[searchfor]

Hi guys. About 5 weeks ago I finally decided to make a change and stick with this decision. I started training with personal trainer 2 times a week, I had at least 3 additional cardio a week (10 miles of cycling), and I excluded everyting with sugar, cooked oils, bread and I had only minor accidents since then. I am cooking almost everything that I eat, I shack with fruits and I even cut dairy to one morning oatmeal intake.
And now the numbers:
I have started with 166 and 40% of body fat (calculated by my trainer).
Now I am at 168 and 36% of body fat.

I do feel some minor changes in looks, but I am very frustrated with scales. Since I have started my highest weight came up to 169 and now it is very slightly going down.

A week ago I added one more training with personal trainer a week and changed my cycling (which I probably got used to) to 30 minutes of ecliptical at the gym.

Any ideas of what I am doing wrong here?

[hhm6]

Maybe you're retaining water? I'm no expert so maybe someone can chime in on that.

Have you calculated your calorie intake? I recently started weighing my food and counting calories off myfitnesspal, and although eating relatively healthy, I was WAY over my limit, I was eating at maintenance, if not more so I wasn't seeing a loss. Good thing is your body fat % is down!!

It'll get better though! I always think of this, since it's been 5 weeks maybe in a few more weeks the scale will go down, good thing is that you are on plan and making good choices!

[Lolo70]

Water retention. You are building muscle through tearing. Repair involves water retention. Don't worry about the scale for a while. I gained 10 lbs first when I started exercising. Take measurements and pictures. You will be amazed what will happen when you keep this up.

[Desiderata]

The only thing you're doing wrong is giving the scale too much credit. Take some measurements - even just a few, like hip/waist/thigh. Take them again next month.

[Mrs Snark]

Nice job on losing body fat! Don't let the scale outweigh what your are seeing with your eyes. If you are on-plan and feel good, keep on doing what you're doing!

[zoesmom]

I agree, take measurements. Also, you will retain water when you are toning muscles. Water helps lubriate the joints to prevent injuries and is uesed to repair those itty bitty tears you get in your muscles (they are GOOD tears!) so expect it to go up slightly. Add more water and it should help get rid of any extra water weight you have around. You use more water when you exercise, so if you upped your exercise but not your water intake, your body is going to hold onto as much as it can out of fear it won't get enough later.

Also, many times, we focus only on the scale, fretting over the pound lost and the four pounds gained. We have no way of determining (outside of a DEXA scan of course) whether those pounds lost or gained are from water weight, fat, or muscle. Each one makes a big difference in the overall healthy changes we are trying to make. Where as the scale is a good indicator on whether or not you are on the right track, it isn't the end all in whether or not you are actually losing fat, and afterall, isn't that our primary goal? To lose fat? What if those 4 pounds lost was muscle? We can't tell our body to only attack our thigh muscles or our back muscles, it might be attacking our heart muscle. And even if we could tell it to only attack our thigh muscles, why would we want to??? What if those 4 pounds lost was only water weight? Where as that is great in the short term, continued water weight loss can be a sign of dehydration or worse. In both instances, you will generally NOT see a change in size on a measuring tape (unless you are trying to bulk muscle up, that is a different beast though!)

But you will see a change in the tape measure if you are losing/gaining fat! By using a measuring tape, you can see if you are losing inches off your body. When you lose inches, chances are you are losing fat. And ultimately, that’s the whole point of losing weight.

So, while the scale is a great tool, the tape measure is a better one! Like many have long stated, a stall/jump on the scale just means pull the tape measure out.

You are welcome to join my challenge HERE. It might encourage you to take up the habit of measuring to see the change.

[tefrey]

That's an amazing fat loss, searchfor! I know it didn't come with a loss of overall weight, but it sounds like your body composition is much healthier!

Since you are working with a trainer it might be time to discuss what you want from them. They may be giving you a program to designed to build muscle or improve cardio, but should be able to tweak it for overall weight loss if that is your primary goal.

But seriously, those numbers are pretty awesome! Pat yourself on the back for that fat loss!

[searchfor]

Thank you very much everyone!
I do not think that water intake is a reason for that weight, I drink a lot of water during the day.
About calories calculations - how you are doing that? It takes a lot of time and effort just to calculate all those calories you are eating. If cook your meals by yourself from scratch do you really have scales on your kitchen for ingredients?
I need to find my tape measure and write my numbers down.
I will give it a couple of weeks and I hope the weight will start to drop, while I hope I will see more changes in the mirror.

I have another thing that bothers me. How to keep up with your routine while you have to travel or make a big move? I will have to do both in the nearest future.

[DonnaNoble]

You lost 4% of body fat! You're gaining muscle! That's fantastic! At 5'6", you just may not have a ton to lose, but if you keep up the good work you're going to notice your body changing!

[mzshaunna]

I travel about three times a year overseas to see my boyfriend as we are currently in a long distance relationship. I always go over with the intention to eat healthy and exercise but neither happens. i think a lot of it comes down to motivation though. On the days that I did eat and exercise right I found that preplanning meals and setting certain times and goals helped a lot

[zoesmom]

At first, it took forever. Now, just a few minutes a day. I go by my BMR for my calories and pre measure most foods and freeze the in serving sizes for when it is time to cook it. Everything that goes in my mouth is properly weighed and measured. I was surprised to learn how much I was overeating when I started that, I had thought I was perfect until I saw what a true four ounces was