I'm doing everything right and losing nothing!

[MissRepresentation]

Ok, its only been three weeks, but surely there should be some difference?
I've gone from eating baguettes and jam for breakfast to mixed fruit with natural yoghurt and rye bread,
from sandwiches and crisps for lunch to fresh salads with crab or chickpeas or tuna etc
from massive bowls of pasta and curries to brown rice and lean meat or piles of veg with a small piece of lean chicken etc.
I've cut out biscuits and mars bars, though I do have the odd piece of homemade pie or cookie, I log it into mfp and am still usually under my limit once exercise is added in.
I've swapped beer for sparkling water!

I'm running and walking and going to the gym 3x a week for a full hour, clocking up 4-500 cal burns plus a few weights.

So why have gone from 11st7 to 11st5 to 11st8, in three weeks? And I haven't lost inches either.

Any advice? I feel like rebelling and eating a family size pizza as this is depressing me so much. I thought I would have dropped a couple of pounds at least?

Could it be that you've gained muscle which weighs more than fat?

My legs feel slightly more toned but my fat belly and arms as soft and wobbly as ever

thanks for the response though.

What age are you? I'm around the same weight and finding it really hard to lose weight and am thinking its because of my age.

The one thing I would say diet wise is that homemade pies and cookies might be higher in calories than store bought treats due to portion size control

I'm 33. I thought that too about the baking, but it was none at all last week and really only a very small bit this week. Will def be none for a while anyway!

It's just so hard to carry on when nothing seems to be happening. I thought it might be slow but I expected a pound a week at least?

I think with diets you need to stick to them for months if not years to see a sustained difference. If I manage to put on a stone in a year (which I have) I can only assume it will take roughly that time to get it off again. So I am not weighing myself. I am doing what I know I need to do to lose weight and I'l weigh myself in ohhhhh, 6 months.

I remember sticking to the weightwatchers plan properly for 4 weeks and absolutely nothing changing. I was devastated because there was some to lose !

Think it comes down to different diets work for different people. The one that worked for me was Atkins. I bent it a bit eg melon & tomato in first week to save my sanity.

Because you're still eating a lot of carbohydrate and not enough fat.

Come and have a look at my Bootcamp threads Here's where it all started

We're in week 10 now, but people are joining us all the time. You will be very welcome!

I'm a bit stumped then why you aren't losing weight as your metabolism shouldn't be slowing down yet due to age. It might be that you aren't eating enough - are you hungry all the time , if so then add in some small snacks, low fat yoghurt, small portion of nuts that sort of thing.

Or try measuring inches instead, really chuffed to discover today that I have lost 1.5 inches on my waist over the past 2 months but haven't lost much if any weight.

How do your clothes feel? Might be better to judge that way, rather than by weighing, because you are bound to be more toned if you are doing all that exercise.

Might be wrong but I think chickpeas are quite high calorie, even though they are healthy. Also brown rice is not low calorie. how are your portion sizes?

My clothes don't feel any looser, tbh, the only difference I feel is in my thighs.

I think my portion sizes are good, I switched to a smaller dinner plate and for example the rice was few tablespoons but it was mixed with mushrooms peppers babycorn olives courgette etc. They are definitely smaller than before.

I'll check out bootcamp. I don't think I really understand carbs other than the obvious bread pasta rice etc. Someone told me bananas are really high carb and I was like . But the thought of atkins makes me feel a bit ill.

Thanks for the input, much appreciated.

The muscle weighs more than fat line is not true as someone pointed out on here the other day...a pound of muscle weighs the same as a pound of fat! plus you would have To be doing some serious weight training to have gained much muscle

So it might be portion size or you are underestimating your intake on myfitnesspal, which is very easy to do

What calorie count are you sticking to on myfitnesspal?

I've got a couple of Jillian dvd's to try too. I really really want to lose this belly in particular, its awful .

I think I'd be tempted to ask the GP to do a thyroid test, just in case. I can't do atkins - I tried once and had to get my dad to bring me in emergency penguins! I went all weak and wobbly.

it isn't that muscle weighs more than fat pound per pound though is it?
it's that muscle weighs more BY VOLUME

so you can lose inches, but still weigh as much because you're replaced fat with muscle.

3 weeks isn't long. I've been known to put on 6lb overnight when my period is due, for example. so i certainly wouldn't worry about 1lb over 3 weeks

how are your portion sizes? i think sometimes it's easy to feel you are eating healthily when what you're doing is eating too much. if that makes sense?

keep at it and see how you go

mfp gives me 1200 but I usually earn (5 of 7 days) another 500 through exercise.

karma I do have Graves disease but am in the normal range and have been for a while, so my thyroid shouldn't be an issue, afaik. I put on a good bit when I went on depo but I don't think I can blame that anymore after several months.

I must be eating the wrong things, because if I ate any less I'd definitely be hungry. I am right now but I have 200 calories left out of my allowance and didn't have a proper dinner, so thats my own fault.

I found that I didn't lose much weight at first either. It seems when you really get going exercise wise, your body doesn't really lose right away. Make sure you're drinking lots of water too.

I also found that when I was losing, one week I'd lose a pound, the next week gain about half back, then the third week lose 2 pounds. This was the way my body lose weight.

I also found that once I started losing weight, an occasional pizza night would trigger a big weight loss the next week. Odd, no?

Anyway, it sounds to me like you're doing great, and give it another week or so before you really panic!

I just read your last post, don't eat less! You body may be hoarding a bit due to your increase in exercise. Remember you have to eat fat to lose fat! Nuts worked for me.

Perhaps you are over-estimating the amount used up in exercise? Those machines are very dodgy at calorie counting

Also, do you drink things with lots of calories - sometimes easy to over-look

Perhaps you are over-estimating the amount used up in exercise? Those machines are very dodgy at calorie counting

Also, do you drink things with lots of calories - sometimes easy to over-look

I go by the machines and they usually match up well enough to what mfp estimates, but will keep an eye on that.

I did use to drink things with lots of calories, but have been drinking water and tea (earl grey, no sugar, merest drop of semi-skimmed). 2 glasses of red wine this whole week.

I'm thinking I'm just picking all the wrong foods, and possibly overestimating cal burnt and underestimating those eaten? Will try to be more careful.

Does anyone actually stick to 1200 cals a day (what my allowance is on a no exercise day)? It seems a very small amount.

No fruit at all, in bootcamp? I love fruit, can't imagine breakfast without fruit!

So you're exercising like a mad thing and eating a very low level of calories and still not losing weight?

I prescribe BIWI's Bootcamp, m'dear . There's a lot more to low-carb than the meat-and-cheese cliches the media like to spout about Atkins. It's an extremely sensible and healthful way to eat and you'll definitely lose weight. Promise!

plus you won't necessarily have to spend hours in the gym (unless you want to!)

Fruit might not love you, though.

I know it sounds mad. But fruit is very high is sugar. Yes, yes, it contains other nutrients but nothing you can't get from veg. And sugar is sugar is sugar to your body. And fruit sugar (fructose) is increasingly being implicated in weight gain. Just sayin'