Not losing what am I doing wrong

dudleyclan

I have started my journey on April 23 and the first week I lost 5 lbs then nothing for so many weeks. This last week I lost 1.8. I upped my calories to 1540 because I was told I was not wating enough. I work out 5 days a week doing cardio and strength training. How much cardio do I need to do to see results. I feel stronger and am pushing myself to do heavier weights. I have a trainer once a week too. I am not giving up I just want to figure out what I am doing wrong. I feel so much better by eating healthier foods. Please help thanks.

lbaileyjohannsen

From just a cursory glance through your diary it looks like you ingest a lot of sodium. Do you watch this amount at all? I have noticed in my short time of logging that the days I eat more sodium the scale does not move. Also, have you been measuring in other places? If you are doing a lot of strength training it is possible you are just gaining muscle, which is denser, buts weighs the same.

ETA: Gaining muscle while losing fat DOES make you skinnier, so measure your inches!!

Another ETA: And DON'T feel bad about your current loss. What you are doing is incredibly difficult and there are so many people out there who aren't even strong enough to take the first step. Keep going!

mmapags

My question would be about measuring. With the strength training you can gain bone and muscle density that can offset fat loss on the scale. It will show up in you measurements as you will have lower overall size from losing fat. Have you checked measurements?

shbretired

don't eat white potatoes; eat yams & sweet potatoes.

only eat multi grain or wheat pasta; I try to limit this to once a month.

c8linmarie

I made the mistake of going by what the TDEE calculators were telling me to eat, based on *moderate activity* even though I was working out 6 days per week, minimum of 1hr per day (3 strength, 3 cardio). In 2 months I gained 2lbs, because while I thought I was eating at a deficit, I was actually eating at a surplus. I did not figure this out until I got a BodyMedia Fit, where it tracks my TDEE on-going, for 23hrs per day. My true TDEE was closer to 1900 per day, as opposed to most TDEE calculators giving me at least 2200 or more.

mcarter99

I would say you're doing nothing wrong but if all these workouts are new to you, your body is building muscle and retaining water and you're making positive changes that the scale does not show. So you need to quit weighing for a while and trust other indicators like how you feel and how your clothes fit. For me, it can take months for the scale to start moving again when I add in some significant new exercise level. The scale doesn't matter, though. Your goal is to improve your body and you're doing that. It's hard to be patient if you see the scale as a report card. Change your focus so just hitting your food/exercise goals in a week is the report card. Focus on your inputs.

And don't get tempted to try new things every week. If you're eating at a deficit and exercising, you ARE going where you're supposed to.

mmapags

I would say you're doing nothing wrong but if all these workouts are new to you, your body is building muscle and retaining water and you're making positive changes that the scale does not show. So you need to quit weighing for a while and trust other indicators like how you feel and how your clothes fit. For me, it can take months for the scale to start moving again when I add in some significant new exercise level. The scale doesn't matter, though. Your goal is to improve your body and you're doing that. It's hard to be patient if you see the scale as a report card. Change your focus so just hitting your food/exercise goals in a week is the report card. Focus on your inputs.

And don't get tempted to try new things every week. If you're eating at a deficit and exercising, you ARE going where you're supposed to.

I agree with all of your post except the part about building muscle. You don't build muscle in a deficit. You need a surplus to do this with the exception of if you are obsese to start or minimal newbie gains of a pound or 2 at the most. You do develop existing muscle tissue via neuromuscular adaptation which does result is better formed muscle tissue and will show as slightly larger and be slightly heavier but is not building muscle in the sense of growing new muscle cells or tissue. It is a good thing and beneficial but to build muscle, in the sense of growing new muscle tissue, you have to have excess energy above your TDEE.

amy1612

Hey, your diary isnt too bad. I would recommend maybe making your own sauces for things, they'll probably be nicer and have less sodium, etc, in them. Are you estimating serving sizes correctly?

All over all, I wouldnt worry too much, when I first lost weight it took a while to gather momentum, I was at the gym all the time, and I didnt see a difference on the scales that I expected. Try not to focus too much on the scales and go by how you measure, your clothes look and feel.

Also, though many may disagree, I didnt always eat my exercise calories. It didnt stop me from losing weight. A lot of people get too hung up on this, and its easy to overestimate exercise burns and underestimate calories eaten

lkcuts

I started out that way lost 10 pounds the first two weeks and was quite excited, then it stopped I kept logging. gained two pounds,kept logging.. nothing..I was about to give up until I read about eating more. So I tweeked my nutrition and uped my calorie goal Started to .excerise 2 -3 times a week.I started chooseing lower sodium and sugar options, cooking more fresh and depending less on higher sodium/ sugar processed foods. More fresh veggies and protein and lo and be hold the scales started moving again. it had been about 40 days for it to start again.. keep tweeking your food. i put 40/40/30 on my nutrition goals I think that helped also. everyones body is different you have to find the thing your body likes the best and be patient...Good luck!:bigsmile:

debbiestine

Cut your carbs down to 100 grams a day and up your protein to 100 grams a day. Look at my diary- it's not that hard. I'm down to 110lbs at 48yrs old (high school weight!) by taking advice from Mark's Daily Apple and the primal blueprint. You won't be sorry!

amy1612

Cut your carbs down to 100 grams a day and up your protein to 100 grams a day. Look at my diary- it's not that hard. I'm down to 110lbs at 48yrs old (high school weight!) by taking advice from Mark's Daily Apple and the primal blueprint. You won't be sorry!

