Jogging but ended up gaining weight... :(

[jellybeans]

I have been jogging about 3.5 km almost everyday for about two weeks now.... and I gained 2 kg of weight....

I really do want to loose weight.... Can somebody explain to me why this happens?

[SteveH]

Losing weight is not about how much exercise you do - it's all about calories. If you eat more calories than you burn, you put on weight; if you eat less calories than you burn, then you lose weight.

You have a fitbit so you can track the calories you burn quite accurately. Now you need to track the calories you eat. The best way is to log your food and drink into fitbit (or one of the compatible apps) and set up a weight plan. This way fitbit can keep track of everything and let you know how many more calories you can eat today and still meet your target.

As a guide, if you eat 500 calories less than you burn each day you will lose a pound in a week.

There are of course many other factors involved and it's best to look at the medium term averages rather than day-to-day numbers. 

[Dominique]

3.5 km is a relatively short distance. Today I jogged 2 x 8.2 km and I "only" burned less than 1000 calories:

If I had jogged 3.5 km, I would have burned about 215 calories. It's very easy to eat that amount of calories. As @SteveH said, you need to have a calorie deficit in order to lose weight.

[jellybeans]

I'm going to try 5 km route tomorrow. And watch out for calories intake. Anything else I should know? I'm new to jogging and all. Any tips you can give me?

[captzoom · Accepted solution]

JellyBeans-

Glad to hear that you are jogging. My advice to you (I have have coached distance runners for over 30 yrs - yea I'm old). Don't worry so much about distance and more about the total time that you are out exercising. Maybe instead of jogging 3.5 km straight why not make it a jog/walk and focus on keeping your heart rate in the 150-160bpm training zone and focus on 45-60 min easy? That will make running more enjoyable and something that you can sustain over time.

Focus on that and, as others have pointed out, the number of calories that you intake. It really is a numbers game. Just find a reasonable daily calorie intake and then adjust your training accordingly to create a small calorie deficit each day.  Be patient, as a long term approach is the best soultion.

GL w/ things! Feel free to add me as a friend... enjoy the time your exercising. HAGD 

PS - Can you download the MapMyRun app to your phone. It's great to help track as is the Fitbit app

[JenniferMarie]

That doesn't seem like many calories for such a long jog. I burn 380 calories doing 20 minutes of cycling. But hard to know how accurate it is. But I do have it on almost the highest level of resistance.. and heart rate is like 160 the whole time so maybe it's accurate

[captzoom]

Jennifer - You don't burn many calories from jogging. My goal that has worked has been to burn X amount of calories per day (4K for me) and focus on eating less. As many have pointed out, it is smply a calories in vs calories out thing. I can burn 4K calories a day if I run/walk at least once per day for 90 min (cuz I get a lot of activity (steps) from my daily job.

Setting a "burn calories" goal has eliminated my need of tracking what I eat (and worrying about what I eat also). I try to just eat healthy, smart, and only when I need energy (as opposed to cuz I'm hungry or have some free time time, not doing anything, etc) So far so good as I weight less than I have in 5 yrs.

GL w/ things. 

[SunsetRunner]

There are also other factors into play regarding staying on same weight or weight increase. Most importantly to check if body fat is going lower rather than total weight itself which includes (muscles, organs, blood, body fat..).

Body fat can lower, however when exercising more and loosing body fat while meanwhile gaining lean mass from muscles getting stronger, since muscles are denser than body fat, the weight on the scale can stay the same or even can go higher.

In addition, measuring your waist (weekly) after going to the bathroom and before breakfast, will also give a indication of seeing results: Even when weight stays the same, but when body fat lowers and gaining muscle, the tummy should get slimmer.

