Why are the scales not shifting despite loads of cardio exercise???

[PussinJimmyChoos]

Been doing a 30 min Tae Bo DVD 4/5 times a week, plus press ups and weights....although I've lost inches, clothes feel better etc. The scales are not budging!!

When can I expect to see something? I am not dieting but I have drastically reduced my junk intake and don't smoke or drink

[Saggarmakersbottomknocker]

Bit confuzzled about that myself Cote.

dinny you sound very similar to me height/ weight wise. My BMI is OK I think (although I can't remember what it is lol) but the blimmin Boots machine says I have a high percentage of body fat. How does it know that from just holding on the metal thingy FGS? And my arms and legs are skinny - I just have a big bum I don't think BMI is a very good measurment TBH - it doesn't account for muscle mass at all.

[dinny]

Saggar, the body fat measuring thing sends electric around the body and - I THINK - it meets resitance in muscle and none in fat. or something like that

think my BMI is about 24 ish. Ok, but at high end of OK

though I am quite muscly

[MsDemeanor]

It sounds completely counter-intuitive but the evidence is that exercise alone doesn't make people lose much if any weight. Thought it might make you look much better.
But the weight loss thing is not as simple as spending more calories. That ignores the effect of increased hunger and our own natural thermostat

This article is fascinating on the subject:
lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/health/story/0,,2198879,00.html
And this on children:
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2033494/Exercise-'does-not-make-obese-children-slim'.html

[CoteDAzur]

it helps you consume burn off more calories than you eat

[CoteDAzur]

You should be careful not to stuff yourself with food when you leave the gym, naturally

[dinny]

think it probably has an effect if you do a HUGE amount, but not an hour a day

but it's so good for us!

[MsDemeanor]

Did you read the feature? HOnestly, its' really interesting. Bit depressing, naturally, but interesting.

[MsDemeanor]

This too: www.thefactsaboutfitness.com/articles/aerobicexercise.htm

Lots (and lots!) of exercise may help you keep weight off, but it's rubbish at making you lose weight.

[dinny]

God, that's mad!

So, what is best? Diet?

[MsDemeanor]

Sadly, miserably, depressingly....yes.
Or thinking bugger it, I'm going to buy enormous trousers. I'm not quite ready for the enormo-trews at the moment. Or as Liz Hurley put it, 'I'm still fighting on the beaches' (though if she's the advancing Nazi hordes in 1939, I'm Poland)

[MsDemeanor]

And dreaming of liposuction....

[dinny]

but diets work, don't they?

[CoteDAzur]

The beauty of internet is such that you can find people/links to support anything.

Fact remains that sports/exercise burn calories. If you are careful with what you eat while exercising for an hour 3-4 times a week, you will lose weight.

Theory aside, I have seen this in practice, as well.

Even doing yoga several times a week makes you lose weight. You break a sweat, feel your heart beat faster, but not out of breath. Which is exactly the heartrate to be working with in order to burn fat.

Through cardio exercise and/or sports, you also increase your metabolic rate, which means you continue to burn calories at a higher rate for some time after you stop exercising. (Probably why you feel so energetic after the gym, which is odd because you are also tired)

[PussinJimmyChoos]

Wow! So many replies

I have noticed an increase in my appetite since I've been doing my cardio but I'm careful to snack on healthy things - almonds, bananas, have a glass of water in case its thirst talking rather than hunger iyswim and when I eat bread, its the granary, seeded kind....I can vouch for the low carb thing - I've done it before and the weight fell off me but it involved going to a specialist shop for regular stocking up on sour dough rye bread, almond butter, blah blah and with DS - its just not practical. It needs to be something you can sustain long term...

Tonight I stupidly put DS in the high chair in the living room whilst I did my DVD - clever multi tasking I thought!! Cue pasta and pasta sauce (brown pasta I may add ) all over my floor, my rug, DS's clothes and the sofa.....I think I burnt more calories clearing up than the small amount of exercise I did manage to do before DS commenced Food War part I....

