I have been BUSTED my BEHIND off for the LAST THREE weeks on exercise!

I also been varying my eating habits too (i.e. one dinner, it's grilled shrimp with veggies; another night, tofu noodles with a little bit of chicken and veggies, etc). (*My caloric intake is generally 1,200-1,300 calories but I do remind myself to calorie cycle every once in a while.) I also have been drinking a good intake of water/plain herbal tea with no sweetners or anything.

Yes, I joined a gym and have been using a new cardio machine (the elliptical) for just over a week now and I started resistance training on friday (the resistance training was mostly stomach/leg work that included a stability ball and only 2 machines were used for the upper body). And yes, I do understand in the beginning your body can get messed up in trying new exercise routines.

I figured I would have lost a bit more weight if only for the first 2 of three weeks when I worked out at home on the treadmill and did pilates for the abs, et al.

Yes, I'm happy to finally be in the 170s

Yes, I'm thrilled with how tight my body is feeling and how much I sweat and work hard on the machines (an added bonus, I'm enjoying watching "what not to wear" & "Rachel Ray" on the cool tv propped upon each elliptical/treadmill machine ).

But it was just terribly disappointing to see ONLY 2.4 lbs in three weeks. I honestly thought it would have been another 1 or 2 pounds or so I would have lost at least 1 pound each week.

I know I shouldn't be a whiny a$$ when others lose much less or have stalled/plateaued here. But it felt like I let myself down in a way like: this is my "reward" (not) for trying as hard as I can to lose the pounds here...

I hope next week it gets better, though I probably shouldn't hold my breath in

~ tea

But you did lose 2.4 lbs....so that's good...I know you just needed to vent and that's cool too...BTW my gym has those tvs on the machines too...

Well, you didn't gain 2.4lbs... so shhhhh!.



Kidding...

But, well, there is more to getting fit and healthy than what the scale says. I would rather see anyone weight training and losing weight more slowly than just dieting and getting skinny fat.

Congrats on the loss and new weight training routine!

I know it's hard to believe the old saying, but muscle does weigh more than fat. So maybe you are building muscle while still losing weight, which is awesome!

You could probably add on a few hundred more calories- when I was doing 1200 I didn't lose a thing, changed it to 1500 and bam the next week dropped 1.5 lbs

Maybe measuring inches instead of pounds. Muscle wieghs more

Perspective my dear!

I may have gained a pound over the weekend but that does not detract from the fact that I'm down 8 lbs since I got back from vacation.

You've lost over a hundred pounds!!! It matters not one wit how much of that was in the last three weeks. It's ALL gone.

I hear ya...try to look at the whole picture, though! Look how far you've come. Keep it up!!

I agree that since muscle weighs more than fat, maybe you should be taking measurements.

As long as you FEEL tighter and leaner and healthier and stronger... that's what matters. The scale will follow, don't worry! Just keep up the totally awesome, amazing work you are doing!

Tea, just keep on keepin' on. You are fabulous. Hold tight and go on. You're getting there!!!!

:

Well, that seems to me to be part of this frustrating process! Some weeks are just like that. Plus, now that you weigh a lot less, you won't see the same kinds of losses you did early on.

Hang in there! I'm an irregular loser too, and it can be quite infuriating. I even wrote down a list of things I plan to address when the scale stops moving in order to get it to move again: am I sleeping enough? am I getting x oz. of water? am I staying w/in my calorie range? do I need to raise or lower that range? have I kept my sodium intake down? am I removing pesticides and chemicals from my food/body products? have I eliminated potentially allergenic foods? (dairy, corn, gluten) I figure by the time I've gone through that list and 'fixed' or tinkered with those things, the scale will be moving again. And I'll at least feel like I'm doing something to help it along! (The illusion of being in control, I know, but it helps me feel like my body isn't betraying me when I'm OP.)

I know that has to be frustrating, but I agree with beerab--you probably need to add some calories since you've started weight training. Your body may be slowing your metabolism, trying to conserve fuel, if it detects (albeit mistakenly) that you are burning too much energy for how much food you are taking in. That's how the body's designed--to slow down in times of starvation. You just have to convince your body you're not trying to starve it while using up its energy store.

If you are only eating 1200-1300 calories and doing stomach/leg work/2 machines, it is highly unlikely that there is any muscle gain (sorry, I just had to clear that up - muscle gain is a result of eating over maintainence calories and heavy lifting).

Besides that though, that is a good amount in 3 weeks. Eat more, you are working out enough for it!