New and Discouraged!

Tamhan · July 2011

Looking for some advice..... i am female, 5'8", 38 years, and weigh 154. I have never in my life counted calories and decided to give it a try two weeks ago. My ideal weight would be 140 so i did the calorie counter and it told me to have 1200 calories a day, i have done this for two weeks now with 5 days of turbo fire, roller blading, bike riding, etc. prior to starting counting calories i had done turbo fire for four weeks and have not lost a pound yet! I have lost an inch in my waist and a quarter in my calves and thighs....i am sooooo discouraged! Anyone with some advice would be greatly appreciated. One last note, i have always eaten whatever i have wanted, so i thought for sure the drop to 1200 calories would make a HUGE difference....NOT!

dogwhisperette · July 2011

Well girl! I would be very proud of yourself! You lost inches! Which means you turned fat into muscle! Thats awesome! Keep up the good work and focus on those inches and not so much the number on the scale. Your workouts are diffenitly working for you!
Well done! Be positive and keep up the good work.
Dana

peachNpunkin · July 2011

Ok, first of all, You are doing quite well. Since you are building muscle, I would ignore the scale for a couple of weeks, as well as the tape measure and strickly concentrate on your caloric intake and working out. I would decrease the salt intake as that will cause you to retain water.

Now, ignoring the scale is important for to succeed. Muscle has more mass than fat, therefore it weighs more. That is no mythe. It is truth. So the best way for you to judge your progress is to measure every couple of weeks. Pick a day of the week such as Monday and measure every other Monday.

As you see the inches dropping, you will not have a very good excuse to be discouraged.
I hope this helps you. And good luck on your journey.

CaptainMFP · July 2011

If you have lost the inches you describe it sounds like you are losing fat and adding muscle. Since muscle weighs more than fat, you could be at a zero loss so far...but if you are losing inches it IS working! Be patient. If you're really concerned about the scale, check into your sodium and water consumption. If you are taking in too much sodium (easier to do than it sounds) and/or taking in too little water, you might be retaining water. Don't lose your drive...sometimes it takes a couple of weeks for things to really start moving.

erickirb · July 2011

Looking for some advice..... i am female, 5'8", 38 years, and weigh 154. I have never in my life counted calories and decided to give it a try two weeks ago. My ideal weight would be 140 so i did the calorie counter and it told me to have 1200 calories a day, i have done this for two weeks now with 5 days of turbo fire, roller blading, bike riding, etc. prior to starting counting calories i had done turbo fire for four weeks and have not lost a pound yet! I have lost an inch in my waist and a quarter in my calves and thighs....i am sooooo discouraged! Anyone with some advice would be greatly appreciated. One last note, i have always eaten whatever i have wanted, so i thought for sure the drop to 1200 calories would make a HUGE difference....NOT!

Most likely 1200 calories is not enough for you, try eating more. With only 14 lbs to your goal I would suggest setting a goal of 0.5 lbs/week, any more would create a too large of a deficit given your stats and goals. By having a larger deficit you will risk burning muscles instead of fat, which I'm sure is not what you are trying to do.

Try changing your goal to 0.5lbs/week, and make sure you eat back most of your exercise calories as well. Try this for 3-4 weeks and if you don't have results then re-evaluate.

lisapickering · July 2011

What do you have your weight loss set at? It looks like 2lbs per week? You are not overweight so you should probably set it at 0.5lbs per week -- you are likely not eating enough. If you look through older posts you will see MANY talking about number of calories you should eat. The closer you are to your goal weight the more important this.

sracaxaj · July 2011

"Now, ignoring the scale is important for to succeed. Muscle has more mass than fat, therefore it weighs more. That is no mythe. It is truth. So the best way for you to judge your progress is to measure every couple of weeks. Pick a day of the week such as Monday and measure every other Monday. "

I totally agree - muscle is the most important - it burns more calories at rest too so its a win win!

atabt · July 2011

I am almost the same age, weight and height as you - at least I was at my starting point. I had the same issue - the scale wasn't moving although I was tightening my belt to the next notch, etc. (losing inches). It was nice to have my clothes fitting better but being a numbers person the scale was frustrating me by not moving very quickly.

The advice I received was to try and eat a little bit more because sometimes that actually helps you to lose a bit more weight. I am now on 1400 net calories per day instead of 1200. Also make sure that you eat back all your exercise calories. There are lots of posts on this site that explain why.

One last piece of advice that was helpful to me was that because I was already at a "healthy" weight, it was going to take longer to lose weight. So be patient! I aim for a pound a week and sometimes I get surprised with a little bit more than that. I figure it took me many years to layer on an extra 20 lbs - it will take me a while to lose it. So don't lose hope!!

Tamhan · July 2011

Thank you all! Maybe i should kick the scale under my bed for a while, i have been weighing myself every morning. All i keep thinking is something has got to give....soon..lol. I do feel stronger esp. in my legs so maybe more changes are just around the corner. Eating all my excercise calories back? Will do!!!!! Today is a good day! Wishing you all continued success:happy:

New and Discouraged!

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