Frustrated...

zaputilr

I'm sure there have been plenty of posts on these, but I am frustrated! I have been at the same weight for three weeks, despite exercising 6 days out of the week and that includes arm lifting and cardio --walking and stationary bike--to point of exhaustion. I also am eating low carb and eating on average 1300 cal a day. I find it silly that despite it all I cannot lose. I have lost an inch or two around the waist since I started a month ago but not enough to notice much of a difference. It makes me really lose motivation to see the scale at the same 166 three weeks in a row despite all my effort.

I don't mean to go on, but any advice? Do I need to change my workouts, workout less, not eat back the calories I have burned working out? I have no idea where to go from here, and want to be in better shape by the time bikini season comes around here!

TavistockToad

do you weigh everything you eat with scales?

Silentpadna

Congratulations on the loss of an inch or two in the waist. That is NOT insignificant. It's a clue that your scale could be masking true fat loss. What are your stats? Age, height, (you've given us your current weight). There are many possible reasons for seeing little to no movement on the scale over 3 weeks. It's not a lot of time. Retaining water is usually a big culprit if you are measuring/weighing foods properly and not overestimating what you burn.

Blitzia

There are a couple of problems I see:

First, exercising to the point of exhaustion to meet a weight loss goal is a bad plan. Technically, you don't have to exercise any in order to lose weight. Exercise should be about your overall health (or for some of us, it's an excuse to eat a few more calories) but it doesn't sound healthy if you're doing it to the point of exhaustion.

Second, if you're losing inches on the waist, that's progress no matter what the scale says. At your weight, I wouldn't expect to lose more than 1 lb per week. So assuming you have been losing 1 pound of fat per week, that's 3 total pounds lost. 3 pounds can easily be obscured by water weight, food retention, etc. You just have to give it more time.

Third, I would say that yes you probably need to exercise less if you are exercising to the point of exhaustion. That comment is a sign that you are either exercising too much or not eating enough. A better plan might be to up your calorie goal a bit (what is your height? 1300 is pretty low unless you are petite), find workouts you can do without exhaustion and don't eat the exercise calories back. I make this suggestion because it's possible that you are underfueling yourself by undereating, then exercising to the point of starvation/exhaustion, then binging to refuel after exercise. To break this cycle, I'd make sure you eat enough generally, then determine a good amount of exercise, then consider how many exercise calories to eat back in order to maintain your deficit.