Working out, eating right....but gaining:(

a92882
a92882 Posts: 10 Member
edited November 12 in Health and Weight Loss
I've been trying to weight since baby for 3 years now. I have been stuck on the last 10 or 15 pounds for about a year. I started taking Group Power at my gym in November which is the same thing as Les Mills Body Pump. I feel so great afterwards! I also take kickboxing classes and do other random cardio exercises when I can. All in all I shoot for 5 days a week in exercise sometimes twice a day. I watch what I eat with "treats" here and there so I don't lose my mind! I stay under my calorie goal. The problem is I'm gaining. I don't look like I'm gaining. I know I know....muscle weights more than fat but it's so hard to switch that frame of mind! I work so hard only to gain with nothing to show for it besides muscle which no one can really see. My stomach is still super flubby and we plan on trying for another baby this year so I feel like my stomach is going to be a lost cause right now. Has anyone else run into this problem? I'm really feeling frustrated and just want to give up!

Replies

  • Sydking
    Sydking Posts: 317 Member
    1kg of muscle weigh the same as 1kg of fat.

    So your doing all this "stuff" but are you weighing food on scales and logging accurately as you can 20% under your TDEE?

    If not then your wasting your time really
  • queenliz99
    queenliz99 Posts: 15,317 Member
    You are either over-estimating your calorie burn or you are not logging your calories correctly. Do you use a food scale? and how do you calculate your calorie burns?
  • Merkavar
    Merkavar Posts: 3,082 Member
    Are you eating back all your calories burne exercising? Maybe your over estimate how much you burn exercising.

    Maybe eat back half of what you enter as exercise?
  • karldomrose
    karldomrose Posts: 10 Member
    I would ask you how many calories are you eating?
    Are you accurately weighing your food? Don't guess!
    Also where are your macro setting at in MFP?
  • a92882
    a92882 Posts: 10 Member
    Oh boy! What is MFP? What is TDEE? I feel like I'm so hungry all of the time. 1200 calories just doesn't seem like enough.
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
    a92882 wrote: »
    Oh boy! What is MFP? What is TDEE? I feel like I'm so hungry all of the time. 1200 calories just doesn't seem like enough.

    MFP is this app...

    TDEE is the amount of calories you would eat a day to maintain your current weight.

    1200 calories very well might not be enough.
  • queenliz99
    queenliz99 Posts: 15,317 Member
    MFP = my fitness pal TDEE = total daily energy expenditure
  • karldomrose
    karldomrose Posts: 10 Member
    1200 Calories a day is probably not enough. If you are hungry all the time your body is telling you something. :)
    If you are exercising then you probably need closer to the 1500 calorie range, if not more. Now don't go jumping your calories way up all at once. Add 100 to 200 and see how you feel. See if you start gaining weight. Please note that your weight will fluctuate up and down. So don't freak out if you gain a couple pounds one week. Always go 3 or 4 weeks after you make a change before you decide if it was too much, or too little.
    You will have to play around and find the sweet spot that YOUR body likes.

  • a92882
    a92882 Posts: 10 Member
    Hmm...thank you everyone. I will have to make some adjustments and see what happens. I do however have muscles in places I've never had muscle before which is the only thing that keeps me going.
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  • missiontofitness
    missiontofitness Posts: 4,059 Member
    With 17lbs left to lose, you should have your goal set at around .5lb/1lb a week. 2lb a week is too aggressive of a deficit for you. At less than 15 to lose, you should be at .5lb/week. The extra calories will probably make you feel less "hungry", but you have a smaller deficit that needs accuracy.

    Also, if you are not losing, you are not in a deficit. If you aren't weighing your solids and measuring your liquids, it is very likely you are consuming over your maintenance calories.
  • RodaRose
    RodaRose Posts: 9,562 Member
    =
    a92882 wrote: »
    Hmm...thank you everyone. I will have to make some adjustments and see what happens. I do however have muscles in places I've never had muscle before which is the only thing that keeps me going.

