Not losing
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LPD81585
Posts: 1 Member
I have been working out doing strength training for about a month. I track that and average about 450 calories a day through my Apple Watch. I go to the gym 4-5 times a week. I also use my fitness pal and net under 1800 calories a day. I just reduced that to stay under a net of 1400 calories. I am a 5’3 female and 230 lbs. what do I need to change? Or what should my goals be? Help!
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Answers
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How long are you talking about? Not losing as in you haven't lost anything through your first month, or you've stalled? Do you track Everything you eat? Ie creamer, salad dressing, oil your using to cook with, sauces, etc. How many steps a day do you get? Fitness watches are cool, but from what I understand are notorious for not being very accurate when it comes to tracking calories burned. It sounds like you've started to establish some good habits. Good job!2
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I have been working out doing strength training for about a month. I track that and average about 450 calories a day through my Apple Watch. I go to the gym 4-5 times a week. I also use my fitness pal and net under 1800 calories a day. I just reduced that to stay under a net of 1400 calories. I am a 5’3 female and 230 lbs. what do I need to change? Or what should my goals be? Help!
I would stick with the 1400 calories for a few weeks. I would bet you'll start losing. 1800 calories was most likely your maintenence calories. And you're almost certainly not burning 450 calories in the gym.... unless you're there for 2 hours running flat out as hard as you can go on the treadmill... which you shouldn't do anyway (overtraining is a thing).3 -
Be careful with working out heavily and weight loss. Are you doing strength training? Muscle weighs much more than fat! I have had small losses, however, my waist is 3 inches smaller. Be patient and look for other clues, not JUST THE SCALE. Bet your doing better than you imagine.1
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Overestimating the actually workout calories especially if it's from lifting. An intense lifting session MAY burn 300 calories.
Also make sure that you're calculating your intake accurately as well by weighing your food and not just guessing.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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Sounds like a classic case of calorie over estimation. Probably not what you wanted to read but if you ask be prepared for the answer.
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rogeramick wrote: »Be patient and look for other clues, not JUST THE SCALE. Bet your doing better than you imagine.
This morning I proved this true! I gained 1.5 lbs on the scale but lost a half inch on my waist and hips!*
* I was going to measure tomorrow morning but I swore my stomach looked smaller so I had to check.
yes, my parents are a little looser!
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Sorr, I meant PANTS, not parents!7
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A month is still quite early days. Strength training is notorious for causing water retention which can mask fat loss on the scale.
(A poster above mentioned muscle being heavier than fat: muscle ways more for the same volume, yes, but you're not likely to have gained much muscle in only a month)
So:
- stick to your lower calorie goal for at least one month (menstrual cycle if applicable)
- take progress pictures and measure yourself (or use some non stretch clothing) to judge your progress on top of weighing1 -
Sorr, I meant PANTS, not parents!
@lisakatz2 FYI: after you post a comment, you have a 60 minute window to edit your comment if needed you'll see three dots at the top right hand corner of the comment.
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Sorr, I meant PANTS, not parents!
@lisakatz2 FYI: after you post a comment, you have a 60 minute window to edit your comment if needed you'll see three dots at the top right hand corner of the comment.
Yes, but if she'd done that, we'd have missed out on that obviously totally innocent but very funny typo.
I like the idea of "looser parents".
Sometimes I eye-roll at my own typos here, but I don't think I've ever managed to make one funny.6 -
I have been working out doing strength training for about a month. I track that and average about 450 calories a day through my Apple Watch. I go to the gym 4-5 times a week. I also use my fitness pal and net under 1800 calories a day. I just reduced that to stay under a net of 1400 calories. I am a 5’3 female and 230 lbs. what do I need to change? Or what should my goals be? Help!
I put in your height and weight and arbitrarily made you 40 years old. The only way to get 1800 calories (1850 to be precise) is to chose a weekly weight loss goal of a half pound per week, but I'm guessing you actually want to lose faster than that. A pound a week is 1600 calories per day. https://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change-goals-guided or More > Goals in app.sollyn23l2 wrote: »I would stick with the 1400 calories for a few weeks. I would bet you'll start losing. 1800 calories was most likely your maintenence calories. And you're almost certainly not burning 450 calories in the gym.... unless you're there for 2 hours running flat out as hard as you can go on the treadmill... which you shouldn't do anyway (overtraining is a thing).
At her height and weight (and my arbitrary age of 40,) she only has to run at 5 MPH for 33 minutes to burn 459 calories. Walking at 3.0 mph for 78 minutes = 448 calories.
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@kshama2001 she said she "netted" 1800 Cal not targeted or ate.
I still always like to hear about how the scale is used (how often, are weight observations plotted using weight trend app, are likes compared to like in terms of TOM) and what "not losing" means to each person.
BMR is 1850. MFP sedentary is +460 Cal from that. Would love to hear about non gym steps recorded by watch. Apple watch is giving at least 450 Cal -- not sure if these are on top of BMR or on top of sedentary and if it is now working correctly with MFP.
