Question for those who added calories and lost weight
Options
Replies
-
*sigh* It doesn't seem to be working. Hoped on the scale this morning and I'm up 2 1/2 pounds. I just finished TOM so that shouldn't be a factor. I worked out over 2 hours yesterday. I ate a lot, but I'm just trying to hit the numbers I was given. I'm so confused and Upset. I really thought this was what I was doing wrong. :-((((
You did not gain 2 1/2 pounds of fat in a day. In order to do that you would have had to eat about 8000 Extra calories.
When you workout, you actually cause microscopic damage to the body. Extra calories (in the form of protein mostly) are then used to repair that damage, so they are shuttled to the muscle. When you do long, strenuous cardio sessions, you also burn lots of glycogen in addition to fat. The body in trying to prepare for the next time you do that, will store more glycogen in the muscles you worked hard. Both of those processes either require extra water to store stuff in or produce extra water from the chemical reactions. The actual process of fat burning also produces extra water as a by-product. This is why I tell my clients to trust me and hide their scale for at least a month. And after it's worked I'll gladly accept the flowers and hugs of gratitude.
As for your question about how many calories people are consuming, I am between 2000-2300 on days I don't exercise and up to 3000 on days I do exercise and I don't count the fitness classes I teach or exercises I teach my clients as exercise, only my own personal workouts. I don't focus on the scale, but more on body fat %. Yes, because of the amount of exercise I do, I weigh more then the average woman my height. I'm 5'6" and 190 pounds. But I'm also 19% body fat and in a size 8. When you do a lot of exercise like we do, sometimes the scale isn't the best indicator of health or fitness. Relax. Fat loss happens when you don't stress about it.0 -
What kinds of foods are you eating?
My daily goal is 1650 without exercise, on days when I exercise I eat around 2000-2200 calories depending on what I have done.
One of the things I found to be most detrimental to me was MFP's calculations of calories burned during exercise. I was burning WAY more than what MFP was allotting so in the beginning I was netting a very low calorie count. NOT GOOD. When I run (about 30 mins with a 5 min warm up and a 10 min cool down) I burn upwards of 650 calories...MFP only gave me like 400. When I got my heart rate monitor I was able to see what I am actually burning
Maybe that might be something to look into?
I'm 5'9, 155 lbs...what do you have your settings at on MFP? How much are you looking to lose?
Hi! I have a Polar HRM that I wear for every class I take, so it's pretty spot on. I don't count any after burn, which can be another 100-200 calories in the next hour. We work HARD in my classes. :-)
I'm 5 ft 6. I would love to be around 135-140, but I'll take 145 at this point. I've been stuck between 150-155 for over a YEAR. That's with teaching 9 classes a week. *sigh* One of the trainers/nutritionists on this site took the time to do my numbers and came up with 1542 calories a day. I then have to add my workout calories and eat at least 80% of that. That's a LOT of food..and eating more isn't working..but I'll keep trying. I have been eating much better foods. My salads are now full of avocado, sunflower seeds, lean meat, veggies. I eat almonds, apples with peanut butter, Adkins protein bars to throw in my gym bag, nectarines etc. Mornings vary. Always greek yogurt, coffee, and something else...cereal, oatmeal, turkey sausage griddler, crumpets with peanut butter. I'm trying to keep it as real as possible....but with no results. Very frustrating. I got down to 148 for the first time in forever a couple of months ago, but I was eating very little and working out a ton. I never went past that number. I was just hoping THIS WAS IT, and it was start coming off again. :sad: Over a year is a LONG time to sit in a plateau. Thyroid etc is fine. Drinking lots of water...almost feel like this makes the "weight" worse.0 -
*sigh* It doesn't seem to be working. Hoped on the scale this morning and I'm up 2 1/2 pounds. I just finished TOM so that shouldn't be a factor. I worked out over 2 hours yesterday. I ate a lot, but I'm just trying to hit the numbers I was given. I'm so confused and Upset. I really thought this was what I was doing wrong. :-((((
You did not gain 2 1/2 pounds of fat in a day. In order to do that you would have had to eat about 8000 Extra calories.
When you workout, you actually cause microscopic damage to the body. Extra calories (in the form of protein mostly) are then used to repair that damage, so they are shuttled to the muscle. When you do long, strenuous cardio sessions, you also burn lots of glycogen in addition to fat. The body in trying to prepare for the next time you do that, will store more glycogen in the muscles you worked hard. Both of those processes either require extra water to store stuff in or produce extra water from the chemical reactions. The actual process of fat burning also produces extra water as a by-product. This is why I tell my clients to trust me and hide their scale for at least a month. And after it's worked I'll gladly accept the flowers and hugs of gratitude.
