Unstable weight

M

Metsu

New member
I'm 24 and I weighed 230lbs last May. I decided to do some treadmill. I lost 24lbs pounds fairly quickly, about 3 months later and now one time it was during a heat wave of two weeks when I ate only very lightly. I've never stopped doing exercise at least 2 times (very rare) per week for 45 minutes, up to 4 times (more often) a week. If I did the calorie counter on the treadmill it shows me approximately 650 calories (5.5 km).

The problem is that in addition to not losing weight, my weight varies widely. 2 weeks ago and a half I recall having weighed 202lbs (after having indigestion). But today the same time, I weigh 213lbs. If I understand correctly I have accumulated approx 35,000 calories in a few weeks, which is impossible .... It depressing. I'm at the same point a few years ago, unable to descend down the 200lbs and be stable.

What can cause much difference in weight?

I eat about 2000 calories a day, my body is supposed to burned in about 2600 calories if I do nothing (180cm, 94kg, male, 24 years). Of course I do some excesses here and there but still my lifestyle is much more active than before but I feel like it have to fight every day to not gain weight.
How can you explain that after a generous weekend food-wise I gained about 7 pounds? The equivalent of 21,000 calories?

I need your opinion because it became very frustrating!

Thank you.
 
Cause the body can flux anywhere from 1 pound to almost 10 pounds based on everything from body waste, food in body, water, etc. This is why we tend to suggest focusing only on a weekly number. For example, in one day my scale just went down 3.4 pounds after refocusing on my diet after an awful weekend.

(there is also the real possibility that you are underestimating the calories you eat)
 
You also mentioned that for a time you ate very lightly, I'm not sure how lightly you mean but if you eat too few calories for your body your body will actually hold onto the fat because it thinks you are starving. That may have happened as well.... however I can't know for sure.

Also, muscle ways more than fat so you could have gained muscle if you were working out.
I've weighed myself in the morning before and then again late at night and my scale was 7 pounds more....... in one day! The next morning I was back down...... so if you were eating well and working out I wouldn't worry about it too much.
 
Another note to if you can, I would suggest you wear a heart rate monitor on a normal day for you when you don't work out.

If I look it up online it tells me that my body burns around 1900-2000 a day but when I wore my heart rate monitor all day on my normal day I only burned 1080........ it helped me to know my true calorie burn.
 
I plugged your numbers into the Mufflin Equation (just because it's my favorite, and fairly reliable for overweight people). It says that you should burn 2600 calories if you're lightly active. But lightly active isn't doing -nothing-, it's exercising or playing sports three times a week. For being sedentary (little or no exercise and a desk job), you're looking at 2200 calories per day.

Have you been increasing the incline on your treadmill? Walking faster? Challenging yourself? Or is it about the same time and distance at a comfortable pace? I'd guess that your body has adapted to the level of effort that you're asking for. It's become very efficient, and so it requires fewer calories than you think it will.

If you're eating about 2000 calories per day (is that an average, or a maximum or a target?) and your actual daily average TEE (Total energy expenditure - this is with exercise) is 2300/day, then a "generous" weekend can easily blow any deficit you had, leaving you feeling like you did a lot of work for nothing. And even if you're carefully weighing your foods and dutifully recording them in tracking software? I see fluctuations of 10% of calories within the same tool, and more than that from one tool to another.

I would encourage you to get some solid numbers under your belt. Regularly record your weight. Apply some sort of smoothing algorithm (the hacker's diet has an online tool that will exponentially smooth your weight) and watch the trend, not the scale. For a short period of time (a few weeks maybe) you can average your calories consumed. Calories consumed + trend_loss*3500 should roughly equal maintenance calories. (Its rough, but it's a start). Adjust your calories based on that empirical maintenance number.

The other option is to say "I'm eating 2000 calories and not losing weight, I'll drop 10% of my calories per month (or add 10% of my calories in high-intensity exercise - you'll probably want some combination) until I see motion again".
 
Wow thank you for those helpful answer, you guys rock!

But do you guys suggest a heart rate monitor in particular? I don't want to buy a scrap one, if you know what I mean..
 
Dawnball your tips also helped me!

Metsu I will check which brand of heart rate monitor I have tonight and I'll let you know I love the one I have! You can even swim with it on which is great because it's so hard to calculate calories lost when exercising.
I was so bummed the first time I wore it on a treadmill because the machines calorie count was way higher than what I really lost! But it helped me in the end to know what I needed to burn.

It's neat to the one I have because you set your goals for the week such as how many workouts you want to do and for how long and at the end of the week it totals all your time and calories burned and if you hit your goal it displays a trophy all week long on the face of the watch :)

Sounds silly but I've come to strive for that little trophy!! ha ha
 
remember the HR monitors that tell you how many calories you have burnt are about as accurate as the the workout machines...
 
Primevci- when I work out on the treadmill my caloire burn is always way higher than on my actual heart rate monitor. I like to see both.... but at any rate no matter what you decide to do my heart rate monitor is a Polar. You can go to to check it out
 
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