I am gaining more weight the more I walk

Start with the basics. Losing weight is about a calorie deficit. Log everything you eat and measure accurately by weighing and choosing USDA food entries. If you are not losing weight, it is nearly always a tracking problem.

If you are eating back your exercise calories, please know that the calories burned you are given by MFP can be a gross overestimation.

I would go back to meticulous weighing of everything you eat with a digital food scale and make sure that your activity level and stats (height, weight, age) are set correctly in MFP to account for any errors with logging and to be sure that MFP is giving you the correct amount of calories to eat. If you are eating back your exercise calories, scale it back to only eating back half (or maybe a third) and see if that helps.

Just don't give up, and keep on walking!

How much are you logging for the walking?

Setting your diary to public or giving us some more details might help get you more specific advice. Until then, these are my really general tips. Maybe something will help you out.

1. If it's been less than 3 weeks or so, don't sweat it! Normal fluctuations happen and unfortunately sometimes we stall for a week or two even when we're doing everything right. Give your body some time to catch up with the changes you're making.

2. If you aren't already, be sure that you're logging everything. Sometimes people forget about things like veggies, drinks, cooking oils, and condiments. For some people these can add up to enough to halt your weight loss progress.

3. Consider buying a food scale if you don't already have one. They're about $10-$20 dollars in the US and easily found at places like Amazon, Target, and Walmart. Measuring cups and spoons are great, but they do come with some degree of inaccuracy. A food scale will be more accurate, and for some people it makes a big difference.

4. Logging accurately also means choosing accurate entries in the database. There are a lot of user-entered entries that are off. Double-check that you're using good entries and/or using the recipe builder instead of someone else's homemade entries.

5. Recalculate your goals if you haven't lately. As you lose weight your body requires fewer calories to run. Be sure you update your goals every ten pounds or so.

6. If you're eating back your exercise calories and you're relying on gym machine readouts or MFP's estimates, it might be best to eat back just 50-75% of those. Certain activities tend to be overestimated. If you're using an HRM or activity tracker, it might be a good idea to look into their accuracy and be sure that yours is calibrated properly.

7. If you're taking any cheat days that go over your calorie limits, it might be best to cut them out for a few weeks and see what happens. Some people go way over their calorie needs without realizing it when they don't track.

8. If you weigh yourself frequently, consider using a program like trendweight to even out the fluctuations. You could be losing weight but just don't see it because of the daily ups and downs.

9. Some people just burn fewer calories than the calculators predict. If you continue to have problems after 4-6 weeks, then it might be worth a trip to the doctor or a registered dietitian who can give you more specific advice.

janejellyroll wrote: »

lalalalalaurie wrote: »

Thanks everyone.

This has been helpful. I think the problem is likely my loose eyeballed portion size. I have never weighed my food. So maybe that is the golden ticket to solving this.

Yes, studies have shown that humans tend to be TERRIBLE at eyeballing portions. We frequently underestimate what we eat, even when we are very honest people with excellent intentions. I found a food scale absolutely essential for my weight loss -- I found I had been off, sometimes by hundreds of calories, on some items.

I read an article recently about a study done with one person in particular who knew that they'd be verifying her logging against her actual calorie intake with some kind of fancy machine. Even though she really tried, her logging was off by 40%. 40% is a lot. And she was really, really trying.

A kitchen scale is definitely your best friend when counting calories! Over time, it'll help you get better at eyeballing portions, too. At first weigh everything. Even things like salad dressing usually have a serving size in grams. You'll find that many packaged foods will give you a portion size on the label but the food won't actually be divided into that exact portion size. Use the tare function to weigh multiple items going into the same container.

That treadmills might be off by more doesn't mean that MFP is accurate. Afterburn is relatively minuscule. Your body doesn't really horde calories; it burns what it needs to burn.

It's not really complex, no, unless you're striving for some unreasonable and unnecessary -- for 99.999+% of people -- level of precision.

ReeseG4350 wrote: »

gaelicstorm26 wrote: »

If you are eating back your exercise calories, please know that the calories burned you are given by MFP can be a gross overestimation.

Y'know, I see that same comment over and over again on MFP. Thing is... my treadmill tells me differently. I always... ALWAYS log a higher calorie burn on my treadmill - by almost double - over what MFP gives me. There are so many things that come into play with something like that. How fast are you walking? Two miles an hour? 3? Five? Are you working on flat terrain or going up/down hills?

Even the question of whether you ate before the walk or if you eat after makes a difference in your calorie burn. (If you eat before, your body tends to more freely burn the calories whereas, if you do not eat until after, you body will 'horde' calories in a "caveman protect-the-life-source" kind of mode.) Furthermore, your body will continue to 'feed' off of that exercise for as much as two to four hours after the exercise period is over. You will continue to burn calories at a higher rate than someone who has not exercised. And the more vigorous the exercise, say walking at 4/5 mph rather than 2/3 mph, your body will burn calories at a higher rate longer.

*sigh* Maintaining a bone bag is so much more complex than merely monitoring how much/how many calories you consume in a day. Human beings are a very complex species on every level. So getting and staying healthy and fit is, likewise, complex.

I've actually found that MFP's estimates of walking and running calories to be pretty close if you choose the proper speed. It's things like weight lifting, cooking, cleaning, aerobics, etc. that can be really far off. With the walking and running entries, your speed helps to determine your level of exertion to some extent, with those other entries MFP has no clue how much of the hour you were lifting weights or how hard you were actually exerting yourself.

SueInAz wrote: »

ReeseG4350 wrote: »

gaelicstorm26 wrote: »

If you are eating back your exercise calories, please know that the calories burned you are given by MFP can be a gross overestimation.

