Help need encouragement.

momwifenurse021406
momwifenurse021406 Posts: 27 Member
in Motivation and Support
Hi everyone! I just started again about 2.5 weeks ago. I have been eating 1,000-1,200 calories per day. Working out six days a week for 30-75 min a day cardio and resistance training. I expect to lose 1-2 lbs but I have lost nothing? What's wrong, I thought I would at least lose 1-2 lbs by now? Any advice would be appreciated.

Replies

  • QUmsilva
    QUmsilva Posts: 8 Member
    You may need to eat more! Sounds funny, but 1000 calories is not enough energy for your body to function properly. Especially when you are burning calories during those workouts! Therefore, your body believes that it is starving and will store fat for energy use later. You have to fuel the machine! ;)
  • SisterSueGetsFit
    SisterSueGetsFit Posts: 1,211 Member
    I agree, try upping your calories a bit. It sounds counterintuitive, but you need to eat more if you're exercising that much. Plus it's such a low deficit and so much exercise your likely going to deprive yourself and end up quitting.
  • VeronicaShukla
    VeronicaShukla Posts: 9 Member
    I agree with the above. Eat a minimum of 1200 calories. Doing great! Keep up the good work!
  • bigdish71
    bigdish71 Posts: 18 Member
    Agreed with the above! You have to eat to lose, fuel the furnace so to speak. Restricting calories too much will cause your body to sacrifice muscle and protect fat stores. Building muscle (lean, non bulk) dramatically increases your body's ability to burn fat.

    If you are open to the suggestion, try taking measurements instead of the scale right now. Weight can be misleading and it is just one number. Try taping your thighs, hips, waist and chest (maybe neck) and check you gains once a week. Many more opportunities to celebrate your victories!!

    Stick with it!! You have taken the hardest step which is always the hardest.
  • calinus
    calinus Posts: 8 Member
    Also bare in mind that muscle is heavier than fat. So even as you're losing fat, building a lite muscle, as you just started, can keep the scale unchanged. But that's usually in the short run: as you work out, muscles first go denser, and slightly bigger, up to whatever they were before they started to atrophy. To continue to actually build muscle you need to use somewhat heavy weights (and at least, increase the weights steadily). Short of that, within a few weeks, your muscle weight will stabilize, but if you keep on working out at the same rate, your fat will continue to go down. What the other people said above is somewhat true, but 1000 kcal per day for a woman is acceptable and will not push you into starvation mode. But you need to keep on working out, or your body will burn muscle before fat. If you work out, you'll just burn fat.
    So, what I'm saying here is, be patient, keep at it, and you'll see results for sure.
    I'm a personal trainer, in case you care.
    Good luck!
  • RebelDiamond
    RebelDiamond Posts: 188 Member
    The first step is to make sure you are logging all your food accurately, by that I mean using a food scale.
    It's very easy to accidentally be eating more calories than you think (tends to happen with calorie dense items like olive oil, cheese, nuts, dried fruit).

    Also remember, 2.5 weeks isn't very long so be patient with yourself, sometimes it takes a little while to show but you'll get there! :smile:
  • cesser1
    cesser1 Posts: 63 Member
    That is an amazing effort. There are a lot of good comments above. Check the accuracy of your weights and make sure the food you select in the lists has been confirmed by someone. If you are doing it right, you are changing. The measurements are a great idea. Also, have you thought of making your food diary public and asking some of the experienced people on here to take a look? Hang in there. With that determination, you will surely succeed.

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