I do between 2 to 3 hours of cardio a day and I'm still gaining weight, please help.
Replies
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charlied8817 wrote: »charlied8817 wrote: »You're at a healthy weight and have a BMI of 23. Losing weight beyond that is very challenging. You have to be very strict and there can be no slip ups. Your sedentary TDEE is 2,200 calories and you say you're eating 3,600.
You also say you're doing cardio three hours a day, but don't say what that means. Are you spending 180 minutes a day with your heart rate > 160 beats per minute seven days a week? If not, you're not doing three hours of cardio. Also, you say you're boring between 2,400 and 2,600 calories a day. Even with 180 minutes of true cardio, theres no way you're burning that much. More like 2,000 calories.
So it sounds to me like you're overeating slightly and overestimating exercise calories slightly, which when you were heavier still resulted in weight loss, but now that you are within a suggested weight range, it results in maintenance instead of weight loss.
To clarify, the two to three hours of cardio a day is a mixture of cardio machines like the elliptical as well as outside running. According to Fitbit and manually taking my pulse my rates it's between 145 and 165. Fitbit says I'm approximately 50% in fat burn and Cardio.
On days when my work out there towards the top, the three hour a day or longer, if I eat under 3000 calories I feel like a zombie.
Thanks for the input , I really appreciate your detailed response.
Just curious on your zombie comment. Are you making sure you are getting in enough fiber and protein?
I ate a lot of veggies so I finish with about 50 grams of fiber a each day.
35 to 40% of my daily end up being protein.
You may want to target 2200 calories for a while, and see if your body adjusts. Or drop to 2500 for a bit, then 2200. You may have slowed down your metabolism at that many calories and your body adjusted to it.9 -
It sounds like you're a bit too quick to think something's wrong. The body can indeed hold onto water and waste weight for a while certainly more than a few days if the condition are right. As others have said, don't change what you're doing if you were steadily losing and then suddenly gained. Give it 2-3 weeks and then evaluate what's happening.
As far as your calorie burns, it's very hard to burn more than 600 calories per hour, 3 hours a day, six days a week, while eating at a deficit, and be able to maintain that long term. It's a ton of stress on your systems. So you're either overestimating your calorie burns, underestimating your eating, our your body really is hitting the wall and holding tons of water in an attempt to repair all that damage. Maybe some combination of all three.
Anyway, stick it out for another couple weeks and see how things change.8 -
charlied8817 wrote: »I eat about 3,600 calories ( 45-50 carb 25 fat rest protein- I rarely hit my fat )on average, I have an active lifestyle
Are you by any chance a miner or work in the fields like digging the ground all day? 3600 calories is a huge lot! "active lifestyle" as walking around all day doesn't warrant you all that food! Well, unless you do manual labour, really heavy manual labour.
If you gained it means you are still eating more than you burn and to be honest I'm not surprised.
Review that daily goal, it's a huge lot of food, really -it's too much. Set your daily activity to something lower.3 -
Looking at this thread in its entirety, I'm left with a nagging question: what are you trying to accomplish exactly?
You've done great with your weight loss. More cardio isn't going to be the ticket. It's a much smaller component of weight loss than calorie deficit. If you have not lost weight over a significant period of time, it's because you do not have a caloric deficit (whatever the reason).
But.....back to the original question. What is your goal? Is it a specific look? Is it a number on the scale (I hope not)? Is it body composition?
Cardio is great for conditioning. It aids in weight loss to an extent, but at the same time it can inhibit it some. It does not make you stronger so your body composition is not likely to change much. It also produces cortisol, a hormone that serves to regulate your metabolism lower. This is not "starvation mode", but it is also not insignificant. When your body is stressed, it holds water - sometimes for a long time.
You mention weight training and specific areas you are targeting. What's your program? Is it heavy? Is it progressive overload? (If it's not both of those things, it's not likely building any muscle). What's your goal when it comes to lifting?
Your numbers don't suggest to me that your weight is any kind of problem. And, given your height, my hunch is that you would look better above 200 than at 180 - especially if you train for strength.10 -
It sounds like you're a bit too quick to think something's wrong. The body can indeed hold onto water and waste weight for a while certainly more than a few days if the condition are right. As others have said, don't change what you're doing if you were steadily losing and then suddenly gained. Give it 2-3 weeks and then evaluate what's happening.
As far as your calorie burns, it's very hard to burn more than 600 calories per hour, 3 hours a day, six days a week, while eating at a deficit, and be able to maintain that long term. It's a ton of stress on your systems. So you're either overestimating your calorie burns, underestimating your eating, our your body really is hitting the wall and holding tons of water in an attempt to repair all that damage. Maybe some combination of all three.
Anyway, stick it out for another couple weeks and see how things change.
I know my work out routine might be a little crazy. I'm in the gym/ running three times a day. Before work, at lunch and after. Although I use carsio machines I under estimate my calories burned. I do the machines alot to limit the stress on my joints and to this point , knock on eood, I've not had any injuries.
Is there a formula i can use to better estimate?
I based my calories on heart rate mostly. AI if my work out that day was lighter amd my heart rate wasn't in the 140's or 50's consistently I'll record less than if it's in the higher range.5 -
Since you are tracking the exercise calories you burn and logging it to increase your calorie allowance, then you need to make sure that your activity level selected is in line with your activity level when you are not exercising. If you consider yourself highly active because of your 2-3 hours of cardio per day, then you are double counting your calories when you log the exercise separately.7
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Silentpadna wrote: »Looking at this thread in its entirety, I'm left with a nagging question: what are you trying to accomplish exactly?
