Not losing weight-- what am I doing wrong?

johnseitz

I know what you mean, I am having the same problem.

the way I figure it, your not going to have anything positive happen if you quit. And if you don't quit, it will happen. find a way to have fun while working out. at this time next year, your friends won't recognize you...JUST DONT QUIT!!!

dannidee3

I read some of the responses & got wore out so forgive me if this is a repeat. Years ago I dealt with the same issues. I was working out and reducing calories and still kept gaining weight. Turns out that I was pregnant with our second child. The water weight showed up well before any other signs of pregnancy. This may not relate to you at all but just thought I'd throw it out there. Good for you for seeking answers & pushing forward! -Danielle

dannidee3

Nice reply Johnseitz! Encouragement goes a long way!

RGv2

MUSCLE DOES NOT WEIGH MORE THAN FAT. If I see that one more time I'm going to lose my mind!

1lb of muscle = 1lb of fat ... because ONE POUND EQUALS ONE POUND

That being said, one pound of muscle may be leaner than one pound of fat. So, rather than seeing a change on your scale you may see a change in your body shape (although you mentioned an inch off of your waist and a half an inch off of your hips - if I am quoting you correctly, apologies if those numbers are off) so that doesn't seem to be what's going on.

I hope you find a schedule for working out and a mindset that make you happy and less stressed! best of luck with the rest of your journey!

You don't gain muscle at the same rate that you lose water/fat, so noob muscle gain for the OP wouldn't stall the scale.

Increased water retention due to exercise however....

True. My rant was more about the ever quoted "muscle weighs more than fat" line.

OK, the bolded line made me think you meant the latter.

Aikigoth

To the OP (who may no longer be reading....IDK):

1. HRM monitors have their pros and cons. They are not for weight lifting or stop and go exercise. I'm about 3" taller than you and at 188. I tend to find that my heart rate monitor comes in line with popular calorie estimates for high activity stuff....zumba/ competitive racketball/ roller skating. I spent 3 hours at a skating rink the other day....burned 1558; that was with regular skates and almost keeping up with speed skaters.

I keep my heart rate monitor on when I lift (about 50 minutes with a trainer)...it will tell me that I burned the same as a 60 minute zumba class. Ha- nope. After a zumba class, I'm done for the day. Weight lifting...give me an hour and I'm energetic again. Basically, if it isn't steady state, don't use the HRM....unless you just want to know your heart rate.

2. Remember, you burn something like 80 calories an hour sitting. So if you walk around for a 2 hours and plug in that you burned 252 calories...you really burned about 92 extra compared to sitting. (Numbers will vary of course due to your weight/ walking speed.) For weight loss, you need to burn calories above your resting rate.

3. Look at your macros. Many people do better with more protein.

4. Stress. From your posts and reactions to people, I'm not thinking you are in a happy mental place right now. It might be worth the money to see a counselor or join a therapy group. Do you like your exercises? If not, its always going to be a horrible grind.

Good luck.

59gi

You could have Metabolic syndrome. See a doctor.
Quality of food does matter and you can't exercise a bad diet.
Too much exercise increases your stress hormones and can stall your weight loss.
It is not cico. Our body is complicated and many factors can influence the outcome.

gopgirl425

Read Aaron_K123's post please OP and follow....this is great advice.

going2heaven87

For the past month and a week, I've been working out 5-6 days per week. I do various exercises each time but I usually start with a 30-40 minute 12% incline, 3.8mph treadmill walk OR a 30-40 minute intense crossfit workout. Then I always do 10-15 minutes of moderately intense to intense row machine work. After this I'll spend another 20-30 minutes doing various weights, abdominal exercises, etc etc (I have a personal trainer and I mostly utilize the various exercises she has shown me). At the end of the day I usually end up burning anywhere between 1200-1800 calories from workouts, depending on how intense the workouts were and how much I walked that day (usually 30min-2 hours of walking daily).

My daily calorie intake is around 1200-1850 calories (1850 would be the bad days, usually 1 a week). I have a food scale and religiously weigh and record everything.

Problem is.... not only have I not lost weight since I started working out again, but I've gained 2 pounds. This isn't the first time I've tried to lose weight. In the fall I lost around 15 pounds in a month and I wasn't being nearly as good with my workouts (3-4 a week).

I figured that maybe I had a thyroid issue so I asked one of my nurse friends. She says that was good thinking, but considering I was just recently losing weight, chances are the thyroid problems wouldn't kick in so quickly and perhaps the complete lack of weight loss is due to hormonal issues due to stress (ironically I'm the MOST stressed out about not losing weight....very helpful).

Has anyone else had any issues such as this before or have any insight or advice that could point me in the right direction?

If you are burning as much as you are eating, then you should be losing 1-1.5 lbs every other day. I'm glad I don't have issues like that and you may want to get seen. People always worry about medical issues which really isn't that common. It's simple calories in/calories out for me. I eat 500 less than my BMR, workout 3- 45 minutes sessions a week which are mandatory for me and go about my daily life and I am losing weight like crazy. Good luck. I hope the doctor doesn't give you the "you're gaining muscle and muscle weighs more than fat" BS because if you are gaining a pound of muscle every other day which even outs the fat loss you should be getting based on your numbers, then you will be a body builder in a few months.

Unknown

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going2heaven87

I'm not just walking 2-3 hours. I'm doing that in addition to being at the gym for an hour or 2. In an average day I'm up and moving around 4 hours.

But like everyone seems to be saying, I guess I'm eating too much. I already feel like I'm starving and light-headed all day so Idk how eating even less is supposed to make me healthy... but apparently I need to.

Please don't tell me I'm making "excuses". I'm trying VERY VERY VERY hard. It's all I think about and all I've been focusing energy on. I'm not making excuses. I'm very frustrated, hurt, and confused. No sass is necessary. I'll just see my doctor.

