Anonymous wrote:I’m 5’7”, 185lb. I’m down a total of 20lb, but I’m finding that even though I’ve started doing more cardio and increasing the weight I lift, on top of staying at 1200 calories in an attempt to end this plateau, the scale isn’t changing. My pants are super loose, however, and my husband says he can see definition. Is this normal? It’s just odd that the scale hasn’t budged in two weeks, but everything else has changed. I’m starting to get really frustrated. I don’t want to be stuck at 185!

I am 5'7" 171lb. MyFitnessPal recommends 1300 calories a day, the includes a 250 calorie deficit per day to lose half a pound a week. Without that I would be at 1550 calories a day. I am guessing that 1200 is too few calories and that your body is not budging because you actually need to be taking in more calories.

Download one of the food tracker apps, enter your info and see what calorie count it comes back with.

I eat back my exercise calories because I have already set my calories to take out the amount needed to lose weight at the pace that I want. Most days I end up closer to 2,000 calories a day. I am losing weight and inches. The scale show me gaining muscle and losing body fat and weight.

Anonymous wrote:I’m 5’7”, 185lb. I’m down a total of 20lb, but I’m finding that even though I’ve started doing more cardio and increasing the weight I lift, on top of staying at 1200 calories in an attempt to end this plateau, the scale isn’t changing. My pants are super loose, however, and my husband says he can see definition. Is this normal? It’s just odd that the scale hasn’t budged in two weeks, but everything else has changed. I’m starting to get really frustrated. I don’t want to be stuck at 185!

How often are you weighting yourself? If only once a week then changes can sometime be masked by regular weight fluctuations. If you are truly tracking food accurately and know you are still in a deficit then just keep going. Eventually things will get moving again.

As far as how you look/clothing fits, it think it is hard to notice huge changes in just 2 weeks. but you could start taking measurements and progress picture to compare.

Anonymous wrote:Muscle weighs more than fat - you're doing great!!

No. 1lb of muscle weighs exactly the same as 1lb of fat. It might be more dense then fat but it definitely weighs the same.

I gained almost 20 pounds and while a few of my clothes are tighter in the legs and butt, the the vast majority of jeans etc still fit. I work out a time. I get how frustrating it is though.

Anonymous wrote:^ +100

And I know it stinks OP but just keep going. I'm down about 70 pounds over the last year and I've gotten stuck at the same weight a couple of times. One day (i want to say around the 3 week mark) I'll suddenly have this 5-7 pound loss and then be back to a normal loss pattern for awhile. Who knows why / what was going on but whatever. It will happen!

This happens to me. Three weeks ago I gained a pound, I also noticed that my muscle mass was higher, although not by a pound, and my body fat lower. Two weeks ago I lost a pound. This week I lost 3 pounds. I am well aware that I did not lose 3 pounds in a week, I have been following the same eating habits and general exercise program, but something happened that my body seems to have dropped the weight at this particular time. I won't be surprised if that number goes up by a pound next week.

I have a scale that measures body fat, muscle mass, water weight, and pounds. I try and focus more on the drop in body fat and the gains in muscle mass then the change in pounds. I would be lying if that number didn't matter to me though.

I will say that I saw the biggest change when I added in 20 minutes of strength exercises 4-5 times a week, about a month ago. The cardio is great, I love it and I know my heart loves it, but the strength training has had the most dramatic effect on changing all the numbers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Muscle weighs more than fat - you're doing great!!

*sigh*

I hate when people on this board get embroiled in semantics and grammar, but no, muscle and fat weigh the same thing. Muscle is denser than fat, so the same volume of muscle will weigh more than a the same volume of fat. A pound of muscle or a pound of fat actually weigh the same.

If you hate it when people here get embroiled in semantics and grammar, find a less condescending reply, starting with losing the *sigh*.

And I'm going to stick up for the person who said muscle weighs more than fat. Obviously they meant by volume. Nobody would think that a pound of muscle weighed more than a pound of fat.