Help me :(

Starting a new exercise program usually has your muscles retaining extra water for a little while. Which means, you see a false gain on the scale. It usually settles itself out and goes away after a couple weeks.

For specifics, open your diary.

I have a four week cycle of weight loss, with a gain just before I lose big. Three guesses what sort of monthly cycles women usually have? That could be it, salt retention, etc. I say give four weeks at least to get a good picture on whether you are going up or down. If you think you might need to change your calorie goal, reduce it by 100 calories a day for a week or two to see if it makes a difference. That's only if you aren't at your minimum of 1,200.

How much are you planning on losing?

Sammieamfa wrote:

They always say that when you start out at the gym you are gaining muscle and trimming up and muscle is heavy than fat.

I don't know why this myth continues, or why people can't see the illogic of it and stop saying it.
A pound of muscle weighs exactly the same as a pound of fat!!!
(Which weighs the same as a pound of feathers or a pound of lead.)

Also, it's hard to gain muscle, so very unlikely that someone would lose a pound of fat and gain a pound of muscle at the same time.

Since the beginning of 2014, this calculator says I've lost 81 lb of fat and gained 3 lb of lean body mass (had misremembered in another thread & said 4). I would have been very happy with simply maintaining muscle mass, which given the potential measurement inaccuracies is probably what I've actually done.

But yes, muscle is more compact/dense than fat.
Take measurements every couple of weeks. Sometimes that's the only progress you'll see.
.

Have you got any tips on what I could change

Make sure you're really eating what you think you're eating. Weigh/measure everything, at least until you get a handle on portion size & can eyeball things pretty reliably. Overeating is usually the problem when someone says, "I'm eating so little but not losing weight".

Don't eat back your exercise calories. Most machines (including MFP) overestimate calories burned. Add that to the underestimation of food consumed, and you could easily be several hundred calories off. If your deficit is only 250 calories per day (to lose 0.5 lb per week) that's the difference between losing & maintaining/gaining.

If after several weeks of doing those, you don't see a change, drop 50 calories & wait again.
You can also increase your exercise (time, intensity), though most weight is lost at the table, not the treadmill. Instead of 30 min of cardio a day, do 45. Or 60. Instead of walking on a flat treadmill, use the incline or the hill program.

Here's a newbie help post where I compiled some useful links, including sexypants (go read it now, then come back to this thread), accurate weighing & logging of food, realistic goal setting (weight, calories, macros), motivation, etc.

MKEgal wrote: »

Sammieamfa wrote:

They always say that when you start out at the gym you are gaining muscle and trimming up and muscle is heavy than fat.

I don't know why this myth continues, or why people can't see the illogic of it and stop saying it.
A pound of muscle weighs exactly the same as a pound of fat!!!

Geeze whaay no need to sound aggressive and getting angry.
I may be a newbie this time around but have been here before, but having lost 5 and 4 stones twice before I shall make sure I rip all those books up as I was obviously wrong and while at will trace back all the health professionals I've dealt with over the last 20 years to let them know they are wrong too. Oh and of course the other organisations in the public domain that teach people about muscle density too..

I appreciate science and research is always changing, but will agree to disagree. But one thing we should remember on forums, wherever they may be, is that when writing a post there is no tone to how they can be read by another and to be kind in posting bearing this in mind.

(Deleted last post by accident so cba to type it all out again.

Probably didn't explain as it density I was referring to. Maybe a bit sensitive having an angry face thrown at me then or the differences across the seas. I shall refrain in the future as I've certainly not come across that before.

It's depends but I would try switching up your workout routine