too many calories.....

bunnytracks
bunnytracks Posts: 3 Member
edited November 18 in Health and Weight Loss
I have been on mfp for over 50 days (1200 calorie) and only lost 10 lbs..I exercise 5-7 times a week for 15 mins ( on a tony little gazelle ) but I have now increased to 20 mins. to speed up the process, I burn anywhere from 900 to 1150+ calories. Which increases my calorie count to over 2,000. I watch calories and portion sizes. and sometimes I am full and can't eat any more. What do I do with the extra calories I don't eat? I don't want my body to think I am starving myself and build fat? Please help....x

Replies

  • zoeysasha37
    zoeysasha37 Posts: 7,088 Member
    Did you see Jews in nazi concentration camps building fat? No! So your body won't build up fat because your full and can't eat all of your calories back that day.
    Anyway how aare you calculating your calories burnt from this workout? And are you using a food scale to weigh everything that you consume?
    Btw, 10 lbs lost is great!
  • nicola1141
    nicola1141 Posts: 613 Member
    You've lost about one pound every 5 days? That's fantastic!!! Sounds like you're doing great as it is.
    But, are you using the #s on your machine to see what your burn is on your exercise? 900-1150 calories for 20 minutes sounds INSANE. I would cut that in half at the very least, maybe 1/3. Eating 2000 calories shouldn't be too difficult, though. Just add in some higher calorie/denser foods.
  • futuremanda
    futuremanda Posts: 816 Member
    edited May 2015
    You don't burn 1150 calories in 20 minutes. You likely don't even burn 200, though you might.

    And if you were starving, you would starve, not pack on fat. That's a myth. Your body can't create fat stores out of thin air, and it can't run itself all day on 0 fuel (if you don't eat enough, it uses body tissue to fuel itself).

    If you're only losing 1 lb every 10 days or so, you're only getting a deficit of around 350 a day, on average. You're probably eating back too many exercise calories.

    Edit: Oops, math fail. 1 lb every 5 days. :D That's a deficit of about 700 a day, which is a better rate for you. You could just adjust your expectations a bit -- you're doing well! But I do think your numbers are all over the place, so it might be worth sorting out now, rather than later. (Ex. 1200 may be too low for you as a base, and 1150 too high for a burn estimate. It's working out to weight loss anyway, but it won't down the line.)
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    nicola1141 wrote: »
    You've lost about one pound every 5 days? That's fantastic!!! Sounds like you're doing great as it is.
    But, are you using the #s on your machine to see what your burn is on your exercise? 900-1150 calories for 20 minutes sounds INSANE. I would cut that in half at the very least, maybe 1/3. Eating 2000 calories shouldn't be too difficult, though. Just add in some higher calorie/denser foods.

    Yah that needs cut in more than half...try 1/4
  • Athijade
    Athijade Posts: 3,300 Member
    1-2 lbs per week is a good amount of weight loss. You are at about 7.14 weeks so right in that range. So nothing wrong there...

    How are you measuring your exercise burns? The machines and MFP are both horrible about over estimating burns. I don't see 20 mins burning that many calories...
  • SimoneBee12
    SimoneBee12 Posts: 268 Member
    10lbs in 50 days is pretty good. Could you provide us with your height and current weight?

    Also, like nicola1141 said, 900-1150 calories in 20 minutes is INSANE. I'm 230lbs and it would take me 75 minutes to burn 800 calories, and that's doing some intense Zumba with a lot of movement. I would definitely look into getting a heart rate monitor to get a bit more of an accurate measure concerning your burn, and I would stop eating all those calories. For me, 20 minutes of running is about 250-300 calories. Maybe consider only eating this much above 1200 until you can get a more accurate reading.

    Also, can you open your diary so we can see what you're eating and how you measure everything. 90% of the time people aren't losing weight it is because they don't realise how important accurate measuring is.
  • SonicKrunch
    SonicKrunch Posts: 192 Member
    First off, losing 10 pounds is great, whether it's been 20 days or 50. Without seeing your food diary you may be eating too much processed foods with high sodium. On top of that if you aren't weighing your food it's easy to overeat what you think you are taking in. You are not burning 900-1150 calories in 20 minutes. Especially on a momentum machine like a gazelle. I'd say it's closer to 100-150 calories burned. Sorry but that's the reality and probably why you are having a harder time. An elliptical machine going at a pretty good pace for 20 minutes to a person who weighs 300 pounds burns about 250 calories. I do strength training for 2 hours(with rest periods) and I only generally count that as around 550 calories burned.

    My suggestion is to not eat back your workout calories right now. Try to weigh your food if you can to get a more accurate count of your calories in, and maybe up your intake to the 1400-1500 range if you are feeling like 1200 is too little.
  • bunnytracks
    bunnytracks Posts: 3 Member
    I am getting my calorie burn from the gazelle ...machine has time,calories burned, distance.....ect.
  • jnv7594
    jnv7594 Posts: 983 Member
    edited May 2015
    Sorry, but there is NO WAY you are burning that many calories in that short amount of time. And if your weight lost has averaged out to about a pound a week, I'm not sure what the problem is. You don't have to eat back your exercise calories. I usually eat back about half, but with the small amount of exercise you do they would be minimal anyway. Just make sure your net calories are within a reasonable range...1200 at the least...and that you're hitting your macros.
  • Jackie9950
    Jackie9950 Posts: 374 Member
    edited May 2015
    I was exercising 6-7 days a week for about an hour and a half rotating between cardio and strength training burning between 600-900 calories a day. I was eating around 1200-1400 calories a day. I wasn't loosing weight and i was starting to show weird symptoms. Constipation, flaring of my psoriasis, and my muscles ached. I talked to a trusted friend here on MFP, and she told me to slow down! I took the weekend and didn't exercise at all but stayed within my calorie limits, and by the end of the weekend I had lost 3 lbs. I think sometimes we need to just give our bodies a break. I stopped exercising everyday and started going to the gym 4 days a week and on my off days I do something less strenuous, like yoga or meditation. I have continued to loose weight at a regular pace. 25lbs in 3 months. Good luck! You can add me as a friend if you need some support! :)

