Working out slow the weight loss??

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ajlankard
ajlankard Posts: 7 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Someone said that working out can slow the weight loss since you are toning an dbuilding muscle at the same time... might have to do with that or the age factor but if I did what I am doing now 10 years ago I would have lost at least 10 lbs... I am holding steady at 6lbs off but just getting frustrated with the slooooowwwwww progress... any insight? When can I expect to see the numbers drop? At 5 weeks now.... thanks!

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  • 47Jacqueline
    47Jacqueline Posts: 6,993 Member
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    If you are doing weight training, you might slow your weight loss because you are replacing the fat with muscle mass, which is denser. To lose weight from exercise you have to do cardio, which burns calories.
  • omma_to_3
    omma_to_3 Posts: 3,265 Member
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    Any new exercise progress can appear to slow the weight loss because of increased water gain for muscle repair. Very common when you start a new program.

    I have also found that strenuous exercise did slow my weight loss at first (a real slowing, not just water weight) due to the extra calories I was consuming. What that told me was that I was miscounting somewhere along the line. I didn't used to subtract my BMR from my calories burned during working out. I have started doing that and the weight loss is speeding up again.
  • CoderGal
    CoderGal Posts: 6,800 Member
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    It absolutely slows weight loss. It also makes you look a ton better and thinner. My insight would be stop worrying about a number on the scale and start looking at inches lost. Wouldn't you rather a thinner waist then the same waist but pounds gone?
  • LorinaLynn
    LorinaLynn Posts: 13,247 Member
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    Any new exercise progress can appear to slow the weight loss because of increased water gain for muscle repair. Very common when you start a new program.

    This is the biggest thing. If you're feeling at all stiff and sore from exercise, that's inflammation... also known as water retention. It's temporary, but it can mask weight loss.

    It's really, really hard to build muscle while on a calorie deficit. Any muscle gain would be minimal.
  • bookyeti
    bookyeti Posts: 544 Member
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    Are you working-out to LOOK better, FEEL better, and improve your health? Or just to see the number on the scale go down. I'll take the former over the latter any day! (Another reason not to pay much heed to the scale.)
  • omma_to_3
    omma_to_3 Posts: 3,265 Member
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    I just have to say, for people with a significant amount of weight to lose (like myself), the number on the scale absolutely matters. You can't be fit and healthy at 100 lbs. overweight, unless you're a professional body builder. The closer you get to a healthy weight, the more the make up of your body composition matters over the scale, but the scale is important for many of us. It's one thing to say concentrate on your successes (ie inches lost) but something entirely different to completely dismiss a measure that has a direct effect on someone's health (ie weight).
  • CoderGal
    CoderGal Posts: 6,800 Member
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    I just have to say, for people with a significant amount of weight to lose (like myself), the number on the scale absolutely matters. You can't be fit and healthy at 100 lbs. overweight, unless you're a professional body builder. The closer you get to a healthy weight, the more the make up of your body composition matters over the scale, but the scale is important for many of us. It's one thing to say concentrate on your successes (ie inches lost) but something entirely different to completely dismiss a measure that has a direct effect on someone's health (ie weight).

    If you put 2 200 pounders in the room and one of them were thinner and exercising and could do runs without losing breath and felt good and one of them wasn't and couldn't do any of those things I'd still consider the one with better stamina in better health, even if they were a few pounds heavier. For example, look at this girl who's of a healthy weight http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/679295-hard-work-is-really-paying-off-pictures She's 161 and only lost 40 lbs (I don't consider my 30 allot). I started on this site at 150 and lost most of my weight sedentary...I assure you I did not feel like she looks and I looked heavier then her at my start. In fact she has a nicer belly then me when I was close to goal before I started exercising. Really wish I had the time to exercise earlier. The weight statistics don't look at whose starting to lose weight and who isn't. Allot of those statistics mention weight around the middle as being bad. I assure you, it will disappear faster with exercise. But yes, the weight number has to go down too.
  • taylor5877
    taylor5877 Posts: 1,792 Member
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    if you can stick with strength training while losing weight you'll end up MUCH happier with where you end up.

    It also won't take as long to look much better.

    I was fit with a low body fat % several years ago and I let myself gain all the weight back. The first time I did it it took me year lose the weight (about 80 lbs.) and a year and half to build back muscle to where I was happy.

