Nearly two months of working out, zero results. Help!

Strudders67

@Lionrevolt, it's very possible that you're not seeing results because you haven't given it enough time. As others have said, you're a healthy weight and to recomp /change shape takes time. As in, about a year. Two months isn't nearly long enough to see any changes in definition.


And @cleis, please tell us that you're eating at least 1200 (not under it) a day AND you're also eating back any exercise calories on top of those 1200. The figure of 1200 calories is the minimum number recommended for a short, sedate female. You're not short. You're also a healthy weight already. If you want to lose a little more for vanity reasons, you should be aiming to lose at a rate of half a pound a week or less, not a pound. Enter your details into the MFP set-up page, select the slowest rate loss that's possible and eat that number of calories PLUS any exercise calories. You'll need to be logging your intake and your exercise accurately, and you should expect it to take a long time to lose the last few pounds.

One thing for both of you to note, it's usually recommended to give your muscles two days a week to recover. By all means work your legs one day and arms another, but don't be doing whole body workouts seven days a week.

AnnPT77

lionrevolt wrote: »

heybales wrote: »

Those are likely your base eating goal calories from MFP, right?

That means from your selected Activity level, and no exercise being accounted for - you'd eat that 1450.

But that should not be your eating goal doing the workouts. Your goal should have gone up if using MFP the way it's designed.

I'm going out on a limb here from your comments and others - your recovery and workouts are probably no where near as good as they could be. They may be just stress at this point on your body, not good stress though.
And your daily activity has probably dropped because of this same reason.

You aren't eating enough for your hopeful level of activity. Your body adapted at some point to deal with it.

If you aren't feeding those workouts - they will suck in terms of making changes to your body - which you aren't seeing. They still feel just as hard after a month.
If your body feels threatened about the eating level matching attempted activity level - it'll slow you down, usually more tired and moving less - you'll end up eating at maintenance.

Now - even if your logging is inaccurate and your are actually eating some amount above, say 1600 daily on average, that may still not be enough.

And recomp comes when you are still burning fat because the workouts are correct enough to ask body to change, requiring more of the nutrients.
If you are really eating close to 1450 - I bet the workouts are not.

I'll ditto what several said - get accurate with logging while still eating the same amount so you really know.
Back off the workouts a tad and really recover - side benefit you'll be burning less, making the deficit less, perhaps allow body to make changes.

This is all super helpful information, thank you. I’m always confused because if I read one piece of information somewhere, someone somewhere else will say the complete opposite and I don’t know *what* to believe, and I’m desperate to find out what’s right for my body.

I will say this: right before I started working out consistently, I was seeing a physical therapist who was teaching me exercises for back pain that is related to having absolutely ZERO core and lower body strength. I didn’t (and sometimes still don’t) know how to breathe through my stomach and not through my chest. The first two weeks of this wrecked my body. Incredibly sore, massive headaches, just muscle anarchy. I’m essentially a walking wet noodle.

When I first started consistently working out two months ago (every other day) same thing. Felt like I got hit by a truck, I couldn’t sleep through the night because I was so sore — though that’s since subsided and I feel much stronger now. Every now and again however, I get insane anxiety about an hour after a workout which is apparently a real thing after some internet research.

Is it possible I’m not seeing results because my body is unhappy with the stress I’m putting on it?

If so, what is the solution? How can I see results fast without my body hating me? How often should I be working out and for how long?

Stress can increase water weight retention. Unless it makes you over-eat, or move less, stress won't stop weight loss or cause weight gain. ("Move less" means like sleep/rest more, sure, but also minor activity changes.)

A couple of things:

First, an endorsement that you should ignore those bodyfat numbers from your scale. Those devices tend to be very inaccurate in the first place. Also, as someone not all that far from your size (I'm 5'5", 130 pounds this morning), those specific numbers are . . . odd. They're not very consistent with some other things you mention, besides. I'm not going to try to specifically explain why, because explaining an unfamiliar device's inconsistent/odd numbers doesn't seem that productive.

In your OP, you say "Combined, it’s a 50 minute workout that has me exhausted and drenched in sweat by the end of it. The workout is weight training + cardio." Exhausted and drenched in sweat is not an indicator of workout effectiveness, unfortunately. Neither is feeling "so sore". It's common to believe that. Some thoughts about the workouts specifically:

1. Exhaustion from daily workouts can be counterproductive. If we're exhausted, it tends to carry over into the rest of our day, so we rest more and do less than we would've if we weren't fatigued. That "move less" can wipe out some of the calorie benefits of the exercise (true whether or not one is eating back exercise calories). The sweet spot for exercise as an adjunct to weight loss is finding a routine that's challenging, but energizing for the rest of your day, rather than exhausting (other than maybe a few minutes of "whew!" right after the workout).

