Insanity Ballooned Me!
dnwamp
Posts: 3 Member
Hi all,
First time poster and looking for advice/tips. I just turned 40 and have always been in pretty decent shape, but never a world class athlete type. I have been doing gym workouts regularly for the past 20+ years. I mix up running, swimming, cycling, and lifting. Two years ago, I did the Insanity program for something different and had decent results. No weight loss, but I felt great and ran a lot faster afterwards. I had another go at it last summer, and as soon as I finished, I ballooned. In July 2015, I weighed 210 lbs (I'm 6'3), and between then and January 2016, I gained 23 lbs, to 233. Some of this was muscle mass, but my fat increased, with no changes in diet or exercise. My pants size went up from 34 to 36, so that's never a good thing. I generally eat healthy, with weekend slip-ups, but that has always been the case. I have been working out consistently 5 days/week for about an hour each time. I have a HRM and typically burn between 600-800 calories/workout, with an occasional 1000+ burn.
My doctor is baffled. I'm baffled. I can't directly attribute this to the program, but my gain definitely coincides with it. On top of all this, I just had blood work done, and for the first time every, my hemoglobin level is up, just into the prediabetic range. Doc suggests lowering carbs and increasing seeds and nuts, which is all fine. Has anyone else had similar experiences with these intense exercise programs? I'm at a loss...I can't work out anymore than I am currently working out. I just don't have the time.
First time poster and looking for advice/tips. I just turned 40 and have always been in pretty decent shape, but never a world class athlete type. I have been doing gym workouts regularly for the past 20+ years. I mix up running, swimming, cycling, and lifting. Two years ago, I did the Insanity program for something different and had decent results. No weight loss, but I felt great and ran a lot faster afterwards. I had another go at it last summer, and as soon as I finished, I ballooned. In July 2015, I weighed 210 lbs (I'm 6'3), and between then and January 2016, I gained 23 lbs, to 233. Some of this was muscle mass, but my fat increased, with no changes in diet or exercise. My pants size went up from 34 to 36, so that's never a good thing. I generally eat healthy, with weekend slip-ups, but that has always been the case. I have been working out consistently 5 days/week for about an hour each time. I have a HRM and typically burn between 600-800 calories/workout, with an occasional 1000+ burn.
My doctor is baffled. I'm baffled. I can't directly attribute this to the program, but my gain definitely coincides with it. On top of all this, I just had blood work done, and for the first time every, my hemoglobin level is up, just into the prediabetic range. Doc suggests lowering carbs and increasing seeds and nuts, which is all fine. Has anyone else had similar experiences with these intense exercise programs? I'm at a loss...I can't work out anymore than I am currently working out. I just don't have the time.
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Replies
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Have you been logging calories this whole time?1
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Prepare for the "you're eating more than you're burning" posts...5
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Prepare for the "you're eating more than you're burning" posts...
If OP is gaining weight, I can't imagine a scenario where she *isn't* eating more than she is burning. The challenge is to figure out how that is happening.
Are you saying she is eating less than she is burning and somehow gaining weight?5 -
How many calories are you eating? Intense exercise can increase hunger which could increase the amount of food you eat.1
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If your doctor is baffled, that leaves us with the assumption that yes there was a change in your diet and you didn't realize it.0
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You diary is closed to the public. Do you weigh all your solids on a food scale? When you slip up on the weekends, do you do this every weekend. These slip ups, are the accounted for in your diary?0
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I would also like to point out that manu "healthy" foods are also very caloric (e.g., nuts) and can easily make you gain. Combined with the weekend slip ups, its easy to eat more than you burn.0
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Eat how you normally do for a week, but weigh and log everything. Then go back and re-evaluate if you are hitting your goals or overestimating. If you are staying at a deficit after trying that, I would assume there could be something medically wrong that your doctor hasn't figured out.1
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Barring a medical condition (considering your doctor is baffled), I agree with the others stating to log and weigh all the foods that you eat for at least 2 months, then reassess.
