I have been working out 5-6 days a week with weight training and cardio along with a diet plan. I have been doing this for 3 months and have only lost 9 lbs! I have lost 2" from waist, bust, lower stomach, and butt, and an inch off thighs & arm. It doesn't feel like good progress for the amount off time I've been working out. I am 29 and 5'0 and 157lbs I can stand to lose a good more 40lbs, I would think it would come off sooner. Could I be gaining muscle weight that's counter balancing the scale?

Hi Anastasia!
I am similar age, height and weight, and know first hand that that's a decent progress when you are doing it right!
If your diet has room to eat less calories, you may lose more (dropping a 100 a day will take off about extra pound per month) but only if you have enough food going in to sustain the activity you are putting out on the exercise plus the rest of your day and sleeping.

I would instead be adding more activity. Specifically walking. If you add more intense cardio, you might have to add more food too. lol

Definitely you are putting on muscle though for the scale and depending on your measures, adding back muscle might make your trunk retain an inch for now.

I think most important thing is to stick with it!! Slow and steady and life changing keeps you from rebounding. Hope I'm helpful to you.

9lbs lost in 3 months is not bad progress

Thanks for the info, I will try decreasing calories and adding more cardio. Thanks

I didn't do any formal exercise but started off at 1650 calories and reduced to 1400 near the end of three months.

What does that tell you about what you are doing.

What it tells me is that you relying too much on your exercise for your weightloss.

Yes you must surely have gained plenty of muscle. But i think it would be a mistake to increase your exercise even more.

How many calories are you eating? How nutritious is your food? You probably need to eat more or better.

Long periods of restricting your calories can cause slowing of metabolism. Its better to restrict calories minimally and not be in such a hurry to lose the flab. It should be about changing lifetime habits to better ones. Are you going to keep working out 6 days a week forever. Usually around the three month mark, you can start to feel a bit tired of your new regime. So be prepared for it and consider slowing it down a little or changing things about.

The inches you describe lost seem pretty significant so that suggests lots of fat is gone and muscle has replaced it.

It's impossible to know what is really going on unless you specify what you're eating. From what I understand, weight loss is about 80% diet and 20% exercise. Also, yes, when you're building muscle, your body retains water. If you skip your workout routine for a little while, you might notice the scale drop.

Either way, you're doing something right because you're losing inches, which is great! I've heard that in order to lose weight, a good starting point would be to eat 10 x your weight, so that would give you 1,570 calories. Then you'd also lose weight from the deficit you create from your workouts. If you do this for a few weeks and don't see a drop in weight, cut back to less calories...perhaps 1400 and see what happens.

You also may find that your weight loss slows down once you're closer to your goal weight. Our bodies become more efficient so it's good to shake things up with the workouts and with the eating. Perhaps you could do some HIIT. You might also want to try calorie cycling to keep your body guessing.

Finally, slow and steady wins the race. Do what you feel you can do for life. The weight loss might be slower but chances are you'll be more likely to maintain it as a life style.

Congrats to you on your progress so far!

Thanks everyone. My eating is pretty good I thought. I have low sugar instant oat meal for breakfast, sometimes with a piece of 40 cal toast, then a snack of Greek yogurt with almonds, lunch is a half a turkey sandwich with no mayo on 40 cal bread with carrots or celery, snack of carrots or celery and a an apple or orange, dinner is 4oz of chicken with veggies and sometimes a sweet potato, snack is a protein shake. I give my self a cheat day on the weekend

Again, without specific measurements, it's hard to ascertain your calories. I don't mean to be a nag though.

Instant oatmeal...I'm guessing it's about 150 calories?
40 calorie toast is dry? So that puts you at 190 calories for breakfast.

Greek yogurt....is it non fat? Then I'm guessing 100 calories. Almonds. How many? 207 calories in 1/4 cup but again, I don't know how many you're having.

Lunch: Turkey sandwich...2 slices of that 40 calorie bread? I'm going to guess your 1/2 sandwich is 300 calories with another 30 calories for the celery. An apple is about 95 calories, an orange about 80.

Is the 4 oz. of chicken breast? thighs? with or without skin? Veggies are fresh or cooked with oil? Sweet potato plain? 1 cup of sweet potato baked without oil is 180 calories.

Protein shake...there's no way I would attempt to guess how many calories because they differ so much.

I would recommend you track your calorie intake for at least a few days just to get an idea of how many you're having. It's really a fine line between losing and maintaining or gaining. It's easy to go over, is my point. Given that you're frustrated about your weight of weight loss, it would make sense to see where you're at with calories to see if anything needs to be tweaked.

Best of luck to you.

Thanks i will track them.

You are not alone in your frustration. I have been eating healthy for 2 months and have added in exercise for the last month doing cardio daily and strength training 3x per week. I have lost 10lbs so far but I too was expecting more.

I think, like the others have said you just have to play around with your routine, and eating habits and discover what will give you the best results. Sorry you are having trouble but I am happy to know I am not alone in this feeling!!