Frustrated

If you don't normally workout at that intensity, my understanding is that your muscles might hold onto some water for recovery or something to that effect. When I started doing more than just walking on the treadmill (30 day shred), my weight went up for several days before it came back down lower than it was before. A lot of people seem to experience an odd fluctuation like that when they are upping the intensity of their exercise.

Also, it is my understanding that even if you do build a little bit of muscle from your new workout, you'd still be burning off fat since you're eating at a deficit so the scale would still go down if there is not something else like water retention making it stay higher. Building muscle should not make you gain pounds on the scale unless you are eating more than your maintenance calories.

Also, a lot of women notice weightgain around TOM due to water retention. Just another exciting factor to consider. LOL

14 lbs in the 3 weeks is amazing!! You will most likely start to see a decrease in the amount you're losing, but you're right to think that you're gaining muscle. The GREAT thing about that is you'll STILL feel and see the difference in your body and clothing. Keep rockin' the boxin', Heidi!!

You may be gaining muscle and muscle does way more than fat. Also many people plateau after a period of time. The key is to keep going, alternate your routine and visualize the body you want. Maybe ignore the scale and focus on how you feel and how your clothes feel on you

Thank you all! I am trying to stay positive. @ CMmrsFloyd, I definitely went from just walking a couple times a week to a super intense kickboxing class, so i am hoping that my muscles are still trying to recover from all those darn push-ups we had to do!

Try taking measurements at various points on your body (first thing in the morning) and when you're having an off-week on the scale, take new measurements and compare. Sometimes you can see results in your measurements getting smaller that might not show up right away as pounds lost on the scale. :-)

Don't forget you do NOT want to eat less on the days of intense workouts. You actually should eat 100 more of protein. Working out with high intensity and eating less will put the body in starvation mode.

This is what I was thinking too. You said you are under your calorie goal every day. How far under? Do you eat enough to fill the extra deficit you create when you exercise?

Don't worry so much about what the pounds on the scale say.. your body is changing, you could be gaining muscle etc. Try not to let it both you too much!....

Yesterday I had negative net calories....is that bad? I thought that is how you lose weight, putting more calories out than in.

If you told MFP you want to lose weight when you set up your profile/goals, then the net calorie goal that MFP gave you is already designed to help you lose weight even if you don't exercise at all. Going a little over or a little under every now and then won't hurt, it averages out over time. But some people find that consistently going too far over or under may cause them problems. It's kind of trial and error and everyone has an opinion. ;-). But your body burns a certain number of calories every day even if you were to just lay in bed (base metabolic rate), MFP uses that estimation and then an estimation of your total daily energy expenditure (what you burn during a day of normal activities, I.e. your activity level) when it calculates your net calorie goal for weightloss.

A good rule of thumb for me, personally, is to always try to balance out to where, even with exercise, your net calories are above 1200. It seems to be the general concensus that under 1200 calories can essentially put your bod in starvation mode, causing you to lose much more slowly. But you've done a great job for only 3 weeks in! Keep that chin up!

On days that you're not exercising, you should MEET the goal MFP has given you. They gave you that goal for a reason...because that's the amount of calories you need to healthily lose 1-2 lbs a week (whatever you chose). When you exercise you need to eat more, because MFP didn't account for exercise when making your goal. So if you burn 500 calories working out, that could make your deficit TOO big if you don't eat some of, or all of that back. If your deficit is too big, your body will think it's not getting enough fuel (because it's not..) and so it will try to hold on to whatever it can...and your weight loss will slow down.

Hey, its possible you could be gaining muscle. Muscle weighs more than fat . Take your measurements every week that way you will know if you're losing inches

Just to clarify muscle does not weigh more than fat. While 5lbs of muscle is smaller in volume than 5lbs of fat, 5lbs of muscle = 5lbs of fat.