In any case. If they are netting 1800 and apple watch is giving 450, so they are eating 2250, this would be putting them at eating at sedentary TDEE levels and essentially relying on extra activity beyond that to reduce weight.
Which is a valid strategy depending on how much more active than sedentary and what other exercise and activities they perform.
But I can see how that COULD be a smaller than anticipated deficit depending on logging and estimations0 -
rogeramick wrote: »Be patient and look for other clues, not JUST THE SCALE. Bet your doing better than you imagine.
This morning I proved this true! I gained 1.5 lbs on the scale but lost a half inch on my waist and hips!*
* I was going to measure tomorrow morning but I swore my stomach looked smaller so I had to check.
yes, my parents are a little looser!
Tell your parents to behave themselves!3 -
Hormones can play a role in what you see on the scale. I only see fewer pounds the week after my period. It can also be hard to lose weight if you have certain hormonal imbalances, like thyroid problems. If everything else is in order, you might want to get your hormone levels checked.0
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kshama2001 wrote: »I have been working out doing strength training for about a month. I track that and average about 450 calories a day through my Apple Watch. I go to the gym 4-5 times a week. I also use my fitness pal and net under 1800 calories a day. I just reduced that to stay under a net of 1400 calories. I am a 5’3 female and 230 lbs. what do I need to change? Or what should my goals be? Help!
I put in your height and weight and arbitrarily made you 40 years old. The only way to get 1800 calories (1850 to be precise) is to chose a weekly weight loss goal of a half pound per week, but I'm guessing you actually want to lose faster than that. A pound a week is 1600 calories per day. https://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change-goals-guided or More > Goals in app.sollyn23l2 wrote: »I would stick with the 1400 calories for a few weeks. I would bet you'll start losing. 1800 calories was most likely your maintenence calories. And you're almost certainly not burning 450 calories in the gym.... unless you're there for 2 hours running flat out as hard as you can go on the treadmill... which you shouldn't do anyway (overtraining is a thing).
At her height and weight (and my arbitrary age of 40,) she only has to run at 5 MPH for 33 minutes to burn 459 calories. Walking at 3.0 mph for 78 minutes = 448 calories.kshama2001 wrote: »I have been working out doing strength training for about a month. I track that and average about 450 calories a day through my Apple Watch. I go to the gym 4-5 times a week. I also use my fitness pal and net under 1800 calories a day. I just reduced that to stay under a net of 1400 calories. I am a 5’3 female and 230 lbs. what do I need to change? Or what should my goals be? Help!
I put in your height and weight and arbitrarily made you 40 years old. The only way to get 1800 calories (1850 to be precise) is to chose a weekly weight loss goal of a half pound per week, but I'm guessing you actually want to lose faster than that. A pound a week is 1600 calories per day. https://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change-goals-guided or More > Goals in app.sollyn23l2 wrote: »I would stick with the 1400 calories for a few weeks. I would bet you'll start losing. 1800 calories was most likely your maintenence calories. And you're almost certainly not burning 450 calories in the gym.... unless you're there for 2 hours running flat out as hard as you can go on the treadmill... which you shouldn't do anyway (overtraining is a thing).
At her height and weight (and my arbitrary age of 40,) she only has to run at 5 MPH for 33 minutes to burn 459 calories. Walking at 3.0 mph for 78 minutes = 448 calories.
If one burned an extra 448 calories for every 75 minutes of walking, I would be able to eat 3000+ calories a day. Wish that were true.2 -
@sollyn23l2 ... @kshama2001 figures work fine for a NET run and for a GROSS walk as stated. So I think she just had a finger slip on her NET check mark when constructing her walk example.
That said, the OP's figure of 450 Cal was given by an all day activity tracker and was NOT for any specific gym session.
So, I at least, don't have much doubt that it IS possible for her burns to have taken place as stated.
I think my friend that you are forgetting that you are NOT 230lbs when you're thinking the burns you see are un-realistic. Consider what you would burn while CARRYING a 100lb backpack for an hour ... and you might start looking at your fueling requirement differently.
That said, of course, NET calories for a specific exercise, even using ExRX which correctly tells us what we would normally understand as "net" does not actually mean NET in terms of MFP. Because MFP "sedentray/not active" starts at 1.25 activity factor and not 1.0.
So the corresponding "MFP" net for the run would be 7.45 not the 7.7 MET in my screenshot, and for the 3MPH walk just about 2.05 instead of the 2.3MET shown. But all this IS majoring in the minors.
While the OP may be eating closer to maintenance the way she has been doing things this is not necessarily because she is "wildly overestimating her burns because burns like that are just not possible" and her figures are crazy wrong. Her figures ARE quite possible at her weight.
And there is zero reason for her to not continue to pursue the activities and exercises that she does.
