Am I Doing Too Much?

[KaraCooks]

Is a stone weight loss good for 9 weeks or should I be expecting to lose more?

So I might see the problem here. You said originally that you're not losing ANY weight. (Your exact quote was: am still not really losing any weight.) But you are losing weight, and you're losing it at a fairly good rate, in fact.

1st over 9 weeks = 1.55lbs per week. At your weight, you should expect an average of 1% of your bodyweight per week, which is around 1.6lbs per week.

So - you're EXACTLY on target for what you should be losing.

People need to get out of this mindset that they're gong to drop 3-4-5 lbs a week, especially when they weigh 150lbs or so. Think about it logically - in order to drop 4lb a week, you'd have to have a deficit of 14,000 calories. That means you'd have to burn 2,000 calories per day MORE THAN YOU CONSUME. For someone who weighs 160 lbs, that would mean not eating anything at all and working out for 3+ hours a day on top of that. It's mathematically and physically impossible.

Aside from all of that, do watch the video that Kay linked. I was going to link it myself before she beat me to it. It will open your eyes. The scoop is useless for measuring portions.

 

[chrisj]

Yeah I'd be happy with 1.5 per week, I normally average about 1.25 and I'm happy. If it was much more than that, while it would be nice, it would concern me.

And I thirdly suggest, watch the vid, after I did I sent my scoops to the back of the class.

 

[Jason32]

In my opinion you are exercising too much and eating too little. This will eventually damage your metabolism and cause you to gain even more fat in the long run.

Cardio is not the best way to lose body fat due to its impact on your adrenal hormone cortisol, which will cause your body to store fat and eat lean muscle tissue.

The combination of caloric restriction and loss of lean muscle will eventually slow your metabolism to a crawl.

 

[harlan]

I understand what you are saying but I just keep getting contradicting advice from people. One minute I am eating too much, the next not enough. I

I think I might know where this is coming from. Up until recently if you weigh about 150 pounds and you were eating only 1500 calories a day, one of the first things people would tell you is that you are not eating enough calories, and your body is going into "starvation mode", where it will hang on to the fat and even sacrifice the muscle.

Lately, there is a new line of thinking in the fat loss community that sounds like it says the opposite. They are of the opinion that you can still lose weight at the lower calorie levels, however you just have to push yourself harder because you will not be eating enough calories to have a good amount of energy to work all day then workout at night with any decent intensity. Basically that you do not lose weight at 1500 calories because your energy levels are so low that you do not have the physical ability to work enough to work off the weight.

Here is another one: If you are the same 150 pound person and you are eating 1500 - 1600 calories a day and not losing weight, you should not eat more because you will then start gaining weight from the extra calories. Their reasoning on this one? They think that if you are not losing weight, then you are not eating few enough calories, and if you claim to be eating only 1600 calories, then you are just plain wrong and you figured your calories wrong.

So it boils down to this - IF you are 100% certain that your measurements are correct, and that you have not messed up the math with all the information about all the food you have eaten all day, and you did not neglect to put something in because it was small and you thought it was insignificant.... and it all comes to only 1500 calories, and you weigh 150 pounds and you are not losing weight, the only other thing it could be is that you are not burning 1600 calories a day.

 

[KaraCooks]

Harlan, if you read the preceding posts before you respond, you'll see that the OP *is* losing weight .... she just isn't losing as fast as she thinks she should and that's why she referred to it as "not losing any weight" while eating 1500 calories.

In fact, she's losing about 1.5 lbs a week, which is right on target for someone of her height/weight.

She does't have a depressed metabolism and she doesn't need to eat more or less ... she just needs to adjust her expectations.

 

[kjones6670]

Thanks to everyone for your advice. In my original post I did say that I had lost 11 pounds since Christmas. Somewhere along the line we have got confused thinking that I have not lost any weight. I did think that a sensible weight to lose was 2 pounds per week and was frustrated that I was not getting that what with all of the exercise I am doing as well.

I am going to try and cut down on the exercise a bit. I have started doing some interval running instead of running for 45 minutes at a time.

Can anyone give me any tips on how to get rid of my fat thighs - what exercises can I do at home?

Eyes got better for a while but they have gone funny again now so I am off to the opticians next week!!

 

[chubbygirl]

If the eye doctor says everything is fine I would go back to your family doctor and get some more tests done. Did your doctor do any blood tests the last time you were there or did you just tell him what you were doing and he told you to eat more and exercise less? I'm only concerned because my friend had the same experience. She was complaining about her sight in class and went to see an eye doctor who told her everything was fine and it only got worse until she got some blood work done and found out she had diabetes - my friend wasn't over weight and I considered her to be really healthy and was shocked at the diagnosis. Not trying to scare you but if you are having vision troubles it could be more serious.

 

[KaraCooks]

Can anyone give me any tips on how to get rid of my fat thighs - what exercises can I do at home?

