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MyFitnessPal Community

Frustrated and Disheartened

emilyp8589

For the past two months or so, I have started doing yoga almost every day, have been watching what I eat and, while I may not log calories every day, have been very cognizant, yet I am still gaining weight. Now, about 6 weeks ago I did stop breastfeeding and so I did anticipate some slowing of metabolism but this is so frustrating. And, while I am much stronger from the yoga, I haven’t lost any fat. Maybe I should add walking to my regimen or alternate days of walking and yoga? I have a 13 1/2 month old so getting out and walking can be challenging.

Any tips?

Replies

alicebhsia1

I find exercise that doesn't make you all sweaty to be ineffective at weight loss. So, yeah, yoga is great for conditioning, but isn't really max cardio. I find walking helpful but only if i walk for at least 45 minutes at a decent pace like 3x a week minimum. baby doesn't like going for walks in a stroller?

RonyMack

Watching what one eats means little in terms of weight loss. This probably works better for maintenance. My tip is to start using the MFP food diary, weigh and log what you eat. That produces results. Yoga is about equivalent to playing canasta as far as caloric expenditure. I'd choose more walking and less yoga. Good luck!

quiksylver296

emilyp8589 wrote: »

For the past two months or so, I have started doing yoga almost every day, have been watching what I eat and, while I may not log calories every day, have been very cognizant, yet I am still gaining weight. Now, about 6 weeks ago I did stop breastfeeding and so I did anticipate some slowing of metabolism but this is so frustrating. And, while I am much stronger from the yoga, I haven’t lost any fat. Maybe I should add walking to my regimen or alternate days of walking and yoga? I have a 13 1/2 month old so getting out and walking can be challenging.

Any tips?

Log your food every day. Use a food scale to make sure you are actually eating the amount of calories you think you are.

VUA21

1. Log everything, everyday! You are probably eating more than you think, especially if you don't weigh your food.
2. Exercise doesn't burn that many calories (my morning 5 mile run, a bit less than 500 calories 😐). Exercise for health not weight loss
3. The closer you are to your ideal, the longer it's going to take.

jemhh

Log your calories. In general, people are pretty terrible at estimating how much they eat. Plus, it's extremely easy to plain old forget that you ate something. I've had it happen to me and I've been tracking my intake for 4 years.

kenyonhaff

The big mistakes that lead to bad/no weight loss tend to be:
1) Not logging in ALL food
2) Not measuring food accurately or at all. Measuring cups and so on are OK but a food scale is best...estimations tend to be way off especially when first starting out.
3) Over-depending on exercise. Exercise is "bonus point" and they do indeed matter, but it doesn't make up for poor eating. So you don't necessarily have to take up running or do Crossfit to lose weight..you can do just fine with a stroller walk, yoga, and so on on a regular basis.

JeromeBarry1

Breastfeeding earns the right to consume an additional 500 calories per day. If you've stopped breastfeeding, you should also reduce your food intake by 500 each day. That's 1 pound per week you could be losing.

Zedeff

JeromeBarry1 wrote: »

Breastfeeding earns the right to consume an additional 500 calories per day. If you've stopped breastfeeding, you should also reduce your food intake by 500 each day. That's 1 pound per week you could be losing.

More like 20 cal/oz. Assuming OP didn’t cut her babe off cold turkey and rather weaned him/her down, the abrupt change in calories out won’t be quite so dramatic.

mmapags

If you are frustrated with the lack of results you have to change to methods that actually work. "Watching what you eat" and not logging are extremely ineffective methods. Logging as accurately as possible using a food scale "works"!

While exercise will give you a few more calories it is primarily for fitness. Diet is for weight loss.

DomesticKat

Start logging your food every day. Exercise is great for health, but not great for weight loss when you aren't tracking how many calories you're taking in. You can easily out-eat any calories burned from exercise. Ask me how I know.

Since you weaned an older baby who was likely relying on solids for most of their nutrition, the calorie adjustment would have been pretty small when you weaned. Probably a couple hundred calories at most. Not 500 calories. But if you continue to eat like you're still nursing out of habit, then you certainly can gain weight from it.

FWIW, I thought for sure I was eating 1500 calories a day when I first started to try and lose weight. I was in total denial, because when I started tracking with a food scale I realized I was easily putting away 3000+ calories on some days. Definitely tighten up on logging your food for several weeks.

cerise_noir

alicebhsia1 wrote: »

I find exercise that doesn't make you all sweaty to be ineffective at weight loss. So, yeah, yoga is great for conditioning, but isn't really max cardio. I find walking helpful but only if i walk for at least 45 minutes at a decent pace like 3x a week minimum. baby doesn't like going for walks in a stroller?

This is not true. Exercise doesn’t equal weight loss, eating less calories does. The OPs issue here is that she’s not tracking what she’s eating and believing that “watching what she eats” without tracking will lead to weight loss.

Exercise can help contribute to weight loss, but it’s mostly for cardiovascular health (cardio) or body composition (weight training/resistance). Calories are king.

PAV8888

Don't be frustrated and disheartened for having explored something that didn't work.... doing so can only lead you to better decisions by pushing you towards something that WILL work!

You've got the answers above.

Eat at a small deficit (which is easiest to achieve if you actually record things correctly). Exercise for fun and health and an extra treat... but not as your primary weight loss method.

lynn_glenmont

Zedeff wrote: »

JeromeBarry1 wrote: »

Breastfeeding earns the right to consume an additional 500 calories per day. If you've stopped breastfeeding, you should also reduce your food intake by 500 each day. That's 1 pound per week you could be losing.

More like 20 cal/oz. Assuming OP didn’t cut her babe off cold turkey and rather weaned him/her down, the abrupt change in calories out won’t be quite so dramatic.

But OP says she is still gaining weight, which sounds like this has been an issue for a while -- no mention of "dramatic." Could have been gaining weight after since the weaning process or introduction of solid foods began.

booksandchocolate12

Start weighing and logging everything. You will be amazed at how off the mark you were when you were “very cognizant”. And that’s not a dig at you. It’s just very common to have no idea how much you’re actually eating til you weigh it and log it. I am 100% guilty of it myself.

blobby10

Echoing the other comments - you need to record EVERYTHING you eat and drink. I made the mistake of thinking that because I was exercising I could eat the extra chocolate/sweets/bread etc but in reality my 'workout' was only burning a couple of hundred calories extra so I wasn't in a calorie deficit.

I breastfed all my children for between 9 and 13 months and never found that it helped me to lose weight! What DID Help was walking very briskly for 3 miles a day pushing a big Silver Cross style pram (with the first one!) . With second and third babies I had one or more toddlers in tow so couldn't walk as fast so weight loss took longer.

tinkerbellang83