How much of your workout, exercise calories are you eating back? I saw in a previous post that your net calories could be anywhere from -300 to 500 and if that is the case you may not be eating enough if your spending so much time moving and being active. If your not eating enough calories to fuel your workouts your body will start to go into starvation mode and will hold onto everything to protect itself. I personally find that if my net calories fall below consistently fall below 1200, I stop losing weight. I'm also finding that if I work out too hard too many days in a row, I also stop losing no matter how much I eat or don't eat.

As my youngest son recently commented, this whole dieting and eating healthy this is really hard. Especially knowing what you should be eating and how much you should be working out. It's a delicate balance, and there is no formula that works for every single person out there. Hang in there! Even if the scale isn't moving in the direction you want, you're out there exercising and making better food choices and doing good things for yourself. If your health plan allows and your still frustrated, maybe meeting with a nutritionist could help as well, they could look at what you're logging and your work outs and provide insight.

You should read this:

http://www.aworkoutroutine.com/starvation-mode/

going2heaven87

it does sound like you are actually not eating enough hun. I've lost nearly 2 stones in the last 8 weeks and don't weigh everything in fact I weigh out almost nothing. I spoke to my practice nurse who said your body needs a certain ammount of calories just to function roughly 1000 to 1500 for a woman, dependant on size. You need to burn 3500 calories to lose 1 pound. If you are exercising and not eating enough then your body is reacting and goes into starvation mode for self preservation. I fill in the food diary and exercise diary on here and its is showing that I eat between 1000 to 1500 and any extra calories earned by exercise are what I am burning off. I filled in all my details and it says I can eat about 2500 and still lose, this will change as I lose more weight.That is without what it gives me back for any exercise I do. I also am a member of a slimming club and get great advice from them and my gp practice. As I said I've already lost a lot, roughly 3 lbs per week and I have plans for even more. It will be a long journey and worth every step. Hope this helps quote]

I'm not just walking 2-3 hours. I'm doing that in addition to being at the gym for an hour or 2. In an average day I'm up and moving around 4 hours.

But like everyone seems to be saying, I guess I'm eating too much. I already feel like I'm starving and light-headed all day so Idk how eating even less is supposed to make me healthy... but apparently I need to.

Please don't tell me I'm making "excuses". I'm trying VERY VERY VERY hard. It's all I think about and all I've been focusing energy on. I'm not making excuses. I'm very frustrated, hurt, and confused. No sass is necessary. I'll just see my doctor.

How much of your workout, exercise calories are you eating back? I saw in a previous post that your net calories could be anywhere from -300 to 500 and if that is the case you may not be eating enough if your spending so much time moving and being active. If your not eating enough calories to fuel your workouts your body will start to go into starvation mode and will hold onto everything to protect itself. I personally find that if my net calories fall below consistently fall below 1200, I stop losing weight. I'm also finding that if I work out too hard too many days in a row, I also stop losing no matter how much I eat or don't eat.

As my youngest son recently commented, this whole dieting and eating healthy this is really hard. Especially knowing what you should be eating and how much you should be working out. It's a delicate balance, and there is no formula that works for every single person out there. Hang in there! Even if the scale isn't moving in the direction you want, you're out there exercising and making better food choices and doing good things for yourself. If your health plan allows and your still frustrated, maybe meeting with a nutritionist could help as well, they could look at what you're logging and your work outs and provide insight.

[/quote]

You should read this:

http://www.aworkoutroutine.com/starvation-mode/

modestbender

All right, so, I'm a heavier woman and this has totally happened to me. You're working out a ton and not eating much and not losing weight. The answer is NOT to eat less! And yes, we can make errors measuring our intake and outtake, but when in doubt listen to your body. If you feel hungry and lightheaded all the time, there's a good chance you're not eating enough.

This happened to me when I started a new workout schedule a couple months ago. Weight loss stalled, but I felt lightheaded and sick. I had to nap everyday because I was worn out. I didn't think I could possibly be eating too little because it's so counterintuitive, but thought I would increase my intake and see what happened. I adjusted to 1/lbs loss a week on MFP, but only eat back calories sometimes...you know, like when I have a rough workout and am especially famished.

Problem solved! I started dropping lbs easily.

I don't know why peoples' default answer to "what am I doing wrong" seems to always be "you don't know what you're doing and you need to be harder on yourself." You said you're weighing your food and you have a HRM. You're exercising a ton. Be easier on yourself! Eat a bit more, make sure you're getting enough protein, listen to your body, and see if that does the trick.

zenmohawk

Congrats on taking the initiative to do what your doing:) Maybe try less of an intense workout routine and spread your 1 day work out over a couple of days. I do 30 minutes of swimming and a lifting routine of upper body 3 days a week and lower body alternating 3 days and one day of rest. I do 1000- 1300 cals per day. I find a nice weight loss when I weigh in. If your dizzy and hungry/starving you may be working your body to hard. Also look for hidden sugars, bad carbs and the like.

yankeedownsouth

I am a firm believer in that I can't out exercise my mouth. So finding a balance between exercise, rest and good food seems to do the trick at least for me.

I really like this.

americansow

I have gone to the gym 4days in a row and gained weight. OMG what the what

americansow

I want to find someone in my age group with the same weight loss goals. I just turned 40. I'm 5'8. 200 pounds. Really want support and want to give support as we journey through this road of health and well being

monrizz90

Thanks for all the great responses. Lots of great info. I've changed my workouts a bit, stopped using my HRM to measure calories during weight training, and began to eat a little more. I've lost around 3 pounds in the past 2 weeks.

Sorry for the spaz attack a few weeks ago!! You've all been very helpful.