I have done 1+ hour of cardio every day this week!
I have eaten really well and I am drinking 90oz of water a day.
Change on my scale???? 0 a big "fat" ZERO
I know I am doing this right. I did this this summer and I lost 7 lbs the first week. 15 in 3 weeks. Then I fell off and now I am working twice as hard and I am STUCK. GROWL!!! HISS!!
While our bodies can plateau while adjusting to a new weight and things like TOM, stress, sleep deprivation, certain food sensitivities and working out can cause temporary weight stalls and bloat, in the end the way to lose weight is simple math - are you eating less calories than you're burning?
Do you know your ballpark calorie range the past few weeks, or have a food log you can post? That would help us better tell what might be causing the stall.
If you are really doing all the right things and your calories are in a good range for your height/weight/activity level, the best thing I can prescribe is patience with yourself as your body WILL get losing again soon enough
1 week means little, there are so many things that can cause this. It isnt even long enough to be a plateau.
If the cardio is new to you, your muscles may be holding on to extra water while they flush out the toxins generated. If you are at all sore, you WILL have extra water weight. It is temporary.
I don't have logs online but I have been eating between 1200 and 1400 every day. I eat high protein and veggies but 2 servings of starches a day. I am 28 5'2" and 159lbs. I was at this weight 1 year ago and couldn't lose any more before quitting. Thank you guys. I will keep drinking water to try to counter act the water weight but its hard to work out when I am this unmotivated.
Try not to drop your calories below 1200 if you can - it's too low, even for a girl 50 pounds lighter than you (in most cases anyway). I am a firm believer in healthy starches like whole grains and potatoes, but your mileage may vary.
It doesn't sound like your eating is poor - make sure you're getting two tablespoons of healthy fat per day and other than that, keep doing what you're doing! I would be shocked if you kept not losing ANYTHING for more than another week or two. As long as your body isn't in starvation mode trying to hang onto calories (should they drop too low for your metabolic rate) you WILL see a loss.
I'd bet money you're just seeing some water retention from your cardio. Keep doing healthy activities and eating nutritiously and the scale will take care of itself in time
I was cardio-ing my butt off every day. I was eating with the most militant structure of disclipline. I was plateaued for three years.
It all changed when I started strength training. I was totally against using free weights my whole life. I didnt want to look stupid, or feel like a meat-head.
I had tried everything and ignored the statement I was told in every gym by every toned and happy woman. So I gave in and got a pair of 4lb hot pink neoprene covered weights from Target for like $10. I clipped out a section of do-it-at-home weight exercises from Self magazine.
I started noticing that I could do more cardio, and eat more food (and needed to) and then, HECK YES! the pounds started dropping again and even better! As the fat melted away, the parts of me that started showing through were toned and tight and rawr!sexy
So I'm a reluctant crosser-over to beliving in strength training and free weights. It gave me hope again, and then it followed through by rewarding my hope with results.
I agree with yoovie... and I'm a die hard, cardio obsessed runner! Give me cardio any day over weights because of the way it makes me feel, the sweat, the stress relief..ahh.. I love it.
But I stalled out around 48 lbs lost. All that cardio - even increasing it - wasn't melting off the pounds the way it had been previously. I switched things up - including HIIT and weight training - and ate a bit more, and the scale started moving down again.
So you might want to shake things up a bit and give weights a try. Even interval training with weights is a great way to start. Good luck!
i wouldnt go to any extremes based on a week of plateau. ive had weeks with a slight gain before when i was doing everything right! sometimes it just doesnt make sense and its SO frustrating. i personally have had plateaus that lasted up to 2 months, and ive heard of others who have had them for longer. sometimes your body just hits a weight where its stubborn and doesnt want to go any lower, you just have to keep on plan and eventually itll get there!!
i KNOW it sucks, but one week is nbd. at least one week a month i either stay the same or have a slight gain (just this past week i gained 1 lb). also, weight loss DEFINITELY slows down over time. i lost 9 lbs my first week, and 3-4 a week for the first 2 months. now im thrilled if i lose over one lb a week. all thats important is the downward trend over the months.
Last edited by juliastl27; 10-12-2009 at 11:34 PM.
I think it's Tom Venuto (Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle) who talks about two weeks being a better indicator of the effectiveness of a plan. As others have said, one week might be to hasty.
The truly awesome blessing about weight loss is that there are sooo many contributing factors. There are literally dozens of aspects that can be tweaked. Quantity, quality, intensity, time ....
There are also several ways to assess your progress. The scale is only one. Measurements, body fat percentage, your jeans, your energy level, your resting pulse ....
Join a daily chat thread here at 3FC. Come here often. And just keep on doing what you know needs to be done.
Just wanted to add that, in my experience once I got below about ~180 and losing slowed down, I NEVER lose weight after just one good week. IF I've been "bad" (eating out more, exercising less, whatever) and start again, I lose weight ~2 weeks after a good week, that was followed by ~2 weeks of moderate-good weeks.
The hard work takes time to show up, and it needs to be followed up with more hard work. Then, even if you slack for a couple weeks, the LAST few weeks will hand around for a while, depending on how much you slide.
And it might just go slow, making it harder to see. I'm losing about 1/2 pound a week at this point, ON AVERAGE. It's hard to tall because of daily fluctuations, so it way take a month to see that yes, you did lose weight, even though week to week it seems like nothing.
weight loss CEASES to exist and my butt agrees!
