[SoulSurvivor]

Hiya!

I've been calorie counting and working out very regularly for the past 5 weeks. I'm eating aroun 1200 calories a day (as suggested by MyFitnessPal), a little more when I exercise but not that much.

I exercise around 5 days a week, I run (recently did a 10K race) do Zumba, power pump, fight Klub/boxercise, body conditioning and legs bums and tums classes. But I've only lost 4lbs in this period. Considering I started at 221lbs I don't think it makes much sense?

Is my calorie intake not right?
I just feel so disheartened because I'm working so hard and the scales aren't budging People keep saying it might be muscle mass and my legs do seem to have built more muscle but I just want to make sure I'm eating the right amount.

Any advice would help!

Thanks

[carter]

I think with all that exercise you could get away with eating more, and you would be more comfortable - but I don't think that is the reason you are not seeing as much weight loss as you want.

The reason for that is that fluid weight can easily mask real fat loss. You are probably retaining fluid because you have added all that exercise into your routine and your body needs to heal and adjust to it. Fluid retention can also be caused by hormones, weather, sodium intake, hydration, and a host of other factors. Fluid retention can easily mask 3-4 pounds of actual fat loss. So just trust your plan and give it time.

Also, losing about a pound a week is pretty normal and also a pretty fantastic rate of loss. I lost my first 100 pounds at that rate and you know what? I'm glad I did. The long haul helped me learn good habits that I have been able to stick to as I've gotten down to weights where the loss has really started to slow down. the time will pass anyway so just do your best to be patient about it.

As I said, you can probably eat more - you will feel better and you will have somewhere to GO when you get closer to a healthy weight and have to reduce your calorie intake some. At your weight I was comfortably losing on 1700 calories per day or so. But just give it time. you really have to give your body 4-6 weeks to adjust to any change in your diet or exercise plan, before you can meaningfully determine whether it's working.

Trust your plan! Be patient and consistent. Good luck and good strength!

[bargoo]

If I understand your post correctly you have lost 4 pounds in 5 weeks. That is an excellent loss. Do not be discouraged it will come off, give it time.

[Wheresmychin]

have you been taking your measurements as well?
Also, what is your water / fluid intake like?

If your weight and measurements are not changing despite your best attempts, then it might be time to go see a health practitioner to have your thyroid or hormones tested.

I also feel that not all calories are equal, so are you sure you are choosing the best options for your daily intake?

Remember, the body is an amazing thing, but the mind - boy that has the most powerful abilities of all... you have done so well thus far, so don't get too despondent - look at all our amazing role models on these forums, they all seem to agree - consistency is what helped them get to goal.

Good luck.

[kelly315]

If you just started working out as well, what you're seeing is probably a combination of muscle gain and water retention.

Are you measuring changes in your body (esp circumferences)? For those who just start working out, sometimes it's better to forget the scale until your body gets back into balance, and see how much the shape/size of your body changes.

[camper67]

It took me weeks and weeks to see any loss at all. Just stick with it and drink tons of water. Some months I would lose 3 lbs, some months nothing,...it took me over 15 months to lose 55 lbs. It will come off. Like others have said...you are doing great.

[seagirl]

i would give my right arm (well, my right spare tire) to lose 4 pounds in 5 weeks. I've been at a plateau for 2 months now.

[SoulSurvivor]

Thanks for all your replies!

Carter - thanks, I'll take that into consideration!

Bargoo & Seagirl - I know it might seem silly but I'm used to losing 4lbs a week, not fluctuating between my original weight and 4lbs below on and off for 5 weeks. But thank you, I guess I just have to get used to this.

Wheresmychin - I haven't taken measurements, but I've taken photos and noticed some small changes. I drink lots of water, especially when I'm exercising. My diet is predominantly fresh fruit, veg, pulses, fish, tofu and quorn. Rice and meat on a Sunday, the odd bit of chicken here and there. Do you have any suggestions?

Kelly315 I've been working out on and off since march training for the run, but really went in since 5 weeks go. I'll definitely start taking measurements. PS. I've got to say that your weightloss pics have always been so motivating for me!

Camper67 thank you so much, it's good to know that it's not always as fast as you'd think or want!

[Dragonfly33]

I think you are doing great! My trainer told me that we are not focusing on numbers on the scale but actual strength and muscle. You could be gaining muscle or at a brief plateau. Maybe try changing a few exercises to see if it makes a difference but I don't see that you are doing anything wrong. Keep up the fantastic work!!

[kaplods]

I used to be a rapid loser, but I'm not anymore. My weight loss is quite slow, and it drives me bonkers.

But it is what it is, and in the past I would give up because I couldn't accept that. When the weight loss slowed, I'd feel helpless and hopelss so I'd give up and regain.

"This time" I decided to make "not gaining" my primary goal, and to truly celebrate the "not gaining." This works great if only to give myself something to do while I'm waiting for the next pound to come off.

You can do absolutely everything right and STILL lose slowly (even if you were a rapid loser in the past).

Do your best, and trust that you'll eventually get this done. It may take longer than you want, you may have to experiment with different calorie levels and maybe even different carb levels (low-carb helps me lose a little better with less hunger) and different exercise....

You'll get there, as long as you don't decide you can't get there.

[Satine]

First off - you are doing a great job, congrats on the lbs lost ....secondly I do think that sounds really low for your weight ...from your stats I see that I weigh about 20lbs less than you and I eat 1400 cals a day and consistently lose 2 lbs a week ....so you might want to up them with all the activity you do and see if that helps you at all.

