no weight loss...

Depending on what kind of exercises you're doing, it is possible that your body is shifting. It's possible that you're shrinking in inches, but the pounds don't show on the scale....YET. Remain consistent. I'd say give it 1 or 2 more weeks. If you don't see a change by then, at that time consider changing something in your program. It's crucial, at this point, that you don't get discouraged. Be sure to surround yourself with positive, motivational things. Keep doing what you know is right. It will absolutely pay off, whether sooner or later.

Keep movin' on! You got this!

*smiles*

Jean

when you start vigourous excercise you body turns fat into muscle which weighs more if your lucky you stay the same weight and then you start to lose. i've been marothon training and in the last month lost 3 inches from my waist but gained half a stone its frustrating but the weight will come off just have to keep going

The thing is muscle and fat are not interchangeable, but it does give the illusion that you're exchanging the two. What happens is the fat can shrink and the muscle can gain strength and "grow". Muscle is dense, which means it takes up less space than fat. 5 pounds of fat will take up more space than 5 pounds of muscle, so you can shrink in inches, but not necessarily lose weight right away. That's totally possible.

I wouldn't focus so much on a single metric for such a short term period. Hang in there and look at your success over the longer period. Your program is clearly working.

Keep working at it. At times when I felt like I wasn't losing anything, I started measuring and sure enough clothes were feeling looser and my waist was shrinking. That is also a victory. I'm at a plateau right now and I know it's frustrating, but hang in there and see if measurement numbers are going down. If that isn't changing, you might need to change something. And I find weight comes off very slowly and you might only lose a lb a week so keep at it and over time you should see some results.

If you're only eating 1200 calories and working out "vigorously" then you probably aren't eating enough.

Also, muscle doesn't grow on a calorie deficit. Could be water retention.

Keep plugging, and everything will balance out.

I'd like to point out that you said you think you look better and you feel healthier. Why would you give that up? Those are two HUGE things!

I know I struggle with defining myself by a number...a size or my weight. But MFP is about making a lifestyle change for the better. Not a temporary diet. Look at your original motivation. Hang in there. Stay the course. You can do this.

I started losing weight before joining here so I can't relate exactly, but I don't tend to lose every single week. I think my first week on here I lost about half a pound. And then the scale stayed the same for about 2 weeks and then suddenly I lost 4 pounds. I've heard people on here before say that they record their weight once a month. So maybe stay at it for another couple of weeks and see what happens.

If you really want this, you've got to change up your perspective or you make find yourself yo-yoing. Don't let something as minor as the scales discourage you. The scales are just an object - they don't lead you. YOU lead you. Consider it a lifestyle change... a permenant change of bad habits to good ones. We all slip but you want to be making say 80+% healthy choices, consistently. If you can stick with 100%, awesome. Take it a few weeks at a time. Don't live by the scale. Think of how the body is being ever used - taking in food, removing waste, sweating, hormones, adapting to temperatures. Your scales can say you've gained 2 lbs. and you haven't in the way you think.

I've changed a lot of my bad habits and learned to push through if I don't get immediate results but relish the small accomplishments along the way. You said you can tell you've become more toned and feel better. That is called a NSV (non-scale victory) and it is worthy of celebration! You don't have to abandon the scale, but continue to look for those NSVs too.

Get a new, fancier scale. There's nothing wrong with the basic scale I assume you have, but for about $40 at a discount store that sells exercise equipment (I went to Target), you can purchase a scale that also measures your percentage body fat (some will do the calculations for you and tell you what that is in pounds, as well.) If the amount of fat in your body is dropping, you'll see that, even if your weight isn't changing due to water and/or greater muscle mass.

The scale I got (this is not an add - but I'll say that it is Weight Watchers brand) gives me: weight in pounds, pounds of fat, percentage fat, percentage water, percentage bone mass (important if you're aging and concerned about osteoporosis), and BMI. That's a lot of really useful information to get. You know what type of tissue is causing weight gain/loss.

Some Ys or gyms can provide you access to an even fancier version of this technology (often for a fee). The one at my Y is called "InBody," and it provides a print-out of much more information you want to know about body composition, including weight, skeletal muscle mass, body fat mass, intracellular water, and extracellular water. It has a section that compares your obesity diagnosis from the BMI scale to the Percent Body Fat scale. (Huge difference for me! I'm normal in BMI, and overweight by percentage body fat.) Then it breaks down to show you how much lean development (muscle mass) you have in various parts of your body - each of your arms, your trunk, and each of your legs. It's amazing to see where your muscle development is good, great, or under-developed. Also, it calculates the exact base number of calories you need for a day - your Basal Metabolic Rate.

The technology is amazing and can be very helpful in better understanding how each of us can best approach our fitness goals.