Does exercise not work for some of us?
karmelpopcorn
Posts: 77 Member
Once I went to see a nutritionist and he told me to stop doing aerobic exercise because it was not helping me lose weight. That was a long time ago, but some of it rings true .... I've been working out like mad, eating about 1,560 calories a day, and struggling to see weight loss.
I do indulge in some homemade cocktails on the weekends, but it's hard for me to believe they are completely derailing my weight loss when I follow the program perfectly 5-6 days a week.
I run, I spin, I have a personal trainer who gives me tons of punishing weight-bearing exercises, but I still hover at 180, which puts me less than a tenth of a point under the "obesity" label on standard BMI charts.
I am 43. I have asthma and a family history of heart disease, so I do the exercise for a healthy heart and lungs more than weight loss, but still .... it's discouraging.
I do indulge in some homemade cocktails on the weekends, but it's hard for me to believe they are completely derailing my weight loss when I follow the program perfectly 5-6 days a week.
I run, I spin, I have a personal trainer who gives me tons of punishing weight-bearing exercises, but I still hover at 180, which puts me less than a tenth of a point under the "obesity" label on standard BMI charts.
I am 43. I have asthma and a family history of heart disease, so I do the exercise for a healthy heart and lungs more than weight loss, but still .... it's discouraging.
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Replies
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How are you measuring your calories? Are you weighing your food?0
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Are you logging the cocktails? If so, how far are you going over your calorie goal? It is certainly possible for drinks on the weekend to wipe out a deficit created during the week.
Exercise doesn't cause anyone to lose weight. It can work to help create or increase a deficit, but what you consume is always going to be key. Exercise doesn't burn *that* many calories.0 -
Aerobic will always work at what it's supposed to do, which is to build your cardiovascular endurance. It also burns calories. To lose weight you need a caloric deficit, which means that you eat fewer cals than you burn. This happens primarily in the kitchen. Read the sticky posts at the top of each forum for lots of good info and guidance on how to accomplish a caloric deficit.0
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I meticulously log calories, use measuring spoons and cups. I am also a near-vegan - very little dairy and mostly vegetarian protein. I may be going upwards of 500 calories over my goal with the cocktails, but I really did believe the exercise would allow me those with the extra calories allocated. I have read a few discussions on here and it sounds like many think MFP overestimates exercise calories.0
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90% of weight loss is in the kitchen. We are very similar in size, and I have my cals set to 1590/day to lose 1lb/week. While I like to think that my portion control is improving, I do know that if I didn't weigh my food 2 days a week, I would wipe out at least some of my weekly deficit. It could be that you're losing at a much lower rate simply because of those 2 days a week of "non-perfection." Have you tried tracking your weight on something like Trendweight to see the overall trend?
That being said, if you're exercising like mad and not seeing a loss, there are a couple of things that could be happening:
1. You're retaining some water as your muscles repair (apparently this is at the outset of a new program, so wouldn't necessarily apply if you've been working out like this for a while)
2. You're eating/drinking more than you think. If you don't have a food scale, get one. If you do have one, tighten up your logging - avoid generic entries, make sure you log every bite, weigh foods that come from a package (e.g. slices of bread, slices of deli meat, etc.)
3. Don't know how long you've been at this, but make sure you've given it enough time. Weight loss is not linear, as everyone here is keen to tell you.0 -
How much do you weigh currently? How much did you weigh two and four weeks ago?
How tall are you?
How long have you been "working out like mad, eating about 1,560 calories a day?"
How accurate is your estimate of your daily calorie intake?
Bottom line is exercise isn't necessary for weight loss but it has other benefits and some people really like it.0 -
Nobody has to exercise for weight loss but, as others have said, it creates a greater deficit. That being said, exercise certainly does not prevent people from losing weight. Depending on your deficit, one or two days off plan can absolutely cancel out your deficit. I have a few questions.
- What constitutes working out "like mad"?
- Eating "about" 1560 calories on a weekly average or daily?
- Do you weigh your food?
