To be quite upset and utterly demotivated?

[ApignamedJasper]

Ok, I know I'm probably getting upset a bit prematurely, maybe I'm just having a bad day.

Almost a month ago I decided to make a real effort to sort out my weight and overhaul my lifestyle. I joined a gym that does a lot of martial arts, which I've always been interested in, and have been going about 4 times a week. I've also started a new job where I'm doing full 9hr shifts on my feet with a lot of heavy lifting walking about.

I haven't adjusted what I eat that much because I really really hate counting calories and having to calculate everything I put in my mouth, I find it exhausting and it really ruins my enjoyment of food.

I don't eat a lot of unhealthy foods anyway but my portion sizes can be on the large side so I've made a conscious effort to reduce the amount I eat and I thought I'd been doing well.

All this, and I haven't lost a single ounce, in fact it appears I've put on about half a kilo. What am I doing wrong!

I'm not going to give up and I know that it's a short time period to see any major changes but nearly a month and not a single pound lost? Just very upsetting that all my sweat and hard work has not made a bit of difference :(

Gym 4x week plus heavy lifting - you've clearly put on muscle. Much more reliable to measure yourself and weigh yourself as you may well have lost girth.

You will be gaining weight because of the intense muscle building exercises you're doing. Also you do need to count calories, if you haven't really adjusted you're meals then this combined with your exercise routine would probably explain the gain.

Your

a month is too short of a period to measure something like this

as above- muscle is heavier than fat

keep going and in 6 months get the tape measure out and see how you compare to today- you will be pleased

Four classes a week will burn off around half to one pound :-/ - and you'll easily undo this if you're eating more to counteract your tiredness.

Overhauling your diet is the only way really to lose weight.

Sucks, I know.

When I first worked out with a Ptrainer years ago he told me it takes 3 months of new fitness regime/working out before you see changes...then you start to REALLY see them...I really agree. You are already 1 month down, keep it up OP!! Enjoy the training not only for what it is and will be doing to your body/figure but also for the mental high it gives you/release etc.

In my experience of weight loss (which is substantial, I've yoyoed between 11st and 17st three times, mainly due to babies but also because I really love cake...) exercise makes almost no difference to what I weigh.... I think they say its 80% diet 20% exercise for weight loss which I guess is about right.

You probably are gaining muscle as well. You are going to have to adjust what you eat if you want to lose weight. Try weighing portions to see what the "serving suggestion" looks like and that will help train you when you're making your food rather than calorie counting.

You CAN do it! You are just going to have to make a few more adjustments. Well done for being so committed to the exercise, you deserve a medal.

How do I overhaul my diet to the point where it will make a difference?

I already don't eat things like cake, biscuits & chocolate (don't really like them).

I've massively cut down on alcohol.

I've cut out virtually all crisps & fizzy drinks and been drinking gallons of water, especially at work.

Help.

Thanks turtle :)

It's been pretty tough with starting the new job, it was a big adjustment anyway as I'm now working from really early in the morning, which is great as it means I have the evenings off to go to classes but sometimes I'm just so exhausted from work that I really don't want to go but I do it anyway and I do feel good for it.

Starkers, I am really enjoying the classes, especially as it's something I've wanted to do for a long time. If anything I would like to go more as I enjoy it so much (if I had the energy/time) but I just wish my body was responding a much as my brain is!

also to echo saucy have to agree about the food...portion control is a big factor but you need to do a bit more...so work out 1 main vice/downfall that you can try to reduce or eliminate...you'd really see results.

I've been working hard at the gym for the past 4 weeks too. Weight the same but I've now much more defined arms and my clothes fit better but scales the same. So it does work but not always where you want it to. Keep going. It Will be worth it!

What do you eat in a typical day?

You probably need to look at your portion sizes.

I was quite amazed at how little 'one healthy size' portion of pasta (a small pile about the size of your fist) or rice (2 tablespoons of cooked rice) or cheese (30g) looks like.

