What am I doing wrong?

I kept track of my calories and exercise all of Jan. and Feb.  My food grade was generally an A - B.  I take a spinning class Monday, Wed. and Fri. am and Mon and Wed, evening.  I take a weight lifing class on Tues and Thursday evenings and walk 2-3 miles Tues and Thurs morning.  I have been doing this since mid Jan.  I have not lost any weight at all,  even gained 3 pounds.  My calories are generally between 1,100 to 1,500 per day.  My measurements have not changed although my pants seed to fit better though the butt but not around my waist. 

I am getting very discouraged.  Help before I give up!!!

it would probably be helpful if you posted your age, height, and current weight.

Also how many calories you burn being sedentary, as well as how many you burn per activity.

It sounds like you arn't eating enough and you most likely gained muscle weight.

Up your calories, way too low for all that exercise... the gain is muscle I'm sure.

i third the increase calorie recommendation. i'm 22, 5'5", 143 lbs, exercise about an hour (or more) pretty much every day, and usually eat 1700-1800 calories (that's my goal, anyways). 

also, try changing up your exercise routine. the body tends to groove and make it hard to drop any lbs.

I am 55, 5'6 and weigh 157.  According to the monitor I wear when spinning, I burn between 400 - 500 per class. This is at about 88% of my max heart rate.   Walking and weight class, between 200 to 300.  I don't know how to find out how many I burn being sedentary. 

i think your body is starving

i consume on average the same as you, but i sit on my butt (i need to start aerobics but life got in the way) and i'm losing weight.

you can find your caloric output when sedentary by going to "Account Home". its the bottom box that says "Normal Calorie Expenditure"

i applaude your exercise routine! but eat a little more and i think you'll see some results.

On this website, go to Tools ---> Expenditure.

Make sure all the boxes are correct, and pick Sedentary.  Calculate.

That is about how many calories you burn with no exercise.
You may need to set it to Sedentary on your own personal account setting.  Go to Account home, and click the small edit button by the chart.  You can change it there if it's already not set.


Log the exercise in your activity log.

You'll probably see that your calorie deficit is very high compared to what you eat everyday.

Most people would recommend having a 500-750 calorie deficit.

Or click on TOOLS and then EXPENDITURE.

This will give you how much your currently burn (chose Sedentary).  From that, subscract 500-800 and this is your daily calorie range to aim for at the end of the day, after all your activities are factored in.

Lets say the number is 2000.  Then you need to aim for 1300-1500 at the end of the day.

If you eat 1400 in a day and then burn off 600 of that, then yo uare down to 800 calories.  You need to eat enough to get back into your range.

If you don't do this, you are not giving your body enough calories to function properly.  After a while of doing this, your body will be convinced that you are starving it and it will fall in survival mode, not letting go of any weight as you are slowly killing it.

So make sure you eat more!

I had the exact same experience. I am 52 years old, currently 191 pounds (down from 207)I started working out 5 days (most weeks) on Sept 4. The weight loss was EXTREMELY slow in the first few months and it was all in my butt. So the back of my pants are falling off the butt but the waist isn't any smaller so I can't go down a size yet. Being of a certain age(ahem) I knew my body was changing but I didn't expect it to be this tough to loose weight. I did drop my calories down to 1200-1500 per day and added interval training as part of my workout and I think it's making a difference, ever so slowly. . I was sure my thyroid was the problem but it checked out OK. I just had to accept the fact that the weight was coming off at less than a pound a week. My original plan was to lose 50 pounds in 8 months....not gonna happen. My NEW plan is 50 pounds in 2 years! Really! So, hang in there....taking it off slowly is very frustrating but probably the best way to do it and besides, my body isn't giving me a choice!

I'm having the same problem as you.  I've been keeping track of my calories and getting an A or B.  Exercising 5 days a week for 30 to 60 minuites a day and not losing a lb.  I'm within 10 lbs of my goal and it is so frustrating.  I've been here Since Jan.  I think I may be in starvation mode too and not even realize it.

kgriffith... what are you eating? I am just curious as to what you are "spending" the calories on. I agree, you need to eat more! Awesome job on the workouts though!!!!! I am really impressed!!