- Do you eat your exercise calories back?
- Do you log your cocktails?
- What happens on your one or two days "off plan" per week?
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I meticulously log calories, use measuring spoons and cups. I am also a near-vegan - very little dairy and mostly vegetarian protein. I may be going upwards of 500 calories over my goal with the cocktails, but I really did believe the exercise would allow me those with the extra calories allocated. I have read a few discussions on here and it sounds like many think MFP overestimates exercise calories.
invest in a food scale.0 -
It's not that exercise doesn't "work" - it's that it really should be disassociated from weight loss.
Don't get me wrong - there are 1,000 reasons to exercise, including heart and lung health (like you mentioned), bone density maintenance, improving muscle tone and structure so that you look better, the wonderful endorphins one feels afterward, etc... However, even an awesome, butt-busting workout will only burn off a few hundred calories. When comparing the rate of burn to the fact that it's super, super easy to wipe out a workout deficit by eating just a little too much of the wrong thing, it just doesn't make it seem worth it.
(ETA: It's also very easy to overestimate the number of calories you burn in any given exercise. This might be something you want to look at if you eat back your exercise calories.)
There are a couple of very common sayings here on MFP. One is "You can't outrun a bad diet." Another one is, "Weight loss starts in the kitchen; health starts in the gym." If you're not seeing results and exercise is wearing you out, try tightening up your diet. Make sure you're weighing solids and measuring liquids to ensure your calorie count is accurate. Eating less calories than you burn is how you lose; in the context of weight loss, exercise just gives you a small calorie buffer in the event you want to eat a little more.
Additionally - you may want to count up those cocktails once just to make sure they're not throwing you off more than you think you are. I had a shot of Disaronno last night and it was 110 calories. Your standard Long Island Iced Tea can have 800 calories or more. Cocktails can be deceptively calorie-laden.0 -
Cut the cocktails for a few weeks and see what happens ?0
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I meticulously log calories, use measuring spoons and cups. I am also a near-vegan - very little dairy and mostly vegetarian protein. I may be going upwards of 500 calories over my goal with the cocktails, but I really did believe the exercise would allow me those with the extra calories allocated. I have read a few discussions on here and it sounds like many think MFP overestimates exercise calories.
If you aren't using a scale, you may be eating much more than you think you are. A plant-based diet is pretty irrelevant for calorie intake -- all the weight I lost recently (40+ pounds) I gained as a vegan.
I would recommend getting a handle on what you're actually consuming by getting a food scale and logging your cocktails. This can help you see if you're either eating more than you think you are or wiping out your deficit on the weekends.
I'm not sure how much exercise you're doing, but it's really, really easy to eat enough to wipe out the calories burnt through exercise. I run about 35 miles a week and I still -- with eating plant-based foods -- went over my weekly calorie goal due to just two days of relaxed eating last week (these were not even days when I was eating whatever I wanted). If I was trying to lose weight, those two days would have been enough to wipe out any deficit I created on the other days of the week.0 -
^^ cocktails are hidiously high in calories
....And I can pack an awful lot of food in a cup. ....you need a food scale to know how much you are actually eating.0 -
You guys are all absolutely right. It has to be intake, and it could also be constant inflammation from the workouts, and water retention. One the days I manage the program perfectly, I am often up 8 times a need peeing (which is another TERRIBLE downside.) I do have a food scale. So you're saying use the MFP weight option over the other service size options?
I'd very much like to say I could cut my cocktails, but they're the last of my vices and my kids stress me out! I could maybe reduce them ...
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You guys are all absolutely right. It has to be intake, and it could also be constant inflammation from the workouts, and water retention. One the days I manage the program perfectly, I am often up 8 times a need peeing (which is another TERRIBLE downside.) I do have a food scale. So you're saying use the MFP weight option over the other service size options?
I'd very much like to say I could cut my cocktails, but they're the last of my vices and my kids stress me out! I could maybe reduce them ...
