no weight loss cardio+weight training

brdk0224

Hey guys,

I'm new to this site, I'm hoping people can lead me to the right direction. I've been working out for about 4 weeks, haven't seen any change with the scale. I have noticed reduced cellulite and muscular gains ( not a lot, but enough for me to notice). I do about 30-40 mins of weight training and 20-30 mins of cario ( usually intervals) 4-5 times a week. I'm currently 157 pounds 5'7, I would like to lose 10-15 pounds of body fat and gain some muscle for a toned look. I just put an example of my food diary, what its like everyday roughly. I was hoping to lose weight by december, since I'm going on vacation but now I'm feeling discouraged.
If anyone has insight, I would be glad to hear.

howardheilweil

Your food diary is not set to public, so I can't see it, but if it's just an example, it's really not helpful. You have to really/honestly log everything you eat every day. If you are not getting the results you were hoping for, this is definitely the reason. You can work out all day long, but if you are not in a caloric deficit, you will not lose weight. Good luck!

jacksonpt

Sounds like your exercise routine is pretty reasonable, now all it comes down to is a proper diet and lots of patience. Though, in most cases, diet and patience are more important for weight loss than is exercise.

.

yask989

Definitely agree with everyone on the diet. Stay focused on that too and you'll get closer to the results you want.

cwolfman13

Exercise doesn't guarantee a calorie deficit. In fact, if you're not logging everything...and I mean measuring and weighing and logging everything that goes into your mouth, it is highly likely you are not at a deficit as most people who exercise tend to naturally compensate with more food and minimally, eat to a maintenance level of calories...because that is what your body desires.

Doing this right requires a lot of discipline and holding yourself accountable with your tracking...it's far more important than your exercise regimen. Your exercise is for fitness...you can use your diet 100% to lose weight, but you have to track it all meticulously. In my experience, a lot of exercise can actually make it harder to maintain a deficit because your body just overwhelmingly wants more energy when you're really training...fitness and weight-loss can actually be rather conflicting goals when it comes right down to it.

Get your diet in order and exercise for fitness. Also, when you have very little to lose like you do, it's a very slow process...you simply don't have the fat stores necessary for large calorie deficits and "speedy" weight-loss. It's a long process.

cdahl383

More than likely you are taking in more calories than you think. That's generally what happens to me when my weight loss stalls, its due to my portion sizes growing or slipping in stuff by grazing at the cupboards too frequently, etc. You could be adding muscle while losing some fat too which might keep the scale number the same but your composition could be changing.

I would try really watching your calories for a week or two and see if you get any results. If not, perhaps try dropping 100-200 calories per day from your intake and then see what happens. You're doing great with the exercise routine, you might just need to fine tune your diet plan to achieve the results you desire.

My recent discovery and savior has been a digital food scale. You can really nail down your calories when you know exactly how much of something you're eating instead of estimating what a serving size is, etc. They're not that expensive and really help out quite a bit if you have issues with controlling portion sizes like I do.

brdk0224

Sorry, I just put it to public. Anyone have recommendations on what I should alter with my diet? or share whats worked for them.

Thanks

LeanButNotMean44

You could start by tracking your food every day.

cwolfman13

You could start by tracking your food every day.

yeah...like I said before...this is all about consistency and meticulously tracking what goes into your mouth. A mere 500 calorie deficit from maintenance per day is all that is necessary to lose about 1 Lb per week on average...but it is easily wiped out by, say...just a couple handfuls of nuts that go unaccounted for.

This is all about consistency and discipline.

brdk0224

You could start by tracking your food every day.

yeah...like I said before...this is all about consistency and meticulously tracking what goes into your mouth. A mere 500 calorie deficit from maintenance per day is all that is necessary to lose about 1 Lb per week on average...but it is easily wiped out by, say...just a couple handfuls of nuts that go unaccounted for.

This is all about consistency and discipline.

Do you by any chance know how many calories a day I should intake or a website that calculates? Just to make sure I don't under or over eat

dietstokes

Ummmm...doesn't MFP tell you how many calories to eat every day? Enter your info and it will tell you a number. Eat that as your net for a few weeks, then if you don't see the number on the scale moving, change up the numbers a bit. But be consistent and stick to the calorie amount given for at least a few weeks so your body gets used to it.

deksgrl

Set up your profile to lose half a pound a week. I know, you want to choose 2 pounds a week, but that isn't attainable with only 10-15 pounds to lose.

BL_Coleman

What I did when I had this problem is reverse it. Do 45+ min of cardio 3x a week then 2x a week weight lifting. i also generally cut 10-20 percent off the work out calculations when i log it.

Unfortunetly for me cardio , cardio was the way to lose weight...although I did get stronger with weight training

cwolfman13

You could start by tracking your food every day.

yeah...like I said before...this is all about consistency and meticulously tracking what goes into your mouth. A mere 500 calorie deficit from maintenance per day is all that is necessary to lose about 1 Lb per week on average...but it is easily wiped out by, say...just a couple handfuls of nuts that go unaccounted for.

This is all about consistency and discipline.

Do you by any chance know how many calories a day I should intake or a website that calculates? Just to make sure I don't under or over eat

MFP does...you put in your weight loss goal and it gives you a calorie goal. This goal includes your weight loss deficit. Unlike other calculators, MFP doesn't take into account exercise in your activity level...when you set up your activity level, it's just supposed to be you daily hum drum...no exercise. Exercise is then accounted for after the fact when you log it and then you're supposed to eat those calories back (just be careful that you're estimating burn as reasonably as possible...databases, including MFP or notoriously off for burn...a HRM is your best bet for an aerobic activity).

Or, you could use a TDEE calculator and just customize your goals in MFP. In this case, you wouldn't log exercise to MFP, as with the TDEE method, your estimated exercise burn is included in your activity level to give you a total daily burn and then a deduction is made from there for weight loss. I use this calculator...don't pay attention to the rest of the site though, mostly bro-science...

http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

fat2fit radio and IIFYM are also good calculators.

The most important thing is that you are consistent. Either method works and if you're doing it right, should be about 6 of 1 in RE to the total calories you are consuming...but really, it's all about being consistent and as accurate as possible. I highly recommend a food scale as well...not a huge issue with veggies and what not, but calorie dense items it's a life saver. 1 oz of nuts will never look so paltry until you actually put them on a scale. Eyeballing servings and portions is probably numero uno reason why "it just doesn't work" for some people...they underestimate intake and overestimate output.

_HeartsOnFire_

Set up your profile to lose half a pound a week. I know, you want to choose 2 pounds a week, but that isn't attainable with only 10-15 pounds to lose.

This!!!

pavrg

Set up your profile to lose half a pound a week. I know, you want to choose 2 pounds a week, but that isn't attainable with only 10-15 pounds to lose.

Before you do that, OP, what is your weight loss goal based on? Did you pull it out of a hat or do you desire a certain bodyfat % for a leaner look?

I ask because a 5'7" woman lean at 147 lbs has 126-130 lbs of lean body mass. That is quite a lot for a woman.

Speaking from experience I first started with the whole lose 10 lbs thing... then when I got there I realized I needed to drop 15 more to get to my desired bodyfat %.

It's more likely than not that 1 lb/week is a perfectly attainable goal and like many people who start on a weight loss plan, the number of lbs needed to lose to get to your real goal could be a little short.