Run 4x/week for 2 months - No improvement

swagoner94
swagoner94 Posts: 220 Member
edited November 24 in Motivation and Support
I'm confused.

On December 28th, I decided - starting from a fairly sedentary lifestyle - that I would start to run. I didn't have a weight loss goal in mind or even a distance/pace goal in mind. It started as simply a goal to run. Eventually I added more parameters: I want to run at least 4 times a week... no end date.

It's now February 16th, and I haven't failed to do this for any week. I use the Nike+ Run Club to do guided speed workouts/long runs. They're super helpful and I like to hit certain points where I think, "If I weren't on a guided run, I'd be walking or ending this run right now."

I started out in December at 158lbs. That's dangerously close to my highest weight.

So, two months of running 4 times a week and I'm.......

158.4

How does that make sense? No, my diet isn't poor. It can always be better, but caloric intake has been lower than burned. Ever since getting a FitBit I've in general been more active than before and I'm regularly working out. Even if my diet was poor... It still shouldn't just be maintaining my weight. I was at 158 and holding prior to working out at all!

Replies

  • L1zardQueen
    L1zardQueen Posts: 8,753 Member
    How many calories are you eating a day? Are you counting calories carefully? Do you use a food scale to weigh everything?
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Are you actually logging or otherwise tracking calories. It's fairly common for people to start exercising and subconsciously eat more...it really doesn't take that much more calorie wise to void exercise calories burned and that's usually why people think they're eating the same...they're eating a little more, but it's not super noticeable so they don't realize they're doing it.

    If you're maintaining, you're eating maintenance calories.
  • swagoner94
    swagoner94 Posts: 220 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    Are you actually logging or otherwise tracking calories. It's fairly common for people to start exercising and subconsciously eat more...it really doesn't take that much more calorie wise to void exercise calories burned and that's usually why people think they're eating the same...they're eating a little more, but it's not super noticeable so they don't realize they're doing it.

    If you're maintaining, you're eating maintenance calories.

    I typically track my calories within the FitBit app itself. To @Tiny_Dancer_in_Pink, I'm not logging religiously - I did used to do this even if I took a bite of something. And I don't use a food scale.

    I also go off of my FitBit's calorie gauge. So rather than say, 1,200 strictly, I more so focus on consume less than I've burned in the day's course - which is almost always in the 1200 - 1400 range.

    In the last two weeks, I've been trying intermittent fasting to see if it would budge the scale - it hasn't. Really, I'm eating two meals a day lately. Dinner is healthy and nutrient rich 9/10 times. Lunch is a coin toss because I don't bring food to work usually and I'm at the mercy of what foods are available in the breakroom (not much).
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    edited February 2018
    Sometimes when people start a new exercise program, it makes them subtly hungrier. Not OMG I'm starving, just a little bit. And if you aren't carefully weighing/measuring portions, you could be subtly eating just enough more to offset the extra calories you're burning.

    If you aren't using a food scale, that's where I'd start. Even just a couple of weeks using it will get your portions back in line.

    Alternatively, are you eating back your exercise calories? If so, it's possible that either Fitbit or MFP are over-estimating the calories burned, and you are eating a little too much.

    Congrats on sticking to your schedule! It can take some time and tweaking to get your food and exercise working together to get the scale moving to where you want, but you'll get there :drinker:

    ETA after reading your response: calories are king for weight loss, regardless of eating healthy or meal timing. I'd bet focusing more on your logging will get you moving in the right direction!
  • xsythe
    xsythe Posts: 2 Member
    Your issue is that you aren't tracking well. A good rule of thumb is to halve whatever calorie estimate that a tracking app gives you, and you definitely need to be tracking everything you eat with MyFitnessPal - weight loss is 90% diet, 10% exercise.
  • steveko89
    steveko89 Posts: 2,223 Member
    Congrats starting your running habit! My wife loves to run as well... me, less so but I do run from time to time. Just like your goal to start running takes planning and effort, so too will a goal of losing weight. From an energy balance standpoint, regardless of exercise, if you're not losing weight than energy input = energy output. Start logging well, get a food scale to log accurately, eat at a deficit, and you'll lose weight. I suggest not setting a calorie goal right off the bat since you've effectively found your maintenance level at your current activity. Get 2-3 weeks of good solid calorie data and cut back from that requisite to the amount of weight you have to lose and a loss rate at which that will support. You can keep trying to do IF if you want, I losely follow a 16:8 protocol and find it easier to plan for two meals instead of three and like being able to eat more for dinners, just know it's not going to magically cause weight loss if you're still eating too many calories.

