Eating Better/Excercising - No Weight Loss. Same Measurements

abetterluke

Hello!

I just have a question. I've been eating healthier for the last 3 weeks-1 monthish and I've been going to the gym 3-4 times per week (one week I went 5 days). I've been doing a fair amount of weight lifting and have seen a significant increase in strength. I am very happy about this and intend on continuing but the thing that I've noticed is that the scale hasn't moved. I've been 255 lbs the whole time. A week or so ago I decided to try measuring and checked measurements last week vs. this week and there has been no change either.

So my question is...how likely is it that the scale isn't moving simply because I'm building muscle which weighs more?

For a little further information and to get ahead of some likely replies....

No I do not weigh my food. Yes I know I should. I plan to eventually but right now it's not super feasible.
I also know that i'm not great at logging my meals consisently. For example of this past weekend I basically logged nothing. I'm working on getting better at that as well.

Where i'm mostly confused is that i've been doing this for years. I used MFP previously (under a different username) and lost over 30 lbs without weighing food. I did log more consistently but I've always estimated and it always worked. This time that hasn't been the case.

JeromeBarry1

Hypertrophy, the building of muscle, is a slow process, quickest in untrained young males.

It is not possible that your notional fat loss has been matched by an equal volume muscle gain, simply because an equal volume of muscle would be heavier than the same volume of fat.

Therefore, it is most likely that you've maintained your weight and your measurements simply because you've maintained your calorie intake to match your calorie output.

Without clearer data, that's all I can say.

lynn_glenmont

abetterluke wrote: »

Hello!

I just have a question. I've been eating healthier for the last 3 weeks-1 monthish and I've been going to the gym 3-4 times per week (one week I went 5 days). I've been doing a fair amount of weight lifting and have seen a significant increase in strength. I am very happy about this and intend on continuing but the thing that I've noticed is that the scale hasn't moved. I've been 255 lbs the whole time. A week or so ago I decided to try measuring and checked measurements last week vs. this week and there has been no change either.

So my question is...how likely is it that the scale isn't moving simply because I'm building muscle which weighs more?

For a little further information and to get ahead of some likely replies....

No I do not weigh my food. Yes I know I should. I plan to eventually but right now it's not super feasible.
I also know that i'm not great at logging my meals consisently. For example of this past weekend I basically logged nothing. I'm working on getting better at that as well.

Where i'm mostly confused is that i've been doing this for years. I used MFP previously (under a different username) and lost over 30 lbs without weighing food. I did log more consistently but I've always estimated and it always worked. This time that hasn't been the case.

If you can't weigh your food, you need to figure out some way to to be sure you're eating below maintenance. And although you could give it another week or two, since it sounds like you started a new exercise routine at the same that you started eating "healthier," I'm inclined to think that if after three weeks to a month you've seen no results, you're eating too much, and you need to find a way to be sure you're eating fewer calories than you are eating now.

Other people may have better ideas than this, but if I were forced to try to ensure I knew how much I was eating without food scales, I'd probably turn to a fairly repetitive meal plan with a set amount of lean protein, non-starchy veg, fruit (pick my favorites and stick to them), starchy side, and fat each day. So, basically a "pick two from column A, three from column B, etc." approach, using volume measurement and/or eyeballing to try to get similar amounts from day to day, and reducing amounts if I didn't get results in a couple of weeks.

missysippy930

I would start weighing your food. You know, as you’ve done this before, that weight loss is mostly about diet. Consuming less calories than your body burns. Exercising is great, and necessary for overall health, but not necessary for weight loss.

Weigh, measure, and log everything you eat and drink. You are most likely consuming more calories than you realize. Eating at maintenance.

steveko89

If anything the new-to-routine exercise is causing fluid retention for muscle repair and masking any fat loss you may have experienced over the last month; IMO that's a far more likely explanation that you're building muscle at such a pace that it's matching your fat loss rate. If you want to prioritize losing fat, buckle down and log accurately to ensure you're consistently in a caloric deficit. To be perfectly honest, if you're waiting until it's convenient to weigh/log your food, you're setting yourself to fail doing so. Starting fostering the habit to know what (more importantly how much) you're putting into your body. It doesn't necessarily happen overnight and you don't have to be perfect, just do better than what you're doing now.

