What nobody tells you about losing weight

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Replies

  • cppeace
    cppeace Posts: 764 Member
    edited September 2020
    mtaratoot wrote: »
    cppeace wrote: »
    cppeace wrote: »
    That every Single week (If even that long) you have to work harder to burn the same amount of calories.

    That your cat takes longer to find a comfy position laying on you lol

    idk if this helps but as your weight drops, your calories have to as well. If you're 150lbs and lose 15lbs, you weigh 10% less and your calories need to drop 10% accordingly. Assuming your activity is the same and you haven't gained muscle.

    Not sure if that was actually meant for me. I was stating that you have to exercise harder because your body gets used to the exercise level and you burn less calories.

    Not quite exactly.

    It's just that as you have less mass, it takes less energy to move yourself around. Your body doesn't "get used" to the exercise; it's just not as much work to perform the same task. A calorie is a measure of energy. If you want to move a two-pound box of pickling salt a mile, it takes less work than a 20-pound bag of ice melting salt. Same salt, just a different amount of it. So as you lose mass, if you perform the same exercise, you have to do it longer to expend the same number of calories as when you were a higher mass. That's why you need to reassess your calorie target from time to time as you lose mass.

    And you know what? It's AWESOME!

    After you've lost a fair bit of weight, find something heavy and carry it around. I strapped 30 pounds of SCUBA weight on me and walked around. My knees hurt right away. But I used to ALWAYS carry that much weight around ALL the time.

    I will gladly walk a little farther to not carry the extra, unneeded, unwanted weight.

    Well, then maybe I'm just weird, because my body will get used to an exercise level within a week or less. My hrm tells me my heart is working slightly less hard, meaning I am burning less calories even when putting out the same energy level. I am not losing enough mass in 5-7 days for weight to be the big difference in calorie burn.
    ETA it's walking, aerobics and minor strength training using a total gym.
  • salleewins
    salleewins Posts: 2,308 Member
    smantha32 wrote: »
    When I was gaining weight, the last time I bought clothes, I was a size 14. I continued to think I was a size 14, even though my clothes were getting tight.

    I then lost about 35 pounds. For someone my height, this is 3-4 dress sizes. Therefore, I thought I was a size 8. I went to go try on clothes for the first time in a while, since my stuff is getting loose.

    I am not a size 8. I did drop 3-4 dress sizes, but I am a size 10-12 now. Denial was strong with this person. I was probably up to like an 18 before I started losing, but my brain did not connect.

    It's sometimes painful when reality hits you in the face. I would always think I gained 10 pounds over the holidays, only to find I gained 25. ugh.

    I can relate to this. Thanks for explaining it so clearly.
  • salleewins
    salleewins Posts: 2,308 Member
    With only 5 pounds left to a BMi of 23.0, my stomach is still too big..... Ahhh.

    Maybe something causes bloating that you eat because it sounds like otherwise it is going great! Lately I am reading about sodium again, nightshades, lectins, dairy, gluten....Maybe see if something applies...
  • charmmeth
    charmmeth Posts: 936 Member
    ... Perhaps when “ability” outstrips “work” it feels like we haven’t “achieved”.

    Does that make sense?

    It doesn’t help that my watch is always pushing me to do more. This month it wants me to do about 7,000 excercise minutes because it always tries to increase the prior month’s total. At some point it’s going to break the time space continuum, right?

    It makes perfect sense. I think there is definitely a sense that as we get fitter and so can (and want to) do more. This seems to me one reason why varying exercise is so important. To begin with, to get back into it, I was doing the same things (a variety) every day, but increasing weights and intensity, but I am now starting to try to vary it more, so that my body doesn't get used to one thing. I am finding an exercise plan useful for this (no-one who reads my posts regularly will be surprised to know that this is from Bodyfit by Amy) but I am also really valuing my rowing machine. I can vary my workout on that very easily, to make 15 - 20 minutes always include a push, by upping stroke rate, or doing a longer time at a stroke rate, or increasing intensity. Once I start to commute again I shall have less exercise time so having a range of things I can do in the time available will be important.
  • babyluthi
    babyluthi Posts: 282 Member
    salleewins wrote: »
    With only 5 pounds left to a BMi of 23.0, my stomach is still too big..... Ahhh.

    Maybe something causes bloating that you eat because it sounds like otherwise it is going great! Lately I am reading about sodium again, nightshades, lectins, dairy, gluten....Maybe see if something applies...

    or insulin resistant?

  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
    cppeace wrote: »
    cppeace wrote: »
    That every Single week (If even that long) you have to work harder to burn the same amount of calories.

    That your cat takes longer to find a comfy position laying on you lol

    idk if this helps but as your weight drops, your calories have to as well. If you're 150lbs and lose 15lbs, you weigh 10% less and your calories need to drop 10% accordingly. Assuming your activity is the same and you haven't gained muscle.

    Not sure if that was actually meant for me. I was stating that you have to exercise harder because your body gets used to the exercise level and you burn less calories.

    That depends on the exercise you do. If you mainly do cardio, yes. If you strength train, probably the opposite. Every lb of muscle you gain is a calorie burning furnace. If, for example, you lost 10lbs of fat and gained 10lbs of muscle, you will absolutely have a higher maintenance caloric requirement. I'm not saying this is the case with you, but too many people new to fitness think "cardio" when they want fat loss. If they enjoy it, more power to em but adding muscle is the smart long term play to maintaining a lean physique. Not disagreeing with you, just expanding on it.

    @IronIsMyTherapy

    Your furnace doesn't actually get very hot!
    Each lb of muscle burns roughly 6cals per day at rest to maintain itself.

    Yes muscle burns more than fat but the numbers and differences are small as each lb of fat burns 2cals/lb/day.

    Obviously using your muscles is very different (activity & exercise) and that's where the big differences in people's weight maintenance calories comes from.

    Interesting read - if only we could add on another kidney.....
    https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/energy-needs-body
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