I started eating paleo this weekend (said on Friday I would start on Monday, but then made a paleo style dinner and decided to start right then). Theres some amazing food to be had!

dudleyclan

Thanks for all the advice I will try some and change my eating. Thanks.

MrsBully4

I think your diary looks pretty good overall, and I do think that making your own sauces will help. Homemade tomato sauce for example is delicious! I would also try cutting out white potatoes, swapping whole grain pasta for white pasta, and subbing oatmeal for Cheerios once in a while. It's not the most delicious stuff in the world but I do think it helps me out.

Edit: Also try out Greek yogurt instead of Yoplait!

mcarter99

I would say you're doing nothing wrong but if all these workouts are new to you, your body is building muscle and retaining water and you're making positive changes that the scale does not show. So you need to quit weighing for a while and trust other indicators like how you feel and how your clothes fit. For me, it can take months for the scale to start moving again when I add in some significant new exercise level. The scale doesn't matter, though. Your goal is to improve your body and you're doing that. It's hard to be patient if you see the scale as a report card. Change your focus so just hitting your food/exercise goals in a week is the report card. Focus on your inputs.

And don't get tempted to try new things every week. If you're eating at a deficit and exercising, you ARE going where you're supposed to.

I agree with all of your post except the part about building muscle. You don't build muscle in a deficit. You need a surplus to do this with the exception of if you are obsese to start or minimal newbie gains of a pound or 2 at the most. You do develop existing muscle tissue via neuromuscular adaptation which does result is better formed muscle tissue and will show as slightly larger and be slightly heavier but is not building muscle in the sense of growing new muscle cells or tissue. It is a good thing and beneficial but to build muscle, in the sense of growing new muscle tissue, you have to have excess energy above your TDEE.

Good to know.

OP- You've lost around 7 lbs. in 7 weeks, right? That's not bad at all, especially if you consider maybe you did get that 2 lbs. of 'newbie muscle gain' mentioned above. So you could've actually lost 9 lbs. of fat and gained 2 of muscle, right? That's significant! Keep at it. Don't expect it to come off in a linear, predictable fashion. That '1 lb. per week' estimate is based on a long time frame. You might lose nothing for 4 weeks, then lose 4 lbs. We can't really see the tiny increments well, either, due to water/food/etc. issues that affect scale values.

1holegrouper

Hi,

There are a lot of things you can do but I would not want to do them all at once. I would take steps. if I were you I'm going to tell you exactly what my trainer would tell me to do (just talking about diet) in the next few weeks. Take it for what its worth:

weeks 1-2. Cut all sugar!, If something has a list of ingredients in it; don't eat it or drink it. i.e eat whole foods only. Do add more leafy greens and vegetables. Get raw almonds, soak them overnight then drain and eat 10 a day. Allow 1 serving of fruit in the AM as your only sugar. I estimate you will loose at least 5 pounds doing this.

weeks 3-4 keep above rules but add; no late night snacks. Make your last bite at least 3 hours before you go to sleep. Drink more water. I suspect another 2-3 pounds lost.

weeks 5-6 cut all dairy! You will start to detoxify now and your liver will reward you by assisting in fat burning.

weeks 7-8 only eat gluten free grains like quinoa or millet. Sweet potatoes, while not a grain are put in this category. If you have grains then don't have animal protein at the same time. It doesn't matter if you have a gluten allergy or not. Do it anyway. Do not eat any starchy foods; ex; potatoes, breads, crackers, flour. You are now eating fruits, vegetables, gluten free grains, healthy fats and modest amounts of animal protein.

starting week 7 you will be eating the following type of foods:

breakfast; spinach and banana and hemp powder protein smoothie
snack; 10 almonds
lunch; large salad with olive oil, tuna and ground flax powder
snack; kale and avocado
dinner; large salad with baked Haddock
with normal portions this would total 1,300- 1,500 calories. This is about the same as you eat now just different and more nutritious.

This may seem extremely radical. But your results will be radical. I started about the same time as you and have lost 37 pounds. And, these were my stubborn pounds. I was in great 'shape' before I started this but had stubborn fat I could not get rid of. The above is a sample of my daily diet. I first thought my trainer/nutritionist was crazy! But she kept saying; humor me with this and lets just try this for a week. The results alone motivated me to keep it up. I'm rarely hungry and EVERYTHING in life is better. About every 3-4 weeks I have to buy new clothes. Exercise is very important but 80% of this is all about nutrition.

Mrsbrandnewmeslimandtrim

bump

mmapags

Deleted duplicate.

mmapags

Good to know.

OP- You've lost around 7 lbs. in 7 weeks, right? That's not bad at all, especially if you consider maybe you did get that 2 lbs. of 'newbie muscle gain' mentioned above. So you could've actually lost 9 lbs. of fat and gained 2 of muscle, right? That's significant! Keep at it. Don't expect it to come off in a linear, predictable fashion. That '1 lb. per week' estimate is based on a long time frame. You might lose nothing for 4 weeks, then lose 4 lbs. We can't really see the tiny increments well, either, due to water/food/etc. issues that affect scale values.

Excellent advice!