Over exercising and undereating
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Depending on your current body stats, that could be a healthy loss (congrats!), but if all you are doing is cardio then you are more than likely losing mostly muscle (which will slow down your metabolism) instead of mostly fat. Simple solution, get a body composition test and a Basel Metabolic Rate test done to find out how many calories you really need. Then continue the composition test like every month and make sure your losing the bad and gaining the good! Also, definitely make time to eat. Your body needs fuel, if you are trying to lose weight to be healthy then go about it in a healthy way. It sounds like you are very motivated but just a little misguided.0
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As to how I gained weight I was put on bed rest with my first son for four months and then had major lasting complications after his birth where I wasn't allowed to work out. Then after another 4 months of bedrest with my second son I had major reconstructive surgery done. I was cleared last month to begin working out again. Before gaining all my weight I was very athletic involved in softball, volleyball, and competition weightlifting. During which I was not eating well or living a very healthy lifestyle.0
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Realize that a 600 calorie burn is tough for 1 hour. And somehow this was sustained for 10 hours?
A.C.E. Certified Personal Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
I know friends who've wore a HRM for housecleaning and general yard work, and find that MFP is overly generous with the calorie estimates. It's definitely smart to scale back whatever number MFP gives you.
I just don't see a 6000 calorie burn possible for the activities described, unless she was sweating heavily, and had a high HR the whole time. In which case, the lack of nutrition would likely have her getting dizzy or even passing out. If anything, I'd expect her to crash. :flowerforyou:
I think of myself as being in fairly good shape and if I work out for 1 hour I am STARVING.............I could eat 3000 calories in one sitting if I had to ..... and sometimes I'm hungry enough to do so. I love food and breakfast is one of my fave meals.....gets the body going. I would pass out if I burned 6000 in one day and ate nothing............not to mention it would take me12 hours of keeping my heart rate in my ideal zone to burn that much and I'd have to pace myself to keep it up. I try to spend as little time each day working out. I'd rather just do enough to keep up my cardiovascular health, build a bit of muscle and call it a day. If I burn enough to have an awesome nighttime snack I'm happy.0 -
LOL. Did you ever think that people on a weight-loss board would be telling you to work out less and eat more?
I wish this was my problem... but its not... i just tried to burn 900 calories...and i barely hit 400 at 45 minutes... so i dont know about the calorie counting going on... i dont count all the extra stuff that you do around the house becaues thats normal for me... if i go to the gym or work out...i count that.....0 -
I agree that MFP overestimates a lot of the general activities, but I think you're REALLY cutting yourself short with the Muay Thai. I use a hrm and I burned about 850 in a 1 hr boxing class that was no where near as intense as the Muay Thai classes I've taken. I wasn't allowed to use the hrm in muay thai but i would have given myself minimum 1000 for an hour.0
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:drinker: bump0
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Realize that a 600 calorie burn is tough for 1 hour. And somehow this was sustained for 10 hours?
A.C.E. Certified Personal Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
I know friends who've wore a HRM for housecleaning and general yard work, and find that MFP is overly generous with the calorie estimates. It's definitely smart to scale back whatever number MFP gives you.
I just don't see a 6000 calorie burn possible for the activities described, unless she was sweating heavily, and had a high HR the whole time. In which case, the lack of nutrition would likely have her getting dizzy or even passing out. If anything, I'd expect her to crash. :flowerforyou:
A.C.E. Certified Personal Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition0 -
I agree that MFP overestimates a lot of the general activities, but I think you're REALLY cutting yourself short with the Muay Thai. I use a hrm and I burned about 850 in a 1 hr boxing class that was no where near as intense as the Muay Thai classes I've taken. I wasn't allowed to use the hrm in muay thai but i would have given myself minimum 1000 for an hour.
I guess that makes sense if you're really fit. It varies from person to person, I just know for me it'd be much much higher than 600!
So jealous, though. I miss muay thai sooo bad! I did it for 3 months and lost about 20 lbs without watching my diet whatsoever. Can't fit it into my schedule now though. Maybe this summer0 -
So jealous, though. I miss muay thai sooo bad! I did it for 3 months and lost about 20 lbs without watching my diet whatsoever. Can't fit it into my schedule now though. Maybe this summer0
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Thank you everyone for your help I already upped my exercise and I will try eating more. As for the gym I'm sticking to my 3 hours because that is my 'me' time but I will tone it down to more pool time and maybe I'll start doing some more weight lifting.0
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Let's assume your numbers are correct. If you eat 1500 calories per day and burn 4000, you're obviously leaving absolutely none of those calories for your body to use for maintaining itself. Check out your BMR at the top, under the Tools tab. That gives you the amount of calories your body burns if you were in a coma or otherwise incapacitated. What are those calories being used for? It keeps your organs going. Your heart, your brain, your nervous system, etc.
