SOO CONFUSED!!!

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DBranchaud
DBranchaud Posts: 827 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I ate pretty light yesterday and I was below my calories. I had one 30minutes powerwalk and another 25 minute power walk. I took the bus home ( meaning more walking) I did lunges and stretches and pushups....HOW DID I STILL GAIN ONE POUND?????/:brokenheart: Can someone point out what i'm doing wrong????

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  • DBranchaud
    DBranchaud Posts: 827 Member
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    I ate pretty light yesterday and I was below my calories. I had one 30minutes powerwalk and another 25 minute power walk. I took the bus home ( meaning more walking) I did lunges and stretches and pushups....HOW DID I STILL GAIN ONE POUND?????/:brokenheart: Can someone point out what i'm doing wrong????
  • GoingToLoseIt
    GoingToLoseIt Posts: 171
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    Forum: Food and Nutrition
    Topic: For those confused or questioning "Eating my exercise calories"

    You should read this one. Basically, you HAVE to eat all your calories. If you ate 1500 calories, but burned off 700 by exercising, your metabolism thinks that you only ate 800 calories. it will go into a sort of "survival" mode and SLOWS DOWN. So you won't lose any weight, you may even gain because your metabolism is storing everything it can!

    Hope this is helpful!:smile:
  • psyknife
    psyknife Posts: 487 Member
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    Ditto the above, and...

    Ignore day to day fluctuations of 1 lbs... it goes up, it goes down, and half the time it isn't due to fat, but water weight.
  • vickster82
    vickster82 Posts: 108
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    its true, water weight can account for up to 4 lbs. hormonal fluctuations vary your weight throughout the day. so you should weight once a week, naked, on the same scale and same time of the day every week to get an accurate measure. do it in the am before food. that will keep you on track and not discourage you. i stopped doing daily weigh-ins and it took so much stres off!
  • GoingToLoseIt
    GoingToLoseIt Posts: 171
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    I so agree! The daily weigh-in is just more discouraging than anything else. And the added stress just makes me want to eat even more!
  • rheston
    rheston Posts: 638
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    There's an added benefit to daily weigh ins but that requires some attention to detail. If you're just watching the scales what everyone says is true -- don't do it. However, the benefit to weighing in daily means also paying attention to your body changes and what you eat the day before.

    We all know that women retain water more at certain cyclic times but men and women too are also affected by foods high in sodium. I watch the scales daily only because I noticed a large amount of weight loss during exercising that wasn't consistent with what I thought it should be. I started monitoring myself based on a wider variety of statistics and have been able to see what foods stay with me longer than others.

    This is particularly important when the weekends roll around and I open that bottle of wine or tap into that jar of nuts because even with my working out 7 days a week when I hit the weekend I will really see a change in my scales when I've hit the wrong foods (BBQ, etc).

    Creating a healthier you isn't as easy as just staying away from the fridge or fast food joints. As we get older we really need to monitor many of the pre-processed foods and how they impact us in the long run and if we don't we'll quickly end up where we started.
  • GoingToLoseIt
    GoingToLoseIt Posts: 171
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    There's an added benefit to daily weigh ins but that requires some attention to detail. If you're just watching the scales what everyone says is true -- don't do it. However, the benefit to weighing in daily means also paying attention to your body changes and what you eat the day before.

    We all know that women retain water more at certain cyclic times but men and women too are also affected by foods high in sodium. I watch the scales daily only because I noticed a large amount of weight loss during exercising that wasn't consistent with what I thought it should be. I started monitoring myself based on a wider variety of statistics and have been able to see what foods stay with me longer than others.

    This is particularly important when the weekends roll around and I open that bottle of wine or tap into that jar of nuts because even with my working out 7 days a week when I hit the weekend I will really see a change in my scales when I've hit the wrong foods (BBQ, etc).

    Creating a healthier you isn't as easy as just staying away from the fridge or fast food joints. As we get older we really need to monitor many of the pre-processed foods and how they impact us in the long run and if we don't we'll quickly end up where we started.

    That's a good point! Thanks (I should have remembered about the sodium! That's a biggie)
  • DBranchaud
    DBranchaud Posts: 827 Member
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    Thanks for the help:heart:
  • Mely
    Mely Posts: 166 Member
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    Everyone here claims you must be in starvation mode if you didn't loose or you gained a little. You don't do into starvation mode after one day of under eating! I don't know the exact science behind it but I'd say you'd have to under eat consistently for a while until you hit a plateau. Everyone knows that if they are sick for a few days and don't eat much they loose weight. Your weight fluctuates for a million reasons. If you really need to weigh yourself more then once a week, do it every couple of days and not every single day.
  • DBranchaud
    DBranchaud Posts: 827 Member
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    I was already thinking I was wieghing myself too much.

    So just make sure.....If I eat say 1200 cals and I work off 300. I really ate 900 cals? That kinda confusing because the food log just adds to the cals you have left......it doesn't subtract for what you already ate. Still kinda confused
  • spiralgirl71
    spiralgirl71 Posts: 374 Member
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    You really ate 1200 calories but your body has burned extra calories and thinks you only ate 900. So if you only eat 1200 calories an burn 500 exercising, your body is functioning off of only 700 calories that day. A few days of doing this will slow your metabolism as your body starts to transition into starvation mode.

