I'm so discouraged! Major lifestyle changes no results.

Please open your diary for people to see what you've been logging as your food and exercise. No-one can decipher your story without knowing your food. If your sodium is quite high the day before you weighed, you could have retained 2 lb of water and completely masked your weight loss.

So, you're not eating take out. But what are you eating? Do you weigh it on a food scale? Measure it in measuring cups? Eyeball it?

Try and swap any snacks to fruit, try not to stray from eating low fat foods/fat free foods such as natural yoghurt, limit bread and oats (anything with wheat) to 2 portions (1 slice of bread, 30g oats) or (2 slides bread etc) as this is a common error because even though it contains fibre, it is a carb that the body stores as fat (especially white bread as it has 0 health benefits) and of course, balance out carbs with veg and meat, protein is so important, apart from that, just keep going and be proud of what you're doing, you've come so far, well done!

milseyy wrote: »

Try and swap any snacks to fruit, try not to stray from eating low fat foods/fat free foods such as natural yoghurt, limit bread and oats (anything with wheat) to 2 portions (1 slice of bread, 30g oats) or (2 slides bread etc) as this is a common error because even though it contains fibre, it is a carb that the body stores as fat (especially white bread as it has 0 health benefits) and of course, balance out carbs with veg and meat, protein is so important, apart from that, just keep going and be proud of what you're doing, you've come so far, well done!

None of this is necessarily correct for the OP depending on his nutritional needs and size. Some of it just isn't correct at all.

Fruit is great but does not necessarily make a filling snack that will help someone adhere to their plan, and it is low in protein and fat, two important macros that any individual person may need and want to work in to their snacks. I personally feel a whole lot better if I have an egg or a protein bar as a snack than an orange, even though I love oranges. Many kinds of fruit are also fairly calorie-dense.

Excess calories of any kind are stored as fat, not specifically just carbs. Many kinds of white bread have micronutrients as well as calories and fiber, and ARE DELICIOUS, all of which are health benefits.

A large person may well need more than two portions of carbs and there is nothing wrong with wheat unless a person has an actual wheat allergy, which the overwhelming majority do not.

There is nothing especially healthy about low fat/fat free foods and actually pretty ample evidence that healthy fats are an important part not only of nutrition but of achieving a sense of satiety. If you look, you'll also notice that these foods are often not much or not at all lower calorie than full-fat versions, as improving the taste after removing fat usually requires the addition of considerable sugar. Personally, I grew up eating a lot of low-fat and fat-free foods, both dairy and processed foods, and while they tasted "normal" to me because of that, when I switched to full-fat versions of those foods at a doctor's suggestion to address some nutritional imbalances she suspected, I found I felt full after much smaller portions.

Meat is not necessarily important. It is totally possible to achieve adequate protein intake without it (I've been doing it for decades) and though we don't know the OP's story, the average western diet contains much MORE meat than is nutritionally needed, not less.

OP- there's some really good advice in this thread, but ignore these random nutritional demands. They're baseless.

When I start back again after being a slug for a while, I ignore the scale for a while ... it takes time. Drink plenty of water and there are other excellent suggestions above. Exercise and an improved diet are bound to make you more fit over time - be proud of your new commitment and don't expect immediate results.

Another thought: if you are small to begin with, any weight you lose should be very small per week. You can't expect the scale to show a loss with your new exercise regime in the first week or so, so you shouldn't be expecting much of a move in three weeks' time.

You have made progress even though you don't see it yet. Did you take any measurements before? After 4 weeks are your clothes looser? With the exercise you are making healthier choices. But all the exercise won't make up for a bad diet either for weight loss. Just a few extra calories here or there can ad up. Measuring will be a big help.

seahorsepenguin wrote: »

The food scale does not lie!!! I was shocked by how much more cereal I was eating when I was just using measuring cups. Plus it is so easy to overfill too.

Right?! When I saw how much a serving of peanut butter actually was, I almost cried.

I bake my own bread and the flour mix has a barcode, which when scanned, tells you the nutritional data for a 50g slice. The other day I weighed my normal slice out of curiosity. Let's just say it wasn't 50g......

It's usually going to come down more to accuracy than anything else. Also, it's only been a month. I've had the same happen with clients many times, but with consistency, they see the changes a couple of months later.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition