Running Intervals with Weight Training and not losing weight

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IrishAnt1973
IrishAnt1973 Posts: 3 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi,

I am a 48 year old male, 179cm, currently weighing around 89kg. My goal weight I would like to achieve is 80kg.

For the past month I try to run intervals every other day, 2 mins run, 2 mins walk for about 40 minutes. I have started combining that on my non-running days with a home weight training routine with dumbbells. I have tried something similar in the past and I have not really lost any weight, even gained a little bit. I assume this is down to my nutrition.

I was thinking of keeping this goal simple and creating a daily calorie goal in MyFitnessPal of 1,600 calories to try and shift the weight. Does this sound like a good approach or any other suggestions that have worked for people?

Thanks,
Anthony

Replies

  • DancingMoosie
    DancingMoosie Posts: 8,619 Member
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    It all comes down to calories in the end. What weight loss goal did you pick? 1600 calories sounds a bit low unless you add exercise to it.
  • IrishAnt1973
    IrishAnt1973 Posts: 3 Member
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    Hi, what do you mean by weight loss goal? My goal is to lose 9kg’s. I was planning on 1,600 calories per day. When you say low, do you mean to increase daily calories? Thanks.
  • DancingMoosie
    DancingMoosie Posts: 8,619 Member
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    I mean how did you set up your goals on MFP? It asks you what you want your rate of loss to be and then gives you a calorie goal based on that. I'm not great at kgs, I use lbs, and 1lb per week is a deficit of 3500cal...or 500 per day. So, if your calories to maintain your weight were 2000, then to lose 1lb per week your goal would be 1500. But you get extra calories when you log your exercise.
  • jdcourtney38
    jdcourtney38 Posts: 1 Member
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    Good luck pal take all the feedback you can
  • IrishAnt1973
    IrishAnt1973 Posts: 3 Member
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    I found the goals setting. It makes sense now. My calorie goal comes out at 1,500 so I’ll give that a try, thanks!
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,333 Member
    edited March 2022
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    1500 calories per day is the absolute minimum MFP will give a man and means you most likely chose a weight loss rate that is too aggressive.

    1500 seems too low to me, I lost weight at 1700+calories per day as a 166cm woman weighing 94kg at the start to 61kg now.

    PS your observation that you aren't losing weight might be to do with the new exercise. The running and especially the weight training is likely to cause water retention for muscle repair. You need to give it at least a month before concluding or not whether your strategy is working. And even then, it's good to not just look at your weight, but also measurements for example or progress pictures.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    IrishAnt1973 wrote: »
    I found the goals setting. It makes sense now. My calorie goal comes out at 1,500 so I’ll give that a try, thanks!

    My guess is that you made really poor selections when you did your goal set up then.

    Seriously - slow down and be successful rather than rush and fail. If you have fitness and health goals eating the minimum and exercising hard is a dreadful combination.
    Look ahead to next year rather than next month and you will see the relative importance of speed versus compliance.

    And please do keep in mind that MyFitnessPal goal is plus exercise calories.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,838 Member
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    I agree with the general advice above. (I'm a 66 year old woman at 165 cm and 57 kg; I'd lose like a house afire at 1600 gross calories, and too fast for my current body weight eventually at 1600 + all exercise calories. I grant that I'm a mysteriously good li'l ol' calorie burner . . . but still: You're half again bigger than I am, nearly 20 years younger, and 100% more male.)

    You don't have a lot of fat to lose (I know 9kg may seem like a lot to you, but in the grand scheme it's not). If you have body composition goals (want to gain muscle, or at least keep what you have now), or athletic performance goals (like improving that running thing), you would be well served to lose no more than about 0.5% of your current weight per week, i.e., no more than a bit less than half a kg weekly. Slower would be OK, even.

    When you've not lost weight in the past, how long have you given the loss to show up? If you increase exercise, you'll add water weight (for muscle repair - it's how a healthy body works). That water retention can hide fat loss on the scale for a while.

    Stick with a sensibly-planned calorie/nutrition plan for 4-6 weeks, then average the results, to evaluate how well it's working. If the first couple of weeks look odd of whack with the rest, throw that data out, go for an additional couple of weeks to accumulate enough valid data as a basis for decision making. (Sometimes those big changes in eating and exercise make the first couple of weeks a real roller-coaster on the bodyweight scale. It's no big deal, just how it works sometimes, for some people.)

    Best wishes for success!

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