Getting discouraged!

kwall07 wrote: »

Hello,
I joined a fitcamp at the gym 3 weeks ago after having baby 3 on November 1st. I have been killing it with meal planning and working out. I've been doing weights and cardio. I need to lose 15-20 pounds. The scale goes down 2 then up 1. What am I doing wrong?! This is the slowest process! I'm 5"3, 171 pounds. My goal weight is 155 ish. The registered Dietician had me eating 1650 calories now I'm doing 1450-1500.

Stick to what the Dietitian gave you. Are you nursing?

3 weeks is still too early. Patience, and being consistent is needed. How many times a week do you do fit camp?

Your doing nothing wrong, except not having faith in yourself. Don't give up, and don't give up. You are working to hard to give up. Congrats on your baby. Your a warrior queen. 9 months for a baby to grow and it takes time for, nature to take time for a body get back to normal. You know this. Like the post above, be consistent. We need that in our lives daily. To be mindful of our body and what we put in. Learn it young instead of doing a life of rollercoasting, binging and dieting, and giving up wasting time in your life where your to unfit to do things. Mostly have fun, enjoying to Move that body, and play with your kids.

A couple of thoughts, with some questions mixed in...

1. Weight loss is not a linear process. Fluctuations in weight are completely normal and it's not at all unheard of to see your weight change +/- a couple of pounds within a given week. That you recently started fitcamp indicates to me that your "down 2, up 1" weight fluctuation is likely caused by water weight, which would mean that your muscles are retaining water to aid in the repair and recovery process.

2. Aside from a couple of references to your daily calorie goal, you've not really said anything about how you're monitoring your food intake. If you're not using a food scale to measure every bit of food you put into your mouth, you really have no idea exactly how many calories you're consuming on a given day. Are you using a food scale?

3. You've mentioned your exercise plan several times in this thread. Exercise is important for general fitness, it helps you retain lean muscle mass while you're eating at a deficit, and it makes it easier to maintain a deficit because of the extra calories/day it provides. But weight loss really begins and ends with how much we're eating. Having a really good handle on your food intake (portion control + food scale) will have a bigger impact on your success or failure than how much time you put in at the gym.

4. How much weight, if any, have you lost since you started? If you're consistently down 2, up 1 every three weigh ins, you're still losing weight.

5. Weight loss is a slow process. Some start with a pretty big loss right away, but slow down after a couple of weeks. For others, it's a much slower process. That you only have 15-20 lbs to lose means you're likely in the latter group. The less we have to lose, the longer it typically takes and (I can't stress this enough) the more important it is for you to accurately track your food intake.

So with all of that being said (and in the absence of more info from you) I think you need both a bit more patience and, if you're not already using one, a food scale.

This sounds so cliché but trust the process. I have been going through a similar thing since September of last year. Got down to 155 only to bounce right back up to 163. Overall, I have lost maybe 3 pounds from my September 1st weight, and it fluctuates a fair amount. However, in that time I have still managed to lose 2 inches from my waist. There is something to be said for re-composition.