As for your question about how many calories people are consuming, I am between 2000-2300 on days I don't exercise and up to 3000 on days I do exercise and I don't count the fitness classes I teach or exercises I teach my clients as exercise, only my own personal workouts. I don't focus on the scale, but more on body fat %. Yes, because of the amount of exercise I do, I weigh more then the average woman my height. I'm 5'6" and 190 pounds. But I'm also 19% body fat and in a size 8. When you do a lot of exercise like we do, sometimes the scale isn't the best indicator of health or fitness. Relax. Fat loss happens when you don't stress about it.
Haha. Hey Tonya! This weight crept on last week...I thought it was TOM weight, but it's still there. Would the muscle/water thing happen when my body is so used to these workouts? I have to count my classes as I don't have time/energy to workout on TOP of my classes. I teach ELEVEN classes this week. EEK! Summer subbing. I really need a steady body fat measurement. My scale said 21% last night and 23% this morning...so I can't rely on it at all.0 -
Are digital calipers a good way to measure body fat percentage?0
-
I want to read this when I have more time.0
-
I am sorry you are still struggling with this, graysmom! At first I upped my calories by 150 for a couple weeks with no change. I then upped my calories by another 350 calories (so a total of 500 calories) and about one month after that the scale started to move down again. However, during that time I was fiddling around with my calories, I never really gained weight. I bounced between 158-161 the entire time (up and down, up and down, up and down...). Bottom line is it took over a month to get back on track again.0
-
*sigh* It doesn't seem to be working. Hoped on the scale this morning and I'm up 2 1/2 pounds. I just finished TOM so that shouldn't be a factor. I worked out over 2 hours yesterday. I ate a lot, but I'm just trying to hit the numbers I was given. I'm so confused and Upset. I really thought this was what I was doing wrong. :-((((
You did not gain 2 1/2 pounds of fat in a day. In order to do that you would have had to eat about 8000 Extra calories.
When you workout, you actually cause microscopic damage to the body. Extra calories (in the form of protein mostly) are then used to repair that damage, so they are shuttled to the muscle. When you do long, strenuous cardio sessions, you also burn lots of glycogen in addition to fat. The body in trying to prepare for the next time you do that, will store more glycogen in the muscles you worked hard. Both of those processes either require extra water to store stuff in or produce extra water from the chemical reactions. The actual process of fat burning also produces extra water as a by-product. This is why I tell my clients to trust me and hide their scale for at least a month. And after it's worked I'll gladly accept the flowers and hugs of gratitude.
As for your question about how many calories people are consuming, I am between 2000-2300 on days I don't exercise and up to 3000 on days I do exercise and I don't count the fitness classes I teach or exercises I teach my clients as exercise, only my own personal workouts. I don't focus on the scale, but more on body fat %. Yes, because of the amount of exercise I do, I weigh more then the average woman my height. I'm 5'6" and 190 pounds. But I'm also 19% body fat and in a size 8. When you do a lot of exercise like we do, sometimes the scale isn't the best indicator of health or fitness. Relax. Fat loss happens when you don't stress about it.
Haha. Hey Tonya! This weight crept on last week...I thought it was TOM weight, but it's still there. Would the muscle/water thing happen when my body is so used to these workouts? I have to count my classes as I don't have time/energy to workout on TOP of my classes. I teach ELEVEN classes this week. EEK! Summer subbing. I really need a steady body fat measurement. My scale said 21% last night and 23% this morning...so I can't rely on it at all.
Yes, the muscle/water thing will happen forever. I have been a trainer for 15 years and was working out prior to that and I still get the muscle pump effect. It's hard getting additional exercise in when you are doing a ton of classes and such. That's why you won't see consistency in my workout logs and why I use the extremely active setting instead of logging all my classes because I just don't have time to log them all the time. Plus I can't go by a HRM because of my asthma medication so I'd have to look up the METs for everything and it is just too much when you're a busy person. Life just gets too crazy.
As for the scale and body fat, does it also give you a reading for body water %? If so, then only count the BF% if you have the same BW% because the amount of water will cause a fluctuation in the fat % due to the formulas the scales use for calculations. What I usually do is only weigh, measure, do body composition about once a month or so. If I get on the scale and the body water % isn't the same as the previous month, then I don't count it, although I do write it down. I adjust my water consumption that day to get the body water % to be the same as the previous month and re-do the weight, measurements, and body comp the next morning. By logging both, though, I have a couple of options for the next month to get a comparison of changes. That's really all the scale or even body fat % is good for, monitoring changes.0 -
Are digital calipers a good way to measure body fat percentage?
The problem with calipers is that they only measure the subcutaneous fat (The fat right under the skin) and not the visceral fat (the fat around the organs) so they often get a lower reading then is the actual body fat percentage. I did a blog post about the different ways of determining body fat % that goes into detail about which ones are better or worse. You can read it here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/TrainingWithTonya But the main thing is that whatever method you chose you are consistent with it because you can't compare one method to the others because of the different ways they read. Just pick whichever method works best for you.0 -
Hi,
I recently upped mine from 1200 a day to 1800 a day as i wasnt eating back my excersise calories and was ending up on like 600 - 700 calories net a day and this went on for about 3 months and i just stayed the exact same weight as on the days were i maybe ate abit more my body didnt go back to normal it just stuck in starvaition mode.
