confused about calories

[Chl0e]

Happy Halloween, hope everyone is enjoying their day!
I have been tracking my food intake with fitday for about 4 weeks now. I seem to eat anywhere between 1400 and 1900 calories. I wear a heart rate monitor when I do carido, stay "in the zone" btwn 50 and 60 min and average a caloric burn of 400 calories a wkout. I do cardio 5x a week, sometimes 6, and weight train 2 days a week with PS. (The weight work seems to be working better than when I was doing PH and MIS) Anyway, I am confused because I am definately not losing weight, even feel a little thicker at times, even though on the fitday report I always burn more than I consume (?) I am 5'2'' and although I don't weigh myself I estimate about 120 though I could be wrong. Last summer I was 114 and very comfortable in my skin. (I don't focus on the numbers, just what I feel like and how my clothes fit.) So my question is what am I doing wrong? I have learned that "logic" and "theories" aren't always right for everyone..ie I bulked up doing PH and MIS 3x a week and bulked from the Tank Top rotation (boyh endurance which I thought should cut me) , but have much better results with PS. So I don't even know where to begin or what to believe when it comes to caloric intake. Anyone have advice or experience with this?
Thanks for your input. Always appreciated.
Chloe

 

[caricampbellcool]

What type of cardio are you doing? Is it always the same type, for the same duration and same intensity? Maybe you need to cross-train. Or take out some of the longer cardio workouts and put in 30 minute, highly intense workouts in their place.
Also, it is possible the fitday overestimates the amount of calories you burn per day. I have my setting at "sedentary", just to be safe. It sounds like you may have hit a plateau, of course I can't be sure! Also, are you doing both PS upper body tapes back to back? Maybe you could split them into three days for a change. It is all about keeping the body guessing!
Cari

 

[ColleenM]

I'd take a look at what you are eating, not just how much you are eating. Personally I don't buy into it is only calories in vs. calories out. I do think that is part of the equation, but not the whole equation. Maybe shorten your cardio, but increse your intensity. I recently switched to BFL and changed what I ate, but not how much I ate. And lost more than 1" in my waist and 1 1/2" in my hips and about 3-4% bodyfat. I know BFL might not be for everybody, but do some research on the various weight and diet programs and maybe give one a shot. See if it helps shake things up for you.

Colleen

 

[Chl0e]

Thank you both for answering. In response to your questions. I eat very clean. My biggest indulgence is frozen yogurt and I don't have that everyday. I usually have cereal and fruit or an egg white omelette or rice cakes and cottage cheese or a luna bar for breakfast; salad with grilled chicken little or no lowfat dressing and a breadstick for lunch, then an early evening snack such as rice cake with cottage cheese or peanut butter and sugar free jelly or luna bar or the equivalent, and dinner is some combination of protein and vegetables and sometimes a starchy food. I may have a small snack sometime between dinner and bed. I dont drink soft drinks and for the most part dont stray from this unless I am at a party or out to eat and even then I always eat the best option. As for my cardio, I do all different things: step, hi/lo, kickboxing (either a class at the gym or Powerstrike and kickbox from CTX,) running, stairmaster, elliptical, always do an interval workout once per week (either Cathes treadmill interval wkout or interval max,) plus circuit max once a week, which I lengthen by adding power circuits from CTX. I split up PS CST and PS BBA and only do the floor section of PS SLA after experimenting with it. See why I am frustrated? I know the most important thing is my health and accepting the body I have, but I'm sure you can relate. When you work hard you want results! I tried BFL but just didn't click with it. Maybe another time.

 

[Chl0e]

Thank you both for answering. In response to your questions. I eat very clean. My biggest indulgence is frozen yogurt and I don't have that everyday. I usually have cereal and fruit or an egg white omelette or rice cakes and cottage cheese or a luna bar for breakfast; salad with grilled chicken little or no lowfat dressing and a breadstick for lunch, then an early evening snack such as rice cake with cottage cheese or peanut butter and sugar free jelly or luna bar or the equivalent, and dinner is some combination of protein and vegetables and sometimes a starchy food. I may have a small snack sometime between dinner and bed. I dont drink soft drinks and for the most part dont stray from this unless I am at a party or out to eat and even then I always eat the best option. As for my cardio, I do all different things: step, hi/lo, kickboxing (either a class at the gym or Powerstrike and kickbox from CTX,) running, stairmaster, elliptical, always do an interval workout once per week (either Cathes treadmill interval wkout or interval max,) plus circuit max once a week, which I lengthen by adding power circuits from CTX. I split up PS CST and PS BBA and only do the floor section of PS SLA after experimenting with it. See why I am frustrated? I know the most important thing is my health and accepting the body I have, but I'm sure you can relate. When you work hard you want results! I tried BFL but just didn't click with it. Maybe another time.