9 months and I have not noticed any difference!

Okay lemme give U my info

29 Female , height : 164 cm , weight: 61.5-62kg

Waist: 28.7 - 29 inches Hips: 39-40 inches

I was on a weight loss journey since late 2019, I lost weight but I’m not happy with how my body currently looks like

I cannot afford to go to the gym so I workout at home, I have a treadmill and a bunch of workout videos and I have ( 2kg - 4kg dumbbells and 20 kg barbell)

Since last November I dedicated a specific workout routine. However, I feel pretty devastated I only built little muscle in my Biceps but no change in my triceps at all (the jiggly part) and no inches have been lost from my waistline ( stomach still has lot of fats) I know women built muscle harder than men but 9 months!! I eat healthy Most of the day and it is close to 1600 cal per day, except Thursday I have cheat meal

My workout:

A full video arm workout consists of : (each workout around 1 minute)

v-raises with dumbbells -shoulder press with dumbbells

triceps kickbacks -triceps over-head extensions

in/out curls with dumbbells

inside curls for each arm (dumbbells)

Reverse flys (dumbbells)

Havyk raises (dumbbells)

Bench dips (dumbbells)

Hip dips (dumbbells)

Curl Holds (dumbbells)

Reverse curls (dumbbells)

Squats (dumbbells) 3 sets -10 reps

Squats (dumbbells) 3 sets -10 reps (a different version)

Deadlift (stiff -legged or regular) -4sets -10 reps

Bent row 3 set-10 reps

Using a resistance band for triceps (20 times each arm)

Last August I weigh 65.6 and since then it’s been extremely difficult to shed any pounds, year later and my weight is fluctuating between 61 and 62kg. As for calorie deficit, right now I’m extremely confused because I know my current situation is what is called skinny fat with some jiggles so I’m trying to build muscle and lose the fat however, some people told me to eat at maintenance since I’m short and if I cut I would get something around 1116 to 1357 cal and is not sustainable and some says no that’s don’t apply to you and you have to eat that low to lose the fat. I don’t work ( still looking for one ) so I stay at home but I try to be active and not sit all the time and I also dance. My average number of steps a day is 7500 to 8000 steps and sometimes I reached 10.000 steps.

Honestly, I don’t know what am I doing wrong and what my calories should be :(. why cannot build muscle with the effort, I envy people who were much larger than me lost weight and toned their bodies in a year or so
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Replies

  • csplatt
    csplatt Posts: 1,205 Member
    One thought—how heavy are your weights? I wonder if you could go heavier.

    What do you do during the day? I work in education and sit at a desk a lot so my maintenance calories are lower than I care for.
  • 0Leena0
    0Leena0 Posts: 61 Member
    0Leena0 wrote: »



    I cannot afford to go to the gym so I workout at home, I have a treadmill and a bunch of workout videos and I have ( 2kg - 4kg dumbbells and 20 kg barbell)

    I don’t work ( still looking for one ) so I stay at home but I try to be active and not sit all the time and I also dance. My average number of steps a day is 7500 to 8000 steps and sometimes I reached 10.000 steps.

    here are the answers for your question :)

  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    Your dumbbells are very light for someone who has been training consistently - what is your trigger or prompt for increasing the weights used in your lifts?
  • 0Leena0
    0Leena0 Posts: 61 Member
    sijomial wrote: »
    Your dumbbells are very light for someone who has been training consistently - what is your trigger or prompt for increasing the weights used in your lifts?

    for the dumbells yes but i managed to buy 20Kg barbell and i try to do the exercises slowly in addition i incorporated bodyweights exercises since I'm limited
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    0Leena0 wrote: »
    sijomial wrote: »
    Your dumbbells are very light for someone who has been training consistently - what is your trigger or prompt for increasing the weights used in your lifts?

    for the dumbells yes but i managed to buy 20Kg barbell and i try to do the exercises slowly in addition i incorporated bodyweights exercises since I'm limited

    What I was asking was what makes you decide it's time to do the same exercise but increase to 6kg, 8kg or whatever. One of the foundations for increasing strength and muscle mass is progressive overload.
    Doing the same exercise with a weight that doesn't stress you doesn't achieve much at all.
    2kg - about the size of a large chicken.
    4kg - about the size of a newborn baby.

