Wasted time/gained weight??
Options
joowelz
Posts: 172 Member
I have been using the app for three weeks and I've gained five pounds. I am eating about 2,000 calories per day on days I jog for 30 minutes and about 1,800 calories on days I am sedentary. I am 38, 5'6, large boned, and jog intensely four times a week. I've been doing this for two months (longer than I've had the app).
I am so discouraged. The app keeps telling me in five weeks I will weigh a lot less if I keep it up but my scale is showing weight gain and my pants are still tight.
If I cut calories, I would be starving.
Very depressed and discouraged.
On top of it, my heels are so sore from all the running but to no avail.
Any idea what's going on?
I am so discouraged. The app keeps telling me in five weeks I will weigh a lot less if I keep it up but my scale is showing weight gain and my pants are still tight.
If I cut calories, I would be starving.
Very depressed and discouraged.
On top of it, my heels are so sore from all the running but to no avail.
Any idea what's going on?
0
Replies
-
Are you male or female?
What is your weight currently?
Give me this info and we can see where you may be going wrong?2 -
-
Can you open up your diary?1
-
If the running isn't a new thing chances are you are eating more than you think you are2
-
What sort of exercise are you doing? 200 per 30 minutes may be a bit much, especially if you're going by myfitnesspals calorie burns and eating back all of the calories.
Yes, do open your diary.... And give it some more time. We didn't gain weight in little time, why expect to lose it that fast? Going by your calories mentioned though, you either are eating more than you think, or it is normal fluctuation or has something to do with hormones, increased exercise or increased sodium or carbs (water retention).1 -
Your heels--you may need new shoes.
You are either eating more than you think you are or your weight has gone up due to hormonal fluctuations. Have you been gaining each week or were you down and then up?1 -
You are running to the point your heels hurt.. not good. I call this extra stress load put on the entire body. Also may need to recheck the calories in and make sure if you are eating back any exercise calories from those hard runs, that you are not eating back too many..
Water retention and water weight is all a part of this. Intense exercise, increase in volume etc. is more a factor than you realize too.3 -
I have been using the app for three weeks and I've gained five pounds. I am eating about 2,000 calories per day on days I jog for 30 minutes and about 1,800 calories on days I am sedentary. I am 38, 5'6, large boned, and jog intensely four times a week. I've been doing this for two months (longer than I've had the app).
I am a 5'6" female and if I ate 2000 calories a day, I would gain weight too.
When you entered your information into MFP, what did you select as your activity level?
5 -
I'm a 6'0", 300lb female and I'm only given 1700kcal on the days I don't exercise (2lb/week loss). Are you sure you set up your goals right?2
-
I have been using the app for three weeks and I've gained five pounds. I am eating about 2,000 calories per day on days I jog for 30 minutes and about 1,800 calories on days I am sedentary. I am 38, 5'6, large boned, and jog intensely four times a week. I've been doing this for two months (longer than I've had the app).
I am so discouraged. The app keeps telling me in five weeks I will weigh a lot less if I keep it up but my scale is showing weight gain and my pants are still tight.
If I cut calories, I would be starving.
Very depressed and discouraged.
On top of it, my heels are so sore from all the running but to no avail.
Any idea what's going on?
The evidence shows that you are eating too much. If you are gaining weight, then 2,000 calories is too much for you. Why do you think you would starve on less that 2,000 calories?
What are your stats? How much are you trying to lose?
Also, make sure you are accurate in logging your intake. You may be eating more than 2,000 calories without realizing it.
Pay close attention to the colorful chart upstream too. It's essential stuff to know for weight management.2 -
Hi everyone,
Thank you for your support. I really like this app and had high hopes for it. It's so much better than WW and it's free - best part.
My diary is now public. Am I really messing up my eating? I think my measurements are accurate. (Please don't look at yesterday's meals though. It was a special day out and I ate differently than I normally have been over the last three weeks since using the app.)
I am female and according to the scale, weigh 180lbs. My goal is just to lose 0.5 lbs per week until I am 155 lbs.
I have set my activity level to slightly active. I am jogging at a speed of 5.2 miles per hour for 30 minutes and logging approx 230 calories burned.
Rest of the week I am completely sedentary.
Ten years ago I was able to lose 30 lbs through diet and exercise and I don't think I was eating much less than I am now.
