Exercise vs the scale

pawstech09

I have lost my first 55lbs through diet alone, but at the beginning of February I decided I finally felt confident enough to also add exercise into my new lifestyle. I work out for about 30 minutes a day, alternating HIIT on the treadmill or elliptical with Level 1 or 2 30 Day Shred when I need some weights in my life. Every day I push myself to be just that much more sore the next day and so far it has been challenging and very rewarding!

I have enjoyed benefits such as more energy, clothes fitting better, people commenting, and best of all I lost 11.5" over the past 4 weeks! The only problem I've had with any of it is that no matter how much I've tried and succeeded thus far, I have only lost 2.5lbs.

2.5lbs in 4 weeks is not very much for me, with diet alone I had been losing more than that every month, and I'm also still very much overweight at 216lbs and have a lot of fat to burn. So why is my scale not moving very well?? I'm not unmotivated, in fact I'm even more motivated to get this weight off, but I'm working harder than I ever have in my life for it to go that much more slowly and it can be a buzz kill sometimes.

Also, I know the standard response to exercising is that you need to eat your calories back, but there's also success in those that choose calorie deficit if there is a large amount of weight still left to lose. (I need to lose another 50lbs, my total should end up being 110 when I'm completely done). I eat approximately 1400 calories a day, exercising 30 minutes a day isn't giving me a terrible enough deficit for my body to want to hold onto the pounds in "starvation mode" considering there's so much left to "eat".

What gives?

SezxyStef

If you have recently added in the exercise you are retaining water and gylcogen in your muscles...no worries.

The fact you have lost is great tho...

Remember this if you want to lose fat and not just weight (which includes muscle) resistence training is great along with eating enough protien to maintain your muscle.

I started with JM 30DS...and I admit it was hard but it gave me that boost to start lifting weights (wish I had started with the heavy lifting right off the bat)

Just remember to eat to fuel your workouts. But you don't have to eat them all back...eat a portion back.

But with just 55lbs to go maybe re-evaluate your weekly weight loss goal...is it still at 2lbs??? try 1lb...Yes it will take longer but it is a healthier way to do it.

LosingItForGood13

As I was worrying about the same thing when I went pass my 5th month of working out and the gym trainer said you will gain muscles first then the FAT comes off secondly

erind2017

I'm not very experienced with all this yet, but what I can say is muscle weighs more than fat. So, if you just recently added exercise then you are probably gaining muscle while still burning fat. It's not always a bad thing that you aren't seeing the scale move.

gonefishin1282

Great advice Stef! I was actually wondering the same thing.....The first 25 melted off, then once I added working out it hit a stand still for the last week or so!

MB_Positif

Well, I don't know if this helps, but I lost 50 pounds in the first year I was here. Then in the following two years I was pretty much maintaining and doing mostly just a heavy lifting program. I only lost a couple of pounds, but went from a size 10 to wearing size 4-6 in less than a year. So, yes 1 went from 137 pounds wearing a size 10 to 135 pounds wearing size 4-6. I'll take that over a number on the scale any day! Good luck!!!

fallingtrees

I usually let myself "eat back" about half the calories.

Bear in mind that when you first stress a muscle, it responds by holding water to heal itself and build more muscle tissue. Once it does that, it releases that water. I've noticed a pattern in myself of slight gain accompanying new muscle ache, and after a couple of days, the ache goes away and the scale drops.