HELP - lost only 1 pound in 2 weeks

Hi everyone.

been eating healthy for the past 2 weeks. veggies, fruits, meat, avocado! no bread pasta rice soft drinks or sugar in any way and also no processed food. been weight training hard 3 times a week with a trainer and I do 2 days 30 min HIIT. Take off on the weekend!

Is it possible that I am losing fat and gaining muscle and I will certainly not see that on the scale? because I can see a bit of change in my face but I thought people lose a lot of weight in the first 2 weeks....I wont give up....just wondering! Thank you xx

btw i'm 5'2 - 175 lbs and I want to get down to 140 lbs...
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Replies

  • KatieKansan
    KatieKansan Posts: 61 Member
    I bet you are losing inches! Definitely gaining muscle! Keep up the good work. Sounds like you are doing everything right. The weight is sure to fall right off!! Keep up the good work!!
  • thanks!! :) hopefully it'll start falling off soon !!
  • trogalicious
    trogalicious Posts: 4,584 Member
    I bet you are losing inches! Definitely gaining muscle! Keep up the good work. Sounds like you are doing everything right. The weight is sure to fall right off!! Keep up the good work!!
    don't listen to this, OP.

    You're not gaining muscle.

    If you've lost weight, I'm not sure what the problem is that you need help with.
    You're losing weight.
    You're apparently doing it right.
  • I bet you are losing inches! Definitely gaining muscle! Keep up the good work. Sounds like you are doing everything right. The weight is sure to fall right off!! Keep up the good work!!
    don't listen to this, OP.

    You're not gaining muscle.

    If you've lost weight, I'm not sure what the problem is that you need help with.
    You're losing weight.
    You're apparently doing it right.

    BUT i only lost 1 pound....and what you mean I'm not gaining muscle? I'm weight training....I must be gaining muscle somewhere?!
  • Anonycatgirl
    Anonycatgirl Posts: 502 Member
    First off, congratulations. You lost half a pound per week. That's great! If you don't have a lot to lose, that's actually the recommended rate of loss. Yeah, we all want to make those pounds disappear like magic, but it's not always the best way.

    Second, "eating healthy" and exercising are both good things to do for yourself, so congratulations on taking those steps. However, unless you're tracking the calories in that healthy food to make sure you're eating at a deficit, preferably weighing your portions, you're probably eating more than you think. (Take from someone who ate her way to needing this site while eating mostly healthy, homemade food--just way too much of it!)

    Maybe you're already weighing and measuring everything like an MFP pro, but if you only recently started the HIIT program, you may be retaining water. That's very common when you start exercising more intensely and one morning you'll step on the scale and get a pleasant surprise.
  • trogalicious
    trogalicious Posts: 4,584 Member
    I bet you are losing inches! Definitely gaining muscle! Keep up the good work. Sounds like you are doing everything right. The weight is sure to fall right off!! Keep up the good work!!
    don't listen to this, OP.

    You're not gaining muscle.

    If you've lost weight, I'm not sure what the problem is that you need help with.
    You're losing weight.
    You're apparently doing it right.

    BUT i only lost 1 pound....and what you mean I'm not gaining muscle? I'm weight training....I must be gaining muscle somewhere?!

    you're not gaining muscle.

    That isn't how it works. You don't just "gain muscle" because you weight train.
  • KatieKansan
    KatieKansan Posts: 61 Member
    I bet you are losing inches! Definitely gaining muscle! Keep up the good work. Sounds like you are doing everything right. The weight is sure to fall right off!! Keep up the good work!!
    don't listen to this, OP.

    You're not gaining muscle.

    If you've lost weight, I'm not sure what the problem is that you need help with.
    You're losing weight.
    You're apparently doing it right.


    Yes listen to this.. I went through the exact same situation and was very frustrated. I was losing inches not weight at first. Believe me the weight will fall off!
  • BombshellPhoenix
    BombshellPhoenix Posts: 1,693 Member
    I bet you are losing inches! Definitely gaining muscle! Keep up the good work. Sounds like you are doing everything right. The weight is sure to fall right off!! Keep up the good work!!
    don't listen to this, OP.

    You're not gaining muscle.

    If you've lost weight, I'm not sure what the problem is that you need help with.
    You're losing weight.
    You're apparently doing it right.

    ^this

    If muscle gaining requires a calorie surplus, proper amount of protein and a hypertrophy lifting routine and gains are still slow even in the best circumstances because, as women, we lack the testosterone to gain as much as men.

    You most certainly are NOT gaining it in a deficit.

    As stated you're losing weight. Faster weight loss is not good weight loss. Losing weight slowly is ideal to retaining muscle and looking leaner. Just keep on swimming!
  • bkulis
    bkulis Posts: 2
    Dont pay so much attention to the scale and trust the process :) If you are doing everything you know is right then it will come off with time and you are exactly right you might be putting on muscle.

    Patience and consistency is key!

    Feel free to add me!
  • Kindly explain how you gain muscle then?
  • trogalicious
    trogalicious Posts: 4,584 Member
    Kindly explain how you gain muscle then?

    Bombshell covered it right up there. Take a look. You can choose who to listen to, that's your choice.... but there's some bad information here.

    All we can do is give you the correct information. It's up to you to choose. Either you're:

    1. Magically losing weight at a deficit... and also gaining muscle.
    2. Just losing weight, just not as fast as you want, and now you're using the "I must be gaining muscle" line to comfort you for some reason.

    Look, be happy you're losing weight. If the scale is moving down, congrats.
  • BombshellPhoenix
    BombshellPhoenix Posts: 1,693 Member
    Kindly explain how you gain muscle then?

    Muscle building requires excess energy (calorie surplus). When you're eating at a deficit, you're not going to build muscle (very tiny gains for newb gains might occur for a small window it will not be significant enough to slow the scale but that's with proper protein, typically 1g per pound of lean body mass and a hypertrophy lifting routine).

    I'm bulking right now. I've been lifting for over a year
  • xcalygrl
    xcalygrl Posts: 1,897 Member
    Kindly explain how you gain muscle then?

    You eat a calorie surplus (meaning maintenance plus 250-500 calories), and you lift heavy weights.

    If you are eating in a calorie deficit, you are not gaining muscle. (You could experience some newbie gains, but you aren't going to gain that much muscle.) Even if you are doing HIIT and lifting heavy, while in a deficit you will not gain muscle mass. You may be retaining water though, which will slow the loss on the scale. Your body retains water to repair muscles.
  • Anonycatgirl
    Anonycatgirl Posts: 502 Member
    One thing that didn't make sense to me at first about "you can't build muscle while you're eating at a deficit" is that this doesn't mean you're not getting stronger. You are. You're probably already noticing it. But you're not actually adding muscle mass, just retaining and strengthening what's already there (which means you'll look more defined as the weight comes off. Yay!) So you're doing good things for yourself, but not in the way you might think.
  • BombshellPhoenix
    BombshellPhoenix Posts: 1,693 Member
    I bet you are losing inches! Definitely gaining muscle! Keep up the good work. Sounds like you are doing everything right. The weight is sure to fall right off!! Keep up the good work!!
    don't listen to this, OP.

    You're not gaining muscle.

    If you've lost weight, I'm not sure what the problem is that you need help with.
    You're losing weight.
    You're apparently doing it right.

    BUT i only lost 1 pound....and what you mean I'm not gaining muscle? I'm weight training....I must be gaining muscle somewhere?!

    Well, I've already covered the not gaining muscle bit and anonycatgirl just covered gaining strength without adding mass and retaining current muscle so....

    .5 lb week average is great. Especially with only 33 lbs to lose. With less to lose, taking weight loss slower helps ensure you don't jeopardize muscle along with fat in weight loss. I'm assuming your goal is fat loss and not purely tied to a goal weight, right? So, until you've reached a several week standstill in weight loss accept one fact: weight loss isn't linear and losing inches is an indication of progress more so than scale weight loss.
  • sparacka
    sparacka Posts: 137 Member
    If your workouts are also a new development, you may be retaining water weight.
    I take solace from this:

    http://www.sparkpeople.com/blog/blog.asp?post=why_the_scale_goes_up_when_you_start_a_new_workout_plan
  • lilMimi24
    lilMimi24 Posts: 15 Member
    Ok, this interests me, like OP have experienced no loss in past 2-3 weeks BUT my clothes feel looser, my legs are beginning to have a gap between them and my shape has changed noticeably. If i am not gaining something heavier like muscle how can i be smaller without loosing weight? This seems to be a bit of a mystery.....
  • Holly_Roman_Empire
    Holly_Roman_Empire Posts: 4,440 Member
    Ok, this interests me, like OP have experienced no loss in past 2-3 weeks BUT my clothes feel looser, my legs are beginning to have a gap between them and my shape has changed noticeably. If i am not gaining something heavier like muscle how can i be smaller without loosing weight? This seems to be a bit of a mystery.....

    Probably water retention, and it could be from a number of things. Your period, you ate a salty meal yesterday, you started a new exercise routine, you're stressed, etc.
  • BombshellPhoenix
    BombshellPhoenix Posts: 1,693 Member
    Ok, this interests me, like OP have experienced no loss in past 2-3 weeks BUT my clothes feel looser, my legs are beginning to have a gap between them and my shape has changed noticeably. If i am not gaining something heavier like muscle how can i be smaller without loosing weight? This seems to be a bit of a mystery.....

    Water retention is a sneaky debil. There are so many factors to scale weight. Time of day, sodium, lack of bowel movements, time of the month. I gained 2 lbs the other day because I just started a new cycle in lifting. I'm still up an additional 1 lb over around what my actual weight is and my clothes all fit the same as they did last week.
  • lolabluola
    lolabluola Posts: 212 Member
    I like this article...

    "Even though there’s only ONE true reason for why a person isn’t losing weight, there are dozens of excuses and reasons that a person will come up with and consider to be the cause that just aren’t actually true, accurate or even remotely based in reality."

    http://www.aworkoutroutine.com/starvation-mode/
  • rileamoyer
    rileamoyer Posts: 2,412 Member
    I bet you are losing inches! Definitely gaining muscle! Keep up the good work. Sounds like you are doing everything right. The weight is sure to fall right off!! Keep up the good work!!

    This^^^
  • BombshellPhoenix
    BombshellPhoenix Posts: 1,693 Member
    I bet you are losing inches! Definitely gaining muscle! Keep up the good work. Sounds like you are doing everything right. The weight is sure to fall right off!! Keep up the good work!!

    This^^^

    Oooor we can keep lying to OP that she's just gaining muscle.

    I mean, I wish that were true! I'd be Arnold Schwarzenegger after my 9 months losing 53 lbs and lifting heavy.

    I'd just step out into the light and my veiny bulky muscles would blind the masses.
  • Holly_Roman_Empire
    Holly_Roman_Empire Posts: 4,440 Member
    I bet you are losing inches! Definitely gaining muscle! Keep up the good work. Sounds like you are doing everything right. The weight is sure to fall right off!! Keep up the good work!!

    This^^^

    Le sigh...
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  • strawberrycoconut87
    strawberrycoconut87 Posts: 19 Member
    I normally lose more 'water' weight at the start of a diet than I have this time. Just figured out the reason - "that time of the month" began today. :mad:

    Women's bodies sometimes fluctuate like that because of the 'cycle' - I would give it more time and you'll probably see a difference.

    If not, you can adjust your daily intake of food or make sure to weigh it, etc.

    I just bought a food scale myself. It's actually a really useful tool in the kitchen - even for more than just dieting!! I have never used one before but I have still had successful diets in the past by putting a lot of emphasis on foods whose caloric content is clearly defined on the package (processed food).
  • Laurenloveswaffles
    Laurenloveswaffles Posts: 535 Member
    I bet you are losing inches! Definitely gaining muscle! Keep up the good work. Sounds like you are doing everything right. The weight is sure to fall right off!! Keep up the good work!!
    don't listen to this, OP.

    You're not gaining muscle.

    If you've lost weight, I'm not sure what the problem is that you need help with.
    You're losing weight.
    You're apparently doing it right.

    ^this

    If muscle gaining requires a calorie surplus, proper amount of protein and a hypertrophy lifting routine and gains are still slow even in the best circumstances because, as women, we lack the testosterone to gain as much as men.

    You most certainly are NOT gaining it in a deficit.

    As stated you're losing weight. Faster weight loss is not good weight loss. Losing weight slowly is ideal to retaining muscle and looking leaner. Just keep on swimming!

    All this. Be patient and don't rush the process.
    Weight loss is not linear either.
  • Sharon_C
    Sharon_C Posts: 2,132 Member
    OP - I, too, was shocked to learn that I wasn't going to gain significant muscle while eating at a deficit. But it's true. You'll see some changes, obviously, but not huge changes. Basically you're lifting so you keep the muscle you have while you're losing weight. When the weight comes off, the muscle will show.

    Are you weighing and logging your food accurately? Keep in mind that MFP's calories burned during exercise is sometimes really high. I don't trust their numbers.
  • nxd10
    nxd10 Posts: 4,570 Member
    I bet you are losing inches! Definitely gaining muscle! Keep up the good work. Sounds like you are doing everything right. The weight is sure to fall right off!! Keep up the good work!!
    don't listen to this, OP.

    You're not gaining muscle.

    If you've lost weight, I'm not sure what the problem is that you need help with.
    You're losing weight.
    You're apparently doing it right.

    ^this

    If muscle gaining requires a calorie surplus, proper amount of protein and a hypertrophy lifting routine and gains are still slow even in the best circumstances because, as women, we lack the testosterone to gain as much as men.

    You most certainly are NOT gaining it in a deficit.

    As stated you're losing weight. Faster weight loss is not good weight loss. Losing weight slowly is ideal to retaining muscle and looking leaner. Just keep on swimming!

    It's hard to lose weight quickly when you don't have much to lose. Enjoy your workouts. Eat well. Measure. Keep logging.
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
    One thing that didn't make sense to me at first about "you can't build muscle while you're eating at a deficit" is that this doesn't mean you're not getting stronger. You are. You're probably already noticing it. But you're not actually adding muscle mass, just retaining and strengthening what's already there (which means you'll look more defined as the weight comes off. Yay!) So you're doing good things for yourself, but not in the way you might think.

    Yeah! This^ (it's what we all NEED to hear)