A couple of hours after dinner, I tend to get light headed and faint and want to eat. I generally have Cheerios with almond milk or Oikos Vanilla yogurt with some bran buds and blueberries in it.
If I didnt have this last snack, I could easily shave off 300 calories per day, but I have tried to go without it and just end up waking up at midnight due to dizziness and heading for the fridge to eat anything !
Please give your input.
Best wishes to all.
Nancy
1 -
I am female and according to the scale, weigh 180lbs. My goal is just to lose 0.5 lbs per week until I am 155 lbs.
I have set my activity level to slightly active. I am jogging at a speed of 5.2 miles per hour for 30 minutes and logging approx 230 calories burned.
Rest of the week I am completely sedentary.
As I mentioned, I am also your height and started at about your weight.
Set yourself at Sedentary. Slightly active indicates that you've got an active job where you're on your feet much of the day. Then add your exercise when you do it. By setting yourself at slightly active and then also adding exercise, you're double dipping.
5 -
You are eating too much. I started about your weight and am the same height, but older. You don't have to give up your evening snack, but you will have to cut calories in your other meals. I found that a high protein snack + carbs at night was much more filling than my usual cereal. Pay attention to the chart posted above, weigh your food if possible - I found that cups and spoons are always over listed calories once I started weighing. Some simple cuts in your food look easily possible - 2 tbl. salad dressing rather than 4, low calorie bread/sandwich thins/wraps instead of 2 slices of regular bread, etc. Good luck!2
-
Hi everyone,
Thank you for your support. I really like this app and had high hopes for it. It's so much better than WW and it's free - best part.
My diary is now public. Am I really messing up my eating? I think my measurements are accurate. (Please don't look at yesterday's meals though. It was a special day out and I ate differently than I normally have been over the last three weeks since using the app.)
I am female and according to the scale, weigh 180lbs. My goal is just to lose 0.5 lbs per week until I am 155 lbs.
I have set my activity level to slightly active. I am jogging at a speed of 5.2 miles per hour for 30 minutes and logging approx 230 calories burned.
Rest of the week I am completely sedentary.
Ten years ago I was able to lose 30 lbs through diet and exercise and I don't think I was eating much less than I am now.
A couple of hours after dinner, I tend to get light headed and faint and want to eat. I generally have Cheerios with almond milk or Oikos Vanilla yogurt with some bran buds and blueberries in it.
If I didnt have this last snack, I could easily shave off 300 calories per day, but I have tried to go without it and just end up waking up at midnight due to dizziness and heading for the fridge to eat anything !
Please give your input.
Best wishes to all.
Nancy
I am your height and two years ago I was the age you are now and in the same weight range. At your weight I ate between 1700 and 1800 per day. I ran 3x/wk for 30 minutes and lifted 3x/wk for about 75 minutes. That took me from around 175 down to 150.1 -
If you are looking where to cut back, perhaps you could have a slightly smaller breakfast? Currently you have double portions of quakers oats, and on some mornings triple portions. 40 grams or half a cup is the more usual portion size.
Regarding the amount of calories which should be your daily goal, bear in mind that the numbers that MFP gives us are a starting point. They are estimates, based on averages but if those numbers aren't working for you, then adjusting your calorie goal based on your experience is the next step. If you aren't losing, if you are gaining ... then you need to create a bigger calorie deficit by either eating less or moving more, or a combination of both.0 -
Try:
1. Setting your activity level for sedentary and eating back half your exercise calories
2. Eating a lot more protein in relationship to carbs. For many people, protein is more satisfying and so we get fuller more easily and can eat less.
3. Using a food scale for all your solid foods. You may be eating more cereal, etc., than you think. Someone will be along shortly to post the videos showing how scales are more accurate than cups.0 -
I just looked at your diary. You need to weigh all solids and be sure to use good entries in the MFP system. An easy way to be sure you are getting good nutrition info for whole foods is to look them up in the USDA nutrient database, copy the food description, and then paste it into MFP to find the matching entry. Yours are a bit all over the place. You keep reusing the same 4.2 ounce banana entry, which makes me think you are not weighing your banana (especially since I see a 2.1 banana multiple times. That makes me think you entered .5 servings of the 4.2 ounce banana.) You have 40 cherry tomatoes logged for an astronomical number of calories on one day. There are a bunch of other red flags that make me think your logging is just not very accurate. Clean that up and you should be good.4
-
I just looked at your diary. You need to weigh all solids and be sure to use good entries in the MFP system. An easy way to be sure you are getting good nutrition info for whole foods is to look them up in the USDA nutrient database, copy the food description, and then paste it into MFP to find the matching entry. Yours are a bit all over the place. You keep reusing the same 4.2 ounce banana entry, which makes me think you are not weighing your banana (especially since I see a 2.1 banana multiple times. That makes me think you entered .5 servings of the 4.2 ounce banana.) You have 40 cherry tomatoes logged for an astronomical number of calories on one day. There are a bunch of other red flags that make me think your logging is just not very accurate. Clean that up and you should be good.