Anyway i put on 6lbs after upping my calories!!! Which was a nightmare and this lasted for about 2 weeks but since then the weight has started dropping off again nicley so i think it has worked
Good luck! x0 -
bump0
-
*sigh* It doesn't seem to be working. Hoped on the scale this morning and I'm up 2 1/2 pounds. I just finished TOM so that shouldn't be a factor. I worked out over 2 hours yesterday. I ate a lot, but I'm just trying to hit the numbers I was given. I'm so confused and Upset. I really thought this was what I was doing wrong. :-((((
You did not gain 2 1/2 pounds of fat in a day. In order to do that you would have had to eat about 8000 Extra calories.
When you workout, you actually cause microscopic damage to the body. Extra calories (in the form of protein mostly) are then used to repair that damage, so they are shuttled to the muscle. When you do long, strenuous cardio sessions, you also burn lots of glycogen in addition to fat. The body in trying to prepare for the next time you do that, will store more glycogen in the muscles you worked hard. Both of those processes either require extra water to store stuff in or produce extra water from the chemical reactions. The actual process of fat burning also produces extra water as a by-product. This is why I tell my clients to trust me and hide their scale for at least a month. And after it's worked I'll gladly accept the flowers and hugs of gratitude.
As for your question about how many calories people are consuming, I am between 2000-2300 on days I don't exercise and up to 3000 on days I do exercise and I don't count the fitness classes I teach or exercises I teach my clients as exercise, only my own personal workouts. I don't focus on the scale, but more on body fat %. Yes, because of the amount of exercise I do, I weigh more then the average woman my height. I'm 5'6" and 190 pounds. But I'm also 19% body fat and in a size 8. When you do a lot of exercise like we do, sometimes the scale isn't the best indicator of health or fitness. Relax. Fat loss happens when you don't stress about it.
This is such a great post, very encouraging - thank you so much! 0 -
It only took about a week for me. I was stuck at my weight for months. I upped my goals from 1200 to 1500 and a week later I had lost 2 pounds.0
-
I'm also wondering about water consumption. I'm drinking TONS AND TONS of water. Much more than I was. I'm wondering if this has anything to do with the weight going/staying up?0
-
I have experienced this as well. I was doing WW for a long while. When they switched to the new program, I stopped losing and started maintaining. I then started to eat fewer points than what they gave me due to this. As a result, I did lose weight, but I believe I was also eating too few calories. I don't know how many calories I was actually eating at the time. When I switched to MFP and started tracking calories and eating more, I did gain. At most it was 3.5 pounds, but saw 2 lbs up for the longest amount of time. It took me about a month to see it go back down. Which just happened today I don't know if it was a fluke, but only time will tell. I also changed my WO routine during this time to a more intense program (from P90 to Turbo Fire), and was seeing results in my body, but not on the scale. Hopefully, the scale is now catching up with the changes I've been seeing! 0
-
I'm also wondering about water consumption. I'm drinking TONS AND TONS of water. Much more than I was. I'm wondering if this has anything to do with the weight going/staying up?
If you are doing a higher protein diet than normal (it sounds like you are based on what you said), you need water to process that extra protein.
I think, based on everything you said, try the extra calories and extra water for a month. Since you workout so intensely, your body may need more time to adjust. If your weight consistently goes up and up, then you can abandon it, but if it just goes up and hovers for a while, continue and see if your body slowly trusting that there will be enough calories.
I also noticed that when I started eating more, my performance shot up - I gained muscle more quickly and was able to break through some fitness barriers I had struggled with for a long time.0 -
BUMP. It's still there! Grrrrrrrrrrrr!:sad:0
-
When I decided to bump up my calories, I planned to do it gradually and give it a few weeks before making any other changes. I went from 1200 to 1300 and that worked so I have stayed with that for now. I didn't gain at first since I was still at a deficit and my body needed the extra fuel.0
-
I have bumped it up quite a bit, but only because I was at SUCH a deficit. Like this morning I taught Pump and Spin. I even paused my watch in between classes (about 15 min) and still burned over 800 calories. I'm trying to eat those calories back...or at least 80% as I plateaued for over a year eating probably around 1200 calories most days, and then working out 2 hours. I'm going to give it a couple more weeks. If the scales stays up, I'll have to totally reevaluate.0
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 391.5K Introduce Yourself
- 43.5K Getting Started
- 259.7K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.6K Food and Nutrition
- 47.3K Recipes
- 232.3K Fitness and Exercise
- 392 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.4K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 152.7K Motivation and Support
- 7.8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.2K MyFitnessPal Information
- 23 News and Announcements
- 927 Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.3K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions