Working Out-Changed Diet-Still Not Losing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s the higher carb days. This is obvious. Someone your age and weight doesn’t need higher carb days.

The correct answer.

This is so obviously a dumb statement. In what way physiologically do you think carbs become unnecessary as you age? And regardless, they are absolutely critical for weight straining and muscle gains.

So can we please stop already with this uninformed carb nonsense.

DP: When I reduce carbs I drop weight very quickly. But the carbs I'm reducing are related to pasta, rice, bread, crackers. I still eat legumes, vegetables and fruit.

You lose weight quickly when you cut carbs for a number of reasons.

1. when you reduce carbs you drop water weight because you deplete glycogen stores. This is why you weigh less almost immediately if you have a day or two where you greatly reduce carbs and why you weigh more the minute you eat more carbs.

2. you have cut out an entire food group. which leads to reduction of calories. which leads to fat loss. If you cut out those carbs calories but replaces them with other calories you would still maybe lose some initial water weight, but would eventually stop losing fat if calories are still high.

Carbs are not bad. Stop believing the diet industry BS.

Did you read what I wrote! Clearly you didn't. Where did I say I cut out a food group?? Did I say carbs were bad?? NO I didn't stop the crap and take your lack of reading comprehension somewhere else.

DP, but you did clearly imply when you said, "When I reduce carbs I drop weight very quickly" that it is the carbs that are the problem, not the calories from the foods you reduced. Now it seems you are backpedaling.

No re-read what I wrote. Not backpedaling. Maybe change your contacts or clean your glasses. Now I'm off to go eat a giant bowl of pasta...

So if I rephrase what you said to "when I reduce carbs I eat fewer calories and thus lose weight quickly"

Would you agree with that statement?

[Anonymous]

OP, you need to not focus quite as much on the scale and more on the losing inches and how you look/feel. If you've lost inches in your waist and arms you absolutely have lost fat! A couple of inches around the waist in a few months is really fantastic progress and work. You can't focus on the number on the scale and muscle is more dense than fat...meaning you can lose fat and replace it with muscle and still weigh the same while getting smaller. Its a good trade off but the number on the scale will really throw you off. You sound like you are doing all the right things...just keep at it!

[Anonymous]

I was in the exact same boat and the ONLY THING that got my weight to start budging was heavy weight lifting. I don't eat fast food, or soda, etc and had a pretty good diet, but it was just creeping up! And even then it took about six months of going to Bodypump 3X a week to get the muscles that would facilitate the boost in my metabolism.

You should definitely take Bodypump (or similar) with a grain of salt 'cause they're all "It's light weight and just tons of repetition!" and that might be fine for some people but after 3 months of attending with nothing to show for it, I just decided to start increasing my weight and then the pounds started to decrease. I'm down about 15 since the beginning of March and have really nice muscle tone in my legs and am starting to see it in my arms. If I can't go to a weightlifting class for some reason, I will do the circuit at the gym and just do as many heavy reps as I can. Like 10-12 and then move onto the next thing. I think the point is to just keep the muscles up so they increase your resting metabolism!

[Anonymous]

OP. I hear you. Same age, same stats. I trained 8 weeks for a 10K. Walk to/from work and exercised every day (biking, swimming, running), did some weight training, gave up alcohol. Not a half pound lost!! I'm going to try to really kick up protein and do more weight lifting and see if that helps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP. I hear you. Same age, same stats. I trained 8 weeks for a 10K. Walk to/from work and exercised every day (biking, swimming, running), did some weight training, gave up alcohol. Not a half pound lost!! I'm going to try to really kick up protein and do more weight lifting and see if that helps.

But seriously, you saw no changes in your body? Aren't stronger, more endurance?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP. I hear you. Same age, same stats. I trained 8 weeks for a 10K. Walk to/from work and exercised every day (biking, swimming, running), did some weight training, gave up alcohol. Not a half pound lost!! I'm going to try to really kick up protein and do more weight lifting and see if that helps.

You issue is that you are adding things in like exercise which is great for health, but for fat loss you need to reduce calories. Exercise does not burn as many calories as we like to think.

[Anonymous]

OP-I took up weight training as well in my early 40s (Caroline Girvan). It took me about 1-2 years of consistency (without major diet changes) to see a major difference in my size and metabolism. It's about the long game girl and it's worth it.

[Anonymous]

Just inject yourself with these drugs

[Anonymous]

Muscle is denser than fat OP. Keep it up.

[Anonymous]

OP again - thanks everyone for the encouragement. I'm going to keep going and focus on how I feel and the slow results that I'm thinking will be more long-term and sustainable over time. I'm definitely enjoying the lifestyle change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was in the exact same boat and the ONLY THING that got my weight to start budging was heavy weight lifting. I don't eat fast food, or soda, etc and had a pretty good diet, but it was just creeping up! And even then it took about six months of going to Bodypump 3X a week to get the muscles that would facilitate the boost in my metabolism.

You should definitely take Bodypump (or similar) with a grain of salt 'cause they're all "It's light weight and just tons of repetition!" and that might be fine for some people but after 3 months of attending with nothing to show for it, I just decided to start increasing my weight and then the pounds started to decrease. I'm down about 15 since the beginning of March and have really nice muscle tone in my legs and am starting to see it in my arms. If I can't go to a weightlifting class for some reason, I will do the circuit at the gym and just do as many heavy reps as I can. Like 10-12 and then move onto the next thing. I think the point is to just keep the muscles up so they increase your resting metabolism!

What did you increase the weight to? Did you use heavier weights at body pump?

[Anonymous]

OP, if you have significant fat to lose I would not be happy with the scale not coming down. If you are in a reasonable deficit the number of the scale should be going down. With a deficit of 500 calories a day, you can lose 1lb of fat a week, so a little over 4 pounds in a month. Even as a beginner you WILL NOT build that much muscle in a month. Some fat loss will be masked by water retention initially when you start a new workout program but over time the scale should definitely be going down. I am 142lbs, 22% body fat and currently leaning out. The scale is reliably going down by about a pound a week on average. In my opinion you are just not creating a large enough deficit.

[Anonymous]

Just to add to my 13:16 post. Ignore the posts on having to go low carb. My carbs are set at 200 and I am losing just fine. Calories are what matters for fat loss.