Not losing weight with kettlebells -- patience?

Pogonia
Pogonia Posts: 3
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi All,

I'm seeking some motivation -- I've been using kettlebell workouts as my only exercise for 6 weeks, and have not seen much of a physical difference. Functionally, my strength and endurance during kettlebell workouts has increased, but I have not lost weight nor inches. In fact, I've gained a few pounds since having started.

I'm 31 years old, female, 5'7". I was the skinny girl for most of my life and never had to worry about my weight despite not being super physically active. In my late 20s I became more "skinny fat," and at 30 my metabolism seemed to slow down, I got a desk job, and I've since gained about 12lbs. I'm uncomfortable with how I look and feel and that is why I finally started to exercise (I know I should have been doing so all along for the health benefits, but, I haven't). When I started with kettlebells 6 weeks ago, I weighed 140lbs. As of this morning I am 144lbs -- the most I've ever weighed in my life! I get bored easily with most exercise programs and have a hard time staying motivated to stick with an exercise routine. Kettlebells are the only exercise I don't easily get tired of. It's embarrassing to say it, but this is the longest I've ever stuck with an exercise routine.

I learned kettlebells from a trainer a few years ago and feel that I have pretty good technique. I use them 3x a week for 15-20 minutes at a time, almost non-stop. I started on an 8kg kettlebell and am now two-handed swinging and goblet squatting a 16kg, one-handed swinging, pressing, renegade rowing, and snatching a 12kg. My heart rate goes nuts during the workout. My diet is pretty good -- I manage to mostly stay away from junk food and have been limiting sugar. Never eat fast food, and only eat meat I get from a local farm.

I'm trying to not get discouraged by what seems like a lack of progress. Am I just expecting results too soon? Is it normal to actually gain weight at first? Any words of wisdom?

Thanks so much!

Replies

  • ChrisLindsay9
    ChrisLindsay9 Posts: 837 Member
    I don't have much experience with kettlebell workouts. So I'm bumping this for you.

    You may want to open your diary just so that we can take a peek. It sounds like you're making smart decisions, but there might be some things we can suggest that would help? For example, I usually tell people to re-allocated some of the calories to protein sources and away from carb sources. Keep the calories the same, and don't make a huge change. But maybe, bump up your protein macronutrients about 10% and lower your carb macronutrients by 10% and see if that helps. Sometimes small changes can make a difference, especially if one is pretty active and/or exercising regularly.

    The other thing is that when you incorporate strength training into your fitness program, then weight (the scale) ceases to be reliable measure of fitness. Measurements becomes more important. So you may want to start taking measurements and chart your progress monthly. Also pictures can help too. You might see your body gaining a tone that the scale can't otherwise inform you of.

    Good luck to you, hope you find success in achieving your goals!
  • MostlyWater
    MostlyWater Posts: 4,294 Member
    I dobn't think that kettlebells should be your only exercise. You should do cardio and body sculpting too.

    Right now I am taking a kettlebell class but it's one class out of the 5 that I do every week. I also Spin and do kickboxing, as well as pilates and a lot of walking.
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,331 Member
    Weight loss is a function diet, that is, eating less calories in a day than you burn consistently over a long period of time. Simply eating so call "healthy" food but eating too much of it will still prevent fat loss. As to working out. Doing just kettlebell workouts is fine. Noting wrong with it, and it burns a good amount of calories. My guess is you are likely eating too many calories, but not being able to see your diary I can't say.

    Some questions:

    1) Do you carefully measure everything you eat? If you estimate it is likely you are eating more, perhaps much more, than you think?

    2) Are you recording every single thing that you eat and drink? That is a must. If you don't you really have no idea on calories because even the seemingly small things add up very quickly.
  • Leadfoot_Lewis
    Leadfoot_Lewis Posts: 1,623 Member
    What is your daily calorie intake?
  • Pogonia
    Pogonia Posts: 3
    Thank you all for your responses! I only just joined this site and just now recorded everything I ate yesterday and today in the food log. Yesterday: 1287 total calories, and probably of note is that the calculator says I was 97 under in carbs, 39 over in fat, and 21 over in protein. Today my total calories were only 1115 (busy day, skipped lunch), with carbs 91 under, fat 28 over, and protein 5 over. It looks like on a typical day, my calorie intake is between 1200-1300. I will continue to measure though to be sure and see if any patterns become apparent.

    I have taken measurements and photos throughout the past six weeks. Nada. The only difference is that I feel *slightly* more comfortable in my jeans and a little firmer around my hips, but I wonder if it's in my head since it doesn't show up with the measuring tape!
  • MikeNoTalent
    MikeNoTalent Posts: 67 Member
    Hey I love kettlebells! Seriously it's all I train with. I lost my first 20lbs without using them due to the fact I wanted to make sure I didn't hurt my self. Stay strong with them and it will pay off. I started with a 10lb kettlebell and I'm ready to move to a 35lb one. I do HIIT training with them to burn fat. High intensity interval training. Fitnessblender has a great free video on youtube check it out!
  • Mummyadams
    Mummyadams Posts: 1,125 Member
    I love kettlebells too but only work out with them when I crossfit. I am wondering if you should shake things up a bit. Assume you are working out at home, so maybe in between each set you could do say 20 burpees or 30 sit ups or 20 mountain climbers or 20 push ups. Try to incorporate some high intensity interval training. And also your diet ofcourse - 1200 to 1300 is on the low side, perhaps add an extra 200 clas in there with protein?
    Or do something else like Crossfit or boxing or similar into your weekly routine - all the best.
  • Mummyadams
    Mummyadams Posts: 1,125 Member
    Oh yeah - ditch those scales. Measure yourself every week or every few weeks instead - give it some time and I am sure you will see some serious results.
  • halimaiqbal00
    halimaiqbal00 Posts: 288 Member
    I use kettlebells and kettlebells only 4x a week, no more than 40 mins each time. Be sure to get rests between days...6 days constant k'belling seems to much to me. How long is each workout? Like yours, my heart rate goes crazy too. From what youve said, it seems like youre not eating enough. I eat back half of my caloies burnt for kettlebells. As its a heavy weight, and speeds up your metabolism like crazy, burning tonnes of calories long after the workout, I think its essential to eat more!

    Try upping your calories and see what that does for you. Ive been using them solely for 2 years now and am a HUGE advocate of them, having lost tonnes of fat, inches and weight, as well as build muscle, stamina and strength
  • Pogonia
    Pogonia Posts: 3
    halimaiqbal00 - Thanks for your response. It's helpful to hear from someone who has been working with kettlebells for a long time. I'm glad to know you've seen such great results! I only use kettlebells 3x a week, for 20 mins at a time (5 minutes of that is warm up/cool down; 15 mins is intervals with swings, presses, squats, snatches, cleans, rows). Would you still recommend eating more based on this workout frequency/duration? If so, I imagine I should focus on consuming more protein calories?

    Mummyadams - I like the idea of adding in something like burpees. The video that MikeNoTalent suggested incorporates cardio exercises at the beginning and end of a kettlebell interval routine -- I will give that a shot!

    Everything I have heard and read and researched has convinced me that kettlebells are an amazingly efficient workout tool, combining benefits of both cardio and strength training. This is the reason why I use them (that, and I feel like a total badass swinging around a cannon ball with a handle). So theoretically I am convinced, but I would of course like to see these results realized on my own body. I'll stick with it!
  • yankeedownsouth
    yankeedownsouth Posts: 717 Member
    Weight loss (and weight gain) is a result of diet; exercise helps by burning calories, allowing you to create a bigger deficit (and eat more). I think your workout sounds great, but to control the number on the scale, you’ll need to get your nutrition on track. We’re the same height, and a few months ago, I was at your weight. I lost weight eating much more than you are now. I think you might need to look into upping your calories. Check out the Eat More to Weigh Less group on this site.
  • Lesa_Sass
    Lesa_Sass Posts: 2,213 Member
    Weight loss (and weight gain) is a result of diet; exercise helps by burning calories, allowing you to create a bigger deficit (and eat more). I think your workout sounds great, but to control the number on the scale, you’ll need to get your nutrition on track. We’re the same height, and a few months ago, I was at your weight. I lost weight eating much more than you are now. I think you might need to look into upping your calories. Check out the Eat More to Weigh Less group on this site.

    ^^^^This.
  • Lupercalia
    Lupercalia Posts: 1,857 Member
    Bumping to read/reply to later.
  • RunnerElizabeth
    RunnerElizabeth Posts: 1,091 Member
    I'm no expert when it comes to this stuff, but I'm thinking you just aren't exercising enough to see results. If I read tis correctly you said that kettlebells are your only excercise and you are only doing it for a maximum of 20 minutes 3 times a week. That's only an hour a week. It's recomended that adults get about 150 minutes of excercise a week, and that's just to be healthy, for weight loss you'd have to put in more time.