You've done great with your weight loss. More cardio isn't going to be the ticket. It's a much smaller component of weight loss than calorie deficit. If you have not lost weight over a significant period of time, it's because you do not have a caloric deficit (whatever the reason).
But.....back to the original question. What is your goal? Is it a specific look? Is it a number on the scale (I hope not)? Is it body composition?
Cardio is great for conditioning. It aids in weight loss to an extent, but at the same time it can inhibit it some. It does not make you stronger so your body composition is not likely to change much. It also produces cortisol, a hormone that serves to regulate your metabolism lower. This is not "starvation mode", but it is also not insignificant. When your body is stressed, it holds water - sometimes for a long time.
You mention weight training and specific areas you are targeting. What's your program? Is it heavy? Is it progressive overload? (If it's not both of those things, it's not likely building any muscle). What's your goal when it comes to lifting?
Your numbers don't suggest to me that your weight is any kind of problem. And, given your height, my hunch is that you would look better above 200 than at 180 - especially if you train for strength.
I had a number of 175 in mind. I still feel like I'm heavy.
Long story short, like most people on here, I woke up ine day and stopped making excuses for being unhealthy and turned my life around.
So I started running. At first it was 30 minutes a day and gradually increased to a few hours a day. It's very time consuming, but the routine works for me.
I'd like to run a half marathon in the next year. In terms of body type, I still feel even at 182, I have about 10lbs to go.
I would say my weight training is light. 3 sets 8 reps of bench, row, lat pull, bi's tri's and a few ab work outs.
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charlied8817 wrote: »I eat about 3,600 calories ( 45-50 carb 25 fat rest protein- I rarely hit my fat )on average, I have an active lifestyle
Are you by any chance a miner or work in the fields like digging the ground all day? 3600 calories is a huge lot! "active lifestyle" as walking around all day doesn't warrant you all that food! Well, unless you do manual labour, really heavy manual labour.
If you gained it means you are still eating more than you burn and to be honest I'm not surprised.
Review that daily goal, it's a huge lot of food, really -it's too much. Set your daily activity to something lower.
Very insightful. I thought the active lifestyle was all in, work out and non gym life.
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You likely weighed at a dehydrated state for a low point of 182.4, then had a salty meal followed by working out which stimulated increased cellular uptake (water weight). Then you weighed in at a hydrated state. Nothing unusual. Stick to the routine. Hydrate as needed and check back in about 5-7 days. For reference my weight fluctuates ~5 lbs throughout the day at 6'4" 226 lb.
It does seem that your CI is a bit high, but I don't know the intensity of your sessions. Focus on long term trends, not fluctuations over a few days.
Need to focus on primary goals and then primary factors first.
1. What is your end goal?
Once you define this ensure you have an overall strategy and tactics to support this goal.4 -
OP, you are in the healthy weight range, so weight loss (real weight loss, meaning fat) will be slow. You are never one weight, your weight fluctuates all the time every day. There is lots of stuff in your body other than fat, and that stuff's weight fluctuates as a normal part of your body functioning. Most people have a weight range of 5-10 lbs.
Water weight can come on suddenly and leave slowly. It can come on slowly and leave suddenly. It all depends on why it's there. You really don't need to (and probably) shouldn't do anything to try to force water or still digesting food out to see a nicer number on the scale.
You started out heavy, and it was easy for you to lose weight fast enough that you didn't even notice your body's normal fluctuations. Now that you are at a healthy weight, the weight loss slows down, and can be hidden or amplified by those normal fluctuations. Now is the time that you need patience and faith in the process.
Weigh yourself every day, first thing in the morning after you use the bathroom. Do not weigh yourself at any other time. I would give the water weight jump you experienced until at least 1 week later before considering there might be some weight gain in there. (Alternatively, you can try only weighing once a week if you can't wrap your head around waiting patiently through daily fluctuations.)
Watch your weight trend over weeks. If you continue to see a slight rise or maintenance at this higher level, reduce your goal by 250 calories and give it another couple of weeks to see what happens. Lather, rinse, repeat. You are doing a ton of exercise, and the amount of calories you burn in all that time could be highly variable based on all sorts of things. If your body has gotten a little more efficient in the last year of exercise, you simply might not be burning quite as much as you used to.
If you're doing all that exercise because you think you need to to lose weight, you don't. It would be fine to dial that back a little and eat a little less if it's a chore for you. But if you enjoy it or you have fitness goals it contributes to, more power to you! Hang in there9 -
charlied8817 wrote: »charlied8817 wrote: »I eat about 3,600 calories ( 45-50 carb 25 fat rest protein- I rarely hit my fat )on average, I have an active lifestyle
Are you by any chance a miner or work in the fields like digging the ground all day? 3600 calories is a huge lot! "active lifestyle" as walking around all day doesn't warrant you all that food! Well, unless you do manual labour, really heavy manual labour.
If you gained it means you are still eating more than you burn and to be honest I'm not surprised.
Review that daily goal, it's a huge lot of food, really -it's too much. Set your daily activity to something lower.
Very insightful. I thought the active lifestyle was all in, work out and non gym life.
There seems to be 2 popular ways to setting calorie goals here: NEAT (the way MFP is designed) and TDEE.
