[hellcatjill]

All right, as happens every few weeks, it seems, my motivatin is beginning to wane. Here's my story, for those of you who are unfamiliar with me (I'm still a newbie):

I'm 5'10 1/2", 143 pounds. I have been a member of a gym since the middle of November, and have been working out fairly religiously since then (around 4 days a week, 30 minutes cardio, 30 minutes weights), except for a couple weeks (not consecutive) when I was sick. Anyway, I am in a "healthy weight range" but have so much fat! My abs and thighs are particularly bad. Anyway, I'm hoping to be able to build up my muscle and lose the fat, to become toned. I'm not worried about getting too "big," because I know it's not gonna happen, with me being a woman, and besides, I think very muscular bodies are sexy for women to have. Anyway, up until a couple weeks ago, I wasn't really watching what I was eating. I wasn't losing any weight, even with all the working out, and wasn't noticing that I was losing fat, either. I was only getting bigger from the muscle I was building. So the past couple weeks, I've been watching my calorie intake. I found something online that said that for my age, sex, etc., I would need 2100 calories to maintain my weight. Well, since I want to burn the fat that is there, I decided that a diet of 1500 calories (approx.) a day would help me lose the fat, and keeping up with my weight lifting would keep me from losing a lot of muscle in the process.

Okay, so I know it's only been a couple weeks, but everything I've read says that if you cut calories by 500 each day, you should lose 1 pound a week. So shouldn't I have lost at least 2 pounds by now? When I started, my weight was 143.6, and when I weighed this morning, it was 143.

What am I doing wrong, if anything? I'm not giving up, but I really, really want to get into the best shape I can, and I feel as though I'm failing.

Help!

[RobertW]

Maybe you have lost 2# of fat but are holding onto another 2# of water?

My weight can go up or down 7-10# based on hydration. I am sure you are losing if you are accurately recording your calories.

[fikustrees]

everybody is different but don't worry it will start to come off. Have you checked out fitday.com? It makes keeping track of calories in/out pretty easy.

[hellcatjill]

Originally Posted by fikustrees

everybody is different but don't worry it will start to come off. Have you checked out fitday.com? It makes keeping track of calories in/out pretty easy.

Yeah, actually, that's how I've been recording my calories. Works great!

[Gymgurl]

For you height you don't sound like you have much to lose...try increasing your cals with clean food and see if that helps....you might never lose the weight but will lose fat....

[Sashenka]

Hi,
What I've noticed is that for people who never exercised before trying to lose weight, weight comess off easily on weeks 1 and two. Like they can loose up to 2-3% of their body weight - but the thing is - all of it is water. However, if you are fit enough, restricting your diet sometimes does the opposite - you start gaining weight, however in the longer run (over a month) you might notice that you are getting smaller.

That said, it took me awhile to start loosing, and my ratio of lost weight per week (i was exercising regularly for years before Is tarted to lose weight) was very small. Even now loosing a single pound is tough for me... However I am size 8 or 6, while when I started weight loss I was size 12 or 14.

Cheers,
Sandy.

[hellcatjill]

Well, I just had my husband take my measurements again, and now I'm even more down. Every part of me is bigger than last time! Well, except for my upper arms, they are exactly the same! The last time he took my measurements was 12/2, so it's been over a month, though I've only been counting calories for a couple of weeks.

Sandy--Did you start getting smaller before you really started losing weight? Were you restricting your calories at all?

[hellcatjill]

Well, I have finally started dropping a little bit of weight. Like I said before, I'm not really worried about weighing less, I just want to be fitter, but at least seeing the scale moves makes me feel like something is happening.

I haven't really been doing anything differently than the last couple weeks. I'm trying to eat about 5 times a day to keep my metabolism revved, which I LOVE! I love being able to eat every 2 or 3 hours!

[hellcatjill]

Also (sorry to keep bumping this to the top, but I keep thinking of things to add), I have started noticing some changes in the way my body looks, especially my legs. When I measured my thighs the other day at the biggest point, just where I did before, they were an inch larger than on Dec. 2. I was looking at them today, however, and I think they are actually looking thinner. My husband thinks that they are larger in the parts where you have more (bigger) muscles, like my inner thighs, and are thinning down where I had lots of flab. He said they look like they are changing shape. I don't know if that made sense the way I worded all that--it's kinda late at night here, but I was just really excited. Also, my abs definitely feel as though the muscles are getting bigger, but you have to feel it through the fat that is still there. I look forward to the day when that fat is gone and my 6 pack can show through.