Feeling Like Quitting

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kfs2006
kfs2006 Posts: 4
in Motivation and Support
Hi everyone,
I am getting frustrated and don't understand why the weight is not coming off. I am so happy for everyone who has been able to lose weight with this site. I go to the gym daily, do cardio for an hour and weights for about a half hour-45 minutes and have been trying to watch what I eat. I am trying to consume 1300 calories a day...since joining my fitnesspal and going to the gym daily, I weighed myself today and saw I had put ON 2 pounds, not lost. I also enlisted the help of a personal trainer to REALLY get serious. I have been trying to watch everything the past few months and REALLY watch it the past 2 weeks...it is just so frustrating to say no to that brownie or ice cream and run that extra mile and then see I put ON weight :( Can anyone explain why this is happening?? I am a 22 year old female, 5'5 and currently 140 pounds. Thanks for your time.

Replies

  • melodyg
    melodyg Posts: 1,423 Member
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    At 5'5" and 140, you are already in a healthy weight range... so the pounds are going to take longer to come off. Are you eating any of the calories you burn from exercise? If not, that may help.

    How long have you been trying to lose weight?
  • meredithtx
    meredithtx Posts: 1
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    I know this probably isn't what you want to hear, but it looks to me like you're not eating enough. If you're working out for almost 2 hours a day you need to eat a lot more than 1300 calories!

    Try adding calories back to your diet slowly, say 100-200 a day for a week, until you find that sweet spot that allows you to lose 1-2 lbs a week.
  • bolsen21
    bolsen21 Posts: 22
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    don't quit... it sounds like your toning and losing inches and putting on muscle mass also you may not be eating enough try adding more calories to you diet eat the calories you earn from exercising... I can't exercise and I got stuck at 159 for a month and a half. another thing to try is screw with you metabolism a couple of days a week eat more calories then you need to by like 3 or 4 hundred. this keeps you body guessing and not settling into a routine of 1300 everyday and holding onto what you have. i hope this helps and don't give up. YOU CAN DO IT !!!!
  • My600PdLife
    My600PdLife Posts: 57 Member
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    Don't quit! With the weight training, you're building muscle. Muscle weighs more than fat. Make sure you're getting in at least 1200 calories daily. A friend of mine told me that when she decided to lose weight, her doctor told her to just focus on her eating habits to drop the pounds for the first 2-3 months, then work on toning. I hope that you hang in there and keep going. Don't quit, it wil happen
  • Dreaj79
    Dreaj79 Posts: 212
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    Jillian Michaels has a book called Making the Cut that deals with losing the last 10-15 pounds. You might want to check it out. Good luck and don't give up on trying to reach your goal.
  • kimberly428
    kimberly428 Posts: 237
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    Dont quit! Have you been measuring yourself?
  • april522
    april522 Posts: 388 Member
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    I second those who are saying your building muscle mass, which weighs more than fat. My advice - do measurements. I haven't lost much weight either (11 lbs since Nov 2009), but I've had a lot of muscle to build. If it weren't for the inches I've lost, I'd feel discouraged also.
  • kfs2006
    kfs2006 Posts: 4
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    Thank you soo much everyone, for all the support/encouragement...it really means a lot. Sorry to vent, I was having a bad day!! Keep up the hard work :-)
  • farr2fun
    farr2fun Posts: 15
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    Your exercise routine is very intense so I imagine your weight gain is the result of the fact that muscle weighs more than fat but is more compact. At this stage, I think you should pay more attention to your tape measure and how your clothing fits than your scale. With that kind of exercise, you probably need more calories to keep your metabolism going so that your body doesn't go into starvation mode and work against you. Keep up the good work!
  • kfs2006
    kfs2006 Posts: 4
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    I am confused if I am supposed to be eating 1200-1300 calories TOTAL (counting exercise and food) or 1200 calories BEFORE I exercise...people are saying I am eating too little calories and going into "Starvation mode" but do I want to eat 1300 at the end of the day or 1300 and then exercise??? I am so overwhelmed!!!
  • barbiecat
    barbiecat Posts: 16,984 Member
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    I am confused if I am supposed to be eating 1200-1300 calories TOTAL (counting exercise and food) or 1200 calories BEFORE I exercise...people are saying I am eating too little calories and going into "Starvation mode" but do I want to eat 1300 at the end of the day or 1300 and then exercise??? I am so overwhelmed!!!
    I eat 1350 calories plus some of the calories I gain by exercise......some days I burn as many as 700-1000 calories so I probably don't eat that many calories.......I try to eat 500 calories for breakfast on a big exercise day and often eat my exercise calories before I actually earn them...for me, a big exercise day allows me almond butter and extra fruit during the day.
  • april522
    april522 Posts: 388 Member
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    I agree with barbiecat. If you are exercising in the evening and know you'll be exercising, eat those exercise calories before you exercise. I went to a group exercise yesterday evening, and my calorie counter said -500 calories before going because I knew I'd burn at least that much. You just have to plan accordingly, and everything will fall into place. In the past 4 days, I've realized that I need to increase my breakfast and lunch meal sizes because they are way too small!
  • farr2fun
    farr2fun Posts: 15
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    It helped me to also think of it as a weekly budget. If you exercise too much one day for the amount of calories you've taken in, increase the nutritious calories you take in the next day. You just want your body to have enough fuel for your workouts,
  • chelseap891
    chelseap891 Posts: 62
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    I'm with you there...I'm 5'3 and about 127....it takes me forever to lose one pound! It's because we don't have much to lose. Keep at it though! At least you are eating healthy and working out. It will happen, just give it time! I get really impatient, too.
  • david1956
    david1956 Posts: 190 Member
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    When trying to lose the small pounds (you are obviously not hugely overweight) readings on scales can become incredibly bad measures. As others have pointed out muscle is much denser than fat.

