Training & Nutrition - Why am I not losing weight???

First off, I'm a numbers guy. So if the answer(s) you give me can be qualified in numbers, that would be great! :)

I weigh 244lbs. 36 years old. 6'4" tall.

My BMR is 2310 calories.

Figuring in the Harris Benedict method of sedentary (x1.2) = 2775 calories to maintain current weight.
using slightly active (realistic for me this time of year) (x.1375) = 3180 calories to maintain current weight.

I burn approx. 500 calories per day with my short bicycle commute.
I dropped my calorie intake to 1500-1800 calories per day.

Adding (subtracting) the above numbers means I end up with a net of approximately 1300 intake calories per day. That's anywhere from 1500-1900 calories below the Harris Benedict numbers.

I've been doing this for about 3 weeks. I still weigh the same. I'm not any thinner. What the heck is going on??? I'm healthy in all other aspects. But something isn't working.

What am I missing? I'm eating good food (veggies, chicken, small portions of pasta), staying hydrated, avoiding junk snacks, doing what I thought I should be doing. But nothing is changing.

Any thoughts? I'd like to hear what you have to say - good and bad.

Thanks a ton!
Spicy

Do you eat breakfast in the morning and make sure you hit all three meals everyday or do you skip/combine meals. I know so many people who skip breakfast and it keeps weight on them and shock loads your pancreas

Could you be adding muscle? It is several times more dense than any fat you are losing. It will also cause you to burn more calories. In short, be patient. I am not an expert, but I believe it will happen in time.

Im not a doctor or anything just offering a few suggestions that may help. Try increasing your protein, stay away from carbs after about 6pm. Avoid foods high in cholesterol and sodium. Get yourself a good multivitamin. Weighing yourself and checking your numbers everyday can make you feel as if you are not doing anything, but if you start to notice changes in your clothes and in you face, then you are doing something right. Don't stick to the numbers, try going for the feel.

Back when I started cycling to lose weight it was close to a month before I started to see an effect on the scale.

Depending on how your counting your caloric intake, you may be overestimating the calories in. I know when I use fitday.com to measure my intake/expenditure, it tends to overestimate use and underestimate intake. I always end up setting fitday to 8 hours sleep + sedentary lifestyle, and then I overestimate all the foods I eat in order to get it closer to reality.

What method are you using to track your intake?

Back when I started cycling to lose weight it was close to a month before I started to see an effect on the scale.

Depending on how your counting your caloric intake, you may be overestimating the calories in. I know when I use fitday.com to measure my intake/expenditure, it tends to overestimate use and underestimate intake. I always end up setting fitday to 8 hours sleep + sedentary lifestyle, and then I overestimate all the foods I eat in order to get it closer to reality.

this is correct in general, but even more so when using Fitday.com. this approach greatly helped me drop weight. later.

The is also the theory that dropping caloric intake to drastically will put the body in a "starvation mode." Your body is shocked by the sudden drop in food intake and has gone to a lower metabolic rate to prevent too much weight loss. I've seen in a couple other threads that increasing caloric intake helps because it took the the metabolism back to normal, only with fewer incoming calories. YMMV.

BTW--I'm in the same boat. I've been trying to lose some weight for about a month, with next to no results. I am, on the other hand back on my bike, and if nothing else getting more exercise.

I did lose about 15 pounds in a year. I tried to be a bit careful about what I eat and to bike quite a bit. It went with fits and starts. I would drop a couple of pounds, but then bounce up almost that amount. I would be careful about my eating and then eat a bunch of junk. I would ride regularly and then be out of town when I could not ride for a couple of weeks and need to start over again. Still, a year later I was, somehow, down 15 pounds.

A guy I met in Germany lost more than 40 pounds while getting ready for a half-marathon. He used a heart rate monitor. He swears exercising in the 60 to 70 percent of maximum heart rate really works for losing weight. I ride with an HRM, but need a long period of consistently better eating habits and no disruptions to my riding schedule to test it properly. You might also want to download "Cycling and Health (http://www.selleroyal.com/news/)." It recommends a bit more riding than you are doing, namely 40 to 60 or 70 minutes per day and doing that about two or three times a week. Then take a long ride of a couple of hours on the weekend. Snack on fruit rather than sweets and eat in a healthy way otherwise.

