Exercise + Maintenance = frustration
Replies
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So it sounds like you are keeping your walking up on non-running days, and even on running days.
Are you logging that as exercise then?
I know steps doesn't equal calories rather the distance and mass and pace from those steps - but it's a rough guideline to activity levels to know if in ballpark.
If you do NOT log those walks on rest days, what is your step count?
Can you do the math if you do log them, rest day total steps minus logged walk steps?1 -
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ItsAStrangeLoop wrote: »I will invite myself in for a tiny bit and share my rant as well.
I was running while losing and it was actually going pretty well, even on days with long distances. Gradually, I moved into maintenance territory and everything was perfectly fine.
The moment I added weights to the mix (I do a 2 days weights - 2 days runs - 2 days yoga weeks) , everything went to hell. I am starving all day and I cannot control my hunger. It is insane.
I have no idea how to regulate my calories with this regime because my stomach is constantly growling and I am exhausted all day.
I tried to go with the "If your body needs the fuel, you give it to it" and obviously put on 2kgs.
So back to deficit and eat the estimated workout calories, which did not work and I keep seeing upwards trend.
(I highly doubt it's muscle gains cause it has only been a month and it's only twice a week.)
I am so deeply annoyed with this situation but I am trying to be patient and not freak out completely.
For the next couple of weeks I will try to not eat my gym calories and hope I don't end up chewing on my desk to curb my hunger.
I am done ranting. If you find any solutions to your problem OP, please share them.
If you're doing weights, then you're gaining muscle which weighs more. So if you're gaining weight, it's probably because you're gaining muscle mass. If you have a way to do a BMI (Body Mass Index) to let you know what percentage of fat you're carrying, then you can see if you are losing or gaining fat. Another thing - if you are increasing your workout i.e. burning more calories, and you are constantly hungry and feeling weak, you probably need to up your calories some. Try to find out how many extra calories your workout is burning and add them back into your diet.0 -
So it sounds like you are keeping your walking up on non-running days, and even on running days.
Are you logging that as exercise then?
I know steps doesn't equal calories rather the distance and mass and pace from those steps - but it's a rough guideline to activity levels to know if in ballpark.
If you do NOT log those walks on rest days, what is your step count?
Can you do the math if you do log them, rest day total steps minus logged walk steps?
I keep my phone on my person at all times, partly so the Pacer app can record all my running/walking. It ports this data over to MFP automagically.
So. Just recently (since my original post) I figured out that I need to manually switch on Pacer's GPS mode every time I want it to record runs. Otherwise it assumes I'm walking and it undercounts calories burned. I believe Google Fit, which I used to use, could figure out the difference between running and walking in the background. (Google Fit started acting really tweaky and I had to remove it from my phone.) Since I have been switching Pacer to GPS for runs, I have become less hungry. :-)
Here's a link to an old MFP thread regarding calories burned by running. I thought it was pretty interesting:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/134478/accurate-formula-to-determine-calories-burned-jogging/p2
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Also I want to thank all the people who have responded to this thread. This is such a helpful community.3
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So it sounds like you are keeping your walking up on non-running days, and even on running days.
Are you logging that as exercise then?
I know steps doesn't equal calories rather the distance and mass and pace from those steps - but it's a rough guideline to activity levels to know if in ballpark.
If you do NOT log those walks on rest days, what is your step count?
Can you do the math if you do log them, rest day total steps minus logged walk steps?
I keep my phone on my person at all times, partly so the Pacer app can record all my running/walking. It ports this data over to MFP automagically.
So. Just recently (since my original post) I figured out that I need to manually switch on Pacer's GPS mode every time I want it to record runs. Otherwise it assumes I'm walking and it undercounts calories burned. I believe Google Fit, which I used to use, could figure out the difference between running and walking in the background. (Google Fit started acting really tweaky and I had to remove it from my phone.) Since I have been switching Pacer to GPS for runs, I have become less hungry. :-)
Here's a link to an old MFP thread regarding calories burned by running. I thought it was pretty interesting:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/134478/accurate-formula-to-determine-calories-burned-jogging/p2
easier to confirm with this - which is referenced in one of the replies but the formula given - rather unneeded way of doing it.
Use NET for what would get logged manually or corrected of a synced in workout.
https://exrx.net/Calculators/WalkRunMETs
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ItsAStrangeLoop wrote: »I will invite myself in for a tiny bit and share my rant as well.
I was running while losing and it was actually going pretty well, even on days with long distances. Gradually, I moved into maintenance territory and everything was perfectly fine.
