Weight gain; no inches lost; but feel more toned?

hillabeans24
hillabeans24 Posts: 10 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I've gained 4 or 5 pounds since starting t25. I'm about to move into Gamma. But the scale has gone from 132-133 to 135-137. My measurements are roughly the same. You can see my hip bones and have for awhile now, before I started this program. My core seems tighter and I feel stronger. I already had muscle but I was hoping to lose mainly these thighs and build up my core. And while I know I'm stronger, seeing steady measurements and scale numbers makes me believe I'm still not doing something right. Am i?

Replies

  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    You may be retaining water. I'm not really sure what t25 or Gamma are but new exercise programs often cause the body to retain water. Are you eating in a deficit to lose fat?
  • hillabeans24
    hillabeans24 Posts: 10 Member
    T25 is a hiit program with Shaun t. Part of the beach body people. I am eating at a deficit. Fitbit is synced up to my account and on average I burn about 1800-2000 calories a day and I'm eating around 14 or 1500
  • jerb00
    jerb00 Posts: 155 Member
    This is me exactly. I have been doing strong curves for three months. Moving into the next portion of the program now. My weight has remained steady throughout. I am hip thrusting and bridging more than I weigh yet me measurements are still the same. I do feel stronger and I guess a bit more toned but I am not seeing the improvements I was hoping for at this point. I am also eating at a deficit.
  • jerb00
    jerb00 Posts: 155 Member
    Actually at maintenance. Recalculated to be sure.
  • hillabeans24
    hillabeans24 Posts: 10 Member
    I think i was eating at maintenance for part of the program too, the change in my exercise really changed my appetite. But then i recalculated all of my stuff and upgraded to mfp premium to really keep track of my macros and researched my TDEE and BMI and all that crap again. Two weeks of doing extremely detailed food logging and the scale hasn't budged at all. Maybe half a pound some mornings. I can weigh 137 and feel 'bloated' or weigh 137 and feel 'morning skinny'. I even started measuring different parts of my body, calves, forearms, neck and whatnot to see if i'll see changes there. But i don't know and it is really discouraging.
  • jerb00
    jerb00 Posts: 155 Member
    Seriously same here. Except that I stopped logging for now cuz I was getting consumed by it but I still almost always hit my protein goal and and am fairly regimented in my eating habits so I don't think I am too far off. Plus, the scale isn't moving. I have been logging/monitoring since April but began my new fitness/lifting routine at the beginning of July. I used to do yoga and Pilates for years and years. I have measured hips, thighs, etc and no change at all. Then I read that people who are recomping should be seeing improvement at around 90 days and it is so frustrating. I am def stronger and I know (I know I know I know) that you can't spot reduce,but for all the stinking squats and deadlifts and hip thrusts I have been doing there just isn't a lot of difference. And, it is so drastically different than what I am used to that I just figured it'd be more noticeable.
  • hillabeans24
    hillabeans24 Posts: 10 Member
    So glad you understand. I've been the same measurements like all this year. I've done hiit for over a year now, amping up the programs I follow. And each one is steadily harder. I think with mfp, I could have been slacking so after no results for 2 months, I switched to premium. I know I'm stronger too but hip thrusts and squats and weights I know! Shouldn't even a half inch difference be seen. I'd take a couple centimeters hell! I've been so depressed since I stopped seeing that continuous progress. I've googled so much and it just seems like there's no answer. Which is why I'm like, it's me right? Eating too much, too little? Not working out enough or more often or the wrong time of a day? But right now, it can't be my nutrition. I've been obsessing with this stupid diary for 2 weeks!
  • hillabeans24
    hillabeans24 Posts: 10 Member
    edited October 2016
    I did put a mirror in my workout room so I can focus on the muscles working and not the vanity fat jiggling lol. That kind of helps.
  • jerb00
    jerb00 Posts: 155 Member
    This exactly. I have have analyzed my caloric intake and questioned whether I am taking in too little/too much based on results. In the beg before changing my exercise routine I lost some lbs by taking calories down to 1200. I'll never do that again. I am small but is was terrible. Not sure how anyone else does it to be honest. But even a small deficit puts me in the low 1300s which isn't a whole lot more but better than nothing.

