Scale and measurements are increasing. HELP!!!

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labridge71488
labridge71488 Posts: 21 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I am a 30 year old female. I am 5’5” and 185 lbs. I started working out out again about a month ago starting with 3 days and have now consistently been going to the gym 6 days a week for the last two weeks. I have been doing a lot of free weight exercises rotating muscle groups daily to give my muscles a chance to rest/recover. I do roughly 10-30 minutes or cardio before strength training, changing up the type or cardio daily between rowing, elliptical, interval running, incline treadmill, etc. when weight training, I use weights that are heavy enough that I am feeling the burn at about 75% completion of rep. I do 3 reps of 15 for every exercise and really feel like I am pushing myself and can feel the muscles “recovering “ for days after exercising. My problem is, I started at 186.3lbs and wrote down all of my measurements. I weigh myself every morning and track my weight and food. I measure every Sunday to see if there is any progress. I have only lost one inch and that is in my waist. I have only lost 1LB this entire last month that has me concerned that something is not right. I work a desk job but spend about 1-1.5 hours at the gym daily and I eat a fairly strict diet. I have never been much of an eater to begin with so over the years I’d say my “non-dieting” average of calories was anywhere between 1200-1600 Dailey without exercise and not really portioning my macros. Since getting back into working out I eat roughly 1200 calories with 25%f/45%c/30%p with anywhere between 100-150 fl oz of water daily. I don’t eat anything with high sodium. I stick to mainly eggs, lean chicken, spinach, cucumbers, apples and grapefruit, cottage cheese, and one protein shake a day. ANY, and I mean ANY advice would be greatly appreciated or ideas on why I’m gaining and not losing. It’s becoming extremely discouraging and honestly making me overly stressed and emotional which doesn’t help the process. I need help seeing the light because I’m starting to lose hope.
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Replies

  • TriPaulCantRun
    TriPaulCantRun Posts: 50 Member
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    Thank you........
  • Silentpadna
    Silentpadna Posts: 1,306 Member
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    "It's worthwhile remembering that you're trying to lose fat, not water".

    Gold nugget from that post.
  • marym6066
    marym6066 Posts: 21 Member
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    Maybe try to do more cardio. Weight lifting is great and you should keep that up but if you incorporate more time doing cardio you will burn more calories. I do a minimum of 30 min a day
  • Lesscookies1
    Lesscookies1 Posts: 250 Member
    edited February 2018
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    But are you using a food scale to track your caloric intake? I'll be honest I think you're eating more than you think. However, losing a pound in a month isn't bad. If you want to lose more you gotta be more consistent with your tracking. I've lost 42 pounds so far.
  • MegaMooseEsq
    MegaMooseEsq Posts: 3,118 Member
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    I agree with the above posts: you're doing fine, and starting new exercise or increasing frequency often leads to water retention. The last time I made a substantial change in my workouts it took about six weeks for the water-weight to drop. That said, I think you may want to take a hard look at your logging. If you were maintaining or gaining weight at 185 lbs, you were probably eating about 2000 calories a day on average, and that's assuming you have a sedentary job and were doing no exercise at all (I like this calculator for figuring out calorie levels, but most of them are within a couple hundred calories for most people). This is totally fine and very normal, but if you were underestimating then, you may well be doing the same now. 1200 is very low and shouldn't be necessary at your height and weight. In my experience at least, this process goes a lot smoother once you have a more accurate grasp on your intake. Water, macros, and sodium don't directly impact weight loss - only calories matter. Just don't give up - you can do this!
  • labridge71488
    labridge71488 Posts: 21 Member
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    I portion all of my food, specifically scaling my protein and carbs, between fruits and veggies I stick to one apple a day or half of grapefruit, for veggies, it’s always one cup or more spinach or kale, and the occasional cauliflower, I always measure so that I can correctly utilize the nutrition infor to correctly track my macros and calories. I have done the biggest loser before at my job and lost a total of 27 lbs in 3 months... kept it off and maintained and now I’m trying to go for the other 30 I was originally aiming for. Just the scale is not budging at all this time. I’ve had three knee surgeries (2 left/1 right) so I have to watch what I do cardio wise otherwise my knees get irritated as they are both bone on bone already. I feel stronger and feel like there is developing definition. I just feel like everything is just growing underneath all of the fat. I can tell the inch I lost from my waist was definitely from the love handle area, it’s just my humongous butt and thunder thighs are just growing bigger and bigger.
  • labridge71488
    labridge71488 Posts: 21 Member
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    All of my weight is south of my belly button. I’ve always had a fairly skinny waist but big hips, big butt, big thighs and big calves. I don’t do heavy weights with my legs because of my knee injuries but I do lunges, squats, leg press and quite a few inner/outer thigh and hip exercises.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,013 Member
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    But your weight IS budging. You lost 1 lb on the scale, and considering as everyone else has said you are most likely retaining water for muscle repair, you probably have lost more than that.

    With your stats, you should expect to lose 0.5lbs - 1 lb per week. As a woman, you also should expect that you will see water weight changes tied to your hormonal cycle, your workout intensity, and your diet. I can gain or lose as much as 5 lbs of water weight over the course of a week, and that can easily cover up fat loss or gain on the scale. You need to patient. One month is nothing :smiley: You're looking for the trend over time.
  • fitoverfortymom
    fitoverfortymom Posts: 3,452 Member
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    labridge71488 wrote: »
    I portion all of my food, specifically scaling my protein and carbs, between fruits and veggies I stick to one apple a day or half of grapefruit, for veggies, it’s always one cup or more spinach or kale, and the occasional cauliflower, I always measure so that I can correctly utilize the nutrition infor to correctly track my macros and calories. I have done the biggest loser before at my job and lost a total of 27 lbs in 3 months... kept it off and maintained and now I’m trying to go for the other 30 I was originally aiming for. Just the scale is not budging at all this time. I’ve had three knee surgeries (2 left/1 right) so I have to watch what I do cardio wise otherwise my knees get irritated as they are both bone on bone already. I feel stronger and feel like there is developing definition. I just feel like everything is just growing underneath all of the fat. I can tell the inch I lost from my waist was definitely from the love handle area, it’s just my humongous butt and thunder thighs are just growing bigger and bigger.

    How do you determine a portion?
  • labridge71488
    labridge71488 Posts: 21 Member
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    Using macros, I portion all of my meals to fit 25/45/30. So I pre-measure a days worth of food and then break it up between meals
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,013 Member
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    labridge71488 wrote: »
    Using macros, I portion all of my meals to fit 25/45/30. So I pre-measure a days worth of food and then break it up between meals

    Do you use a food scale?
  • labridge71488
    labridge71488 Posts: 21 Member
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    Yes
  • HoneyBadger302
    HoneyBadger302 Posts: 1,974 Member
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    If you're only eating 1200 calories a day (and assuming that you are being accurate in that measurement) I'd actually say you're not eating enough if you're working out for 1 1/2 hours a day 6 days a week. 1200 is usually minimal calories without working out.

    You do have to find what works for your body, but you have also significantly changed your workout routines in a short period - from nothing to now 6 days a week is a lot. Your body and muscles are still adjusting. It takes me a good 4-6 weeks to level back out to normal after a dramatic increase in my workouts (which, for me this winter, has meant I've never gotten to that point because as soon as my workouts weren't very difficult to complete I was upping the intensity and duration).

    It's going to take a bit to figure out what works best for your body and your workouts, too. A month is way too short of a time to have that all figured out.

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