    Personally, I do kettlebells 2x a week for 30 minutes and I run 4x for a minimum of 3 hours (of total running a week) and I add in some pilates, yoga and ballet based stretching to sooth my muscles. I'm not suggesting you do what I do, but maybe consider adding some other less intense activities on some of your off days and see if that helps.
  • Lupercalia
    Lupercalia Posts: 1,857 Member
    I think you should eat more. Exercise is really icing on the weight loss cake, and you're doing it. Do you want to exercise more? If you do, then exercise more, and it doesn't need to be running or whatever cardio class. Do what sounds interesting/fun to you. But I think you also should be eating more than 1200-1300 calories.

    Also, are you eating back "calories burned" from KB exercise? How are you logging those calories? If MFP estimates for KBs, I can pretty much guarantee their estimates are too high. Most of these online calculators that estimate calories are a bit um...overly ambitious with their estimations, LOL. But I find that for KB exercise they're WAY over. I believe they used the figures from a paper published on KB training that analysed the calories burned by a guy who did nonstop snatches, so the figure is vastly overestimated for those of us who do not do an entire workout of nonstop snatching, which I am guessing is pretty much everyone reading this thread.

    I do kettlebells 5-6 x per week. Half those workouts are KB complexes at the beginning and/or end of my barbell lifting sessions. consisting of a variety of exercises. Some ballistic, others grinds. The other half are just straight KB workouts, and are mostly vo2 max swing workouts (interval cardio training, many swing reps over about half an hour's time).
  • GalifreyTourist
    GalifreyTourist Posts: 1 Member
    The kettlebell is a tool like any weight its how you use it that makes the difference, the main benefit of Kettle-bells for weight loss is that you can use them to burn calories more efficiently than other forms of exercise, instead of going for a 30 minute run you can swing a kettlebell for a few minutes and burn the same amount of calories. Try this Idea from Coach Dan John

    www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/the_metabolic_swing&cr=

    Dan Johns x swings a day seems a good idea, you just set yourself a goal of x number of swings during the day, say 100, then every time you have a minute (in between tv shows) you get up and do a couple of sets of 20-30. It will boost your metabolism and its efficient.
  • luvschanel
    luvschanel Posts: 6
    Your doing the same as I am .... I have been doing kettle bell for 2 months before that crossfit, before that I went to my local park and did HIIT, and have lost more inches than weight but I am getting more toned and tighter everywhere, I do the GNC lean shakes, I also have a sweet tooth and these shakes help curb that for me ........ and I alternate 2 shakes to 1 shake , depending on when I work out, I will fix a breakfast of 2 to 3 eggs and toast with a small orange on days I workout, with a lunch of a skinless chicken breast baked, green beans and another veggie, dinner is a shake , I will have snakes if I get hungry, ..... Days I don't workout I do a shake breakfast ( with water not milk always) ..... Lunch is a small one .... tuna and lettuce, dinner is another shake, snacks if I get hungry.
    I do kettle bell sit ups, high lifts, presses, side crunches , swings, arm rows , squats, lunges, and I do the rope for cardio..using 16/ 18 kettle bell ... It's an all over body work out ..... And I alternate days of strength training on my upper and lower body on machines at the gym. I also do alternate days of hard workouts ( I go for an hour or longer ) and kinda easy ( 30 mins or so )too , at lest 5 days a week ...... listen to ur own body when u need rest ....... REST !
    Ur doing the right thing kettle bells will get u to loss inches , tone you, and tighten ur body..whatcha ur diet, eat more protein less carb... U don't need any other cardio besides walking a bit if you want to.... Just give it time u will see a difference , keep it up !
    Kettle bells are the best exercise I have ever done, it's fun and easy, great all over body toning and strengthening way to loss weight so ur not flabby when u do loss ..... Technique is essential though , you have to get the movement right so you don't hurt ur self and to get the most out of ur workout . And never ever go by the scale ...... Go by ur clothes and how good u feel.
  • luvschanel
    luvschanel Posts: 6
    I agree totally .... I to am a big fan of the kettle bells !
  • ickypic8
    ickypic8 Posts: 2
    You're weight gain maybe due to your increase in lean muscle. Don't be to worried, eventually you'll lose the inches because lean muscle burns calories faster than fat. Keep up the rountine

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