With NEAT, MFP sets your calorie goal to be your Non-Exercise Activity Level minus a deficit based on the rate of weightloss you choose (500 calories if you choose 1 pound per week). This includes your BMR (the calories you burn simply by breathing and being alive) plus the calorie expenditure that comes with the activity you do throughout your day: brushing your teeth, sitting at your desk, cooking dinner, watching tv, etc.. You then log calories burned from your exercise to increase the calories you can consume so your total. So the formula you see in you diary is calories consumed minus exercise compared to NEAT minus weight loss deficit.
Many people choose to do TDEE (total daily expenditure). With this, your calories are set at your BMR plus the calories you burn in daily activity plus the calories burned through exercise (a daily average). With this, you don't log exercise calories burned in MFP because you do not eat them back. You simply have a higher daily target.
NEAT is how MFP is designed. I think it is great in showing how many calories you eat versus burn through exercise. I think some people like the visual of how much exercise it takes to burn calories. It works well if your exercise is more sporadic than routine.
TDEE is often used by people that have a dedicated exercise routine. It also seems popular among people who weight lift - probably because tracking the calorie burn from weight lifting is difficult. It gives a level daily calorie goal which some people prefer.1 -
OP, the best solution I've found to dialing in my TDEE and deficit is to use a spreadsheet I found on r/fitness. Since you're already weighing daily you would just input your morning weight and the calories from the previous day, the sheet uses weekly averages to calculate a TDEE based on actual data, rather than relying on estimates for TDEE and exercise calories. Link to google sheet found under "Step 1": https://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/wiki/getting_started
For reference I'm a 6'1" male, 172lbs as of this morning, <15% body fat, desk job, lift 3x/week, run or row 2-3x/week and golf whenever the weather's decent. I was following a similar methodology to yourself with little result for far too long. Using the spreadsheet I've found that MFP's number for "maintenance" plus adding back the workout calories I was getting from my HR monitor (Polar H7). was too high (2200 base + 600-700 exercise - 250 deficit (0.5lb/week per recommendation of how much I had to lose per this thread:community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10601547/weight-loss-rate-as-a-function-of-body-fat/p1). I was eating right about 2500/day thinking I was in a deficit based on how much I was exercising and it turns out I actually eating in a slight surplus given my calculated TDEE to be 2400 or slightly under. In reality my logging was also good, but not great; I wasn't using my food scale or generally being precise enough. Fixing that combined with eating at a deficit requisite to the sheet's number and I'm down ten pounds since October, five of which since New Years'. Really like how it takes the guess work out of adjusting exercise calories, etc.2 -
charlied8817 wrote: »Silentpadna wrote: »Looking at this thread in its entirety, I'm left with a nagging question: what are you trying to accomplish exactly?
You've done great with your weight loss. More cardio isn't going to be the ticket. It's a much smaller component of weight loss than calorie deficit. If you have not lost weight over a significant period of time, it's because you do not have a caloric deficit (whatever the reason).
But.....back to the original question. What is your goal? Is it a specific look? Is it a number on the scale (I hope not)? Is it body composition?
Cardio is great for conditioning. It aids in weight loss to an extent, but at the same time it can inhibit it some. It does not make you stronger so your body composition is not likely to change much. It also produces cortisol, a hormone that serves to regulate your metabolism lower. This is not "starvation mode", but it is also not insignificant. When your body is stressed, it holds water - sometimes for a long time.
You mention weight training and specific areas you are targeting. What's your program? Is it heavy? Is it progressive overload? (If it's not both of those things, it's not likely building any muscle). What's your goal when it comes to lifting?
Your numbers don't suggest to me that your weight is any kind of problem. And, given your height, my hunch is that you would look better above 200 than at 180 - especially if you train for strength.
I had a number of 175 in mind. I still feel like I'm heavy.
Long story short, like most people on here, I woke up ine day and stopped making excuses for being unhealthy and turned my life around.
So I started running. At first it was 30 minutes a day and gradually increased to a few hours a day. It's very time consuming, but the routine works for me.
I'd like to run a half marathon in the next year. In terms of body type, I still feel even at 182, I have about 10lbs to go.
I would say my weight training is light. 3 sets 8 reps of bench, row, lat pull, bi's tri's and a few ab work outs.
First off and I should have said this initially, GREAT JOB so far working on getting in better shape.
Do you workout at a gym? If so, does it offer any weight training classes, or cross fit classes? Maybe you could just run 3 times per week, and then start doing some more cross fit and/or weight training, and stop all that cardio. Just a thought. Getting a trainer, if you can afford one, might provide some insight as well.1 -
charlied8817 wrote: »charlied8817 wrote: »I eat about 3,600 calories ( 45-50 carb 25 fat rest protein- I rarely hit my fat )on average, I have an active lifestyle
Are you by any chance a miner or work in the fields like digging the ground all day? 3600 calories is a huge lot! "active lifestyle" as walking around all day doesn't warrant you all that food! Well, unless you do manual labour, really heavy manual labour.
If you gained it means you are still eating more than you burn and to be honest I'm not surprised.
Review that daily goal, it's a huge lot of food, really -it's too much. Set your daily activity to something lower.
Very insightful. I thought the active lifestyle was all in, work out and non gym life.
MFP activity level is based solely on your non-exercise life. I work in an office. I walk around some, I get water every hour and walk to the bathroom just as often. I even have a standing desk and stand half the time. But I'm not really moving all that much...not like my sister, who's a teacher, does!
