I am really hoping someone here can help guide me and I’ll try to keep it brief.
Background: I had an infection that lead to a dramatic increase in my RT3 so I had to clear it. Over the course of the approximate year of not knowing what my issues were I started slacking off at the gym (due to my hypothyroid symptoms and generally not feeling well) and also put on about 40lbs. Prior to being ill I was doing some form of exercise 7 days a week and was sitting about 180lbs and I’m guessing in the 6-8% BF range (never actually checked because I was happy with where I was).
Now I have cleared my RT3 and I tapered off my T3 medication two weeks ago. Over the course of the 13 weeks I was on T3 only meds I dropped about 25ish pounds and now I appear to be stuck at about 192lbs and have been for somewhere around 3 weeks. I will lose/gain 0.5-1lb back and forth of course.
My current routine is about 60-90 minutes at the gym every day; 40-50 being cardio and the remainder is weight training. I also walk with my wife every evening (weather permitting) for about 60-75 minutes or until we hit 4 miles around our neighborhood.
All-in-all I think I am burning in the vicinity of 1200-1800 calories every day via exercise alone. My diet is somewhat sporadic but most days I am eating around 1800-2400 calories a day - with the exception of our cheat meal once a week.
So shouldn’t I easily be losing my target of 2lbs a week? What am I missing?
You are not burning as much as you think you are. You may have been burning 1/2 that and depending on how long you have been doing that much cardio your body has most likely become better and preserving calories.
I’m probably acting like there is more variance than there is - most because it’s difficult to know exactly what you’re getting at restaurants, etc. I log with My Fitness Pal and I keep most days within 1700-1900 with my goal being 1800.
I somewhat hear what you’re saying about “what calories I think I’m burning” but on the other hand…it does play a role and matters. I mean, when you workout for nearly 2.5 hours every day you should have some wiggle room - especially when Im only eating ~1800 calories and those calories ARE NOT burgers and fries and pizza. Ok…maybe pizza but on cheat meal only
I can obviously track my food better and I could lower my calories to 1500 but I didn’t want to shortchange myself too much because my energy / strength for lifting is already low.
At 192#, you will burn ~130 cals/mile (walk or run, it doesn’t matter). Thus, to burn 1200 cals you’d have to go over 9 miles; to burn 1800, a whopping 14. We can account for 4 miles (walks with wife). Let’s spot you a mile’s worth of cals for your weight work. This means your ~45 min cardio has to account for the other 4-8 miles. 8 miles in 45 min is under 6 min/mile–really booking it, and for a long time. Can you really say your cardio is the intensity equivalent of running 8 sub-6-min miles back to back to back?
As said previously by others, here is what I think is the problem:
This too:
In fact, an error of 600 cal/d amounts to >1#/week discrepancy between expected and actual weight loss. Further:
To my mind, the term cheat meal indicates someone has been dieting hard and making significant weight-loss progress. You are doing neither.
One final note:
Um, no. Unless you’re 6’5" or taller, 6-8% @ 180# is a spray-tan short of being stage-ready for a Physique show. I’m 6’3" and 184# in my avi. Were you as lean and muscular as me?
I’m 6’ 1" and like I mentioned, I don’t compete so I’ve never had use for the calipers or a spray tan. But I was pretty darn close to as lean and since I’m a couple inches shorter probably a little bigger but from a pic it’s hard to tell anything.
As for the rest, I’m not sure exactly what you’re getting defensive about I just know what I do and what the combination of heart rate monitor and gym equipment tell me I’m buring and I always go with the low number. I would also argue that your theory about “burning the same amount of calories whether you run or walk” is bet…off. I can’t think of another person I’ve ever heard make such a claim. They MAY not be worlds apart but speed, incline, etc. impact heart rate which in turn increase what? Caloric burn, no?
But I’ll humor you with the specs…To kick off my morning gym cardio I do some elliptical to get my heart rate up quickly (7-10 min) and then transition to the treadmill where I will do 4.7 MPH at 15% incline for 25-30min. Then I go do my workout where I keep rest periods to 30-60sec for 30-45min. Then at the end I finish with another 10-15min round on the treadmill with same as above.
The real point to all of this is: before I had my issue with thyroid I was able to maintain my previous weight and composition by doing about half of what I am doing now so once I felt better I decided to up my effort to lose weight faster and get back to where I was faster…now I am curious if I still have a health/thyroid issue, if my thyroid just needs some more time to “spool up” post-T3 or if it is possible to do be in too much of a caloric deficit and your body actually slows down which is what is causing my stalemate. I just do not want to go down the wrong path and then end up putting a bunch of weight back on and then struggling all over again.
Pic is worth a thousand words. Feel free to throw one up.
I don’t think I’m the one being defensive here. You don’t want feedback, don’t ask for it.
Incline matters. (Note I never said anything to the contrary.) As for why speed doesn’t…If you run a mile in 5 minutes, you burn calories at a high rate–but only for 5 minutes. If you walk a mile in 15, you burn them at a lower rate–but for three times as long.
No need to humor me. Best of luck reaching your goals.
Believe the hype. There is probably a bigger increase in energy usage post training in running though but during, it is distance covered that is the factor - running will get the actvity done quicker obviously/hopefully.
Also those machines are about as accurate as a 3 year old taking a piss.
My 3 year old son lays waste to our bathroom on a daily basis. At first it seemed like an accuracy issue, but now he just wants to swing the stream back and forth for maximum effect, so yeah he’s pretty much just a dick.
Also, to the OP - all that cardio is having a negligible effect on your weight loss. Your diet, which fluctuates from 12,600 calories at the low end to 16800 at the high end (with no cheat meal, if you have a cheat meal with an extra 500 calories that’s 17300) is what’s causing your problems.
I have no idea what is happening in this thread… let me try another way…
If 1800 calories per day is my BASE to lose 2lbs per week PLUS I burn…let’s go lower end…an additional 800 calories every day that equals 2600 calories per day I can eat OR I could have one additional 5600 calories cheat meal and STILL lose 2lbs per week and it’s not happening. That’s the math and I know you are all fixated on the fluctuations I mentioned because I’m just up front that way - most of the time there will be variables in reality even with prepackaged food or definitely at restaurants so I it’s don’t like to say “it’s X” when I know full well it could be off a hundred or two…and that goes + and -
Anyway, I know I am running in a pretty severe deficit; it’s just a matter of if I’m “just” hitting that -1,000 a day that is supposed to mean you lose 2lbs a week or I could be as low as only netting 600 a day. I’m just trying to sort out if I need go back on thyroid medicine or if mine just needs time to build back up after meds or maybe I need to ease up on my workouts but it looks like no one has experienced something similar.
The problem seems to be that you believe your nutrition is a mathematical equation for you to solve. One that when you solve, your body will comply. Your body has absolutely no obligation to align to your beliefs of how things should work.
Your levers are to eat more, eat less and change the compositiom of your food.
I suggest you work out the combination of the above that allows you to reach your goals instead od trying to work out whu the maths dont work.
I think that setting up your caloric deficit based after your roughly estiamted body fat percentage is definitely the best way to go about it. Typically for a male between 10-15 % the optimal deficit for muscle retention, enjoyment and staying healthy is going to be somewhere around 0.8-1 lbs of weight lost per week.
Now I don’t know which range you are in… But definitely, try to set it up using body fat percentage.
I think the simple answer here is to experiment. Personally with the amount of work you’re doing i would be inclined to start at the 2400 and see if you’re losing on that basis. By all means then lower gradually if not but I would be surprised if you needed to go as low as 1800