It is a normal and continuous thing for all of us to adjust based on our END results given our logging. all that it requires is consistent logging and the ability to clearly see how we are progressing. Neither of these two is a given, of course. But one can try!1 -
Let me rephrase it then... if OP is not losing weight, one of two things is true... EITHER they are eating more than they think, or they are not actually burning that many calories in their workouts. Or (very likely) both. I pointed out that they are likely not burning 450 calories specifically because they are not losing weight. Getting into discussions about why the 450 calorie estimate may be correct (when all exercise calories burned are gross estimates, not factual numbers) is unlikely to help them.2
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I totally disagree it is unlikely to help them to understand where and if their estimates are incorrect.
And, as stated, I don't think 450Cal a day of activity calories is particularly unlikely.
Not caring much about the why is a bit equivalent to saying you don't even need to count calories, you can just eat but always remain a tiny bit hungry.
Their scale results could be off and they could be losing as expected.
They could have different caloric needs than the population means mfp is using
Their heart rate may be affecting measurements or their watch may be estimating high
MFP math could be wrong in terms of how things add up.
They could be logging using incorrect entries, not weighing or measuring their foods, ignoring liquid calories, bites, samples, or oil spray used in cooking or a few hundred calories of things not logged if logging after the fact.
Their exercise calories may be less then they think or more or their daily activity Calories off.
Knowing where the problem actually is but more importantly how you can correctly compensate for it means you can make more correct decisions
I know that my Fitbit "overestimates" me by about 3% on a yearly basis.
But I also know that days with more than 3000 Calorie burns are closer to 5% and a 4000 day may be closer to 10% while days with less than 2300 are underestimated.
Maybe it would not benefit you to know that but it does benefit me when i am considering eating or not eating an extra 300 Cal at midnight and choosing between a 45 Cal baby cup of light hot chocolate or a Mr Big!😉
I don't log to restrict. I log to maximize my goodies while still achieving reasoned and reasonable goals🤷♂️
* Goodies could be protein, or fiber, or vitamin D, or cake. Not just cake3 -
sollyn23l2 wrote: »kshama2001 wrote: »I have been working out doing strength training for about a month. I track that and average about 450 calories a day through my Apple Watch. I go to the gym 4-5 times a week. I also use my fitness pal and net under 1800 calories a day. I just reduced that to stay under a net of 1400 calories. I am a 5’3 female and 230 lbs. what do I need to change? Or what should my goals be? Help!
I put in your height and weight and arbitrarily made you 40 years old. The only way to get 1800 calories (1850 to be precise) is to chose a weekly weight loss goal of a half pound per week, but I'm guessing you actually want to lose faster than that. A pound a week is 1600 calories per day. https://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change-goals-guided or More > Goals in app.sollyn23l2 wrote: »I would stick with the 1400 calories for a few weeks. I would bet you'll start losing. 1800 calories was most likely your maintenence calories. And you're almost certainly not burning 450 calories in the gym.... unless you're there for 2 hours running flat out as hard as you can go on the treadmill... which you shouldn't do anyway (overtraining is a thing).
At her height and weight (and my arbitrary age of 40,) she only has to run at 5 MPH for 33 minutes to burn 459 calories. Walking at 3.0 mph for 78 minutes = 448 calories.kshama2001 wrote: »I have been working out doing strength training for about a month. I track that and average about 450 calories a day through my Apple Watch. I go to the gym 4-5 times a week. I also use my fitness pal and net under 1800 calories a day. I just reduced that to stay under a net of 1400 calories. I am a 5’3 female and 230 lbs. what do I need to change? Or what should my goals be? Help!
I put in your height and weight and arbitrarily made you 40 years old. The only way to get 1800 calories (1850 to be precise) is to chose a weekly weight loss goal of a half pound per week, but I'm guessing you actually want to lose faster than that. A pound a week is 1600 calories per day. https://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change-goals-guided or More > Goals in app.sollyn23l2 wrote: »I would stick with the 1400 calories for a few weeks. I would bet you'll start losing. 1800 calories was most likely your maintenence calories. And you're almost certainly not burning 450 calories in the gym.... unless you're there for 2 hours running flat out as hard as you can go on the treadmill... which you shouldn't do anyway (overtraining is a thing).
At her height and weight (and my arbitrary age of 40,) she only has to run at 5 MPH for 33 minutes to burn 459 calories. Walking at 3.0 mph for 78 minutes = 448 calories.
If one burned an extra 448 calories for every 75 minutes of walking, I would be able to eat 3000+ calories a day. Wish that were true.
How tall are you and how much do you weigh?
The MFP walking burns are dead on for me at any weight, including in my 200s.0 -
sollyn23l2 wrote: »Let me rephrase it then... if OP is not losing weight, one of two things is true... EITHER they are eating more than they think, or they are not actually burning that many calories in their workouts. Or (very likely) both. I pointed out that they are likely not burning 450 calories specifically because they are not losing weight. Getting into discussions about why the 450 calorie estimate may be correct (when all exercise calories burned are gross estimates, not factual numbers) is unlikely to help them.
I think it's the goal of net 1800 that was the bigger problem, and she's already reduced that to under 1400.1
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