So as you can see, my MFP level is set to Sedentary.
Now outside of work? I'm at the gym 5+ days/week and I love going for walks in my neighborhood, and stretch or do yoga at night if I can't unwind. I do a good mix of cardio, group fitness, and lifting, and then I log them in MFP to determine my calorie goal.
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MarylandRose wrote: »charlied8817 wrote: »charlied8817 wrote: »I eat about 3,600 calories ( 45-50 carb 25 fat rest protein- I rarely hit my fat )on average, I have an active lifestyle
Are you by any chance a miner or work in the fields like digging the ground all day? 3600 calories is a huge lot! "active lifestyle" as walking around all day doesn't warrant you all that food! Well, unless you do manual labour, really heavy manual labour.
If you gained it means you are still eating more than you burn and to be honest I'm not surprised.
Review that daily goal, it's a huge lot of food, really -it's too much. Set your daily activity to something lower.
Very insightful. I thought the active lifestyle was all in, work out and non gym life.
MFP activity level is based solely on your non-exercise life. I work in an office. I walk around some, I get water every hour and walk to the bathroom just as often. I even have a standing desk and stand half the time. But I'm not really moving all that much...not like my sister, who's a teacher, does!
So as you can see, my MFP level is set to Sedentary.
Now outside of work? I'm at the gym 5+ days/week and I love going for walks in my neighborhood, and stretch or do yoga at night if I can't unwind. I do a good mix of cardio, group fitness, and lifting, and then I log them in MFP to determine my calorie goal.
Thanks for the response. What's the best way to estimate how many calories I'm burning?
From the feedback that I've gotten the under estimating just isn't doing the trick.1 -
charlied8817 wrote: »Silentpadna wrote: »Looking at this thread in its entirety, I'm left with a nagging question: what are you trying to accomplish exactly?
You've done great with your weight loss. More cardio isn't going to be the ticket. It's a much smaller component of weight loss than calorie deficit. If you have not lost weight over a significant period of time, it's because you do not have a caloric deficit (whatever the reason).
But.....back to the original question. What is your goal? Is it a specific look? Is it a number on the scale (I hope not)? Is it body composition?
Cardio is great for conditioning. It aids in weight loss to an extent, but at the same time it can inhibit it some. It does not make you stronger so your body composition is not likely to change much. It also produces cortisol, a hormone that serves to regulate your metabolism lower. This is not "starvation mode", but it is also not insignificant. When your body is stressed, it holds water - sometimes for a long time.
You mention weight training and specific areas you are targeting. What's your program? Is it heavy? Is it progressive overload? (If it's not both of those things, it's not likely building any muscle). What's your goal when it comes to lifting?
Your numbers don't suggest to me that your weight is any kind of problem. And, given your height, my hunch is that you would look better above 200 than at 180 - especially if you train for strength.
I had a number of 175 in mind. I still feel like I'm heavy.
Long story short, like most people on here, I woke up ine day and stopped making excuses for being unhealthy and turned my life around.
So I started running. At first it was 30 minutes a day and gradually increased to a few hours a day. It's very time consuming, but the routine works for me.
I'd like to run a half marathon in the next year. In terms of body type, I still feel even at 182, I have about 10lbs to go.
I would say my weight training is light. 3 sets 8 reps of bench, row, lat pull, bi's tri's and a few ab work outs.
First off and I should have said this initially, GREAT JOB so far working on getting in better shape.
Do you workout at a gym? If so, does it offer any weight training classes, or cross fit classes? Maybe you could just run 3 times per week, and then start doing some more cross fit and/or weight training, and stop all that cardio. Just a thought. Getting a trainer, if you can afford one, might provide some insight as well.
Thank you I appreciate it. Yes I do. They offer some classes and I've tried them from time to time. a lot of them or during working hours and it's hard to hit those during the week.
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charlied8817 wrote: »charlied8817 wrote: »I eat about 3,600 calories ( 45-50 carb 25 fat rest protein- I rarely hit my fat )on average, I have an active lifestyle
Are you by any chance a miner or work in the fields like digging the ground all day? 3600 calories is a huge lot! "active lifestyle" as walking around all day doesn't warrant you all that food! Well, unless you do manual labour, really heavy manual labour.
If you gained it means you are still eating more than you burn and to be honest I'm not surprised.
Review that daily goal, it's a huge lot of food, really -it's too much. Set your daily activity to something lower.
Very insightful. I thought the active lifestyle was all in, work out and non gym life.
There seems to be 2 popular ways to setting calorie goals here: NEAT (the way MFP is designed) and TDEE.
With NEAT, MFP sets your calorie goal to be your Non-Exercise Activity Level minus a deficit based on the rate of weightloss you choose (500 calories if you choose 1 pound per week). This includes your BMR (the calories you burn simply by breathing and being alive) plus the calorie expenditure that comes with the activity you do throughout your day: brushing your teeth, sitting at your desk, cooking dinner, watching tv, etc.. You then log calories burned from your exercise to increase the calories you can consume so your total. So the formula you see in you diary is calories consumed minus exercise compared to NEAT minus weight loss deficit.
Many people choose to do TDEE (total daily expenditure). With this, your calories are set at your BMR plus the calories you burn in daily activity plus the calories burned through exercise (a daily average). With this, you don't log exercise calories burned in MFP because you do not eat them back. You simply have a higher daily target.
NEAT is how MFP is designed. I think it is great in showing how many calories you eat versus burn through exercise. I think some people like the visual of how much exercise it takes to burn calories. It works well if your exercise is more sporadic than routine.
TDEE is often used by people that have a dedicated exercise routine. It also seems popular among people who weight lift - probably because tracking the calorie burn from weight lifting is difficult. It gives a level daily calorie goal which some people prefer.
Thanks for the detailed post.
It's alot to take in.
With that being said would this be the real reason why I gained almost 10 lb in four and a half days?
I've been steadily losing since I started back in May, a handful of weeks I shot up week-over-week a couple pounds but it's always gone down.
If I was drastically overeating wouldn't I've experienced a much higher weight gain? Also wouldn't I have not continue to lose?1 -
To have lost so steadily over these past months means you are doing a whole lot of things right.
You did not gain seven pounds of fat in a week, so it has to be water weight.
I suggest lowering your calorie goal by 100 calories a day and just for a week reduce your salt intake.
Just see if that affects the scale.4 -
charlied8817 wrote: »charlied8817 wrote: »charlied8817 wrote: »I eat about 3,600 calories ( 45-50 carb 25 fat rest protein- I rarely hit my fat )on average, I have an active lifestyle
Are you by any chance a miner or work in the fields like digging the ground all day? 3600 calories is a huge lot! "active lifestyle" as walking around all day doesn't warrant you all that food! Well, unless you do manual labour, really heavy manual labour.
If you gained it means you are still eating more than you burn and to be honest I'm not surprised.
Review that daily goal, it's a huge lot of food, really -it's too much. Set your daily activity to something lower.
Very insightful. I thought the active lifestyle was all in, work out and non gym life.
There seems to be 2 popular ways to setting calorie goals here: NEAT (the way MFP is designed) and TDEE.
With NEAT, MFP sets your calorie goal to be your Non-Exercise Activity Level minus a deficit based on the rate of weightloss you choose (500 calories if you choose 1 pound per week). This includes your BMR (the calories you burn simply by breathing and being alive) plus the calorie expenditure that comes with the activity you do throughout your day: brushing your teeth, sitting at your desk, cooking dinner, watching tv, etc.. You then log calories burned from your exercise to increase the calories you can consume so your total. So the formula you see in you diary is calories consumed minus exercise compared to NEAT minus weight loss deficit.
Many people choose to do TDEE (total daily expenditure). With this, your calories are set at your BMR plus the calories you burn in daily activity plus the calories burned through exercise (a daily average). With this, you don't log exercise calories burned in MFP because you do not eat them back. You simply have a higher daily target.
NEAT is how MFP is designed. I think it is great in showing how many calories you eat versus burn through exercise. I think some people like the visual of how much exercise it takes to burn calories. It works well if your exercise is more sporadic than routine.
TDEE is often used by people that have a dedicated exercise routine. It also seems popular among people who weight lift - probably because tracking the calorie burn from weight lifting is difficult. It gives a level daily calorie goal which some people prefer.
Thanks for the detailed post.
It's alot to take in.
With that being said would this be the real reason why I gained almost 10 lb in four and a half days?
I've been steadily losing since I started back in May, a handful of weeks I shot up week-over-week a couple pounds but it's always gone down.
If I was drastically overeating wouldn't I've experienced a much higher weight gain? Also wouldn't I have not continue to lose?
You didn't gain 10 lbs in 4 days...at least not 4 lbs of fat. Unless you somehow ate a surplus of 14,000 kcals in the last 4 days. 8oz of water weighs ~ .5 lb. You weighed yourself in a dehydrated state and then weighed yourself in a super hydrated state.
This isn't unusual. The only reason you stumbled onto this is due to your frequency of weighing.5 -
charlied8817 wrote: »charlied8817 wrote: »charlied8817 wrote: »I eat about 3,600 calories ( 45-50 carb 25 fat rest protein- I rarely hit my fat )on average, I have an active lifestyle
Are you by any chance a miner or work in the fields like digging the ground all day? 3600 calories is a huge lot! "active lifestyle" as walking around all day doesn't warrant you all that food! Well, unless you do manual labour, really heavy manual labour.
If you gained it means you are still eating more than you burn and to be honest I'm not surprised.
Review that daily goal, it's a huge lot of food, really -it's too much. Set your daily activity to something lower.
Very insightful. I thought the active lifestyle was all in, work out and non gym life.
There seems to be 2 popular ways to setting calorie goals here: NEAT (the way MFP is designed) and TDEE.
With NEAT, MFP sets your calorie goal to be your Non-Exercise Activity Level minus a deficit based on the rate of weightloss you choose (500 calories if you choose 1 pound per week). This includes your BMR (the calories you burn simply by breathing and being alive) plus the calorie expenditure that comes with the activity you do throughout your day: brushing your teeth, sitting at your desk, cooking dinner, watching tv, etc.. You then log calories burned from your exercise to increase the calories you can consume so your total. So the formula you see in you diary is calories consumed minus exercise compared to NEAT minus weight loss deficit.
Many people choose to do TDEE (total daily expenditure). With this, your calories are set at your BMR plus the calories you burn in daily activity plus the calories burned through exercise (a daily average). With this, you don't log exercise calories burned in MFP because you do not eat them back. You simply have a higher daily target.
NEAT is how MFP is designed. I think it is great in showing how many calories you eat versus burn through exercise. I think some people like the visual of how much exercise it takes to burn calories. It works well if your exercise is more sporadic than routine.