Example

double post

Yes, it is confusing b/c there's that saying 'you have to burn more than you eat', but if you are literally exercising off more calories than you take in, that is too much. You need positive calories showing at the end of the day b/c that's what your body runs on. (keeping organs functioning and healthy, etc). The old 'burn more than you eat' is right to an extent, but what a lot of people may not realize is that your body is burning calories constantly throughout the day just staying alive. That's what your BMR number is - its the amount your body uses on a daily basis even if you don't exercise or even if you don't roll out of bed that day. That's the amount a hospital would have to feed you to keep you alive and keep your weight stable even if you were in a coma. That BMR number is different for everyone - for me, being 5'4" and just under 140 lbs, my BMR number is right around 1340 caloris that my body will burn each and every day whether I actually do anything to purposely burn extra calories or not. Regular daily activities takes that number higher - for example even with my profile set at 'sedentary' MFP estimates that my normal daily activities mean that I burn an average of something like 1670 even without adding any exercise to my day. When I exercise, that is additional calories burned. Since 1670-ish is what my body burns just through the course of the day, if I eat less than that and don't exercise, I will lose weight. Or if I eat exactly that but then exercise off some calories, I will lose weight.

You do not literally have to exercise off more than what you eat, since your body is burning calories all the time on its own. Exercise helps, eating less than you did before helps, but too much exercise combined with too little food can actually be too much stress n your body if you do it on a regular basis. It all seems very complicated with all the various numbers, but basically MFP makes it easy and figures out all that stuff for you, so that if you just stick close to the goal MFP gives you, you should see results. So if your goal is 1500 net calories, it's a good idea to try and be pretty close to that net goal most days. Keep in mind that if you are a lot more active now than you were before, your body may actually really benefit from the extra nutrition you could get by eating more and being closer to your goal. Protein, vitamins, etc, all that stuff helps keep your body happy while you work on losing weig and getting in shape. Having a day under or a day a little over your calorie goal every now and then should not be a big deal as long as it kind of balances out. But you don't want to go way under all the time.

Hope that helps. ;-)

That you for showing that picture. It is gross to look at but just motivated me so much more!!

lots of things going on in the OP and this thread that I want to address:

1. when you start and have a fair amount to lose, its not uncommon to dump a lot of weight quickly...understand, though, that a lot of the early weight loss is water loss and not fat loss. Its EXTREMELY DIFFICULT and NEAR IMPOSSIBLE to lose 14 pounds of fat in 3 weeks. In short, be very happy with the quick pop to start things off, but its EXTREMELY UNREALISTIC to expect an average of 4.7 pounds lost each week. Its just not going to happen.

2. You lost 0.6 pounds in week 4....be happy for the loss. On your journey, its going to be important to appreciate that you won't lose weight consistently and that there are many factors that affect weight loss on a week to week basis. Understand that if you do things properly, you will eventually reach your goal EVEN IF each week doesn't net the result you were hoping for.

3. When you start to exercise, sometimes your body retains a little more water for muscle repair. Unlike what several folks have said, you ARE NOT adding muscle fiber after only a few workouts (especially if the workouts do not involve lifting heavy weights, which kickboxing does not). So, as to those who suggested "muscle weighs more than fat", hog wash...that has nothing to do with what is going on with you right now.

4. exercise brings with it a lot of benefits unrelated to weight loss....exercise decreases the risk of several diseases as it improves your cardio system. Also, exercise burns calories....meaning that you can AND SHOULD eat more when you exercise. Your body needs those additional calories for repair and recovery. Exercise itself, however, does not lead to weight loss unless you are maintaining the PROPER caloric deficit. As alluded to in this thread, the proper caloric deficit is the NET number determined by MFP based on your desired weight loss each week. Its important to come close to your net number each day. Soooo, I think you said MFP calculated your daily intake at 1500 calories. On days you do not exercise, you should come close to 1500 calories. On days that you do exercise, you should come close to 1500 PLUS the additional calories you burned during exercise.

5. A word about exercise calories burnt. If you are relying on MFP estimates, understand that they can be overstated by between 30 and 50% because MFP has no way of evaluating your effort level throughout the exercise (likewise, sometimes MFP's estimates are understated). The best way to accurately gauge calories burned during exercise, especially aerobic exercise, is to get a heart rate monitor. However, if you don't have a HRM and until you get one, I would eat back only 50-75% of the MFP estimated calories burned during exercise. This means that if MFP says you burned 1,000 calories and your normal intake should be 1,500 calories, then you should eat 1,500 + (500-750) = 2,000 = 2,250 calories for that day.