still fat after 10 months

[Pj]

Hi
I need help, advice or just some support please. I have been following a healthy eating plan since my baby was born (10 mnths ago). I have also been doing a fat-burning program at the gym 3 - 4 times a week for 7 months. So imagine my horror when, stepping on the scales for the first time since August, I see my total weight loss is... 00000!!! I havent lost 1 lb. I am overweight by around 2 1/2 stone and dont know where to go from here. My doctor wants to do tests - thyroid, kidney function to name two so perhaps there is a medical reason for my lack of diet success. I feel totally gutted, all the effort and all the expectation, I really thought I was down at least a stone. I really feel like weeping. It is both a vanity and a health issue, I feel big and ugly but more important, I would like to conceive again soon (I am 35) and dont want to start the pregnacy with a weight probelm. My last pregnancy had alot of complications due to high blood pressure so I want to start the next pregnancy in the best possible health. Anyone else having similar probelms? Or any words of advice???

[Hmonty]

If you've been following a fat burning program at the gym you'll probably find you've lost inches rather than weight. Muscle does weigh more than fat and you've probably been toning up. (Do your clothes feel looser?). This is what I found for ages when I first started at the gym after number 2. Then all of a sudden the weight seemed to catch up with the inch loss. It was great! Stick with it. Don't give up. You can do it. I didn't loose all the pregnancy weight between babies and it was so hard to get going after the second as I'd just built on the weight of the first - so don't make my mistake!

[Abby]

Pj, don't panic! I piled on the pounds during and after pregnancy (there's nothing like sleepless nights and breast feeding to make you crave Vanilla slices at Mothercare world!). Plus I also have an underactive thyroid (which sounds like one of the things your doctor is testing you for). This means I find it easy to put on weight, but not so easy to shift it.
Anyway, six months after my son was born I was seriously overweight and, on friends' recommendations, signed up with Slimmers World. I don't want to sound like a born again slimming fanatic, but their eating plan does work. I've lost coming up for 2 and 1/2 stone in just over four months - and I've still gone out to dinner, drunk wine and scoffed a fair few chocolate bars. The programme is too involved to go into detail here (plus they'd sue me) but it is really easy to follow and everyone I know who goes has lost a significant amount of weight. Also, unlike most diets where you shift the weight, stop dieting and then stick it all back on, this is more of a lifestyle change so that hopefully you don't end up where you started. I don't have the contact number to hand but it's in the book and on the net. Even though I've still got more than a few pounds to shift I feel completely different about myself. (Lord help me, I really do sound like a zealot - at this rate I'll be building a shrine to the founder before the week is out).
Regarding the gym, I agree with Hmony - muscle weighs loads more than fat (3 times more I think?) but the other thing to consider is whether you have been doing the same routine for seven months. If you have your body should be well up to it and will just be coasting rather than burning fat. What you need to do is shift it up another gear. I don't know if you've been doing a class or actually working out in a gym - either way try a different class or get an instructor to revise your programme. At my gym they advise you do this every six weeks for just this reason.
Sorry to go on so long, but I hope all this helps!

[Midge]

My mother in law has a very annoying habit of telling me that thats just how it is after a baby and "it will never go" (gee thanks). I'm a stone overweight after eleven months. I eat sensibly and have been following an excercise plan aimed at the post pregnancy tum/bum, but I still look 4 - 5 months pregnant. This gut just wont shift and its really getting on my nerves. A neighbour told me I was "blooming" a few days ago, I didnt bother to tell him I'm not! Any tips on gut busting gratefully received

[Ems]

Hi PJ, After both babies I've gone to Weightwatchers, it really works for me because it is a weekly thing, keeps you involved and motivated and is also supportive.

Its not complicated, and I've just lost a stone (got my silver award sticker!!).

I dont believe diet alone helps, you need exercise too. I swim once a week and the gym once a week too. Since January I have really noticed the difference, and my 'tum' is shrinking. I know it'll never be flat but I do the sit-ups/crunches at the gym, and I can see the diet improve it as the rest of my body slims down.

I agree with Abby - talk to the gym about what you want out of your workout. Ours do a review too.

You need to be motivated and incentivised to go for it. I booked an aromatherapy massage for my first half stone, which was HEAVEN! A real treat. Good luck x

[Cos]

Midge
people still believe i'm pregnant nearly two years after the birth of my twins.I'm almost phobic about new social situations. even though i'm losing weight my stomach gets more pronounced. Im not huge, i'm a good stone to stone and a half overweight and it is depressing

[Pj]

Thanks for all the responses. I am looking into Slimming World, ta for the recommendation Abby. I like the flexibilty and the fact that a few glasses of wine can be worked in to the plan. I have been on a fat-burning program at the gym and now include cycling 10 km, running 2 km and lots of weights in my workout. As this is far more exercise than I have ever done before I suppose I expected fast results. It is definately harder to shift baby weight than other types of fat - prior to motherhood I kept my weight down with virtually no effort, has anyone else found this to be the case?