Your body is not going to discriminate against where its calories come from, within reason. It has no way of knowing "Hey, this person just ate 1500 calories. Let's divert that to keeping the heart beating. I'll just get these calories required for exercise from fat stores." Instead, your food will be used for a little of both.
The question then becomes, where is your body getting the energy to sustain you through your workout? Well, you've got your fat and your lean muscle. Fat is going to keep you alive long term. Muscle is expendable. The body at least knows this, and your muscle will be the first to go.
That said, don't up your caloric intake to 5500 calories a day. You've already read on here a dozen times that you're not burning 4000-6000 calories a day. Realistically it doesn't matter if you are or not. You're using an approximation either way, and if it's off by as little as 10% then this could add up to over a pound per week.
Get a heart rate monitor. Log your exercise precisely. Make your "Calories remaining" zero. You will continue to lose weight, only you will experience a little less premature death this way.0 -
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Get a heart rate monitor. Log your exercise precisely. Make your "Calories remaining" zero. You will continue to lose weight, only you will experience a little less premature death this way.0 -
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Get a heart rate monitor. Log your exercise precisely. Make your "Calories remaining" zero. You will continue to lose weight, only you will experience a little less premature death this way.
Unless it's a Polar - in which case you gave it the stats (age, weight, height) and it calculates BMR for it's calculations, and leaves it out of the calorie estimate.0 -
If you want to be this precise, you have to go all the way. The monitor just calculates gross Calories burned over time. MFP is already "giving you" your BMR. To make the math work you must reduce the monitor's Calories for every hour by 1/24th of your BMR. If you don't do that and exercise a lot (as you do) you could be over-eating three or four hundred Calories per day if you eat back to zero.
Yeah, I've actually made a few posts about that and even asked the mods if it could be worked into the equation. After awhile it becomes tiring to repeat, but I think it is important. All the same, I'd much rather see a "I'm only losing 1.5 pounds a week instead of the 2 I've calculated" thread than "I'm netting -6000 calories a day. Assure me this is okay".0 -
Unless it's a Polar - in which case you gave it the stats (age, weight, height) and it calculates BMR for it's calculations, and leaves it out of the calorie estimate.
Are you sure about this? I'm not saying you're wrong, but I've not heard it before.0 -
What are you doing to burn 6000 calories a day? You have your diary so we can't see it. Are you recording everything you do like housework, etc. Anything you do in your every day life doesn't count. If it puts your heart rate in the target range for an extended period of time and makes you sweat then it is exercise. Olympic athletes don't even burn 6000 calories a day. I think you need to get real.0
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What are you doing to burn 6000 calories a day? You have your diary so we can't see it. Are you recording everything you do like housework, etc. Anything you do in your every day life doesn't count. If it puts your heart rate in the target range for an extended period of time and makes you sweat then it is exercise. Olympic athletes don't even burn 6000 calories a day. I think you need to get real.
She already answered this.0 -
I'm a stay at home mom with two very active boys and finding time to eat is hard because I'm always running to do something for them. Yesterday for example I spent from 12 till 5 at three different Dr. appts. Then at 5 when my hubby got home I rushed off to get my 3 hours in at the gym. So I completely missed supper. In the mornings I'm up getting breakfast for the kids and their clothes and baths and general house cleaning before dropping my son off for pre-school and then running to afternoon appointments. I don't really get hungry during the day (which is what led to being overweight) and I would eat late at night. But I'm trying to change that so that I don't eat 5000 calories a night. My oldest son eats at pre-school for lunch and my youngest son eats baby food so I don't usually cook lunch and I forget to eat it because I'm taking my son to school and my little guy takes a nap then as well so I'm rushing to feed him and put him to bed and then I'm rushing to do what needs to be done before he wakes up.
You are one busy lady! It sounds like you're hands full with your busy life, I would suggest that you take 5 and try to plan in your exercise for the week so you exercise less on the really busy days and more on those when you have more time. If you have a smartphone there are some great exercise apps that give you mini workouts - from 5mins that you could squeeze in during the day - without you having to drag off to the gym for 3hours. Planning your exercise will give you more time to plan meals / snacks: it sounds to me like you might do better having high quality food snacks regularly through the day - these would use up some of those spare calories.
Imho you need to take care that you don't burn yourself out...
All the best!0 -
umm.... are you using a HRM???0
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Girl, there is no reason to spend 3 HOURS at the gym each night. I would spend no more than an hour.0
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