Anyone just NOT lose weight?

I'm frustrated as well. It's been about four weeks. I lost 5 lbs in the first week and since then, nothing. I'm eating SO much better than before. I'm exercising every day, and still the scale hasn't budged. I'm 36.

However, I'm using my mom as inspiration. She is 60 and has lost 80 lbs in the past year. She did it by doing exactly what we are all doing. Counting calories and exercise. She used her recumbent bike 45 minutes a day.

I can remember how in the beginning she complained about how nothing she did was working and nearly gave up a few times.....but WOW!!!! You should see her now!!! I got her thighs and thought they were a permanent thing. I was wrong! Her thighs are gone at age 60!!!!

So i'm going to keep soldiering on. The scale HAS GOT to move eventually.

I know that things move slower as you age...but to me 39 isn;t that old, lol

If it helps im 43 lol

Are you making sure to count your calories and log everything you eat? Calories can definitely creep up.

I'm with ya though - my weight loss has really slowed and it is discouraging. But just keep pushing through and you'll get there. Try mixing up your workout routine.

5 lbs of fat takes up as , much room as 3 grapefruit.
5 lbs of muscle takes up as much room as 3 tangerines.

how do your clothes fit?

First and foremost, as mentioned, you need to weigh your portions. Especially the high carb foods like rice, pasta, bread, etc. Even slight errors there can make a big difference on your total calorie count. A good quality digital scale costs 10 USD. There's no reason not to use one at home.

Also, are you sure you are including everything? Butter on your rolls, olive oil on your salad, etc.?? I would be very conservative when recording calories (er, liberal). When in doubt, always assume it's more than you think, especially when you eat out.

Also, watch out for the serving size con. Calories listed on foods are in serving sizes, which are often minuscule (e.g. per 100g).

Age is not an issue. I'm 45, changed my diet and began exercising six months ago, and lost weight consistently throughout, until I hit my goal weight a few weeks ago. But I was almost always under my daily calorie goal. I tried to eat my exercise calories back. When I knew I was going to go over on a given day, I made a point to jog that day, to "buy" myself extra calories. I often entered my meals in the morning, so I knew in advance where I'd end up. This is how I knew I'd need to exercise a bit more that day....

But also be careful when recording calories burned from cardio. Again, I always tried to underestimate my burn a bit. I think the MFP numbers are high for cardio, anyway. So if I ran for 40 minutes, I recorded it as 30 minutes, etc., etc.

I checked your diary and it looks pretty good. Just make sure you're not missing anything.

And good luck.

--P

I trained for a marathon for 6 months and didn't lose any weight.... I think it's because I was eating back all of my exercise calories. I have started measuring calories burned based on heart rate, rather than use MFP estimations and have stopped eating all of my exercise calories and have lost 9lbs in about 6/7weeks.

A couple of additional points:

1 - I no longer record my food, as I have a good feel for where I am each day. And quite frankly, if anything, I need to gain back a kilo or two... If you want to see my diary, you'll need to go back a couple of weeks.

2 - When I began six months ago, I didn't have a scale. I did weigh myself when I traveled, using the hotel scale (I travel on business quite a bit). This meant I only weighed myself once a week max, and sometimes I went 2-3 weeks without weighing. This was a huge advantage at the start because of the following:

a) I didn't stress about my weight. I knew I was eating better, exercising, etc. I saw that my clothes were getting looser, etc., and that was enough for me. I just assumed things were moving in the right direction.

b) As I recall, after an initial loss, I didn't really lose much for some weeks. But again, I noticed other things. I went from struggling to do 10 push ups to doing 20, then 30, and later 50, etc., etc. Because I didn't have a scale, I didn't really care much about my actual weight. Had I fixated on my weight in the beginning, I would have been frustrated. Later, btw, the weight just started to go quite consistently. About 2 pounds per week. But again, the beginning was a bit rocky. My body was probably trying to make sense of what the heck I was doing, after neglecting myself for so long... :-)

If you are eating at a calorie deficit, if you continue to exercise, you will get healthier, and you will absolutely lose weight. You cannot defy the laws of thermodynamics.

--P

Yes, that's a good point. Women do have more complex bodies than men. There are probably a few additional factors that come into play. I would hope the longer term impact is the same. Just, as you noted, not as linear.

--P