Ya, I saw the 247 calorie tomatoes as well. Here's a link to the USDA database. https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods
I also get the syntax there and then plug it into MFP to find the system entry (as opposed to user-create entry) for the food.0 -
I've been off the weight loss/management wagon for a few years now, but am I seriously only supposed to be eating half a cup of oatmeal for breakfast? Are 40 cherry tomatoes a diet no-no? I am going to have to see where I can scrape off a few calories from each meal, but this is really worrisome as I am hardly overeating and the food choices are as healthy as I can possibly get (I already go to bathroom 3 x a day from all the fiber I eat.) Regarding the protein snacks, can you recommend a couple of options for after dinner? I find my body wants sweet carbs after a dinner consisting of veggies and fish or poultry. The last thing I want as a snack is an egg or legumes - yuk!
This is more depressing than I realized. Who knew 10 years would make such a dramatic difference in metabolism.
I bought $200 pair of running shoes from the Running Room today. Hopefully it will stop the heel pain.0 -
I bought $200 pair of running shoes from the Running Room today. Hopefully it will stop the heel pain.
I bought a $200 pair of Brooks running shoes a week or two ago, because of chronic heel pain from a serious case of plantar fasciitis. The shoes help a lot, but if you have other symptoms of PF, you might want to get that checked out. I waited too long, and am now facing surgery soon.1 -
It really has very little to do with your age. What is most important is knowing how much your body burns in a day and being very accurate with how much you log for food. Get a food scale and weigh everything.1
-
I've been off the weight loss/management wagon for a few years now, but am I seriously only supposed to be eating half a cup of oatmeal for breakfast? Are 40 cherry tomatoes a diet no-no? I am going to have to see where I can scrape off a few calories from each meal, but this is really worrisome as I am hardly overeating and the food choices are as healthy as I can possibly get (I already go to bathroom 3 x a day from all the fiber I eat.) Regarding the protein snacks, can you recommend a couple of options for after dinner? I find my body wants sweet carbs after a dinner consisting of veggies and fish or poultry. The last thing I want as a snack is an egg or legumes - yuk!
This is more depressing than I realized. Who knew 10 years would make such a dramatic difference in metabolism.
I bought $200 pair of running shoes from the Running Room today. Hopefully it will stop the heel pain.
You should buy a $20 food scale as well.
Have you reset your activity level to sedentary yet? Did you get a different calorie goal? And would I work on the carbs issues. Perhaps eating a little more protein and adding in a little more fat, and some additional fiber will help you satiety. In your case it sounds like some of the stuff you are eating albeit good stuff are making you feel a certain way, so the only thing to do is change that feeling by changing some of the foods.
Snack options as in ready made or do you want to cook them?
And yes aging does contribute to a lot of things, but exercise and regular activity can help with that. Also know when you age, I call it fat redistribution and muscle loss if I have not done anything to help prevent that. You can do something about that by adding lean muscle and this will up your metabolism a bit.1 -
I've been off the weight loss/management wagon for a few years now, but am I seriously only supposed to be eating half a cup of oatmeal for breakfast? Are 40 cherry tomatoes a diet no-no? I am going to have to see where I can scrape off a few calories from each meal, but this is really worrisome as I am hardly overeating and the food choices are as healthy as I can possibly get (I already go to bathroom 3 x a day from all the fiber I eat.) Regarding the protein snacks, can you recommend a couple of options for after dinner? I find my body wants sweet carbs after a dinner consisting of veggies and fish or poultry. The last thing I want as a snack is an egg or legumes - yuk!
This is more depressing than I realized. Who knew 10 years would make such a dramatic difference in metabolism.
I bought $200 pair of running shoes from the Running Room today. Hopefully it will stop the heel pain.
