When did you first start seeing results?

AWilliamson2017

I am struggling with motivation. I've been adhering to a strict high protein, low fat diet and getting 1-2 hours of strenuous exercise daily for going on 2 1/2 weeks and I'm not losing or seeing much change. When did the noticable differences begin to happen for you?

88olds

When I lost the first 25 lbs & bought a new suit as a reward.

timtam163

I saw results, numberswise, pretty much within the first week. Are you sticking to a calorie deficit though? Eating a specific macro breakdown and doing a certain amount of exercise won't do you any good if you don't adhere to CICO. It sounds like you're also being overly restrictive and not enjoying yourself. Will you be able to stick to your diet for the next X months? (If so, then carry on!)

Some things to troubleshoot:
-Weigh and measure everything you eat. Stick to a calorie goal. Plan meals and snacks ahead of time so that you create a deficit.
-Don't exercise to eat more; plan out your meals to create your deficit even on days where you don't exercise. Some people create a deficit from their estimated "sedentary" burn, plus eating back only half the calories from exercise, if that works for you.
-Don't over-estimate calorie burn. Check your burn against online calculators, check your heart rate... don't always go by MFP's preset calories and definitely don't go by elliptical machines' calorie burn estimates. I used to think I burned 600 calories an hour running; turns out it was more like 450. I also used to log 800 calorie/hr burns from the elliptical when it was really closer to half that.
-Use net calorie burn instead of total calorie burn (net=total-bmr) (for me: I burn 50 calories ish an hour just laying around, so if I burned 200 on an hour-long walk TOTAL, my net burn is 150.)
-Give your body and mind a break sometimes, mix up your exercise, find a routine that's enjoyable and varied enough that it's not pure drudgery.

Need2Exerc1se

It took over 3 weeks before the scale moved for me. This is pretty common since whenever I want to lose weight I increase exercise so I don't have to cut calories too much.