Too much cardio?

Its unlikely you're building a enough muscle from biking to offset any significant fat loss.

How long have you been at this? Maybe you just need to give it time to work.

Another possibilty is that your diet isn't as good as you think. Do you measure everything out or could you be eating more calories than you're logging? Eating a lot of sodium?

You're eating too much. Cut the exercise calories in half, make sure your log is accurate (weigh food in ounces or grams, measure liquids). Give it another 4 weeks. If you still aren't losing (which would surprise me...) tweak it again.


You are not building muscle while eating at a deficit, BTW. I wish people would stop saying that.

This

Soooooo.....how many days have we been at this?

You are not building muscle while eating at a deficit, BTW. I wish people would stop saying that.

But if you are new to training your body will retain fluids and such gunk that will increase mass and weight.

This guy isn't new to training, he's had his bike desk since at least September. Soooooo...thanks?

Where are we getting the dates and time frames from? Is it in the appendix? I'm exhausted so I could be missing it.

I'm history creeping...don't judge me. Its 3am and I'm wide awake, nothing else to do.

Anyway OP claimed to have biked 375 miles in September.

You are not building muscle while eating at a deficit, BTW. I wish people would stop saying that.

But if you are new to training your body will retain fluids and such gunk that will increase mass and weight.

Gunk....
How scientific

I started using the bike desk in September 2013 and between then and end of November I've lost 20 pounds. But since that point I've been stuck at 268.

I do monitor my food intake using MFP, but not regularly or to the extent some of the users do.

I'm just interested in understanding the relationship between lots of cardio and weight loss. There seems to be a lot of information out there that says "do cardio and eat less" and other information that says "NO cardio and eat less". Maybe I'm just over thinking this.

A deficit = weight loss, cardio or no cardio.

Cardio allows you to eat more while still being in a deficit, or gives you a larger deficit (larger isn't always better). The only issue with lots of cardio, is it will not help retain lean muscle as you lose weight, so a larger % of your loss will come from lean muscle than if you program consisted mainly of strength training.

most people OVER estimate calories burned- and grossly under estimate calories eaten.

So there are two ways to combat this- one be ultra conservative on work out numbers and more generous with food stuff- meaning guess higher. This is usually enough to sway the battle in the right direction and only doesn't work as you get lower in the body fat range- like for men low teens/single digits and women mid/low teens.

Otherwise- averages makes it work so the trend continues down.

The other way to do it is to only eat back a % of exercise calories. I typically shoot for 50-75% of my exercise calories.

Again- trend lines and averages win- not day to day numbers.

Your first sentence has about a 95% probability IMO. It certainly is the first thing you would consider.

I am dubious about the long-term effectiveness of these "active" work stations. I don't see how you can do effective exercise while working, so that means the movement has to be low-level. It's not that the body "gets used" to the activity and stops burning extra calories. It's that the overall energy burned is relatively low and gradual, so the person tends to adjust their overall food and activity patterns to restore an energy balance.

Are you using a HRM to determine calories burned or MFP *estimates? MFP estimates are usually way off because they can't factor in effort during the workout. If you're relying on MFP estimates for biking, I wouldn't eat back more than 25% of the calories it claims you burned. If you're using a HRM for biking, I wouldn't eat back more than 50% of the calories it claims you burned.

Are you drinking 12-16 cups of water? If not, aim for 16 and be okay with 12.

2 things happened to me: I'll share them with you, but YMMV.

#1 MFP's algorithms set my daily calories too low. I was under-eating at 1200 calories, at 5'8" and 186 lbs. My hair started to fall out. I followed the instructions to determine my BMR and TDEE here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/975025-in-place-of-a-road-map-short-n-sweet?hl=road+map And I set myself TDEE - 20%, and came up with 1560 calories. I used "sedentary" for my activity level, and I eat back 50-75% of my exercise calories. My hair stopped falling out and the weight started to come off. If I were you, I would either reduce your goal to 1 lb per week, or do the math to figure out your BMR/TDEE.

#2 Booze. I can't access your diary to see if you're drinker or not. When I first started MFP, I had cut my drinking back, but was still enjoying a few a couple times a week, and I was still losing weight. Come summer when I was outside more and more active, I was burning a ton of calories, and then drinking them back. I mistakenly thought "a calorie is a calorie". Nope. Apparently, when your body is too busy processing alcohol, it can't multitask and burn fat simultaneously. (Google alcohol & weight loss for a better explanation that I can give here). Once I cut my drinking back even more, the weight started melting off again.

Hope this helps, and if it's irrelevant to your situation, just ignore. Good luck!

The more muscle you have, the more calories you will burn all day long. I am 50 and have been lifting weights for 18 years. Resistance training is critical for boosting metabolism, burning fat and helps prevent bone loss. Plus, it makes you look and feel even better. I would incorporate at least 2-3 30 minute sessions per week and then work up from there. Go easy and good luck!