I would use body fat % as a better way of measuring. Do you input everything that you are eating into a program like fitday?

First off, I'm a numbers guy. So if the answer(s) you give me can be qualified in numbers, that would be great! :)

I weigh 244lbs. 36 years old. 6'4" tall.

My BMR is 2310 calories.

Figuring in the Harris Benedict method of sedentary (x1.2) = 2775 calories to maintain current weight.
using slightly active (realistic for me this time of year) (x.1375) = 3180 calories to maintain current weight.

I burn approx. 500 calories per day with my short bicycle commute.
I dropped my calorie intake to 1500-1800 calories per day.

Adding (subtracting) the above numbers means I end up with a net of approximately 1300 intake calories per day. That's anywhere from 1500-1900 calories below the Harris Benedict numbers.

I've been doing this for about 3 weeks. I still weigh the same. I'm not any thinner. What the heck is going on??? I'm healthy in all other aspects. But something isn't working.

What am I missing? I'm eating good food (veggies, chicken, small portions of pasta), staying hydrated, avoiding junk snacks, doing what I thought I should be doing. But nothing is changing.

Any thoughts? I'd like to hear what you have to say - good and bad.

Thanks a ton!
Spicy


How long is your "short commute"? To burn 500, it must be about 12.5 miles.
Most people underestimate calories consumed by a lot.
Trying to figure every calorie is probably taking you 15 to 30 minutes a day. Use that time to ride your bike or lift weights instead.
Bottom line: if you're not losing, you are eating too much. All the math in the world won't change that simple fact.

Remember that losing weight, with being somewhat active, is going to be gaining some muscle while trying to burn some fat. What really works for me, is to change what I am eating and change what I am doing physically to burn calories. Try interval workouts on the bike, or run/jog or jog/run/walk. Getting your heart rate up is a big thing. A 500 calorie burn on a bicycle would take me an hour of hard riding, where running I can do the same thing in less time.

Are you eating within about 30 minutes of your bicycle ride/commute? My problem with using commute time as exercise, either I do a really hard work out, or I don't consider it much exercise. If I ride hard, I will need a shower when I arrive.

How long is your "short commute"? To burn 500, it must be about 12.5 miles.
Most people underestimate calories consumed by a lot.
Trying to figure every calorie is probably taking you 15 to 30 minutes a day. Use that time to ride your bike or lift weights instead.
Bottom line: if you're not losing, you are eating too much. All the math in the world won't change that simple fact.

^^^ All very good advice. ^^^

Especially the last point...nobody is immune to the Laws of Physics. At the end of the day, it's all about Calories In vs. Calories Out (averaged out over time).

To the OP:

1) Be very careful not to "reward" yourself with food when you exercise.

2) Be very careful not to "let yourself go" with respect to food quantity and food choices. It's really easy to subvert a good exercise program with one or two "bad" days each week.

3) Identify your "substance abuse" foods, and get them out of your house/environment. For some guys, that's things like pizza and beer. For me, it's the "C's" (cookies, cake, and anything chocolate). If they're not in the cupboard, you can't eat 'em.

4) Be aware of "mindless" eating associated with stress or time of day. I have to be very careful in the evenings...I can be good all day long, and then blow it in a few hours of evening snacking if I'm not careful.


Keep after it...don't give up...and, best of luck.

Consider the relationship with fat/carb metabolism with intensity and duration. Make sure you are using adequate duration and not overdoing the intensity. The reason being, that as duration increases, your metabolism shifts towards burning fat from buring carbs. The other part is that as intensity increases, you shift towards carb as a source vs. fat as a source.

So, increase the duration of your activity, as you approach 90-120 minutes, the metabolism is generally 98% fat vs. carb and keep your intensity down in the 40-50% of VO2 max range, because as you get closer to your VO2 max, the carbs begin to make up more and more of the energy source. Now, this is true for weight loss, not race prep so if that is your goal, you also need speed training, intervals, climbing whatever for your race. Good luck.

When I usually plateau it means that I have to increase my intensity in my workouts. I am not big on decreasing calories because I don't want my metabolism to drop. I do more hill intervals on the bike or run.