You can't spot lose fat. The fat will come off your thighs when your body decides it's ready to take it. It sucks I know ... but the only thing you can do is keep losing and let your body redistribute things as it will.

 

[ChefChiTown]

In answer to your question, I use the treadmill to tell me how many calories I am burning. I admit this is not exact but I read on the internet that for 10 minutes running you should burn 100 calories and I usually run for 45 minutes and walk for 15 so I think 500 calories is about right.

Is a stone weight loss good for 9 weeks or should I be expecting to lose more?

Where are you getting this information? It's not like running is going to burn the same amount of calories for every single person. It matters how heavy you are, what your BMI is, how fast you run, how long you run for, your overall health, your stamina, your sex, the incline on which you run, etc. So, don't think that just because you run for 45 minutes that it means you're burning 500 calories.

I've read through this thread and have looked at all of the posts, and there is one common theme throughout the entire thing...you estimate waaaaay too much. You round up on your calories even though you're not even sure of how much you're really eating, you have vague and incorrect calculations on everything, including your calories burned through running, and you just seem to not be getting the reality of losing weight.

There's not an exact mathematical science behind losing weight and I don't think you're going to find the answer you're hoping for here. Why? Because, everybody is different. What works for me might not work for you. Even if you and I eat the same exact amount of calories and even if we do the same amount of exercise, our results will be drastically different. So, don't look at some generic chart that you've seen on the internet and automatically believe what you're reading - do a little bit of research on what effects your weight loss. You can start by reading through the sticky threads on the forum and getting advice from the people who know what they are talking about; Kara, Steve, etc.

 

[kjones6670]

I do appreciate your feedback but dont appreciate being lectured to. I was looking for some advice and have been given lots of constructive advice which is really helpful but dont really think that you speaking to me like I am a child is necessarily going to help me.

 

[KaraCooks]

Well, tone or not I have to agree with Chef in content ... I missed the whole bit about how many calories you say you burned.

The thing is, the whole 2lbs per week thing is probably doable for you at your weight, but you'd have to be REALLY STRICT. And estimating, guessing, not measuring, etc. ... that won't get you what you want.

People come on here all the time and say they're not losing weight (when they really are) or they're not eating that much (when they really are) or they're burning lots of calories exercising (when they're really not). And all of it is because they're GUESSING at what they're doing. And they say "no, it's true - I'm keeping track" but really they're estimating and rounding and using averages and ... guessing.

You can't take a single number off the internet and use it for everyone. It makes no sense to do so. There is no way that, for example a 165 lb woman will burn the same number of calories as a 300 lb man. So any site that gives you a blanket number ... is flat out wrong. Now if they say that someone weighing 165 lbs will average 10 calories per minute ... that might be one thing. But that everyone averages 10 calories per minute? Nope. Simply not possible by the laws of math and physics.

People need to learn to THINK about what they're reading instead of accepting it blindly because it's on the Internet. Anyone can publish anything online - no credentials needed. Take EVERYTHING that you read and think critically about it - including things that I tell you, that Chef tells you, that you read on experts sites. Research it. THEN and only then, believe it.

 

[Kayshiz]

I've read through this thread and have looked at all of the posts, and there is one common theme throughout the entire thing...you estimate waaaaay too much. You round up on your calories even though you're not even sure of how much you're really eating, you have vague and incorrect calculations on everything, including your calories burned through running, and you just seem to not be getting the reality of losing weight.

Try not to take what Chef said in a negative way. It's probably the second best info anyone in this post has given you (after Kara).
I counted calories for months at a time. Refused to eat anything I didn't prepare myself for weeks because I didn't want to to guess about the calories I was eating. Weighed every little morsel of food that went in my mouth and I'm sure I still did not have an exact calorie count.
No one expects you to be perfect on counting calories and estimating burned calories, but it will be helpful to you (for your own success in weight loss) if you can understand the importance of being as accurate as you can and not to even take your own numbers (let alone ones you find on packages and the internet) as gospel.

 

[ChefChiTown]

I do appreciate your feedback but dont appreciate being lectured to. I was looking for some advice and have been given lots of constructive advice which is really helpful but dont really think that you speaking to me like I am a child is necessarily going to help me.

What is this, Hate On Chef Week? HA, I mean, how exactly am I talking to you like a child?

Anyway, I just told it how I saw it. And, from what I see, you're just going about your calculations all wrong. You're just estimating way too much and you have some pretty vague and incorrect information as far as consuming and burning calories. So, that's why I told you to do a little research and listen to the advice of certain people on this forum. I hate to say this, but some of the people on this forum are total morons when it comes to weight loss, but there are members here who are very knowledgable and extremely helpful.

And, in respect to the estimating - Kara already pointed out how that can alter your actual statistics. Rounding things up or down, no matter how big or small, can severely alter your true statistics. I won't repeat another example, as Kara has already done that, but that's exactly why I said that you're estimating too much.

I'm sorry if you took what I said in the wrong context, but I don't feel as though I was talking to you as if you were a child.