Feeling Deafeated

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DoNotSpamMe73 wrote: »

4-5 weeks into constant exercise you will suddenly shrink and that weight gain is almost definitely that muscle weight and possibly water retention. The body holds on then lets go, don't be discouraged.
Weight does weigh 2-3 times as fat and uses that fat and is worth it. It often sounds like BS, but if the exercise is genuine it really isn't.

(More than fat)

You definitely need to be weighing & measuring your food if you want to get an accurate understanding of if you're in deficit or not. Estimations can be incredibly far off!

It's not too hard to do that even while cooking for others. If you're cooking a meal, then just weigh your portion (e.g. if we're eating steak and potatoes, I'll weigh my piece of steak and my potatoes) or weigh it all (for stews and casseroles, etc.) and use the recipe builder to log your portion.

If you get a digital scale with a tare function, you can just put your dinner plate on the scale and weigh each item as you serve yourself by zeroing it out between foods. For recipes, one MFP'er had a good recommendation to weigh your empty pot and then after you're done cooking you can weigh your full pot. The difference will be the total amount in your recipe and it's very simple to then weigh out your portion.

Good luck!

MEmomof3 wrote: »

Not sure how it's possible, but I have logged religiously (almost always at a deficit) and worked out everyday and still managed to gain. Not just a pound or two, but six!! So discouraged. Just want to quit!

Before you get too discouraged, have you heard of the "Whoosh Effect"? It is more common in woman 40s+ (with hormone changes), obese and body builders. What happens is the body after the first weight loss of water, then the shrinking of fat in cells, will fill up with fluid (the is different then edema around the fat cells) because it's trying to hold and reserve the cell. Typically your loose a greater amount of weight at once, so don't get caught up with the scales.

This is my hypothesis, I believe people have, if they toss in the towel, fluid that is in the cells, the cells get too large with new fluid and fat and then divide. When you start eating normal, the a-amylase kicks in and starts feeding fat into the cells. That is why folks gain more then when they started the journey. By yourself time and stay committed. The cells will shrink, but fat cells never go away. Once your lean you can easily control it by knowing what your BMR is and adjust calories and exercise to suit your eating habits.

MEmomof3 wrote: »

christinehuds wrote: »

Are you using the calorie burn estimates in MFP and eating back most of your exercise calories? MFP's estimation of how many calories you burn from working out can be pretty far off, so maybe that has something to do with it?

No, I never eat back my exercise calories. Should I be? I eat what MFP says I should eat for my daily calorie intake and then exercise on top of that. Maybe that's what I'm doing wrong.....

I use a Polar heart rate monitor to track my calories burned and I usually eat back at least half, if not all of my calories. The daily number of calories MFP gives you to eat already includes a deficit, so to create a deficit on top of that through exercise might be a bit much. I know that not all people eat back their exercise calories though, so it could vary from person to person.