Why am I not losing any weight?

cathalber

I have been counting calories and exercising regularly for over a month and I haven’t lost any weight. I eat healthily—mostly vegetarian, local fruits and veggies and fish. I have cut my sugar intake and stopped drinking. I do 40 minutes of kickboxing 5 times a week and on on the other 2 days I walk at least an hour. I feel like the whole effort is worthless. What am I doing wrong?

Trixsterfan

Sounds to me like you're building muscle, which is heavier than fat. Try taking measurements instead of weighing. I've said it before, it's about your reflection, if you don't like what you see in the mirror when you're naked then it's time to change things. Clearly you're commitment to exercise is not in question therefore it can only be, in my opinion, what you are eating.

Lietchi

What are your stats? Age, height, weight, activity level...
How many calories are you consuming? How accurate is your food logging?
Is the exercise new?

Most likely options, not having much info to go on:
- You could be eating more than you think
- you could be retaining water weight from the exercise, if you weren't exercising before, which can mask fat loss on the scale.

cathalber

Litchi, thank you. I am a 56-year-old woman. Height is 4’10” and weight 120. Background; I gained a lot of weight in my 30s, so at 38 I joined weight watchers and started training in martial arts. I also biked to work. I lost 30 lbs. I had to quit martial arts in 2012 because of injuries, but started kickboxing about 5 years ago. I gained 10 lbs. during the pandemic. Last year I quit my job and moved to Costa Rica and put on 10 more pounds. I started kickboxing again after I finally bought a scale and discovered the reason my clothes no longer fit. I’m a writer, so I spend a lot of time sitting, but I try to get up and move every hour. Biking is not an option here, the roads are too unsafe, but I walk a lot.

Lietchi

If your exercise is new (as new as your weight loss attempt) there is certainly the potential of water retention. (It doesn't matter that you did kickboxing on the past, of you stopped for a long time and restarted, you could still be retaining water).
Do your clothes still fit the same or are they looser?

You didn't answer my questions regarding food intake: how many calories are you consuming? And how accurate is your food logging: weighing everything? Choosing the food database entries carefully?
If you open your food diary, we could see if we notice any common logging mistakes.