dissapointed progress

M

marywifemomteacher

New member
After a month of hitting the gym and doing 30 minute cardio for 4 times a week. stepped on the scale to discover i only lost 0.5kg(1lbs) and lowered my fat percentage with 1% and increased muscle percentage with 1%

Was expecting better results and am really dissapointed. Been eating in a small calorie deficit on a weekly basis and everything. Just sucks x)
 
@marywifemomteacher don’t focus on stats or the numbers on the scale for now. you should be celebrating your consistency and drive! if you continue to stay consistent then changes will follow!

i understand your feelings of discouragement but this is just the start
 
@marywifemomteacher If you've just started working out, is very normal to have a plateau. Your body holds on to water etc, it doesn't understand why it's suddenly being exerted more than it's used to. Keep going, it will come off.

Also, focus on your diet and tracking over hitting the gym as much as possible. Diet is where your weight loss will come from, the gym is to keep your body healthy and strong. It will help you keep a deficit, but you will not outwork a diet if your unintentionally eating an extra 500 calories every day, which is very easy to do
 
@roseann344 Is my 4th month in total of doing this amount of working out. since starting in early may i lost 8 pounds in total. Was hoping of being able to stay on the same course of dropping the weight and didn't expect it to slow down so hard.
 
@marywifemomteacher Hi! - Have you been tracking your calories? Your meals?

To figure out your "maintenance calories", simply use a calorie calculator online and lower that number. That's called a deficit.

To track your meals I recommend "Myfitnesspal" app for free, tracks all your meals and calories, etc.
 
@19cer67 Hey - Tracked my calories in may-june and stopped doing it in july but didn't change my eating habits after i stopped tracking them and it was always around 500 calorie deficit for each week.
 
@marywifemomteacher Get back to tracking, be absolutely certain that you maintain the deficit if you have seen gradual progress the previous months.

Second. Check in on ur weight weekly instead of monthly so you have more insight. If you still don't see the results you want, cut another 200 cal or more cardio but be sure to keep up with your protein so you don't lose muscle.
 
@marywifemomteacher Sorry do you mean 500 calories per day (3500 calories per week) or 500 calories per week? People generally recommend a 500 calorie per day deficit as it roughly translates to a pound of body fat per week.

You can go lower deficit but it starts to be difficult to see changes week over week and doesn’t leave much room for error so you’ll have to track a bit obsessively.
 
@marywifemomteacher A 500 calorie daily deficit should see you losing weight, but there's a couple of common reasons why it might not be happening. Appolgies in advance as you've probably thought of some/all of them
  • does that deficit include exercise? It's really common to overestimate how many calories you burn whilst exercising as there are so many factors. All the common fitness trackers consistently overestimate. If your "burning" 400 and eating those back then your deficit is probably much smaller than you think. Working out a sedentary TDEE and doing a deficit based on that is generally much better, you can add an extra hundred or so calories back in on exercise days if that helps with hunger.
  • when tracking calories do you weigh your food? Including oil
  • are you having little snacks and drinks that you forget to count - its easy to feel like they don't matter, but it often happens more days than we think of
  • do you drink alcohol? Alcohol is very calorie dense so it's easy to drink your calories. I've seen lots of people stick tight to a deficit all week and drink through it on a friday
  • are you eating more salt/using creatine powders. Those will both add to water retention which can account for a few pounds
  • are you weighing first thing in the morning - if not the food and drink in your digestive system will add a few pounds. Weighing in the same/similar clothes and at the same time of day is important to get accurate results
Muscle is also denser than fat, and muscle holds in to more water when you first start exercising which can lead to a slight weight gain.
 
@marywifemomteacher If you want to lose weight quicker, you need to cut your calories further. It really just boils down to calories in vs calories out. 500 calorie deficit a day will give you 1lb of weight loss a week.

Are you only doing cardio? If you want to make muscle gains, you need to be lifting. You also should be aiming to get sufficient protein in. 0.8-1g of protein per 1lb of lean body weight. So I'd use your goal weight to calculate this. For most people, an absolute minimum of 100g of protein would be a good start.

As for bodyfat% and muscle%, ignore those numbers on the scale entirely. No scale can measure this accurately. You can change these numbers just from your hydration level and the food in your bowels.
 
@marywifemomteacher Don't workout and weigh yourself. Workout to feel good. Weighing yourself only hurts your mental health and motivation. Never let numbers be your sole focus. Your main focus should be feeling great and motivated.
 
@marywifemomteacher I can recommend doing some strength work. The great thing about having a bit more muscle mass is that it burns energy even if you are sleeping.

The number one priority to sustain a long term fitness journey is that you are not doing it for the results. Results are nice and will come. You are doing it because you want to feel good.
 
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