    Good luck pounding the pavement!
  • tirowow12385
    tirowow12385 Posts: 697 Member
    Do you come home and just splurge on a big meal because you finished a run? Could be that.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    swagoner94 wrote: »
    I mean.. I don't think the only people that ever lose weight are calorie counters. I've logged religiously enough in the past to have a pretty accurate understanding of how many calories I'm consuming and I'm nearly certain that I'm not exceed what I burn. In fact, there are days where I'm sure I'm under eating! At 4 times a week running 3+ miles of sprints at 30+ minutes... It just sounds doubtful to me that that's my issue.

    I don't calorie count and I'm cutting my winter weight at the moment...I'm pretty good at guestimating my calories, but when I need to cut weight I generally have to make some modifications regardless of what I think I'm eating.

    The bottom line is that if you're maintaining, you're eating maintenance calories...that's the nature of the beast.
  • ROWDYRIDER99
    ROWDYRIDER99 Posts: 10 Member
    Just wondering....how are your clothes fitting....any change there?

    With your increased activity, you may be swapping weight lost for muscle which is heavier than fat.

    As your body changes, your clothes may show where/how its changing.

    Keep it up!

    PS....I highly recommend using a food scale, eating something for breakfast (plain yogurt for me), taking my lunch to work, and being sure that I get as much protein as I can.
  • steveko89
    steveko89 Posts: 2,223 Member
    steveko89 wrote: »
    Congrats starting your running habit! My wife loves to run as well... me, less so but I do run from time to time. Just like your goal to start running takes planning and effort, so too will a goal of losing weight. From an energy balance standpoint, regardless of exercise, if you're not losing weight than energy input = energy output. Start logging well, get a food scale to log accurately, eat at a deficit, and you'll lose weight. I suggest not setting a calorie goal right off the bat since you've effectively found your maintenance level at your current activity. Get 2-3 weeks of good solid calorie data and cut back from that requisite to the amount of weight you have to lose and a loss rate at which that will support. You can keep trying to do IF if you want, I losely follow a 16:8 protocol and find it easier to plan for two meals instead of three and like being able to eat more for dinners, just know it's not going to magically cause weight loss if you're still eating too many calories.

    Good luck pounding the pavement!

    EDIT: I creeped on the pictures on your profile, and it doesn't look like you have much weight to lose so it may take more of an overhaul of your diet to make significant physique changes. Depending on your aesthetic goals you may also be better served starting resistance training rather than just doing cardio.
  • swagoner94
    swagoner94 Posts: 220 Member
    tirowow12385 wrote: »
    Do you come home and just splurge on a big meal because you finished a run? Could be that.

    Nope! I don't even keep snacks at home. I run midday at work. Usually I eat a sandwich or some kind of bar. That's it. Until I get home and my lovely sister who works from home usually has cooked dinner. She's pretty healthy and a vegetarian so it's almost always a huge salad or some kind of quinoa type dish.
  • gamerbabe14
    gamerbabe14 Posts: 876 Member
    I agree with the above but I'll say this too... you only gave us 2 data points. If you're not logging your food, we don't know your expected rate of loss. If it's .5lb a week you're going for then this week could just be masking water weight due to TOM or a high sodium meal.

    8 weeks at .5lb a week would be 4lb loss. When I eat pizza, I easily can be up 3-5lbs the next day although it's not fat. If you're really serious about losing weight, you'll need to capture a trend versus just comparing two data points.

    But a healthy diet can still mean you're consuming more calories than think. So take out that food scale!
  • swagoner94
    swagoner94 Posts: 220 Member
    rhondawroberts wrote: »
    Just wondering....how are your clothes fitting....any change there?

    With your increased activity, you may be swapping weight lost for muscle which is heavier than fat.

    As your body changes, your clothes may show where/how its changing.

    Keep it up!

    PS....I highly recommend using a food scale, eating something for breakfast (plain yogurt for me), taking my lunch to work, and being sure that I get as much protein as I can.

