I only lose when I DON'T exercise

When you up your calories (during the times that you worked out) did you do that manually, or did you tell MFP that you were no longer sedentary (or whatever level you previously were set at) when you changed your settings?

I wish I had some insights for you - I have been struggling with this too. The more I work out, the more I GAIN. I gain muscle, but the fat never, EVER comes off. I get bigger because there is muscle under the fat that won't budge. I have switched to yoga and running vs strength training in hopes that I will lose... I think that the lifting and high intensity interval training I did for so many years was actually putting too much stress on my system (I am already very stressed, all the time) and causing my body to retain fat. I've done some reading about adrenal fatigue and stress response to exercise and come up with that conclusion... I hoep you find some answers!

the way i understand it is that exercise does a couple of things - first of all, muscle weighs more than fat. so you'll be losing inches, but not necessarily weight at first. and as you build that muscle, you begin to burn more calories at rest - so you should still see loss, it will just be slower (but you'll be losing the inches).

AND, exercise causes the muscles to retain water. so some of that could be water weight too from your body repairing the muscles. make sure you are including a rest day or two to allow those muscles time to recoup... good luck!!! (i've had the same issue by the way).

I would think that it is not the muscle building that is slowing the weight loss, but your body is attempting to replace the water and glycogen normally stored in your muscle in order to perform activities that slows your weight loss down. If your BMR is 1550 you need to make sure your are eating a bit above that and that you eat back your exercise calories so that your body has fuel to use and turn into glycogen to store in your muscle. the glycogen and water stored in the muscle will weight a little bit more initially and may show on the scale. It may take a month of staying on track with the calories eaten and the exercise regime, but you will again begin to lose weight. This weight loss will be a healthy weight loss. Stay the course, you will come through it.

How's your water intake? You don't log it. I would -- you are retaining b/c of start of exercise. You need to drink it. You can go back to your 1200 cals if that was working for you -- just eat back your exercise calories from running.

I upped my cals but I was lifting weights.

I've had the same problem. I think a possibility is that cardio exercise makes your body more efficient…i.e., it can do the same work with less fuel. So my weight loss doc actually had me limit my exercise to about 120-150 min per week (with about 2/3 of that time cardio and 1/3 strength training), and to focus on increasing my protein intake and only adding back exercise calories in 100 cal increments. I think we tend to OVERestimate the calorie expenditure from exercise, so it is possible that you were eating back too many calories. So on the days I exercise, I eat an extra greek yogurt cup--high protein, with a bit of carb at only 100-150 calories depending on the flavor.

So you may want to focus your exercise on strength training to maintain (not gain) lean muscle mass so that you are losing exclusively fat in the setting of calorie restriction. Once you get to your goal body fat level, you can increase your protein calories to add on additional lean mass. But it is hard to really ADD lean mass when you are doing calorie restriction.


This website reviews the data:
http://www.exrx.net/FatLoss/WTCalLBWStudy.html

Man oh man do I STRUGGLE with this also. I am trying very hard to stay within my caloric range (fats, sugars and carbs). I am working out for about an hour a day. I lost weight for the the first 3-4 weeks at about 2 pounds per week. The last three weeks I have lost a combined 1 pound, but .........I have lost 7.5 inches. I am trying hard not to get discouraged and the tape measure is my only saving grace for NOT quitting.

I am now going to start trying to eat more protein than carbs reguardless of what MFP tells me I need. I really want the weight to start coming off too!

Good Luck and don't give up!

Were you working out everyday? You should only up your calories the days you are working out. I also wouldn't have a set amount either. You should probably just set your calories at 1200 - 1300, then eat back the calories that you burned on the days you exercise.

not drinking enough I would say. Chug back the water and see if it changes, if you are working hard you could be holding water.

This has been myself all week! I've been trying to lose weight for 5 weeks now. The first four I didn't do any real work outs.I lost 7 lbs. Then Friday I went roller skating, Saturday Walking, Sunday a 3 mile hike on a hill that has some spots up to 17% incline, Monday nothing, Tuesday nothing, Wednesday Arms and 45 mins on elliptical. I have lost nothing all week in fact I'm bouncing from 205-206 day to day. I am hopefully next week will be better!

For some reason that is how it seems to be going for me.
I think what happens for me is that I am barely eating all of my calorie recommendation
that by the time I work out I have that PLUS what I havent eaten....