The moment I added weights to the mix (I do a 2 days weights - 2 days runs - 2 days yoga weeks) , everything went to hell. I am starving all day and I cannot control my hunger. It is insane.
I have no idea how to regulate my calories with this regime because my stomach is constantly growling and I am exhausted all day.
I tried to go with the "If your body needs the fuel, you give it to it" and obviously put on 2kgs.
So back to deficit and eat the estimated workout calories, which did not work and I keep seeing upwards trend.
(I highly doubt it's muscle gains cause it has only been a month and it's only twice a week.)
I am so deeply annoyed with this situation but I am trying to be patient and not freak out completely.
For the next couple of weeks I will try to not eat my gym calories and hope I don't end up chewing on my desk to curb my hunger.
I am done ranting. If you find any solutions to your problem OP, please share them.
If you're doing weights, then you're gaining muscle which weighs more. So if you're gaining weight, it's probably because you're gaining muscle mass. If you have a way to do a BMI (Body Mass Index) to let you know what percentage of fat you're carrying, then you can see if you are losing or gaining fat. Another thing - if you are increasing your workout i.e. burning more calories, and you are constantly hungry and feeling weak, you probably need to up your calories some. Try to find out how many extra calories your workout is burning and add them back into your diet.
Just FYI.
BMI does NOT give a BF% figure.
1 lb is 1 lb, muscle or fat, it doesn't weigh more.
Also, you won't be building enough muscle in a deficit to show up on a scale in any appreciable form, if you are even able to do that.
So much easier to lose a lb of fat then gain a lb of muscle, and that's even if eating in a surplus doing lifting to gain that muscle.5 -
Wow such great insights from all of you. Thanks so much. Here are my takeaways...
1) As far as TDEE, I have never used that to calculate my calories, so I may try it out and see how things go.
2) I run in the southern US and it is freaking humid and hot when I run and I sweat buckets so it may be that dehydration and/or an electrolyte imbalance is impacting my hunger cues.
3) Also I did control CICO pretty tightly on a day-to-day basis before I started running a lot; I guess now I have to figure out how running 5 days a week is affecting my hunger cues and calorie burn. For example, the pedometer I use tracks the same calories per step count whether I'm running or taking a slow walk. And I know basically that is right but I would have thought it would correct for an after burn with the running. Is that not a thing? Anyway, I will just keep logging and trying to learn how to fuel my body as I go along.
If you know roughly how many miles per week you are running, you can use that to figure out what your average calories per day are. I eat more on my high mileage running days, but my net calories are lower, so I end up doing something in between tracking to daily net calories and eating the same amount each day. Tracking weekly also gives me flexibility for eating more on the weekends or for going out occasionally or special events.Are you sure it's the walking that's making you hungry? I find I am hungrier the day after my runs, which in your case probably coincides with walking days?
I used to eat back my calories on the day I earned them, but since starting to run, I've switched strategies a bit. I've started eating back my running calories (mostly) the day after.
You could experiment with eating a bit less on running days and a bit more on days after you run/walking days?
FWIW, OP, this is what I also experience. Day after hunger.
My calorie burn difference running (9 min miles) vs. walking (12 minute miles) isn't much. Is it for you?
Still trying to figure that one out. Pacer seems to show running miles as burning more cals per mile than walking but I have not figured out how much more.
The numbers I've used, that were based off some studies of energy expenditure when walking and running, is:
Net Walking Calories = 0.30 * (weight in lbs) * (distance in miles)
Net Running Calories = 0.63 * (weight in lbs) * (distance in miles)
This has worked well for me and tracks pretty closely to my Garmin averages for the past 5 years with weekly mileage ranging from 0 (injured) to 60+ I've been maintaining my desired weight for close to 9 years now, through many different activity ranges, and deliberate changes in weight such (bulking and cutting and dropping down weight to reach my optimal weight for marathon performance.4 -
I believe the cutoff between walking and running is something more like whether there's always one foot on the ground (walking) or not (running), more or less. I can only walk at just a bit over 4mph if I want to do it for long, but I'm betting I could run that slowly, too. 😆1 -
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About the increase in energy needed to transition from walking and running, it puzzles me that they say "unlike once speculated." I think I have always felt this, especially if I have stopped for a break after running for a while and need to rev up the engine to start running again. I find that difficult at times.0
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Acceleration does take more energy, getting the mass moving faster.
I thought it was also talking about the fact per mile burn is not the same between the two.
Most walking paces are around the same and close enough. Though actually that is pretty good variance if you went for a while.
Most running paces are close burn though.
But some say it burns the same per mile walking or running, but that is not as close.2
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