TDEE is often used by people that have a dedicated exercise routine. It also seems popular among people who weight lift - probably because tracking the calorie burn from weight lifting is difficult. It gives a level daily calorie goal which some people prefer.
Thanks for the detailed post.
It's alot to take in.
With that being said would this be the real reason why I gained almost 10 lb in four and a half days?
I've been steadily losing since I started back in May, a handful of weeks I shot up week-over-week a couple pounds but it's always gone down.
If I was drastically overeating wouldn't I've experienced a much higher weight gain? Also wouldn't I have not continue to lose?
No, this would not be the cause of that much weight gain over such a short time frame. It could be water weight, as so many people have previously mentioned. Another thought - are you weighing on the same scale in the same spot every time? Is the scale on a firm, level floor? Is it electronic and low on battery?0 -
I'm really bad at quoting multiple posts...
Have you readjusted your weight loss goals since you've lost all of your weight? A 180 lb body takes much less fuel than a 250 lb body. Using the Scooby calculator (http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator) for back of the envelope puts you at around 3600 to maintain. Note that Scooby's is a TDEE calculator so you would not eat back exercise calories by this method.
You said that you run 2-3 hours most days and that if you eat less thank 3000 calories you feel like a zombie... Runger is real. In general running is a great way to lose weight, but there is a tipping point where it makes you *that* much hungrier--you definitely have to watch to make sure you maintain your deficit at that point. (But also--and I speak from experience here--running a half marathon or more on a cut is a bad idea if you wish to finish fast or strong.) With as much running as you do, a running watch/HRM would be a fantastic idea. I have a Garmin Fenix 5S that I absolutely love, but it is spendy. In the absence of that I like this calculator: https://www.runnersworld.com/tools/calories-burned-calculator For me it matches fairly well with my HRM.
Edited to add: also consider using a trend weight application to track your weight. Daily fluctuations are normal depending on diet and hydration, but you can still ensure that the overall trend is downward (if that is your goal).2 -
charlied8817 wrote: »
Speaking as a long term (like almost 44 years) vegetarian and about 15 years very active: Not true.
Probably not at all good for you to "cleanse" that way. Treat your body right, and let it do what it does. It's good at it.
Did you "cleanse" shortly before your low weight?
Do you let your fitness device estimate weight training calories? If so, does it know that weight training is what you're doing? How does MFP's strength training calorie estimate (in the cardio exercise database) compare to the weight training calories you record?
If you've been doing more indoor cardio lately, and you use high resistance/incline settings that make it differ from your outdoor exercise, are you experiencing sore muscles or a more "worked out" muscular sensation post-exercise from doing that?
Forgive me if I missed it, but did you answer the question about whether you've recalculated your goal calories since losing so much weight?
Also, have you read this thread: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks5 -
I really don't understand why many have focused on how many calories the OP eats.
The OP has been losing steadily for MONTHS eating that level of calories. We are addressing a 10lbs FOUR DAY gain. NOT an inability to lose weight over the long term.
To gain 10lbs in FOUR days you have to account for 35000 calories ABOVE maintenance. If the OP did NOT eat 35000 Calories above maintenance they did NOT gain 10lbs of FAT.
Whether the OP's regiment of excessive running is correct or not (and it probably is excessive and creates an injury risk) REDUCING CALORIES FURTHER WHILE EXERCISING LIKE THIS IS NOT WISE because it INCREASES the risk of injury and the risk of adaptation.
Correctly most people have identified that the weight loss will slow down now that the OP is normal weight.
Correctly many people suggest a weight trend application and a reduction in the multiple weigh ins per day.
Correctly many people are addressing that some of this appears/sounds to have some elements of un-sustainability. Seeking a sustainable balance would be a good thing. The OP is at a healthy weight (congrats by the way).
THERE IS NO NEED FOR HASTY ACTION. And there is no need to "push" things by swiftly reacting to a few days of data.
If unsupported by food logging weight gain continues and if swelling/edema is present... a visit to a doctor to discuss reasons for water weight gain might be a great idea.
13 -
I really don't understand why everyone has focused so much on how many calories the OP eats.
The OP has been losing steadily for MONTHS eating that level of calories. They are addressing a 10lbs FOUR DAY gain. NOT an inability to lose weight over the long term.
To gain 10lbs in FOUR days you have to account for 35000 calories ABOVE maintenance. If the OP did NOT eat 35000 Calories above maintenance they did NOT gain 10lbs of FAT.
Whether the OP's regiment of excessive running is correct or not (and it probably is excessive and creates an injury risk) REDUCING CALORIES FURTHER WHILE EXERCISING LIKE THIS IS NOT WISE because it INCREASES the risk of injury and the risk of adaptation.
Correctly most people have identified that the weight loss will slow down now that the OP is normal weight.
Correctly many people suggest a weight trend application and a reduction in the multiple weigh ins per day.
Correctly many people are addressing that some of this appears/sounds to have some elements of un-sustainability. Seeking a sustainable balance would be a good thing. The OP is at a healthy weight (congrats by the way).
THERE IS NO NEED FOR HASTY ACTION. And there is no need to "push" things by swiftly reacting to a few days of data.
If unsupported by food logging weight gain continues and if swelling/edema is present... a visit to a doctor to discuss reasons for water weight gain might be a great idea.
