Over Exercising? What is going on?

lydiapassthedonuts
lydiapassthedonuts Posts: 71 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I am a woman "of that age". Since hitting perimenopause life has been a REAL STRUGGLE. I have over 50 lbs to lose and I don't see it doing what I think it should be doing.

There are many factors that could be causing this and I would like to get some ideas of what I need to change / look in to.

According to MFP, I get 1200 cal a day. I'm not very active unless I go to the gym.

My schedule:
Monday: body works with abs class (no impact, uses 5 lb weights at most, 50 minutes), treadmill 30 minutes
Tuesday: water aerobics / water walking, 2 hours
Wednesday: zumba 50 min, yoga 50 min
Thursday: water aerobics / water walking, 2 hours
Friday: day off, just a short walk, errands stuff
Saturday: zumba 50 min OR water aerobics / walking walking 90 min
Sunday day off

I am limited to my activity due to injuries (old knee injuries and plantar fasciitis), so many modifications are needed during land classes. I try to burn around 1000 calories while at the gym. If I eat those back I'll only eat half.

When I'm not at the gym I have a very sedentary life behind a computer. so pretty much my only activity during the week is at the gym.

So, when I was younger and doing this I would have been in shape by now. I know getting older changes so much about how the body works.

I'm within my calories, I try to eat healthy. And I work out.

My issue: I'm not losing weight. I've changed my workout routine to see if that would do something. It pretends to lose weight one week and then I'm up again the following weeks.

I drink my water, I stay within my daily calories.

What can I change? What do I need to change?

If I talk to doctors, what kind of doctors do I need to talk to?

«1

Replies

  • lydiapassthedonuts
    lydiapassthedonuts Posts: 71 Member
    janejellyroll wrote: »
    How are you estimating that you're burning 1,000 calories at the gym?

    Are you using a food scale to weigh your food?

    I'm using a fitbit, I know it's not accurate, but I use it as a guide.

    I weigh my food.
  • lydiapassthedonuts
    lydiapassthedonuts Posts: 71 Member
    tinkerbellang83 wrote: »
    I am not seeing anything in your description of your workouts that would be burning 1000 calories, I'd probably estimate about half of that at most unless you're very obese.

    I AM obese. I weigh 230. My doc wants me down to at least 165. And that just gets me into the high end she wants me at.

    Even according to MFP I can burn 900 calories in a Zumba class. My fitbit is pretty darn close to what MFP estimates. I never eat all my calories back. IF I do eat them, it's only half. So on a high-calorie day I may eat up to 1600 calories. I rarely do that.

    I rarely eat out, I cook my own food, am very diligent on weighing/measuring.

  • puffbrat
    puffbrat Posts: 2,806 Member
    How long have you been eating in a deficit? How long have you been doing this exercise? Have you not seen ANY weight loss on the scale or just less than you expect (your original post states both so it's unclear)? Do you use a weight trending app to help you see through the scale fluctuations?

    Look at the chart posted by @GaryRuns
  • vim_n_vigor
    vim_n_vigor Posts: 4,089 Member
    How long have you been doing this? It isn't unusual, especially when adding exercise in for it to take some time to start dropping weight. In fact, when I start adding new, high calorie burning exercises, I can usually count on 4-6 weeks where I gain weight before I start to lose.
  • lydiapassthedonuts
    lydiapassthedonuts Posts: 71 Member
    janejellyroll wrote: »
    lydiapassthedonuts wrote: »
    janejellyroll wrote: »
    How are you estimating that you're burning 1,000 calories at the gym?

    Are you using a food scale to weigh your food?

    I'm using a fitbit, I know it's not accurate, but I use it as a guide.

    I weigh my food.

    If the results you're seeing aren't matching your calorie burn estimates (and assuming there are no errors in estimating your calorie intake), then you now know the Fitbit is over-estimating your calorie burn.

    How long have you been doing this and not losing weight?

    I have lost SOME weight over the past year. So it is doing SOMETHING. But the past 2 months I seem to be losing and gaining it right back.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    lydiapassthedonuts wrote: »
    janejellyroll wrote: »
    How are you estimating that you're burning 1,000 calories at the gym?

    Are you using a food scale to weigh your food?

    I'm using a fitbit, I know it's not accurate, but I use it as a guide.

    I weigh my food.

    Just to be clear - that is what Fitbit is saying the workout is burning?

    Or that is the calorie adjustment you see on MFP?
    (which is more than just the workout calories, but any increase in activity above whatever level you told MFP)

    And if you selected say Sedentary on MFP - that adjustment of extra calories may not be dead on correct for the high number you see - but 0 extra is also dead on wrong.

