frustrated with the yoyo

Am I reading you right that you upped cardio and cut calories at the same time?

This might sound like a really personal question . . . but were you ever really, really overweight at one time in your life?

He's why I ask: I am 5'10, I started out at 340lbs so I was BIG! I did body composition testing and I, as someone who was morbidly obese for a long time, have 140lbs of LBM on me and I'm 8 inches taller than you, and the reason for it is that a lot of people who are very over weight (LIKE VERY, VERY) develop higher amounts of muscle because they have to in order to carry around that much extra weight.

To have 135 lbs of LBM on a 5'2 frame is a lot, like a lot. This means based on your current weight you have about 28% BF give or take. In all honesty I don't think that's very accurate based on your photos. It's also very difficult for women to gain large amounts of lean body mass/muscle because we just don't have the same hormone make up that men do.

Is it possible to re-do the body composition testing . . . like this just doesn't seem accurate. Maybe, but something seems off. How did you do the body composition testing?

Further, aside from your license why do you feel you need to tell people your weight? I don't and I'm perfectly happy with very few people knowing what I weigh. Also, if you were eating 1,600 I don't know what your TDEE is but is it possible you were eating above a deficit, and maybe even into a surplus and so you gained a bit of weight? I'm not trying to suggest you were "bulking" because as I said before, women just don't have that kind of biology but it could explain a bit of weight gain if you had any?

I'm not sure how else you can lose weight. Something seems off about this to me . . .

latinbarbie1 wrote: »

Yes I was told that increase of cardio I should decrease calories. . I've actually have been yoyoing. . Up 2 down 2 lbs

Hmm. Increasing cardio would increase your calorie deficit if you did it without eating the additional calories you burned. Do you generally add in your exercise calories and then eat them? The only reason I could think to increase cardio and then decrease your calories would be so that you could add in the exercise calories and eat them but still end up eating less overall. Just in case that doesn't make sense, this is what I mean:

Scenario #1 - No (or little) cardio. Goal is 1600 calories, eat 1600 calories.
Scenario #2 - Added cardio. Goal is 1600 calories, add 200 calories from cardio, eat 1800 calories.
Scenario #3 - Added cardio. Lower goal to 1400 calories, add 200 calories from cardio, eat 1600 calories.

If what you did was #3, you essentially are doing more cardio just to eat more. And that is perfectly fine, if that's what you meant to do. But you could also just have created what I'll call Scenario #4 and stayed at no (or little) cardio and then lowered your goal to 1500 calories. I'd stay at that level for several weeks to see how it was working before lowering calories any more.

Obviously some speculation here, but I would have to guess you are just not tracking your calories correctly and taking in more than you think. I don't think adding cardio is what you need. Not sure if you are tracking your macros and measuring protein, carbs, and fat as you go. You need to weigh and track everything to really know. Here is a good calculator to get yourself on track. I run at a 20% deficit when I'm cutting.

https://legionathletics.com/how-many-calories-should-i-eat/

I never eat back my exercise calories, just know what you daily intake should be based on your weekly workout. The calculator should help.

CasperNaegle wrote: »

Obviously some speculation here, but I would have to guess you are just not tracking your calories correctly and taking in more than you think. I don't think adding cardio is what you need. Not sure if you are tracking your macros and measuring protein, carbs, and fat as you go. You need to weigh and track everything to really know. Here is a good calculator to get yourself on track. I run at a 20% deficit when I'm cutting.

https://legionathletics.com/how-many-calories-should-i-eat/

I never eat back my exercise calories, just know what you daily intake should be based on your weekly workout. The calculator should help.

you never eat your calories back? isn't that basically deficit on top of deficit?
The calculators do give out caloric levels based on our workout activity and doing something additional to what was in the calculator and not eating it would throw it off?

I ask because I've been doing the same thing up until recently.
For example if I had 2400 calorie daily goal -I'd eat 2400 and if I end up walking and burn like 200-300- i wouldn't eat em back so basically my day would end at 2100 cals a day.

Now I just eat bunch of nuts and peanuts to get it close to 2400

viren19890 wrote: »

CasperNaegle wrote: »

Obviously some speculation here, but I would have to guess you are just not tracking your calories correctly and taking in more than you think. I don't think adding cardio is what you need. Not sure if you are tracking your macros and measuring protein, carbs, and fat as you go. You need to weigh and track everything to really know. Here is a good calculator to get yourself on track. I run at a 20% deficit when I'm cutting.

https://legionathletics.com/how-many-calories-should-i-eat/

I never eat back my exercise calories, just know what you daily intake should be based on your weekly workout. The calculator should help.

you never eat your calories back? isn't that basically deficit on top of deficit?
The calculators do give out caloric levels based on our workout activity and doing something additional to what was in the calculator and not eating it would throw it off?

I ask because I've been doing the same thing up until recently.
For example if I had 2400 calorie daily goal -I'd eat 2400 and if I end up walking and burn like 200-300- i wouldn't eat em back so basically my day would end at 2100 cals a day.

Now I just eat bunch of nuts and peanuts to get it close to 2400

Whether you eat your exercise calories or don't eat them depends on how you got your calorie goal. If you use the MFP calorie goal, your deficit is built into your base goal and you are supposed to (whether you do or not, this is how the model is built) add your exercise calories and then eat them. If you use a TDEE calculator, which is what CasperNaegle has used, to determine your goal, your exercise calories are already built in so you don't have to add them back. Two paths to the same goal.

My caloric intake is based on my workouts and the deficit I want so I just keep it flat rather than trying to move up and down on a daily basis. I stay in an overall 20% deficit and it works well for me. Basically what jemhh said

latinbarbie1 wrote: »

I use measuring cups and spoons but should use a scale.. I use MFP calculator My caros are 40/40/20 ( protein /carbs/fats)
As per my nutrition plan it's supposed to be 30 g fat, 140 of protein on lifting days 120 non lifting, 135 g carbs on lifting and 115 non lifting..
And no I don't eat my calories back..
FYI thank you for your help guys..

Are those numbers based on the link above or from your trainer? Because this is what I'm getting

Lifting days
Fat (30 x 9) = 270
Protein (140 x 4) = 560
Carbs (540 x 4) = 540
Total = 1370 calories

Non-lifting days
Fat (30 x 9) = 270
Protein (120 x 4) = 480
Carbs (115 x 4) = 460
Total = 1210 calories

I definitely wouldn't cut that low.

I looked at three different TDEE calculators (the one above, the Scooby accurate calculator, and IIFYM.com's calculator.) On them, your TDEE (based on 5 hour of exercise) was 2234/2317/2038, which averages 2196. I think that, if I found myself in your position, I would stop the cardio except for maybe a 20 minute walk (i.e., easy cardio) after lifting on your 4 lifting days. Then I would eat 1600 calories. I'd do that for four weeks. If there was no loss, I would cut my calories down to 1525. You are unlikely to gain any weight at 1600 since you didn't in the past when you ate at that level. Plus, even if you don't lose anything, you're giving yourself a bit of a break (eating a bit more, exercising a bit less can be a good recharge from time to time.) That's just what I, personally, would do, so there may be better methods but that's my best advice for now.

Definitely weigh your food.

Accurately and honestly log your food for 6-8 weeks. That means food scale for everything possible, enter your own recipes, account for cooking oils, condiments, etc. Without further changing your exercise/activity routines. Count this as day 0. Compare your weights at day 0, 30, 60. Only then will you have an accurate gauge of what is happening.

When trying something new, you need more than a week or two of data. So if you constantly change what you're trying, it will seem like nothing ever works.