I have some questions that I could use some help with

I started exercising seriously two times a week about 3 weeks ago. It is a total body class that lasts an hour and let me tell you by the end I'm sore and sweating. The class is strength training with cardio bursts. Since I started the scale hasn't budged an inch! I'm not as worried about this because I figure my body is just in shock. I put it in Daily Plate as calithstenics because I have no idea what else to put it as and it says 300 burned. I do eat more calories on those day, but only by usually by 150-200 calories unless I'm starving.

However, today I am extremely hungry, I have eaten my calories for the day (today is an off day, I only ate about 100 calories over yesterday after class). So I went ahead and ate more; probably about 250 calories over for the day. I figured my body was hungry for a reason.

Do you think that I did the right thing by going ahead and eating? Am I not eating enough? My normal target is 1667. On off days I do exercise by cleaning, walking, jumping jacks, etc...

I could use some advice please

The only thing you need is patience Your calorie target is fine, although 1667 + 250 is still a wee bit high for fat loss considering you are only exercising hard 2x per week. Walking, etc is good, but to see serious changes you will have to keep the calories at 1667 (no 100 or 250 here or there, that really adds up). You should be entering it as strength training.

At your size however, it will be a bit more difficult drop weight than if you were quite obese. Once you are at a normal-overweight (but not obese) size, you must stay on plan and be patient.

Just some extra tidbits

I make sure that over the week my target comes out to 1600. I do calorie cycle, my upper limit is 1667, but I don't hit it everyday. I do some days at 1300.

Also, when I say cleaning I don't mean dusting, straightening. For example, yesterday I scrubbed the carpet for 2 hours through the entire house in a squat position (makes for easier moving than on hands and knees). Walking is also with 2....4 month old lab puppies, not just casual walks but walks with running bursts.

I've lost the 20 lbs (it's actually 22 as you can see I haven't updated) since January, so maybe I was due for the plateau.

I'm just confused about the hunger. I want to add too that this week I've been oddly tired....I mean I had to leave work because I nearly fell asleep at my desk.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

I have a 4 month old pup too! Totally understand what you mean about the short bursts Perhaps you were due for a plateau, yes, but keep in mind that it can take up to a year to really lose the pounds. My 50lbs took a full year, even when exercising hard (running 3-4 miles & strength training 6x per week for a YEAR).

Slow & steady truly does win the weight race.

The slow and steady is fine by me I know that I am more likely to keep it off if I lose slowly, I just want to make sure I'm healthy in the mean time.

With your tiredness, I wonder if you are getting enough vitamins and minerals. You might consider supplements if you aren't already taking some. Also, are you drinking enough water? Dehydration can make us feel tired and hungry.

I definitely go through hunger cycles. I can be cruising along fine with my calorie/exercise routine, then bam! Suddenly I'm ravenous.

The fact is that, as unhealthy as being overweight can be, our bodies don't want to lose fat. It's a biological survival mechanism. You're trying to eat less burn more, AND rev up your metabolism to burn more passively, and your body thinks that you are experiencing a famine. It will slow down your fat loss, send hormones surging through your body to make you mentally and physically crave food, and so on. You can also go through cycles where your body just refuses to drop weight for a while. It puts on the brakes and just does what it can to maintain what you've got. You just have to keep plugging away and eventually it will learn who's boss. Until next time. heh

If you're hungry on a routine where you haven't been hungry before, it could be your body saying it really does need more food to perform well under these conditions, or it could be the above. There's no harm in adding a little more food regardless. Do you do a post-workout snack? After exercise, the best thing you can do is to have an easily-digestible carb-and-protein snack. That means little or no fiber, little or no fat. Do this within 30 minutes of the end of the workout to make maximum use of it to replenish glycogen stores and start muscle repair. You don't need a ton of calories, under 200 is fine. Look at some of the protein drinks and bars if you don't mind that route. At worst, a glass of low-fat milk ain't a bad choice.

Another thing you can do is look at your carb/fat/protein intake overall. If you're eating more than about 55% of your calories in carbs, you might dry dropping that a bit and adding a little more protein, and maybe fat if you're doing super-low fat. Also, remember that high-fiber foods take longer to digest as well as filling you up more when you eat them.

A little hunger at times is a sign you're doing the right thing.

Jacqui_D - I do get enough water, I try to always make sure of that because I have been severely dehydrated before and it's not fun. It kind of kicked me in the face a little.

The supplements part I'm not sure I want to answer I have not been taking vitamins. I'm one of those people that is terrible about pills, even prescribed meds I don't finish. This could very well be it. Thanks for the advice about it, I didn't even consider tiredness a consequence of my lack of vitamins.

funniegrrl - Your post was very insightful. I didn't realize that this is the body fighting weight loss. I do always wait like recommended before I eat to make sure it's not just thirstiness or boredom, today it would not go away. My stomach was being loud and obnoxious! Today was a time when I haven't been hungry before that's why it was so weird for me.

Ugh, I don't need more hormones surging though, I've already got PMDD jk

Thanks again everyone, I appreciate the answers

Well apparently, my stomach growling was my body's way of saying "Eat Woman!" Because on Thursday morning I was down to 173