Need help

Is it bad to burn close to 900 hundred calories a day and eat only all your calories at dinner time. I am training for a marathon. I eat like small snack bars during the day like clif bars. I lift weights and run in the morning. I run for 20 min and burn 300 calories running at a pace of 8.0. I go back at around 5 and run and do stair climbing. I burn a total there of about 600. I steped on the scale and I gained weight how is that possible? It may be muscle I have gotten stronger, but my pants fit the exact same. I just hate that I only eat a lot to get full at night right before bed.

Replies

  • First, you are probably gaining some muscle weight. Also . . .eating all your calories like that at dinner. . . your body will already have gone into starvation mode meaning that it will not burn the normal amount of calories and fat from the food but rather begin to store it. You need to eat throughout the day.

    By eating regularly throughout the day and spreading your calories out, your metabolism will run faster and burn more bad calories.

    Try making your biggest meal breakfast and eat within 30 mins of your morning run. The run will spike your metabolism and eating in the morning will keep it going all day.
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
    First, you are probably gaining some muscle weight. Also . . .eating all your calories like that at dinner. . . your body will already have gone into starvation mode meaning that it will not burn the normal amount of calories and fat from the food but rather begin to store it. You need to eat throughout the day.

    By eating regularly throughout the day and spreading your calories out, your metabolism will run faster and burn more bad calories.

    Try making your biggest meal breakfast and eat within 30 mins of your morning run. The run will spike your metabolism and eating in the morning will keep it going all day.

    This is all bad advice.

    Meal timing has little to no effect on weight loss. As long as eating all of your calories in a short time doesn't affect your energy levels, performance, mood, concentration, etc. there's no problem. Breakfast doesn't spike your metabolism and it takes 72 hours without food to see any sort of slow down.

    Unless the OP is eating in a surplus, they are very unlikely to be putting on any significant amount of muscle, especially not enough to see a big gain on the scale. Even with a calorie surplus, we're talking 1 pound a month if they do everything right. It's not muscle gains.

    OP, How much have you gained and over what period of time? First guess would be that you're seeing some water retention in your muscles with all of the exercise.

    Setting your diary to public so that we can take a look might help someone spot something you're missing.
  • calebgranat
    calebgranat Posts: 2 Member
    First, you are probably gaining some muscle weight. Also . . .eating all your calories like that at dinner. . . your body will already have gone into starvation mode meaning that it will not burn the normal amount of calories and fat from the food but rather begin to store it. You need to eat throughout the day.

    By eating regularly throughout the day and spreading your calories out, your metabolism will run faster and burn more bad calories.

    Try making your biggest meal breakfast and eat within 30 mins of your morning run. The run will spike your metabolism and eating in the morning will keep it going all day.

    This is all bad advice.

    Meal timing has little to no effect on weight loss. As long as eating all of your calories in a short time doesn't affect your energy levels, performance, mood, concentration, etc. there's no problem. Breakfast doesn't spike your metabolism and it takes 72 hours without food to see any sort of slow down.

    Unless the OP is eating in a surplus, they are very unlikely to be putting on any significant amount of muscle, especially not enough to see a big gain on the scale. Even with a calorie surplus, we're talking 1 pound a month if they do everything right. It's not muscle gains.

    OP, How much have you gained and over what period of time? First guess would be that you're seeing some water retention in your muscles with all of the exercise.

    Setting your diary to public so that we can take a look might help someone spot something you're missing.

    First off, OP, you have to find what your maintenance calories are by either using MFP or muffin st jeer formula. Dianne is right that meal timing means extremely little. What means the most is overall daily calories, and more specifically the quantity of protein, fats, and carbs in that makeup.

    I disagree that you cannot gain much muscle when loosing body fat. This is only true for an advanced lifter/trainer. I have had noobie clients put on 10-15 pounds of muscle while simultaneously losing fat. Granted if you are advanced this is correct.