If I don't weigh and accurately log the food that I don't eat, I don't lose or gain a little weight. I don't cut out foods or claim to be a 'clean eater' (whatever that means). All I do is make sure I hit my protein, fat and fiber goals as best as I can as well as eat the foods that I like as well as treats. Am I successful with calorie counting? You bet I am. I call 90lbs down a success.
Combining not logging with the insanity (which can cause temporary fluid retention), can cause a stall or even 'ballooning'. Also, how is your sodium intake? Also, how much water have you been drinking? With excessive exercise, dehydration can occur which causes fluid retention as well.
Have you measured yourself with a tape measure? MFP has a useful section to log measurements, too. It's great. When I was sure I wasn't losing due to the scale staying the same, I measured myself and found out I lost 7" off my thighs. 7 inches. I was SO amazed.
Seriously? Please stop the bitterness, it's not cool. OP posted asking for help, not some sarcastic rude reply. Your awful replies are not helpful and can actually upset those who seek out help. If you want to help, that's great, but please do not discount other's experiences, scientific knowledge and willingness to help others. Thank you.Prepare for the "you're eating more than you're burning" posts...
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When you exercise hard your appetite increases accordingly
It is very easy to consume an additional 500 to 1000 calories without actually noticing, through slightly bigger portions etc
Unless you have weighed and accurately logged everything is afraid the cold hard truth is you have been eating above maintenance
Over a year you've gained 23lbs so you've been eating 220 calories a day more than maintenance
That's a couple of slices of bread
Or
An apple and a banana
Or
A bigger bowl of porridge
It's really not much4 -
Also find yourself a dietician, your doctors nutritional bafflement and advice seems rather lacking1
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janejellyroll wrote: »Prepare for the "you're eating more than you're burning" posts...
If OP is gaining weight, I can't imagine a scenario where she *isn't* eating more than she is burning. The challenge is to figure out how that is happening.
Are you saying she is eating less than she is burning and somehow gaining weight?
Pretty sure it's a he given the 6'3 210lb weight discussed. I suppose it could be a WNBA player, but more likely a dude.2 -
BillMcKay1 wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »Prepare for the "you're eating more than you're burning" posts...
If OP is gaining weight, I can't imagine a scenario where she *isn't* eating more than she is burning. The challenge is to figure out how that is happening.
Are you saying she is eating less than she is burning and somehow gaining weight?
Pretty sure it's a he given the 6'3 210lb weight discussed. I suppose it could be a WNBA player, but more likely a dude.
Good point. OP, I apologize for missing that initially.0 -
I've just googled insanity...that looks like a cardio programme, not progressive resistance...where has your "muscle gain" come from?1
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If you gained weight it's because you ate at a calorie surplus.
Calories in calories out
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When you exercise hard your appetite increases accordingly
It is very easy to consume an additional 500 to 1000 calories without actually noticing, through slightly bigger portions etc
Unless you have weighed and accurately logged everything is afraid the cold hard truth is you have been eating above maintenance
Over a year you've gained 23lbs so you've been eating 220 calories a day more than maintenance
That's a couple of slices of bread
Or
An apple and a banana
Or
A bigger bowl of porridge
It's really not much
7 months so closer to 400kcal a day.
Personally OP I would be seeking some testing and possible another medical opinion. From your post it sounds like you have 20+years of a healthy lifestyle and proper energy balance if you have maintained at a steady weight over that time frame. It wouldn't hurt to log your food for a couple weeks to see if maybe you have been eating more that you thought, but I wouldn't rule out a medical condition of some kind to see a 20+lb gain over half a year after 20 adult years of maintaining a steady weight.
