I need some help with patience. Lifting and losing.

tat2dzombiegirl
tat2dzombiegirl Posts: 54 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I started my journey Sept 1 with a gym membership. Since then I've lost 15lbs my boyfriend and workout buddy has lost 30lbs. I signed up for MFP mid Nov because in all that time I'd only lost a few pounds and he lost 15lbs.

Since signing up here I've dropped 10lbs. Realizing my eating habits were just BAD. My scale doesn't move as much as I'd like it to and I know it's all about inches. But it's hard.

I do about 60 min of cardio 5-6x's a week and lift 30-60min 4-5x's a week. I lift hard more than some guys around me in the gym. I've just trained with my man so I can lift like a man. And I love showing them up. I am so proud of my progress over these few months.

My question is how do you keep the motivation up? Who has patience? Anyone else experience what I'm going through? Gaining lots of muscle and losing fat but not lbs. Anyway to ramp up weight loss or is it really because muscle weighs more?

Replies

  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,343 Member
    All I can offer is my point of view - if I'm losing inches and happy with the results I'm seeing in the mirror, I couldn't care less about the number on the scale. We don't walk around with the scale number pinned to our back or floating over our head - we walk around in the body we live in, and if it's looking better/slimmer, that's a lot more important than fixating on a scale reading.
  • tat2dzombiegirl
    tat2dzombiegirl Posts: 54 Member
    This is true thanks for the insight. I just hate the numbers game. And the waiting game. I'm horrible at it. Haha. It's a lifestyle and I just gotta keep it up in order for it to keep doing it's thing.
  • Hadabetter
    Hadabetter Posts: 942 Member
    It is true that muscle weighs more than fat but...fat just sits there and looks ugly, but muscle burns calories 24/7, and looks good doing it!

    If your weight isn't going down don't be fooled into thinking that it's because you're gaining muscle. Trust me. It is sooo difficult even for men to gain more than a just few pounds of muscle (without steroids), women really don't need to worry about how strength training makes their weight increase.

    I would suggest that you lift no more than twice a week, with fewer sets but with heavier weights. Muscles only get stronger (i.e., burn more calories and look better) when they are overloaded, as opposed to just being fatigued. If you are very lucky you will gain 1-3 pounds of muscle over time, but think of your new muscles as full-time calorie burners!
  • vanguardfitness
    vanguardfitness Posts: 720 Member
    If you're working out too much on a calorie restriction you're not gonna lose
  • tat2dzombiegirl
    tat2dzombiegirl Posts: 54 Member
    I have realized that with the calorie restriction and have added more healthy proteins to my diet as of lately. Thanks! I'm just so impatient.
  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
    I started my journey Sept 1 with a gym membership. Since then I've lost 15lbs my boyfriend and workout buddy has lost 30lbs. I signed up for MFP mid Nov because in all that time I'd only lost a few pounds and he lost 15lbs.

    Since signing up here I've dropped 10lbs. Realizing my eating habits were just BAD. My scale doesn't move as much as I'd like it to and I know it's all about inches. But it's hard.

    I do about 60 min of cardio 5-6x's a week and lift 30-60min 4-5x's a week. I lift hard more than some guys around me in the gym. I've just trained with my man so I can lift like a man. And I love showing them up. I am so proud of my progress over these few months.

    My question is how do you keep the motivation up? Who has patience? Anyone else experience what I'm going through? Gaining lots of muscle and losing fat but not lbs. Anyway to ramp up weight loss or is it really because muscle weighs more?


    Lots and lots of metrics. Take before pics, take update pics every couple of months or so. Measurements, weight, how clothes fit.

    Document your lift poundages and focus on increasing them, set other performance based metrics if those metrics are relevant to your body composition goals.

    The more means you have to validate your method, the more opportunity you have to show success.
  • GauchoMark
    GauchoMark Posts: 1,804 Member
    I started my journey Sept 1 with a gym membership. Since then I've lost 15lbs my boyfriend and workout buddy has lost 30lbs. I signed up for MFP mid Nov because in all that time I'd only lost a few pounds and he lost 15lbs.

