Working out, eating right, but NOT losing weight?

[maenthoven]

Hey guys,

I'm 5' 8'', 245 lbs, and for some reason, I absolutely cannot lose weight. I've been on a "plan" now for 3 months, and I literally haven't lost a single pound. I went from a completely sedentary lifestyle, bad eating habits, and drinking 8-9 diet sodas per day to working out 2-3 times each week, good eating habits, and drinking almost exclusively water. Most of my fat is stored in my stomach.

I'm literally stumped as to how little progress I've made in terms of raw weight and "belly inches." I'm hitting my FITNESS goals: I can now leg-press 250 lbs pretty easily (started at 180), dead lift 120 lbs, and made a bunch of progress in other strength areas. I can run a 10-minute mile and run 2 miles in 25 minutes without stopping.

For eating, I'm on a pretty boring eating cycle that surely cannot be more than 1800 calories per day. In the morning, I have 3-4 eggs + some sausage. For lunch and dinner, I usually eat from a "make your own salad" place with lettuce, chicken, edamame, a little avacado, peppers and onions. I've dropped carbs down to a minimum, and I eat a "snack" once or twice a week (snack is either an Atkins bar or a handful of nuts). After starting out, I immediately noticed that my appetite plummeted.

Despite all of this, I'm simply not losing weight or inches. I feel like I'm getting healthier and am still not determined to stop, but I also feel like I'm doing something wrong to get the appearance I want. My main target is me and my fiance's wedding, which is next July.

Thanks in advance!

[JodyDFB]

I don't mean to hijack the thread, but I just wanted to follow-up by confirming that after my '6lbs in one day' weight gain, I then apparently lost maybe 3 pounds, and have bounced back and forth to around to this morning's weight of 143.4lbs.  ...Heavier than when I started working out and cutting back on calories about 6 weeks ago.  

I'm impressed that the OP (maenthoven) has lasted 3 months with no progress.  I don't know how I'll feel if another month and a half go by and I'm worse off than when I didn't exercise at all and ate whatever I wanted.
:-(

[JodyDFB]

*your

[JodyDFB]

Thanks for the suggestion.  I know you're intent is good.  Once I start to see some kind of weight loss progress, I most assuredly will cut down on the frequency with which I weigh myself.  Normally, I never weigh myself.  I've gone years without weighing myself.  Mostly, I care about how I feel, and then how I look, in that order.  Whether that's 97lbs or 197lbs is not of particular importance.  I feel healthy enough, but I don't feel I look good at this weight.  If other people weren't so hurtful, I wouldn't feel the need to conform to some external expectation of appearance.  But, there you have it.  If I don't want the negative judgement, I need to lose weight.

My new scale has a body fat % calculator, plus water weight, maybe muscle mass, and bone density settings.

I don't bother with those readings since my weight is always about the same.  But the last time I did look at those measurements, I was 30% fat.

I would generally agree that weighing myself every day is harmful.  However, had I only weighed myself once a week, and still recorded these readings, I think I would be just as devastated.  Five weeks with negative progress; that is tough to deal with.

The idea behind daily weigh-ins is to give me that tiny glimmer of encouragement when I lose a little weight at a time.  The presumption is, if I just keep at it, and exercise and eat fewer calories, I'll eventually see some progress.  Incremental weigh-ins, if I WERE losing weight, would definitely keep me motivated and propel me forward.  I could handle, say, a 1 or 2 pound gain after losing 5 or 6.  ...As long as the overall direction was downward.

But there is no progress for me.  After 5 weeks of concerted effort, my clothes are tighter, not looser.

[dleeann]

Try to only weigh yourself once a week and muscle does weight more then fat.  Have you ever tried to find out what you fat percentage is maybe its that your all muscle and i would be heavy and have it be all muscle then fat but that is me in my opinion.

[JodyDFB]

Man!  I was about to post the same thing!

I'm almost 50, 5'4" and began attempting to lose weight about 5 weeks ago.

When I started, I weighed 140.7lbs.  (For the past year or two, I haven't worked out and have eaten whatever I wanted...although still pretty healthy overall, and I've always stayed in the 140.7-145 range.)

(About me: I never weighed over 100lbs 'til my 30s.  I never exercised and ate whatever I wanted, although I did lead an active lifestyle.  I gained about 20lbs in my 30s, which really just brought me up to a weight the usual guidelines consider normal.  In my 40s, I've gained another 20lbs and am now getting those hurtful, insulting, humiliating comments from superficial people who judge others as being good or bad, based on appearance.  

