Not losing weight despite exercise

cottontailsandcupcakes

I know there's a lot of factors but despite being overweight and exercising 5 times a week and following slimming world I'm not losing weight.

I am going to the gym 3 times a weeks for 45 minutes doing cardio, followed by a 30 minute swim of continuous lengths. Also doing clubbercise once a week and a hula hoop class once a week.

I feel slimmer and healthier but it's wearing thin now that the scales aren't moving.

On some random days I have counted calories alongside my slimming world plan just to see and it is around 950 to 1100 gross then 450 - 700 net. Not sure whether I need to be addressing the exercise or food. A typical day for me is -

28th porridge oats

Banana, Apple and satsuma

2 ryvita with vegetable soup

Chicken veggies and bulgur wheat

Fat free yogurt

I've always had success with slimming world before.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

jacklifts

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/819055/setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets/p1

leahcollett1

seems like you could be eating more than your realizing - are you hungry on this?

cottontailsandcupcakes

leahcollett1 wrote: »

seems like you could be eating more than your realizing - are you hungry on this?

Yeah on times. Mainly mid afternoon.

stevencloser

How long have you not been losing? You're not going to lose the same amount all the time.

lynz4589

I gained weight on slimming world, despite exercising 5 times a week and running a 10k. The diet they follow just didn't agree with my body. Now I eat 1400 cals on average, high protein and watch my carb and sodium intake. Steadily losing 2lb a week (4.9lb last week cos Ive just introduced a new cycle routine!)

Expatmommy79

At between 450-700 calories net / day you should have lost about 1/2 a pound per day. (Btw totally NOT recommended).

You are probably eating more than you think, and burning less than you think.

What do the slimming world people say?

wheelsjad

inaccuracies in you food intake and your burn estimates are likely the case. Good luck getting everything heading in the right direction

SingingSingleTracker

cottontailsandcupcakes wrote: »

I am going to the gym 3 times a weeks for 45 minutes doing cardio, followed by a 30 minute swim of continuous lengths. Also doing clubbercise once a week and a hula hoop class once a week.

I've always had success with slimming world before.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

All your answers are HERE - and they are brutally honest answers.

cottontailsandcupcakes

Expatmommy79 wrote: »

At between 450-700 calories net / day you should have lost about 1/2 a pound per day. (Btw totally NOT recommended).

You are probably eating more than you think, and burning less than you think.

What do the slimming world people say?

I don't know how I can be eating more than I think because everything is measured and weighed etc. It's all counted. The calories burnt via exercise may be off because I haven't got a heart rate monitor so they won't be exact. I've lost inches but no significant weightloss.
I don't know. I'll plough on.

They give you some crap about muscle weighing more than fat and that crap. They are forgetting I'm not an athlete so that's a load of b****kitten*. Does ones metabolism change after having children?

brianpperkins

Toddlers require more than 500 calories. Adults do not maintain weight at such a low net intake. That indicates an error in your math.

eldamiano

Exercising 5 times a week and following slimming world doesnt equal weight loss. Calorie deficit = weight loss

cottontailsandcupcakes

eldamiano wrote: »

Exercising 5 times a week and following slimming world doesnt equal weight loss. Calorie deficit = weight loss

We'll if that's the case I'll stick to calorie counting for a while then with the exercise and see how I get on. If it's purely as simple as I'm crap at maths and slimming world is wrong.

Thankyou for the kind encouragement.

cbnewman

If you are not losing weight then you are eating too many calories. Drop your caloric intake by 100 cal a day and re-assess after two weeks. Also, you are doing a lot of cardio. Substitute some resistance training 2-3 times a week instead of all that cardio to boost your metabolism.

brianpperkins

cbnewman wrote: »

If you are not losing weight then you are eating too many calories. Drop your caloric intake by 100 cal a day and re-assess after two weeks. Also, you are doing a lot of cardio. Substitute some resistance training 2-3 times a week instead of all that cardio to boost your metabolism.

Without knowing what they are truly taking in it is reckless to advise cutting by some arbitrary amount. Since EPOC and the difference in caloric burn created by adding a pound of muscle are quite often overstated, the "boost your metabolism" claim doesn't hold up well.

BluenoserGal

Have you figured out your BMR and TDEE? ...."and I am going to the gym 3 times a weeks for 45 minutes doing cardio, followed by a 30 minute swim of continuous lengths. " This tells me you are an athlete to some degree.