Therfore I think my body may be going into starvation mode.

I started on mfp in Jan 2012 - it set me to 1200 cals, and I lost happily 2lb per week for the first mont. Then I decided to add in some exercise (running) and I plateaued. Did some reading and upped my cals, then upped them again. I am now on 1600, which is just a little over my BMR of 1550ish.

I dropped miniscule amounts over the next few weeks, then due to various circumstances, I had to stop exercising for a few weeks. I immediately started losing again (about 1 - 1.5lb per week.)

I'm ready to get back to my running now, but don't want to stop losing weight again - anyone got any helpful hints? I'm pretty sure that 30mins cardio a day and occasional 30DS is not building muscle to counter the fat loss. I have plenty of fat to lose.

I would've thought that adding the exercise in ought to make me lose quicker - it should speed up my metabolism and help with fat burning rather than muscle loss?

My diary is open:)

here is my guess at what happened. at 1200 that was really not enough but a lot of people do lose with that amount so it didn't surprise me that you lost weight. but probably it slowed your metabolism down a little. then when you ate more and exercised, your body was in shock, a lot of times when you start exercise you either maintain or gain because of the water retention in the muscles as they are sore and trying to repair. then you said after a few weeks you stopped. that water was expelled, causing the weight loss to continue again. but, what happened was your metabolism may have been a little higher due to the exercise and it was still possible to lose weight. this is my best guess at what happened. so just like others say, continue to exercise and if you have sore muscles, expect a slight gain. over time, your muscles get used to exercise and function properly, not retaining as much water. exercise helps with your metabolism so over time you will get a weight loss, you just have to be patient with it. i always gain weight when i start any new exercise. i am used to it now. within 4 weeks i start losing again and i can eat more because i have helped keep my body going and raising my metabolic rate and preserving lean body mass through exercise.

the way i understand it is that exercise does a couple of things - first of all, muscle weighs more than fat. so you'll be losing inches, but not necessarily weight at first. and as you build that muscle, you begin to burn more calories at rest - so you should still see loss, it will just be slower (but you'll be losing the inches).

AND, exercise causes the muscles to retain water. so some of that could be water weight too from your body repairing the muscles. make sure you are including a rest day or two to allow those muscles time to recoup... good luck!!! (i've had the same issue by the way).

Muscle does NOT weigh more than fat. Muscle is more dense than fat, but a pound is a pound is a pound. A pound of muscle takes up less physical space than a pound of fat, but muscle doesn't "weigh more" than fat.

Muscle does weigh more than fat. Nobody is saying a pound of muscle weighs more than a pound of fat... That would be like saying steel weighs the same as a feather because a pound of steel is the same as a pound of feathers. What they are sayingis if your body hasn't changed in size, but you have lost fat, and replace it with the same amount of muscle it is going to weigh more. Something being more dense means when you compare things the same size it weighs more.

Exercise is never bad for you...if the scale isn't showing you results then quit weighing!!! Eating 1200-1500 calories a day of good calories, and exercising...you will lose weight!! You were just dropping water weight, and maybe fat, but you weren't gaining muscle not working out. You want muscle built so you burn more calories just sitting around!!!
I don't weigh in as often as I used to...I've lost 14 inches on my waist...that's way more impressive then the scale numbers!!!

First of all -
If you are eating just above BMR, this is not enough, you need to NET above BMR after exercise and other activity has been accounted for
Your diary seems high in sugar and low in protein / vegetables / fruit. You can't out-exercise a bad diet.

I lose more when i dont exercise as i found out recently following an injury but i think there are several reasons behind that:
You are also losing muscle weight as well as fat when not exercising, as you are not doing any weight training to preserve the muscle
exercise uses glycogen which has to be restored and causes water weight gain
there is the possibility of over/under estimating your exercie calories and eating more or less than you need to - you dont want to eat more than you burn, but also you have to make sure your body has enough fuel for the extra work it is being asked to do -
You will lose inches rather than pounds sometimes, so its very important to take measurements. You may not always lose 1 or 2lbs neatly every week, you could lose none for a few weeks then a chunk all at once.

Overall, exercise has many health benefits other than losing weight, so i would stick with the exercise, sort out your eating and soon enough the lbs will start to go down. The loss may be slower, but you will be healthier, fitter and will have a better chance at maintaining your loss :-)