    Since signing up here I've dropped 10lbs. Realizing my eating habits were just BAD. My scale doesn't move as much as I'd like it to and I know it's all about inches. But it's hard.

    I do about 60 min of cardio 5-6x's a week and lift 30-60min 4-5x's a week. I lift hard more than some guys around me in the gym. I've just trained with my man so I can lift like a man. And I love showing them up. I am so proud of my progress over these few months.

    My question is how do you keep the motivation up? Who has patience? Anyone else experience what I'm going through? Gaining lots of muscle and losing fat but not lbs. Anyway to ramp up weight loss or is it really because muscle weighs more?


    Lots and lots of metrics. Take before pics, take update pics every couple of months or so. Measurements, weight, how clothes fit.

    Document your lift poundages and focus on increasing them, set other performance based metrics if those metrics are relevant to your body composition goals.

    The more means you have to validate your method, the more opportunity you have to show success.


    ^^^^ this

    I am a numbers guy myself, but this whole thing is a science experiment for me.

    It sounds like you are doing great, btw. Gaining muscle and losing fat is the point - who cares about the weight number, really. If you can look at %bf, that might be a better motivator.
  • LishieFruit89
    LishieFruit89 Posts: 1,956 Member
    muscle does NOT weigh more than fat.
    So very very very very WRONG.
    1 lb of muscle = 1 lb of fat.
    Their volume is different.
  • BusyRaeNOTBusty
    BusyRaeNOTBusty Posts: 7,166 Member
    15lbs since September is pretty good!

    I checked out your dairy. Calories look good. You might want to up your protein. Should be about 1 gram per pound of lean body weight.

    Do you have a good lifting program you are doing?
  • BusyRaeNOTBusty
    BusyRaeNOTBusty Posts: 7,166 Member
    muscle does NOT weigh more than fat.
    So very very very very WRONG.
    1 lb of muscle = 1 lb of fat.
    Their volume is different.

    Muscle does weigh more than fat by volume. Of course "by volume" is implied. No one (well almost no one) thinks that a pound of something weighs more than a pound of something else.
  • DixiedoesMFP
    DixiedoesMFP Posts: 935 Member
    Sometimes I get discouraged and I see an old pic of myself and realize how far I've really come...take pics!

    This time of year sucks because all my hard-earned muscles are bundled up, but in the summer, I absolutely loved seeing muscle definition when I was wearing a sleeveless shirt, etc.
  • tat2dzombiegirl
    tat2dzombiegirl Posts: 54 Member
    My week might go a little like this. Each day I do 45 min- 1 hour cardio.
    Mon- Back and Biceps
    Tues- Triceps and Chest
    Wed- Shoulders and Legs
    Thur- Back and Biceps
    Fri- Triceps and Chest
    Sat- Cardio only or Shoulders and Legs again

    And abs every other day. Upper, lower, obliques, etc.
    I have made it a point to have a protein shake after every workout lately. I like optimum nutrition double chocolate whey with either almond milk or low fat organic milk.

    I have upped my calories a bit because I don't think I was eating enough before. It's true though I can see it in my clothes. My stomach has flattened. Arms are no longer jiggly.

    It's an amazing feeling at the gym when the weights are no longer difficult and I can up them again. I am in triple digits not which is super cool! My goal is to be able to do pull ups by summer.

    I guess when I wrote this I was a little jaded by all those "success stories" of people losing mega weight in a short amount of time. But 1lb-2lbs a week is good! Thank you all for your forward thinking and positivity!
  • Pinkgingham_19
    Pinkgingham_19 Posts: 28 Member
    I've had more weight loss success in the past by lifting full body, mostly compound movements, 3 times a week, without the cardio. Starting with the program laid out in New Rules of Lifting for women, I went from 220 to 130lbs in a year and a half- in the first 6 months, when I was doing the NROLFW plan, I lost 50lbs. And that was all without cardio, without counting calories. Your split looks pretty bodybuilder-ish, maybe change it up a bit?

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