[Breannaj1215]

Ugh Im so frustrated. Im burning more than I eat so why arent I losing weight? Ive been steadily losing weight since january 7th. Now im staying the same. I actually gained .8 this week. I dont get it. I started out at 1200-1400 now im eating between 1400-1600 on days that I do work out. Maybe thats the fluctuation? Im still new to this so im hoping somebody can clarify. Im not stopping nor do i want to stop working out. Im just scared that maybe i shouldnt of upped my calories? Im 25 5'7 and 248.8 right now. My lose it app says to lose 2 lbs a week i should eat 1765. Most days i dont get that high.

Help!!!!!

[yoyoma]

You don't include some important details like how often you weigh and how long you haven't been losing, but if your workout is new and you've only been having issues with the scale since then, you may well be seeing exercise-induced water retention. When you work out, your muscles get micro-tears (which is the sore muscle feeling) and they retain a significant amount of water as they rebuild (stronger). After a good workout, people typically see a bump up on the scale the next day. But this will only be temporary and likely not much more than about 2 pounds total (for most people), so weight loss should kick back in if this were the only issue.

But we really do need a sticky about the causes for scale fluctuations. Most women go up and down over the course of the month with TOM and ovulation which alone can mask more than a month of weight loss. Then there's salt and differences in food (hi/low fiber/bulk/volume) and "throughput". None of this has anything to do with your progress but can easily frustrate during the weigh-ins.

All that said, calorie counters often do not trust the calculations for exercise calories burned and find they burn less than the calculation. So if this goes on for a long time, that could be the problem. Some CC'ers find they can eat all the calories the calculator says they are burning, some eat back just half (that's what I've done) and some eat back none.

[carter]

When you say "now I'm not losing" how long are you talking about? During most of my weight loss process (after the initial shedding of bloat) it was pretty common for me to go 3 weeks or so without seeing any loss, and then I'd have a sort of whoosh where I'd lose all my weight for the month withinin a week or so.

People talk about losing this number or that of pounds per week, but that is really an average over a longer period of time - for most people, weight loss isn't nearly that cooperatively linear a process. Most people lose in fits and starts. If you are comfortable with what you are doing, if it feels sustainable to you, stick with it and wait it out. Despite the common practice of weekly weigh-ins, week-over-week weight loss isn't as meaningful a guide as month-over-month weight loss for evaluating how your plan is working. This is especially true for women.

At your current weight you likely can get away with eating more calories and still see the losses you want to see. Some people will tell you that eating too little is the reason for what you perceive as a stall. I happen not to believe that, but I would advise adding an extra 100 or 200 calories of nutrient-dense food. The reason is that when you reach lower weights you may have to restrict more, and it's good to have some room in your routine to making that adjustment. Here I am speaking only from my own experience.

[Sorrow]

Dont forget that muscles weigh more than fat (3x as much) so you may see the results, but after a while with regular and decent exercise your scale will actually start to creep upwards again.

People gain musclemass in diffrent rates and maybe you are doing the "wrong" exercise for what you want to do, Cardio training and activities like yoga , pilates etc will make you build muscles diffrently than hitting the weights or the machines at the gym.

[Breannaj1215]

Thanks everyone. I guess im just being over dramatic. I know it has to be me exercising cause thats when it started not going down. I weigh in a lot but only record it every tuesday. I keep telling myself to stop weighing in and keep pushing. I will see a loss soon.

Thanks everyone

[Lea de Lonval]

Hi there!
One more little thing that may help. Have you switched your excercise routine up at all? Your body adjusts to excercise over time so it's good to switch things up every few weeks to challenge your body. Doesn't have to be huge changes just little things here and there. Switch the cardio equipment you use, add an incline, throw in a couple of interval training sessions. etc. Anything to mix things up! Goodluck and congrats on your progress so far, you're doing amazing!

[OMGeeeHorses]

I so understand your frustration. I have been on a plateau for 2 months now. losing 3lbs and gaining it back, I am my own enemy though..I am allergic to Gluten and don't really pay attention to some foods. So if it has even a trace amount of Gluten my body will go into lock down and not allow my body to drop anything. SO I am going back and looking through all the foods I eat and taking out ANY traces of Gluten. I notice when I did that I was on a steady loss. I put in about 400 minutes of working out a week (sometimes more) and just need to figure out my own body!! I hope your body starts the weight loss decline for you!! STAY STRONG!!

[LRH]

Breanna: go to aworkoutroutine.com and read about "plateaus." You may find it helpful.

[Breannaj1215]

thanks LRH!

[RVAscreenwriter]

I agree with Lea about plateauing. You may need to make a big switch up with your exercise routine just to "confuse" your muscles. I've plateaud before, and know how discouraging it can be!

[Munchy]

Since you were losing before then stopped as you raised your calories, I'd probably drop them back down. It worked just a few weeks ago, so that's probably the culprit. If that doesn't work, I'd start looking into other issues that it could be.

[kaplods]

Originally Posted by Breannaj1215

Ugh Im so frustrated. Im burning more than I eat so why arent I losing weight? Ive been steadily losing weight since january 7th. Now im staying the same. I actually gained .8 this week. I dont get it. I started out at 1200-1400 now im eating between 1400-1600 on days that I do work out. Maybe thats the fluctuation? Im still new to this so im hoping somebody can clarify. Im not stopping nor do i want to stop working out. Im just scared that maybe i shouldnt of upped my calories? Im 25 5'7 and 248.8 right now. My lose it app says to lose 2 lbs a week i should eat 1765. Most days i dont get that high.

Help!!!!!

If you're not losing, you can NOT be sure that you're burning more than you're eating. Weight loss apps are estimates and averages.

A lot of thing can affect your weight and metabolism, both temporarily and longer term.

But a week or three without a weight loss or even a gain or two isn't necessarilly "not losing."

Adding or increasing exercise can camouflage fat loss, because it causes stress and minor damage to the muscles. This damage is actually a "good" kind of injury, because the body heals the muscke by making the muscles stronger and laying down new muscle.

The "down side" to this (or any) healing process in the body, is that the process requires extra water to perform the healing, and it takes that water from the food and beverages you take in, resulting in temporary water retention.

As soon as the healing is finished, the extra water will be released, but if you're continuing to exercise in a way that is challenging (as you should) the water retention can cause more fluctuations of loss.

A lot of people make the mistake of giving up exercise, because they lose more predictably without it. They'd rather see a smaller consistent loss than larger losses at the expense of inconsistent losses and temporary gains.

I've been in that headspace - where a quarter pound every week for many weeks felt more rewarding and more successful than losing than an average of 5 lbs a month, but with periodic zero loss and even gain weeks.

It helped me to monitor my progress by comparing my weight loss in different ways along the way.

I weighed daily, but I kept track of my weight loss in terms of my average daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly gains/losses.

I'm sure there's an app out there that can calculate each average, I just used a calculator, paper, and pencil and logged it in my weight loss journal.

That's how I learned that even though it felt like I was losing less with exercise, I was actually losing more - it just felt like less because the losses were in "whooshed" weeks of no losses and even gains, and then a whopper of a loss every few weeks.

I fell out of the habit, along with other good habits. I'm going to start doing that again.

[novangel]

Weight loss is never steady and consistent. It's also normal for the scale to flux by a pound or 2 depending on sodium intake but that doesnt mean you've had a fat gain. Just keep going and if after a few weeks if you're still at a stall either drop your calories a bit or ramp up your exercise.