    Thanks for the tip! My clothes fit about the same or slightly larger. I normally buy a large pair of workout pants from Fabletics. My recent order of large pants were falling off of me on the treadmill! But that could simply just be because it's different material than some of the other pants I've purchased.
  • swagoner94
    swagoner94 Posts: 220 Member
    steveko89 wrote: »
    steveko89 wrote: »
    Congrats starting your running habit! My wife loves to run as well... me, less so but I do run from time to time. Just like your goal to start running takes planning and effort, so too will a goal of losing weight. From an energy balance standpoint, regardless of exercise, if you're not losing weight than energy input = energy output. Start logging well, get a food scale to log accurately, eat at a deficit, and you'll lose weight. I suggest not setting a calorie goal right off the bat since you've effectively found your maintenance level at your current activity. Get 2-3 weeks of good solid calorie data and cut back from that requisite to the amount of weight you have to lose and a loss rate at which that will support. You can keep trying to do IF if you want, I losely follow a 16:8 protocol and find it easier to plan for two meals instead of three and like being able to eat more for dinners, just know it's not going to magically cause weight loss if you're still eating too many calories.

    Good luck pounding the pavement!

    EDIT: I creeped on the pictures on your profile, and it doesn't look like you have much weight to lose so it may take more of an overhaul of your diet to make significant physique changes. Depending on your aesthetic goals you may also be better served starting resistance training rather than just doing cardio.

    Very insightful, thank you! And I'm glad you creeped because it clearly influenced the kind of tips you suggested! I have been thinking I might need to back off on some of the running and add in some sort of strength element.
  • aeloine
    aeloine Posts: 2,163 Member
    Fitbit straight up overestimates calorie burns. A lot. I've had to disconnect mine.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    swagoner94 wrote: »
    I mean.. I don't think the only people that ever lose weight are calorie counters. I've logged religiously enough in the past to have a pretty accurate understanding of how many calories I'm consuming and I'm nearly certain that I'm not exceed what I burn. In fact, there are days where I'm sure I'm under eating! At 4 times a week running 3+ miles of sprints at 30+ minutes... It just sounds doubtful to me that that's my issue.

    If you are managing to eat exactly the same as you always have by eyeballing portions, then for some reason your TDEE has gone down rather than up. Regardless, if you'd like to lose weight, you need to eat less or burn more. The easiest way to figure it out is to log more accurately, but if you don't want to do that, then you need to find a different way to get into a calorie deficit.

    One of the reasons people tend to gain back lost weight is because when you stop paying as much attention, your consumption slowly increases over time, not enough to notice but enough that over time you gain a lb here and a lb there. Saying you are subtly eating more without realizing it isn't a criticism, it's just what often happens. I personally know that I will spend several weeks over the course of each year weighing and accurately logging, probably for the rest of my life, or I start to veer off track. Whatever you decide to do, best of luck.
  • swagoner94
    swagoner94 Posts: 220 Member
    kimny72 wrote: »
    swagoner94 wrote: »
    I mean.. I don't think the only people that ever lose weight are calorie counters. I've logged religiously enough in the past to have a pretty accurate understanding of how many calories I'm consuming and I'm nearly certain that I'm not exceed what I burn. In fact, there are days where I'm sure I'm under eating! At 4 times a week running 3+ miles of sprints at 30+ minutes... It just sounds doubtful to me that that's my issue.

    If you are managing to eat exactly the same as you always have by eyeballing portions, then for some reason your TDEE has gone down rather than up. Regardless, if you'd like to lose weight, you need to eat less or burn more. The easiest way to figure it out is to log more accurately, but if you don't want to do that, then you need to find a different way to get into a calorie deficit.

    One of the reasons people tend to gain back lost weight is because when you stop paying as much attention, your consumption slowly increases over time, not enough to notice but enough that over time you gain a lb here and a lb there. Saying you are subtly eating more without realizing it isn't a criticism, it's just what often happens. I personally know that I will spend several weeks over the course of each year weighing and accurately logging, probably for the rest of my life, or I start to veer off track. Whatever you decide to do, best of luck.

    That makes sense. I've gone in and out of regularly logging and have noticed a similar trend.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    swagoner94 wrote: »
    kimny72 wrote: »
    swagoner94 wrote: »
    I mean.. I don't think the only people that ever lose weight are calorie counters. I've logged religiously enough in the past to have a pretty accurate understanding of how many calories I'm consuming and I'm nearly certain that I'm not exceed what I burn. In fact, there are days where I'm sure I'm under eating! At 4 times a week running 3+ miles of sprints at 30+ minutes... It just sounds doubtful to me that that's my issue.

