Losing Lbs and weight training.

I suggest that you stop focusing on the number on the scale and realize that in order to be healthy, you may need to add some muscle tone to your body, which will result in some yo-yo'ing with weights. I'd personally start taking reference pics and/or taking measurements rather than focusing on scale weight as your metric of progress. There's also the fact that muscle is the biggest calorie burning engine in your body, so adding some additional lean muscle will just give you a higher BMR, allowing you to eat more calories while still maintaining a deficit.

Barring that, I'd say go for bodyweight resistance stuff rather than weight lifting as your strength training of choice, or pick a cardio activity that also strains your musculature (rowing, swimming come to mind).

Keep doing both.. that 3-4 pounds your seeing is just water weight that your muscles are holding onto while they repair themselves.

if you cardio only, it will eat away at the muscle and the fat.. but by doing both, you'll retain more muscle and lose primarily fat. Plus muscle burns more calories at rest then fat.. so your metabolism will be higher, and you'll be burning extra calories without even doing anything extra.

AGREE!

I have been on MFP for over a month now- I monitor everything I eat, make sure I don't go over my calories goals. I started running for 30 minutes a day now I am up to 45 min and I do strengh trainning. Well to my surprise not only I have not loss a pound. but I have gained 1.9 lbs. I am very depressed right now and I am beginning to wonder if it's worth it. Everybody is saying not to worry about the scales but I am making those lifestyle changes so I can see result. It's hard to push forward when you feel like you a fighting a losing battle.

Cardio and Strengthening are key to weight loss. While trying to lose weight ... you should do cardio 3 to 4 days a week and weight lifting 2 to 3 days a week. I encourage you to push your limits with the weights ... increase the weight and reduce the rep. The idea is to build muscle over time ... a long hard workout is NOT necessary. I enjoy my Cardio and probably go extreme, so don't base it off my 2+ hour workouts. When I started this journey I did one hour cardio ( walking or swimming ) seven days a week. I then added 30 min of weights three days a week. But I will add ... your diet is just as important and while struggling with your regimen is and can be difficult ... a strict diet three days a week can help you lose 2 to 3lbs weekly. When I say strict ... I simply mean healthy and under 1200 calories. There are alot of GREAT foods that will jump start your metabolism and keep you full all day long. Consider a day of Greek yogurt, Salmon, Spinach, Nuts, Sweet potatoes, chicken ... add some cayenne pepper to your meal and tweek it til it is something you will enjoy eating ! Don't forget if you love chocolate ... 3 oz of DARK chocolate w/ 72% Cocoa is GREAT for your body ! Good luck and ... NEVER GIVE UP ! ♥

after the heart break this morning, I am afraid to measure myself.

I have been on MFP for over a month now- I monitor everything I eat, make sure I don't go over my calories goals. I started running for 30 minutes a day now I am up to 45 min and I do strengh trainning. Well to my surprise not only I have not loss a pound. but I have gained 1.9 lbs. I am very depressed right now and I am beginning to wonder if it's worth it. Everybody is saying not to worry about the scales but I am making those lifestyle changes so I can see result. It's hard to push forward when you feel like you a fighting a losing battle.

Please stick with it...if I had given up after a month, after trying every workout under the sun and logging my food...I'd still be an average frumpy Mom. Rome was not built in a day...you didn't gain the weight in just a month,. Perfection takes time.

P.S. STAY OFF THE SCALE

I suggest that you stop focusing on the number on the scale and realize that in order to be healthy, you may need to add some muscle tone to your body, which will result in some yo-yo'ing with weights. I'd personally start taking reference pics and/or taking measurements rather than focusing on scale weight as your metric of progress. There's also the fact that muscle is the biggest calorie burning engine in your body, so adding some additional lean muscle will just give you a higher BMR, allowing you to eat more calories while still maintaining a deficit.

I second that!!! I got frustrated at the very beginning of my journey - my first weigh in after a week of eating clean and logging hard exercise (6 days of cardio + 3 days of weight lifting), my weight was UP on the scale. But my coach at the gym talked me off the ledge and did the rest of my body comp analysis (measurements with a tape measure and body fat %), and those numbers went DOWN. I could see that my fat mass went down (lost fat weight!), but my lean mass went UP more than my fat mass went down! So having a 'gauge' for your success other than the scale is a VERY GOOD THING! The scale doesn't tell the whole story! And for the record - through my journey, the number on the scale dropped more weeks than it stayed the same or went up. FIRM believer in weight lifting and non-scale measurements of success here!!! :happy:

Bump

I think this obsessive focus on scale weight is the single biggest contributor to diet/fitness failure. It's just one indicator of progress, and the closer you get to being "done," the less meaningful scale weight becomes. So many people arbritrarily pick a number and judge themselves as failures if they can't get to it, but what they don't realize is that they may look better at a higher weight. I strength train with kettlebells and heavy free weights. I like the way it makes me look and feel. Now, I could stop doing that, let my muscles atrophy, and weigh less than I do now. But I don't think I'd be happy at all with how I looked.

If you are consistently eating at a deficit, you WILL lose weight, no matter what kind of exercising you are doing. As an earlier poster mentioned, your muscles hang onto water during the repair and recovery process. The more training you do, the more water your muscles are able to retain, so it's not a surprise at all that you've seen your weight go up slightly as you've increased your strength training. The thing to keep in mind that is that most of it is water weight, which shows up on the scale, but not in the mirror. So don't let a few lbs here and there make you feel like what you are doing isn't working.