So..... I joined a gym about 6 weeks ago. I've been going 4-5 days a week after work. I'm there from 3-4pm. I do 30-45 minutes cardio and 15-30 minutes strength training. While doing cardio I'm going as hard and as fast as I can. Strength training is when I have a PT help me out to make sure I'm doing it right.

**The Positive** I FEEL GREAT! My energy level is up and I generally feel better.

**The Negatove** I haven't seen any physical progress! I lost a few pounds the first two weeks. And nothing since! I'm seriously working as hard as I can. I change what I do almost every day. I'm eating about 95% healthy. (I don't think in the real world there is 100% healthy!) I feel like a fish with all the water I drink.

Any suggestions?

Are you counting what you're eating at all?

Exercise is great, but it's very hard to lose via exercise alone. You can eat healthy foods, but if the AMOUNT of healthy food you're eating is too much compared to what you're burning, you won't lose weight.

So what's a sample day of your diet?

Count up your calories / weigh and portion food. If you don't know how many calories are in what you're eating, then eat something else.

Weight loss is science.. calories in, calories out. No matter how much you exercise, calories are very often what holds people back.

I've met so many people who "eat healthy" but when we went over in detail the write-up on calories for an average day, it was very clear why they weren't losing any weight.

The best thing I ever bought in life was a kitchen food scale.. and the internet to help me out

I agree with everyone. Do you write down what you eat, so that you can see what you eat and add up the calories?

Yes, count how many calories you consume everyday. Because if you consume more than you burn, you'll not lose weight. You could use a calories burned calculator on internet, it's not exact though. But it can be helpful.

I definitely agree that it's a good idea to check in and see just how much you're eating - your diet might need some tweaking to really get the weight loss moving. Also - exercise can cause some water retention as your body works to repair those sore and growing muscles so try not to get too discouraged. Just keep at it and watch your intake - you'll get there!

I'm definitely still a newbie, but I was going to mention the exercise amounts as well. I know whenever I change up my exercise routine, it always results in a stall for me while my body gets used to what I'm doing.

And if you're constantly changing things up, you might causing your body to have constantly re-think how many calories it needs.

On the plus side, while my scale normally stays the same when I make changes, my measurements normally decrease, so that might be a thought for you - have you got before measurements you can compare yourself to? It might help show if you are losing inches even if the pounds are holding on for dear life.

Likely you are gaining muscle mass..enough to balance out fat loss. Best way to tell is either by measuring, or seeing how your pants fit!

But if you are still seeing the inches stay, then yes..you will need to modify what you are eating. A 500 calorie deficit a day from your caloric needs will lead you too loose 1 lb of fat in 7 days.

SO if you need 2000 calories to maintain your weight, eat and or workout enough to go down to 1500 calories.

Measure your foods, and underestimate on your calorie burning (unless you have a good heart rate watch monitor). Write down all your intakes and calories burned. It should put you on a good path in no time!

Remember to eat nutritious foods!

I so wish I could exercise away the pounds. The math is one thing, but the reality sure seems to be another.

I'm in this frustrating cycle myself right now, but I've been here enough times to know you just have to muscle through it. You are making changes you just can't see and any day now your body is going to say "enough!" and let go. The scale goes wonky when you exercise while dieting, but in the end you get the results you want faster and with weight training, at a higher than expected weight. In other words, when people are talking about what size they're wearing at what weight, you're going to weigh a lot in a tiny size.

The important thing to remember is that when you lose weight WITHOUT exercise, you lose fat, but also a good portion of muscle. When you lose weight WHILE exercising, you lose a little muscle, but most of what you are losing is fat. This is what you want in the end. But the scale has to take on the role of "tool" and can not be your only measure of success.