No weight loss with a personal trainer?

jenny4teach
jenny4teach Posts: 56 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
For my 25th birthday I bought a trainer package at my gym. I love my trainer and always feel like I get a great workout with him...but it's been almost 2 months and I haven't lost a single pound constantly. Has anyone else experienced this? I know "muscle weighs more than fat" but to diet and workout 3-5 times a week without any budge on the scale is extremely discouraging.

I want to speak with him about this on Monday but I wanted to see if anyone out there had had a similar experience or has any advice/motivation to help me get over this dreaded scale discouragement.

Thanks in advance!

P.S. I train twice a week and do cardio twice...sometimes an extra day of cardio or weighs (with intervals after)and am on a 1,450 a day goal.

P.p.s. I "feel" better but haven't dropped a size or found a HUGE difference in the way my clothes fit

Replies

  • norrisski
    norrisski Posts: 1,217 Member
    How are your non scale victories such as your body fat measurements, and your waist, hips, chest, thigh, calf measurements? How do your clothes fit? Those can tell a story as well.
  • weightliftingdiva
    weightliftingdiva Posts: 522 Member
    For my 25th birthday I bought a trainer package at my gym. I love my trainer and always feel like I get a great workout with him...but it's been almost 2 months and I haven't lost a single pound constantly. Has anyone else experienced this? I know "muscle weighs more than fat" but to diet and workout 3-5 times a week without any budge on the scale is extremely discouraging.

    I want to speak with him about this on Monday but I wanted to see if anyone out there had had a similar experience or has any advice/motivation to help me get over this dreaded scale discouragement.

    Thanks in advance!

    P.S. I train twice a week and do cardio twice...sometimes an extra day of cardio or weighs (with intervals after)and am on a 1,450 a day goal.

    P.p.s. I "feel" better but haven't dropped a size or found a HUGE difference in the way my clothes fit

    Remember, exercise is for overall fitness, and diet is for weight loss. Exercise can help contribute to how many calories you burn (and therefore eat) a day, but what it comes down to is if you eat less then you burn. Are you weighing and measuring the food you eat, and logging everything you eat consistently?

    Also, I second the other users questions. Have you noticed a difference in any of your body measurements?
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    We have seen it happen in our weight loss program. The causes are (in no particular order):

    1. Underestimating calorie intake

    2. Overestimating calorie output

    3. Inconsistency when following either the exercise or eating plan

    4. I have worked more with older people, but I have also noticed a pattern with less fit individuals and women (not sure if that is causal or coincidental). Because of the lower fitness levels, they really don't burn that many calories with exercise. Often they decrease their casual activity on days they work out, so that negates some of the workout calories as well. As a result, their deficits are not nearly as high as they think they are. As a trainer, I have to be more restrained as we build up their fitness ability. It takes several weeks for their bodies to kick into full gear and for them to start seeing steady results. There is a certain amount of pressure when people pay $1800 for a weight-loss program and are not seeing the results they expected. I have had several clients who were still at "even" after 6 wks--which made both of us nervous ;-) But once they could handle some harder workouts and started responding to their diets, they saw steady progress the rest of the way.

    As I said, the most common reason is that people underestimate their calorie intake. However, some people ARE "slow responders". When my wife has gotten going with her programs, it has often taken her 6-7 wks to drop pound 1, but then it goes better.

    So, hang in there and share your concerns with the trainer. I would also try getting to a more consistent 5x a week workout schedule and make sure you are doing a mix of intensities. I would shoot for a weekly exercise calorie expenditure of about 2500 calories and see how that goes.

    (EDIT): Whoops, looked at your profile. My wife is a teacher also -- 5th grade. I know how tough it is to keep to a routine during the school year, so the 2500 calories/week recommendation may be a tad aggressive. Hang in there and keep doing the right things--if you stay consistent, you should start seeing some results.

    And stay out of the teachers lounge :laugh: From what I hear, there's always bad things there.

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