I drank alcohol consistently (including cocktails) when losing weight. You can have them! The important thing is to understand how much you're having. I would begin logging them (if you aren't already) so you can account for the calories in them. Also, I'm not sure what type you are having, but there might be some swaps you can do to reduce the calories in them.0 -
I will say, though, that I feel pretty confident that I am eating within the 1560 calorie range (except for cocktail days).0
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i think alcohol screws up some people's bodies metabolism differently than others. I can diet and exercise perfectly but if i even look at a cocktail it blows all my efforts. When i'm at maintenance, even if i include alcohol calories in my budget, i will gain weight. If i eat at a deficit and include alcohol calories in that budget, i will stay the same weight. The minute i stop drinking in a deficit the weight falls off. Over the years I've tested every different kind of alcohol possible and every calorie combination , and it doesn't matter there is no way i can drink even one cocktail on the weekend and lose weight. its not fair because i love to drink!!!0
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i think alcohol screws up some people's bodies metabolism differently than others. I can diet and exercise perfectly but if i even look at a cocktail it blows all my efforts. When i'm at maintenance, even if i include alcohol calories in my budget, i will gain weight. If i eat at a deficit and include alcohol calories in that budget, i will stay the same weight. The minute i stop drinking in a deficit the weight falls off. Over the years I've tested every different kind of alcohol possible and every calorie combination , and it doesn't matter there is no way i can drink even one cocktail on the weekend and lose weight. its not fair because i love to drink!!!
Oh my that is absolutely the worst news!0 -
You guys are all absolutely right. It has to be intake, and it could also be constant inflammation from the workouts, and water retention. One the days I manage the program perfectly, I am often up 8 times a need peeing (which is another TERRIBLE downside.) I do have a food scale. So you're saying use the MFP weight option over the other service size options?
I'd very much like to say I could cut my cocktails, but they're the last of my vices and my kids stress me out! I could maybe reduce them ...
Don't cut your cocktails..I drink every weekend and am still losing weight, even though I'm now trying to be at "maintenance". Make the cocktails FIT...and absolutely, use your foodscale....start measuring in grams and ounces...and weigh and log everything. My French vanilla from Tims is a whopping 300 cals....if I drank one every day and didn't log it, I'd only be fooling myself. Drinks are funny...especially alcoholic ones....and yes, they can derail your WHOLE week. xo0 -
I think until you use your food scale and really start logging tightly, you won't really be sure you are eating withing the 1560 range, and could be eating way OVER that range on cocktail days. Give it a try! It's only a pain in the butt for the first week, then it gets to be like second nature. Its worth it!! xoI will say, though, that I feel pretty confident that I am eating within the 1560 calorie range (except for cocktail days).0 -
Once I went to see a nutritionist and he told me to stop doing aerobic exercise because it was not helping me lose weight. That was a long time ago, but some of it rings true .... I've been working out like mad, eating about 1,560 calories a day, and struggling to see weight loss.
I do indulge in some homemade cocktails on the weekends, but it's hard for me to believe they are completely derailing my weight loss when I follow the program perfectly 5-6 days a week.
I run, I spin, I have a personal trainer who gives me tons of punishing weight-bearing exercises, but I still hover at 180, which puts me less than a tenth of a point under the "obesity" label on standard BMI charts.
I am 43. I have asthma and a family history of heart disease, so I do the exercise for a healthy heart and lungs more than weight loss, but still .... it's discouraging.
Anyone can call themselves a nutritionist
Aerobic exercise is for cardiovascular health and will increase your TDEE but also your hunger
Issues I'm your post are "eating about" .. Weigh and log don't guess..."indulge"..weigh and log and account for it and following your orogram only part of the week...you are clearly eating to maintenance calories if not losing
You lose weight by monitoring your intake
Your exercise program sounds good...get the food in order too0 -
Measuring cups and spoons are not meticulous. Weighing to the gram is.0
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i think alcohol screws up some people's bodies metabolism differently than others. I can diet and exercise perfectly but if i even look at a cocktail it blows all my efforts. When i'm at maintenance, even if i include alcohol calories in my budget, i will gain weight. If i eat at a deficit and include alcohol calories in that budget, i will stay the same weight. The minute i stop drinking in a deficit the weight falls off. Over the years I've tested every different kind of alcohol possible and every calorie combination , and it doesn't matter there is no way i can drink even one cocktail on the weekend and lose weight. its not fair because i love to drink!!!
