Not slimming down fast enough

NeenDale

So I’ve been killing myself with a person trainer twice a week and gym 6 days a week doing both cardio and weights. I’m 5’3” and when I started working out I weighed 137. It’s been 8 weeks of hard work and I only dropped 2 lbs?!?! WTF? Oh, and I eat super healthy about 70, 80% of the time. So what gives?

Pearl4686

Are you eating in a caloric deficit? Working out and eating healthy is wonderful for many reasons but only a caloric deficit will help you lose weight.
Read the stickies at the top of the get started forums.
Good luck

pinuplove

1. You're already in the healthy BMI range, so losses will be slower.
2. New activity can lead to water weight while muscle repair is going on.
3. Regardless of how healthy the food is, you still need to stay within a calorie deficit to lose weight. Given item 1 above, your deficit will be small and easy to overshoot if you're not being accurate with your food logging.

No need to kill yourself. Just be patient and consistent.

cwolfman13

Eating "super healthy" doesn't mean you are in a calorie deficit. I eat super healthy most of the time too, and I'm maintaining my weight...because I'm eating maintenance calories.

NeenDale

Hi, Thanks. I would think I am. I eat 2 hard boiled eggs with 3 strawberries for breakfast (sometimes a few avocado slices, lunch I would always have a garden salad with just balsamic vinegar and dinner I would have Green Chef meals in Keto friendly recipes. And if I got hungry in between or later I would snack on pecans or almonds.

erickirb

at your stats aiming for and losing 0.5 lbs/week is ideal. Do you weigh all solid food you eat and measure liquids? If not, there is a very good chance you are eating more than you think you are

AnnPT77

NeenDale wrote: »

Hi, Thanks. I would think I am. I eat 2 hard boiled eggs with 3 strawberries for breakfast (sometimes a few avocado slices, lunch I would always have a garden salad with just balsamic vinegar and dinner I would have Green Chef meals in Keto friendly recipes. And if I got hungry in between or later I would snack on pecans or almonds.

Assuming you're eating just one serving of the Green Chef meals (looks like 2 servings delivered), those are 400-500 calories. Breakfast is around 300 with the avocado (assuming 1/2 avocado), I have no idea what's in your garden salad, and those nuts are a couple of hundred calories for a startlingly small amount (couple hundred calories would fit in a closed hand, easily). If that's all you're eating, and the garden salad is truly negligible, you should be losing weight. (Personally, I don't think that's even remotely enough protein, and maybe not enough fat (especially if really keto) but that has almost nothing to do with weight loss.)

But we don't really know, because you're not tracking, or so I gather.

No "cheat days" or indulgences? No beverages with calories? What you're doing in that 20%-30% of time that's not "super healthy" could be very relevant.

Yes, you could be retaining water from the exercise, masking fat loss.

If you log your eating, you'll have a much better idea what's going on.

LyndaBSS

Not weighing and logging means you have no way of knowing whether you're in a calorie deficit or not.

Looks like you've got the exercise figured out.

mystgrl28

Working out can make it seem like you're maintaining due to body recomposition. Burning off fat and building muscle. Weight is unreliable then. Have you been measuring yourself? That can give you a better idea of your fat loss. You could've lost 7lbs of fat and gained 5lbs of muscle 🤷🏻‍♀️

ddbehappysmile244

What's some good advice for hitting that Plateau weight and you just can't get any more off!

AnnPT77

mystgrl28 wrote: »

Working out can make it seem like you're maintaining due to body recomposition. Burning off fat and building muscle. Weight is unreliable then. Have you been measuring yourself? That can give you a better idea of your fat loss. You could've lost 7lbs of fat and gained 5lbs of muscle 🤷🏻‍♀️

In 8 weeks, especially without PEDs? Not likely.

A quarter pound a week of muscle gain would be a wonderful result for a woman, under ideal conditions.

Ideal conditions include relative youth, a well-designed progressive weight lifting program (performed consistently), spot-on nutrition including plenty of protein, and a calorie surplus.

No realistic amount of muscle gain is going to outpace any satisfying rate of fat loss, especially for women.

This doesn't make recomp unachievable or unrelistic . . . but it will be slow.

88olds

Well, super healthy 70-80% of the time is about 3/4 healthy eating. And weight loss is the result of a calorie deficit. Healthy eating is pretty vague. Try calorie counting using a food scale and keep a food diary. It will give you a better idea of what your intake actually is.

Weight loss takes place mostly in the kitchen. But a others have pointed out, if you are near your goal weight and seeking a high level of fitness, its a slow process. And depending on the level you want to work at, you may be on your way to counting macros. If it was easy everyone would do it.

Do some research and rethink your expectations. There’s a learning curve. Keep reading this board and you’ll see how many people wreck their plans over the time issue. Don’t be one of them.

TexasTallchick

mystgrl28 wrote: »

Working out can make it seem like you're maintaining due to body recomposition. Burning off fat and building muscle. Weight is unreliable then. Have you been measuring yourself? That can give you a better idea of your fat loss. You could've lost 7lbs of fat and gained 5lbs of muscle 🤷🏻‍♀️

Um, no. For women, it takes a very long time of lifting heavy and also eating at a surplus to build muscle. You don’t easily build muscle when you’re in a calorie deficit. Also, she didn’t specifically say she’s trying to build muscle, so it’s extremely unlikely that’s what’s happening here.

This might help shed some light:

https://www.livestrong.com/article/362906-can-you-build-muscle-on-a-calorie-deficit/

elisa123gal

well, what you are doing is great. You're working out and eating healthy lean food. Your body is getting healthy and I bet you can tell a difference in your focus and vitality on a day to day basis.

While all that absolutely wonderful...losing weight and getting smaller is another topic. It takes work, it takes figuring out what combination of things makes your body shed pounds. Just keep sticking with what you're doing and tweak your eating and form new habits that you may not wanting to do right now..

It sounds to me you are not one to count calories. Neither am I. I found that rules for eating worked for me better, as I don't like figuring out every single bite of food I put in my mouth. It drives me crazy. .