Do you eat breakfast in the morning and make sure you hit all three meals everyday or do you skip/combine meals. I know so many people who skip breakfast and it keeps weight on them and shock loads your pancreas

Yes, I always eat breakfast. It's usually the "biggest" meal of the day for me. Because of my ease of becoming hypoglycemic, I try and eat 4 small meals per day.

Could you be adding muscle? It is several times more dense than any fat you are losing. It will also cause you to burn more calories. In short, be patient. I am not an expert, but I believe it will happen in time.

Unfortunately, no I'm not adding muscle. What you see for my "workout" (aka my commute) is all that I am able to do during the day. I try and add more workout time, but it's damn near impossible, which is why I commute.

Im not a doctor or anything just offering a few suggestions that may help. Try increasing your protein, stay away from carbs after about 6pm. Avoid foods high in cholesterol and sodium. Get yourself a good multivitamin. Weighing yourself and checking your numbers everyday can make you feel as if you are not doing anything, but if you start to notice changes in your clothes and in you face, then you are doing something right. Don't stick to the numbers, try going for the feel.

Thanks. I try and avoid eating anything late at night, but I always need something to avoid crashing with hypoglycemia. I only weigh myself once a week, so I'm not concentrating on the pounds. The frusteration is because I'm not seeing the belt get ANY tighter, and my face (where my weight really shows) hasn't changed either.

Back when I started cycling to lose weight it was close to a month before I started to see an effect on the scale.

Depending on how your counting your caloric intake, you may be overestimating the calories in. I know when I use fitday.com to measure my intake/expenditure, it tends to overestimate use and underestimate intake. I always end up setting fitday to 8 hours sleep + sedentary lifestyle, and then I overestimate all the foods I eat in order to get it closer to reality.

I hadn't heard of fitday.com, will check it out. I'm 99% sure I'm doing the calorie "counting" correctly. And unless I am WAY off (like 1000 calories per day), I don't think it would matter too much since I'm so low on calories anyhow.

Thanks!

What method are you using to track your intake?

A pen and paper. ;)

Seriously.

The is also the theory that dropping caloric intake to drastically will put the body in a "starvation mode." Your body is shocked by the sudden drop in food intake and has gone to a lower metabolic rate to prevent too much weight loss. I've seen in a couple other threads that increasing caloric intake helps because it took the the metabolism back to normal, only with fewer incoming calories. YMMV.

BTW--I'm in the same boat. I've been trying to lose some weight for about a month, with next to no results. I am, on the other hand back on my bike, and if nothing else getting more exercise.

Interesting...that very well could be the case. I have been doing some reading about it and I may have dropped my intake too low...

I would use body fat % as a better way of measuring. Do you input everything that you are eating into a program like fitday?

No, I use a calculator, pen, and notepad...

How long is your "short commute"? To burn 500, it must be about 12.5 miles.
Most people underestimate calories consumed by a lot.
Trying to figure every calorie is probably taking you 15 to 30 minutes a day. Use that time to ride your bike or lift weights instead.
Bottom line: if you're not losing, you are eating too much. All the math in the world won't change that simple fact.

1 - Short commute is about 3.5 miles one way. At about 12-14mph and riding for about 15-20 mins (it varies on weather), I figure about 250 calories per ride.
2 - I overestimate usually.
3 - It only takes a few minutes, and I write down the calories as I'm eating, so it doesn't add much time at all to my day.
4 - Understood...but how can 1200-1500 calories per day be too much for a 6'4", 24_# guy?

Thanks to everyone who replied. I'm out the door back to work now, but wanted to get a few replies in.

I know that ultimately for me, the best way to lose weight is to ride, ride, ride! It worked before...but then again I had a lot of free time. Now I am on call 24/7, and need to be able to respond within 15 minutes of getting a call. I know it's easy to make excuses, but this is one I can't avoid - it's the nature of my job.

I'm going to try and work some more time in during the day, but I'm afraid it will impact my sleep...and me without 8 hours of sleep is NOT a good thing! lol

Thanks again to everyone!

When I had to lose 60lbs I went through these plateaus where it would seem that I wouldn't drop a pound for 2 to 3 weeks and then in the course of one week I would lose 10 lbs. One thing I started doing different was only weighing myself once a week, weighing myself every day or two was making me crazy. Paper and pad was also how I tracked calories. I rounded everything up to the next 50 or hundred to make it easier to keep the calorie count in my head.