    From limited information it really doesn't sound like you are lifting heavy enough, to force adaptation you need to induce some suitable stress. Weights going up on your lifts is one of the clearest indications your routine is working - and of course vice versa.
    It's why people are often recommended on here to follow a program rather than just make something up with a selection of exercises and set reps.

    Are you not putting any weights on your barbell?
    If you aren't think about when you walk up stairs, easily taking half your bodyweight on alternate legs (c. 30kg). If you are doing squats with an empty 20kg barbell that's really not enough.
  • Azurite27
    Azurite27 Posts: 554 Member
    In addition to the above, you mention the "jiggly part". Are you sure you haven't built muscle there? If you have a bit of loose skin, you won't be able to get rid of that but may be building muscle and strength underneath. The only way to get rid of skin there is build a big enough muscle that it fills the space left by the fat which requires intensive bulking and cutting or surgery. As a woman, it's much more difficult to build large looking muscles.
  • 0Leena0
    0Leena0 Posts: 61 Member
    sijomial wrote: »
    0Leena0 wrote: »
    sijomial wrote: »



    Are you not putting any weights on your barbell?
    If you aren't think about when you walk up stairs, easily taking half your bodyweight on alternate legs (c. 30kg). If you are doing squats with an empty 20kg barbell that's really not enough.


    the barbell has weight ( 10Kg ) on each side
  • 0Leena0
    0Leena0 Posts: 61 Member
    edited August 2022
    There are a few things to unpick here, and there are people with far more experience than me on this site, but here’s my tuppence-worth:
    1. Don’t believe everything you see on social media. Yes some people can get lean and shredded in a year but it takes a HUGE amount of work, training, food restriction and probably sacrifice. You’ve lost weight and that’s great - getting a shredded physique is a marathon and not a sprint I’m afraid.
    2. Your weights are not heavy enough to get the definition you want (sorry). You need increasingly progressive overload to build muscle. I know you can’t join a gym right now to access those weights, so have a look at some online callisthenics programmes (I.e. using your body weight to get stronger). It will require serious hard work and dedication, but you can build muscle without weights. Or can you buy plates for your 20kg BB?
    3. If you can get bigger weights, you need to follow a structured lifting programme. There are tonnes out there and some of the good peeps on here have recommended Strong Lifts and I think Bret Contreras? (Dive in people who follow online programmes!)
    4. If you think you have fat to lose, you still need to eat at a deficit to lose it. Lifting is awesome for strength, bone health and fun, but it won’t remove wobbly bits. I’m reasonably strong and I have soooo many wobbles.
    5. Are you actually at a calorie deficit? Do you still log your cheat meal / day? If your deficit is c300 cals per day (for instance), a cheat day or slight slippage on logging could cancel that all out. So have a look at your food diary and just be 100% sure you are happy with your logging.
    6. Eating healthy is great for your general health, but it does nothing for weight loss. You can technically lose weight eating the same calories of Mars Bars as eating a varied diet, although you’d feel crap. Again, check your logging and see if you can incorporate the cheat foods into your daily or weekly calorie allowance so that they are no longer “cheat” foods, and just stuff you enjoy.

    You’ve lost weight which is great, and you’re trying to get strong which is also great. It won’t be instant and you won’t get that shredded physique instantly, so patience is the key (boring I know).


    the barbell has weights ( 10 kg) on each side. yes, i track my calories using a food scale and when i have a cheat meal I also calculate the calories ( yeah sometimes it exceeds 1600). but as i mentioned im kinda confused regarding my calories since some advised me to eat at maintenance to gain muscle since I'm considered short and some say eat around 1116-1300 cals to lose the fat Right now I don't think about abs definition this is an advanced stage for me. i would like to have a flat stomach and get rid of the jiggles. I will definitely check callisthenics programmes
  • Jthanmyfitnesspal
    Jthanmyfitnesspal Posts: 3,522 Member
    You've not done anything wrong. You've lost weight and exercised consistently. All is good in your world. Take a victory lap!