Oh my that is absolutely the worst news!
yeah it sucks, i let myself drink only several times a year for special occasions that i look forward to, and i make those alcohol cheat days count !!! but i always gain a few pounds that take me a month or more of a clean deficit to lose. The days of a relaxing glass of wine after work are long gone for me.
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find some literature on the caloric count of your "cocktail" of choice. and remember it isn't JUST the calories.. it is what those calories come from... 1500 calories from candy bars... isn't the same as 1500 calories from a well balanced meal.0
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RavenLibra wrote: »find some literature on the caloric count of your "cocktail" of choice. and remember it isn't JUST the calories.. it is what those calories come from... 1500 calories from candy bars... isn't the same as 1500 calories from a well balanced meal.
The calories are the same. The macro- and micronutrients will be different, but I'm pretty sure OP isn't asking if she should switch to a 100% candy bar diet.0 -
I will say, though, that I feel pretty confident that I am eating within the 1560 calorie range (except for cocktail days).
Give weighing all of your food a shot.... I was shocked by the peanut butter and cheese serving sizes once I started weighing. And most of my fruit is much larger than the generic entries in the food database (e.g. 180g apples vs. 154g, 120g bananas vs. 80g). The bagels my husband eats for breakfast weigh 130g, not the 100g listed on the package. It adds up quickly.
I totally get the cocktails - my kids stress me out too. Could you have one, then substitute something lighter? Or choose diet options for the mixes? I am loathe to drink diet pop or juice (I'd rather have sugar than artificial sweeteners), but it might help you see if that's where the problem is.0 -
Get a digital food scale. Use it for everything. Problem solved.0
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honestly i have never come across someone telling another person to give up aerobic type exercises
i would have given them such a dirty look
my nurse kept on telling me to get in my exercise at least 30 mins daily
anyway others have already said tighten up your logging
good luck0 -
Along with a food scale you need to make sure that the entries that you use are correct. Read the "Logging Accurately" post in the Most Helpful Announcement at the top of this forum.0
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....it's hard for me to believe they are completely derailing my weight loss when I follow the program perfectly 5-6 days a week.
I look at calories consumed over 2 or three days more than daily. I might have a day I go over by a few hundred and I compensate to be under the next few days. That is how I handle weekends myself, to compensate for eat and drinking a bit more. During the week when I am at work and super busy it is much easier to be strict on calories for me anyways so I tend to also go a bit under each day (like not eating back exercise calories) so I am already 500 to 1000 calories extra under by Friday.
That all said, exercise is not, or in my opinion, SHOULD NOT be done for weight loss as the focus. I actually use it for the above mentioned deficit, or so I can eat more. The main focus for me is specifically system health though.
Realistically, the average person burns around 350-500 calories in day from exercise. If you equate that to food or drink terms, that is like a two decent IPA beers, a decent 1/4 burger, only 6oz. of that big steak at a restaurant, etc.. Really, the most effective way to lose weight and reduce calories is to moderate portions and intake. And it means logging every little thing - if it goes in the body it goes on the food and drink log.
Measuring is critical too. For example, I have granola almost daily, which is about 200 calories per cup. If I just scoop and dump (not leveling) I might end up putting a whole other 1/4 cup in. Doesn't sound like much but that is an extra 100 calories I didn't count. If you use butter or cream cheese, eyeballing is the worst because just a few extra tablespoons over what you think and log can add 100's of calories that day you didn't count.
And even in using cups you can make mistakes, so it is better to go by weight if possible.
Once you get your calories deficit dialed in you start to get a good feeling about what and how much of stuff works so you don't have to be as regimented, but it it best to be strict to start.
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