[MsDemeanor]

Well, it's odd then that every study shows that not to be the case. Both articles cited multiple studies conducted by respected medical authorities.
Also I don't actually WANT it to be true, you know, especially when I'm on the sodding treadmill like a hamster!

[MsDemeanor]

Here, exercise can work for men, but not for women! www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13821677/

[PussinJimmyChoos]

But you know...as Phoebe said to Ross in an episode of Friends....'they thought the atom was the smallest thing until they split it and a load of crap fell out'

Sooo...I'm maintaing that all this research is wrong and they will one day find out that exercise makes you svelte and gorge....

[MsDemeanor]

I am hoping that weights and running will help prevent me getting fatter, make me stronger, fitter and healthier and more able to run around with my kids. I'm not saying exercise is worthless.

[PussinJimmyChoos]

I think it needs to be a combination of healthy eating and exercise if you want a slow and steady weight loss....the thing is, my evenings are 'my' time where I get some peace without the 'mental clutter' of all the things that need to be done in the day and chocolate just compliments this chilling out so well!!!

[QuintessentialShadows]

Puss, I saw the thread title, and thougth "blimey, did I write that?"

I have been going to the gym 3 times per week the last two weeks. I have also been doing physical work in the garden, AND cut down on snacks, and see no apparent result. (Ok, my dh said: Wifey, your bottom looks minimally smaller)

My dh is a fitness fanatic (and looks it ) and he says I have to do minimum of 3 cardio sessions per week, should aim for between 30 minutes at a minimum to 45 minutes. (He does one hour cardio in the gym and cycles to and from) I do 30 minutes on the cross trainer, I usually lose 300 calories, the machine tells me. He also says the first 20 minutes is just sugar. My personal trainer said I should aim for 45-60 minutes cardio. But it is hard. I want to lose 15-20 gk. I want to be stunnig again.

[MsDemeanor]

OK, after loads of searching I found this, which only looked at women who were on a diet, which skews things quite a bit, but suggest that if are already obese (BMI 32plus) you diet AND you do five one hour workouts a week for TWO YEARS you can lose maybe lose 2per cent more of your body fat than if you didn't. that's a lot of exercise for an additional loss of 2per cent of your body weight. For a woman of 160lbs (er, me) that's a poxy 3lbs!
www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,172801,00.html
I'm going to stop now. I'm depressing myself!

[MsDemeanor]

Oh, and those were tough, very vigorous workouts!

[PussinJimmyChoos]

Quint! Hello! Are you as confused as me by this whole exercise lark? I thought 30mins of heart rate up exercise was good for weight loss...now I'm hearing all this about sugar vs fat burning, duration of the work out etc. I really can't do 45-60mins work out - not with a toddler and working part time. I tried doing a work out with DS in his high chair at dinner time and ended up with pasta flung far and wide!!

'tis disheartening...

[zippitippitoes]

well if you exercise and only eat healthy food and do more exercise and eat less until you find a balance which lets you lose weight at a rate of 1 to 2 lbs a wek and stick at it you will lose wieght and gain some muscle and tone

exercise definitely helps with weight loss and if you are eating less it will work..it is just a case of peresevering

you wont see much diference in a few weeks but after a two or three months you will

and it will be the weight loss which endures which is the important thing

[hatcam]

Please don't be disheartened - if you've only been exercising for a couple of weeks, it does take around 6 weeks to see real results. If you're putting in the work and not eating daft food (and let's face it, I think we all know what the 'wrong' things to eat are) then you will see a difference.

Anything that promises a quick fix won't work.

'Diets' do work but most are short term, if you really want to be fitter and healthier then ultimately you have to become more active & eat better in the long term. Not saying that you need to eat horrible diet food, but 'proper' good food in sensible quantities.

You do need to get a bit out of breath for it to count as 'moderate' exercise - you should be able to talk but not in long sentences, be breaking a sweat, poss a bit red in the face...

Exercise does work promise promise promise - plus you'll be healthier as well as looking better. I've seen plenty of 'thin' people who are always dieting, have high body fat (but low body weight) and the fitness of an OAP.