If someone could offer advice on maintaining weight loss whilst exercising I'd really appreciate it!

Before starting the challenge I was not active and would consume 1200 calories each day, losing 1-2lbs per week - this was great! Since then I have been aiming for 100 minutes of exercise (mostly cardio, walking) each day, which gives me roughly 400 exercise calories.

It was suggested on some threads that I only eat half of my exercise calories to ensure there is still a defecit but at the same time ensuring that I am consuming enough to fuel my body. I have been doing this and eating around 1400 calories each day with 200-300 calories left over. Anyway I've intermittently popped on the scale and found that my weight has maintained 79kg (174lbs). This is not bad but I'm looking to lose not maintain!

I read in this article that too much cardio and not enough weights could be a factor, along with getting rest.

Unfortunately I cannot afford a gym membership at the moment - as much as I'd love to go - and live in an apartment complex with neighbours below - which excludes activities that involves jumping around (e.g. Insanity). I think that I should be focusing on core exercises and upgrading my walk to a jog/run to push my body further. Should I also be eating less?

I'd really like to know where I'm going wrong. I want to remain in this challenge but I feel that if I'm not losing the weight then it's not working towards my long term goals.

Meowler wrote: »

If someone could offer advice on maintaining weight loss whilst exercising I'd really appreciate it!

Before starting the challenge I was not active and would consume 1200 calories each day, losing 1-2lbs per week - this was great! Since then I have been aiming for 100 minutes of exercise (mostly cardio, walking) each day, which gives me roughly 400 exercise calories.

It was suggested on some threads that I only eat half of my exercise calories to ensure there is still a defecit but at the same time ensuring that I am consuming enough to fuel my body. I have been doing this and eating around 1400 calories each day with 200-300 calories left over. Anyway I've intermittently popped on the scale and found that my weight has maintained 79kg (174lbs). This is not bad but I'm looking to lose not maintain!

I read in this article that too much cardio and not enough weights could be a factor, along with getting rest.

Unfortunately I cannot afford a gym membership at the moment - as much as I'd love to go - and live in an apartment complex with neighbours below - which excludes activities that involves jumping around (e.g. Insanity). I think that I should be focusing on core exercises and upgrading my walk to a jog/run to push my body further. Should I also be eating less?

I'd really like to know where I'm going wrong. I want to remain in this challenge but I feel that if I'm not losing the weight then it's not working towards my long term goals.

I know a lot of people are in the camp that walking burns similar calories to running but I think your calorie burn estimate is way off. Walking isn't going to give you the elevated heart rate that running does, the higher the intensity of the workout the more calories you burn. Do you know what your mileage is for 100 minutes of walking?

Calorie-wise as a runner (to lose weight) I eat under 1400 calories (usually around 1200) when my runs are 5 miles are under. I only eat over 1400 to fuel those longer runs of 5+. Listen to your body and adjust your calories as needed. I would drop your calories down to 1250 (still a little over what you were eating before) and gage how you feel on your walks, what your hunger level is like, and what the scale does and adjust from there.

If you want to add in some running with your walks the Couch to 5K program is a great place to start. I also have neighbors that live below me and you can still do great strength training without making a lot of noise. I do a lot of arm exercise with hand weights while laying down on a mat, or on an exercise ball, plus standing and doing bicep curls the only noise you hear is me complaining If you don't have weights they always say you can use soup cans to start. You can also find great core workouts like pilates on youtube for free.

Was it just one or two weeks you weren't losing? If so I wouldn't worry. And do you weigh every food (prepacked too) on a food scale?

as promised I'll be more active here - this is what I did this morning (I think my kickboxing coach posted it on FB... ) I finished in approx. 10min... so even for me who is the opposite of an early bird I could squeeze this in

Mrscanmore wrote: »

So, my goal for this week is to beat my miles for each day last week

Great Goal! I'll try that too.

One thing to remember is that muscle weighs a lot more than fat. When starting to exercise regularly it's very common to actually gain weight; which is frustrating, if this is the metric you're using to judge success. Also, salty foods can really skew the results, due to water retention. I eat a lot of salty foods, so I gained a ton of weight, during the water challenge. This has since dropped off, once everything stabilized. @Meowler is right in suggesting that you don't over weigh yourself. The results can be very frustrating. I swear barometric pressure comes into play, although I can't find anything scientific to support this...

Your right, muscle doesn't technically weigh more (although it does by volume). My point was that by exercising you might not actually lose weight, and could in fact gain, at first. Many people get discouraged by this, but it's normal.