Weight loss: getting it right...?

[Triskeliongirl]

I looked at your chart. You are eating plenty of food to not be in 'starvation mode'. Is it possible you are overestimating the cals burned by exercise? Are you using the livestrong estimates, an exercise machine estimate, or a personal HRM estimate? While a personal HRM is the most accurate, its still only an equation that doesn't consider your personal metabolism. How old are you? I am 53 and will maintain but not lose on 1200 net cals so for me your numbers don't look surprising at all.

In addition to trying to eat less and burn more, I recommend increasing the ratio of protein to carbs in your diet. If you have any degree of impaired glucose tolerance that can make a huge difference. High protein/low carb foods are also more satisfying, so they let you feel satisfied with fewer calories, and also put you in a hormonal state that favors fat burning (glucagon>insulin).

[Susan]

For me, 1 month is just to short to see any change in my weight. If I eat sensible but not ridiculously little, so that i won't be hungry all the time, I can lose about 20 pounds in a year (and I do a quite considerable amount of exercise). Of course there are people that lose weight quicker, but maybe, if you are like me, you won't.

[woohoo]

Thanks for the great responses everyone - lots of good resources and things to consider!

Some info: I’m 28, large skeletal size from the chart suggested, and a bit more than 10-15lbs overweight Before I would have gone a 2-3mi walk once/week & maybe ridden my bike once or twice. Since the start of the year I have been trying to build my fitness up for an event in May. I've been managing (apart from one week I was ill) to increase that to include 3-4 sessions per week on the turbo trainer and either mtb or walking one day at the weekend.

A typical trainer session for me is 1-1.5 hrs of intervals on the trainer following either 'workouts in a binder' or sufferfest-type programmes. My average heart rate for the time will be approx 85% of lactic threshold, with peak intervals being just above, maybe 104%. I don’t work out the calorie burn myself, I’ve been using the livestrong app to put in the food I eat and the training I do. Maybe I’ll try an alternative calorie tracker, to see if it agrees/disagrees?

I think the point about not having such an on/off pattern in days of exercise is probably a good one. My metabolism might be better served by a more even calorie intake and making an effort to go for a 20min walk at lunch or something on my rest days. Same goes for increasing the protein, I eat a lot of rice, pasta & bread…

I should I add that although I’m not losing the lbs I’d hoped for, I am seeing muscle development. My legs are noticeably more muscular, and although I haven’t dropped a clothes size, I have noticed a shirt or two fits me a bit better, so can’t complain too much! I guess if I keep going and take all the advice above over what I’m eating, the weight loss should follow in time - I always have been an impatient so-and-so

Thanks everyone for all the help & input – really appreciate it.

woohoo

p.s. WindingRoad – glad I’m not alone, we’ll get there eventually!

[limewave]

I just want to add from my own experience, that I have the most success in losing fat when I'm consistently eating good, nutritional food with approx. 1600-2000 calories a day. That's when I'm biking and running regularly. I usually do about 60 minutes a day (6 days a week) and try to do about 30 minutes of strength 4x a week.

I was seeing great success with that, so I tried cutting my calories to about 1100-1200 a day. Not so good. I saw much less weight loss, some weeks not any. And I didn't have the energy I used to have, so my workouts were flat.

If you're worried about gaining weight, just try adding calorie for two weeks and see how it goes. You can always scale back again.

[Triskeliongirl]

I think you guys are reading her graph wrong. Yes, her net calories are ~>1200 (but hard to tell exactly from graph as displayed), that's when she subtracts her estimated exercise calories from her intake, but her intake is quite a bit higher than that. For intake look at the yellow bars, she is eating from ~1200-2300 calories a day. The variation is due to exercise which is fine. But her net calories are probably still too high if she isn't losing. This may be in part from an overestimating of exercise calories.

I really think this idea of advising folks that are already eating well to eat more to lose weight is just flat out wrong.

[woohoo]

No worries Triskeliongirl, after reading the advice above I don't intend to add to what I'm eating. You're right about the numbers, the average of the yellow bars over the month (mean or median) was around 1700 calories/day. When I added in my exercise estimates, which I appreciate are approximate, the average dropped to around 1200. Whether that's the right value for weight loss seems to be personal. As I'm on the heavier side, don't feel lethargic and have the energy to train effectively, I agree with you it's likely that it's not too low (as per my original question), and from the posts above should a reasonable starting point. The big things I think will be keeping things going for a longer time, and keeping my net calories steadier in order to try and boost my metabolism rather than having it stop/start...

Thanks all, woohoo

[Triskeliongirl]

I always use the Livestrong site to track, and I have found that the calories they estimate I've burned are higher than what my HRM monitor tells me. Therefore I go by my HRM (I recently bought the polar Fit7 womens, which is very easy to use). I just use the manual entry feature to input the cals burned that way. From what I have read, its hard to get anything to estimate it perfectly, since your personal metabolism is a big variable. I also agree that while you need to eat more on days you workout more intensely, you don't need to eat everything you burn (also remember these programs aren't subtracting out the cals you would have burned at rest), so I actually set my target cals lower than I really want them to be, which just works out better for me psychologically. I'll eat what they recommend on days I work out, but eat a little more than what they recommend on days I don't, but I don't feel pushed to eat more than I need like I did when I had the target set higher. But, then I do track my real net cals in a spreadsheet, and each week average them. I also average my weekly first morning weights, and use those numbers to see how I am doing. I also find it depends on the exercise. If I am going for a 4 hour bike ride, obviously my caloric needs are very different from a day I go to the gym and burn 400 cals on a machine in a 45 min. workout.

I struggled a lot with my weight when I was younger, and for me the biggest thing was finding out I have impaired glucose tolerance and switching to a high protein/low carb diet, and also being treated for hypothyroidism. Since then, I have been able to lose my excess weight, and keep it off, and do find the livestrong site very helpful. So include some medical checks on your to do list. Also, when you say you are 10-15 lb overweight, according to who/what? If you have a high lean body mass, maybe you aren't that overweight, and that is why your body wants to maintain. Try to get your body fat measured, and use that info. to come up with a realistic but healthy weight for you. I find once I got my hormones in order and started eating foods my body could metabolize in the right amounts, my body weight pretty much normalized. I only gain weight if I break the rules, and start to eat foods I can't handle like carbs.