It's pretty unusual for a fit person with a 20+year regular exercise routine to just all of a sudden start overeating by almost 3000 calories a week.0 -
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I've done Insanity, P90X and Beast Body. Great programs, you get out what you put into them IMO. I felt the same as you with Insanity, I had more energy and endurance but at the same time it is so much easier to feel famished. I suggest changing your macros...stuff your face with more proteins and less carbs. Gaining 23 lbs while doing Insanity every day and eating clean at your calorie goals is really hard to imagine.0
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I would also like to point out that manu "healthy" foods are also very caloric (e.g., nuts) and can easily make you gain. Combined with the weekend slip ups, its easy to eat more than you burn.
Yes, I was dismayed to learn how many calories are in peanut butter and almonds. These are still staple foods for me, but now I weigh them out on a digital food scale rather than eyeballing them. I could easily put 300 calories worth of peanut butter in a smoothie with eyeballing.1 -
TavistockToad wrote: »
**crickets**2 -
This is where training and more intense physical activity can ironically go against weight management objectives. Very often, a couple of things happen...one, with that kind of work, your appetite is going to naturally go up and it's pretty easy to have things slip in relatively unnoticed...your body is going to crave that nourishment to help replenish energy as well as for recovery and repair. Two, very often NEAT declines with greater and more intense training.
Early on in my maintenance phase I decided I wanted to do a century ride...so I started training for that...lots and lots and lots of miles on the bike...I ended up putting on about 8 Lbs over the course of about four months. I was somewhat baffled by this...I wasn't really trying to lose weight or anything, but I thought with all of that training it would be likely that I'd lose some and certainly wasn't expecting to gain weight. I remember talking to my wife baffled and I remember telling her that there really wasn't a lot of change in diet, etc and that I was doing pretty good...she was like, "really? because you get home and raid the cupboard...you don't even put stuff out on a plate, you just grab handfuls of stuff and put it in your face."
In regards to declining NEAT, I also noticed this. On weekends for example, it's pretty routine for us to go spend a few hours walking around the zoo or head up to the mountains for a little family hike, etc...but when I was training I was just tired...I was more inclined to sit and watch a movie or something. I'm also a fidgety person and have a hard time sitting still...but I noticed when I was training I was so worn out that I was much less fidgety and I had no difficulty whatsoever parking myself in front of the t.v. for a few hours (which is usually some kind of torture for me)
I'm training right now and racing a time trial series...having learned from that previous experience, I'm doing much better with my weight management and have been maintaining as I intend to...but it can be hard because I'm friggin' hungry after a training bout...and after a race, forget it..I pretty much let myself go to town on race day.
When I was losing weight I had the most success just doing a moderate amount of exercise...it made calorie control much easier than it is when training.6 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »This is where training and more intense physical activity can ironically go against weight management objectives. Very often, a couple of things happen...one, with that kind of work, your appetite is going to naturally go up and it's pretty easy to have things slip in relatively unnoticed...your body is going to crave that nourishment to help replenish energy as well as for recovery and repair. Two, very often NEAT declines with greater and more intense training.
Early on in my maintenance phase I decided I wanted to do a century ride...so I started training for that...lots and lots and lots of miles on the bike...I ended up putting on about 8 Lbs over the course of about four months. I was somewhat baffled by this...I wasn't really trying to lose weight or anything, but I thought with all of that training it would be likely that I'd lose some and certainly wasn't expecting to gain weight. I remember talking to my wife baffled and I remember telling her that there really wasn't a lot of change in diet, etc and that I was doing pretty good...she was like, "really? because you get home and raid the cupboard...you don't even put stuff out on a plate, you just grab handfuls of stuff and put it in your face."
In regards to declining NEAT, I also noticed this. On weekends for example, it's pretty routine for us to go spend a few hours walking around the zoo or head up to the mountains for a little family hike, etc...but when I was training I was just tired...I was more inclined to sit and watch a movie or something. I'm also a fidgety person and have a hard time sitting still...but I noticed when I was training I was so worn out that I was much less fidgety and I had no difficulty whatsoever parking myself in front of the t.v. for a few hours (which is usually some kind of torture for me)
I'm training right now and racing a time trial series...having learned from that previous experience, I'm doing much better with my weight management and have been maintaining as I intend to...but it can be hard because I'm friggin' hungry after a training bout...and after a race, forget it..I pretty much let myself go to town on race day.
