Losing in all the wrong ways..

I quit! At least that is what I said in a very angry voice inside my head this morning at 8 am when my scale said that I have gained 2 pounds! I have been faithful to exercising and eating healthy for 2 plus weeks and and though it has made me feel better, part of that mind set was the "waiting to see results" but where are they, how long does this take?????? and what am I doing wrong??? I workout like crazy, mainly cardio...when will there light in this very dark tunnel??? anything will be great right now, anything.

you should make sure you're eating enough...eating too little can really undermine your efforts by causing your body to cling to every calorie consumed. your deficit shouldn't be over 1000 calories each day and you should NEVER eat below your bmr or your body will signal hormones that lead to fat storage and a reduction in expenditure!!

It depends on many things - including how much weight you have to lose (I'm guessing 11-20 pounds from your profile) and how healthy you were eating before.  Also, women's weights naturally fluctuate by as much as five pounds over the course of the month due to our cycles.

When you don't have a lot to lose (which you don't - at least not relative to people who need to lose 50 or 100 pounds), your body will hang onto the extra weight more tightly and it does take longer to come off.  You can still lose weight; it'll just be slower.  Likely somewhere between half a pound and a pound per week at the fastest.

As for the two pound jump on the scale, think about where you're at in your cycle.  The week before (i.e. PMS week), most women retain 1-5 pounds of water.  You could easily have lost 1 pound of fat but gained 3 pounds of temporary water, for example.  The water weight goes away after TTOM.  Alternately, if you eat a lot of sugary or salty food one day, your body will tend to retain water for the next day or two.  It's not "real" weight, and it goes away too.

So try not to be discouraged.  The only way to actually gain 2 pounds would be to eat 7000 calories more than you burned.  Unless you did that, it's either an unreliable scale problem or it's water weight.

In addition to what every has said, the fact that you're doing mainly cardio also has an effect on your weight loss. As crazy as it sounds, adding strength training actually helps you lose weight. As women, we don't want to gain bulky muscle mass. Luckily for us, we lack large testosterone productions that helps build bulky muscle. Instead, when we lift weight it turns mostly into lean muscle, which is the key to weight loss. Muscle burns more fat, the action of strength training revs up your metabolism, and in combination with cardio it will help you lose wight a little quicker. I believe I'm around the same weight loss goal it seems, so I know how frustrating it can be. And I can tell you that I've experimented with leaving out the strength training and doing just cardio, just to test the theory. The result was instead of losing 2lbs/week which I'd steadily been doing, I lost only one. It's my theory that you never just trust what's put in front of you, test for yourself! I did and the proof is in the pudding. Give it a shot & good luck =]

Thanks for advice. I had a really down day because I just dont seem to be getting anywhere. I know that I dont have an exreme amount to lose but honestly I just want to be happy with myself agian, it's been almost 10 years (in june it will be) since I have worn a bathing suit and for the first time I would like to take my 6 year old to a swimming pool and go in with her. I know its a self image thing, but regardless, I won't be young forever. Agian thanks, I plan on waking up and starting a new day. and I will def. try more strength training!

you should try the biggest loser dvd's cardio max and power sculpt. The power sculpt video only requires light hand weights ( I used 3 pounds in the beginning and have upped it to five pounds). The power sculpt dvd has helped me get stronger, feel better, and lose a total of 20 in combination with cardio. Just a suggestion but I know it works. Good luck

Keep in mind you didnt gain it all in one night, therefore you arent going to lose it all in one night! Keep your head up and stay in the game. Its much easier then we all make it out to be!

Original Post by chrissy1988:

you should NEVER eat below your bmr or your body will signal hormones that lead to fat storage and a reduction in expenditure!!

Never is a very strong word and there is no rule that you should not eat below your BMR.  That is a myth.  Whether or not eating below your BMR is advisable is dependent on a number of variables, including how active you are and how much you have to lose.  BMR is just an estimate anyways and depending on which formula you use to calculate is subject to error (and the most popular BMR formula that most calculators on the web use is one of the worst as far as accuracy goes).

While eating at a calorie level at or above your BMR IS a good way to make sure that you are allowing enough calories to get proper nutrition, it ISN'T a hard and fast rule.  It is recommended for people who are very close to a healthy weight and who are active enough to still be able to create a deficit through exercise.

techdog...i would still venture to say NEVER eat below your bmr...the basal metabolic rate only includes the energy required for our body to perform its very basic functions to survive and that's if we were bed ridden and didn't move a muscle. that said, any sort of movement or activity is going to create a deficit, so just getting up, going to work, and living life without structured activity would create a large enough deficit to lose weight if you were eating at your BMR. If you eat below that amount then your body stops releasing growth hormone, and your levels of leptin and ghrelin become irregular causing your appetite and weight to vary more than is desirable. Anyhow, here is some info from 

http://www.apinchofhealth.com/resources/BMR-a nd-calories.html

It is well known that cutting calories too much slows down the metabolic rate, decreases thyroid output and causes loss of lean mass, so the question is how much of a deficit do you need? There definitely seems to be a specific cutoff or threshold where further reductions in calories will have detrimental effects. The most common guideline for calorie deficits for fat loss is to reduce your calories by at least 500, but not more than 1000 below your maintenance level. For some, especially lighter people, 1000 calories may be too much of a deficit. The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommends that calorie levels never drop below 1200 calories per day for women or 1800 per day for men. Even these calorie levels are extremely low. A more individualized way to determine the safe calorie deficit would be to account for one's bodyweight or TDEE. Reducing calories by 15-20% below TDEE is a good place to start. A larger deficit may be necessary in some cases, but the best approach would be to keep the calorie deficit through diet small while increasing activity level.

