Not losing weight

[bwyne]

I am a 27 year old female, healthy overall.  I started working out again (off for about a year) I never gained weight from not execising. Now working out about 4-5 times a week.  I 've been working out for a solid month and not one once. I weigh myself the same time with the same clothes on. I have been having some GI issues lately, so I don't know if that is contributing or not, I thought I would lose weight having loose stools for a week, but still nothing.  I don't eat like ****, and have increased my fiber, which has helped the stools.  I'm not going through PMS so I know thats not it yet either. I'm just very frustrated because we want to seen numbers going down when your working so hard. Any suggestions.

[bwyne]

Thanks for the insight, I got on the scale this morning and it went down 2 lbs since I weighed myself last, so hopefully my adding 45 minutes of strength training three times a week has helped I would like to lose about 25-30 pounds.  I'm a size 12 and would like to get down to an 7/8 I'm not going to give up, just hope the weigh continues to come off. I have come back to the weight i am now for the last 3 years. (I'll lose then gain back) and stay at 180 im short but the fat is pretty evenly distributed all over. Nobody can belive I weigh that much, but it pretty much disgusts me. I have to be honest I HATE counting calories. I know it really helps but I just think it's a huge pain in the $%#. I do write down what I eat but thats the extent of it. I know I know I probably need to start counting.

[StarryNight23]

That's great that you're working out again and 4-5x a week is excellent. You didnt say how much you weigh or how much you'd like to lose, but if you don't have much to lose (doesnt sound like you do) the weight is most likely going to come off pretty slow. I'm trying to get rid of these last 5-8 lbs and it's taking foreverrrr. Exercise is just one part of the weight loss equation though. The quality of your food is important, but if you want to lose weight the most important thing is quantity. Are you tracking your calories?  If you arent keeping track of your calories, I would start doing that for at least a week straight. Track every single thing you eat in a food journal and then review it the end of the week. That should give you a better idea whether or not you're eating too much or even too little. Even if you're eating relatively healthy and don't overindulge, it's still easy to underestimate what you're actually consuming so your best bet is to be as accurate as possible by weighing and measuring your food and writing it down in a journal (or use an online food journal which is what I do)

I know how frustrating it is to not see the scale move when you're busting your butt, but if you keep up with your exercise and keep track of your food the numbers WILL go down eventually. Also, keep track of your measurements. Sometimes the scale might not show much of a change if you're building muscle or retaining water, but you'll probably notice a change in how your clothes fit and should be seeing the numbers on the tape measure going down. Good luck!