To hell with lifting and stick to cardio?

My pics <<<<

the changes in my body composition are greater than my scale losses reflect. THAT is due to my adding strength training to HIIT cardio when I was over 200 lbs and didn't wait until my SCALE was at a lower #. I was 47 before I learned this lesson.

I will come back to edit this with a summary of " how I did it "

WHY on earth would you not want lower body fat, higher lean body mass, a smaller body? Why would you trade THAT for a # on a scale? I get it. We are " trained" to think that the scale reflects what's up and we apply that to a chart designed as a basic tool for the AVERAGE person that doesn't and cannot take body composition into effect. I say : we MUST get the scale weight = healthy weight out of our brains. OBESITY is defined as having more subcutaneous fat than lean body mass. Put that in your pipe and smoke it. THEN : start lifting some heavy stuff and eating well. Leave the scale in the closet.

ROCK ON.

EDITED TO ADD:

Morning! I've been asked and I've told before, but for my newer peeps - here is my answer to " How did u lose your weight?". I changed how I ate and I added exercise back into my life. My biggest food problem was and is EBLS. extraneous bread like substances. I ate them in a compulsive, mindless way that crowded out other foods. I crowded IN protein, healthy fats & complex carbs and was able to crowd OUT EBLS. Protein was my primary focus. I was rehabbing from knee replacement surgery so my exercise for first 3 months was recumbent bicycle. I then discovered strength training and loved it. Incorporated weight machines with bike for 4 months then I started free weights and lifting heavy. Lifted 3x week with HIIT intervals on the bike or elliptical. 2-3 days I also did my own version of HIIT spinning on the bike. I did this routine for about a year. this past year, I mostly lift. Walk when my knee allows it. I do need to add HIIT on the bike back into my routine 1-2 days a week. all of those workouts were an hour or less. The HIIT bike only days were 30/35 minutes from warmup-cool down. My calorie deficit was modest. I primarily ate 160O-1900 calories. in the beginning, for a few months I was eating around 1200, but stalled after losing 20 lbs. I had to up calories to start losing again. I've had greater body recomp than the actual weight loss in pounds reflect. I attribute that to strength training and being mindful of EBLS. I watch my macros only to the extent of ensuring I get my protein in. IDEALLY, I strive for my protein to be higher than my carbs. Usually doesn't work out, but pretty darn close most of the time.

I recommend carrying on with the lifting - strength training will help you lose fat faster than doing only cardio. I'm speaking from experience (a while before starting with fitnesspal) - at one point I was doing the same amount of exercise (an hour a day, five times a week, at the time), but only cardio, and my weight loss slowed down dramatically. A session of strength training will leave your body burning calories faster for the next day or two. If you're losing fat but not weight, it's only because the lifting is building your muscle as well as helping with the fat loss. Maybe you can find another way to measure the fat going down: as well as checking your weight you could keep track of your measurements. It would mean you could still see a number dropping as you're working to reach your goals. Hopefully that way you could carry on doing what you love and losing weight at a steady pace, but with the added encouragement.

if you love lifting well then keep doing it and also make room for cardio. For me, I am not going to lift until I lose much much more weight, like probably in the toning process.

Pitch your scale for awhile and develop a relationship with your tape measure. I did that when I started lifting and it's the best decision I've made when it came to losing weight. Don't get me wrong I still weigh in but just 1 time month when I do my measurements.

"I've seen changes in my body fat but my weight hasn't moved. "

Muscle is denser than fat. You can lose inches and maintain the same weight: in certain instances you can burn fat and build muscle at the same time.

I would add in some HIIT sessions (high intensity interval training). If you don't have time for both, perhaps go down to 3-4 weight sessions a week and add in some HIIT. You could do tabata, which only takes a few minutes to get that punch of HIIT.

I know the frustration all too well of putting all the effort in and not seeing the scale budge! But, if you are REALLY maintaining a deficit (are you sure you are tracking everything??) and doing the work, you need to rest assured that your body is doing something positive, as hard as that is when the scale doesn't budge!

^^^ THIS is exactly what I was going to suggest. Design your weight lifting sessions so you are covering all body parts in 3-4 days per week. On the off days, add in some intense cardio sessions. Without getting too long-winded, cardio is better at helping you burn fat and weights are better at helping you build muscle which supports higher metabolic function throughout the day. So both are important. High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) will give you more bang for your buck as far as cardio goes, and is more effective than steady state cardio on it's own. You can accomplish this through all types of formats. With your bad ankle, you might trying cycling. High intensity for 30 seconds then back off for 1 minute. Continue this for the duration of your 30 minute cardio session. Adjust and increase times as your endurance improves. Also, if doing both on the same day, better to do cardio after weights due to the different processes that your body uses for energy.

As far as suggesting some good weight routines, someone above mentioned hiring a personal trainer. If you can afford it, go for it. I see from your profile pick you are working out in a gym. Most gyms offer 1-2 introductory sessions to members upon sign up so if you haven't taken advantage of that yet, that is something you can ask about. You can also start educating yourself by reading on line. A) Bodybuilding.com has some great resources and is my go-to place when looking to change up my routines. In January I will start Jaime Eason's Live Fit 12 week program which you can sign up for (free) at this same website. ScoobysWorkshop.com is another site that a lot of folks here on MFP recommend. C) There is a group on this website that many people recommend - run by two long time members who are very much into weight training and are very helpful: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/forums/show/10067-eat-train-progress- If nothing else, a great place to start reading .... D) Many people have recommended the book New Rules of Weight Lifting for Women. I haven't personally looked at it yet, but might be worth checking out ...

Finally, make friends with a tape measure. If you are not seeing changes on the scale, it is for a variety of reasons that other posters have already mentioned, but a tape measure will help you document your body transformation, and that is a great encouragement when the scale is not giving you the data you are looking for. In the end, it is all just data to help you measure your progress, nothing more.

Hope that helps and good luck to you!! Keep up the good work and good things will continue to come your way!!

From what you have written, you are losing body fat. Personally I would suggest putting the scale away for a month or two. Measure yourself with a measuring tape, and retake those measurements in 2 weeks or so. If you, as you seem to be, are losing body fat, the weight will eventually follow, but the only way to be sure is to know if your measurements are changing.

There was a thread not too long back of women posting pictures of before and after training with weights where their weight was basically the same or sometimes even higher, and every one of them looked far better in their after pictures. Getting caught up in looking only at weight forgets that if losing weight rather than body fat is the issue, just chopping off your leg will get rid to the weight. The goal is getting rid of fat.

body composition is much more important and relevant than weight - your BF% is dropping, whilst your weight remains consistent, that's a great scenario!! I'd keep lifting and learn to appreciate your body for what it looks like, not an irrelevant number on a scale.

^^ That

I get the issue....we all want to see the weight go down...and when we don't it's like "WTH".

It takes a while to get past this mind set.

But lifting has too many benefits to stop doing it, esp if you love it.

As others have said use a tape measure, take pics and only weigh once in a while.

Keep in mind if you do want that number to go down it's all in the diet.

I have lost more inches then pounds doing circut training and now weights.

I prefer this to being soft and lighter...I am 162lbs and wear a size 8...,,most woman my weight wear a bigger size...just to put it into perspective for you.