QFT
OP, you seem to be paying the most attention to posters who are leading you into the weeds. But now that you are at a lower weight, you need to become more accustomed to seeing normal fluctuations. Dehydration, glycogen replenishment, slower or faster digestion - these are all normal things, especially for someone exercising hard.THERE IS NO NEED FOR HASTY ACTION.
4 -
I really don't understand why everyone has focused so much on how many calories the OP eats.
The OP has been losing steadily for MONTHS eating that level of calories. They are addressing a 10lbs FOUR DAY gain. NOT an inability to lose weight over the long term.
To gain 10lbs in FOUR days you have to account for 35000 calories ABOVE maintenance. If the OP did NOT eat 35000 Calories above maintenance they did NOT gain 10lbs of FAT.
Whether the OP's regiment of excessive running is correct or not (and it probably is excessive and creates an injury risk) REDUCING CALORIES FURTHER WHILE EXERCISING LIKE THIS IS NOT WISE because it INCREASES the risk of injury and the risk of adaptation.
Correctly most people have identified that the weight loss will slow down now that the OP is normal weight.
Correctly many people suggest a weight trend application and a reduction in the multiple weigh ins per day.
Correctly many people are addressing that some of this appears/sounds to have some elements of un-sustainability. Seeking a sustainable balance would be a good thing. The OP is at a healthy weight (congrats by the way).
THERE IS NO NEED FOR HASTY ACTION. And there is no need to "push" things by swiftly reacting to a few days of data.
If unsupported by food logging weight gain continues and if swelling/edema is present... a visit to a doctor to discuss reasons for water weight gain might be a great idea.
QFT
OP, you seem to be paying the most attention to posters who are leading you into the weeds. But now that you are at a lower weight, you need to become more accustomed to seeing normal fluctuations. Dehydration, glycogen replenishment, slower or faster digestion - these are all normal things, especially for someone exercising hard.THERE IS NO NEED FOR HASTY ACTION.
Yes, this!
I am at goal weight and I still see dramatic swings in my weight day-to-day depending on what I'm eating, activity level, and TOM. It's not unusual for me to swing 7-8 pounds in a month so I've just learned to ignore it and focus on the overall trend.2 -
charlied8817 wrote: »charlied8817 wrote: »charlied8817 wrote: »I eat about 3,600 calories ( 45-50 carb 25 fat rest protein- I rarely hit my fat )on average, I have an active lifestyle
Are you by any chance a miner or work in the fields like digging the ground all day? 3600 calories is a huge lot! "active lifestyle" as walking around all day doesn't warrant you all that food! Well, unless you do manual labour, really heavy manual labour.
If you gained it means you are still eating more than you burn and to be honest I'm not surprised.
Review that daily goal, it's a huge lot of food, really -it's too much. Set your daily activity to something lower.
Very insightful. I thought the active lifestyle was all in, work out and non gym life.
There seems to be 2 popular ways to setting calorie goals here: NEAT (the way MFP is designed) and TDEE.
With NEAT, MFP sets your calorie goal to be your Non-Exercise Activity Level minus a deficit based on the rate of weightloss you choose (500 calories if you choose 1 pound per week). This includes your BMR (the calories you burn simply by breathing and being alive) plus the calorie expenditure that comes with the activity you do throughout your day: brushing your teeth, sitting at your desk, cooking dinner, watching tv, etc.. You then log calories burned from your exercise to increase the calories you can consume so your total. So the formula you see in you diary is calories consumed minus exercise compared to NEAT minus weight loss deficit.
Many people choose to do TDEE (total daily expenditure). With this, your calories are set at your BMR plus the calories you burn in daily activity plus the calories burned through exercise (a daily average). With this, you don't log exercise calories burned in MFP because you do not eat them back. You simply have a higher daily target.
NEAT is how MFP is designed. I think it is great in showing how many calories you eat versus burn through exercise. I think some people like the visual of how much exercise it takes to burn calories. It works well if your exercise is more sporadic than routine.
TDEE is often used by people that have a dedicated exercise routine. It also seems popular among people who weight lift - probably because tracking the calorie burn from weight lifting is difficult. It gives a level daily calorie goal which some people prefer.
Thanks for the detailed post.
It's alot to take in.
With that being said would this be the real reason why I gained almost 10 lb in four and a half days?
I've been steadily losing since I started back in May, a handful of weeks I shot up week-over-week a couple pounds but it's always gone down.
If I was drastically overeating wouldn't I've experienced a much higher weight gain? Also wouldn't I have not continue to lose?
No, this would not be the cause of that much weight gain over such a short time frame. It could be water weight, as so many people have previously mentioned. Another thought - are you weighing on the same scale in the same spot every time? Is the scale on a firm, level floor? Is it electronic and low on battery?
Yes- same scale- time of the day0 -
janejellyroll wrote: »I really don't understand why everyone has focused so much on how many calories the OP eats.
The OP has been losing steadily for MONTHS eating that level of calories. They are addressing a 10lbs FOUR DAY gain. NOT an inability to lose weight over the long term.
To gain 10lbs in FOUR days you have to account for 35000 calories ABOVE maintenance. If the OP did NOT eat 35000 Calories above maintenance they did NOT gain 10lbs of FAT.
Whether the OP's regiment of excessive running is correct or not (and it probably is excessive and creates an injury risk) REDUCING CALORIES FURTHER WHILE EXERCISING LIKE THIS IS NOT WISE because it INCREASES the risk of injury and the risk of adaptation.
Correctly most people have identified that the weight loss will slow down now that the OP is normal weight.