Ten years later I still track calories but I don't need to record it anymore. I still stay away from fried foods like potatoes and chicken. When I go to out to dinner I eat all of the salad ( no cream dressings) and usually take 1/2 the entree' home. I never eat more than 3 oz of meat in one sitting. Ice cream and other desserts are a rare treat. It is no longer a conscious effort it is my the normal diet

Hardest part for me to get over was the food reward thing. Now,instead of rewarding myself after a tough ride by eating a 16" pizza,I let a small scoop of frozen yogurt, a 32 waist and good looking a55 in Lycra at age 52 be the reward.

A pen and paper. ;)

Seriously.

That is certainly one way to do it (seriously), but i would recommend using one of the many diet logging sites out there. You clearly have access to the internet.

SparkPeople has a daily diet and excercise log, and if you put in your starting stats and how much you plan to excercise, it comes up with a daily calorie number for your intended weight loss goal & pace. I sure wouldn't recommend their food choices (heavily processed) but you can make your own meal plans and write them in.

Calorie-King is great for looking up calorie values, for those foods that SparkPeople doesn't list.

I combined the two sites when I was trying to lose a few pounds. You really do have to keep track of every single thing you eat. It's easy to forget a couple of crackers or a chip or two or a bite of something, but it really adds up frighteningly fast. Don't forget drinks - juice is a really dangerous one, it seems healthy, but it's a huge dose of liquid calories that doesn't make you feel full.

I'm 5'2" and when I was dieting 1500 was *starving* - I was very active, riding about 150-200 miles/week, and I could barely stand to keep it in the 1500-1800 range. For a person of your size, no matter what the activity, if you are really only eating that much are you hungry all the time?

Good luck with your efforts, it is hard but it does work, if you are patient and stick with it.

1 - Short commute is about 3.5 miles one way. At about 12-14mph and riding for about 15-20 mins (it varies on weather), I figure about 250 calories per ride.
2 - I overestimate usually.
3 - It only takes a few minutes, and I write down the calories as I'm eating, so it doesn't add much time at all to my day.
4 - Understood...but how can 1200-1500 calories per day be too much for a 6'4", 24_# guy?

Figure 40 calories per mile of riding. Your round trip commute is burning at most 280 calories a day. That's about half a pound of fat a week, at most. To lose weight by exercising, most people need to do at least 90 minutes every day. That's sad but true. "Exercise for fitness, diet for fatness."

I doubt if your intake estimates are accurate. Many observational studies have shown that they almost never are. You say you eat a big breakfast. A big breakfast is probably at least 600 calories. You say you eat 3 other "small" meals. A small meal is about 500 calories. Add 3 meals to the breakfast, and you have 2100 calories/day. And that doesn't count any beverages, snacks, samples, cheating and so on.

The only numbers that count are the numbers on the scale. I weigh myself every week and write it down. If the number is higher, I eat less next week. Very simple and very effective.

One reason it's hard for you to lose is that you aren't really that overweight. The closer you are to normal body weight, the harder it is to lose--another fact that's sad but true. But I think you will lose the weight. You have a lot going for you. You're motivated, intelligent and willing to ask for help. So I definitely predict success for you. But quit counting calories. It might work for some people, but it isn't working for you. :)

I disagree with the post suggestion you keep the intensity down. That's basically falling into the myth of a "fat burn zone"
At low intensity levels a high percentage of the energy you use is from fat. As the intensity level goes up, a lower percentage of fat and higher percentage of “sugar” is used (it's really glucose in your blood from the last food you took in, and liver and muscle glycogen). But as intensity goes up the total amount of calories burned also goes up. It turns out there’s an optimal intensity level at which you burn fat at the fastest rate. For fit people, this is actually at a level close to your lactate threshhold, which is quite a brisk rate, while in untrained subjects it’s at a somewhat lower level [Bircher, 2004]. The lower level for untrained folks is assumed when they come up with the charts. That’s reasonable because probably a high percentage of the people trying to lose weight are previously sedentary or at least relatively unfit.

