Strange, but can a lot of exercise slow down weight loss?

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  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    edited February 2015
    rayrayfitz wrote: »
    Francl27 wrote: »
    Ok seriously, you eat 1370 calories, don't eat back exercise calories, even if you burn only 600 calories a day... You're surviving on 670 calories. Emphasis on 'surviving'.

    This is not healthy at all.


    If I was just surviving why wouldn't I be losing weight at a fast rate? I'm not and have averaged a loss over a year at a 1lb a week, I hardly think that's unhealthy or surviving. I don't feel hungry often, I already state if i swim for 2 hours I eat an extra 200 odd cals as I feel hungry. I have plenty of energy, have no deficiencies. If I ate any more than I do now I would put on weight. I'm 5' tall. I hardly think I'm starving myself to death or I'm being unhealthy.

    Go to http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ and enter your info, and see what it tells you to eat with a 20% deficit and 5-6 hours of exercise a week (heck, even 3-5 hours a week if you like). Hunger doesn't mean anything, honestly, as hunger doesn't have anything to do with the number of calories you eat.

    That being said, that you haven't lost anything in 2 weeks doesn't mean anything, it happens all the time (happened to me every month in fact). My guess is that you're going to lose a bunch of water weight in a week or two.

    As to why you're not losing more, well, I have no idea. I've seen a bunch of people here in the same situation, who started losing again once they started eating more, so who knows. My guess though is that you're not burning anywhere as many calories as you're thinking, so your deficit isn't actually that big, either that or you have a thyroid problem...
    JAT74 wrote: »
    Well I am going to be fasting for 2 days every week from now on, and doing cardio on those days too. This is normal for people following the 5:2 diet. Doctors and scientists have studied this and shown that it is healthy and effective and a great way to lose weight, body fat and improve many other aspects of your health.

    Again, this has nothing to do with the OP's situation.
  • JAnn319
    JAnn319 Posts: 28 Member
    Rayrayfitz, too much exercise will increase your Cortisol levels (body stress) and will not allow you to loose weight. Just do a couple of days HIIT training and a couple of days Interval weight training. That's all you need :)
  • JAT74
    JAT74 Posts: 1,081 Member
    Don't worry, it's a standard answer you'll get from some people on MFP. Everyone is different and has different calorie needs. I found the same thing was happening to me a while ago when I was exercising for longer, I actually stopped losing weight. Now I try to keep my workouts to around an hour or sometimes 40-45 mins and if I do any more I keep it low intensity like a walk etc.

    At one stage when I used MFP a couple of years ago I started eating more due to people telling me I wasn't losing any more because I was eating too little and I just gained more weight.

    Stick with it and if the scale still isn't moving then try and tone down the exercise. That's what helped me finally start losing again.
  • aldousmom
    aldousmom Posts: 382 Member
    It seems like it does for me, but I think it's because when I hit higher mileage and more rigorous training, I'm just so much hungrier. I usually can only lose weight if I'm training a lot less.
  • missomgitsica
    missomgitsica Posts: 496 Member
    Measure yourself. The # on the scale isn't everything!
  • zyxst
    zyxst Posts: 9,149 Member
    rayrayfitz wrote: »
    terar21 wrote: »
    Ok...........I'm not trying to argue with you. Just trying to help lol.

    If everything is your own recipes weighed by food scale, then that's awesome.

    It doesn't change the fact that the calorie burns are off though. Things like 1000 calories for 60 minutes of breast stroke just aren't right. It's not personal attack and I'm not saying you aren't working hard. I'm sure you are. MFP is just overestimated and incorrectly list calories burned for intensity levels for swimming. The math on your own numbers alone can tell you that. If you were truly burning more than 1000 in a day and not eating it back on top of the deficit you already factored in, you'd be losing upwards of 3 pounds a week.

    Unless you're retaining water and heavy on sodium, there's a number issue. You're losing so you're in a deficit, just not as large as desired.

    As I suggested before, it's likely water retention of new intensity in workouts which will go away...but as a friendly suggestion - just wanted to warn you about the calories burns being very off on MFP swimming estimates in the case you end up trying to eat them back in the future.

    I didn't think for one moment you were arguing? Your post didn't come across that way. :-s

    Breast stroke doesn't come up at 1000 cals for an hour, it's 700. I only got 1000 cal (according to MFP) when I swim for 2 hours, and I suppose calories alter depending on your weight as well?

    That's the point of the post, I should be losing more or something this week, a few ppl seem to think it must be the introduction of strength training, and with it lot being linear it will suddenly drop, I'm hoping so.

    I don't go over my sodium, I do drink a lot and I also have PCOS. I can't do as much 'high impact' as if like as I only have one lung so use things like swimming etc to try to build my lung capacity up.

    I think some time there is no rhyme and reason why we don't lose for a couple of weeks even though we do everything right. I've done the whole cheating and kidding yourself thing when you know really there are issues why you haven't lost weight. I suppose that's why it's so frustrating when you do do everything right and try your damnest for what feels like no result.
    PCOS changes your CICO equation. I can't offer any real advice other than your energy output is probably going to be way different than a person without a metabolic disorder. I know there are others with PCOS who have lost weight. Maybe one of them will chime in with better help.

  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
    I havent had a loss since jan 7th(so dont feel bad),but Im losing inches. I agree with everyone that says to measure yourself. lots of good advice has been given.
  • herculzjo
    herculzjo Posts: 251 Member
    I see you don't drink any water. I thought that was very important. I have been forcing myself to drink the 8 cups full every day. Any thoughts on that?
  • jlhwodrich
    jlhwodrich Posts: 2 Member
    I would set a realistic target of calories based on your activity and continue your swimming, but don't eat back calories or add the exercise.
  • kiawells2015
    kiawells2015 Posts: 2
    My weakness is sweets and eating late at night. I have a trainer and he has me eating spoons of peanut butter when I get hungry or greek yogurt. He also told me boiled eggs and it doesn't matter the hour. He also instructed me not to eat fruit after 3pm. This has helped me lose weight fast. When I started exercising, my weight loss decreased but as others have said above its the body muscle but you are still losing inches. It will pick up again its just learning what works for the individual body.
  • rayrayfitz
    rayrayfitz Posts: 80 Member
    herculzjo wrote: »
    I see you don't drink any water. I thought that was very important. I have been forcing myself to drink the 8 cups full every day. Any thoughts on that?

    I actually drink loads,far more than 8 cups a day. I drink about 3 litres a day. I only log when I add juice to it as water is 0 calories so don't bother just logging water. I always have a 500ml water bottle with me an drink juice as well. But I usually log a couple of litres with juice in a day on my diary? It's still water, still hydration?

  • rayrayfitz
    rayrayfitz Posts: 80 Member
    Thanks for all your helpful comments everyone x
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