TDEE=total daily energy expenditure. so, yeah..i would say that it is counterproductive in the long term to eat below one's bmr and in my personal opinion it's not really worth the damage to your metabolism.

I feel your pain...I just started this out myself too and I lost a lot the first week and gained the second.  Have you tried adding a weight program to your workout plan?  Muscle burns a lot of calories.  Although, don't stress if you gain in the beginning...I always gain at first when I start a weight lifting program.  Go by "INCHES" if you are discouraged by your scale.  I measure my neck, upper arm, chest, waist, hips, thighs and calves.  You can see results and even if your scale isn't budging, your clothes should start feeling looser. Hope that helps! :)

Original Post by chrissy1988:

 

It is well known that cutting calories too much slows down the metabolic rate, decreases thyroid output and causes loss of lean mass, so the question is how much of a deficit do you need? There definitely seems to be a specific cutoff or threshold where further reductions in calories will have detrimental effects. The most common guideline for calorie deficits for fat loss is to reduce your calories by at least 500, but not more than 1000 below your maintenance level. For some, especially lighter people, 1000 calories may be too much of a deficit. The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommends that calorie levels never drop below 1200 calories per day for women or 1800 per day for men. Even these calorie levels are extremely low. A more individualized way to determine the safe calorie deficit would be to account for one's bodyweight or TDEE. Reducing calories by 15-20% below TDEE is a good place to start. A larger deficit may be necessary in some cases, but the best approach would be to keep the calorie deficit through diet small while increasing activity level.

 

TDEE=total daily energy expenditure. so, yeah..i would say that it is counterproductive in the long term to eat below one's bmr and in my personal opinion it's not really worth the damage to your metabolism.

 the 500 calorie deficit, does that include how many calories you burn? For example: you cut your intake by 500 then exercise and burn off 500..well that's 1000. I try for 1200 +/- intake and 700-1000 burn durning exercise a day...would that be right? (weight lose range is from 12-20 lbs if that helps)

This is my first time trying to do all of this right, and it way harder then I thought, so thanks for not being mean guys!

p.s. i did do just weights last night, plan to do the same today, so I am taking in all your your advice. thank you.

P.s.s. Me and my scale are NOT on speaking terms right now :)

No, it means this:

Plug in your numbers to the system.  Go to Tools and under that, select Burn Meter.  Include that you are moderately or highly active because you are.  The number that pops up will give you how much you burn in a day.  Then, subtract 500 to 1000 calories from that.  You're looking at your net calories, IE your deficit AFTER you factor in your lifestyle, height and weight.  For example...

Lets say you are 5'5 and weigh 150lbs.  And your 29.  And moderately active.  You burn 2300 calories in a day.  So...subtract 500 from that to lose a pound a week, and you need to eat 1800 calories.  I would personally give some flexibility and say to eat between 1600 and 1800. 

Right now, eating 1200 calories, and burning off 700, you are only netting 500 calories.  Not good.

Original Post by chrissy1988:

techdog...i would still venture to say NEVER eat below your bmr...the basal metabolic rate only includes the energy required for our body to perform its very basic functions to survive and that's if we were bed ridden and didn't move a muscle.

You are making the same mistake that most other people who say you have to eat your BMR make.  For people who are significantly overweight, food eaten is not the only source of calories that they can draw upon.  If you have excess fat stores, some of the calories required for our bodies to function can come from those fat stores in our body.  So it is possible to do resistance exercise to increase or maintain lean body mass, eat below your BMR, not exceed a daily deficit of 1000, and lose weight without screwing up your metabolism.

And you totally ignored the fact that for people who aren't average (very tall, very short, very overweight, etc) and caucasian, that the BMR calculations can be grossly wrong.  When I started losing weight, I was over 370 pounds.  I am also 6'5" tall and the BMR calculation for someone of that size using the Harris-Benedict formula is grossly skewed (it overestimates required calories by 20% or more).

So I stand by my claim that saying NEVER eating below your BMR is a myth, because of these facts:

1.  For people with excess fat, fat stores can make up the difference between the amount calories consumed and those required to allow the body to function.  If this wasn't the case, then why would the body store fat in the first place.  Fat is stored energy to be used by the body when insufficient calories are consumed to make the body function.

2.  BMR, as calculated by all of the formulas, is based on norms and most of the studies have been performed on caucasian people, so if you aren't caucasian, and fall outside of the norm, then the accuracy of the number goes down significantly.

And as I stated in my first response, I am not saying that the recommendation to eat your BMR is a bad one, in fact, I think that in most cases, it is a very safe one.  And the closer you get to a healthy weight, the more important it becomes.  But saying that you should NEVER eat below your BMR is still NOT true for everyone all of the time.  It depends on a lot of factors and IS NOT a hard and fast rule. 

And you will also note that I didn't recommend a specific calories level to consume or deficit to create, because although I have done a lot of personal research on losing weight safely, I am not a trained dietician or nutritionist and I don't believe that I should do so.  I am merely pointing out that there is no dieting commandment "Thou shalt not eat below your BMR."  Weight loss isn't that cut and dried.  If it were as simple as just following some dieting 10 commandments, then everyone could do it.  But because there are so many factors to take into account, what works for most may not work for all.