The fact you say counting calories ruins your enjoyment if food says a lot i think.
I enjoy a meal if I'm out for a celebration etc but day to day its just fuel, obviously i wouldn't eat anything i don't like, but if you want to seriously lose weight and keep it off you need to know exactly how many calories you are eating.
Cutting back is just to vague imo, i like to know exactly what I'm eating.
It may be boring (to some) but not as boring as being fat is!

As well as weighing take your measurements. Sometimes even if the scales don't budge you can lose inches.

What are you eating on any given day?

Have you logged everything on mfp?

You say you used to eat large portions but have cut down, how small is smaller?

Use a measuring tape and measure you waist, hips and arms and use that to track instead of the scales that really helped me see the difference.

Be really honest with yourself, are you still having fizzy drinks and snacks?

Cut back on shit carbs like bread and pasta

Throw away cooking oil and swop for olive oil and natural oils and cook clean foods rather than anything that is processed.

portion sizes you really need to look at. Do a small meal then fill up with fruit afterwards and stay away from fruit juice.

I stopped taking money to work and fruit instead and making a chicken salad or somthing for my lunch to stop me buying something from the cafe

Fill in a food diary, there are free app ones. Just fill it in to begin with without trying to change your diet and hopefully it will highlight where you might be able to save calories.

jasper I eat one of the healthier diets of people I know. I rarely eat junk/sweets/cake etc. But I am quite overweight and I know why it is - portion size. Sorry to say you can be living on tofu, kale and brown rice but unless you get your portions under control you can easily be overweight.

Great work with the gym/exercise. Sort out your portions/diet - I believe diet is 70/80% of weight loss?

My Fitness Pal is a great tool

Low carbs is the only way I can loose weight - if i do lots of exercise and I'm not low carbing I just eat more to overcompensate. Been running regularly (x4 weekly) since March but my weight stayed the same - two weeks ago I started low carb - I've lost 5lb in two weeks got another 5lb to go. I've really cut out bread, pasta, rice as well as cake and biscuits. I do have the odd bit of sweet potato. Lots and lots of fish, meat, veg, cheese its ace. Dark chocolate, G&T or Red wine most days too (sadly not altogether!) try it.

If you're doing significantly more exercise then as you lose fat you're also gaining muscle. You'd be better measuring % body fat or inches than weight.
I also think you're on the right track with the attitude to food, anyone can stick to a restricted and obsessive diet for a few months but not for life which is what you want.
I'd say carry on as you are for now with the increased exercise but little change to diet, and when the fat ( not weight) loss stabilises look at another small manageable change that is easy to stick to for life. And so on.

Tequila, no I'm really not! The only exception is my birthday last week, I did have some alcohol & fizzy drinks on that day, but I had a bbq and I was really careful about what I ate. I didn't even have any birthday cake!

I don't often eat breakfast as I'm not hungry when I first wake up and and the days that I'm at work I start so early I'd rather sleep than wake up early enough to get hungry. I hate sweet things first thing in the morning so if I do eat breakfast it's usually something like 1/2 can beans on toast (1 slice) or a bacon sandwich (2 slices bacon, fat cut off, no butter). I often eat some combination of fish/chicken/pasta/rice & veg for dinner.

I do like my carbs and find it hard to cut them out (don't like chips though) but I have cut down my portion sizes. I don't weigh them so not sure how much by!

DP eats very unhealthily, no fruit & veg, lots of meat & carbs and more often than not I end up making us seperate meals.

I work in catering so am not allowed to eat on the job (which kind of helps) and I don't have the option to buy lunch on my break so if I don't bring something with me I normally just have a small bowl of leftovers (stew/curry etc).

Are your clothes looser esp around your waist? I'd use a tape measure too

In terms of diet obviously I don't know what you eat but if you like a big plateful I would make sure you are eating at least 4-5 big portions of veg (ideally mostly greens rather than starchy vegetables like sweet corn/carrots/peas/potato) and 2 portions of fruit a day. Make fruit & veg take up at least 80% of what's on your plate.

Sorry x posted but theme still stands - massively increase your veg intake and reduce the rest accordingly.

Definitely eat breakfast too. It means smaller meals/less hunger/less snacking later in the day when you are more sedentary and less distracted.

Is that half a big can of beans? That has quite a bit of sugar in.