What’s missing from the notion of the fat burn zone is the fact that if you burn a higher percentage of calories from sugar during exercise, you’ll burn fat at a higher rate in the hours post-exercise, so your body can replenish its glycogen stores [Calles-Escandon, 1996; Kiens, 1998]. Further, at the higher intensity level, you’ll burn a higher total amount of calories. And low intensity exercise justs burns calories while exercising, while higher intensity exercise causes more calories to be burned later in the day due to “excessive post-exercise oxygen consumption” (epoc).

The famous study by Tremblay and co-workers convincingly demonstrated the superiority of higher intensity exercise for fat loss. One group exercised at a lower intensity, similar to the fat burn zone, while other spent about half as much time exercising but did higher intensity exercise in the form of interval training. The high intensity group lost significantly more fat [Tremblay, 1994]. This has been confirmed in other studies, e.g. [Yoshioka, 2001].

Bircher, S, and Knechtle, B, “Relationship Between Fat Oxidation And Lactate Threshold In Athletes And Obese Women And Men”, Journal of Sports Science and Medicine, 3:174, 2004.

· Calles-Escandon, J, et al, “Exercise Increases Fat Oxidation At Rest Unrelated To Changes In Energy Balance Or Lipolysis”, Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab, 270: E1009-E1014, 1996.

· Kiens, B, and Richter, A, “Utilization Of Skeletal Muscle Triacylglycerol During Postexercise Recovery In Humans”, Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab, 275: E332-E337, 1998.

· Tremblay, A, Simoneau, J, and Bouchard, C, “Impact Of Exercise Intensity On Body Fatness And Skeletal Muscle Metabolism”, Metabolism, 43:814, 1994.

· Yoshioka, M, et al, “Impact Of High-intensity Exercise On Energy Expenditure, Lipid Oxidation And Body Fatness”, Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord., 25(3):332-9, 2001.

here goes.
I lost 80 lbs and was at a high of 283, now about 210-215 for the past 6 years.

I lost the weight the first 55 lbs, by eting healthier.
No Bread, cake, ice cream, Mayo, fatty salad dressing, no fried foods, alchohol.

I ate breakfast, lunch and dinner with some snack meals.

I did not starve or just eat rabbit food.

I walked for excersise, first a mile, then two then three. Some flat, some hillier routes.

After I was feeling comfortable in excersise, I hit the gym.
I did weights, I did Cardio 4-5 times a week.
I then lost 10 more pounds and started biking.

You have to get and keep your heart rate high enough and long enough to burn calories. If you ride a 12 mile route at say 12-13 mph in the city with stop and go, it will do less for you than riding at 10-11 mph for 10 miles.

My thought is that you are not riding hard enough or long enough or both to lose the calories. What you are doing is maintaining your weight and improving your cardio.
I bet your blood pressure and cholestoral have improved.

Cyclists also tend to eat way too many calories than they need. Pre-meal, post-meal and on bike meals are important, but not on a 10-30 mile leasurely ride.
THOSE CALORIES WILL NOT BE BURNT on a short trip at slow speeds.

You need to up your intensity if possible with a full body workout.
If not with weights, then body weight excersises. Running will burn more calories in 30 minutes than cycling for 60-70 minutes.

I have maintained my weight, I ride to work 23 miles each way avg 14.8 mph in stop and go New York City.

You may also considor writing down everything you eat for 3 days then having a nutritionist help you.

I may have missed it, but what is your body fat %. That will tell us how much extra fat is on your frame.

Good luck

^^Not The Slowest,

Great story, great advice.

My experience has been very similar to yours. You don't have to have a fancy plan or crunch a lot of numbers--just basic fitness principles, common sense, and a little dedication.

Thanks for sharing with us! :)

Figure 40 calories per mile of riding. Your round trip commute is burning at most 280 calories a day. That's about half a pound of fat a week, at most. To lose weight by exercising, most people need to do at least 90 minutes every day. That's sad but true. "Exercise for fitness, diet for fatness."

I doubt if your intake estimates are accurate. Many observational studies have shown that they almost never are. You say you eat a big breakfast. A big breakfast is probably at least 600 calories. You say you eat 3 other "small" meals. A small meal is about 500 calories. Add 3 meals to the breakfast, and you have 2100 calories/day. And that doesn't count any beverages, snacks, samples, cheating and so on.

