I've been doing an hour of cardio a night, and eating pretty healthy, and I gained weight?!?!

Try doing some resistance training you body make react differently

twarden9 wrote: »

Ok, so I have been doing an hour of cardio a night basically on the elliptical and the machine that is like sliding stairs, burning about 600 calories. I have been making sure I do not go over my food intake along with sugars and fats. I weighed myself Friday, and then I weighed in today and had gained 1.5 pounds! Why?!?!?! Has this happened to anyone? and if so when did you start losing instead?!

Also, be careful, you may be overestimating your calorie burn

Your body doesn't like change.
Your body is constantly trying to maintain homeostasis, so when you're trying to change things your body is going to try to go back to its "normal"
Say you eat 3,000 calories a day and go down to 2,000. You are changing something and that is no longer "normal" so your body, in this case, is basically saying you're not giving me what I want (calories) so I'm going to store this food as fat.

Just keep going, you will start losing weight.

Your goal is not sensible, plan to continue being discouraged. 15 lbs is no small feat. I would give yourself at least 4 months to accomplish that loss.

I am an personal trainer/coach and I always recommend, especially at the start of a new diet and exercise plan to pay more attention to how your clothes fit than the number on the scale. Try taking measurements of your body instead of weighing yourself often. I would say weigh yourself once a week and no more. If you notice clothes are fitting better and you feel better overall, than that's a good starting point.

twarden9 wrote: »

Thanks everyone. I started 2 weeks ago. I go to Florida in the end of March and was hoping to lose 15 lbs (and continue being healthy to keep it off!). I have a polar heart rate thing so that I know my calorie burn very precise. I also am trying my hardest to not go over the 1200 calories I am alloted even if I am burning 600 in extra food. I have been living off of chicken, tuna, whole grains, spinach, green beans, and eggs. I will treat myself to an oreo of something but I always log it. I'm just so discouraged I guess. But I guess I will have to just wait a week or two and weigh again. I felt great this morning when I woke up, like my body looked a little better, and then weighed and just wanted to go to sleep and pretend I didn't.

gotta eat those cals back and get you net cals back to 1200 or more. 600 net cals is not good for the body. Also are you weighing in the am? Or evening after eating food and water all day?

Heart rate monitors are only accurate if you're doing a "steady-state" cardio, meaning running, walking, biking - that sort of thing. If you're doing hefty cardio like Zumba, a fitness DVD, HIIT training, anything like that, your burn is not accurate because the HRM cannot properly track the rapid rising and falling (varying) heart rate, whereas when you're doing a steady state cardio, it generally remains in the same ball park if your pace is the same.

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Who told you this? This is total bollocks! I've been using Polar hr monitors for 20 years. they have settings on them which allow for interval training! Where did you get this information. Somebody is feeding you a line of bull!

Now to the OP, you're not getting enough food, your goal is too much, and you need to add resistance training. You're body is going to continue to hold on to the weight as a protection mechanism because you are going into starvation mode with such a huge calorie deficit.

Keep doing what you're doing. It will come.

I see this problem all the time with my clients.

If you're not eating enough, your metabolism will halt aka adaptive thermogenesis. Bump your calories up again.

Use Harris Benedict formula to calculate what you should be eating to maintain your current weight. Then deduct 10-15% and this is what you should be eating AFTER exercise

I am having the SAME issue and was just getting ready to google it. I've been running 4 miles a day for 2 weeks, at least 4 times per week and I have gained 2 lbs. I wouldn't stress over it and it is definitely water retention, but continue drinking lots of water!! My goal is 15 lbs by end of April.

roanokejoe50 wrote: »

{quote]
Heart rate monitors are only accurate if you're doing a "steady-state" cardio, meaning running, walking, biking - that sort of thing. If you're doing hefty cardio like Zumba, a fitness DVD, HIIT training, anything like that, your burn is not accurate because the HRM cannot properly track the rapid rising and falling (varying) heart rate, whereas when you're doing a steady state cardio, it generally remains in the same ball park if your pace is the same.

Who told you this? This is total bollocks! I've been using Polar hr monitors for 20 years. they have settings on them which allow for interval training! Where did you get this information. Somebody is feeding you a line of bull!

Now to the OP, you're not getting enough food, your goal is too much, and you need to add resistance training. You're body is going to continue to hold on to the weight as a protection mechanism because you are going into starvation mode with such a huge calorie deficit.[/quote]

Some people don't use the HRM correctly, and I'm guessing some cheap ones may not have the different settings (although I would assume that would be phased out as HIIT is more and more popular).

In addition, I've seen people who wear a heart rate monitor all day and think that it gives an accurate calorie burn including when they are sitting at their desk. It's definitely not made for that. The easy solution is to just read the instructions for your model.

OP, I agree that you are likely seeing water retention from starting a workout regimen. In addition, you are netting very few calories as someone else pointed out, which will put stress on your body, increase cortisol levels, and also lead to weight gain. I'd look into changing your goal (maybe half a pound or a pound a week) and eating back at least half of your workout calories. There's no reason to starve yourself, and the MFP deficit works if you log accurately and stick with it.