Weight refusing to drop- lifting & cardio

Why exactly are you training like that?
What are your training goals and current capabilities/exercise experience?

If you are trying to induce fatigue, soreness and inflammation then that sounds like a good way to do it - along with resulting water retention which can mask fat loss..
But I'd hope you realise that fatigue, soreness and sweating are not actually training goals.

Making your diary public would give more clues as would lettting people know something about your stats as that information is private to you. Your watches 2600 estimate could be in relation to a 6ft 200lb person of a 5ft 100lb person.

If you are lifting to exhaustion, you are causing inflammation, which can show up on the scale.

However, the real issue here is that 2 =/= 0. That is, you are actually losing weight.

As for logging, it is far easier to accurately log a home made meal than a packaged meal - you just weigh and measure ingredients. On the other hand, packages can be up to 20% both in their nutrition calculations and in the actual weight that ends up being in the package. If a particular package underestimates calories per serving by 20% AND weighs 20% more than advertised, you could be off my almost half again as many calories.

You should take measurements. You might be losing some fat but gaining some muscle so it won't register much on the scale at first, but it will show up in measurements. Don't trust your own eye, we don't always see our progress clearly.

It is hard to build muscle mass AND lose weight at the same time. That is not an area I know a huge amount about, but in general eating at a deficit means you lose weight. The human body is not perfectly efficient to only lose fat. So strength training and eating enough protein WHILE eating at a deficit can help maintain the muscle you have so what you lose is mostly fat.

Being more accurate on calories logged can help improve your rate of loss. If you're eating foods often made by others, that is hard to keep accurate logs. You can try to be more in control over what you eat & how much, or you can assume there are more calories than you would like to think in food made by others. Keep in mind for items you can scan: its still wise to weigh them. The packaging is often wrong. Not every egg weighs the same as every other egg. Not every slice of bread in the loaf is the same size. Not every banana, chicken breast, etc. is a uniform size.

On the strength training front, it's better to follow an established, well-designed program than to just go to the gym and Do Stuff. They will suggest some approach for regulating the amount of weight you lift, how often to do particular exercises, how many to do. There is a list of such programs here, with much discussion of pros/cons:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you/p1

If you have questions about the programs, ask on that thread, or post a specific question about that as a separate thread. (Specific questions tend to get more focused answers.)

Since you say that your current strength is not high, you may find that the entry level of some programs asks you to lift more weight than feasible (i.e., you can't get the reps/sets they prescribe). If that's true, it's generally fine to drop back to a lighter weight. Some of us find we start with an empty bar, a *short/light* empty bar, or begin with a bodyweight program, and work our way up. That's fine. Lifting to failure, generally, is not an effective approach - risks injury, over-fatigue, more. You want gradual, steady progress. One single program is unlikely to work forever, as needs change.

LisaGHM wrote: »

I didn't read through all the replies, but it seems to me that you're likely building muscle.
You may want to have your thyroid checked. It is the gland in your body responsible for tons of things,
particularly metabolism and weight

Sadly, any realistic rate of muscle gain is unlikely to outpace any satisfying fat loss rate, to the point of looking like zero progress on the scale. Under truly excellent conditions, a quarter pound of new muscle mass gain per week would be a very good result, for a woman (maybe twice that, for a man). Truly excellent conditions include a calorie *surplus*, relative youth, a well-designed progressive strength training program faithfully performed, good nutrition (especially but not exclusively adequate protein), favorable genetics, and more.

On the flip side, half a pound of fat loss per week is about the slowest observable fat loss rate, and even that will take weeks to show up clearly between daily water-retention fluctuations of a couple of pounds or more, even with a weight-trending app in use.

The very sad conclusion - and I wish it were otherwise - is that muscle gain will not outpace fat loss in virtually any real-world weight loss scenario, no matter how much I might wish otherwise.

I'm not saying the OP cannot gain strength and muscle mass. She can, assuredly. It is just likely to be slower than that quarter pound a week kind of muscle gain.

The good news is that strength gain can be really fast, especially for a beginner to strength training, with a good program. It comes from better recruiting and using existing muscle fibers - neuromuscular adaptation - not from actually growing new muscle fibers (that's the slow part). Even for strength gain, it will be helpful to get good nutrition, and not try to lose weight super fast. Strength increase is a wonderful thing in itself, very worthwhile.

It can even be possible to look more "toned" rather soon, especially if some fat loss is happening alongside to help reveal muscle structure. When we work those muscles, they hold onto some water weight, for repair. That can create a bit of a "pumped" appearance, making the muscles look larger or more defined. It's not necessarily a sign of new muscle mass being grown quickly. Those appearance improvements can be really motivating & satisfying, good stuff

Some people are deceived by those things - the strength gains, appearance improvements - into thinking they've gained muscle mass (new muscle fibers) when they haven't, much, yet.

Mechatree wrote: »

LisaGHM wrote: »

I didn't read through all the replies, but it seems to me that you're likely building muscle.
You may want to have your thyroid checked. It is the gland in your body responsible for tons of things,
particularly metabolism and weight

Okay, gotcha. So building muscle may be why my weight is kinda in limbo?

That's a good idea. I have a yearly checkup coming up and I'll mention it to my doctor and see if he can add that to my bloodwork.

Your strength training may be a factor in why your scale weight is in limbo . . . from water retention for muscle repair. When I take a long break from strength training (something I do dysfunctionally often because I don't enjoy it), then start up again, I will routinely gain a couple of pounds or so on the scale (water retention) and hang onto that for as long as I keep training on a regular, progressive schedule. It's just water weight, not worth worrying over, IMO. If I'm losing fat at the time, the fat loss will eventually outpace the water retention, and start showing up on the scale again.

This is useful information for you, OP, in this context (and your overall situation):

https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations

Thyroid? Yeah, get that checked. Hypothyroidism is surprisingly common in women as we age. I'm severely hypothyroid, have been for 20+ years, and as long as properly medicated it has zero impact on my life.