I just don't understand

I finally joined a gym last night and I'm going to go for the first time tonight after work. I'm really excited about it, and hope that in the last 8 months or so, I've learned enough about forming new habits to make exercise a permanent part of my life. Apparently just having the membership doesn't give you the benefits of actually GOING. Sheesh. What I do NOT understand is if I exercise to burn calories and lose more weight, then why do I have to increase my calories? Doesn't that just cancel out burning them off? Why bother? While I realize that exercising has more benefits than helping the weight come off, I just can't wrap my head around this concept. Can anyone clarify? Thank you!!!! Jasmina 275/184/150

Losing weight is not quite as simple as cut-calories = lose-weight. In theory yes, but if you cut back too low...you body slows down to a crawl due to fear of starving and it will hold onto every calorie that you eat. Your body needs fuel to be efficient. Finding the right balance of calories and activity is difficult, challenging, confusing, frustrating, etc. If you take in 1000 cals a day and exercise and burn 200-300 calories that is only 700-800 cals for your body to survive on and that may or may not be enough. Depends on how your individual body works. A plus is that as you exercise...you are building more muscle and the more muscle you have the faster you burn fat. (Men have more muscle mass that is why their metabolisms work faster than ours.) Muscle does not weigh more than fat. 1 lb of muscle is the same as 1 lb of fat when it comes to WEIGHT. A pound is a pound. But when it comes to volume or the space it occupies...muscle because it is dense takes up less space. A pound of beef is going to take up alot less space then a pound of popped popcorn. Often when folks start to exercise, the scale doesn't seem to move much as your body adjusts to it. I remember years back when I started running. I did so a few times a week and the scale really didn't budge for weeks. But I did lose inches which in my book was a-okay. What I would/do suggest to people is that if you start exercising and are going to be to adding more muscle tissue (for us post-ops I guarantee that in the process of losing weight so fast that we have lost muscle tissue) that you add extra protein to help build/heal your muscles. Muscles get sore and then rebuild. Protein really helps with this. Did any of that help? Kathy

Great information, Kathy. That helped me a lot.

Hey Kathy, Yes, that did help to clear some things up for me. I especially like the analogy of the difference in space occupied by a pound of beef vs. a pound of popcorn. Nice visual.. So how will I know how many calories my body NEEDS to function? How do I know that the scale not moving is due to an increase in muscle tissue versus my body slipping into starvation mode? Do I need to just play with this? I know I'll stop losing or slow down for the first little bit while exercising.. I'm trying to prepare my brain for that. But if there's something I can do ahead of time (other than increasing my protein intake) I'd like to have my bases covered. Maybe this is why I should have started exercising earlier than 8 months out.. lol. Jas

Hey, Jas! What I would say is that it will probably take each of us quite a while to build a pound worth of muscle tissue. If you work out and see the scale go up a pound or two, I would assume that your muscle tissue is "challenged" by the working out and is holding onto some water. I would assume that building muscle takes time. There is some metabolic testing that you can do that would truly let you know how many calories you burn in a day. I believe it involves putting on what looks like an oxygen mask and then measurements are taken and then they have you exert yourself and more measurements are made. I don't know what this is called but I've heard it described. There is a trainer that teaches an exercise class to our post-ops from our hospital (if you sign up for the class) and I know that he has the equipment at the place he works to do this testing. I want Rich and I to both go see him later down the road after we've been working out consistently for a while to see what our metabolic rates are and any advise he can give us. I think alot of what we have to do on our own is trial and error. We do know that 500 calories probably aren't enough in a day for the body. We do know that several thousand calories are just too much. I would sort of assume that most of us could take in 1000-1200 cals a day and still lose weight even without doing heavy exercising. I sort of go by the rule that if I workout hard on a given day that I try to take in an extra 100-200 calories and preferrably from a protein shake. Part of this comes from what weightlifters do. How do they build muscle? They intake alot of protein whether egg whites, whey protein or other supplements. Obvioulsy I'm not looking to "bulk" up so I'm doing my part on a much smaller level. I just try to keep it simple. I know that on several WLS nutritional/protein-focused lists many folks do NOT count the calories that they take in from protein shakes. They count food calories. And these are folks that do 4-6 shakes a day. Some are very long term post-ops. I find it quite interesting. Not sure what my take on that is but right now I do 100 grams a day from protein supplements alone. This is my choice. My surgeon recommends protein shakes for life. I think he suggests 60 grams a day. But so many surgeons don't even recommend protein shakes at all! Lots of different approaches out there. All I know is that I'm within 3 pounds of being the lowest weight I ever was as an adult. I think I look good at this weight. Weight is still coming over but very, very slowly which is just fine with me. I want to get my body fat down and tone up...that's my focus now no matter which way the scale goes. I'm happy! Kathy

I'm kind of like you. How do ya know how many calories to consume to still lose weight while you are exercising? I've just been doing it by trial and error. I've been trying very hard to stick to eating only healthy food that's approved for me at this stage, so it's hard to consume any more food.

For me when I am working out my body just lets me know it needs more food. Normally I am just not hungry and eat by the clock.. But when I am working out on a regular basis, I find that I get ravenously hungry. But dont worry about that. Your body isnt going to allow you to eat more than you need. Just trust yourself and your body and go with the flow. And just remember your body keeps burning extra calories long after you leave the gym as an added bonus. I had my sugery on May 5, 2005 and started out at 310 pounds at 5"2... I am now at 152 and have a goal weight of 120 to be at at my one year anniversary. I still cant believe this dream that I am living.. The best of luck at the gym and just remember you wont see results right away.. But it all pays off in the end.. !! Hugs from Ohio Laura