When I was losing weight I had the most success just doing a moderate amount of exercise...it made calorie control much easier than it is when training.
Wow thanks. This seems a lot like what I've been doing. I do a good amount and try to keep my choices relatively smart. I drink a crapload of water. At first I thought my gain was muscle gain post Insanity because I started lifting heavy (and I still think a lot of it is). Perhaps I need to back off a bit. I have slacked on logging everything I eat just because it is so tedious but I'll get back to doing that too. It should help and that's just laziness on my part.
And thanks for all of the fast replies....I didn't expect this many so quickly. I'll try to reply to others when I get a chance later.2 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »This is where training and more intense physical activity can ironically go against weight management objectives. Very often, a couple of things happen...one, with that kind of work, your appetite is going to naturally go up and it's pretty easy to have things slip in relatively unnoticed...your body is going to crave that nourishment to help replenish energy as well as for recovery and repair. Two, very often NEAT declines with greater and more intense training.
Early on in my maintenance phase I decided I wanted to do a century ride...so I started training for that...lots and lots and lots of miles on the bike...I ended up putting on about 8 Lbs over the course of about four months. I was somewhat baffled by this...I wasn't really trying to lose weight or anything, but I thought with all of that training it would be likely that I'd lose some and certainly wasn't expecting to gain weight. I remember talking to my wife baffled and I remember telling her that there really wasn't a lot of change in diet, etc and that I was doing pretty good...she was like, "really? because you get home and raid the cupboard...you don't even put stuff out on a plate, you just grab handfuls of stuff and put it in your face."
In regards to declining NEAT, I also noticed this. On weekends for example, it's pretty routine for us to go spend a few hours walking around the zoo or head up to the mountains for a little family hike, etc...but when I was training I was just tired...I was more inclined to sit and watch a movie or something. I'm also a fidgety person and have a hard time sitting still...but I noticed when I was training I was so worn out that I was much less fidgety and I had no difficulty whatsoever parking myself in front of the t.v. for a few hours (which is usually some kind of torture for me)
I'm training right now and racing a time trial series...having learned from that previous experience, I'm doing much better with my weight management and have been maintaining as I intend to...but it can be hard because I'm friggin' hungry after a training bout...and after a race, forget it..I pretty much let myself go to town on race day.
When I was losing weight I had the most success just doing a moderate amount of exercise...it made calorie control much easier than it is when training.
This is almost exactly what happened to me with half marathon training. I didn't gain - but I thought for sure I would lose when I doubled my weekly mileage, Instead, I simply maintained. I tracked my intake, but was so hungry that I got sloppy with bites of this and little handfuls of that that I didn't log. I even had a couple 1000+ calorie binges. I'd managed to lose 90 pounds without a single binge but all the extra training on top of a calorie deficit was too much.
I also had the huge decline in NEAT. Sure, i was hitting my 15,000 step fitbit goal by 9 am after a long run - but then would barely rack up an additional 1-2000 steps for the rest of the day. Even on a day where I spend 8 hours at my desk I almost always got 15K steps.0 -
TavistockToad wrote: »
None...I was just letting the OP know that was the answer he was going to get.0 -
TavistockToad wrote: »
None...I was just letting the OP that it was the answer he was going to get.
You can see into the future! I'm going to the Del Mar races this weekend, do you have any inside tips!0 -
queenliz99 wrote: »TavistockToad wrote: »
None...I was just letting the OP that it was the answer he was going to get.
You can see into the future! I'm going to the Del Mar races this weekend, do you have any inside tips!
Watch the horses as they are preparing to go into the gates and when you see one pooping, bet on it.
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