Did anyone gain or not lose their first week dieting - if you exercised?
 

If so - when did you start to shed the pounds?

I am following my WW plan religiously, and drinking my water. Everything going in my body is good -- and I've been exercising with my Firm videos every day as well and even supplemented with some treadmill time. I understand the whole muscle weighs more than fat.. takes up less space than fat, blah blah.. but somehow I don't think I lost anything this week. My clothes are fitting a smidgen better though.

What is everyone's experience with this in the first week or so of their new way of eating? :)

Well, on your first week you really won't see the results!!! I work out at the gym and they will tell you its a waste of time to weight yourself the first week, what happens in my opinion is that your body has to get used to the new way of eating, have you heard that sometimes when people starve theirselves in one day and they eat 1 meal it will have the effect as eating 3, so I guess its similar eventhough you are eating normal with WW, so give it about another week and you'll see improvements, another tip is that you should measure your body and calculate inches lost as well...

Thanks - it makes me feel a little better. I should KNOW better than to expect something great the first week. It would be nice, to keep me motivated, to see a weight loss, but as you say -- the inches are what is important. I did measure myself before dieting and working out, so in a few weeks I will measure myself again.:carrot:

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good

It took me two months of regular exercise, improved eating, and increased water to see any results. In fact, during that two-month time I gained about five pounds. I know that it was muscle growth but it was still hard to see. That two-month period was very difficult for me and several times I almost gave up.

In mid-October, I increased my lean protein intake, added free weights to my workouts, and ditched the scale. Four weeks later, I had lost of bunch of inches and a couple of pounds. As you can see by my ticker, I am down only 11 pounds from August, but I've dropped two sizes. I think you have the right idea to focus on the way your clothing fits and your measurements, though it is nice to see the number on the scale go down. Stick with it and good luck!!

Sherry,
Thanks for posting! This is my fear -- I would be wanting to hang it up after 2 months of that. Congrats on your loss so far including the sizes lost! Your ticker (and situation) looks similar to what I was before I got married and I DID give up, even though I lost sizes. I am only 4'11" and just couldn't stand to see that scale stay up.

Can you share your workout schedule that you had in those first few months? and how your eating way - did you follow a plan or just cut out certain bad things?:?:

Ok, I've got a few tidbits to throw into this one. You know all the calorie things ... eat less, move more .... a pound is worth 3500 calories ... and so on? Well, wouldn't it be lovely if that then happened in a mathematicaly logical fashion? That the very moment you have a 3500 calorie defict, your body would dump a pound? It doesn't.
We, as women, who bloat, retain water and have hormonal functions should know that there are several reasons for this. Keep in mind that fat goes ... in time. You can't keep eating less than you put out without losing weight. It will happen.

I'm going to second the increased protein intake. Women too easily see the number of calories in a protein and trade it in for something with less. Bad move. Protein can help you feel full longer, keeps your blood sugar levels level and so can prevent 'starving munchies'.

As for muscle weighing more than fat and your weight staying steady because of that ... call me skeptical. But I'll see if I can find any documentation about that.

When I was younger, I had great success with dropping weight if I increased my exercise just a bit and cut out some of the junk. So when I decided this time that I had to lose weight, being at my highest weight ever, I thought the same old method would work. I went from exercising one day a week to exercising four or five days a week. I started out slowly, doing cardio for only 30 minutes at a time, three or four days a week. I also did resistance exercises using only my body weight, such as lunges, squats, push-ups, chair dips, crunches, etc., two or three days a week. As I got stronger, I increased the frequency of both cardio and resistance. I also added time to cardio and added reps to resistance.

On the food side, my big change was to cut out fast food, which I had been practically living on. But I didn't really reduce the total amount of what I ate, though in general I tried to make better food choices. Because I had just started a pretty vigorous exercise routine, I was more hungry and kept eating. While I was eating better, there was room for improvement which may be why it took so long to see any results.

My eating has greatly evolved since August when I started this journey. I was very stupid about food and nutrition and spent a lot of time educating myself. I counted calories for a while to get a handle on proper portion sizes. I tracked my food in FitDay to help with the calorie counting and to learn more about balancing my diet. I had to learn that just because I am not full does not mean I am hungry. Right now, I am not counting calories or using FitDay, but I am following the Sonoma Diet. It's a very balanced eating plan and the recipes are wonderful. I think this is something I can do for life, which is what I sought -- a lifestyle change.

Hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any questions.

Muscle isn't heavier than fat, but a pound (or five pounds) of muscle takes up less space than the equivalent poundage of fat because it is more dense. So if your measurements are going down, but the scale is not, you are burning fat and building muscle :carrot: That is what we all are trying to accomplish in the gym!

However, doing cardio such as treadmill, walking, the elliptical, bike, etc, doesn't generally build muscle. Lifting weights, at a weight which is TOUGH, builds muscle.

If you have been at your new way of eating and exercising for only a week, I think SusanB's answer is right on target. One week isn't long enough to build muscle. It can be long enough to lose a pound of fat and some water retention, but if you are also just starting an exercise program and/or happen to be approaching that time of month, you may be experienceing some bloating from hormones or some water retention due to sore muscles. Whenever I do a heavy leg workout, my weight is usually up a bit the next day because my muscles are retaining water.

Patience:) You'll get there!

Mel

Keep in mind that your body weight can fluctuate by up to 4 bls within a day! I can weigh myself one minute then be two lbs heavier 5 minutes later! Take your measurements and keep at it! Regardless of weight loss you are doing a really great thing for your body by making the changes you've made to your lifestyle!

Thanks everyone for reassuring me. I got weighed in last night and I was down 2.4 lbs. :carrot: I'm okay with that because it is a step in the right direction!

Today is the first day I have decided not to exercise (hard). I may do some walking on the treadmill later but I am a bit sore from yesterday FIRM body sculpting video and have yet to take a day off.

Thanks everyone for your support! :hug:

Way to go !! That is awsome!