I have only posted here a couple times... but I need help.

Long story short... skinny all my life til pregnancy, went from 130 to 200. Did not lose a pound after giving birth. I have tried dieting and working out but always give up. The most I have lost at a time is 20lbs and that was in 2010.

I started working out (again) three weeks ago. I started going to the fitness center 3-4 times a week for 45 minutes to an hour each time. I spend 75% of the time doing cardio and 25% doing strength training. I started out at 206lbs. I weighed in today at 210 I wanted to cry! I honestly don't feel like my clothes are fitting any better either. I hope the gain is from gaining muscle.

I understand that losing weight takes a long time. My goal was to lose 2-3 lbs a week and be back close to 130lbs by June. I wasn't planning on dieting at the start. Just eating what I normally eat, but in moderation. I was going to do that the first 6 weeks or so, then start dieting. Now I am rethinking my decision. Should I start dieting now? That scares me to start a serious workout plan AND diet all at one time.

Can I get some opinions and personal experiences?

Oh, and an idea of what my diet usually consists of is mostly natural and organic. Not much beef, some chicken, some turkey. I have cut back on carbs (but havent completely eliminated them). I love coffee, and I do drink diet coke, but not much. I usually drink at least 50-60 oz of water a day. I also don't eat fast food or much sugar.

The only thing I can really think to suggest is calculating your calorie intake to try and guesstimate what the deficit is from working out? Don't give up though! Just keep working out and you'll get there!

They say diet is about 80% of weight loss. Speaking personally, I can gain weight while working out no problem. I would suggest getting your food plan in order if you really want to lose.

I'm no expert, and others will chime in, but working out intensely causes your muscles to retain water. Secondly, working out as a means to losing weight is extremely hard on your body. I'm always quoting John P's tagline these days that diet is for weight loss, and exercise is for fitness. Its true.

If you do plan to cut back, thats fine, but you should know how much you're cutting back ... meaning try tracking your calories or keeping a food diary for a week and see where you can tweak your food choices and create a calorie deficit.

Of course, there are the easy substitutions - skim milk for whole, diet soda for regular, diet dressings, puddings, snacks, etc. Low fat cheeses. Whole grain cereal instead of sugar laden junk. 0% Greek yogurt for sour cream (its a protein vs. fat thing). Cut out the chips, cookies, pies, ice cream, cake. Opt for fresh fruit instead. Find recipe substitutions - www.skinnytaste.com is fabulous for that. "Oven fry" instead of deep fry chicken and the like.

Good luck.

I would at least start tracking what you eat. You don't have to change anything now, but it might help you understand why you aren't losing and it will give you an idea of what needs to be done.

There are great apps for phones... Many people like myfitday I like MyNetDiary and there are tons of others. Plus, weight changes so much from day to day for so many reasons. Could be watere retention from exercise, high sodium, hormones from your period or ovulation, or other things.

Just don't give up. Even with not seeing a drop on the scale, the exercise is good for your body and you know it.

A few weeks ago I started tracking my diet with an app on my phone. I found that helped me watch what I eat, but for some reason I stopped. Today I found that my fitness center has a diet tracking app, so I put in todays calories and hopefully will keep up with it. This week I didn't track my workouts on the app and I got an email this morning (automated of course) asking if I was still keeping up with my workouts. Haha, thats a good way to guilt me into keeping track of everything.

When I did keep track of my food intake a few weeks ago, I did notice that my sodium intake is pretty high. I really don't know much about sodium and I don't know how to approach a low sodium eating plan.

And you don't need to worry about making it low sodium if you don't have issues with blood pressure. Just realize that eating some things might make you gain water weight overnight and then you will shed it.

Since I carry my phone with me everywhere, I plug in what I eat every time I eat. Painless that way.

The sodium thing happens to everyone. Typically, it will register high most of the time on an app. If you don't have health issues involving sodium, don't be concerned about it for now. Focus on the calories and making quality choices.

Thanks, I will try to focus more on good choices and lower calories. I have a feeling I will be on this site A LOT for the next few months. Everybody on here is so supportive and offers good advice.

I agree with your muscles retaining water since you just started working out again. For me, it took about six weeks for my body to get into workout mode and not retain water. I'm steadily losing 2-3 lbs per week now.

Good luck!!!

How old is baby? Are you nursing? Back to regular cycles? Dealing with any underlying health issues? Did you get a solid post partum check up? a 70 lb pregnancy is a lot -- were you checked for gestational diabetes? Edema? Pre-eclampsia? If there's extra health issues, that could be part of why your loss isn't happening like you'd expect?

Your expectation of 2-3 lbs a week is not realistic continued loss. At first you might as you improve diet and lose water retention you may get a large number like that but when all that is gone expect it to slow. It won't be that way each week.

1/2 a lb a week is easy, 1 lb is an effort and 2 lbs a week is HARD. Keep in mind 1 lb represents 3,500 calories. 1 lb of fat looks like 4 sticks of butter. That's a lot!

Hang in there and keep trying. And congrats on the new baby!

A.

2-3 lbs a week is asking too much I think for weight loss, especially if you are only exercising.

You definately should keep track of the diet now if you want to see results faster. Shoot for 1500 calories, and if you workout more than 300 then eat to make up the difference to no less than 1200 calories. That will be the fastest way to drop the weight, but it all depends on your body and water weight flux. I had a ton of water weight last week...7 lbs to be exact...it took awhile, but it finally came off at the end of the week.

I guess I wasn't very clear in my old post lol. I had my baby in 2009. I had no health issues while pregnant. The only thing out of the ordinary diet wise was that I craved sugar but I didn't eat THAT much. Just more than what I normally eat (which is very little). I had ZERO energy and anytime I attempted any sort of excersise I would throw up. I tried to breast feed for about a month but my milk never came in, just that clear stuff (can't remember what it's called). Anyway, about 7 months after I had him I got into a regular excersise program (a boot camp) and that combined with appetite suppressants made me lose 20 lbs in 6 weeks. My son was hospitalized for a few weeks out of state and once we all recovered from that I haven't been able to get back into a regular fitness routine. I am trying though.

Since I started documenting my calorie intake, I have averaged 1400 calories a day. I would say that on average I burn 700 calories from excersise. Yesterday i noticed that my clothes were a tiny bit looser. Haven't checked my weight though.