Need advice from those with knowledge

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jamie31
jamie31 Posts: 568 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I am currently about 5 or 6 pounds from my final weight loss goal. I am a 6'2" 27 year old female who is very athletic. I currently weigh 191 lbs. I have been noticing that when working out I am burning ALOT less calories than I used to. I am switching up my workouts all the time. Currently I am doing Insanity, Turbo Fire, p90x, Biggest Loser workouts, Jillian Michaels workouts, workouts by Amy Bento and a few other odds and ends ones. I am also lifting 3 days a week. With all these workouts I know that the reason cant be that my body is used to them. Some workouts have a 2 week wait before they are back in the rotation.

I currently burn about 700-1000 calories per day and eat about 2000 a day. My weight loss has completely stalled. It has been well over 2 months since I have lost even 1/2 lb.

I have a couple questions. Why am I burning so few calories now? For example this morning I did the Insanity Max Cardio Conditioning and only burned about 350 calories in 47 minutes. I have the polar ft7 HRM so I know that this number should be accurate because the HMR takes into account my height, weight, age and gender. My resting heart rate is about 56 beats per minute and I can only get my heart rate up to about 120-135 bpm for my high intensity workouts. I can honestly say that I am pushing as hard as I can I just cant get it to go any higher. Is this normal???

I have heard that once you are in good physical condition that your heartrate wont go up that high and you will not burn anymore calories. Can anyone tell me if this is true?

If it is, is there something I can do to bump up my calories burned or not?

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Replies

  • SonyaVelonis
    SonyaVelonis Posts: 14
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    I think that you need to look at what your daily diet consists of because 75 - 80% of body shape is from the food you eat. It sounds like you have the exercise part down and that's amazing!
  • Megooo19
    Megooo19 Posts: 199
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    I think its normal. I have to run for an hour to burn anything over 400 calories. I'm never even close to 1000 exercise calories and I figure thats okay because once your close to your goal toning is the main goal. However, 2000 calories a day for me is a good mainitanence number ( I'm 5'7 and a half and 147 lbs) so maybe bring the daily down to 1800 would help?
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    2 reasons why you are burning less than before
    1. You weigh less so you burn less calories as you don't have to move as much weight around
    2. You are in amazing shape and it is hard to get your heart rate up high enough to burn a large amount of calories per session.

    Maybe try something completely different. Try running sprints on a track, run 100 meters full speed, walk back to the starting line and do it again, try this for 6-10 reps, sprinting works your body much differently than other forms of exercise. Good luck, and great job to get to where you are.
  • xXmimiXx
    xXmimiXx Posts: 564 Member
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    The fitter you get the lower your heart rate stays and you burn less calories because you're fit enough to not have to gazillions. OK so you want advice from people with knowledge - I've written that in a thick way but I know it's true haha! Sounds like you're one fit cookie! Well done! xxx
  • FSO1
    FSO1 Posts: 2
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    It sounds to me that you are building muscle mass. Muscle is denser and heavier than fat and requires more calories to sustain. Perhaps if you went more to cardiovascular and less to anabolic, you might see a difference.
  • PJilly
    PJilly Posts: 21,711 Member
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    I see you do a lot of Beachbody programs. Have you tried using their Meal Plan Wizard to calculate your calories? http://teambeachbody.com/eat-smart/meal-plans/diet-wizard I find that to be more simple and useful (and, surprisingly, accurate) than my HRM. I entered your info, guessing at some of it, and it gave me 2,400 as the number of calories you should be eating daily.
  • rybo
    rybo Posts: 5,424 Member
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    Besides the fact that your are probably in great shape and can do more with less effort, burning all those calories but only eating 2000 day might be whats holding you back. Up your calories to around 2500, if not even a hair more and see how your body responds.
  • tylerdavis
    tylerdavis Posts: 1
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    i have read everyone`s post for and they are all good ideas and post. I am a person trainer/ nutritionist. If you were my client i would recommend that all your reps for weight training be at minimum 25 reps. Also the way to burn off that last little be of fat is eatting right before bed and immediately when u wake up. When i say eat i mean something small and healthy, also add 10 oz. of water. This will help u burn alot more calories during a day. Last i would try a carb trick. IF your daily intake of carbs is say 100 do that for two days then on the third limit your self to 50 carbs. Repeat the process for two weeks then take a week off. This will help the last bit of fat burn off for sure. Good luck
  • Kminor67
    Kminor67 Posts: 900 Member
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    Let's be honest here. You look terrific, you feel terrific, and you're in the best shape of your life. Does that last 5-6 lbs really matter that much? Is it possible that you are AT your ideal body weight, and that's why you're not still dropping? I'm no expert, but I would KILL to be in the shape that you are. I'm working very hard at it, and eventually I will get there... but why does what the scale says matter?
  • relicsloft
    relicsloft Posts: 18 Member
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    i really liked what Eric said about the 2 reasons why you dont burn as much anymore, smart. and another girl said the last 5 lbs are about toning. . . I know you are used to moving and doing a lot of activity to burn, and some of those videos have a little yoga and pilates in them but they make them a warm up or a cardio burn. Yoga and pilates focus on tightening and toning muscles, that helps squeeze the last bit of fat out from between them and thin thin people will lose pounds and inches they never knew they needed to. it is slow and controled in a whole new way. your new muscles got to where you are today doing all the videos you do they have gotten easy, now you could benefit from long stretches on your muscles and and holding flexing power thru them. This is what stars and ballet dancers do to drop the fre lbs between fit and firm. it sounds like your goal is just in inside the ideal weight goals and i bet you could lose even more thru out your changed lifestyle.
    Altho i think you look wonderful and i really agree with the Kiminor above. Before all of this you would have killed to be 200lbs. To maintain for life its about learning to relax, enjoying life and keeping the weight off at these stages. . . you have kept all that weight off these 2 months, Hooray!

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