    You do more, you eat more.
  • lydiapassthedonuts
    lydiapassthedonuts Posts: 71 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    I wouldn't consider that over-exercising, but you may indeed be over-estimating your calorie burns.

    Please change your Diary Sharing settings to Public: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

    done.
  • lydiapassthedonuts
    lydiapassthedonuts Posts: 71 Member
    heybales wrote: »
    lydiapassthedonuts wrote: »
    janejellyroll wrote: »
    How are you estimating that you're burning 1,000 calories at the gym?

    Are you using a food scale to weigh your food?

    I'm using a fitbit, I know it's not accurate, but I use it as a guide.

    I weigh my food.

    Just to be clear - that is what Fitbit is saying the workout is burning?

    Or that is the calorie adjustment you see on MFP?
    (which is more than just the workout calories, but any increase in activity above whatever level you told MFP)

    And if you selected say Sedentary on MFP - that adjustment of extra calories may not be dead on correct for the high number you see - but 0 extra is also dead on wrong.

    You do more, you eat more.

    Yes, that is what my fitbit is telling me I have burned during my workouts.

    I'll add my workouts to MFP and I always record the lower estimate of my workouts.

  • lydiapassthedonuts
    lydiapassthedonuts Posts: 71 Member
    janejellyroll wrote: »
    lydiapassthedonuts wrote: »
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    I wouldn't consider that over-exercising, but you may indeed be over-estimating your calorie burns.

    Please change your Diary Sharing settings to Public: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

    done.

    I'm seeing things that look like cup measurements, including for higher calorie foods like nuts and croutons. There are some meals that look like they might be estimates for restaurants or takeout (the Chinese, for example) and stuff like "1/12th of a cake" and "2 slices of bacon." We've got this: "Apple Pie - Apple Pie, 0.09375 slice." This is an example of an entry that is very unhelpful for you (what is a "slice" and how do you know you got .09375 of that amount?).

    I would encourage you to weigh all your solid food. If you're eating out and estimating the calorie content, that's potentially going to slow down your weight loss. This isn't to say "don't do it" (most of us ate out sometimes when losing weight), but it's something to take into account when the scale doesn't respond like you thought it might.

    When I cannot be accurate and have to guess, I try to take the higher calorie items listed in MFP. And that apple pie you mention was a bite. I try to overestimate the calories instead of underestimating them.

    I don't know how else to do it? This is my best guess. How else could I do it?

  • bearly63
    bearly63 Posts: 734 Member
    springlering62 wrote: »
    Hi, Lydia. Take a breath. I am you.

    I started almost a year and a half ago at 58 year old, and 221 pounds (and admittedly, I hadn't weighed in a while). I did yoga regularly, and easily met the 10k steps a day, but other than that was totally sedentary.

    My doctor kept encouraging me to lose weight, and put me on thyroid medication. When I got the prescription, there was a freaking encyclopedia of warnings included in the sack. I never read those things before, but this behemoth caught my attention, and I sat down and did read it. Thank God I did. The one that said "Once you go on this medication (which can cause everything from hair on your feet to arms falling off and everything in between) you can never go off" scared the bejesus out of me.

    A visit to the dietician was extremely helpful. My local health club (which is attached to a major hospital) offered a free initial visit for an hour, and $25 for each 30 minute visit after that. She was worth her weight in gold. I listened and absorbed everything I could, taking extensive notes.

    She suggested MFP. It was hard to get a handle on at first, but I eventually learned to enter every ingredient that entered my mouth. I convert everything listed in cups and spoons on the site into grams, and then divide it til I get the exact fraction of the portion I am eating, and enter it as a percent. I know it sounds difficult, but once you get the hang of it, it's simple and very quick and very accurate.

    I weight everything. I eat a cup of blueberries every day. If one blueberry sends it over the 140 grams serving, it comes out of the bowl.

    If I make beef jerky (great for protein and very filling), I weigh and enter all the ingredients as a "recipe", and then weigh the final batch to see how many servings it will make. My last batch made 25 ounces, so I record a serving of beef jerky as ".04" in my diary.

    I found substitutions. Instead of chocolate bars, I add 7-11 grams (depending on how I feel) of ghirardelli sweet chocolate powder to my smoothie. I also use molasses to sweeten it, or may use a sugar free syrup.

    I taught myself to limit sweets, and to learn to love vegetables. I am eating an orange as I type this. It is incredible how sweet one tastes these days.

    My Apple Watch is amazing. I find it to be very accurate recording exercise. It has been worth every penny to me on this journey for weight loss alone, never mind all the other fabulous things it does.