    So find your maintenance,
    Eat at least 1 gram/pound of bodyweight in protein
    Eat at least 20% of your total calls in fat
    Make the rest of it up with carbs
  • Holly_Roman_Empire
    Holly_Roman_Empire Posts: 4,440 Member
    First, you are probably gaining some muscle weight. Also . . .eating all your calories like that at dinner. . . your body will already have gone into starvation mode meaning that it will not burn the normal amount of calories and fat from the food but rather begin to store it. You need to eat throughout the day.

    By eating regularly throughout the day and spreading your calories out, your metabolism will run faster and burn more bad calories.

    Try making your biggest meal breakfast and eat within 30 mins of your morning run. The run will spike your metabolism and eating in the morning will keep it going all day.

    This is all bad advice.

    Meal timing has little to no effect on weight loss. As long as eating all of your calories in a short time doesn't affect your energy levels, performance, mood, concentration, etc. there's no problem. Breakfast doesn't spike your metabolism and it takes 72 hours without food to see any sort of slow down.

    Unless the OP is eating in a surplus, they are very unlikely to be putting on any significant amount of muscle, especially not enough to see a big gain on the scale. Even with a calorie surplus, we're talking 1 pound a month if they do everything right. It's not muscle gains.

    OP, How much have you gained and over what period of time? First guess would be that you're seeing some water retention in your muscles with all of the exercise.

    Setting your diary to public so that we can take a look might help someone spot something you're missing.

    First off, OP, you have to find what your maintenance calories are by either using MFP or muffin st jeer formula. Dianne is right that meal timing means extremely little. What means the most is overall daily calories, and more specifically the quantity of protein, fats, and carbs in that makeup.

    I disagree that you cannot gain much muscle when loosing body fat. This is only true for an advanced lifter/trainer. I have had noobie clients put on 10-15 pounds of muscle while simultaneously losing fat. Granted if you are advanced this is correct.

    So find your maintenance,
    Eat at least 1 gram/pound of bodyweight in protein
    Eat at least 20% of your total calls in fat
    Make the rest of it up with carbs

    You must have special clients. :noway:
  • AliceDark
    AliceDark Posts: 3,886 Member
    I just hate that I only eat a lot to get full at night right before bed.

    If you really do hate it, why do it? Meal timing isn't going to affect weight loss, strictly speaking, although it can have a big effect on how you feel (and if it means you're bingeing at night, obviously that can affect your weight). If it works for you, it's fine. If not, change.
  • wilsoje74
    wilsoje74 Posts: 1,720 Member
    Is it bad to burn close to 900 hundred calories a day and eat only all your calories at dinner time. I am training for a marathon. I eat like small snack bars during the day like clif bars. I lift weights and run in the morning. I run for 20 min and burn 300 calories running at a pace of 8.0. I go back at around 5 and run and do stair climbing. I burn a total there of about 600. I steped on the scale and I gained weight how is that possible? It may be muscle I have gotten stronger, but my pants fit the exact same. I just hate that I only eat a lot to get full at night right before bed.

    Why can't you just eat normal meals throughout the day? You aren't building muscle if you are just doing cardio
  • JoRocka
    JoRocka Posts: 17,525 Member
    no one else is questioning the 300 calorie 20 minute run? or 600 calorie stair master?

    Those numbers seem high.


    More often than not- people underestimate their food- and over estimate their burn.
  • I do not try to binge I am just completely busy with my college PHD work and also working at the same time. I just do find time during the day to exercise and yes I do burn that many calories. I run for 20 min straight 8.0 and I burn roughly 300 calories. When I do the stair master for 20 min I burn another 300 calories. This is also added to the morning work out. I mean I weigh at a healthy level. I am 6'0 178 on a good day. Just today I woke up at 182. It fluctuates it may be normal. I just ate a large jersey mike sub at about 8 o clock last night then went to bed. My pants fit the same. I did wake up constantly to drink a lot of water. It could be water and muscle.
  • wilsoje74
    wilsoje74 Posts: 1,720 Member
    I do not try to binge I am just completely busy with my college PHD work and also working at the same time. I just do find time during the day to exercise and yes I do burn that many calories. I run for 20 min straight 8.0 and I burn roughly 300 calories. When I do the stair master for 20 min I burn another 300 calories. This is also added to the morning work out. I mean I weigh at a healthy level. I am 6'0 178 on a good day. Just today I woke up at 182. It fluctuates it may be normal. I just ate a large jersey mike sub at about 8 o clock last night then went to bed. My pants fit the same. I did wake up constantly to drink a lot of water. It could be water and muscle.

