No change in inches and weight gain

VickyLAsh

I'm on week 4, have counted calories, jogging 3 times a week plus some toning exercises at home. I keep gaining every week, and not lost any inches.
Just looking for encouragement that it's normal. Because it's very disheartening. I'm only trying to lose a few lbs, it's mostly about toning up and getting fit. But the scales are very depressing. Any one experienced this?

Terytha

Losing any amount of fat has nothing to do with toning. You can't tone fat. Your muscles can be as toned as you like but the layers of fat on top of them will hide that.

If you aren't losing, try cutting back your calories a bit, if you can do so safely.

a_candler

I think we need more details before giving accurate suggestions. Are you using a kitchen scale to log calories? What are your stats? How do you compute exercise calories? And what is your calorie intake set to?

leggup

There are many stickied posts in Getting Started that can help you use the site better. http://fit101.org/the-step-by-step-guide-to-losing-weight-with-myfitnesspal/ is a good one.

The short answer is no, it's not normal to eat fewer calories and burn more calories and stay the same weight. Which means you're eating more than you think.

Panini911

adding/increasing exercise can lead to muscles retaining water temporarily masking any loss.

however, my first question is are you using a food scale to measure food? all food?

VickyLAsh

Yes I am weighing accurately. My intake is 1700 calories a day. I am at a healthy bmi and weight, but want to tone and get fit. So was hoping to lose inches rather than weight, but scale creeps up and up. I am jogging for 30 minutes three times a week which is new to me. I also do 2 hour long walks a week and my lifestyle is pretty hectic too. Could this account for weight increase? Like water retention or muscle gain? I'm not letting it put me off though as I'm enjoying all this exercise.

slbbw

How much are you talking about with scale increase 1lb in a month, 5 lbs?. Its possible that 1700 is not the right number, although gaining weight and staying the same size would indicate that it might be water or muscle and not fat.

Panini911

yes the new exercise could explain things
http://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations/

with little to lose select 0.5lb/week and hang in there. you need to be very accurate on yoru logging and i recommend a weight trending app as normal weight/water fluctuations will mask the average loss per week.