Added excercise, and not lost since

Howdy all, I'm new to calorie count plus. I've been doing Weight Watchers since about November, and up until a little over a month ago I had lost 13 lbs. I was loosing about a pound (+/-) a week. I was so excited!! I had also just had knee surgery so I was even more excited when I could start exercising. My exercise routine consists of high intensity cardio for 30-40 mins, and about 20-30 mins of moderate to heavy weight lifting. I feel great after every work out!

 

But, heres the problem, since I started working out, I have stopping loosing pounds, completely. I'M GOING NUTS! WHAT HAS HAPPENED?! HELP!

Are you one of those gym-goers who falls into the "exercise more/eat more" trap? Because that isn't necessarily true. Many people join a gym and either keep their bad eating habits, thinking exercise will cure their weight issues solely on its own, or have normal eating habits, but think they can eat more since they are exercising. But actually, people who exercise less and eat less get better results than those who exercise more and eat more. Calories are so simple to put on, but so difficult to take off. Remember that fitness is 80% diet, 10% exercise and 10% genetics.

or maybe the opposite is true (than #1)...

Did you change your eating habits to reflect your more active lifestyle? If you're creating more than a 1000 calorie deficit your body might not be willing to shed the pounds as easily as it once was.

 Results are more like 70% diet, 30% exercise. But assuming you're still doing WW/counting calories, but have stayed at the same weight - have you checked the fit of your clothes lately?

 It's extremely common to add a few pounds of muscle/glycogen/water when you first start exercising - newbie shock growth can add a couple pounds of muscle during the first 6-8 weeks of exercise even in a calorie deficit, and the rest is your muscle glycogen stores being filled as a response to exercise. Since glycogen storage requires water in a 1:3 ratio (1 gram of glycogen needs 3 grams of water) and your body can double glycogen stores in response to exercise you can probably see why weight loss stalls out even if fat loss continues.

 And no, people who eat more and work out more get better results than people who eat less and work out less, at least from a health, fitness and body composition standpoint. If you only diet, you wind up with half your weight loss being muscle (45% muscle, 55% fat) - steady-state low-impact cardio don't change this ratio either. What does change the ratio, in order of efficiency from lowest to highest is interval training, high-intensity interval training, anaerobic exercise like sprint training and weight lifting at the top beating out the competition by a wide margin.

 Calories are very easy to take off - muscle is hard to build.

 Therefore, minimizing muscle loss is paramount when dieting.

 Therefore, eating more to be able to do the better class of workout gives you better overall results. If you're going to do the better kind of workout, you need to eat to fuel your activity level.

 Food is not the enemy.

Perhaps my stats can be a bit of a motivator....

November 2007 was my turning point, I decided that I should loose the extra kilos that I've been carrying along with me.

I went on the "wonderful" internet and looked for diets as I didn't want to joint the gym just yet, I found a thing called the 3 day diet, it is sooooo hard and you really starve yourself but none the less stayed on it - didn't know any better - lost 5kg in a matter of a month. I then went on holiday.

Didn't stay on the diet in December and was so fed up with eating nothing, but yet, I started it again in January.

I completely stopped loosing weight, I went on the internet again and found CC where I read the forums and realised that my body was in Starvation mode.

I then changed my eating habits by eating more calories and more times a day and I also joined the gym, I excersize 4 times a week - weight training 3 times a week and extensive cardio once a week.

II still weight myself once a week but the scale says that I've only lost another 2 kilos since January. My husband told me to start measuring myself and did that for the first time 18 February. Last night he measured me again, and guess what?!

According to the scale I'm the same as what I was 3 weeks ago, but according the the measurements, I've lost 5cm around my waist - lovehandle area- and 2 cm around my bum....

I realised that the scale is only a measuring tool. But the proof is in the clothes I wear, and the people that see me.

Bottom line - hang in there, and don't only use the scale, get a tape measurer and start measuring. you are bound to notice a difference.

I would agree with melkor.  The scale is only a guide.  Body composition is the key.  You could be building muscle and losing fat. It is often necessary to check the fit of your clothes or take measurements and compare them to later measurement to find out if you are losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time.  Remember weight loss for the sake of weighing less is NOT the goal.  Health and fitness should be the goal.  Sounds like to me you may be building muscle and losing fat.  Good.  You will avoid becoming a skinny fat person.

allgrowedup,

   Your situation is the EXACT situation I found myself in. I joined weight watchers in Nov. 2007 and lost 13lbs from that time to Jan. 21st. I added exercise (4days of cardio 40min, 3-5days of circuit exercise 30min at a gym) and stopped losing weight.  I was weighed in at my gym on Feb. 29 and hadn't lost a drop of weight in a month, but I had lost 13in. and my body fat percentage went down by 0.80%. I knew I felt better and my clothes fit better though but looking at that scale was enough to make me want to quit.

So I agree with boudjies get measured every month and pay more attention to how you feel and how your clothes are fitting. As anyone here can tell you the scale is our worst enemy. I've weighed myself off and on over the last month seeing a 1-2lb loss/gain, so I finally put it in the closet and forgot about.

I know everything will work out for you in the end so keep up the good work.

 

Yep, Melkor is right. 

For example, I do 2-3 hours a week of intense weight training plus run a good 20 miles per week.  I have been stuck at 145lbs for weeks.  But let me tell you, I weigh the same that I did when I wore my "skinny jeans" a few years ago but those silly skinny jeans are now way too big!  So if you do workout intensely, especially if you are close to a normal BMI, the scale will seem to hardly change although you are most certainly losing body fat.

So use the scale as a guide to your progress but do not ever rely on it as the standard.  After a month of following your new routine, try on your skinny jeans or go shopping and Ill bet you see that you fit in a smaller size than you may think your weight would indicate.

Make sure also to get in a recovery day where you do little or light exercise.  This will allow your muscles to repair and eliminate waste, which can show as a loss on the scale (and make you feel better about your routine).