Why am I not losing any weight? Frustrated!

sexylonglegs

Are you sure?

I'm absolutely, positively, definitely , unquestionably, 110% sure as hell.

^^^^listen to him

tom_olech

Yeah I have noticed a difference in inches but at the same time do want to lose weight still. I'm doing weight training followed by cardio each day. Monday I work on abs then do an hour long Zumba class. Tuesday is legs and cardio. Wed is abs and back then cardio. Thursday is arms then cardio. Friday is legs then cardio. I'm going to try increase my calories to my TDEE which is 2200 for 3 days then slowly decrease it until I'm eating about 1600-1800 calories. I've been told this will just give my body the boost it needs because I've been eating too little apparently. So I'll put on in the beginning but hopefully I start to lose after a month or so

Don't really have any major problem areas just looking to lose fat and get leaner Thank you!

^^You are already losing fat and gaining muscle! Your good...if scale does not change, who cares

Abells

I'm 5'3" weighing in at 141.2 at the moment. AFter working out and such I'm eating about 1700 or so calories a day. I also lowered my carb ratio due to the fact that I was eating too many processed carbs - now it only comes from vegetables and fruit which has helped me a ton. My weight isn't moving all that quickly but I'm dropping inches like a champ.

Because you weight lift as do I you will not see as much progress on the scale. Buy a caliper and measure your BF % which is what I'm doing. scales won't measure you correctly as they only take into account your height vs. weight and not LBM.

carmendeans

Thanks everyone for all the help! Really appreciate everything!

carmendeans

You definitely need to eat back the calories you burn, other wise you put your body into a starvation mode and it will live off the stored fat you have and your weight will go nowhere. I also workout 5-6 days a week by doing cardio, TRX, ab classes, spinning classes and body blast classes and was eating 1570 calories, and felt like I was hungry so upped to 1680 and have been seeing small changes. Personally, I dont think you need to lose anymore weight, now its all about toning up what you have. Another reason why you might not see the number change on the scale is because you are building muscle and definition and losing inches. The number on the scale is just a number!

How exactly do I know how many calories I'm burning? In myfitnesspal the weight training exercises don't have any sort of calorie value so I don't know how many calories to eat back. What do you do? Or do you just record the cardio you do?

parham_ap

You definitely need to eat back the calories you burn, other wise you put your body into a starvation mode and it will live off the stored fat you have and your weight will go nowhere. I also workout 5-6 days a week by doing cardio, TRX, ab classes, spinning classes and body blast classes and was eating 1570 calories, and felt like I was hungry so upped to 1680 and have been seeing small changes. Personally, I dont think you need to lose anymore weight, now its all about toning up what you have. Another reason why you might not see the number change on the scale is because you are building muscle and definition and losing inches. The number on the scale is just a number!

How exactly do I know how many calories I'm burning? In myfitnesspal the weight training exercises don't have any sort of calorie value so I don't know how many calories to eat back. What do you do? Or do you just record the cardio you do?

Buy and use a HRM, like Polar FT7 or FT4 or anything else having that option... it will tell you how much calories you are burning during your exercise.

Shelgirl001

This... totally.

Have you tried actually following the MFP numbers, including eating back exercise calories as MFP indicates? You may simply not be eating enough calories.

It's also possible you aren't losing actual weight because you are displacing fat with heavier muscle. This is indicated by the fact you are seeing a difference in your measurements. I would worry less about the scale and more about body fat percentage, which is a better indicator of your progress.

carmendeans

[/quote]
and use a HRM, like Polar FT7 or FT4 or anything else having that option... it will tell you how much calories you are burning during your exercise.
[/quote]

haha I live in Zimbabwe...that stuff isn't available here. Guess I'm at a disadvantage then lol

Sorry I'm not sure how to quote things properly either :P first time posting

MistressAella

When you get closer to your goal weight and you want to look lean and "toned" what you essentially need to do is a body re-composition. Whereby you are in a way trading fat weight for muscle weight. A woman can't gain a ton of muscle, especially really fast, because we lack the testosterone levels to do it. If you just go by scale weight (which is everything from bones and water retention to fat and muscle) it doesn't tell you the whole story. It doesn't tell you your body fat percentage is going down and it doesn't tell you that you've gained muscle or ate a little too much salt yesterday, lol. Google the difference between 5 pounds of muscle and 5 pounds of fat. It's crazy! But they both weight the same. I made my husband hide my scale because I found I was getting too dependent on it to tell me if I was "doing well" or not instead of gauging it by how I feel and how I look

carmendeans

When you get closer to your goal weight and you want to look lean and "toned" what you essentially need to do is a body re-composition. Whereby you are in a way trading fat weight for muscle weight. A woman can't gain a ton of muscle, especially really fast, because we lack the testosterone levels to do it. If you just go by scale weight (which is everything from bones and water retention to fat and muscle) it doesn't tell you the whole story. It doesn't tell you your body fat percentage is going down and it doesn't tell you that you've gained muscle or ate a little too much salt yesterday, lol. Google the difference between 5 pounds of muscle and 5 pounds of fat. It's crazy! But they both weight the same. I made my husband hide my scale because I found I was getting too dependent on it to tell me if I was "doing well" or not instead of gauging it by how I feel and how I look

Yeah you're right But at the same time I have this goal in mind and I am toned I just need to lose 2 more kgs and I'll stop stressing. It's these last few which are the problem but I'm determined Thank you for your input

gpstrucker

haha I live in Zimbabwe...that stuff isn't available here. Guess I'm at a disadvantage then lol

You don't have a postal service? You can buy them from Amazon or just about any other "mail order" website.

ldrosophila

How come only 20% fat out of curiosity?

