This doesn't make any sense! Help

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dkhuff1
dkhuff1 Posts: 67 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
i've been doing my fitness pal for four weeks now with no loss even though I am being religious with my diary and staying within my calorie allowance. I am working out five days a week for about 60 minutes or so each workout. I lift weights about three times a week using a program that was successful for me when I lost weight before. I do cardio the other days. My cardio usually consists of intervals where I get my heart rate up into 90% of my max for about 1 minute followed by two minutes at a an easier pace. I do that for 30 minutes with warm up. Other cardio days consist of 45 minute steady workouts with a few intervals. s with recovery alsoI have successfully used in the past to lose 30 pounds. I am 5'4", 203#, about 35-40% body fat. MFP has my calorie goal at 1390 to lose 1.5# per week. I wear a polar Ft7 HRM for every workout. I eat back my exercise calories. The only thing different, is in the pass I had a polar F6 heart rate monitor and I have noticed a huge difference in the calorie burn between the two heart rate monitors for the same relative work out. The new heart rate monitor shows about half as many calories burned as my old did. Normally when I start dieting and working out like I have been I quickly lose weight and inches. I am just not seeing that now and I'm really confused as to why.
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Replies

  • queenliz99
    queenliz99 Posts: 15,317 Member
    edited February 2015
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    Do you use a food scale? In regards to the HRM, may be it is more accurate.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
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    How long has this been going on, probably a logging issue - open your diary to public
  • dkhuff1
    dkhuff1 Posts: 67 Member
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    Adding on to what was above...,I am 50 years old. And, I have successfully lost 30 pounds a couple of years ago using my fitness pal doing the same workouts and the same food plans. At that time I was working with a personal trainer once a month who was measuring my body fat with a seven site caliper test and using the measurements in MFP. I am using the same workout routines and following a very similar diet as to what I did in the past but I'm just not seeing results. My weight routines are designed as supersets so I have sets where I lift fairly heavy doing 12 to 15 reps and during the rest I often do some exercises to help keep my heart rate up such as planks or two minute bike stands ,etc. the weight routines change often so I'm not doing the same thing all the time. My avg HR during a weight routine will be around 135 with peaks around 160 when I'm working hard. Cardio routines school around 150 heart rate with peaks at 165-170. My resting HR is 64.
  • dkhuff1
    dkhuff1 Posts: 67 Member
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    Also, my macros are 40c/30p/30f. And I come within 2% of those goals most days
  • dkhuff1
    dkhuff1 Posts: 67 Member
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    Last, that photo of me was after my 30# wt loss, so that is me at 5'4" and at 170#.
  • dkhuff1
    dkhuff1 Posts: 67 Member
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    I do use a food scale. It's the electronic wt watchers one. I'm wondering if there something wrong with this new heart rate monitor and perhaps I'm under eating? Or perhaps hormonally my metabolism has slowed down a whole bunch? I am 50 now. But I wouldn't think two years would make that much of a difference in my ability to lose weight
  • sushiandtea
    sushiandtea Posts: 24 Member
    edited February 2015
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    I was really frustrated last year (2-3 months of no loss!), quit over Christmas then returned in January with a few changes.

    I don't stick solidly to MFPs recommended intake any more. MFP has me down for 1200 cal, but I now stick between my BMR and TDEE (1300 and 1600 for me, roughly). I gave a try after seeing someone on tumblr post their success with it. Since I started this I've been losing weight, even if it is fairly slowly. It might be worth a try... work out your TDEE and allow yourself to eat anywhere between MFPs goal and that. 1200 used to work for me 3 years ago but I find these days my metabolism just slows right down; by mixing it up it's sped up again.
  • queenliz99
    queenliz99 Posts: 15,317 Member
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    You weigh everything, all solids?
  • Alyssa_Is_LosingIt
    Alyssa_Is_LosingIt Posts: 4,696 Member
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    queenliz99 wrote: »
    You weigh everything, all solids?

    This^^ The closer you get to your goal, especially, the more you're going to have to tighten up and make sure you are eating exactly as much as you are recording. If you are eyeballing or measuring in cups or tablespoons etc., then you don't really know how much you're eating.
  • dkhuff1
    dkhuff1 Posts: 67 Member
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    Do I need a lot more protein? I've been athletic my entire life so I've always weighed a lot for how I look. Typical breakfast is tea with s/f Greek yogurt,, 1/8 c high protein granola. Lunch is chicken breast, with fruit and a veggie line snap peas. Chocolate covered almonds --6-8 of those. Snack is 1% cottage cheese or 2 baby bell lites with 7 multigrain crackers. Dinner is a lean protein, spinach or regular salad w 2T balsamic dressing, corn or small baked potato w 1T butter. Fat free sugar free pudding w cool whip for dessert. No alcohol. My challenge is keeping carbs below 40% and protein at or above 30%
  • dkhuff1
    dkhuff1 Posts: 67 Member
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    I do weigh and measure! Scale and measuring cups live on my counter and my 1 T measures for salad dressing and stuff.
  • sodakat
    sodakat Posts: 1,126 Member
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    dkhuff1 wrote: »
    I do use a food scale. It's the electronic wt watchers one. I'm wondering if there something wrong with this new heart rate monitor and perhaps I'm under eating? Or perhaps hormonally my metabolism has slowed down a whole bunch? I am 50 now. But I wouldn't think two years would make that much of a difference in my ability to lose weight

    It seems to me that you need to pay more attention to your results than the heart rate monitor. If you have not lost weight you are eating too much.

