Running/Diet question

Are you weighing everything you eat? Can you open your dairy?

ManiacalLaugh wrote: »

Also, if you're aiming to lose weight, you don't really want to eat above maintenance. You need a deficit of a few hundred (net, not gross) to see results. So, if your maintenance is 1700, and you burn 200 through exercise, it would still be good to eat at 1700 or less. You will not lose weight netting a total above your maintenance calories.

She said she was eating at least a 500 calorie a day deficit... which may or may not be accurate.

The exercise calories mfp gives for running are usually way high for me. I don't like to eat into them much at all.

Running will be great at helping you lose weight, but it won't make you lose weight. Your diet has to do that. If things aren't moving in the direction you want, then you've got to look into what you are eating rather than what your workout is. Make sure you are weighing and measuring your food, and that you are using accurate entries in the log. And make sure you are being 100% honest with your tracking. Your body knows what you ate, fudging the diary doesn't do anything.

rsclause wrote: »

Don't sweat it, if you are truly at deficit you will start to lose but not overnight. Keep at the running and build slowly. Running is what really put my weight loss in high gear. I went from walking to short runs. Over time I was up to about thirty miles a week.

I concur with this. I have almost the same running schedule and at first I gained weight too. I was not counting calories though and I know I was putting on muscle. Now that I have been running for a couple of months, solidly, and I am at a calorie deficit it is cutting weight quite well. Just hang in there.

I started running (again) with a c25k app 3 weeks ago, gained 5 lbs seemingly overnight and it has taken 3 weeks to come off. You will be fine. Trust the process, and as frustrating slow as it is sometimes, it will happen...these are all things I have to remember myself lol. Especially with a running training app you are continually pushing your body harder than you were before and the muscles need to repair. Unfortunatly this requires water and we see it usually as a "gain" in weight. As long as your calories are logged accurately and you have a deficit your weight will head south

tanialynn3 wrote: »

I am using the garmin vivosmart for exercise tracking. For my 3 mile days it says between 170-200 calories burned. As far as the calories consumed, I am going by the packaging. For example, if I eat a can of progresso soup, which is 70 calories per serving, then I log 140 calories for the can, even though I don't drink the broth. If I eat out (rarely) I look it up with the provided tool and then add 10% just in case. If we make something at home, I look at all the packaging, add it up and then find how much my serving size was. On most days I dont even reach 1200 calories. I get 1000-1100.

You are eating less than 1200 calories a day? If this is the case, then that right there MAY be a reason you aren't losing. Men should never eat less than 1800 and women 1200 for an extended period of time. This is not healthy for weight loss and can halt progress.

Another issue may be water retention. When you begin exercising after a long period of not exercising, you will definitely experience water retention and this can last a couple of days, or even up to a month in rare cases.

Good luck!

FabianRodriguez94 wrote: »

tanialynn3 wrote: »

I am using the garmin vivosmart for exercise tracking. For my 3 mile days it says between 170-200 calories burned. As far as the calories consumed, I am going by the packaging. For example, if I eat a can of progresso soup, which is 70 calories per serving, then I log 140 calories for the can, even though I don't drink the broth. If I eat out (rarely) I look it up with the provided tool and then add 10% just in case. If we make something at home, I look at all the packaging, add it up and then find how much my serving size was. On most days I dont even reach 1200 calories. I get 1000-1100.

You are eating less than 1200 calories a day? If this is the case, then that right there MAY be a reason you aren't losing. Men should never eat less than 1800 and women 1200 for an extended period of time. This is not healthy for weight loss and can halt progress.

Another issue may be water retention. When you begin exercising after a long period of not exercising, you will definitely experience water retention and this can last a couple of days, or even up to a month in rare cases.

Good luck!

Don't listen to this. Starvation mode is a myth, and it takes a LONG time of serious deficit in order to go into any sort of metabolic adaptation.

There are probably two things combined here, not weighing your food, and a new workout routine. You say you d do not eat back your exercise calories, so that is out of the equation.

It is extraordinarily eye opening how wrong food labels are when you start weighing everything. You could be off by whole servings, OR MORE if you're going by just the food label. I was utterly flabbergasted at the amount of calories I was either over, or underestimated when I started using my scale. Sure, one serving in one meal probably won't affect you too negatively when you're exercising a lot, but if you're doing overestimating 3+ times per day (once per meal, and snacks), then it's going to catch up.

The other part is likely water retention since your body is still getting used to the new workload you're putting on it. This effect will go away in the coming weeks, but can be quite prevalent for a couple of months.

Buy a food scale, weigh everything in grams/non-fluid ounces, drink a good amount of water per day to counteract water retention, and give it 4-6 more weeks. Also, weigh yourself without clothes on in the morning directly after going to the bathroom when getting out of bed. This will be your lightest weight of the day, and best estimate. If you're weighing any time after that, you're naturally going to weigh more because you have fluids/food in your body.

Three weeks is simply not enough on a 500cal deficit to see a huge change. Weight can fluctuate far more than 1lb during the course of a day, so you could actually be down, and not know it. Personally, on a workout day, my weight can swing 6-10lbs by the end of the day if I weigh directly after getting back from the gym in the morning before breakfast.