Exercise vs weight loss issues

jmgj27 · April 2016

Hi guys

I've asked a similar question before but still remain confused. I have been losing an average of 2lbs a week, which is what I'm set to and I'm happy with that. However, I have over the past 3/4 weeks upped my exercise quite a lot. I have young twins and because of the good weather I have been out hiking with them on my back 3/4 days a week (10+ miles a time carrying 70lbs or so). The other days I have either walked with them in the pram for similar distances or run on the treadmill if the weather's not good (10k).

According to my Garmin HR monitor my burns have been between 1000 and 1750 a day depending on the terrain and distance covered.

I have been careful to eat back no more than around 25% of my exercise calories at an absolute maximum and often eat back 0%.

If anything I would say my weight loss has tailed off a little and I'm still heavy with another 62lbs to goal.

I understand increased exercise can cause water retention and my muscles have certainly been reasonably sore on a pretty much daily basis. But when will the payoff come? Any tips or ideas?

Ninkyou · April 2016

There's no "when". It comes off when it comes off. You just have to be patient. There could be other factors at play as well. You've got retention for the muscle repair, you could have retention from hormones, or from sodium and carbs, etc. All of those things can prolong the retention. That's why weight loss is not linear. Because it's never just a straight line down. It's more like a loopy rollercoaster. Give it time. If there's no change after 4-6 weeks, then you may have to dig deeper, but at this point, it's too soon.

morning1one · April 2016

Hi jmgj27,

I'm wondering if you are exercising too much? It sounds like you are burning more calories than you are taking in. Your body may be in starvation mode and trying to hang on to fat stores?
One other thought is that with all of your heavy load hiking you are building up your large muscle groups (glutes/quads) which will weigh more than fat. I keep track of cellulite personally- as I exercise these big muscle groups primarily too. Do you notice a reduction? Cellulite means there are fat deposits but not enough muscle layer. When my cellulite is decreasing I know that I am on track- despite the scale.
These are just a couple of ideas, hopefully someone else will 'weigh in' here. I'm no expert- just super interested!
Good luck with your fitness- enjoy your babies!

Ninkyou · April 2016

morning1one wrote: »

Hi jmgj27,

I'm wondering if you are exercising too much? It sounds like you are burning more calories than you are taking in. Your body may be in starvation mode and trying to hang on to fat stores?
One other thought is that with all of your heavy load hiking you are building up your large muscle groups (glutes/quads) which will weigh more than fat. I keep track of cellulite personally- as I exercise these big muscle groups primarily too. Do you notice a reduction? Cellulite means there are fat deposits but not enough muscle layer. When my cellulite is decreasing I know that I am on track- despite the scale.
These are just a couple of ideas, hopefully someone else will 'weigh in' here. I'm no expert- just super interested!
Good luck with your fitness- enjoy your babies!

I'm sorry, but no. Starvation mode doesn't exist in the context you're using. And aside from a small percentage who experience newbie gains, it's unlikely she's building muscle in a deficit.

jmgj27 · April 2016

I don't think it's muscle gain either. I am still losing weight it's just that it basically seems to make no difference if I exercise or not and given the high calorie burns I've been achieving, that seems odd.

AnnPT77 · April 2016

During my weight loss, it usually worked for me to think of the water weight gain as masking the expected fat loss by offsetting it. The water weight would stick around as long as I continued a level of exercise that caused muscle soreness.

But the water weight doesn't keep increasing & increasing. As long as I stayed at a deficit, the continued fat loss would eventually outpace the water weight, and the scale would start moving down again.

That's without time of month or any other water weight increasing factors complicating things.

I'd guess you'd start seeing results again soon - maybe within a couple of weeks? - since you were losing at 2 lbs/week, if your body works similarly to mine. But it depends on how much water weight it is.

I hope that makes sense.

Christine_72 · April 2016

Ninkyou wrote: »

morning1one wrote: »

Hi jmgj27,

I'm wondering if you are exercising too much? It sounds like you are burning more calories than you are taking in. Your body may be in starvation mode and trying to hang on to fat stores?
One other thought is that with all of your heavy load hiking you are building up your large muscle groups (glutes/quads) which will weigh more than fat. I keep track of cellulite personally- as I exercise these big muscle groups primarily too. Do you notice a reduction? Cellulite means there are fat deposits but not enough muscle layer. When my cellulite is decreasing I know that I am on track- despite the scale.
These are just a couple of ideas, hopefully someone else will 'weigh in' here. I'm no expert- just super interested!
Good luck with your fitness- enjoy your babies!

I'm sorry, but no. Starvation mode doesn't exist in the context you're using. And aside from a small percentage who experience newbie gains, it's unlikely she's building muscle in a deficit.

This is like the hundredth starvation mode post I've read this week!
I wonder if Dr Oz or Oprah have been peddling this woo lately??

Yi5hedr3 · April 2016

Too much exercise stimulates too much cortisol, which can be counter productive to weight loss efforts.

alyssa0061 · April 2016

Christine_72 wrote: »

Ninkyou wrote: »

morning1one wrote: »

Hi jmgj27,

I'm wondering if you are exercising too much? It sounds like you are burning more calories than you are taking in. Your body may be in starvation mode and trying to hang on to fat stores?
One other thought is that with all of your heavy load hiking you are building up your large muscle groups (glutes/quads) which will weigh more than fat. I keep track of cellulite personally- as I exercise these big muscle groups primarily too. Do you notice a reduction? Cellulite means there are fat deposits but not enough muscle layer. When my cellulite is decreasing I know that I am on track- despite the scale.
These are just a couple of ideas, hopefully someone else will 'weigh in' here. I'm no expert- just super interested!
Good luck with your fitness- enjoy your babies!

I'm sorry, but no. Starvation mode doesn't exist in the context you're using. And aside from a small percentage who experience newbie gains, it's unlikely she's building muscle in a deficit.

This is like the hundredth starvation mode post I've read this week!
I wonder if Dr Oz or Oprah have been peddling this woo lately??

I think it's the 500th one I've seen this week

BelleCakes2018 · April 2016

Are you taking your body measurements? Remember the scales are only half.. your body may be redistributing so to speak! You could be smaller through the exercise but not know it if you're only paying attention to scales? Just a thought..

thunder1982 · April 2016

Personally as a general rule I dont weigh myself if I have sore muscles, it usually ends in disappointment.

I often exercise heavy on the weekend and I dont tend to drink as much water. M-F my water intake is fantastic. So for me I tend to not to weigh till Wednesday, the extra water on M/T helps flush out water weight and my workouts are usually on the light side due to time commitments. I can usually tell though as I'll have to go to the loo extra one day and then the next day up to 1kg can be gone. Friday morning is often the lowest weight of the week for me.

Exercise vs weight loss issues

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