    Eating more is not going to result in weight loss. If you are positive you are accurately weighing your foods and selecting the correct entry in the MFP database, you may have your calories set too high.

    Four weeks is plenty long enough to figure out your calorie burn. So, 4 weeks and absolutely no loss at all means however much you are eating right now is your maintenance right now.

    I'd cut by 250 calories a day for a couple weeks and see what happens. If that sounds horrifying, then cut by 100 and see if you lose a couple ounces.

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  • Alyssa_Is_LosingIt
    Alyssa_Is_LosingIt Posts: 4,696 Member
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    dkhuff1 wrote: »
    Do I need a lot more protein? I've been athletic my entire life so I've always weighed a lot for how I look. Typical breakfast is tea with s/f Greek yogurt,, 1/8 c high protein granola. Lunch is chicken breast, with fruit and a veggie line snap peas. Chocolate covered almonds --6-8 of those. Snack is 1% cottage cheese or 2 baby bell lites with 7 multigrain crackers. Dinner is a lean protein, spinach or regular salad w 2T balsamic dressing, corn or small baked potato w 1T butter. Fat free sugar free pudding w cool whip for dessert. No alcohol. My challenge is keeping carbs below 40% and protein at or above 30%

    I don't think it would hurt to play around with your macros a bit. Otherwise, plateaus are normal and they happen to everyone sooner or later. The main thing to do is to be patient, and tighten up your logging as much as possible. You'll break through eventually, but sometimes it takes a bit of time.
  • dkhuff1
    dkhuff1 Posts: 67 Member
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    Regarding the HRM, I have it correctly programmed and polar just reset it and had me reprogram it again. It reads 50% fewer calories than my old one and 50-100% less than MFP when I enter exercise. My old one tracked pretty close yo MFP on exercise. When I use an elliptical at my gym, I program my weight into it and it reads my HR from my chest strap. When I'm done, the machine reads about 50% higher calorie burn than my wrist unit. Not sure if this is my issue or not.
    In the past, weight usually comes off fast at first and slows over time. I'm just starting so I don't understand why I'm not seeing more results .
  • riffraff2112
    riffraff2112 Posts: 1,757 Member
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    usually plateaus occur after having some success. This does seem a little weird as you seem to be confident that you are doing everything as you did before. From personal experience when I re-commit to an old plan, it seems to work just as it did before.
    You do know your body after all? Plus, you are doing such good stuff (weighing food, cardio with a high heart rate, weight training)

    I am interested in what people say here, and would love to know how the next little while goes for you. I definitely am not an expert but all I can think of is maybe you need to give it a bit more time.
  • riffraff2112
    riffraff2112 Posts: 1,757 Member
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    I will add that I do not log calories burned and eat them back (even a fraction of them). I set my daily activity at sedentary and eat that amount (at modest deficit). Any calories burned are bonus.
    It just eliminates one more variable for me, cause I never know what to trust in the machine readouts, or online calculators.
  • dkhuff1
    dkhuff1 Posts: 67 Member
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    I have read that MFP is designed for you to eat back exercise calories if accurately measured. Since I use a HRM I eat them back. And I if I don't i am extremely hungry. I do try to listen to my body. If I'm hungry, I drink water and try to eat some small lean protein like 1% cottage cheese. If I did not eat my exercise calories my net would be less that 900 calories a day . Since I weigh 200# that's just too little.
  • dkhuff1
    dkhuff1 Posts: 67 Member
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    Play with my macros in what way? Also if I try TDEE, what calculation is most accurate? My typical calorie burn during a 75 minute weight workout is 470 calories. This is with a hr max around 160 on several occasions and avg hr around 138. Cardio intervals result in about 250 calorie burn. So that is all I am eating back and some days I don't eat all of it back.
  • Ness725
    Ness725 Posts: 13 Member
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    If you really are at a deficit, which it sounds like you are, it can really only be 2 things: water weight or an underlying medical problem such as hypothyroidism. I used to weigh myself religiously every morning and would find my weight shot up by 2-4 lbs the morning after a weight training session, regardless of diet. I also carried extra water weight if I had a cold, had too much salt, and during the time of the month. I also believe in the woosh effect because I experienced it (you hold the weight then suddenly you drop several pounds at once). If you're working out hard, you will carry extra water just for your muscles to heal. Are you measuring inches? It may be a better metric.

    The second possibility is less likely. Risk factors include: you have a family history of thyroid issues, are female, have an autoimmune disorder (ie celiac disease) among other things. Maybe you should see your doctor?

    Remember that the most important thing is to trust the process and DON'T GET DISCOURAGED!! YOU CAN DO IT! :smile:
  • jkal1979
    jkal1979 Posts: 1,896 Member
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    OP with all of your replies and original post I think you are looking in the wrong place to see what the issue is. I would recommend opening up your food diary for others to see if there are inaccuracies that may be causing you to be eating more than you think. Not only will inaccurate measuring throw your numbers off but using the wrong entries will too.

    As far as the HRM goes, while the calorie count may be more accurate than numbers that you get from MFP it doesn't mean that they are 100% spot on. If you are going to eat your exercise calories back it might be a good idea to only eat back a portion of them.

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