    For example, I am set up on here for 1200 calories and this will let me lose an average of 1-1.5 pounds per week. MFP will take all exercise into consideration to figure out how many calories I still need to eat to NET 1200 for the day. So, on days when I work out , I do end up eating more than 1200 calories to ensure my body gets a total of 1200 for the day. I hope this helps and didn't make it more confusing.

    Also, when you click on the "my home" tab there will be a summary box next to your photo. That box does subtract the calories you have already consumed and figures in any exercise logged to show how many calories there are left to eat for the day.
  • Anna_Banana
    Anna_Banana Posts: 2,939 Member
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    I so agree! The daily weigh-in is just more discouraging than anything else. And the added stress just makes me want to eat even more!

    Yep, I only weigh once a week, usually toward Thursday or friday, because I eat more sodium and drink less water on the weekends and always weigh more if I weigh on Monday or Tuesday.
  • Fitness_Chick
    Fitness_Chick Posts: 6,648 Member
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    I ate pretty light yesterday and I was below my calories. I had one 30minutes powerwalk and another 25 minute power walk. I took the bus home ( meaning more walking) I did lunges and stretches and pushups....HOW DID I STILL GAIN ONE POUND?????/:brokenheart: Can someone point out what i'm doing wrong????

    ok, but wait...WHEN did you weigh yourself...AFTER your workout?? I can easliy put on 11lbs temporarily after doing strength training...will it stay on...no way...if I weight again later in the day I would be down.

    I NEVER weight myself after a workout...perhaps next time try weighing before?? I learned the hard way and felt like I was losing my mind after sweating through classes and then doing weights then jumpin on the scale... someone suggested back then to me...NONONONON don't do that!:noway:

    SO just passing on what happened to me...:drinker: :drinker: PLUS I drink a ton of water during, before and after my workouts...and of course that'll sure show on the scale temporarily.

    Best of luck to you...I know you'll get lots of ideas on your post..

    Do hang in there...:flowerforyou:
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,079 Member
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    I was already thinking I was wieghing myself too much.

    So just make sure.....If I eat say 1200 cals and I work off 300. I really ate 900 cals? That kinda confusing because the food log just adds to the cals you have left......it doesn't subtract for what you already ate. Still kinda confused

    correct. Eat 1200 calories. Workout = 300. You need to eat the extra 300 calories. That is why myfitnesspal's food diary gives you another 300 calories to eat. Eat until the food diary says 0 calories left. When you are eating 1200, you are already at a 500 cal per day deficit (500 X 7 = 3500 which is the generally agreed amount of calories you need to be in deficit to lose one pound per week). So eat those exercise calories. Eat 1500 calories. Eat less = lose less. Really. Seriously. Pinky-promise. :flowerforyou:

    Please read and re-read these posts on the link below until you understand this concept. It is the key to HEALTHY weight loss. Read the entire thread of each link. There are some very smart people who have lost and maintained large weight losses who are posting on these threads. Look at their weight loss banners and profiles.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/23912-links-in-mfp-you-want-to-read-again-and-again
  • jcm476
    jcm476 Posts: 6
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    most of you posters take this starvation mode as the reason for everything. She is NOT going to go into starvation mode and gain 1 lb in ONE day. That is absolutely absurd, I know from personal experience that yes... after long periods of time eating less than 800 calories a day your metabolism slows.

    However... in highschool I was a state champion rower exercising in the boat for 2 hours a day and still only eating 1000 calories. In general, I was netting 0 calories a day, and I continued to lose weight until I hit 95 lbs, where I stayed for the rest of the time.

    The fluctuation she experienced was probably due to drinking a lot of water, eating more at night than normal, not passing before she weighed, too much salt, or a NORMAL fluctuation..

    Starvation mode is not the answer to everything.
  • DBranchaud
    DBranchaud Posts: 827 Member
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    well thank you soo much for all the info!! Very very helpful:heart: It was mostlikey a wieght flux because I wieghed myself the next day and I was back to the oringinal wieght.... I know not to get as confused and such now and i'm weening myself off the scale. Has does Monday, Wednesday, Friday mornings sound? Not every day........maybe I'll slow down to the point it's only on Fridays.


    My name is Deanne and I'm addicted to the scale:blushing:
  • WFTomba
    WFTomba Posts: 11
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    "Starvation mode" won't hit you just because you didn't eat EVERY SINGLE ONE of your exercise calories. I think if you're eating regularly, and you feel like you've had enough food, you should be fine. There's no need to eat more than you want just to reach the magic number.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,079 Member
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    "Starvation mode" won't hit you just because you didn't eat EVERY SINGLE ONE of your exercise calories. I think if you're eating regularly, and you feel like you've had enough food, you should be fine. There's no need to eat more than you want just to reach the magic number.

    Please consider since you are 25 years old and have 107 pounds to lose ( - according to your profile) maybe you should educate yourself about how your body thinks about food. No one here is suggesting that Deanne was in "starvation mode" after one day, or one week. But you need to seriously consider what is causing your weight issue, and "feeling like you've had enough food" is NOT a good way to measure adequate food intake and nutrition levels.

    :flowerforyou:

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