Help!! still no weight loss-- motivation going down :(

It does seem kinda strange that this early your not losing more quickly... I lost 50 lbs in three months.. and now am hitting the point where it's slowing way, way down... if your goal is first to drop the pounds, I'd focus more on cardio then strength training.. if your putting on muscle, the scale isn't going to drop as much, even if the inches do.

sorry but this isnt true.

start lifting as soon as possible because it will insure that you lose as little lean body mass as possible.

it really makes no sense to rush to lose scale weight, when 50% of it is muscle then turn around later and be unhappy with how your body looks and have to overeat in order to gain back muscle. then have to go on a cut cycle to get rid of the extra fat you gained while you replaced the muscle you lost while losing in the first place. just lift from the beginning to preserve muscle and make it so that your body i primarily burning glycogen and fat during your loss

muscle is incredibly hard to build, which is why people who do it for a living eat special diets, take special supplements and do special workouts, and even then those guys are only building like 6-10 pounds of muscle a year.

also newbie muscle gains are only like 1-3 pounds in total. that's pretty much nothing if you're overall trying to lose more than 50 pounds. nothing in terms of slowing you down on weight loss i mean

First off, girl you are doing great, don't lose your motivation now. So I have looked over you diary and you are a lot like i was when i first started back in feb. I was eating within my calorie goal, but i was eating anything that i could fit in there, like MacDonalds breakfast, or pizza, you know the same kind of stuff i was eating before but now i was more conscious about what else i was going to eat throughout the day and i would skip meals because i had such a huge calorie intake at lunch. I lost about 5-7lbs in a month, which, is pretty good, but like you were saying for girl in our size it should be a lot higher. I gave up. Then, I decided to research more, what was i doing wrong, why was it so hard, i was eating my calorie goal usually a little bit under, i would never eat what i had earned from exercising, you know everything you stated. Then i realized i had to make a drastic change if i was going to lose weight. My mother in law has lost 60 lbs with this super expensive weightloss program. I am using the tools that she has learned and applying it to my diet. Ive been doing this for three weeks now, and have lost 15lbs. This is what i do, you can take it or leave it. I have stopped eating high sugar foods, including fruit. The body still process fruit sugar like regular sugar, it does not know the difference. So no fruit. No dairy, the body tends to also produce more fat from dairy products and is harder on the digestive system. That includes cheese. keep your diet super low carb. I see that you have popcorn everyday, a lot of days it is the really buttery kind. I myself love popcorn, but try to cut that down to once or twice a week. Or maybe have it on your cheat day. No soda of course. Eat at least two cups of veggies at lunch and 2 cups at dinner. But only green veggies. Cauliflower if ok as well, but carrots, red peppers that kind of veggies have sugar in them. Mushrooms are ok as well. Eat as much salad as your heart desires, it is a low calorie food so if your hungry make a nice salad. For the dressing there is a no carb, no sugar no calorie dressing made by Walden Farms that is actually really tasty. i love the balsamic one. Eat at least 8oz of protein. i split it up 4oz at lunch 4oz at dinner. I have a protein shake every morning for breakfast. And lastly drink more water. The fat needs to escape the body some how. Your body will be eating it up, but there is still more that needs to be flushed out. Also make sure you are taking supplements. Especially a multi- vitamin and get some omega 3 fish oil. This taken with a lot of water everyday will help you glands and lymph nodes flush themselves out. It is a hard diet to live buy, but the results come much faster and you stay more motivated. I weight myself every morning right after ive used the little girls room. I do it so i know how well i did the day before. The scale should change a little every day if you are following your plan. You can do this girl! It is so hard but so worth it! Oh also, i dont workout too much right now, im actually on a very low calorie diet, because i am so overweight i dont want to hurt myself. I want to loose some weight first and then begin to work out. Sorry this is so freakin long, i have just been in your shoes and totally know how hard and discouraging it is. Keep with it girl! You got this!

It does seem kinda strange that this early your not losing more quickly... I lost 50 lbs in three months.. and now am hitting the point where it's slowing way, way down... if your goal is first to drop the pounds, I'd focus more on cardio then strength training.. if your putting on muscle, the scale isn't going to drop as much, even if the inches do.

This is a great prescription on how to lose muscle mass as part of your weight.