    Edit: I was only looking at the amount of calories you were burning, not the amount of time it took. So my advise might not be accurate for your situation. I hadn't realized that your calorie burn was only in 20 minutes. That seems a little off. You might want to check into making sure that's correct.
  • futuremanda
    futuremanda Posts: 816 Member
    bunnytracks wrote: »
    I am getting my calorie burn from the gazelle ...machine has time,calories burned, distance.....ect.

    Machines notoriously overestimate, but this is the worst I've ever heard.

    Check this out for a reference (though no table like this should be used to determine YOUR burns):

    http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/weight-loss/in-depth/exercise/art-20050999?pg=2

    At 240 lbs, 1 full hour on the elliptical would still be less than 10 cals per minute with moderate effort (and I think regular folks -- non-athletes -- are typically not advised to choose intense to describe their activity).

    At 200-240 lbs, 1 full hour of running at 8 mph would get close to the burn you're listing... but that's in 3x the amount of time you're listing.
  • katsmo
    katsmo Posts: 219 Member
    1. There is no way you're burning calories at that rate, with 15 minutes of exercise. I have to run (hard) for 100 minutes to burn anywhere near 1,000 calories. If it's something I could hop on a Gazelle to accomplish in 15 minutes instead, trust me: I'd do it. A heart rate monitor is not perfect, but it will be more accurate than the machine estimations.
    2. Only ten pounds? That is a win! Celebrate that and keep plugging away. It might take longer than you envision, but the time will pass anyway.
    Good luck!
  • cityruss
    cityruss Posts: 2,493 Member
    Your machine is most probably set to kj and not kcal.

  • Jackie9950
    Jackie9950 Posts: 374 Member
    http://www.livestrong.com/article/292538-calories-burned-using-the-tony-little-gazelle-machine/

    This website should help out with calorie burns. Are you sure the machine isn't showing you what you would burn in an hour?

    This website has average calorie burns for different weight categories. Hope this helps!
  • pollypocket1021
    pollypocket1021 Posts: 533 Member
    bunnytracks wrote: »
    I am getting my calorie burn from the gazelle ...machine has time,calories burned, distance.....ect.

    MFP gives me less than 100 calories for pushing a double stroller with 2 toddlers up and down hills for an hour. And I think that number is probably reasonable. Your machine is WAY off. Exercise burns way less than you think.
  • pwh300
    pwh300 Posts: 99 Member
    I'm 48 days and down 17 pounds. I noticed when I got a scale for my food that I was misjudging my intake maybe you are too.. I also think its better to lose slowly. I'm on 1200 calories too...
  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
    bunnytracks wrote: »
    I have been on mfp for over 50 days (1200 calorie) and only lost 10 lbs..I exercise 5-7 times a week for 15 mins ( on a tony little gazelle ) but I have now increased to 20 mins. to speed up the process, I burn anywhere from 900 to 1150+ calories. Which increases my calorie count to over 2,000. I watch calories and portion sizes. and sometimes I am full and can't eat any more. What do I do with the extra calories I don't eat? I don't want my body to think I am starving myself and build fat? Please help....x

    That's 1150 calories per week, right? On a 90 minute bicycle ride at a fairly decent pace, I estimate that I burn 500-600 calories. Unless you are losing weight more quickly than 2 lbs per week, I'm not sure I would even suggest that you should eat additional calories for a 15 minute workout.
  • pwh300
    pwh300 Posts: 99 Member
    I forgot to add...I brought a Garmin Viveio that has also helped
  • debsdoingthis
    debsdoingthis Posts: 454 Member
    edited May 2015
    cityruss wrote: »
    Your machine is most probably set to kj and not kcal.
    Good point 900kj would be appx 75-80 cals if the chart I used is correct.

  • AnotherPuppet
    AnotherPuppet Posts: 8 Member
    Burning at a steady rate is much better than just losing 4-5 pounds at once. If you get yourself into a pattern (like you have) its easier to keep at it, whereas I underate/overexercised to the point where my body simply wasn't having it anymore. It hurt me a lot physically so please just keep what your doing because your doing so freaking well!!!
  • SimoneBee12
    SimoneBee12 Posts: 268 Member
    debsdoingthis wrote: »
    cityruss wrote: »
    Your machine is most probably set to kj and not kcal.
    Good point 900kj would be appx 75-80 cals if the chart I used is correct.

    900kj is 215 calories (900 divided by 4.1868), but the OP could be maybe burning that in 20 minutes if she is going all out and is obese, she never mentioned her height/weight though. But cityruss definitely has a good point, it could definitely be the wrong setting. And on top of that, still overestimating the OPs burn.
  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
    If the Tony Little infomercials are anything to go by, I suspect they're doubling the calorie burn numbers because it uses both the arms and the legs (that's not how it works). The might even be multiplying by four, since you have for limbs.
  • Annr
    Annr Posts: 2,765 Member
    Weight loss is always accompanied by other inner changes because excess weight accumulation is only the end product of incongruent food attitudes, eating patterns and digestive processes. It's not the removal of weight so much as changing these processes that is the goal.
    (I know Annr just type English, but when you really understand this phrase, it will be like a AHA moment)
    This is just food for thought now...
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