Soreness is mainly a sign that your body is not used to a particular workout. We can be sore without producing much progress, but we can also produce progress without particularly being sore (after a workout stops being radically novel). Sweating is a sign that we're hot, which can be somewhat related to calorie burn, but not totally. I've been very active for 15+ years, doing varied workouts. An intense workout, one that's exhausting, burns somewhat more calories than a similar-length non-exhausting (but slightly challenging) workout, but the difference in calories isn't dramatic. The difference in enjoyability, effect on all-day energy, etc., is much more dramatic. High intensity isn't magic, and it can be counterproductive.

3. If your workout goal is "toning" or "losing inches", then that's about developing some new muscle mass (which is very slow at best) and losing enough fat so that your muscles show (to an extent you consider visually pleasing). Any workout routine is a slow route to body improvement, because that's a sad reality. Your workouts may be fine for overall fitness and long-term toning, and it's super important to do workouts you enjoy, but they're a slower than ideal route to your stated goals, IMO. A traditional strength training program for beginners would support your body composition goals better than those combo kinds of workouts. You can find some in the thread linked below.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you/p1

A 3-day full body program would be a good place to start. Typically, such programs will incorporate rest days for specific muscle groups (programs that are done every day vary which groups are worked), to give you (generally) 2 sleeps between working out the same muscle groups. Recovery is a vital part of the process, otherwise you're just tearing yourself down and not giving your body time to rebuild. Progress will happen, but more slowly.

To that, add 30 minutes or so of enjoyable cardio at easy/moderate intensity (challenging, not exhausting) on most days of the week, or maybe just on the days between weight training to start. Walking, jogging, easy running, Couch to 5K (C25K) program, swimming, biking, dancing, whatever.

You say you've been doing this specific workout routine for a month (and apparently some variant for a month before that). That's not very long. You feel stronger. That would be a good result, for a month. (Don't under-rate the value of strength!) Big body changes don't happen in a month, even with a perfect program. (Don't believe every before and after photo you see on the internet. ).

Be aware that daily life has an effect on your calorie expenditures. It's not something you can estimate well, but it can be meaningful (which is why it's good not to do exhausting exercise, among other things). Perhaps some information in this thread can help:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10610953/neat-improvement-strategies-to-improve-weight-loss/p1

I think some fine tuning of your program, listening to calorie advice in posts above, and simple patience will be the keys to accomplishing your goals. Simplifying and reducing intensity of your program may make it more sustainable, so easier to be patient with.

Best wishes!

DancingMoosie

I just want to add, because most of us are recommending strength training and gyms are closed...I'm following Sydney Cummings on YouTube and she just started a 30 day May challenge yesterday. Her workouts are very balanced and include stretching. You only need minimal equipment and she even suggests finding heavy objects around the house(like water bottles or kitty litter) if you don't have dumbbells.

lionrevolt

DancingMoosie wrote: »

I just want to add, because most of us are recommending strength training and gyms are closed...I'm following Sydney Cummings on YouTube and she just started a 30 day May challenge yesterday. Her workouts are very balanced and include stretching. You only need minimal equipment and she even suggests finding heavy objects around the house(like water bottles or kitty litter) if you don't have dumbbells.

I was doing her workouts the first month and I enjoyed them but it was pretty hit or miss. Some workouts I felt challenged, others I felt like I didn’t really feel any kind of burn on my body. Maybe I’ll try her out again though, thanks!

DancingMoosie

I think part if it is that she has recovery built into the week. That's why the intensity, time, and muscle groups vary from day to day. If it is an easy day, you can always add a little more light cardio. I would hesitate to add more strength, because you might do something she duplicates the next day and then you would not get the muscle recovery that you are needing.

lionrevolt

DancingMoosie wrote: »

I think part if it is that she has recovery built into the week. That's why the intensity, time, and muscle groups vary from day to day. If it is an easy day, you can always add a little more light cardio. I would hesitate to add more strength, because you might do something she duplicates the next day and then you would not get the muscle recovery that you are needing.

Great advice! I didn’t know her workouts were set up as a 7 day package. I thought she just uploaded a shitload of videos. That makes much more sense now. Thanks!

DancingMoosie

It's actually a 30 day challenge for May. She uploads the next workout every morning at 5am. If you go to her website, you can buy the calendar, and then you could see how all of the workouts are planned out. But I don't want to pay, so I just wait to see what comes each morning.

MidlifeCrisisFitness

Add some fun to your workout. Take up shadow boxing or swimming. I like jump rope. It gives you a day of training rest and variety of muscles used.

I'm a big fan of calisthenics for core toning. Worth the research if your flabby but not needing to lose fat.