Hey!

I am at the pool 5 x/week doing Aqua Running, Aquacise, Laps with the kickboard, and exercises with the dumbbells in the water for my abs and my arms and upper body and core... I have been eating very healthy too, but I haven't seen much change to the scale as of late. Can you recommend what I can do for either cardio/exercise wise or for diet wise to see the numbers drop? Before I would see the numbers drop by 3-5 lbs. Not sure what is going on? But I am toning up rapidly!! I have gone down two sizes very quickly! Please let me know.

Thank you!!

Hi and welcome

A few things:

1. Weight loss is mostly about diet: eating fewer calories than your body uses each day. Any exercise or activity will help create a caloric deficit- running, walking, biking, etc. But it's easy to cancel out this deficit if the diet part isn't managed- eating fewer calories than your body needs.

2. Eating healthy often isn't enough- it's about eating less. Are you calorie counting or using an exchange program, or any other method to manage portion size?

3. Weight will sometimes stall after starting a new exercise regimen. This is due to the muscles retaining water. Dropping sizes is a great indicator that your body is continuing to lose genuine weight even if that may be masked by increased water. The body "calms down" a bit and releases water after a while, so give it two or three weeks after you've started a new exercise before you take the scale seriously.

4. Even without changes in diet or exercise, weight loss is not linear. You can stall or even see your weight bounce around at any time. This is not a bad thing, just a fact of weight loss.

Congrats on your great weight loss so far, and your commitment to exercise! Best of luck

I am currently down 63 lbs in 4 months! Just in the past week, I haven't seen any change in the scale, but I have gone from a size 14 to a snug size 10. Im just curious when I will see the number drop again?

Thank you so much btw!

It would be hard to make diet change suggestions without knowing what you are doing now, and maybe even seeing a day or two of pretty typical days of tracking. What plan are you following and what might an average day look like? Your diet is going to be the most important part of your weight loss, as indiblue said.

A week really isn't really cause for alarm/change though (if I'm reading your posts right and it's been a week since the scale moved?), your body just might be adjusting to the weight lost. I find that sometimes when the scale slows down, I notice more change with my measurements.

You may also need to look at your intensity and exertion while you are exercising. The more you do something, the more efficient you become at doing it. If you aren't feeling as challenged during your workouts, you may need to do things that make you feel more challenged. I don't really spend much time in the water so don't have any ideas for higher intensity water workouts though unfortunately.

I'm considering taking up swimming. Our pool out back is looking lonely. How effective is swimming?

Swimming can be a great form of excercise as long as you work hard at it. My hubby and I love to go in the pool but we do not do conventional swimming. We go into the deep end and tread water while we try to go through the water with our bodies vertical instead of horizontal. It really gets the geart rate going, it may look funny but it is fun!

I agree that you can't conclude much by only a week (or often even a month).

There are several possibilities.

1. Coincidence - maybe just a normal fluctuation.

2. You're weight loss could be slowing down, just because weight loss usually does.

3. You may not be restricting your calories enough to keep losing. There's some research that indicates that water exercise (more so than other exercises) can result in increased hunger. This doesn't mean you have to give up water exercise, but it does mean that you may have to track calories or extra hunger could inspire you to taking in extra calories.

And finally, dozens of other possibilities... from constipation to hormonal fluctuations to who-the-heck knows.


As to your question "when I will see the number drop again?" None of us can tell you, because if I've learned anything in 40 years of dieting, it's that there really is no "typical." People even with apparently identical lives, (even identical twins) can lose weight differently on the same lifestyle.

Weight loss for twins and biological family members do tend to be more alike than non-relatives, but you can't plug in variables and get a reliable answer as to how/when you will lose weight.


Mostly we're all left in the position of having to be both scientist and lab rat. Experiment, and see what happens (of course, it's easy to jump to conclusions and become superstitious).

For example a lot of people will see a weight loss after a binge, and falsely conclude that the extra calories "made" them lose weight, when it probably was just a coincidence.

It's almost as if you called in sick and the next day your boss gave you a huge bonus check, so you conclude that you should call in sick more often.


What really helped me tremendously was joining TOPS (taking off pounds sensibly) because the group really helps you see what "normal" weight loss really looks like (especially if you pay attention to the results listed for weight loss each week. Where the gains and losses are shared. You realize that the true average for weight loss, even for very overweight folks is generally not more than 2 lbs per week, even though it's what we've all been led to believe).

I learned, for example that most people (even the men) do not usually lose every week during a month. Our group has 30 members (and about 5 men) and at the end of every month the people who did not have a gain during any of the weekly weigh-ins that month, split a $10 prize. Out of 30 people, it's extremely rare fore more than 3 people to split the prize. That means that in my group, 90% of members have at least one gain per month.

I've been a member for a little over a year, and I haven't been able to win that particular monthly prize, yet (because I always gain 5 to 8 lbs during PMS/TOM week). I have won "biggest loser" and other contests, but not that one.

It's just nice to see what "normal" really looks like (and recent research from the Medical School of Wisconsin found that TOPS results are far better than normal. In fact all weekly-meeting support groups were shown to be much more effective than "doing it on your own."

I love online support too, but my IRL group really helps keep me realize that even though my weight loss has been extremely slow, it's still better than "normal" (my doctor pointed that out, reminding me that normal is to try, give up, and regain).