    And, I know the people around here get annoyed at the newbies asking the same questions over and over again about modifying diet/exercise but I see so many people with positive results by now. Including my husband. Been a lifter for 20 years but decided to start a new routine when I did - 3 months ago. He is looking ripped! Way more defined than ever before. I have been exercising my whole life, dancing, so I have been healthy a fit-ish, but more skinny fat. Still, 3 months of something entirely new for my body and not a whole lot to show for it- but I can open my own jars now without any help!!!
  • hillabeans24
    hillabeans24 Posts: 10 Member
    I feel the same way. i dont think i'm a newbie anymore, but i now that i am not seeing that progress but still not trying to maintain yet and get more toned and whatnot, i dont know what to do when it comes to my exercises or my diet. a friend of mine said i need to start lifting to start losing/building up. and i'd like to but it seems hard enough doing my routine now. and i'm a home workout person because i work 12 hour days- my programs do have weights included and i use 12 to 15's now, where before i couldn't use 3 pounds it seems! i think planks and pushups and all those crazy moves put one hell of a strain on me as is, i know i'm working hard because i'm sore at least once a week from certain workouts. but i dont know. i'm getting tired of not knowing what i should be doing now.
  • jerb00
    jerb00 Posts: 155 Member
    Everyone says to lift weights. I do think it has def made a difference for me in my arms for sure. But I have been doing strong curves for I guess 4 months now and I suppose it is doing something since I am not gaining weight. But the only real difference I see in my arms. The rest surely seems the same. I now use 25 lb Dumbbells, deadlift 75lbs and sumo squat 40 lbs. hip thrust 95lbs. I weigh 94 lbs. switching from yoga to those weights should show something I would think??? But...nada. I throw hiit in there twice a week. I am clearly burning calories and not gaining but everything looks the same. So beyond frustrating. I am glad I am not true only one though. Seems everyone has success stories.
  • canadianlbs
    canadianlbs Posts: 5,199 Member
    i think i'm either measuring the parts of myself where the fat isn't that movable, or have crap tape-measure skillz. i started lifting at around 135 pounds (on a 'fat' day) and kept lifting while i lost another 10 over the first four or five months . . . pmuch the same measurements the whole time. yet i do recall getting to where i felt i couldn't excuse my pants anymore. they were the kind of loose where if you belt them up you look like a 1930's drifter and if you don't belt them up they fall off.

    that was about two years ago. i gave up on logging and chasing thinness for its own sake, and got more interested in eating and chasing bar weight for bragging rights. so i'm back around 135 now (on a 'thin' day this time), and still lifting. much stronger, same pants, same numbers on the tape, yet the pants now look normal again.

    i gave up on measuring. for one thing, i think i'm just not measuring the zones where the fat's actually doing most of the going away and coming back. in a way i can understand that. i measure myself in the places where i feel like i'm chubbiest, and there are probably reasons why those are my chubby zones. fat on my body is like snow cover. there are areas where it's just seasonal so it comes and goes. but there are others where it's more like the polar ice caps. i tend to measure myself in the ice-cap zones, so there you go.

    that's my story anyway :tongue: and i'm sticking to it.
  • jerb00
    jerb00 Posts: 155 Member
    Hey Canadian. Thanks for tr reply. I actually read it several days ago and decided to get my head around the fact that what I want to happen and what is actually happening may never match up . So I better be ready to deal with the what is actually happening. So, thanks for the perspective. Trying to think of this as a journey and not a means to an end. Giving myself a bit of slack. Gonna keep things as they are and keep trying to lift heavier and heavier for bragging rights:)

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