    Good job. :D

  • janetteeagle
    janetteeagle Posts: 5 Member
    Maybe don't focus on the weight...are you losing inches? Muscle has more Mass than fat, so it takes much less muscle to make a pound than fat does. I would think then that you'd see your measurements changing, maybe not your weight.
  • wkwebby
    wkwebby Posts: 807 Member
    Those last few pounds are always the hardest and slowest to come off. You should NOT be eating at TDEE - 20% at this point because you won't have enough to fuel you for your workouts (with 10 pounds to lose). You might want to decrease your loss per week to only about 0.25 or 0.5lb/week. This will mean that you have to be super conscientious and honest about your logging. One splurge day or even meal could easily wipe this deficit out for the week.

    Perhaps shoot for TDEE - 5% or 10%, hopefully, this will give you added calories and motivation/fuel for your workouts.
  • eimaj5575
    eimaj5575 Posts: 278 Member
    You don't have to weigh food to lose weight people! Just saying. I guesstimate and measure, I never weigh and I lost my weight doing so
  • queenliz99
    queenliz99 Posts: 15,317 Member
    eimaj5575 wrote: »
    You don't have to weigh food to lose weight people! Just saying. I guesstimate and measure, I never weigh and I lost my weight doing so

    That is not true, some do.
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
    MrM27 wrote: »
    If you're not losing weight then you're not in a deficit.

    This^
  • RGv2
    RGv2 Posts: 5,789 Member
    edited February 2015
    eimaj5575 wrote: »
    You don't have to weigh food to lose weight people! Just saying. I guesstimate and measure, I never weigh and I lost my weight doing so

    Nobody said that you had to. In most cases like this, however, it comes down to a mistake in calorie counting. Either overestimation of exercise calories, under estimation of calories eaten, or a combination of both. The closer to goal weight, the more on point calorie estimations need to be.

    Asking if the OP is weighing gives the public, whom the OP is asking advice from, a place to start with and normally assists the OP in finding out where in their calorie counting the miscalculation is.

    I didn't use a scale either, but I understand the basis of the question and why in some cases the food scale is an extremely helpful tool.
  • LeanButNotMean44
    LeanButNotMean44 Posts: 852 Member
    eimaj5575 wrote: »
    You don't have to weigh food to lose weight people! Just saying. I guesstimate and measure, I never weigh and I lost my weight doing so

    She said she is NOT losing...so she should probably weigh her food.
  • Lleldiranne
    Lleldiranne Posts: 5,516 Member
    This is one reason why the scale is not a good metric, especially if used exclusively. It's not showing your increased fitness, your change in body fat %, etc. Try taking measurements (waist, hips, chest, thighs, etc) and tracking those, and not just weight. You may find a very different story, and since nobody sees the number on the scale, it's much less important. But, as other posters said, if you really are gaining (aside from water fluctuations), you're not in a deficit. You might need to tweak something.

    And, since you mentioned it, I just wanted to encourage you to keep working on it all until you get pregnant again (and then, continue exercising as you can during pregnancy). You'll be that much further ahead after baby. It was much easier for me to get back into exercise and back to my previous levels after this baby (<4 months ago) because I was fairly fit before, even though I couldn't exercise much during the pregnancy. :wink:
  • Lleldiranne
    Lleldiranne Posts: 5,516 Member
    Also, wanted to add ... you mention a lot of cardio. It might be good to add in some strength training. Heavy lifting has been successful for a lot of women in shaping that belly. (See http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1161603). It also allows us to look great at a higher scale weight.

    Also watch your protein - you don't mention what kind of foods you eat and your diary isn't open, but if you make sure to get plenty of protein and a reasonable amount of fat, it can help with satiety so you feel hungry less.
  • Dave2041
    Dave2041 Posts: 257 Member
    eimaj5575 wrote: »
    You don't have to weigh food to lose weight people! Just saying. I guesstimate and measure, I never weigh and I lost my weight doing so

    You haven't seen my wife "measure out" pasta / rice / anything...
  • a92882
    a92882 Posts: 10 Member
    I originally started this just to see exactly what I was eating and how much I was eating. I do use a scale to measure my food. Like I said, I need to make some adjustments that I've already started doing this morning. Thanks everyone.
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