This is great example for all to see.

50 lbs in 3 months, or 12 weeks, or 84 days about.
50 lbs, if it was fat lost, would be 175,000 calories deficit during that whole time.

175000 / 84 days = 2083 deficit daily

Do you really think there is any way in the world you had a deficit of 2000 calories each and every day for those 3 months for that loss to have been just fat?

Let's even say 5 lbs the first week was water weight, as most seem to get when starting a diet.

That's still 1875 daily deficit.

Didn't happen - you burned off a bunch of muscle. Muscle used for energy only has 600 cal per lb, so much easier to lose a lb of muscle than fat - but so much worse for long-term ability to keep your metabolism up.

Hence the reason your loss has slowed down, and you should have a very interesting time getting to maintenance, or getting that muscle back too.

My approach is actually slightly different, and this is my personal preference, as my body seems to work best this way.

I actually do 4 days a week of about 20-30 minutes of weight lifting. I started at 2 lb cans (haha) and in less than 2 months Im about to buy 10 lb dumb bells.

Point being: when I have plateaued, I noticed when I upped my weights, I would get over the hump very quickly. I never exceed more than an hour of working out a day (maybe sometimes Im 55-65 minutes), and always slightly more cardio than strength training.

Another thing was when I had hit a wall, I noticed some of it was from not drinking enough water. You know why you need water, you dont need me to explain it hehe.

And one last tip I have is you may need to increase the INTENSITY of your workouts! You may be used it. A couple people and myself seem to acclimate VERY fast to workouts, and our body's stop progressing that way. Im honestly ready to move onto a new workout in less than 10 days, its ridiculous.

Hope you get over it! Just try and keep going!

You know that old saying " a watched pot never boils"? the same thing applies to the scale. Weighing yourself everyday wont do anything except make you anxious! You have lose 5.5 inches - that is GREAT!!
Also, like some have said, if you are just doing weight training, then it is no wonder - your body is building muscle! This is a GOOD thing. You need to mix some cardio in the mix now, that will help you lean down, and the weight training will strengthen your core and allow your body to work to its fullest.

Most important, track all your days - even cheat days. You need to hold yourself accountable for what you put into your body. If a cheat day is turning into an all out binge, then it is beyond a cheat day, it is something that could be destroying a whole weeks worth of work.

Remember, cheat days are needed sometimes to get the metabolism on its toes, but "cheat" really should be small indulgences - not making up for a weeks worth of treats in one day :-)

Keep your chin up - you are seeing numbers, they are in those 5.5 inches you have lost!

^^ Totally agree. 5.5 inches is what Ive lost in like 2 months of working out like crazy. That is amazing progress.

My suggestion would be to do lower weight with higher reps. I don't know what your current plan is but this would increase your cardio and burn more fat. It would work more on toning muscle rather than building muscle, 5 lbs of muscle takes up as much room as 1 lb of fat. I am not a dr. or anything it is just something I have seen work. Good Luck and stick with it. Your body will eventually get with the program.

I gained 15 pounds and often went hungry counting calories. As of June 4th I started counting carbs and last month last 24 pounds. I have lost 4 dress sizes and feel well enough to exercise now. I no longer get chest pains just trying to walk fast or swim a few laps. Try low carbs and see what it can do for you. MFP will tell you how many carbs to eat and don't eat back exercise carbs or calories! Why bother exercising to work off calories and carbs if you are going to put them back into your body?

i agree, i think cardio is the way to go, alow with the strength, jillian micheals is on youtube and she ads all of it

I looked at your diary, and i am going to say lower on the sodium... when you have a lot of sodium your body stores water trying to flush it all out! also it can be way hard on your kidneys, and always, always eat breakfast it jumpstarts your metabolism! and a random fact.... 1 pound of fat is 1500 calories gone! think about that! its amazing i am very proud you!

Are you too little calories,, I know the fitness pal advise will let me know when i have eated too little calories that it could slow my weight loss, causing the body going into starvation mode. Sounds silly to me too, try to hang tight, I have the same issues , just seeing that number go down on the scale is a big motivator. Don't give up, infact I have to get on the scale today iand I dread it cause I dont think I will like what i will see. I have been working hard this week, but it seems like my body just says "NO" i am going to keep this fat no matter what you do. Best of luck