Y'know, I see that same comment over and over again on MFP. Thing is... my treadmill tells me differently. I always... ALWAYS log a higher calorie burn on my treadmill - by almost double - over what MFP gives me. There are so many things that come into play with something like that. How fast are you walking? Two miles an hour? 3? Five? Are you working on flat terrain or going up/down hills?

Even the question of whether you ate before the walk or if you eat after makes a difference in your calorie burn. (If you eat before, your body tends to more freely burn the calories whereas, if you do not eat until after, you body will 'horde' calories in a "caveman protect-the-life-source" kind of mode.) Furthermore, your body will continue to 'feed' off of that exercise for as much as two to four hours after the exercise period is over. You will continue to burn calories at a higher rate than someone who has not exercised. And the more vigorous the exercise, say walking at 4/5 mph rather than 2/3 mph, your body will burn calories at a higher rate longer.

*sigh* Maintaining a bone bag is so much more complex than merely monitoring how much/how many calories you consume in a day. Human beings are a very complex species on every level. So getting and staying healthy and fit is, likewise, complex.

I've actually found that MFP's estimates of walking and running calories to be pretty close if you choose the proper speed. It's things like weight lifting, cooking, cleaning, aerobics, etc. that can be really far off. With the walking and running entries, your speed helps to determine your level of exertion to some extent, with those other entries MFP has no clue how much of the hour you were lifting weights or how hard you were actually exerting yourself.

Even for walking and running, MFP is at least 15-20% higher than my UP2 or HR Charge for the same exercise. Sometimes more.

DeguelloTex wrote: »

SueInAz wrote: »

ReeseG4350 wrote: »

gaelicstorm26 wrote: »

If you are eating back your exercise calories, please know that the calories burned you are given by MFP can be a gross overestimation.

Y'know, I see that same comment over and over again on MFP. Thing is... my treadmill tells me differently. I always... ALWAYS log a higher calorie burn on my treadmill - by almost double - over what MFP gives me. There are so many things that come into play with something like that. How fast are you walking? Two miles an hour? 3? Five? Are you working on flat terrain or going up/down hills?

Even the question of whether you ate before the walk or if you eat after makes a difference in your calorie burn. (If you eat before, your body tends to more freely burn the calories whereas, if you do not eat until after, you body will 'horde' calories in a "caveman protect-the-life-source" kind of mode.) Furthermore, your body will continue to 'feed' off of that exercise for as much as two to four hours after the exercise period is over. You will continue to burn calories at a higher rate than someone who has not exercised. And the more vigorous the exercise, say walking at 4/5 mph rather than 2/3 mph, your body will burn calories at a higher rate longer.

*sigh* Maintaining a bone bag is so much more complex than merely monitoring how much/how many calories you consume in a day. Human beings are a very complex species on every level. So getting and staying healthy and fit is, likewise, complex.

I've actually found that MFP's estimates of walking and running calories to be pretty close if you choose the proper speed. It's things like weight lifting, cooking, cleaning, aerobics, etc. that can be really far off. With the walking and running entries, your speed helps to determine your level of exertion to some extent, with those other entries MFP has no clue how much of the hour you were lifting weights or how hard you were actually exerting yourself.

Even for walking and running, MFP is at least 15-20% higher than my UP2 or HR Charge for the same exercise. Sometimes more.

It depends on how far you are from the "average" person. That's all any calorie calculators are based on... averages.

lalalalalaurie wrote: »

And not losing. And I am obese.

I am counting calories. It's almost magical how wrong this is going.

It's disheartening. But I am addicted to walking and don't want to stop.

So are you sure you're counting calories accurately? And what do you mean you're addicted to walking? How often do you do it? For how long? How far do you go? If you're burning that many calories (which you would burn a decent amount if you're very obese as the bigger you are, the more it will take to keep you moving) then you're more than likely eating back more than what you burn.

With walking, depending on how fast and how far, your calorie burn will be far less than more intense exercises. I'm not saying that makes it wrong, I'm just saying you need to take that into account. You're not going to burn nearly as many calories walking as with something like running, eliptical, rowing, HIIT circuit training, etc. And that's ok - perhaps those are your goals and you're working your way up. Either way, you really have to take into account the fact that you need to burn more than you consume to lose. It's not easy, especially when it's SO easy to gain the weight, but there's a very real potential you're eating more than you think you are.

You should be weighing/measuring everything as accurately as possible. It's not easy to do, and it can be time consuming but it will help you to see how much you may have been over eating in the past. I've gone from 340lbs to 255lbs. It's not easy . . . but you can do it if you want to. I work out six days a week, now but didn't always.

Good luck to you Feel free to add me, or reach out if you ever need anything.

Do you really think that it is the increased walking causing your weight gain?

rankinsect wrote: »

I think a lot of the exercise calorie issues are merely that a lot of devices report gross calories, while MFP (if you're not syncing a fitness tracker) expects net calories. Essentially the devices report the total calorie burn over that time, not the additional calories burned from exercising compared to sitting still.

A prolonged exercise with entering gross numbers into MFP will essentially double count your BMR for that time, since MFP already factors that in to the calorie goal.

Good point. I always forget it and I always tell myself I'll remember it next time. This time I really will. Really.

pondee629 wrote: »

Do you really think that it is the increased walking causing your weight gain?

If the problem were that she'd been really overestimating walking calories, then it could. The more she walks, the farther over she goes. The more she gains, the more she feels she should walk. Kind of a vicious cycle.

But, OP already said she'd been eyeballing portions so that's the most likely culprit.