2hours at the gym 5x a week and weight not shifting!!

[NiceFaceShameAboutTheBigBum]

I am really trying to shift 4 stone and would like to do it over the next 4 months which I think is realistic. For the last 2 weeks I have being going to the gym for 2 hours a day Mon-Fri (1 hour cardio and 1 hour on the weight machines). Thankfully my kids are now all school age and I am trying to sort myself out. I think I am pretty much reaching every bloody muscle in my body!! I am burning around 600-700 calories at each session and am challenging myself (and very much enjoying it) but my weight has not shifted and has stayed exactly the same .

I am also swapping breakfast and lunch for slimfast bars (which I love!) and eating quite a bit of fruit and raw veg in between with a normal meal in the early evening, and grapes and cottage cheese with linseeds in the evening and I have been so good (except for the bagel with houmous that I just ate out of anger!!). Have also stopped drinking normal tea with sugar and drink at least 5 mug fulls of herbal tea with at least 3 litres of water.

Someone please tell me what am I doing wrong before I lose the will to carry on?!!

muscle weighs more than fat. Perhaps speak to one of the trainers at the gym and ask them how best to tailor your workout to burn fat and not lay on too much muscle ?

Plus, 2 weeks is a bit early to be declaring a waste of time where weightloss is concerned, imo

4 stone in 4 months sounds ambitious. You're probably building lots of muscle and it will just take time to see results.

The worst thing you can do is skip breakfast for one of those crappy bars.
When Im training (and all the time really) I need to eat 3 decent meals a day.

Have you tried varying your workouts, you will get very bored doing just gym for 5 days a week.
I normally find 3 or 4 times a week a better regime and I vary it for example:

Monday: Swim and pilates
Tues: Day off
Wednesday: Gym session
Thursday: Spin class and swim
Friday: Day off
Weekend: Gym session and maybe a treat like jacuzzi and steam

Speak to the trainers at the gym and get a proper programme, which burns fat (spin/cardio) along with some shaping/toning (pilates/body pump etc)

Agree with everyone else that two weeks is too little. What I normally find after two weeks of being good is that I start to feel a lot better - maybe less bloated or saggy, without it being really obvious. I think you're doing too much weights as well - how do you manage an hour five times a week? You need rest times in between to help your muscles adjust - if you don't do any for the next four days, you'll be amazed how much more/how many more reps you can do when you go back. And therefore how you can push yourself differently.

Overall though, I'd say you suffer from the same problem as me - you want the weight loss to be instant and it's not. it takes ages before you see it but once you do, it's amazing.

[sadly, I tend to have two good weeks followed by two bad ones so it's not consistent - but I knw the theory, even if I'm not so good at it myself]

Two weeks???
FGS , it will take longer than that. It probably took a while to put on that weight and it will take a while to get off it.
Moss is right, stop eating that crap.Not good at all. Best breakfast is muesli and youghurt or porridge.

I know 2 weeks is not long but I at least expected to drop a couple of pounds!! I know Slimfast is not ideal but it is easy to chew on the school run as I am then straight into the gym and have another one at lunchtime cos after the two hours in gym, there's housework and shopping to do before picking up the kids again. I am also trying to stay away from bread as that is my downfall .

With the weights, I am only doing between 10-15 kilos (3 x 15 reps) enough to feel the burn, on each machine so surely will not have built up that much muscle.

I really enjoy the gym so don't think I'll be bored any time soon but I am an all or nothing person so know if I cut down the amount of times I go, I will stop completely and Mon-Fri is a good routine for me. Although with the kids having 2 weeks off school, I am going to have to be at the gym at 7.00am next week to get my 2 hours in before DH goes to work at 9.30 - that will be a challenge .

Does anyone know how long it takes before the muscle building eases off enough that fat loss shows on the scales?

You will not be able to keep up this pace and I guarantee you will be bored of it in a month.
Best thing is a mix of different types of exercise-gym, walks, bike rides, aerobics, swimming.

I think you're being too ambitious with your time frame. I am trying to shift three and a half stone and have been doing WW for six weeks so far and also going to the gym a few times a week (all time permits). So far I've lost 12 lbs. This week I did loads of exercise and only lost a pound, but I'm feeling okay. My goals were to lose 20 lbs by June 1st (which I think I will get to) and then the rest by Christmas and to be fit and healthy and not starving. Why do you need to lose a stone a month? One to two pounds a week is considered a much more healthy weight loss.

My first au pair put on 13 kg (stone and a half) during her 8 weeks stay with us, she went to the gym 5 days per week and spent 2-3 hours during each session, doing cardiovascular classes and weights, and swimming. Her thighs literally BURST out of her trousers.

She also ate little and thought she would lose weight. She left our home looking like a warrior princess.

You are overdoing it on the weights.