    If you are managing to eat exactly the same as you always have by eyeballing portions, then for some reason your TDEE has gone down rather than up. Regardless, if you'd like to lose weight, you need to eat less or burn more. The easiest way to figure it out is to log more accurately, but if you don't want to do that, then you need to find a different way to get into a calorie deficit.

    One of the reasons people tend to gain back lost weight is because when you stop paying as much attention, your consumption slowly increases over time, not enough to notice but enough that over time you gain a lb here and a lb there. Saying you are subtly eating more without realizing it isn't a criticism, it's just what often happens. I personally know that I will spend several weeks over the course of each year weighing and accurately logging, probably for the rest of my life, or I start to veer off track. Whatever you decide to do, best of luck.

    That makes sense. I've gone in and out of regularly logging and have noticed a similar trend.

    Look at it this way also...on the four day you run you're burning an additional 300ish calories...that's a tiny handful of nuts worth of calories.

    Also, how tall are you? I agree with a previous poster that it doesn't look like you really have the fat to burn and that you are at a healthy weight...when you're at a healthy weight and lean and trying to get leaner, things get a bit more complicated.

    I second the motion to start lifting...keep running, but throw in 2-3 days of resistance training in there...that will do more to change your overall body composition than anything.
  • swagoner94
    swagoner94 Posts: 220 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    swagoner94 wrote: »
    kimny72 wrote: »
    swagoner94 wrote: »
    I mean.. I don't think the only people that ever lose weight are calorie counters. I've logged religiously enough in the past to have a pretty accurate understanding of how many calories I'm consuming and I'm nearly certain that I'm not exceed what I burn. In fact, there are days where I'm sure I'm under eating! At 4 times a week running 3+ miles of sprints at 30+ minutes... It just sounds doubtful to me that that's my issue.

    If you are managing to eat exactly the same as you always have by eyeballing portions, then for some reason your TDEE has gone down rather than up. Regardless, if you'd like to lose weight, you need to eat less or burn more. The easiest way to figure it out is to log more accurately, but if you don't want to do that, then you need to find a different way to get into a calorie deficit.

    One of the reasons people tend to gain back lost weight is because when you stop paying as much attention, your consumption slowly increases over time, not enough to notice but enough that over time you gain a lb here and a lb there. Saying you are subtly eating more without realizing it isn't a criticism, it's just what often happens. I personally know that I will spend several weeks over the course of each year weighing and accurately logging, probably for the rest of my life, or I start to veer off track. Whatever you decide to do, best of luck.

    That makes sense. I've gone in and out of regularly logging and have noticed a similar trend.

    Look at it this way also...on the four day you run you're burning an additional 300ish calories...that's a tiny handful of nuts worth of calories.

    Also, how tall are you? I agree with a previous poster that it doesn't look like you really have the fat to burn and that you are at a healthy weight...when you're at a healthy weight and lean and trying to get leaner, things get a bit more complicated.

    I second the motion to start lifting...keep running, but throw in 2-3 days of resistance training in there...that will do more to change your overall body composition than anything.

    I'm 5'5". Also, there's one particular picture up from quite some time ago where I look pretty lean. That was my personal best. Weight-wise, I'm pretty far from that. Appearance-wise, less of a chasm. I still have some fat to burn to get to that leanness again. I got there before by running 3 miles every single day. Which is why I figured running again would get me there, but it just hasn't. I did track my calories pretty insanely back then as well though.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    edited February 2018
    swagoner94 wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    swagoner94 wrote: »
    kimny72 wrote: »
    swagoner94 wrote: »
    I mean.. I don't think the only people that ever lose weight are calorie counters. I've logged religiously enough in the past to have a pretty accurate understanding of how many calories I'm consuming and I'm nearly certain that I'm not exceed what I burn. In fact, there are days where I'm sure I'm under eating! At 4 times a week running 3+ miles of sprints at 30+ minutes... It just sounds doubtful to me that that's my issue.

    If you are managing to eat exactly the same as you always have by eyeballing portions, then for some reason your TDEE has gone down rather than up. Regardless, if you'd like to lose weight, you need to eat less or burn more. The easiest way to figure it out is to log more accurately, but if you don't want to do that, then you need to find a different way to get into a calorie deficit.