Correctly many people suggest a weight trend application and a reduction in the multiple weigh ins per day.
Correctly many people are addressing that some of this appears/sounds to have some elements of un-sustainability. Seeking a sustainable balance would be a good thing. The OP is at a healthy weight (congrats by the way).
THERE IS NO NEED FOR HASTY ACTION. And there is no need to "push" things by swiftly reacting to a few days of data.
If unsupported by food logging weight gain continues and if swelling/edema is present... a visit to a doctor to discuss reasons for water weight gain might be a great idea.
QFT
OP, you seem to be paying the most attention to posters who are leading you into the weeds. But now that you are at a lower weight, you need to become more accustomed to seeing normal fluctuations. Dehydration, glycogen replenishment, slower or faster digestion - these are all normal things, especially for someone exercising hard.THERE IS NO NEED FOR HASTY ACTION.
Yes, this!
I am at goal weight and I still see dramatic swings in my weight day-to-day depending on what I'm eating, activity level, and TOM. It's not unusual for me to swing 7-8 pounds in a month so I've just learned to ignore it and focus on the overall trend.
Thanks for the insight. I had no idea 7-8 was normal.
I assumed that a normal rate was 2-4 lbs at a time and anymore than that was fat gain.0 -
charlied8817 wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »I really don't understand why everyone has focused so much on how many calories the OP eats.
The OP has been losing steadily for MONTHS eating that level of calories. They are addressing a 10lbs FOUR DAY gain. NOT an inability to lose weight over the long term.
To gain 10lbs in FOUR days you have to account for 35000 calories ABOVE maintenance. If the OP did NOT eat 35000 Calories above maintenance they did NOT gain 10lbs of FAT.
Whether the OP's regiment of excessive running is correct or not (and it probably is excessive and creates an injury risk) REDUCING CALORIES FURTHER WHILE EXERCISING LIKE THIS IS NOT WISE because it INCREASES the risk of injury and the risk of adaptation.
Correctly most people have identified that the weight loss will slow down now that the OP is normal weight.
Correctly many people suggest a weight trend application and a reduction in the multiple weigh ins per day.
Correctly many people are addressing that some of this appears/sounds to have some elements of un-sustainability. Seeking a sustainable balance would be a good thing. The OP is at a healthy weight (congrats by the way).
THERE IS NO NEED FOR HASTY ACTION. And there is no need to "push" things by swiftly reacting to a few days of data.
If unsupported by food logging weight gain continues and if swelling/edema is present... a visit to a doctor to discuss reasons for water weight gain might be a great idea.
QFT
OP, you seem to be paying the most attention to posters who are leading you into the weeds. But now that you are at a lower weight, you need to become more accustomed to seeing normal fluctuations. Dehydration, glycogen replenishment, slower or faster digestion - these are all normal things, especially for someone exercising hard.THERE IS NO NEED FOR HASTY ACTION.
Yes, this!
I am at goal weight and I still see dramatic swings in my weight day-to-day depending on what I'm eating, activity level, and TOM. It's not unusual for me to swing 7-8 pounds in a month so I've just learned to ignore it and focus on the overall trend.
Thanks for the insight. I had no idea 7-8 was normal.
I assumed that a normal rate was 2-4 lbs at a time and anymore than that was fat gain.
I don't know if it is normal for other people, but it's normal for me. The best way (IMO) is to track over time and pay attention to your swings. You can figure out what is normal for you and that makes it much easier to ride out fluctuations.
Here is my last few days for context:
Thursday: 118
Friday: 115
Saturday: 113 (had a few drinks the night before, was probably dehydrated)
Sunday: 114
Monday: 119 (had pizza Sunday night, very high sodium day for me)
Tuesday: 116
Wednesday: 119 (who knows???)
Thursday: 112 (ate pretty high sodium on Wednesday but also felt very thirsty so I drank a lot of water all day)
This was without any races or especially hard workouts. In the summer when I'm doing long runs outside or when I'm training for a marathon, I can see even more dramatic swings. And when I'm ovulating or about to start my period, I'll be on the heavier side as well. If you haven't already, I highly recommend downloading an app like Trend Weight or Libra. You enter your weight each day and it gives you a general trend. You don't even have to focus on the daily number, just the trend.
So what's my "true weight"? None of those. I just try to stay in a general range.4 -
Yeah, swings. I'm going in to year 3 of maintenance (admittedly still up a few holiday pounds), and my AM weigh-ins have ranged from 130.8 to 135.6 (and points up and down in between) over the last 7 days. Not stressed about it - it's not even all that unusual. (I've gone over 7 pounds variation within a week. And BTW: I'm old enough that female hormone fluctuations are no longer an issue.)4
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fitoverfortymom wrote: »I eat more calories on the weekends than I do during the week, including a boatload of carbs. I'm about 5lbs heavier on Monday and sometimes down by as much as 3lbs (on top of losing the fake 5lb weekend gain) by Friday.
Maybe you could log your weight daily in a trending app like Libra or Happy Scale rather than worrying about the minutia of normal, daily weight fluctuations.
@charlied8817
I'm shocked with your normal weekend arrangement that you haven't seen the above effect each and every time.
Add some good stress to it - now you got sodium and cortisol induced water weight increase.
Perhaps body is getting more stressed out over something.
With all the weight lost - have you lightened up on the pace you are attempting to go - the amount of daily deficit?
What's appropriate at the start is not reasonable as you keep losing fat and have less of it.8
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