40 cherry tomatoes are excellent, but I highly doubt they come close to 247 calories. Tomatoes are pretty low cal. That is why people are saying buy a food scale and weigh them. It is far more accurate.
As far as a snack if you are good with protein for the day go ahead and have a little chocolate. Otherwise Nuts, cheese, even some protein bars may make a decent protein snack for you. You could also look into protein powder. A lot of it comes flavored and people use it to make substitute sweet snacks. Just realize if you have met your protein goals for the day and still have calories left it is ok to have a sweet treat as long as it fits your calories.1 -
Your activity level should be set at sedentary. Then when you exercise you log it. A lot of people eat about half of their exercise calories.
You most likely gained weight simply because you are eating too many calories most days.
It sounds like you need to check the accuracy of your food logging as some of your entries are odd. You might find a food scale and logging everything by weight helpful instead of cups or logging a number of items.
If you didn't enter the recipe for a homemade item don't use that entry. Use the recipe builder to enter your own recipe to log.
Are you meeting your protein goal for the day most days? It doesn't look like you are for the days I looked at. You might try getting more protein.
Have you tried drinking more water instead of reaching for more food?1 -
3
-
Your activity level of "slightly active" basically describes someone who works on their feet most of the work day.
When you are not running, what are you doing? If your "not running" time is spent in bouts of sedentary activity of greater than 1 hour interrupted by bouts of walking of less than 5 minutes, your activity level should be described as "sedentary". Exercise is exercise and can be quite intense and is worth the same for a sedentary or a slightly active person, but it is the rest of your day that is described by your activity level.2 -
Two more things, Use the food diary to plan what you are considering eating. I had a smaller quantity of cherry tomatoes from my daughter's crop recently, and the 9 grams I weighed from 9 tomatoes were scarcely 9 calories.
Use https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods to find trustworthy and accurate values for many food items.0 -
I looked way back into your diary and this is my thought. 1. Sodium is too high and it's causing you to retain water. I also thought about you recent heel pains and my thought on that is. 1. You Increased your pace/distance or both to quickly 2. Your over striding because you increased your pace to quickly which is causing you to basically ((hit the brakes)) everytime you heel strikes the ground. I recommend you slow down and maybe cut back your distance for a bit ( assuming you know your pace/distance) and then slowly increase your distance and then once the distance is comfortable increase speed slowly.
Just a thought.1 -
I like Greek yogurt for my snack. Oikos is so creamy and yummy it seems like dessert. I usually have some frozen fruit with it.
If the single serving of oatmeal isn't filling you up, it is hunger or perception? I know some serving sizes look like parts of kiddie meals, but our perceptions are out of whack, not the stated portion sizes. I mix lots of veggies in so I feel like I'm eating a lot when I'm not. Not with oatmeal, but with other stuff.
It took me a while to adjust to what a serving size should be.
1 -
I've been off the weight loss/management wagon for a few years now, but am I seriously only supposed to be eating half a cup of oatmeal for breakfast? Are 40 cherry tomatoes a diet no-no? I am going to have to see where I can scrape off a few calories from each meal, but this is really worrisome as I am hardly overeating and the food choices are as healthy as I can possibly get (I already go to bathroom 3 x a day from all the fiber I eat.) Regarding the protein snacks, can you recommend a couple of options for after dinner? I find my body wants sweet carbs after a dinner consisting of veggies and fish or poultry. The last thing I want as a snack is an egg or legumes - yuk!
This is more depressing than I realized. Who knew 10 years would make such a dramatic difference in metabolism.
I bought $200 pair of running shoes from the Running Room today. Hopefully it will stop the heel pain.
It's 40 grams of dry oats. That shows as 1/2 cup on the label but you need to weigh it. Dried. Not cooked. And yes, that is the serving size.0
https://youtu.be/XpHykP6e_Uk
This discussion has been closed.
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 396.4K Introduce Yourself
- 44.2K Getting Started
- 260.8K Health and Weight Loss
- 176.3K Food and Nutrition
- 47.6K Recipes
- 232.8K Fitness and Exercise
- 449 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.5K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.6K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 153.3K Motivation and Support
- 8.3K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.5K Chit-Chat
- 2.6K Fun and Games
- 4.5K MyFitnessPal Information
- 16 News and Announcements
- 18 MyFitnessPal Academy
- 1.4K Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 3K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions