Frustrated with Scale

ls1guy98 wrote: »

I have been working out pretty hard for a little over a month. Initially I lost some weight
(214 lbs to 206 lbs), which I guessed was mostly a water weight scenario. However for the past 2 weeks I haven't dropped a single pound. Here are the details of my days.

I have MFP set to sedentary (as I have a desk job) I also have my protein and fat at 25% with carbs at 50%. This gives me 1500 calories per day, which I never exceed. I do not enter my cardio or weight training into MFP

I go to the gym 5 to 6 days per week and complete around 1 hour of weight training + 30 min of cardio. According to the machine I burn 400-500 calories per cardio workout.

I can feel my pants/clothes fitting better. However; I cannot see a difference in the mirror or on the scale. I know it takes time, but I thought I would see some progress on the scale by this point.

Is it a time thing or am I doing something wrong?

This is progress - if clothing is feeling looser, that's good. If you haven't yet, take some photos now for comparison later, and start tracking your measurements, too. The scale excels at frustrating people and messing with your mind, so don't give it too much credit along the way. It WILL fluctuate and make you think you're stalled or even backtracking, but the tape measure will tell the true story.

As for your calorie goal - I'm wondering if you're going to be able to sustain that 1500 calories - I'm a 46 year old chick and I lose on 1800-2000 cals a day. 1500 isn't much, especially after an hour and a half of weights & cardio and not eating any of the cals back. you may be setting yourself up to hit the wall or burn out, because under eat will catch up to you eventually. Especially with your activity level set at sedentary, if I were you I would be eating at least 50-75% of those burned cals on workout days. My goal is to eat as many cals as I can and still lose, and I've done so for over three years, losing the weight and keeping it off!

You might gain some tips and encouragement from The 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferris. Sometimes you even need a food binge to break the plateau. There are many examples of various scenarios in the book. I am admittedly a novice, but I do look at body fat percentage rather than total weight.