Your starving your body. Up your calories or decrease your excerise. And the weight gain is muscle. Remember the 1st thing we learned when losing weight, muscle weighs more than fat.

i think the biggest issue here is that you may be cutting into your muscle at this point with too much heavy cardio and not getting enough calories and protein after workouts.

while your workouts are not "extreme" it appears to me that you need to really consider working out smarter. your body is not going to have time to recover properly with all that cardio thrown in - AND strength training.

i'd drop my cardio session to 20-30 minutes a day and workouts to less than 40, 4 times a week.

you should rip through a total workout [strength and cardio] in an hour. i also think you should DEFINITELY start spreading out calories. stock up on protien bars and get some protein shake powder. [it lasts forever]

i would add a protein bar and one shake a day to what you're eating now. i just think too much cardio kills strength training efforts and makes you miserable. your body needs more REST if you're lifting weight, not more cardio. :)

Holy cow you guys are amazing! I would never have guessed that I was starving myself! I'm 21, 6'1", 175lb. and have always, always, always been at 175lb. I tried the calorie-cout thing and it probably lasted about 2-3 weeks, working out 6 days a week- walking for an hour and then weight lifting- i was looking thinner and feeling great! All of a suddenly 2 and a half months into it there is no difference whatsoever since that initial boost! From your feedback, I'm probably not giving myself enough calories (about 1,300 a day)!! Who would have thought!!

Thanks so much for all your input.  I think that you are probably right on the calories.  I have been really tired as well - DUH!  I do eat what I thought was healthy.  Oatmeal for breakfast, nonfat yogurt for snack, soup or salad for lunch and then usually some kind of chicken and veg or rice for dinner.  I do also eat protein bars but have never tried the powders.  Does anyone know the best powders that are easy to make, and taste good.  Which is better, whey or soy protein? 

any protein powder will do the trick, soy or whey. vegan's obviously prefer soy. some people don't like the soy so much because it contains phytoestrogen which can make [esp. men] more hormonal. especially if you're doing two more a day. but most people have zero complaints about either.

compare labels. i get mine from wal-mart in the pharmacy dept. i buy two at a time, chocoalte and vanilla. i usually add sy milk to mine and coffee in the morning and about 25 ice cubes. blend it all together with some sweet n low.

afternoons after my run il'l have one, maybe half a scoop [which is about 11 grams of protein and 60 cals] along with coffee if i want some, a banana, some sugar free strawberry preserves and oatmeal. try different things. if i even "think" about wanting a snack, i stop and take stock of my caloric needs. almost ALWAYS i find i am low on cals or needing something extra-

good luck! PM me about anything you need to. i'll be happy to help.

I definitely agree that you are not having enough calories.  Before I went to college, I decided that I needed to lose some weight, and I was able to lose 25 pounds in 6 weeks.  I did this by eating ~1200-1500 calories a day, and I was working out all of the time.  When I started school I wasn't able to work out as much, and had increased my calorie consumption to ~1800-1900   By Thanksgiving I had gained it all back plus 10 pounds!  I went and talked to a nutritionist about it, and he said that I had basically starved myself for 6 weeks, and in that time my body had switched itself to survival mode.  Needless to say that is not good!  A lot of doctor's would diagnose that as exercise anorexia.  When your body goes into survival mode, it clings to EVERY calorie/fat/carbohydrate that you eat and stores it immediately, which means for a period of time, your body stops digesting food to be released from the body. 

You need to add more calories definitely, but you should only increase your comsumption a little at a time.  This will give your body time to adjust to the higher calorie content, and will prevent you from gaining unwanted weight.  It will also enable your body to switch itself back from survival mode more naturally.

I hope this helps a little.  Good luck!

that's good advice from someone who has been there, ash- and just to let you know there IS science behind the need to increase calories during a plateau and during working our bodies-

http://www.netwellness.org/question.cfm/45914 .htm

i think the WORST part about not eating enough to fuel he body is how it skips over fat reserves and depleats muscle tissue! not only that... the metabolism slows to a point that it can be almost impossible to lose weight.

AND, if you go back to eating fast food because you're fed up and not working out? guess what?

you gain FASTER than ever before. it sucks- but there really is a sweet spot to all this. trial and error will help you define your "sweet spot."

xox

I have not written before and I cannot believe the response, help, and knowledge available.  Thanks so much everyone. 

I went and bought protein powder this morning and will have a glass after weight training class tonight.  All the info made perfect sense and I will keep you posted with the results. 

Thanks again

An advice to you is to change your routine, by decreasing either your food or exercise for 1-2 weeks and see what happens.  Is not too much of everything but a little of both will do the job.