It's taboo to mention it around here where it's always calories calories in vs out, but maybe you're not eating enough.

emistevenson

As others asked, how long have you not been losing? I have been steadily losing about a pound a week for the last 3 or 4 months - but if you would look at my once or twice weekly weigh-ins there were a lot of times it went up a pound or two, or times when it plateaued, but it all evened out in the end. Shoot, I weigh about 5 lbs more in the evening than I do in the morning. If a month goes by without any scale change I'd be concerned. Less than that, it may well just be a measurement issue and not a reality based issue.

If you're losing inches, there are only one of two things going on:
1) You are losing fat. This would cause slight weight loss, unless offset by muscle gains.
2) You are losing lean muscle mass. This would cause weight loss too, because even if it's replaced by fat the fat won't weigh as much to offset the loss.

I agree with the poster above who said to cut back on the cardio and incorporate some strength training. Replace two of your workouts each week with push-ups, squats while holding weights, lunges while holding weights, sit-ups, and planks. For push-ups, do them to failure. For sit-ups, do as many as you can in 60 seconds. For plank, hold for 60 seconds. For squats and lunges, select a weight where doing 15 reps is challenging by the last few reps. Do 3 or 4 exercises in sequence and then repeat the circuit once or twice more. At the end of each circuit try incorporating something like running lunges, squat jumps, step-ups, or anything else that involves moving your whole body with speed or force and a full range of motion. This will keep your heart rate up while you're doing the other exercises and increase the caloric burn you get from it. I typically burn 350 calories in a 40-minute weight-lifting session by incorporating those type of exercises in between the weights.

Every additional pound of muscle burns an additional 50 calories per day. Conversely, every pound of muscle you lose reduces the amount of calories you can eat without gaining weight by 50 calories per day.

SingingSingleTracker

cottontailsandcupcakes wrote: »

We'll if that's the case I'll stick to calorie counting for a while then with the exercise and see how I get on. If it's purely as simple as I'm crap at maths and slimming world is wrong.

Plug in your information here (weight, age, gender, height, activity level - best to leave it at sedentary so you can see the calculations to maintain your current weight, lose or gain 1 or 2 pounds per week.

http://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html

Then accurately measure - or as best as you can honestly muster - everything you put into your mouth. Most tend to underestimate what goes in, and overestimate what gets burned during exercise. That leads to the bad math of CICO and results in one not losing weight, or being stalled, etc.

10 Weeks to the day yesterday by targeting about 1 pound of weight loss per week, and using the calculations from that link above, my report chart has resulted in a 12.4 loss for the 10 weeks...

December2nd-February11

SwimmyD

I'm not completely sure how this slimming world thing works but I'm wondering if they have calculated the calories burned from swimming as a big factor for CICO. Swimming is a great way to get fit and burn calories, but it's overestimated in swimming calculators for the average person. There are way too many variables to make it accurate- technique being the biggest one (efficient vs not efficient swimmer), size of pool (25 m easier than 50m or open water because of frequent push offs), and speed.

SingingSingleTracker

SwimmyD wrote: »

I'm not completely sure how this slimming world thing works but I'm wondering if they have calculated the calories burned from swimming as a big factor for CICO. Swimming is a great way to get fit and burn calories, but it's overestimated in swimming calculators for the average person. There are way too many variables to make it accurate- technique being the biggest one (efficient vs not efficient swimmer), size of pool (25 m easier than 50m or open water because of frequent push offs), and speed.

For any exercise, to make sure CICO is working one may want to be careful not to eat back all of the calories that one estimates they have burned during exercise. Even if doing the best calculations, leaving a little room for error on both sides of the equation will clean up any inaccuracies.

cottontailsandcupcakes

Changed it up this evening did an hour of clubbercise class (high intensity aerobics ) followed by another 20 minutes cardio in the gym. Then spent some time doing weights. Then walked home for twenty minutes.

Intake has been good 1200 mark. Everything that went in was counted precisely. Should be netting at what I need to ensure weightloss surely.

cottontailsandcupcakes

SingingSingleTracker wrote: »

cottontailsandcupcakes wrote: »

We'll if that's the case I'll stick to calorie counting for a while then with the exercise and see how I get on. If it's purely as simple as I'm crap at maths and slimming world is wrong.

Plug in your information here (weight, age, gender, height, activity level - best to leave it at sedentary so you can see the calculations to maintain your current weight, lose or gain 1 or 2 pounds per week.

http://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html

Then accurately measure - or as best as you can honestly muster - everything you put into your mouth. Most tend to underestimate what goes in, and overestimate what gets burned during exercise. That leads to the bad math of CICO and results in one not losing weight, or being stalled, etc.

10 Weeks to the day yesterday by targeting about 1 pound of weight loss per week, and using the calculations from that link above, my report chart has resulted in a 12.4 loss for the 10 weeks...