You need to change your regime totally, as you cant survive just on bars.
You need a balanced diet of fruit and veg, meat and carbohydrates. You need calories to SHIFT calories. You need to eat correctly after each gymsession, so that you can lose weight.

Start buying Mens Health - the best overall fitness magazine I have seen. I read my dh magazine....

Some people build more muscle than others also. I always gain weight when I follow a gym programme!

The only way I can lose weight is to take no exercise at all and eat very healthily.

Perhaps attempt to lose some weight first before you get fit and tone up.

my guess is you're not eating enough to fuel your exercise, so your body thinks it's being starved and is hanging onto the weight as hard as it can. imho 4 stone in 4 months is overambitious.

even if you can keep this regime up in the short term, and even if you do lose significant amounts of weight it's not a sustainable eating/exercise pattern over the long term and my bet would be you'd put it all back on in the space of a year or two.

why not look longer term at making smaller changes that you can keep up for ever?

"I am really trying to shift 4 stone and would like to do it over the next 4 months which I think is realistic."
No it's not, aim for 1-2lbs a week,

"For the last 2 weeks I have being going to the gym for 2 hours a day Mon-Fri (1 hour cardio and 1 hour on the weight machines)."

This is too much you could probably achieve exactly the same in less time if you up the intensity. interval training has been found to be much more effective. haveyou got a body pump class at your gym? and spinning?

"I am burning around 600-700 calories at each session"

how do you know this? take absolutely no notice of what the machines are saying they are wrong.

"I am also swapping breakfast and lunch for slimfast bars (which I love!) and eating quite a bit of fruit and raw veg in between with a normal meal in the early evening, and grapes and cottage cheese with linseeds in the evening and I have been so good (except for the bagel with houmous that I just ate out of anger!!). Have also stopped drinking normal tea with sugar and drink at least 5 mug fulls of herbal tea with at least 3 litres of water."

You need to stop bars and start eating healthily for a long term result. As people said porridge/weetabix/shredded wheat for breakfast with fruit. sandwich and fruit for lunch. How big are the portions of your evening meal.

"Someone please tell me what am I doing wrong before I lose the will to carry on?!! "

You need to exercise and eat smart instead of over-exercising and starving yourself. Can you afford a session with a personal trainer?

Put it this way I am only running 30 minutes 3 times a week and doing 2 bodypump classes a week along with eating healthily and have dropped 10 pounds in 5 weeks.

You've got me worried now Quint. Warrior Princess is not quite the look I'm hoping for!! Mayhave to rethink the weights.

We have a big holiday coming up at the end of July and I have been trying to focus on losing weight since January as I don't want another holiday that I don't enjoy because I look like a beached whale. I have tried walking - I was doing about 5 miles a day and lost only 3 lbs over a month but that was because I will still eating as normal (bread, bread, bread!) then I tried the Cambridge diet for 3 weeks and lost 16lbs but had no energy and could not carry on as I was bloody miserable. I have kept off 12lbs of that but that is why I am determined to succeed with plenty of exercise and eating less (hence the Slimfast as I don't have t calorie count those meals).

Make a big pan of soup with veggies and beans.Will fill you up much more than a horrid Slimfast bar, cost less, and be good for you.

It's actually quite difficult for women to bulk up with weights but i do second the mens health fitness magazine.
Honestly you are doing to much exercise. Use the holiday as a goal but see it as a long-term change as well. You need a diet of about 1500 calories and exercise 3-4 times a week for about 40-60 mins. That way your body doesn't go into starvation mode and it gets a chance to recover between exercise sessions.

i think you are doing too much cardio and eating too little.
If you do lots of cardio your body goes into 'starvation' mode and hangs onto all your calories.
How about trying 'Body Pump'?
It uses lo weights lots of reps to music.
This develops lean muscle tissue, muscle burns more calories than fat so when you do do caardio your muscles will burn more energy.
I would do 1/2 hr cardio 3 times a week max. Try spin - it is really effective.
And 2 - 3 sessions of Pump/ Circuits or weights.
And eat proper food!

btw you are also lifting far too much for a woman and will bulk up. Any good trainer will tell you that 2-4kgs on a dumbell is more than enough to tone and shape.

IMHO you need some input from a personal trainer as practically everything you are doing at the moment sounds wrong

mosschops that is bollocks.

thank you for putting that so nicely!!!

Just what Ive been told and read, but clearly you are the expert so I will bow out (and hope that you dont speak to people in RL like that)!!

I've just asked my husband and apparently I do speak to people in real life like that.

I'm not an expert (hoping to be one in future), however you may like to read this:

www.elitefts.com/documents/female_athletes.htm

well if you found it on the t'internet it must be true.

I could probably find a page somewhere that tells you that the world will end today but that doesnt mean youre talking utter bollocks if you dont believe it, does it!

Have you read it.