No harm in asking right?

borundaroberta
borundaroberta Posts: 7 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
hello everyone, so I've been working out 5 days a week for about 3 weeks now. 30 min interval cardio, weights for about an hour (rotating different muscle groups different days) then I do about 10-20 min light cardio after. I feel great and can see some improvement, however I'm losing any weight. I stick to my recommended calories every day but nothings budging. I weigh 175 I want to get back down to 155, I'm 5"11. Should I run more and cut back on lifting? How do I get lean but tone?!! Please help.

Replies

  • elphie754
    elphie754 Posts: 7,574 Member
    Do you weigh all of your food on a food scale?
  • JackieMarie1989jgw
    JackieMarie1989jgw Posts: 230 Member
    It could be a combination of inaccurate food logging as well as water retention from exercise
  • CoffeeNCardio
    CoffeeNCardio Posts: 1,847 Member
    ssi9d2v89r8r.jpg

    Sounds like you're on the right track, you just need to tighten up your logging. That is 99% of the time the answer on here.
  • joinn68
    joinn68 Posts: 480 Member
    edited January 2016
    What weekly goal have you set on MFP? And when you say not losing: like 0 or less than you were expecting?
    - Water weight from new exercise program / you should be over that already
    - Eating back too many exercise calories compared to what you are burning? Try eating back fewer exercise calories (50%) and see what happens
    - Inaccurate calorie count (as above asked: do you use a food scale?) Get a food scale if you didn't have one already. Chose entries with a checkmark in the database...
    - Normal fluctuations due to hormones, foods you've eaten... Try weigh-in yourself several days and look at the trend
    You are normal BMI to start with so you probably don't have a big calorie deficit to work with; you'll need to be very precise in your logging
  • borundaroberta
    borundaroberta Posts: 7 Member
    I use a preworkout, I've never sweat so much in my life and I do also take into account those calories as well as the ones in my post workout protein shake. I also weigh my fish and chicken.
  • elphie754
    elphie754 Posts: 7,574 Member
    borundaroberta wrote: »
    I use a preworkout, I've never sweat so much in my life and I do also take into account those calories as well as the ones in my post workout protein shake. I also weigh my fish and chicken.

    Do you weigh ALL of your food? Not just meat?
  • CoffeeNCardio
    CoffeeNCardio Posts: 1,847 Member
    elphie754 wrote: »
    borundaroberta wrote: »
    I use a preworkout, I've never sweat so much in my life and I do also take into account those calories as well as the ones in my post workout protein shake. I also weigh my fish and chicken.

    Do you weigh ALL of your food? Not just meat?

    This. you'd be horrified at how wrong packaging is about what's in the package, and how crazy-off measuring spoons and cups can be across different types of food as well as different brands of measuring cup.
  • borundaroberta
    borundaroberta Posts: 7 Member
    Judging from the flow chart, it looks like I might need to take a trip to my doctor.... Oh great lol

    My calorie intake was set to 1260. I've never gone over it and when I work out I don't eat what I've lost in the gym. I also do a fast cardio once a week in the morning.

    I feel like since my bmi isn't that bad maybe the mistake I'm making are in the gym?? Or is that dumb to assume
  • CoffeeNCardio
    CoffeeNCardio Posts: 1,847 Member
    borundaroberta wrote: »
    Judging from the flow chart, it looks like I might need to take a trip to my doctor.... Oh great lol

    My calorie intake was set to 1260. I've never gone over it and when I work out I don't eat what I've lost in the gym. I also do a fast cardio once a week in the morning.

    I feel like since my bmi isn't that bad maybe the mistake I'm making are in the gym?? Or is that dumb to assume

    Gym machines as well as the MFP database are constantly over-estimating calorie burns. If you eat back your exercise calories, that could be the problem, but since you don't, we're back to the logging. Don't be so quick to jump to the last box. Trained professionals are statistically proven to OVERestimate burns and UNDERestimate intake. And yet no average joe seems capable of believing they might not be logging accurately. There are a hundred different ways to log inaccurately that don't even occur to people, and I'm telling you, 99% of the time, that is the problem. Can you open your diary so people can give some more specific pointers?

    What you're doing or not doing in the gym doesn't matter for weight loss. It really doesn't. Only eating less than you burn does. That's it. You could eat nothing but cookies and chocolate and lose weight in a caloric deficit even if you never so much as drove past a gym.
  • MeiannaLee
    MeiannaLee Posts: 338 Member
    Your skipping over some questions asked by some posters.
    Are you weighing all of your food?
    What is your weekly deficit? Do the math. If its too high you wont lose weight.
    If it's too low and your not weighing all of your food, then your not creating a deficit.
  • elphie754
    elphie754 Posts: 7,574 Member
    MeiannaLee wrote: »
    Your skipping over some questions asked by some posters.
    Are you weighing all of your food?
    What is your weekly deficit? Do the math. If its too high you wont lose weight.
    If it's too low and your not weighing all of your food, then your not creating a deficit.

