Working Out 6 Days a Week and Clothes are Tighter!

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  • liannejok
    liannejok Posts: 7 Member
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    aw man guys. this post was supposed to be why or how it was possible that my jeans were tighter after 3-4 weeks of what feels like to me, a pretty dramatic change. don't lose sight of the fact that a month ago i was 5'5" and 135 - i probably have been for the past year? 9 months? put it this way - chipotle and pizza were major food groups. exercise was sporadic. either way, i am still 5'5", 135.

    so when i start eating fruit, salads, grilled chicken, no dairy, no cereals, little to no breads, and working out 5-6 times a week for now a month, i'm kind of taken aback that not only have i not lost weight, but that things are in fact, tighter on me. i don't care if i record 1 cup of spinach and its really 2. for every underestimate i have, i am positive i'm overestimating things too. do you know how difficult it is to say no to a bagel your colleague brings in to work when you left a workout not an hour ago? to go to an event with apps like cubed cheese and say no when you're leaving there to go to a boxing class for an hour, all because you don't know how to measure it on myfitnesspal.com? in seriousness, i'm not THAT strict - i had 6 oz of egg nog sans brandy on sunday for breakfast because good lord i deserved it. (see? measured it to make sure i wasn't overdoing it) but i'm sure someone will say "there's SO much sugar in egg nog". well i ran it off after my 4 miles later that day.

    i was mostly looking for a suggestion in a change in type of exercise, or if i'm imagining it, or if it's just a matter of time and patience. i was hoping someone had experienced this (even though i know no one body acts the same) and could say "after 4 weeks, i didnt lose any, but after 8 weeks, voila!" instead, mostly what i feel is guilt and fear that i'm eating too much.

    i like the suggestions and everything, but even if i was eating 2,000 calories 3-4 times a week, with the amount i'm working out, i wouldn't really expect my jeans to be tighter. that's all! i'm going to get a scale (for my food) and try that for a while.
  • LeanButNotMean44
    LeanButNotMean44 Posts: 852 Member
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    OP - you may want to check out this thread: community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10287926/if-you-are-struggling-to-lose#latest
  • liannejok
    liannejok Posts: 7 Member
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    @LeanButNotMean44 what does OP stand for?

    thank you for the link. i understand that there's potential that i'm eating more calories than i think i am - but i am 1 billion percent not eating more calories than i was one month ago when i wasn't working out. is there a link on that?
  • LeanButNotMean44
    LeanButNotMean44 Posts: 852 Member
    edited November 2015
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    OP = Original Poster :)

    The thing is that if you never weighed your food, you don't really know for sure. I am not trying to be argumentative - I can empathize with your frustration!

    ETA: One can overeat even "clean" foods. It might be tougher due to their satiety, but it can happen.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,940 Member
    edited November 2015
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    Your menstrual cycle and water retention due to exercise can have a more than 5lbs effect.

    I have a 120lb lady in my feed whose weight shot up 3.3lbs after ONE bout of lifting weights from water retention to repair muscles. It took 3 days for it to come off.

    REST for the two days prior to your event. Eat at a moderate deficit. About 100 cal more than your calculated BMR http://www.myfitnesspal.com/tools/bmr-calculator. (The maintenance level for a sedentary person is 1.2x BMR--your activity level sounds closer to 1.6 if not 1.8x BMR). Eating at BMR+100 and sitting on your butt (or walking not too rapidly for an hour or two)... the water weight will drop.

    After that examine how much you're eating, how much you used to eat. Have repeated bouts of dieting induced adaptive thermogenesis? http://www.jissn.com/content/11/1/7

    Looking at your picture, and your stated height, and weight, you are at an absolutely NORMAL height and weight. Almost smack dab in the middle of your darn BMI range (22.5 in case anyone is wondering).

    YOU DON'T EFFING NEED TO ONLY EAT 1200 CALORIES A DAY TO LOSE WEIGHT. EVEN IF YOU SAT ON YOUR BUTT ALL DAY.

    Your goal of rapid weight loss (looking for anything more than 0.5lbs a week) is WRONG and will result in excess lean mass loss.

    Whether you should be seeking to lose weight as opposed to just seeking to change your body composition is also debatable.

    Yes, you CAN build muscle if you hit your muscles with novel stimuli even in a deficit if sufficient free fat is available. Whether there is sufficient free fat available at a BMI of 22.5 is debatable. Even a 1lb increase of muscle mass on a 135lb woman will make a substantial difference, and it is not impossible for you to have accomplished that.

    However, do note that excess exercise while you're in a caloric deficit will not improve your lean mass.

    Whether you're eating more, or less... I can't know until you manage to accurately measure what you're eating.

    Given your height and weight, whether it is a worthwhile endeavour for you to do so... is debatable.

    However increasing your exercise and eating at or near maintenance COULD be a worthwhile endeavour.
  • tomatoey
    tomatoey Posts: 5,446 Member
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    Yeah, I vote for water retention (post exercise & sodium & lady time related).

    Even if you're not weighing your boneless skinless chicken breast & leafy green salad, there's no way it's going to be as much as whatever chicken alfredo with tons of parm + zero exercise was happening before .

    The two posters above who advised cutting sodium & eating at maintenance for a bit make sense to me.
  • tomatoey
    tomatoey Posts: 5,446 Member
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    liannejok wrote: »
    instead, mostly what i feel is guilt and fear that i'm eating too much.

    So this is cocoloco. This goal is causing way too much stress & your timeframe is indeed way too short. Sometimes you can do everything right, and your body just takes time to show it. Weight loss isn't linear - there's a thread that goes into it, if you search it'll come up.

    Get a gorgeous dress that looks fantastic on you now, get your hair done on the day, and you'll look great. (A month into this, if you do a workout the day of the event, you might get a little extra definition. Because forget the scale, how do you feel about how it feels to be in your body?)

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