[Nibbles]

I agree with what others have said.

If you just really need to see a sudden drop in the near future to cheer yourself up, you can go off plan (not gorge or anything, but off plan no counting) for a day or two...maybe the weekend...then go back on.

If your system works like mine, then the day after you go back on plan you'll have a heck of a woosh.

Doesn't work back to back or anything, but I sometimes finds that this gives me a bit of a kick start.

[kaplods]

Another thing to consider is that most of what we consider "normal" weight loss really isn't, and neither is what we consider "slow" weight loss really slow.

I really thought weight loss (without ultiately gaining more than I was losing) was impossible for me, before I started "this time." I was terrified of regaining, but I wanted to maintain the first 20 lbs which I lost "accidentally" as a result of sleep apnea treatment (I didn't even own a scale at the time, and even though my doctors said I might lose some weight without trying, I didn't believe it until it happened).

I decided that instead of focusing on the weight LOSS, I would focus on maintaining the loss I had (accidentally) acheived and trying to lose just one more pound while I was at it. For the first two years I only mananged to keep the 20 lbs off. I focused on making changes I was willing to stick with forever, even if no weight loss resulted.

In many ways this was a much more difficult task than dieting the old way. Because the changes I did make, weren't trivial ones. It felt like I was doing an awful lot of work to lose so slowly, or to "only" not gain. But I didn't really see an alternative, because I knew (from all the previous attempts) that I had a choice "work to not gain and maybe lose" or to "give up the work, and along with it give up not only the chance at more weight loss, the chance at not gaining as well.

When I complained to my doctor that I was only losing one pound a month, despite feeling like I was making a lot of changes and not getting much back, I whined that "I should be able to lose at least two pounds a week like a normal person," and my doctor scolded me, and said that "normal" isn't losing two pounds a week. Even at my weight, "normal" was losing a few pounds, getting discouraged, and regaining it all plus some extra. Even keeping off one pound wasn't normal, it was extraordinary.

And I realized he was right. When it comes to weight loss, we define success in such a way that virtually no one accomplishes. We only give credit to the top 1%ers so that 99% of us think we're failing, when we're actually having mad success. It's like a big city marathon, and we assume we're in last place because we see the 500 runners ahead of us, and not the 25,000 behind us.

And weight loss isn't really a race, because everyone could win, if we only realized that the speed of the race doesn't matter nearly as much as the forward momentum. Moving forward (even standing still) is an acheivement to be proud of. But we're not taught to be proud of it.

In fact, we're encouraged to think (because we see so many people verbalizing the thoughts and acting as if) only goal weight matters. And if we can't get to goal weight, we might as well accept the fact that we'll always be fat, and if we're always going to be fat, we might as well at least get to eat what we want. I had to unlearn this (and it was hard, because I didn't realize that I truly believed it - and fighting a belief you don't know you have, is quite the battle).

I still want to lose about another 150 to 160 lbs, but if I never lose another pound I still have an amazing accomplishment to be proud of, proud enough to protect.

Of course, people will say (and have said) "easy for you to say, you've lost 105 lbs," but I started thinking this way when I'd only lost 25 lbs (only 5 of which I felt I could "take credit for" because the first 20 weren't lost intentionally).

But I SHOULD have felt that way even about the 20 lbs (to some degree I did, which is why I was willing to "try again" at weight loss and to focus on keeping the weight off from the beginning).

When we're taught that only rapid weight loss really counts for anything, the failure of not-losing doesn't feel much if any different than the failure of gaining, so we end up often on a lose/gain rollercoaster, with almost no attention at all being paid to keeping the weight off.

I think that has to be the focus from the very first pound, and we have to acknowledge what an amazing accomplishment that one pound is, in-and-of-itself.

We have to stop lying and hiding the truth that weight loss is damned difficult and most people who do accomplish it, do it slowly. We only see the rapid losers, because no magazine would put ME on their cover, proclaiming "How I lost 105 lbs with 160 left to go, in only 7 years after only 41 years of effort."

I still feel like I'm "failing," because the weight isn't coming off as quickly as I've learned to associate with success, but I tell myself "that's ok, Colleen, you've failed off 105 lbs, better to be failing this way than to be on the success/failure rollercoaster you were on for 35 years."

Hang in there, that is the ONLY secret to success, just hanging in there and not giving up when you've "failed" by the common definition. The common definition sucks and is wrong. Even if you weigh 500 lbs and are only losing a quarter pound a month, you're still succeeding because you're doing better than average. Maybe if we TOLD people THAT instead of allowing them to think they were failing if they weren't losing 2% or more of their body weight every week, the weight loss success statistics wouldn't be so dismal.

[SoulSurvivor]

Wow! You guys are amazing, thank you all so much for your advice. It really means so much to have people to speak to about properly!

Dragonfly33, Nibbles & Satine I agree with everything you're both saying, I'm going to take it all into consideration. I might up my calories after this week and see how I feel. Thanks for the support!

Kaplods I've definitely been through that too, I'm trying not to think of this as a quick fix. But deep down I want a quick fix to a lifetime problem. I think that's where I have to retrain my mindset! It's so easy to lose track of how far we've come and set our minds on where we aren't quite at. I think this is definitely a wake up call for how I think. I took a look at some pics from my highest weight and although I'm not near where I want to be, I can see that I can lose weight and I have. I just have to persevere. Your words have really hit home. Thank you so much.