I had soooooo many minor weight flucuations during the first couple of weeks of my new regime, I even bought a new scale.  Alas, my new $100 Weight Watchers digital scale (replacing my 8-year-old digital scale) also has 4lb jumps from day to day.  What the...?

Twice, during the past 5 weeks, I weighed 140 even.  I'd never gone below 140, though.  Mostly I weighed either exactly my starting weight, or as much as 146.7 (in clothes).

I workout 1-2 hours every day, with few exceptions.  I have always eaten a pretty healthy diet, so there wasn't much that I needed to cut out.  I just cut down on the portion sizes and tried to remember to eat healthy snacks in-between meals.

Each time I weigh myself, I do so naked, just after my workout and just before getting in the shower...so I'm "comparing apples to apples," as it were.

When I started trying to lose weight, I also stopped eating after 7pm.

Well, yesterday morning, I slipped below that elusive 140lb threshold for the very first time since I began 5 weeks ago; down to 139.6.  I thought it was ironic that, the previous day, I'd skipped my workout and binged a wee bit (I had some french fries).  It seems most of the days I've posted a minor weight loss came after a day of skipped workouts and/or bingeing a little.

To be clear, though, I did workout yesterday and ate less than normal.  Not a typical day for me, I had tomato juice and a handful of nuts for breakfast, and a cup of coffee and a croissant (my husband bought it for me) and a small glass of acai juice for brunch.  I ate some spicy hummus with a whole grain pita for lunch, and had a small bowl of udon soup for dinner.  I was hungry around 8pm and made a rare exception to eat an apple that late.

This morning, I worked out with zeal, somewhat bolstered by my first, tangible weight loss in 5 weeks...small as it may have been.  I worked hard, did extra reps, and put in extra time on the treadmill.  (In addition to just doing simple cardio, abs, and treadmill work, with weights every second day, I also mix-in days where I do 60 min's of ballet, yoga, or pilates.)

So, you can imgine my great disappointment when I stepped on the scale and weighed 144.1lbs this morning.  

You can imagine my greater disappointment when, after noticing one corner of the scale was on the bath mat and then moving it so it was level on the floor, I stepped back on the scale (completely baffled) and it read 145.2lbs.  

You can imagine how devastating it was when I got back on the scale for a third time (now in complete disbelief) and it read 146.2lbs.  

One more time confirmed 146.2lbs.  That almost ties my highest weight IN CLOTHES!

How could I have gained almost 6lbs in one day?  I didn't even consume 6lbs of food and liquid, yesterday.  What the...?!?!?  Seriously!  What the...?!?!?

Just as baffling is why, despite what must be a significant caloric deficit each day (and especially compared to the past couple of years where I didn't workout or watch my calories at all) I can not only NOT seem to lose any weight, but I'm GAINING weight?!?!?!?!?  (Not gaining weight overall, but gaining back any little losses.)

I'm really trying to stay strong, here.  And I'm not giving up.  But I really, really, really want to give up, after this morning.  I have been suspecting that, in response to caloric deficit, my metabolism is simply slowing down.

All I can say is, when I was in my 20s, eating whatever I wanted and doing nothing to earn that skinny physique, I probably would've said the same nonsense to my 50-year-old self, "Just exercise more and cut back on your calories."  

It's not working.

Come to think of it, I was extremely ill in 2009, with salmonella poisoining.  I didn't eat any food at all for a full 7 days, with the following 3 days eating just a few crackers and tea.  You know what, I didn't lose any measurable weight during my illness.  That should've prepared me for what was to come.

So, maenthoven...  I've probably demotivated you when all I was really trying to do was to let you know you're not alone.

I am desperately trying to stay the course.  I wish you all the best.

[dleeann]

Why dont you try weight watchers i just started doing that and my first week i lost 5 pounds but i have to keep track of my points and cant go over that and as you said 3 to 4 eggs a day on this plan would be 6 to 8 points on this plan and you only get a certain about for the day...the first week i got 32 points with 49 flex points now that i lost weight i get 31 points with 49 flex points they want you to still eat what you want but cut back so much on the fating foods and eat more fruits and vegs.

[ducky406]

You may want to get your thyroid levels tested. Thyroid issues can cause problems with weight so it's something to rule out.

Also, have you been monitoring your fats? I think one egg has about 5 grams of fat. Multiply that by 3, add sausage and that can add up pretty fast. And keep in mind adding even cooking spray can add some fat too. I find that fitday.com really helps me monitor what I'm eating. It breaks down your foods and shows you the percent of calories from fat, protein, and carbs. It's pretty easy to use and completely free.