If you are still struggling with your ED (which it sounds like you are) you need to seek professional help.
I've been at this for less than two weeks, I'm still working my way up. However, the problem I acquired from my two months of eating regularly is snacking. So not everything that I eat is showing up in my diary quite yet, and I'm working on that. I imagine that in the next two weeks I'll be putting everything I eat into my diary but until then I'm probably eating anywhere from 500 to 600 calories over my actual number sporadically throughout the day. I realize this can cause problems and I won't know exactly how much I'm eating, but I have to start somewhere.0
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 393.2K Introduce Yourself
- 43.8K Getting Started
- 260.2K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.9K Food and Nutrition
- 47.4K Recipes
- 232.5K Fitness and Exercise
- 421 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.5K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 153K Motivation and Support
- 8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.7K MyFitnessPal Information
- 23 News and Announcements
- 1.1K Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.6K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions