Venting Over Weight Loss
Emily_AK87
Posts: 64 Member
I've been working out consistently for a little over three months now. Clean eating, calorie counting and portion awareness. I still have not lost any weight. I can see a difference in the mirror, albeit rather small. When do I get to see a difference on the scale? Or will I not as long as I'm toning/building muscle?
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Replies
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Your eating at maintenance, you'll need to drop calories.6
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RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »Your eating at maintenance, you'll need to drop calories.
I average 500 to 800 under daily (well, under this apps suggested calorie goal)0 -
I just browsed through your diary. It doesn't seem like you're weighing most items, and some of your calorie burns look large. Have you ever weighed your protein powder, bananas, meat, etc. to see how accurate you are to the serving size you're logging? Where are you getting your calorie burns from?7
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@RuNaRoUnDaFiEld and @chocolate_owl are correct.
I took a look at your diary. I think you are eating at maintenance mostly because you're significantly over estimating your calorie burns when you exercise. Also check the portions by weighing/measuring.
When you input cardio into MFP, you should reduce the calorie burn it gives you to ~50% (maybe 75%) of what it says. So say it says you get 357 calories from the elliptical, you should enter about 179 instead. I also notice you're logging a LOT of "cleaning, vigorous" in your diary. Is it really vigorous? If it were me, I probably wouldn't log it at all (would not put that in the diary nor eat back any of those calories) and if I did, I'd log as light effort with the 50% reduction. The last time I logged housework like that what on moving day when I was carrying boxes around (to and from the truck).
MFP over estimates most calorie burns.
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Your exercise calories look too high to me.
Cleaning - don't log it.
Eliptical - your burns look similar to what I get on my gym's elliptical which I'm sure is a gross overestimation4 -
chocolate_owl wrote: »I just browsed through your diary. It doesn't seem like you're weighing most items, and some of your calorie burns look large. Have you ever weighed your protein powder, bananas, meat, etc. to see how accurate you are to the serving size you're logging? Where are you getting your calorie burns from?
No, I just enter what's on the app as far as food amount and calorie burn. And do size, not weight.0 -
I have no idea what runaround is talking about, your calorie deficit is fine, in fact it looks like you barely ever eat back your exercise calories, so some days your deficit is huge. Everyone is different, just keep up what you're doing and if nothing else, you will feel better and see your body composition start to change. Being healthy and having healthy habits is more important than the number on the scale.
Edit to add: weighing your food is important, I agree with the above posters. I often overestimate my portion size if I'm unable to weigh my food.2 -
@RuNaRoUnDaFiEld and @chocolate_owl are correct.
I took a look at your diary. I think you are eating at maintenance mostly because you're significantly over estimating your calorie burns when you exercise. Also check the portions by weighing/measuring.
When you input cardio into MFP, you should reduce the calorie burn it gives you to ~50% (maybe 75%) of what it says. So say it says you get 357 calories from the elliptical, you should enter about 179 instead. I also notice you're logging a LOT of "cleaning, vigorous" in your diary. Is it really vigorous? If it were me, I probably wouldn't log it at all (would not put that in the diary nor eat back any of those calories) and if I did, I'd log as light effort with the 50% reduction. The last time I logged housework like that what on moving day when I was carrying boxes around (to and from the truck).
MFP over estimates most calorie burns.
OK, good to know. And yes, vigorous cleaning is legit (I'm clearing out a hoarders house for an estate company and I only logged half my day there to be safe because it did seem high).2 -
StealthHealth wrote: »Your exercise calories look too high to me.
Cleaning - don't log it.
Eliptical - your burns look similar to what I get on my gym's elliptical which I'm sure is a gross overestimation
OK, I grossly appreciate your estimation of my workout.0 -
Emily_AK87 wrote: »RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »Your eating at maintenance, you'll need to drop calories.
I average 500 to 800 under daily (well, under this apps suggested calorie goal)
Remember, the numbers you use for calorie burns and food/intake are just estimates. If you're expected results don't match your actual results, then tweak your estimating a little. In most cases, it's easier to adjust estimates for calorie burns down a bit.1 -
nightengale7 wrote: »I have no idea what runaround is talking about, your calorie deficit is fine, in fact it looks like you barely ever eat back your exercise calories, so some days your deficit is huge. Everyone is different, just keep up what you're doing and if nothing else, you will feel better and see your body composition start to change. Being healthy and having healthy habits is more important than the number on the scale.
Edit to add: weighing your food is important, I agree with the above posters. I often overestimate my portion size if I'm unable to weigh my food.
Awesome, thank you0 -
Emily_AK87 wrote: »RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »Your eating at maintenance, you'll need to drop calories.
I average 500 to 800 under daily (well, under this apps suggested calorie goal)
Remember, the numbers you use for calorie burns and food/intake are just estimates. If you're expected results don't match your actual results, then tweak your estimating a little. In most cases, it's easier to adjust estimates for calorie burns down a bit.
Is the 50% decrease on calorie burns, like someone said above, a good start?0 -
Emily_AK87 wrote: »Emily_AK87 wrote: »RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »Your eating at maintenance, you'll need to drop calories.
I average 500 to 800 under daily (well, under this apps suggested calorie goal)
Remember, the numbers you use for calorie burns and food/intake are just estimates. If you're expected results don't match your actual results, then tweak your estimating a little. In most cases, it's easier to adjust estimates for calorie burns down a bit.
Is the 50% decrease on calorie burns, like someone said above, a good start?
Yep. Unfortunately there's a lot of trial and error involved in all this, especially when you are just starting out. Things like weighing food can reduce a little of that, but ultimately all the numbers we use are just estimates... and it takes some time to figure out what the "right" numbers are for you.1 -
Emily_AK87 wrote: »Emily_AK87 wrote: »RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »Your eating at maintenance, you'll need to drop calories.
I average 500 to 800 under daily (well, under this apps suggested calorie goal)
Remember, the numbers you use for calorie burns and food/intake are just estimates. If you're expected results don't match your actual results, then tweak your estimating a little. In most cases, it's easier to adjust estimates for calorie burns down a bit.
Is the 50% decrease on calorie burns, like someone said above, a good start?
That is a good place to start. I use a heart monitor to log my calorie burns, and if I went by MFP I would be WAY overestimating my burns and, consequently, overeating.1 -
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Emily_AK87 wrote: »StealthHealth wrote: »Your exercise calories look too high to me.
Cleaning - don't log it.
Eliptical - your burns look similar to what I get on my gym's elliptical which I'm sure is a gross overestimation
OK, I grossly appreciate your estimation of my workout.
That's not what is being said...what is being said is the it's difficult to estimate energy expenditure and most machines and data bases overestimate energy expenditure...often quite significantly. If you're not losing weight, you're ultimately eating a maintenance level of calories or you need to see a doctor about any potential medical issues or vitamin/mineral deficiencies that could interfere with metabolism.3 -
I would def consider getting a HR sensor. They cost around 70-80 bucks but well worth the money in the long run for workouts. The calorie estimations has been amazing for me, lost around 60 lb's getting to my ideal weight, keeping most of my muscle mass, gaining strength.
And I would also recommend a good food scale. They are really cheap, and its so easy to work with them once you get used to weighing your meals. Its the only accurate way really, otherwise you will under or overestimate your calories.
Those two above comes to mind really, unless its medical, which, well, if the two options above don't work, I would certainly recommend seeing a medical professional.1 -
Emily_AK87 wrote: »StealthHealth wrote: »Your exercise calories look too high to me.
Cleaning - don't log it.
Eliptical - your burns look similar to what I get on my gym's elliptical which I'm sure is a gross overestimation
OK, I grossly appreciate your estimation of my workout.
Ellipticals in particular are notorious for overestimating calories by 40-50%. No one is saying you're not working hard. Chopping off 50% of your exercise calories is a good place to start.
http://www.shape.com/fitness/cardio/how-inaccurate-are-calorie-counters-gym
I'd really recommend getting a food scale and checking the accuracy of your calorie logging. As an example, my protein powder says a 200 cal serving size is 1 scoop or 30 grams. 30 grams fills up about 3/5 of the scoop. If I use a full scoop, I'm actually getting 333 calories. Most things aren't this drastic, but you can see how you can end up eating a lot more calories than you think if you don't really know if labels are accurate or what 130g of banana looks like.3 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »Emily_AK87 wrote: »StealthHealth wrote: »Your exercise calories look too high to me.
Cleaning - don't log it.
Eliptical - your burns look similar to what I get on my gym's elliptical which I'm sure is a gross overestimation
OK, I grossly appreciate your estimation of my workout.
That's not what is being said...what is being said is the it's difficult to estimate energy expenditure and most machines and data bases overestimate energy expenditure...often quite significantly. If you're not losing weight, you're ultimately eating a maintenance level of calories or you need to see a doctor about any potential medical issues or vitamin/mineral deficiencies that could interfere with metabolism.
So the actual machine reading is wrong?0 -
chocolate_owl wrote: »Emily_AK87 wrote: »StealthHealth wrote: »Your exercise calories look too high to me.
Cleaning - don't log it.
Eliptical - your burns look similar to what I get on my gym's elliptical which I'm sure is a gross overestimation
OK, I grossly appreciate your estimation of my workout.
Ellipticals in particular are notorious for overestimating calories by 40-50%. No one is saying you're not working hard. Chopping off 50% of your exercise calories is a good place to start.
http://www.shape.com/fitness/cardio/how-inaccurate-are-calorie-counters-gym
I'd really recommend getting a food scale and checking the accuracy of your calorie logging. As an example, my protein powder says a 200 cal serving size is 1 scoop or 30 grams. 30 grams fills up about 3/5 of the scoop. If I use a full scoop, I'm actually getting 333 calories. Most things aren't this drastic, but you can see how you can end up eating a lot more calories than you think if you don't really know if labels are accurate or what 130g of banana looks like.
Amazon, here I come, I guess! Haha Heart rate monitor and scale seem to be the answer here.0 -
Emily_AK87 wrote: »cwolfman13 wrote: »Emily_AK87 wrote: »StealthHealth wrote: »Your exercise calories look too high to me.
Cleaning - don't log it.
Eliptical - your burns look similar to what I get on my gym's elliptical which I'm sure is a gross overestimation
OK, I grossly appreciate your estimation of my workout.
That's not what is being said...what is being said is the it's difficult to estimate energy expenditure and most machines and data bases overestimate energy expenditure...often quite significantly. If you're not losing weight, you're ultimately eating a maintenance level of calories or you need to see a doctor about any potential medical issues or vitamin/mineral deficiencies that could interfere with metabolism.
So the actual machine reading is wrong?
More than likely, yes...it would depend on how the machine is calibrated...how often it is re-calibrated, etc. You also have to take into account that it's going to give you a gross energy expenditure estimation (so will a HRM) so at minimum you would want to knock of your resting energy expenditure as it's going to be wrapped up in that gross number.2 -
Emily_AK87 wrote: »cwolfman13 wrote: »Emily_AK87 wrote: »StealthHealth wrote: »Your exercise calories look too high to me.
Cleaning - don't log it.
Eliptical - your burns look similar to what I get on my gym's elliptical which I'm sure is a gross overestimation
OK, I grossly appreciate your estimation of my workout.
That's not what is being said...what is being said is the it's difficult to estimate energy expenditure and most machines and data bases overestimate energy expenditure...often quite significantly. If you're not losing weight, you're ultimately eating a maintenance level of calories or you need to see a doctor about any potential medical issues or vitamin/mineral deficiencies that could interfere with metabolism.
So the actual machine reading is wrong?
Sort of.
The number the machine gives you (or an HRM, or a website, or...) is based on a formula. That formula is usually fairly simplified and based on some assumptions and/or averages. All it does is crunch a bunch of numbers, then display the result.
That result might be very accurate. Or it might not be. More than likely, you'll never really know.
Accuracy is, for the most part, a myth. Try not to get hung up on being 100% accurate. It'll never happen, and even if it does, how will you know?
Let's assume that you've managed to find a way to be 100% accurate calculating calorie burns during workouts. Great. But things like your BMR and TDEE are just estimates... so if those estimates are wrong, then being accurate with your calorie burns probably doesn't matter. The same thing goes with your intake. Even if you weight your food, there is still going to be a degree of error. If one of those estimates is off, then it throws off the math.
At the end of the day, all you can do is make reasonable efforts with your estimating (whatever reasonable means to you) and be consistent with it. Then, after some time, evaluate things. If your expected results don't match you actual results, then you tweak things and start over.3 -
nightengale7 wrote: »I have no idea what runaround is talking about, your calorie deficit is fine
No. This is completely wrong. She's been trying for 3 months to lose weight and hasn't. That means her calorie deficit doesn't exist. That would be fine if she were trying to maintain her weight but she's not.4 -
Emily_AK87 wrote: »@RuNaRoUnDaFiEld and @chocolate_owl are correct.
I took a look at your diary. I think you are eating at maintenance mostly because you're significantly over estimating your calorie burns when you exercise. Also check the portions by weighing/measuring.
When you input cardio into MFP, you should reduce the calorie burn it gives you to ~50% (maybe 75%) of what it says. So say it says you get 357 calories from the elliptical, you should enter about 179 instead. I also notice you're logging a LOT of "cleaning, vigorous" in your diary. Is it really vigorous? If it were me, I probably wouldn't log it at all (would not put that in the diary nor eat back any of those calories) and if I did, I'd log as light effort with the 50% reduction. The last time I logged housework like that what on moving day when I was carrying boxes around (to and from the truck).
MFP over estimates most calorie burns.
OK, good to know. And yes, vigorous cleaning is legit (I'm clearing out a hoarders house for an estate company and I only logged half my day there to be safe because it did seem high).
Ok. I'd still be watchful on the cleaning one. Vigorous cleaning would be like using a toothbrush to scrub down a tough to clean bathroom. If you're mostly just picking things up and moving it to another area to organize, it might not be vigorous.0 -
Emily_AK87 wrote: »@RuNaRoUnDaFiEld and @chocolate_owl are correct.
I took a look at your diary. I think you are eating at maintenance mostly because you're significantly over estimating your calorie burns when you exercise. Also check the portions by weighing/measuring.
When you input cardio into MFP, you should reduce the calorie burn it gives you to ~50% (maybe 75%) of what it says. So say it says you get 357 calories from the elliptical, you should enter about 179 instead. I also notice you're logging a LOT of "cleaning, vigorous" in your diary. Is it really vigorous? If it were me, I probably wouldn't log it at all (would not put that in the diary nor eat back any of those calories) and if I did, I'd log as light effort with the 50% reduction. The last time I logged housework like that what on moving day when I was carrying boxes around (to and from the truck).
MFP over estimates most calorie burns.
OK, good to know. And yes, vigorous cleaning is legit (I'm clearing out a hoarders house for an estate company and I only logged half my day there to be safe because it did seem high).
Ok. I'd still be watchful on the cleaning one. Vigorous cleaning would be like using a toothbrush to scrub down a tough to clean bathroom. If you're mostly just picking things up and moving it to another area to organize, it might not be vigorous.
Have you ever been in a hoarders house..? Not gonna justify it, but it's definitely a workout.. And like I said, I did only account for half my day there to get the calorie burn down from the apps suggested amount.0 -
I'm wondering if you are one of those people who are fortunate enough not to have too much weight to loose in the scheme of things. If you are at the top of your suggested bmi range, for example this makes it more difficult to loose than if one was higher up the into the over weight level, if I have made sense. This is where tight weighing of food and strict logging really helps. Your photo looks perfect.2
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absolutely weigh everything you eat. You will be amazed at the difference in calories from actually weighing.1
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Emily_AK87 wrote: »I've been working out consistently for a little over three months now. Clean eating, calorie counting and portion awareness. I still have not lost any weight. I can see a difference in the mirror, albeit rather small. When do I get to see a difference on the scale? Or will I not as long as I'm toning/building muscle?
Also, your ticker says you've lost 15 Lbs...so I'm a little confused about that.0 -
Also, I'm a little confused...your ticker says you've lost 15 Lbs...over three months that would be a tad over 1 Lb per week loss.1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnnpUYmr0OM
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