December2nd-February11

Entered l the details and it's 1405 for 1lb a week weightloss and 905 for 2lb a week. 1905 to maintain.

Will continue with my current exercise plan but change it up a bit and do some strength based as well as the cardio.

SingingSingleTracker

cottontailsandcupcakes wrote: »

SingingSingleTracker wrote: »

cottontailsandcupcakes wrote: »

We'll if that's the case I'll stick to calorie counting for a while then with the exercise and see how I get on. If it's purely as simple as I'm crap at maths and slimming world is wrong.

Plug in your information here (weight, age, gender, height, activity level - best to leave it at sedentary so you can see the calculations to maintain your current weight, lose or gain 1 or 2 pounds per week.

http://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html

Then accurately measure - or as best as you can honestly muster - everything you put into your mouth. Most tend to underestimate what goes in, and overestimate what gets burned during exercise. That leads to the bad math of CICO and results in one not losing weight, or being stalled, etc.

10 Weeks to the day yesterday by targeting about 1 pound of weight loss per week, and using the calculations from that link above, my report chart has resulted in a 12.4 loss for the 10 weeks...

December2nd-February11

Entered l the details and it's 1405 for 1lb a week weightloss and 905 for 2lb a week. 1905 to maintain.

Will continue with my current exercise plan but change it up a bit and do some strength based as well as the cardio.

That sounds about right, 1405 calories to get a 1 pound weight loss per week. Mine is currently 1670 calories per day to lose 1 pound (that's for my age, gender, and height). And it has been working very well. When playing both sides of the equation for CI/CO - the more exercise you do, then your daily amount of calories you are allowed to eat rises. I do love to eat, so I take advantage of that when I can. However, one must remain diligent and not eat back all of the exercise calories. That way you will stay on track with the weight loss. Mainly because we tend to overestimate what we burn, and underestimate what we eat. So having a cushion of 100 - 500 calories deficit usually makes up for any and all estimation mistakes. If not, well adjust until things are going in the right direction.

All the best!

vfit10

This is could be one of 2 things you either under eating or over eating.

cottontailsandcupcakes

Well I've been tracking alongside following slimming world principles and it's working. I lost 4lb this week. Have been going easy on the carbs though, seems as though too many potatoes may have been making me bloated too. Making better choices food wise too.

Carrying on with my clubbercise (high intensity aerobics) and hula hoop but have also added in an hours spin class. Then just the gym and swim once or twice more but doing some weight based stuff.

Much better

SingingSingleTracker

cottontailsandcupcakes wrote: »

Well I've been tracking alongside following slimming world principles and it's working. I lost 4lb this week. Have been going easy on the carbs though, seems as though too many potatoes may have been making me bloated too. Making better choices food wise too.

Carrying on with my clubbercise (high intensity aerobics) and hula hoop but have also added in an hours spin class. Then just the gym and swim once or twice more but doing some weight based stuff.

Much better

There you go. Congrats on getting the loss going again....!

MKEgal

MKEgal

vfit10 wrote:

This is could be one of 2 things you either under eating or over eating.

Um, no.
Not losing weight means she's either eating at maintenance or above.
Gaining weight means she's eating more than her body needs.

.

They give you some crap about muscle weighing more than fat and that crap.
They are forgetting I'm not an athlete so that's a load of b********.
Does ones metabolism change after having children?

Yes, your body has big changes during / after being pregnant. Check with your PCP.

As for the muscle / fat nonsense...
Yes, it is nonsense, but not because you're not an athlete.

1 pound muscle = 1 pound fat = 1 pound feathers = 1 pound lead = 1 pound plutonium
1 pound = 1 pound

The VOLUME occupied by each of those is different.
feathers > fat > muscle > lead > plutonium

positivepowers

cottontailsandcupcakes wrote: »

Expatmommy79 wrote: »

They give you some crap about muscle weighing more than fat and that crap. They are forgetting I'm not an athlete so that's a load of b****kitten*. Does ones metabolism change after having children?

You don't have to be an athlete and it's not c**p. Muscles are denser than fat. Have you measured yourself? You might be doing better than you realize.

AnvilHead

emistevenson wrote: »

...Every additional pound of muscle burns an additional 50 calories per day. Conversely, every pound of muscle you lose reduces the amount of calories you can eat without gaining weight by 50 calories per day.

Not sure where you got that figure, but it's way off the mark. A pound of muscle burns about 6 calories per day, a pound of fat burns about 2 calories per day, so it's only a 4 calorie difference per day between them.