No progress

Rabblehey

I've been off and on the fitness wagon for over a year. I lose a couple pounds, I gain a couple pounds, lose a couple, gain a couple. I've been counting calories again the last few weeks and exercising about 30 minutes a day. I lost a couple of pounds earlier in the week. But today I've gained two pounds and yesterday I was up two pounds. It's really disheartening and it just makes me feel like weight loss isn't possible for me. Let me mention the added frustration from watching my fiance feast on cake every day of the last week and yet hardly an ounce of fat on him.

I know the trick is to not get depressed and drown my sorrows in cheese, but I have yet to see a win in my fitness path and feel constantly discouraged.

Lizzy622

Pick a day of the week and weigh yourself only once a week at the same time of day. We go through cycles being more or less hydrated so weighing daily isn't a good indicator. You can do it.

Confuzzled4ever

I totally get it. I just did a huge 10 pound yoyo. Aggravating. Try different foods, different meals times/ quantities. Change up your exercise and/or add in an after meal walk each day. Everyone is different. for me eating less carbs, higher protein and keeping my workout at a moderate level works great. If I push myself too much at the gym I end up over eating. Even if it's healthy foods, i eat too much. The trick is to find the balance that works and stick with it. The only way to do that is trial and error. Should also measure yourself. You could be losing inches, which is really better the losing weight. Women should not compare ourselves to men. They have different everything. My son has only gone to the gym a handful of times versus my years of going and he is skinny and he is gaining muscle faster and losing inches faster. It's frustrating.

rngypsy

Just as frustrated. I have logged my food for 3 weeks and really stuck to it. I am being diligent making good choices and exercising. I just lowered my activity level to sedentary so my daily calories will decrease although I am a nurse working 13 hour days. Will see. I know my body has a secret combination of what it wants to drop the weight and I am determined to find it.

Confuzzled4ever

Also if you don't weigh your food start. An ounce is not what most people think it is. When I started I was eating way different amounts then I thought i was. don't use generic measurement like cup or tablespoon whenever possible use grams or ounces. the amount you are actually eating can vary wildly.

My_Butt

I was exactly the same way. 4 weeks ago I lost about 4lbs, but then I gained 8lbs. Yet, my stomach is flatter, my endurance is up, and my muscles are growing. I'm doing over 2 hours of high impact, intense training everyday, do I'm actually losing fat WHILE gaining muscle. And as we all know, muscle weighs more than fat. So I am ignoring my scale, counting my calories, logging my workouts, and measuring my waist with a tape measure.

SueInAz

Big jumps in weight are always water. You aren't going to gain a pound or more in fat in a day unless you seriously ate more than 3500 calories over your maintenance the day before.

Take a deep breath and think about this as a reset. What you've been doing hasn't been working so it's time to try something new, right?

Start out by simply logging everything you eat. Every single thing. It's important to understand how much you were really eating before you started because it helps to establish the relationship between amounts of food and why you were gaining before. It also makes it easier to see where you can make simple changes that have a big impact.

If you don't have a kitchen scale, buy one. You can find a good one for $20-30. You'd be surprised how off some of our portion size estimates can be off. Weigh everything that can be weighed. I weigh peanut butter and salad dressing because the serving size is also listed in grams. The tare function on the scale is awesome! So, weigh what you can and measure liquids that can't be weighed. Be as accurate as you can.

Don't underestimate calories eaten or overestimate calories burned in exercise. You're only cheating yourself, here.

Start strength training as soon as possible. In my opinion it's more important than doing cardio. It is easier to maintain the muscle you already have than to build new muscle. When we lose weight it is a combination of water, fat and muscle. Strength training will help more of that loss to be fat.

The measuring tape is a better tool than the bathroom scale for judging your progress. In addition to "Before" pictures, measure your chest, waist, hips, thighs and any other body part you want to track and start recording them in MFP now. When the scale isn't moving your body might still be shrinking especially if you're lifting weights.