    This is not true.
  • Equus5374
    Equus5374 Posts: 462 Member
    Concentrate more on your logging and caloric intake than on your exercise routines. Calorie deficit for weight loss, working out for fitness. Simple as that.
  • errollmaclean
    errollmaclean Posts: 562 Member
    Are you weighing EVERYTHING???

    Also if you open up your diary you will get more accurate responses as to where you might be going wrong :)
  • CoffeeNCardio
    CoffeeNCardio Posts: 1,847 Member
    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10012907/logging-accuracy-consistency-and-youre-probably-eating-more-than-you-think/p1

    Check this out OP. I really hope you open your diary and let people help you. Nobody wants to see you putting in all of this effort only to be unable to reach your goals. We really are trying to help.
  • morey235
    morey235 Posts: 96 Member
    I am having problems losing weight also. They say eat fewer calories than you burn. MFP tells me to eat 1200calories, but I don't burn that many calories. Should I eat less calories then?
  • CoffeeNCardio
    CoffeeNCardio Posts: 1,847 Member
    edited January 2016
    morey235 wrote: »
    I am having problems losing weight also. They say eat fewer calories than you burn. MFP tells me to eat 1200calories, but I don't burn that many calories. Should I eat less calories then?

    You absolutely burn that many calories. My 2.5 year old, 31 lb toddler burns that many calories. You probably don't log that many calories in exercise, but you're not counting the calories your body uses just to exist. Running your organs, beating your heart, pulling air into your lungs and pushing it out, digesting food, all these things burn calories.

    I'm 5'2", 150lbs and I burn about 2000 calories per day on days when I don't even work out. What is your height weight? Plug it in here to see your BMR, or Basal Metabolic Rate, to see how much you're burning just existing.

    http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/
  • mirrim52
    mirrim52 Posts: 763 Member
    morey235 wrote: »
    I am having problems losing weight also. They say eat fewer calories than you burn. MFP tells me to eat 1200calories, but I don't burn that many calories. Should I eat less calories then?

    I can almost guarantee that you burn more than 1200 calories a day just being alive. Unless you are very small and very sedentary. Your body burns calories keeping your heart beating, regulating you temperature, keeping your organs functioning, moving around in general, even digesting food. The majority of your calories are burnt this way.
  • CoffeeNCardio
    CoffeeNCardio Posts: 1,847 Member
    @morey235 MFP gives you that number by subtracting about 500 (give or take depending on your weekly loss goal) from your NEAT (Non-exercise Activity Theremogenesis), which is what you burn on the daily just existing (organs digestion and such) AND going about your regular day (this is where picking an activity level in MFP comes in), walking to the bathroom, putting on clothes, going to work, picking up stuff, etc. You then add exercise to that number (which increase what you're allowed to eat that day) to get your TDEE (Total daily energy expenditure). If you eat less than your TDEE, you will lose weight. Simple.
  • borundaroberta
    borundaroberta Posts: 7 Member
    Equus5374 wrote: »
    Concentrate more on your logging and caloric intake than on your exercise routines. Calorie deficit for weight loss, working out for fitness. Simple as that.

    This makes sense. Thank you everyone
  • azulvioleta6
    azulvioleta6 Posts: 4,195 Member
    Do you have a very small frame size? I wonder if your goal weight is appropriate for your height. Running your goals by your doctor might not hurt.
  • morey235
    morey235 Posts: 96 Member
    thanks everyone for your replies
  • borundaroberta
    borundaroberta Posts: 7 Member
    azulvioleta6 wrote: »
    Do you have a very small frame size? I wonder if your goal weight is appropriate for your height. Running your goals by your doctor might not hurt.


    I do actually... Idk of this is directed towards me, but yeah even though I'm nearly 6 feet tall my frak is petite
  • morey235
    morey235 Posts: 96 Member
    I'm going to take all of your advice and check it out, didn't realize I was already burning that many calories just living day to day. I just wished the scale would show some kind of loss. I gotta be patient. thanks again
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,319 Member
    CoffeeNCardio wrote: »
    elphie754 wrote: »
    borundaroberta wrote: »
    I use a preworkout, I've never sweat so much in my life and I do also take into account those calories as well as the ones in my post workout protein shake. I also weigh my fish and chicken.

    Do you weigh ALL of your food? Not just meat?

    This. you'd be horrified at how wrong packaging is about what's in the package, and how crazy-off measuring spoons and cups can be across different types of food as well as different brands of measuring cup.

    Measuring cups and spoons are meant for liquids and pretty much nothing else. Solids need to be weighed, and even ground up solids that are really calorie dense like peanut butter are better weighed.

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