Realistically- How long until you start shedding the pounds?

Make sure the calories you're counting is accurate. Unless you have a medical condition that is slowing your weight loss, you should be losing more. The best results are in the first few weeks.

It's not exactly a good thing to stick with the 1200 cal suggestion. Up your cals and make sure you eat back your exercise cals.

I've been consistently working out and eating right for 3 weeks. I know that this is a work in progress (and I'm fine with that), but I am just wondering when I should expect to see results.

I have been eating the 1200-1300 calorie range for 3 weeks plus 5 days a week with intense exercise.

I imagine you've at least noticed you're losing inches, by this I mean your clothes are fitting better and you are beginning to LOOK better. Basically that stage when people begin saying there's something different about you but they can't put their finger on it.

Are you talking about seeing results on the scale or results in terms of how you look?

Considering if you are losing 1 pound per week you've lost about 3 lbs. AT THE VERY LEAST since you've begun your fitness program. If not, I'm wondering if your body is going into starvation mode and holding onto weight. I know you said your workouts are intense but can you describe it? 1200 calories isn't much if your workouts are truly intense, you may need to bump to 1500 - 1800 .... possibly.

I know it sounds weird but you need to FEED your body in order for it to metabolize quickly.

Are you sure that you are eating enough calories. If you are working out intensely you may need to be eating more.

This is me too :frown: I'm hardly hitting 1000cal. I'm not hungry and I forget to eat. I'm doing Insanity and Jillian. I need help on what to eat to get at least 1300cal. My BMR says 1500. (I've lost 18pds so far and still have another 37 to go)

Sometimes your body is just delayed in giving us the "results" of our efforts. It WILL come! Keep up the good work!

ALSO...Have you been eating back some of those exercise cals that you burned? You may be "netting" to little calories? (Eating 1300 cals - 1000 cals burned = 300 net cals for the day) *I don't always eat ALL of them back but I DO eat some of them back... depending on how much I burned. Because I don't want to "net" too little.

Everyone's weight loss rate WILL vary so its hard to say how quickly you should lose. But if you truly are struggling to lose, then I would say definitely increase your cals consumed.

*** Off topic, but you are GORGEOUS!!!

One more thing... If there is one thing that I have learned on here it is not about just pounds lost. There is more too it than that. Start tracking your body fat percentage, inches, etc and I am SURE you will see positive changes in those areas as well - even when the scale says otherwise.

Never just up your calories. Never just drop your calories either. You need to do the math and get your actual, required intake for maintenance (i.e. not going up or down on the scale) and from there you can determine your required intake for weight loss.

Issue two I see is that you're exercising and (likely) not eating back those extra calories you've burned, effectively stalling you out.

You need your weight and your bodyfat%. You can get the first one yourself. The second one too, if you want to get calipers and learn how to administer the bodyfat test (it's easy), or you can visit your local gym and ask for a bodyfat reading from calipers (they should check each point 3 times and take the average).

Once you've got those, message me with them and I'll send you the maintenance and loss numbers.

Be sure to eat back all calories so NET is above BMR daily.

How far above BMR is recommended - working out (Insanity) 6 days per week.

Personally, I don't consider it to be a plateau unless I've seen no losses for 6 weeks. My hormones fluctuate so much in a month that you can't really tell what is going on until it has been more than a month. I happen to lose more slowly than average folk because of some thyroid problems. If after 6 weeks, it isn't working, it's time to change.

So, yes, that does seem like an awfully long time and an awful lot of effort to put forth to not see results, but once this weight is gone, it will stay gone.

Remember not every body is the same and reacts the to certain parts of a daily diet... try different combinations in the carbs/fat/protein if you still don't see a result from increasing your calories... Play with it until the combination is right and you see the results you are working for...

I'm netting around 1200 calories after exercise and I haven't lost either. It's coming up on 3 weeks for me as well. I know I am accurately counting all of my calories because I have a scale and I track every single thing that I eat.

Losing 1 lb a week is perfect.

I agree

Hi!

I am currently a student studying Physical Therapy - and we had just learned that it takes about 6 weeks to see physical improvements or hypertrophy (bigger muscles) or changes for weight loss, so don't get discouraged!!! Also, with weight loss, I think it takes about 8-12 weeks before other people notice and comment on your body changes. (in fact, I'm on my 11th week and just this week people have been commenting that I look like I've lost weight).. So it does take time and it is a definite commitment!

The good news? You can prove to yourself you are on the right track by realizing newly-gained strength or better endurance during your workouts!

Hope this helps!