Zimbabwe very cool I lived for a short time in Nigeria. I can just imagine how green and lush it must be over there. I'm jealous.

CM9178

I was going to say the same thing as many others here. If you haven't lost at below 1500 or at 1500, then you aren't eating enough. If 1500 is a 500 calorie deficit, and then you are exercising and probably burning a lot more calories, you aren't eating nearly enough.
Figure out an accurate way to track how many calories you are burning and then eat back those calories so that you are actually netting 1500.

carmendeans

haha I live in Zimbabwe...that stuff isn't available here. Guess I'm at a disadvantage then lol

You don't have a postal service? You can buy them from Amazon or just about any other "mail order" website.

Haha not exactly. End up paying double the price because you need to order from Amazon through a courier. I'm moving to England in June so I'll just wait it out

geomars

Intermittent Fasting will help you get rid of any stubborn fat. I am doing IF at the moment and it works quite well. What I do is 18/6 which means I have a 6 hour eating window to get all of my caloric intake for the day then I fast for 18 hours. It is not starving yourself, no it does not put your body into starvation mode, it puts your body into fat burning mode. You just need to make sure you get your calories in at your "eating window." My eating window is from 11am-5pm, after 5pm I don't eat until 11am next day. Eat high protein foods, mid-range carbs, and low fat foods.

For those who worry that this will burn muscle, it does not burn muscle. It only burns fat and you actually gain muscle while Intermittent Fasting, if you include exercise of course. I've recently started IF and I've lost 5 lbs already granted it's probably some water weight there but the fat keeps melting off. I've also incorporated cardio and compound exercises, while fasted of course. When you're fasting and you exercise your body needs fat to burn off for energy, but since you are on empty it goes to the next best thing, your stored fat and it starts burning off stored fat. This is happening in my case, I exercise 2 hours before I break my fast, I do push ups, dips and cardio. I've gained muscle and I am still losing inches around my waist. I used to wear size large in shirts, I am down to Medium now, my pants are even more loose than before. This is just advice though, IF is not a diet but you can incorporated it with any diet that you are doing. IF just tells you when you can eat and when you cannot eat. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask, just trying to help.

carmendeans

How come only 20% fat out of curiosity?

Zimbabwe very cool I lived for a short time in Nigeria. I can just imagine how green and lush it must be over there. I'm jealous.

Those macronutrient ratios were recommended from a couple places. I did my research and that seemed to be the best ratio for fat loss and maintaining lean muscle. Yeah it is a pretty place but I'm ready to get to civilization!

carmendeans

Intermittent Fasting will help you get rid of any stubborn fat. I am doing IF at the moment and it works quite well. What I do is 18/6 which means I have a 6 hour eating window to get all of my caloric intake for the day then I fast for 18 hours. It is not starving yourself, no it does not put your body into starvation mode, it puts your body into fat burning mode. You just need to make sure you get your calories in at your "eating window." My eating window is from 11am-5pm, after 5pm I don't eat until 11am next day. Eat high protein foods, mid-range carbs, and low fat foods.

For those who worry that this will burn muscle, it does not burn muscle. It only burns fat and you actually gain muscle while Intermittent Fasting, if you include exercise of course. I've recently started IF and I've lost 5 lbs already granted it's probably some water weight there but the fat keeps melting off. I've also incorporated cardio and compound exercises, while fasted of course. When you're fasting and you exercise your body needs fat to burn off for energy, but since you are on empty it goes to the next best thing, your stored fat and it starts burning off stored fat. This is happening in my case, I exercise 2 hours before I break my fast, I do push ups, dips and cardio. I've gained muscle and I am still losing inches around my waist. I used to wear size large in shirts, I am down to Medium now, my pants are even more loose than before. This is just advice though, IF is not a diet but you can incorporated it with any diet that you are doing. IF just tells you when you can eat and when you cannot eat. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask, just trying to help.

Thanks for the advice! I've heard of a lot of people trying this but they complain about feeling tired and having bad breath I did try it for a couple days but find it hard to adapt into a long term thing. If all else fails, I'll give IF a proper go to try shift that last stubborn fat

geomars

Yea I completely understand, when I first tried it, it was very difficult because I wanted to cheat really bad. Thing is you get used to it. When I came across IF I did my fair amount of research, saw youtube videos on people talking about it and even success stories of people who went on IF and lost the fat they wanted. Just a couple tips if you do try it again, when you're fasting drink a lot of water, you can drink teas, black coffee (no sugar of course) and pretty much any drink that has 0 calories. But yea IF is definitely not for people who cannot control their cravings lol. If you are interested I can point you to some channels that talk about IF on youtube, or just simply go on it and type in intermittent fasting.

ctroxell2004

keep in mind when you weight train you are adding muscle.....so that could be why you aren't losing the weight on the scale....

are you clothes feeling looser?

Don't like by the scale....!!

carmendeans

Yea I completely understand, when I first tried it, it was very difficult because I wanted to cheat really bad. Thing is you get used to it. When I came across IF I did my fair amount of research, saw youtube videos on people talking about it and even success stories of people who went on IF and lost the fat they wanted. Just a couple tips if you do try it again, when you're fasting drink a lot of water, you can drink teas, black coffee (no sugar of course) and pretty much any drink that has 0 calories. But yea IF is definitely not for people who cannot control their cravings lol. If you are interested I can point you to some channels that talk about IF on youtube, or just simply go on it and type in intermittent fasting.

Yeah thanks would love to check out some channels I know the hodge twins do it They're really helpful. But yeah, think i need to do more research on it. I never get cravings so that's not a problem. It just isn't nice when say, you want to go out for dinner and your window for the day ended at 5pm you get me? It seems like a very rigid way to live.