The only numbers that count are the numbers on the scale. I weigh myself every week and write it down. If the number is higher, I eat less next week. Very simple and very effective.

One reason it's hard for you to lose is that you aren't really that overweight. The closer you are to normal body weight, the harder it is to lose--another fact that's sad but true. But I think you will lose the weight. You have a lot going for you. You're motivated, intelligent and willing to ask for help. So I definitely predict success for you. But quit counting calories. It might work for some people, but it isn't working for you. :)

Maybe because he isn't counting them correctly, as you point out above?

Maybe because he isn't counting them correctly, as you point out above?

Hardly anybody does it correctly, as has been found in many observational studies. For one thing, the calorie tables in use are all different, and who knows which one is correct? Also, it's pretty much impossible to weigh every gram of food you eat, and most calorie tables are based on weight. But even more important, most people just have a natural tendency to underestimate the amount of food they eat.

Hardly anybody does it correctly, as has been found in many observational studies. For one thing, the calorie tables in use are all different, and who knows which one is correct? Also, it's pretty much impossible to weigh every gram of food you eat, and most calorie tables are based on weight. But even more important, most people just have a natural tendency to underestimate the amount of food they eat.

I completely agree. But it does not have to be 100% accurate to work. For me, counting calories was absolutely key to my weight loss, even though I probably (definitely) wasn't "correct" in all my counts. Apparently, I was correct enough, which is all that matters in the end. I think you're insisting on far too much precision, which, as you correctly say, is unobtainable and makes the whole thing a huge PITA.

This isn't rocket science -- I used a simple spreadsheet (along with a pad of paper and pen in the kitchen for recording stuff on the fly) and bought a cheap kitchen scale. I read labels and looked up stuff when necessary. Since we eat a lot of the same foods from day-to-day, it became much easier and less time consuming over time.

When in doubt, I always rounded my calorie intake up and my calorie expenditures down. This accounts for at least some of the error you point to. You can also be conservative by picking the calorie table that lists the most calories per item. And, if you want to eat 2500 calories in a day, and you know you underestimate your intake, then shoot for 2300 instead. There are lots of ways to account for at least some of the error.

I'd hate to see someone discount a method that works for a lots of people simply because their execution needed some improvement.

Essentially you have to find what works best for you in keeping up a calorie deficit. This will be different for different people, some people easily reduce the intake others more easily can up the exercise and most do both. I have gone from 210 to 170 in about 1.5yrs and for me it meant controlling my intake heavily Sun-Thurs and I ride 100-150mi /week. Friday and Saturday I let myself eat pizza, drink a bottle of wine and have a dessert. This routine allowed me to loose weight and still enjoy some foods and things but will also probably prevent me from getting much further weight reduction unless I add more miles/week or start limiting my Fri/Sat free days.

So there are many different ways to get your desired goal but it also requires patience and no skimping on the riding and no rewarding outside the plan. For instance if I fall below 100mi for the week I have to watch my intake on Fri & Sat.

Essentially you have to find what works best for you in keeping up a calorie deficit. This will be different for different people, some people easily reduce the intake others more easily can up the exercise and most do both. I have gone from 210 to 170 in about 1.5yrs and for me it meant controlling my intake heavily Sun-Thurs and I ride 100-150mi /week. Friday and Saturday I let myself eat pizza, drink a bottle of wine and have a dessert. This routine allowed me to loose weight and still enjoy some foods and things but will also probably prevent me from getting much further weight reduction unless I add more miles/week or start limiting my Fri/Sat free days.

So there are many different ways to get your desired goal but it also requires patience and no skimping on the riding and no rewarding outside the plan. For instance if I fall below 100mi for the week I have to watch my intake on Fri & Sat.

Yep, exactly.

A whole bottle of wine?

Congrats on the weight loss!

I wonder if you could be insulin resistant.

explore metabolic syndrome if you are curious beyond counting calories.

here is one of my favorite resource sites

http://www.hormoneandlongevitycenter.com/leptinweightloss/ We just are beginning to realize how hormone driven appetite is, also.

Check your Test levels, also, just to be sure you are not low-normal or rock bottom. Just another puzzle piece.