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I haven't read the entire thread, but I see one thing that I would do differently. You need to aim for coming in below your set calories regardless of calories burned during exercise. The only way that I have lost serious weight was to not even factor in calories burned in exercise in my daily calorie count. Best of luck!
I think the main takeaway I've gotten from this thread was weight loss is based on what you eat. Exercise should not be considered a factor. The 25 lbs I have lost was fairly easy. These last 10-20 might be a bit harder so I'll have to stick to focusing solely on what I eat and coming in under 1500 calories a day...no eating back any calories.
Hopefully I can come back before the end of the year with good news on progress with my weight loss.
I think the main takeaway I've gotten from this thread was weight loss is based on what you eat. Exercise should not be considered a factor. The 25 lbs I have lost was fairly easy. These last 10-20 might be a bit harder so I'll have to stick to focusing solely on what I eat and coming in under 1500 calories a day...no eating back any calories.
Hopefully I can come back before the end of the year with good news on progress with my weight loss.
You will be successful with this plan ^^. And hey, you lost 25 lbs, that is nothing to sneeze at! Good for you, especially with all your working out, you are keeping fit!
You will be successful with this plan ^^. And hey, you lost 25 lbs, that is nothing to sneeze at! Good for you, especially with all your working out, you are keeping fit!
Thanks!! I really do need to keep that in mind.
I just worked out 4-5 days back then and tried to watch what I ate...I never ever tracked calories while dropping that 20 lbs. My doctor told me to do it and I was dead set against it...I guess she was right that it would be needed at some point.
I see now I will have to do something different and actually work harder to get more progress.
I think the main takeaway I've gotten from this thread was weight loss is based on what you eat. Exercise should not be considered a factor. The 25 lbs I have lost was fairly easy. These last 10-20 might be a bit harder so I'll have to stick to focusing solely on what I eat and coming in under 1500 calories a day...no eating back any calories.
Hopefully I can come back before the end of the year with good news on progress with my weight loss.
Actually, exercise is a factor in combination with diet. My weight loss was a combination of diet and exercise. The takeaway I'd get from this thread is that you may be unconsciously eating more than what your body needs and/or the exercise isn't as intense as you think it is. I don't really pay attention to the calories given by the exercise machines. Weight loss is more complex than many people realize even though the premise is simple "move more, eat less". If you want to gauge your exercise intensity, it may be beneficial to get a heart rate monitor.
Actually, exercise is a factor in combination with diet. My weight loss was a combination of diet and exercise. The takeaway I'd get from this thread is that you may be unconsciously eating more than what your body needs and/or the exercise isn't as intense as you think it is. I don't really pay attention to the calories given by the exercise machines. Weight loss is more complex than many people realize even though the premise is simple "move more, eat less". If you want to gauge your exercise intensity, it may be beneficial to get a heart rate monitor.
I'm not fitness expert or hardbody, but I've always thought of exercise as important for stamina, muscle tone, blood pressure, etc. and not so much for weight loss. It's part of the equation, but not the whole picture.
I'm not fitness expert or hardbody, but I've always thought of exercise as important for stamina, muscle tone, blood pressure, etc. and not so much for weight loss. It's part of the equation, but not the whole picture.
I'm gonna go ahead and agree with this. I've been working out 6 days a week.
I'm gonna cut way back on the exercise. No sense in running 6 10-minutes miles straight or doing an hour of cardio at high levels on the machine plus 20 minutes of heavy lifting if the scale is gonna creep up cause I'm overating. Might as well put the focus where it needs to be-on the food.
2.5 years ago I stepped on the scale and was shocked I had gotten up to 163. Within 6 months of doing that I got my weight down to 135...I basically just started back in the gym for 3-5 days a week and watching what I ate (meaning I cut down on certain foods). Long story short, I was dealing with some things and stopped going to gym for over a year, moved to a much colder climate and started eating whatever I wanted every day.
There's been some ups and downs since then...I'm averaging between 137 and 139 now. Goal is 120 (I'm in no rush and ok with the weight coming off slowly).
The last ~6-7 weeks my weight has remained the same between the 137-139 mentioned above. I've been going to the gym 5-6 days a week consistently. I figured I must be in a caloric surplus so I started tracking my calories 2 weeks ago. But over the past 2 weeks I seem to be creeping up in weight...I'm now about to be back in the 140 club really quickly, as my weekly average is inching up just a bit every week and keeps getting closer to 140. I know I should be patient since I just started tracking but I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong.
According to MyFitness Pal which is the app I use, I should be netting 1500 calories to lose about 0.5 lbs a week. I don't have a scale to weigh food but I usually scan in the food using the barcode feature, and I double check the calories that scan in to ensure it's accurate. I also measure out things like salad dressing, how many cups of vegetables I'm eating, little items like olive oil when cooking with it since those things can add up, and items like how much no sugar almond milk I'm putting into my oatmeal. So I don't think my counting is 'too' far off.
The one thing I think maybe I'm doing wrong is eating back my calories. Are you not supposed to do that?
For example, yesterday I ate 1400 calories before going to the gym. I burned 600 calories in the gym. That's a net of 800 calories. The remainder of the day I ate 500 more calories. That's 1300 calories net for the day. I've been doing this (my best to net close to but no more than 1500 calories per day) since tracking my weight for the past 2 weeks so I'm unsure of why I'm steadily creeping up a bit.
Your estimates are off. Lots of potential sources for that.
1) You're eating more than you think you're eating. People are not good at estimating calories and most underestimate.
2) Your metabolism is slower than average. The 1,500 calories is just a general estimate for an average person at a ballpark activity level. It may be 200 calories higher or lower than that in reality. If you're using a sedentary activity level it's okay to add back for exercise. If you're not using a sedentary activity level you're just double counting.
3) Exercise. Calorie estimates for exercise are almost always LUDICROUSLY high especially if you're using the estimates the cardio machines at gyms put out. Even online ones are stupidly high. Typical weekend bike ride for me is about 1,500 calories according to calculators. I no longer have a watt meter on my bike to get a decent estimate but it's more like 800-900 calories. Typical gym weight lifting sessions burn very few calories, probably around 100 if you're not taking long rests between sets for a 30-minute workout. If you're getting the other 700 from what a cardio machine is spitting out, divide it by half and you'll be closer to the actual number. Probably a bit under but since your problem is trying to lose weight better to be under than over.
If you find yourself consistently increasing in weight, simply adjust. If you're gaining a pound a week, you're putting in an 500 more calories a day into your body than you're using. Remove 500 calories to stabilize.
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