The best thing I've ever done for managing my weight had nothing to do with what I was eating or how i was exercising; it was making a commitment to log all foods with accuracy and precision.

TavistockToad

You don't have to weigh your food to lose weight, but currently you're maintaining, so you need to eat a bit less.

endermako

You answered your own question by saying that you don't weight your food. You're eating at maintenance and need to eat less than that to be in a caloric deficit.

erickirb

most likely case is that you are retaining water due to the increase in exercise. once you get used to that you should shed the water. if after 2-3 more weeks still no loss, you may want to firm up your logging, by weighing what you eat.

At this point I think water retention is masking your loss.

MikePTY

It is common to retain a few additional pounds of water weight when you start exercising. So that could be what is causing it.

However without weighing your food you could also be intaking more than you think and that could be causing the lack of loss as well. Not everyone needs to weigh food to be successful, but if you are having issues with losing and also not weighing your food, there's a good chance that could be where the issue is. Which would then be compounded by inconsistent logging.

Keep with it a few more weeks and see if you start losing weight. If not, you'll have to take a look at your intake/changing how you log and measure.

NovusDies

abetterluke wrote: »

Where i'm mostly confused is that i've been doing this for years. I used MFP previously (under a different username) and lost over 30 lbs without weighing food. I did log more consistently but I've always estimated and it always worked. This time that hasn't been the case.

Calorie creeping can happen for any number of reasons. It could be as simple as you are under more stress this time around. The fact that you are not logging as consistently could be a result of some part of you not really wanting to control what you eat right now.

It could also be that you will experience a drop in weight very soon and that weight fluctuations have been masking it. It is not uncommon for me to go 3 weeks without seeing a new low weight.

I think one of the most important things about weight loss is to never be stubborn. If your "whoosh" is not around the corner and you are eating at maintenance without realizing it decide how to adapt that is best for you.

lalalacroix

abetterluke wrote: »

I just have a question. I've been eating healthier for the last 3 weeks-1 monthish and I've been going to the gym 3-4 times per week (one week I went 5 days). I've been doing a fair amount of weight lifting and have seen a significant increase in strength. I am very happy about this and intend on continuing but the thing that I've noticed is that the scale hasn't moved.

No I do not weigh my food. Yes I know I should. I plan to eventually but right now it's not super feasible.

My husband recently started eating healthier also. His healthy diet includes copious amounts of olive oil, handfuls of walnuts and several avocados every day. Healthy ≠ lower calorie.

You don't have to weigh your food if you'd rather not, but you may have to at least eat less than you currently are.

Also that water gain thing for new exercise is real! I started running again about 4 weeks ago and didn't lose anything for three weeks. Now the water weight that has masked my loss is starting to fall off. It really can be frustrating. But I weigh and log my food so I know I was in a deficit and I just trusted the process, which will be harder for you because if you don't weigh then you really cannot be certain that you are eating in a deficit.

PAV8888

Your loss is masked by water weight increase.

Is that a sufficient loss if it is in the 2 to 5 lb range?

Healthier does not equal lower Calories.

Calories are what drives weight management.

I chose to be accurate as I could with my logging in order to maximize my calories take in while still achieving my goals.

Only you can judge the degree of approximation that will be approximate enough for you.

Between weighing every item to the gram and not logging at all or skipping partial days there is a lot of middle ground.

To me it sounds as if your first step would be to log every single meal event, even if it is not totally accurate.

After that you may want to double check whether healthy (as you currently define it) is a good enough caloric bargain for the satiation and satisfaction that it provides you with.

csplatt

You already answered your own question. You don’t know how many calories per day you are consuming because you aren’t logging consistently and you aren’t using a food scale. Cheers!