Feeling Deflated

How new are you? This is a long term process and patience is important.

Are you weighing and measuring your foods? People, in general, are really bad at estimating how much they are eating.

What kind of exercise are you doing? A combination of cardio and weight training is ideal, but the most important factor is that you do something that you will want to do and keep doing.

Find something besides the actual weight loss to focus on from week to week. Are you eating 5 fruits and veggies every single day? Are you eating enough protein? How far can you run? How many squats can you do? These kinds of goals help you keep your focus.

Could be hormones or just the time of the month my love - persevere and you may well see those scales go 'whoosh' all of a sudden, then we'll all cheer with you! Meantime, what a beauuuuuuuutiful baby!

sonyambrown510 wrote: »

Thank you for the replies everyone

I have been exercising for about 5 months, but only started to get serious the past month. I quit wine about 3 weeks ago, still have the odd beer if my calories limit allows.
I bought a food scale 2 weeks ago to start weighing out my lunches.

I lost nearly 1.5kgs in the first week and now I have put 1kg back on, even though I have exercised like crazy the past week.

I know I am probably expecting to quick of a result - especially since I have opted not to do meal replacements (shakes) because I want to lost the weight long term and make healthier choices.

I am just feeling a bit disillusioned.

If you are creating a calorie deficit, you will lose weight. Calories in - calories out. So if you're not losing weight, then there are three possibilities:

1. Your calories out are wrong. Perhaps you've overestimated your burns from exercise or miscalculated your normal daily burn. Sometimes we choose the wrong activity level in various calculators, and we're actually more or less active than we think we are. Also, the calculators are estimates, and calculate according to population averages. You might not have an average metabolism for various reasons to do with medical conditions, heredity, body composition, etc.

2. Your calories in are wrong. You have to weigh everything in order to know how much you're eating. Measuring cups only work with liquids. If you'd like to see proof, open a box of fairly large bits of cereal, like shredded wheat, and pour out one cup. Now crunch up the bag a little and pour out another cup. Weigh the two, and it's guaranteed that the second cup will weigh more than the first.

3. You are retaining water. This can be a very frustrating experience, when you know that your calories in and your calories out are exactly right, and the scale still isn't budging. Water retention happens for numerous reasons, including monthly hormonal fluctuations, increased sodium consumption and muscle repair after changing or increasing a fitness program. You can retain a pretty significant amount of water and you can retain it for a pretty long time. Sometimes people take a week or a few days off from their program and see a sudden drastic drop of five or more pounds overnight.

Check your calories out to make sure your calculations are all correct. Weigh all your foods so that your calories in are right. And if both of those are right, stop obsessing about the scale. You're better off using a tape measure and progress photos, as they are both way more informative than the scale.

SnuggleSmacks wrote: »

sonyambrown510 wrote: »

Thank you for the replies everyone

I have been exercising for about 5 months, but only started to get serious the past month. I quit wine about 3 weeks ago, still have the odd beer if my calories limit allows.
I bought a food scale 2 weeks ago to start weighing out my lunches.

I lost nearly 1.5kgs in the first week and now I have put 1kg back on, even though I have exercised like crazy the past week.

I know I am probably expecting to quick of a result - especially since I have opted not to do meal replacements (shakes) because I want to lost the weight long term and make healthier choices.

I am just feeling a bit disillusioned.

If you are creating a calorie deficit, you will lose weight. Calories in - calories out. So if you're not losing weight, then there are three possibilities:

1. Your calories out are wrong. Perhaps you've overestimated your burns from exercise or miscalculated your normal daily burn. Sometimes we choose the wrong activity level in various calculators, and we're actually more or less active than we think we are. Also, the calculators are estimates, and calculate according to population averages. You might not have an average metabolism for various reasons to do with medical conditions, heredity, body composition, etc.

2. Your calories in are wrong. You have to weigh everything in order to know how much you're eating. Measuring cups only work with liquids. If you'd like to see proof, open a box of fairly large bits of cereal, like shredded wheat, and pour out one cup. Now crunch up the bag a little and pour out another cup. Weigh the two, and it's guaranteed that the second cup will weigh more than the first.

3. You are retaining water. This can be a very frustrating experience, when you know that your calories in and your calories out are exactly right, and the scale still isn't budging. Water retention happens for numerous reasons, including monthly hormonal fluctuations, increased sodium consumption and muscle repair after changing or increasing a fitness program. You can retain a pretty significant amount of water and you can retain it for a pretty long time. Sometimes people take a week or a few days off from their program and see a sudden drastic drop of five or more pounds overnight.

Check your calories out to make sure your calculations are all correct. Weigh all your foods so that your calories in are right. And if both of those are right, stop obsessing about the scale. You're better off using a tape measure and progress photos, as they are both way more informative than the scale.

*golf clap*

If only ALL science were that simple huh?

The human body is much more complicated than that I'm afraid. It is more than possible to eat less than you use for weeks and weeks on end and NOT lose any weight. It can depend greatly on what you're eating as well.

But as I always say, the earth used to be flat too, right?

if you are measuring and weighing all your food & drink, including your protein shakes. your food page will give you your protein requirement and consumption.

sonyambrown510 wrote: »

I have been exercising for about 5 months, but only started to get serious the past month. I quit wine about 3 weeks ago, still have the odd beer if my calories limit allows.
I bought a food scale 2 weeks ago to start weighing out my lunches.

I lost nearly 1.5kgs in the first week and now I have put 1kg back on, even though I have exercised like crazy the past week.

I know I am probably expecting to quick of a result - especially since I have opted not to do meal replacements (shakes) because I want to lost the weight long term and make healthier choices.

I am just feeling a bit disillusioned.

Exercise is for health and to help the deficit, but weight loss is ALL about that deficit. Weigh and measure everything. You said you're drinking protein shakes; how many calories do these have?

Liftng4Lis wrote: »

sonyambrown510 wrote: »

I have been exercising for about 5 months, but only started to get serious the past month. I quit wine about 3 weeks ago, still have the odd beer if my calories limit allows.
I bought a food scale 2 weeks ago to start weighing out my lunches.

I lost nearly 1.5kgs in the first week and now I have put 1kg back on, even though I have exercised like crazy the past week.

I know I am probably expecting to quick of a result - especially since I have opted not to do meal replacements (shakes) because I want to lost the weight long term and make healthier choices.

I am just feeling a bit disillusioned.

Exercise is for health and to help the deficit, but weight loss is ALL about that deficit. Weigh and measure everything. You said you're drinking protein shakes; how many calories do these have?

To add to this, if you have increased your exercise intensity (your "even though I have exercised like crazy the past week") then it is quite likely that you are retaining water due to that. Your muscles will hold water to assist in repair and cushioning against the unexpected new exercise. It is super common and it goes away.

Liftng4Lis wrote: »

sonyambrown510 wrote: »

I have been exercising for about 5 months, but only started to get serious the past month. I quit wine about 3 weeks ago, still have the odd beer if my calories limit allows.
I bought a food scale 2 weeks ago to start weighing out my lunches.

I lost nearly 1.5kgs in the first week and now I have put 1kg back on, even though I have exercised like crazy the past week.

I know I am probably expecting to quick of a result - especially since I have opted not to do meal replacements (shakes) because I want to lost the weight long term and make healthier choices.

I am just feeling a bit disillusioned.

Exercise is for health and to help the deficit, but weight loss is ALL about that deficit. Weigh and measure everything. You said you're drinking protein shakes; how many calories do these have?

^^^^This * 1000000^^^^ Weight loss is roughly an 80/20 split between diet/exercise. It may even be closer to 90/10. That generally means eating less, especially calorie dense foods, and counting those calories. You can lose weight without any exercise at all however you cannot out-train a bad diet.

You lose weight in the kitchen. You get fit at the gym.