Just committed to lifting

nlwrfa

Hey there! So I don't need to gain weight... in fact I need to lose over 100 pounds... but I just committed to a personal trainer 3x a week for 2 months and I'm really excited. Thinking about throwing that scale out now and just getting me a measuring tape. Any advice to beat the frustration I'm sure I'll face when it comes to weight not moving on the scale?

JeromeBarry1

Use the food diary of this site to record everything you eat. If you actually lift as your PT instructs, you should slowly be able to add some muscle, but it's a slow process. Lifting, in fact, is not aerobic exercise. It is anaerobic. That means you don't earn the right to eat a muffin just because you spent an hour making your muscles sore.
You'll have to figure out what your lean body mass is, so get and use the tape measure to calculate your body fat and lean body mass. The number of your lean body mass is the number of grams of protein you need to eat each day. Do that. Tell myfitnesspal that you want to lose 1/2 lb per week. myfitnesspal will give you a daily calorie total to eat. Eat all of it, but not more. Hit that number of calories every day, lift 3x weekly with your PT, love the results.

bethany_rose8

Look in the mirror also, as pig as you can see visual results and are not consistently gaining lots of weight, you are making progress, it's typical for weight to fluctuate, if you weigh in once a month you are likely to see loss if you keep to your calorie goal most of the time and are consistent with your trainer

bethany_rose8

Long* not pig lol

not_a_runner

With 100 lbs to lose you should continue to see scale progress despite lifting.
It can be frustrating at times (it's normal to have ups and downs though) and you may see some initial water retention from starting a new activity, but there's no reason your weight shouldn't continue to trend down over time.

I'm currently about 40 lbs down, around 40 to go. I find the scale to be helpful in seeing when it might be time to adjust my calorie intake. If it's been a few weeks with no scale loss, it might be time to reduce calories.
I'm not saying this to discourage doing measurements- both are good. Progress pictures are good as well. I just don't see any reason to totally throw the scale out, as it can be a useful tool.

(^And with 100 lbs to lose you can set your deficit higher than a 1/2 lb per week. 1-2 lbs is a fine rate. Some even say 1% of body weight per week is fine.)

Rusty740

Instead of ditching your scale because you don't have the confidence to believe it will work. USE the scale to confirm that what you're doing IS working.

I can attest to the fact that I did not believe in myself until I saw at least 10 lbs come off. It was then that I knew I was on the right path and from then on nothing could stop me. Now I'm gonna get me a six-pack. You need this confidence and the single best quickest way is that scale you hate.

Weigh yourself daily first thing in the morning. You need to understand how your weight fluctuates normally over the course of a week so that you can see your results and also be ok when your weight goes up sometimes (as it will normally and occasionally). Over two weeks, you might see the tape measure show you something, but tape measure results normally take much longer to notice, they are also harder to be consistent with. You will absolutely see scale results over two weeks. But not if you don't weigh yourself daily.

ndj1979

what kind of program does your PT have you on? Does it revolve around major compound movements = deadlift, barbell squat, barbell chest press, etc?

nlwrfa

Thank you all for the wonderful words. Today was day one with my trainer... I'm hooked. Absolutely loved it... and who knew stairs could hurt worse going down them than up

nlwrfa

@ndj1979 Annnd it deleted half my comment. She said she's a huge fan of compound lifts. Today was the first day so we just did the basics to see where I'm at on form and weight. We did everything with a barbell... bench press, row, shoulder press, dead lift, squat (this one body weight cause I have no strength at all) I told her I didn't want to get into brute strength and body builder.. but more of the look at me... and you can tell I lift. So she's going to set me up with a physique type plan

Rusty740

NoraInMt wrote: »

@ndj1979 Annnd it deleted half my comment. She said she's a huge fan of compound lifts. Today was the first day so we just did the basics to see where I'm at on form and weight. We did everything with a barbell... bench press, row, shoulder press, dead lift, squat (this one body weight cause I have no strength at all) I told her I didn't want to get into brute strength and body builder.. but more of the look at me... and you can tell I lift. So she's going to set me up with a physique type plan

Good stuff! You are on your way Those are exactly the types of lifts we like to see.

ndj1979

NoraInMt wrote: »

@ndj1979 Annnd it deleted half my comment. She said she's a huge fan of compound lifts. Today was the first day so we just did the basics to see where I'm at on form and weight. We did everything with a barbell... bench press, row, shoulder press, dead lift, squat (this one body weight cause I have no strength at all) I told her I didn't want to get into brute strength and body builder.. but more of the look at me... and you can tell I lift. So she's going to set me up with a physique type plan

Good, sounds like she knows what she is doing