Reassurance please!

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Febgirl
Febgirl Posts: 68 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi all,

I've been tracking my food on MFP and exercising regularly for exactly one month now. I've lost a grand total of 1.2kg (3 pounds) which isn't exactly earth shattering given that I do have 16kg (35 pounds) to lose. I'm ok in theory with a slow loss, this is for life, I've had 2 babies in 2 years so things are bound to take more time to slim down than pre-babies, but it's hard when you see on here so many people who have amazing results in a short time period!

With my exercise I go to the gym 4-5 times a week, do minimum cardio (25 - 30 minutes) and focus on weights for the rest of my workout. I took some before pics and some again tonight and in a month I can see a difference - I have visibly improved muscle definition in my upper body particularly my arms and shoulder, and my waistline is several inches smaller so I know that something must be happening!

Should I keep doing what I'm doing and just accept that it's going to take a long while for the scales to go down, or try something different with my exercise e.g. more cardio? I used to enjoy running when I was super fit but it takes a lot of effort to get back to a level where you don't feel like you're going to die after 5 minutes! I'm comfortable with the food side of things, just wondering about exercise....

Edited to add: my approach has always been that I would rather build muscle and lose weight slowly so that by the time I am at my goal size (maybe not weight?) I will look good, rather than losing weight fast then get to goal weight and have to try and tone up saggy bits! Not sure if that's really how it works though...

Replies

  • whateverdamnit
    whateverdamnit Posts: 130
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    How many calories are you consuming..?
  • Febgirl
    Febgirl Posts: 68 Member
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    First 3 weeks 1510, this week I dropped down to 1250 (1.5 pound loss/week) to see if that would change anything - haven't weighed in yet this week so not sure how it's gone. I eat most of my exercise calories back.
  • whateverdamnit
    whateverdamnit Posts: 130
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    If you don't eat your calories back, your weight will start flying off. :)
  • whateverdamnit
    whateverdamnit Posts: 130
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    That works for me, anyway. I'm only 5'2 and have about 6kg's (12lbs) to lose.
  • MELOZZA
    MELOZZA Posts: 4 Member
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    If you are doing lots of weights you will be putting on muscle which is denser than fat so weighs more, so you end up looking thinner but weighing the same or sometimes more but stick with it as once the muscle gain stops the fat will keep on dissappearing. Perhaps do an extra 10 mins cardio, running is the best calorie burner.
  • ramseyrose
    ramseyrose Posts: 421 Member
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    I am in the same boat too. I am losing weight slowly (a 6lb gain at Easter didnt help) but losing inches. I read on a fitness site that you should do weights before cardio as your muscles are in the right mode for fat loss.

    Another thing to try is calorie zigzagging. Check out http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm. I started this two weeks ago and lost 3lb. I set the exercise as little so I could still add it to MFP. I started off by changing the goals everyday which makes the diary confusing but now I add a 'zigag exercise' onto days that I need to put extra calories.

    If you want to get back into running take a look at www.c25k.com. It will break you back in gently and its something you can do at the gym.

    Good luck and dont forget slowly slowly, catchy monkey
  • chickielou
    chickielou Posts: 47
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    I was having the same prob but I did notice on the few days Ive managed not to eat all my calories earned from exercise ive had the biggest losses on those days and not on the ones that I eat all my Cals.......I am going to try leave at least 300 Cals from exercise to start with, cos where I might be able to fit in 70-90mins cardio a day now, I might not be able to keep this up and then be used to eating all those extra calories so best get used to cutting them down and not eating the exercise ones and see bigger results and also not put any on if I have days I cant do lots of exercise.........

    Let us know how you go if you manage to not eat your Exercise Cals for a week......
  • francinecowart
    francinecowart Posts: 84
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    :flowerforyou: ..just hang in there and stay strong..i keep strong by self motivation...i get mad at it, and then tell myself i'm going to win this thing.....and that i'll never give up
  • Pebble321
    Pebble321 Posts: 6,554 Member
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    It sounds like you're doing everything right. Keep it up for a bit longer and see how your body reacts.
    Good work!
  • Happyoceangirl
    Happyoceangirl Posts: 1,993 Member
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    Hi there. :) Just popping in to say I've lost roughly 57 lbs and it has happened at a snail's pace. About 10 lbs were over the course of a year, without any real effort, just adding walking my dog to my daily activity level. About 17 lbs happened in the course of 2-3 weeks when I was super sick and couldn't eat. But the rest of it (about 30 lbs) has come off over the last 2 years with consistent exercise and average (not horrible, not great) eating habits. I'm sure less junk food would've sped things up.

    But here I am, in the 130's and inching, ever so slowly, into the 120's. I'm just glad I'm here. Stick with it! :)

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