    One of the reasons people tend to gain back lost weight is because when you stop paying as much attention, your consumption slowly increases over time, not enough to notice but enough that over time you gain a lb here and a lb there. Saying you are subtly eating more without realizing it isn't a criticism, it's just what often happens. I personally know that I will spend several weeks over the course of each year weighing and accurately logging, probably for the rest of my life, or I start to veer off track. Whatever you decide to do, best of luck.

    That makes sense. I've gone in and out of regularly logging and have noticed a similar trend.

    Look at it this way also...on the four day you run you're burning an additional 300ish calories...that's a tiny handful of nuts worth of calories.

    Also, how tall are you? I agree with a previous poster that it doesn't look like you really have the fat to burn and that you are at a healthy weight...when you're at a healthy weight and lean and trying to get leaner, things get a bit more complicated.

    I second the motion to start lifting...keep running, but throw in 2-3 days of resistance training in there...that will do more to change your overall body composition than anything.

    I'm 5'5". Also, there's one particular picture up from quite some time ago where I look pretty lean. That was my personal best. Weight-wise, I'm pretty far from that. Appearance-wise, less of a chasm. I still have some fat to burn to get to that leanness again. I got there before by running 3 miles every single day. Which is why I figured running again would get me there, but it just hasn't. I did track my calories pretty insanely back then as well though.

    I can tell you from experience that I basically go through the same thing every spring...right around nowish I start working on my 10 Lbs of winter weight I put on. I always start with upping my activity and frankly not paying a whole lot of attention to my diet as it is overall pretty healthy and I typically have a good grasp of things. It never works...inevitably I always have to go and purposefully manipulate some things in my diet...I don't log and will never log again, so I have to do other things to create that deficit.

    Generally speaking it ends up being things like not being so indulgent with eating out on weekends (easy to just enjoy the weekend in maintenance...usually not so much when cutting), cutting back on deserts, not drinking beer save for a couple on the weekend, etc...

    Fortunately, once I resign myself to it, it all comes off in a couple of months and I can go back to normal and maintain the rest of the year until winter rolls around again...
  • hellbound747
    hellbound747 Posts: 14 Member
    I would recommend to add interval runs in your training scheme and take one longer run out.

    Also if your looking to run longer distance overall i would google, youtube or even 1 off session with a PT on best advice on nutrition and what calorie intake needed.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    There is one thing you may not have thought of. I have noticed that I move less on days I train more intensely, so not all calories gained through exercise are taking my TDEE higher. I had to stop high intensity runs because I noticed I was burning LESS throughout the day on intense days than on normal days despite burning more calories in that half hour than a less intense exercise. So even if you are 100% sure you are eating the same (which you likely aren't), running may not be increasing your TDEE as much as you think. To troubleshoot, I would log your calories accurately for a while because that's the easiest thing to fix before exploring other options.
  • tirowow12385
    tirowow12385 Posts: 697 Member
    edited February 2018
    TavistockToad wrote: »
    Running doesn't actually burn massive amounts...

    Bodyweight x 0.63 x distance in miles

    So 30 minutes of running 4x a week isn't burning millions of calories, add in the runger, inaccurate logging and it's easy not to lose...

    Yup, I can maybe burn over 600 calories running a 5k which is what op has been doing, that's a huge number as my weight is above 200 but for a much fitter person, they burn less and really, that can be offset with a meal or a snack here and there that adds up through out the daynso unless you're running 10ks everyday, calorie counting is your friend.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    tirowow12385 wrote: »
    TavistockToad wrote: »
    Running doesn't actually burn massive amounts...

    Bodyweight x 0.63 x distance in miles

    So 30 minutes of running 4x a week isn't burning millions of calories, add in the runger, inaccurate logging and it's easy not to lose...

    Yup, I can maybe burn over 600 calories running a 5k which is what op has been doing, that's a huge number as my weight is above 200 but for a much fitter person, they burn less and really, that can be offset with a meal or a snack here and there that adds up through out the daynso unless you're running 10ks everyday, calorie counting is your friend.

    I burn about 250 for a 5k :sad:
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
    hellbound747 wrote: »
    I would recommend to add interval runs in your training scheme and take one longer run out.

    Also if your looking to run longer distance overall i would google, youtube or even 1 off session with a PT on best advice on nutrition and what calorie intake needed.

    A PT for nutrition advice? Isn't that outside of the scope of their training most of the time?
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