    I started out eating right and strength training this time, and I'm looking at meeting all my goals in about 9 months (I'm almost there).

    I'm hoping that now that I've done it with a wife and a kid instead of a single man, that the healthy eating and excercise habits stick.
  • omma_to_3
    omma_to_3 Posts: 3,265 Member
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    I just have to say, for people with a significant amount of weight to lose (like myself), the number on the scale absolutely matters. You can't be fit and healthy at 100 lbs. overweight, unless you're a professional body builder. The closer you get to a healthy weight, the more the make up of your body composition matters over the scale, but the scale is important for many of us. It's one thing to say concentrate on your successes (ie inches lost) but something entirely different to completely dismiss a measure that has a direct effect on someone's health (ie weight).

    If you put 2 200 pounders in the room and one of them were thinner and exercising and could do runs without losing breath and felt good and one of them wasn't and couldn't do any of those things I'd still consider the one with better stamina in better health, even if they were a few pounds heavier. For example, look at this girl who's of a healthy weight http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/679295-hard-work-is-really-paying-off-pictures She's 161 and only lost 40 lbs (I don't consider my 30 allot). I started on this site at 150 and lost most of my weight sedentary...I assure you I did not feel like she looks and I looked heavier then her at my start. In fact she has a nicer belly then me when I was close to goal before I started exercising. Really wish I had the time to exercise earlier. The weight statistics don't look at whose starting to lose weight and who isn't. Allot of those statistics mention weight around the middle as being bad. I assure you, it will disappear faster with exercise. But yes, the weight number has to go down too.

    I never said being healthy and fit wasn't important, nor did I say you shouldn't exercise (I work out 5 times a week for 45 min to an hour each time). But people on this site like to say the number on the scale doesn't matter, but it does. It's just not the ONLY thing that matters.
  • ajlankard
    ajlankard Posts: 7 Member
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    thanks all, good tips and insight, I appreciate it... not discouraged since I feel better every day regardless of what the scale says
  • Rambo313
    Rambo313 Posts: 179 Member
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    The scale should be the last factor you consider in terms of success, strength training does wonders. I have pictures on my profile to prove it. I am fitting into clothes that I never did before, and I gained a few lbs back and havent lost or gained anything in a while. Go by your clothes not the number.
  • Rambo313
    Rambo313 Posts: 179 Member
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    thanks all, good tips and insight, I appreciate it... not discouraged since I feel better every day regardless of what the scale says

    LOVE your outlook!
  • CoderGal
    CoderGal Posts: 6,800 Member
    Options
    I just have to say, for people with a significant amount of weight to lose (like myself), the number on the scale absolutely matters. You can't be fit and healthy at 100 lbs. overweight, unless you're a professional body builder. The closer you get to a healthy weight, the more the make up of your body composition matters over the scale, but the scale is important for many of us. It's one thing to say concentrate on your successes (ie inches lost) but something entirely different to completely dismiss a measure that has a direct effect on someone's health (ie weight).

    If you put 2 200 pounders in the room and one of them were thinner and exercising and could do runs without losing breath and felt good and one of them wasn't and couldn't do any of those things I'd still consider the one with better stamina in better health, even if they were a few pounds heavier. For example, look at this girl who's of a healthy weight http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/679295-hard-work-is-really-paying-off-pictures She's 161 and only lost 40 lbs (I don't consider my 30 allot). I started on this site at 150 and lost most of my weight sedentary...I assure you I did not feel like she looks and I looked heavier then her at my start. In fact she has a nicer belly then me when I was close to goal before I started exercising. Really wish I had the time to exercise earlier. The weight statistics don't look at whose starting to lose weight and who isn't. Allot of those statistics mention weight around the middle as being bad. I assure you, it will disappear faster with exercise. But yes, the weight number has to go down too.

    I never said being healthy and fit wasn't important, nor did I say you shouldn't exercise (I work out 5 times a week for 45 min to an hour each time). But people on this site like to say the number on the scale doesn't matter, but it does. It's just not the ONLY thing that matters.

    I think people say that because they realize the're on a weight loss...they're probably still trying to lose weight if they say that, they just want to realize that the best way to go about it probably isn't sitting on your bum and eating less and less. I've seen a few threads of people saying how they're afraid to exercise because they want to lose weight quick.

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