I've been doing cardio for about six weeks, 30 mins a day, three or four days a week. I don't own a scale but my friend has a fancy one that tells you not only weight, but pounds of fat, pounds of water, and bone mass. I weighed in at 151 two weeks ago with 41 pounds of body fat. Last night I weighed in at 152 with 42 pounds of body fat. This is probably the best shape I've ever been in and I'm still gaining not only weight but fat. I'll look at my diet and make some changes, but for now I'm shamelessly asking for motivation and support! It's so discouraging that I'm still gaining!

I did the same thing! I thought I am exercising and building strength and endurance - I should be dropping the pounds! Then I started counting my calories and realized that I was eating all my exercise. After I stopped slapping my forehead - I started paying attention to what I ate and started losing. There is a lot of great information in the calorie counting section's sticky notes.

Atleast I had and you have a headstart on the exercise part of weight loss.

I would take what your friend's scale says with a grain of salt. It is only one pound difference, so try not to stress over it and keep exercising. I always gain when I exercise. Hate that, but exercise is good for you!

Hey!

If you are trying to lose weight, then you are very likely going to have to restrict your food intake. In my own experience, exercise alone will not lead to weight loss. I think that's because exercise can make people hungrier, or if not, it makes them think it's "OK" to eat more since they did all that exercise.

In reality, exercise does not burn very many calories--but it improves the ability of the body to burn fat for energy. That and wanting to be healthier are why exercise is good.

So look into ways to restrict your food. Some people use a formal program like Sugar Busters, South Beach, You on a Diet, Atkins, Weight Watchers, etc. Others follow plans like calorie counting. But what all these plans have in common is that you eat less than you burn, and that's how you lose weight.

Also, at 5'6" and 151, you can expect to lose weight pretty slowly--more slowly than someone at, say, 181. So, you need to keep that in mind so you don't get discouraged.

As for the scale--that kind of difference is within the range of error of the scale and water weight fluctuation, so I wouldn't pay any attention to it. Basically you weigh the same.

Good luck!
Jay

First, yes, take a breather. Scales fluctuate for all kinds of reasons. We have a great post on the reasons why here:

Fluctuations in Scale Weight and Water Weight

Second, if you aren't watching what you're eating, exercise alone doesn't necessarily mean you'll lose weight. You have to burn more calories than you take in. The natural inclination, when you start exercising, is to eat more...your body says "Hey! We're burning more calories!" so you get hungrier and then eat more. If you eat more, you won't lose weight despite the exercise, and yes, it is possible to gain.

Muscle weighs a lot more than fat does. If you are losing fat, but gaining muscle, then that great! Don't depend so much on the scale to tell you that you are healthy.

What I'd like to know is how those scales know what's water, fat or muscle?

First of all, good for you for sticking to an exercise plan for 6 weeks. That's a great thing.

That said, I'm now going to tell you something rather depressing. (Sorry)
That's not a lot of cardio, when you're looking to get weight loss results. It's certainly not a lot of calories burned. As a *very* rough estimate, at 152 lbs, you're probably burning around 300 calories every time you exercise.

That means to lose 1 lb from exercise alone (and assuming your diet is extremly consistent and you're not eating too many calories), you'd need 11 30-minute sessions (or 3-4 weeks of exercising, if you go 4 times a week). That's for ONE SINGLE POUND of weight loss from exercise alone.

If you're eating more than you should be for maintenance, then you might not lose at all. As others have said, it's possible that since you've been exercising, you've been eating more.

I think your first step here should be to track your diet and log your food for a few days and see exactly how many calories you're eating. That will give you a good baseline to start from.

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Keep in mind there is a margin of error with these scales. To get consistent readings, they should be regularly calibrated, but few people are able to do that. Don't worry too much about a difference of one pound. I have a high tech scale that provides all kinds of data (bone mass, fat percentage, water, etc.) and it gives me different readings when I test it three times in a row.

Keep working out, track your food intake with some kind of diet journal, and relax

Thanks Drina! Good to hear from someone who has used one of these scales. It's frustrating when people tell me I'm just gaining water, because that should be reflected in the water read-out of the scale or at least dispersed among the readings instead of telling me the gain is all in fat. I think unreliability of scale measurement is a much more plausible answer.

Photochick - you're right on with your calculations, and I'm aiming to lose one or two pounds a month. I've set that as a realistic weight loss goal for myself given my current weight and fitness level. You're not breaking bad news to me, that's how I've planned things And like I said in the original post, I'll address changes in diet - I just wanted some support for today!

retiredone - the scale sends a tiny electrical impulse (you don't feel anything) through your body. the idea is that the impulse moves more quickly through water and fat than say muscle or bone, and based on how quickly the impulse moves through your body it estimates what proportion of your weight is what. They are not exact in their calculations, of course, but it gives you a better idea of why the scale is fluctuating than a scale that just shows weight. Rather than saying "you must be gaining water weight" or "you must be gaining muscle" you actually have some idea of why you're gaining (or losing!). Pretty neat, and they're not expensive.

Thanks to everyone who responded to my request for support! You guys are great

I've got one of those scales as well, and I never use the other features--it would just give me something else to be depressed about... LOL