You Probably AREN'T Burrning a Pound Per Week In the Gym!!!

OK, I had a bit of a sobering thought as I was sweating my ass off for the 5th time this week since Monday Morning! Most people are probably not burning even a pound a week in the gym! How is that possible? Well I finished up my Orange Theory workout today at 604 calories. I do that 4 times a week and its a great workout. I average between 400 and 700 calories so if you say I am burning 550 calories per visit and that is 4 times per week that is 2200 calories per week burned at Orange Theory. It takes about 3500 calories to burn a pound. Now I happen to workout more than this plus I run a couple of times per week and I get a few walks in that are worth noting, so I probably just get to about a pound per week working out. 

This is why the calorie deficit from food is so important. To make matters worse, the tools we use like MFP and WebMD set our resting metabolic rate quite a bit higher than it really is. WebMD estimates mine based on Age, Current Weight, Activity Level and Height at around 2500, but my body composition scale tells me that is more like 1930 calories per day. For women it is quite a bit lower than for men, so the calorie deficit is even more important. 

To make things even worse than that, the more weight you lose and the better shape you get into, the lower your resting metabolic rate goes. This really sucks because you need to work even harder than ever the closer to goal you get.

To make things even worser (artistic license, and lets be honest, its kinda funny), the machines at the gym estimate your calories burned way higher than reality. If you really want to know what you burn, get a heart rate monitor and a good app that takes your current weight and height into account. The less estimating the better.

So why do we lose so much faster early out than when we are closer to goal? You have some insight here. Plus early out the tricks like ketosis and low carb help to play with your metabolism. Ketosis for example when you are burning fat, you actually burn a 1/2 calorie extra (or really it just gets thrown away) for every calorie of fat that is used for fuel. This is why ketosis is a good thing. You get a significant efficiency in burning fat from your bodies inefficient mechanism for burning fat.

I thought about doing the actual math to see about how much I really can expect to lose per week but since I just finished my workout my brain just isn't in the right state for complicated math. But hopefully you will see why this ISN'T and easy process even with VSG. 

So next time you ask, why did I only burn 5 lbs this week, do a little jig and be happy because in the last 4 weeks (and that is 10 documented workouts PER week (400-700+ calories per workout and some days in the 1300-1400 range) for those 4 weeks, I have only burned about 3 lbs, and I have been pretty good on the food and water front lately. 

Thank you for posting this. I was just doing my calculations last night. I am eating a 1200 cal diet, two power walk sessions a day and a kettlebell session. Trying to figure out my calorie deficit. It took a few weeks to actually start losing weight but now I don't want to stop. The sooner I lose up to 10%, the sooner I join you VSGers.

Here is the basic formula:

Calories Eaten - Resting Metabolic Rate - Calories Burned Exercising = Net Calories (if this is positive, you are gaining, if it is negative, you are losing)

So if you are eating 1200 calories and burning 500 calories exercising and your resting metabolic rate is say 2300, it would look something like this:

1200 - 2300 - 500 = -1600

So you are burning 1600 calories a day more than you are consuming so you would lose about a pound every 2 days or so.

 

There is no question that the war is won or lost in the kitchen, not in the gym.  Exercise is important for a lot of reasons, but it can't compensate for overeating!

I would say the war is won in your head. You have to commit, you have to be honest, you have to educate, etc. Most of this stuff happens in our heads. The battlefields are in the kitchen and in the gym.

Right on Keith... also add the fact that many of us have damaged metabolisms... that under-burn in a resting state. We're "efficient" and don't burn as many calories at rest.  Also your observation about having to work harder near goal is correct as well - a reality most of us see near the goal point.

I don't really know where the gym machines get their numbers - some algorithm I guess.  You can look up caloric burn on the internet and for the same activity get 200 answers on how many calories per hour you burn.  

ALso there's some skepticism (ok a lot of skepticism) on the whole 3500 cals to burn a pound of fat as well.  It's a handy calculation, but actually can be quite variable - again, another reason why it can get harder to burn those last pounds of fat....

Just keep working - it'll come off.  It's hard to get the math to work out just right because there are so many variables - the more you work out, the more efficient you get. The less body fat you have, the more your body resists letting it go... The more you let a few carbs in the faster you fall out of ketosis... and on and on.  Believe me, I did the math... and the workouts... it's never that simple.  But the good part is that sometimes you're replacing fat with muscle, as you know.  So looking only at the scale can be deceiving if not disheartening.  We need to be tracking that Body Fat as well for the whole picture.

BUT, it all works out just fine over time when you do the right things... it just takes time. 

It's true! Food is more important. They say for everyone: "Weight loss is 80% in the kitchen, and 20% in the gym."

MFP...and Map my walk= 350 cal ea walk session. Total 700 + kettle bells about 200. 900 total cal burned per day with intentional exercise.

But that is my point, both of those apps use a calculation based on some average or something, we unfortunately are not average. We have slower than normal metabolisms and insulin resistance. We have problems. A 1 hour walk is probably yielding you closer to 200 or 250 calories depending on your current weight and the closer to goal you get the lower that number will be. If you really want to know how many calories you burn, get a heart rate monitor and it will be more accurate. Just don't be discouraged when you see the real number. When I first started out the treadmill would tell me 1 hour equalled close to 600 calories walking, in reality that is more like 290.

OK, so I was forced to do the math, so here it goes:

I average about 1400 calories per day right now. I also average about 850 calories per day of exercise and my current resting metabolic rate is like 1940, so here comes the sad news:

1400 - 1940 - 850 = -1390, so at this rate and if everything was going per science, which we know it never does I should lose a pound about ever 2 and half days or about 2 and half pounds per week, which I am actually not too far off from.