Other factors regarding a sudden 'weight increase':

• Water upkeep (eaten to much sodium);
• Exercised more the previous day and eaten more?;
• Not having been to the bathroom yet before weighing?;
• Hydration, especially on warm nights (summer), our body is dehydrated in the morning, result is that the water balance is off, resulting in a higher fat percentage being shown and can have influence on the weight displayed, drink a glass off water first, after being to the bathroom (before breakfast) weigh again to have a more accurate weight / body fat measurement;
• Not getting enough sleep can upset our hormones, try when possible go to sleep at around the same hour (when feeling sleepy) and waking up / weigh in at about the same time. Wait about 15 minutes in morning before weighing so the body fluids stabilize;
• After exercising, body fat is thrown off (lot lower) when stepping on the scale, wait 15 minutes after exercising when wanting to weigh;
• Make sure to keep the scale clean from debris, dust,.. and your feet being clean as well. When your precious feet developed callus 'specially on the feet surface (from exercising,..), this can lead to a inaccurate reading than usual (special callus removers available at the pharmacy);

[josephz2va]

For diets, it depends on your calorie intake and the quality of the food.

Bad quality - Donuts, apple fritters, sugary snacks, heavy saturated fats like Steaks and Burgers, oriental foods depending on how they're cooked (fried wontons for example have loads of sat fats).

Good quality - Controlled nutritional labels with low numbers. Green Veggies. Restaurants / Fast Foods with the green icon. Low calories, low sat fats, but high in protein such as Turkey Bacon Sandwiches. Or if you just happen to swing by a restaurant with "WW Points" to eat the lowest number possible.

How you're burning calories is another. Jogging 3.5km depends on if you're reaching your target BPM for a long interval run of up to 99 minutes. If you have a heart rate monitor, focus on Zone 2 (fitness improving) or Zone 3 (maximal performance improving) depending on your current strength.

[Dominique]

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@captzoom wrote:

I can burn 4K calories a day if I run/walk at least once per day for 90 min (cuz I get a lot of activity (steps) from my daily job. 

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You must be a big/athletic guy if you can burn that much with just 1.5 hours of running/walking on top of your daily job. I just had a look at my complete Fitbit stats since Apr. 1st, 2013, and I only burned more than 4k calories on 7 days (out of 642 days). On these days, I had between 36 and 54k steps, and between 230 and 320 very active minutes (and that's witha Fitbit One, which makes it the hardest to get them).

[Dominique]

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@captzoom wrote:

You don't burn many calories from jogging.

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Really? What kind of activity can you sustain for one hour that would burn more than jogging?

[Dominique]

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@josephz2va wrote:

How you're burning calories is another. Jogging 3.5km depends on if you're reaching your target BPM for a long interval run of up to 99 minutes. If you have a heart rate monitor, focus on Zone 2 (fitness improving) or Zone 3 (maximal performance improving) depending on your current strength.

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In steady-state cardio (which jogging typically is), the length of the interval doesn't really affect the rate at which you burn calories. Jog for 15 minutes and you will burn X calories. Jog for 30 minutes and (all things being equal, eg. speed, HR) you will burn twice than amount. Jog for one hour and you will burn four times more. Oh, and don't tell me about the "afterburn effect"!

For any given level of fitness, the faster you run, the more you'll burn. As to heart rate zones you find yourself in, they affect the ratio of what is used as fuel.

[captzoom]

Actually I teach PE all day and then coach so I am active all day so that helps a lot.

[captzoom]

Big differences for calorie burn between jogging and running. You can throw in a 60 sec jog or walk recovery while you're running and you're heart rate could remain in the target heart rate zone during your entire recovery. That makes a big difference. Just running w/ walking breaks alone would make a big difference between jogging and walking (intensity wise). The toal distance covered in 60-90 min of running  ivs jogging is dignificantly different as well. So it really comes down what mile pace you define as running or walking.

I live in a really hilly section of town which also actually helps w/ the difficulty level of running (or jogging) but my FLEX doesn't take hills or altitude change into account. 

[JamesF]

All the other replies are correct about calories in and out etc. One other thing to consider, are you building muscle? Muscle weighs a lot more than fat, so you will actually slim down but gain weight if you are putting on significant muscle, but this is a very good thing.