    Can you remember your own profile? "I just want to feel GOOD about myself!" Don't lose sight of what you're achieving in a holistic sense. You've ditched a bad diet, are fitter and stronger, and I'll bet feeling better. Enjoy it, and you may find a few pounds here and there are lean muscle over time (depends a bit on your body type).

    Quite honestly you are a very beautiful woman, healthy looking, got your degree and now are developing healthy lifestyle for life. Sounds a pretty good deal to me (though I do know we all obsess a bit over what we see as our weaknesses). Trust me, whatever your ideal target weight is it will sort itself over time, may take some experimentation. Feel good about everything you are achieving. Life's good, not worth sweating the small stuff.

    Source - stuff I wish I'd figured decades ago.
  • logoboy67
    logoboy67 Posts: 1
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    I might be stating something really obvious, but when you are weighing yourself, make sure have very consistent conditions to compare.

    Your weight can fluctuate significantly throughout the day. If I weigh myself after dinner I can weigh four or five pounds more than If I weigh myself before breakfast. Some people weigh themselves with their clothes on, which can add several pounds, and add another variable as different clothes weigh different amounts.

    It is possible that you have lost fat, but weighed more because you are comparing an after-meal weight with a before-meal weight.

    I weigh myself every morning before I eat so I have a consistent comparison from one day to the next. I know this site suggests weighing yourself once per week so you can significant results, but I prefer to do it daily and make a graph so I can observe the long term trend and tell if one day an anomaly. Using this I was able to see that I was losing weight through the week and then gaining it back on the weekends, so I changed how I was eating and exercising. I find the weight graphs on this site too high-level so make my own graphs. Through this I have also noticed that a big meal, like a steak, can raise your weight for a day or so afterward - I guess meat is slow to digest.

    I don't know if any of this applies to your situation, but it's something to keep in mind.

    Best of luck!
    C
  • laurenpence
    laurenpence Posts: 147
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    Your metabolism is in a rutt. Eat a freakin brownie! Words from my personal trainer...ha ha. SHe told me to cheat once a week to trick my metabolism. Sounds weird I know but I was stuck at 150 for about a month then I did what she told me and added a few different cardio workouts and I am back to losing weight. Give your self a cheat meal once a week is my advice and try taking up something you havent done before like hiking or biking.

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