    I also question your calorie burns.
  • LizL217
    LizL217 Posts: 217 Member
    I'm guessing it's all the water you drank (and probably retained from the workouts), plus the mass of that sub sitting in your intestines that caused your weight to fluctuate. Unlikely to be 4lbs of fat gained. Give it some time, track what you eat and how much you burn every day for several weeks and then compare your weight and measurements from your starting point.

    If your weight is still going up after several weeks, come back here and open up your diary so people can give more educated advice.
  • Hornsby
    Hornsby Posts: 10,322 Member
    I would guess it's water as well. It happens.

    As the others have stated, your calorie burns seem about twice as high as I would assume you were burning.
  • calebgranat
    calebgranat Posts: 2 Member
    First, you are probably gaining some muscle weight. Also . . .eating all your calories like that at dinner. . . your body will already have gone into starvation mode meaning that it will not burn the normal amount of calories and fat from the food but rather begin to store it. You need to eat throughout the day.

    By eating regularly throughout the day and spreading your calories out, your metabolism will run faster and burn more bad calories.

    Try making your biggest meal breakfast and eat within 30 mins of your morning run. The run will spike your metabolism and eating in the morning will keep it going all day.

    This is all bad advice.

    Meal timing has little to no effect on weight loss. As long as eating all of your calories in a short time doesn't affect your energy levels, performance, mood, concentration, etc. there's no problem. Breakfast doesn't spike your metabolism and it takes 72 hours without food to see any sort of slow down.

    Unless the OP is eating in a surplus, they are very unlikely to be putting on any significant amount of muscle, especially not enough to see a big gain on the scale. Even with a calorie surplus, we're talking 1 pound a month if they do everything right. It's not muscle gains.

    OP, How much have you gained and over what period of time? First guess would be that you're seeing some water retention in your muscles with all of the exercise.

    Setting your diary to public so that we can take a look might help someone spot something you're missing.

    First off, OP, you have to find what your maintenance calories are by either using MFP or muffin st jeer formula. Dianne is right that meal timing means extremely little. What means the most is overall daily calories, and more specifically the quantity of protein, fats, and carbs in that makeup.

    I disagree that you cannot gain much muscle when loosing body fat. This is only true for an advanced lifter/trainer. I have had noobie clients put on 10-15 pounds of muscle while simultaneously losing fat. Granted if you are advanced this is correct.

    So find your maintenance,
    Eat at least 1 gram/pound of bodyweight in protein
    Eat at least 20% of your total calls in fat
    Make the rest of it up with carbs

    You must have special clients. :noway:

    lol :) It will work for anyone if you weigh your food, and lift heavy weights (girls should be too)
  • I mean you can question all you want. I burn that many calories twice a day. I am not some weirdo about working out just like to stay fit lost over 70 pounds. But thanks for all the responses hope this helps someone else too.
  • wilsoje74
    wilsoje74 Posts: 1,720 Member
    I mean you can question all you want. I burn that many calories twice a day. I am not some weirdo about working out just like to stay fit lost over 70 pounds. But thanks for all the responses hope this helps someone else too.
    Well you asked for advice about gaining weight. It could be overestimating exercise cals
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    I mean you can question all you want. I burn that many calories twice a day. I am not some weirdo about working out just like to stay fit lost over 70 pounds. But thanks for all the responses hope this helps someone else too.

    Hi Sean. How fun you're training for a marathon!

    Nobody is implying anything negative by questioning your calorie burns. They are just brining up the possibility that your calorie burns could be overestimated because that's what most people end up unconsciously doing.

    Do you use the MFP calorie burn estimates, the gym machines, iphone app, or a heart rate monitor. The HRM is generally accurate if calibrated properly, but MPF, gym machines, and phone apps tend to way over estimate.

    Meal timing has nothing to do with weight gain or loss. You can eat anything you want anytime you want as long as you stay within your calorie goals.