    I average walking 7 miles a day. I do an average of ten hot mat classes a week, and I weight train twice a week. I literally work out 3-5 hours a day. I very seldom approach 1,000 calories burned. I agree with others that your calories burned rate seems out of whack. That's the device, not a whack at you, btw, so please don't feel people are pecking at you.

    I've posted here often, for better or for worse, and I have read this forum religiously, learning many wonderful things along the way - food ideas, NEAT strategies, how weight yo-yo's no matter how you stick to plan, how to avoid injuries, how to cope with finding a trainer. (MFP's women who lift gave me the bump I needed to get off my bottom and try weight training. I'm not the best, but I'm consistent for the win.) MFP has been like a college course in nutrition, advice (both good and learning to recognize the "not good"), and most of all, encouragement. There were days I felt like "screw this and hand me the family sized M&Ms". Those days, I would go to the Success Stories threads and read and read. These days, I save those up for the bad days, but they don't come very often.

    I lost ten pounds a month for the first five months. It's taken twelve months to lose the next thirty. That was crazy HARD after the initial success, but you have to stick to it and claim your goal.

    This morning's weight is 140. (Go figure, it was 144 yesterday, but because I follow MFP closely, I know this too shall pass.)

    My advice to you would be, crack down on the food weighing, find a device that gives you more accurate and consistent results, and consider weight training. It doesn't have to be testosterone grunt ridden stinky weight lifting to get results. And of course, I can never recommend Vinyasa yoga and Pilates enough. They say you can't get "long lean muscle" but I am here to tell you it's possible.

    Best of luck to you. My food diary should be open.



    What a fantastic and informative post! Thank you! I agree with everything you said. I finally got an apple watch and feel better about my calorie burns but still try not to eat back all of my calories.

    Also, measuring cups lie unless its liquid. Use bowls, tare, measure out everything, tare again, and so on. It's so easy to under estimate. I even eat an apple and measure before and after to remove the core. Same with artichokes. And I find that the more I can control my food and ingredients the more accurate it is.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    edited February 2020
    lydiapassthedonuts wrote: »
    I guess for now I will start over in the kitchen and be patient. I have seen an improvement, maybe I'm just not giving it enough time.

    I get stuck and I compare this time to the younger me when I lost 160 lbs in my late 20's. I KNOW how to do this journey. At least, I know how it worked the first time.

    This time has been very different. AGE REALLY DOES CHANGE THINGS!!! I've had a *kitten* time with the whole pausal of men time. It's really done a number to my life.

    And I do have thyroid issues. And last year my liver was bad, doctors couldn't figure out why. But, last numbers on my blood work were ok. Guess I could get that looked at again just so I can rule that out.

    Those even with no thyroid are rarely outside the 5% estimate of formula for BMR.
    It affects your TDEE because of being more tired.

    And MFP correcting itself to the Fitbit would pickup on that if happening.

    Daily activity is by distance calculated from steps - so stride length could be tweaked if daily stuff is inflated.
    Workouts are by HR and that is commented well by magnusthennerd
  • edhbadger
    edhbadger Posts: 1 Member
    edited February 2020
    Something no one mentioned (that I saw)...

    With all the exercise, you are potentially building some muscle while losing the fat. So your WEIGHT in pounds may not be changing (dropping) as fast as you like, but you may be "re-comping" slightly and are in reality moving in a healthy direction. The 'weight loss' will come, give it some time, if you are truly tracking and logging correctly.

    Sometimes it is easy to get tunnel vision with the # on the scale, especially EARLY in the process, and miss the larger picture.


  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,238 Member
    Stop a sec.

    Do you have your Fitbit connected to MFP? Integrated?

    Do not post your Fitbit exercises manually if you do.

    You are polluting your data and overriding what Fitbit detected by what you manually enter on MFP.

    Again. This is if they are connected.

    If you want to do things manually, consider what MFP told you your activity level will burn.

    Example:

    a sedentary you is expected to burn 1800 Calories (MFP)

    To lose 1lb a week your eating goal is 1300 Cal (MFP)

    Now look at your Fitbit at the end of the day.

    It says after exercise and what not that you burned 2200 Calories. Not the 1800 you told MFP you would (based on the activity level you selected).

    Your adjustment (manual or automatic) would and should be to add 400 Calories to your MFP expenditure estimate and eating goal.
    2200-1800=400=adjustment 1300+400=1700=new eating goal.

    Cross-check: daily expenditure (Fitbit) 2200. Deficit 500. Eating goal: 1700

    You're inadvertently adding calories you burn just by existing and which MFP has already accounted for by adding the exercises manually the way you described and I understood

Categories