UGH. so i decided to focus solely on weight/strength training and have been going to the gym 5 days a week. i feel stronger and sore, but the scale has been consistantly showing a "gain" even though the scale also shows that my percentage of water is going up.

i know its probably at least a little water retention, but i feel terrible! i even measured myself and learned that i lost an inch everywhere, but still!

has anyone else encountered this? i know that building muscle will pay off in the future when i have more tone, and that muscle burns more than fat, but with the wedding in two months, i'm getting pretty depressed.

If given the choice of losing inches or pounds, I'd choose to lose inches

I agree with the above post. Also, does this mean you haven't been doing any cardio at all? I've found that combining them helps the most. I'm not at this point in my current weight loss journey that I just started two weeks ago, but back in the day when I was a gym rat, this is what I would do:

Monday/Wednesday/Friday: cardio (30-60 minutes) + upper body strength training + ab work/core training
Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday: cardio (30-60 minutes) + lower body strength training + ab work/core training
Sunday: REST

By switching off days between upper and lower body, you give your muscles time to relax. Core training is essential to weight loss, so it is important to do that daily. And cardio is also essential, especially to get your heart rate up. The best thing to do is to do cardio first to get your heart rate up and then do your strength training b/c then your body is working twice as hard as it would if you didn't already have your heart rate up, and you'll burn more. I would also switch up what I did for the cardio, so that my body wouldn't get too used to doing one thing. So I might do the bike on Monday then the elliptical on Tuesday then the stairs on Wednesday then back to the bike on Thursday or something like that.

If you're ONLY doing strength training w/o the cardio then you aren't going to see much difference in the scale. Not that strength training isn't a good thing, just that it's not burning off the calories/fat the way that cardio does. But in the end, it is really more about the way you look and feel then about the number on the scale. If you're still losing inches and feeling better about yourself, that is what is most important.

I'm kind of going through the same thing. I've drastically increased my strength training and the scale will not budge. I haven't done measurements recently, but I do feel like I'm getting smaller, so I just figure let it be, and when my body is ready it will drop the lbs.

I started strength training, too! I can visibly see a difference and feel a difference in the way my clothes are fitting, but the scale absolutely will not budge - not even a tiny bit.

The psychological part of the scale not changing is really starting to negatively affect what I look like in the mirror, though.

I don't have any advice, but I do feel the same way!

You can tone the muscles underneath, but unless you're doing cardio/burning fat then all those muscles will be kept hidden. (For me, I'm pretty sure I've got a six-pack going on somewhere down there ... but I've still got a lot of stomach fat to work off before it'll show lol) As myfish said, you've got to do both. Try Jillian Michaels' DVDs... she likes to combine strength training with cardio for the "ultimate workout". And tried and true... it WORKS. Trust me!!!

But also, don't be discouraged by the scale. If you're losing inches it means you're looking better, regardless of what you actually weigh. And for me, that's what counts. I've seen 210 lb female basketball players who are nothing but muscle. They're in shape and they look great...despite the scale.