    We all get super judgmental of our own bodies. It seems like a human weakness. We can be all sorts of successful, but we see one thing in the mirror we don't like and it bring us right back down. And, we fool ourselves into thinking that something magical is going to happen if we just can fix some little self-perceived flaw.

    Get it out of your head. Good friends care little how you look. Think instead on what you'd like to do with your life. Being lighter and in better shape can help you do it.

    Best of luck!
  • claireychn074
    claireychn074 Posts: 1,653 Member
    0Leena0 wrote: »
    There are a few things to unpick here, and there are people with far more experience than me on this site, but here’s my tuppence-worth:
    1. Don’t believe everything you see on social media. Yes some people can get lean and shredded in a year but it takes a HUGE amount of work, training, food restriction and probably sacrifice. You’ve lost weight and that’s great - getting a shredded physique is a marathon and not a sprint I’m afraid.
    2. Your weights are not heavy enough to get the definition you want (sorry). You need increasingly progressive overload to build muscle. I know you can’t join a gym right now to access those weights, so have a look at some online callisthenics programmes (I.e. using your body weight to get stronger). It will require serious hard work and dedication, but you can build muscle without weights. Or can you buy plates for your 20kg BB?
    3. If you can get bigger weights, you need to follow a structured lifting programme. There are tonnes out there and some of the good peeps on here have recommended Strong Lifts and I think Bret Contreras? (Dive in people who follow online programmes!)
    4. If you think you have fat to lose, you still need to eat at a deficit to lose it. Lifting is awesome for strength, bone health and fun, but it won’t remove wobbly bits. I’m reasonably strong and I have soooo many wobbles.
    5. Are you actually at a calorie deficit? Do you still log your cheat meal / day? If your deficit is c300 cals per day (for instance), a cheat day or slight slippage on logging could cancel that all out. So have a look at your food diary and just be 100% sure you are happy with your logging.
    6. Eating healthy is great for your general health, but it does nothing for weight loss. You can technically lose weight eating the same calories of Mars Bars as eating a varied diet, although you’d feel crap. Again, check your logging and see if you can incorporate the cheat foods into your daily or weekly calorie allowance so that they are no longer “cheat” foods, and just stuff you enjoy.

    You’ve lost weight which is great, and you’re trying to get strong which is also great. It won’t be instant and you won’t get that shredded physique instantly, so patience is the key (boring I know).


    the barbell has weights ( 10 kg) on each side. yes, i track my calories using a food scale and when i have a cheat meal I also calculate the calories ( yeah sometimes it exceeds 1600). but as i mentioned im kinda confused regarding my calories since some advised me to eat at maintenance to gain muscle since I'm considered short and some say eat around 1116-1300 cals to lose the fat Right now I don't think about abs definition this is an advanced stage for me. i would like to have a flat stomach and get rid of the jiggles. I will definitely check callisthenics programmes

    It’s easy to get confused about the calories you need to consume and whether you need to bulk or cut. You can do something called recomp - and in fact it sounds like you have been (it’s what I did). So you eat at maintenance and if you’re not currently losing weight, then you’re eating at maintenance.you follow a progressive overload programme and over time your physique will change. It’s slow, you have to be dedicated but it works, and it can be mentally easier than bulking and cutting.

    As you have 10kg weights then you’re lifting 40kg (assuming your bar is 20kg - or is it lighter?) that’s a great start and you can make that weight work harder by doing things like tempo and paused sets - but again I can’t recommend following a programme enough. There are free ones online - you don’t have to pay.

    If you want to lose a bit of weight then put your statistics into MFP, select a slow rate of loss (half to one pound per week) and follow its recommendations. After two months take stock and see how you feel, whether you need to adjust up or down. Ultimately the calorie recommendations friends give you or you read will be generalisations - Only your data will give you the exact info you need.

    Generally people eat a calorie surplus to gain muscle mass in conjunction with a heavy programme, but it is possible to gain muscle and lose fat with recomp. There are some good threads on recomp - have a look for them and you’ll be able to read some expert advice 👍
  • Lynnda7
    Lynnda7 Posts: 13 Member
    Hang in there girl I know it's hard but perfection takes time, maybe your at a plateau? I'm here to talk:)