Please Help!

Hello Everyone,

I've been working out for 2 hours a day for the last 3 weeks and haven't lost a single pound.  I've been told that muscle is heavier than fat but I think something is wrong.  I'm 5'4 and 132 pounds.  I haven't lost any weight and I'm eating less than usual.  Can anyone give me any advice.  I would like to lose 13 pounds.  I don't think I can work out any more than I already am.  I do half cardio and half sculpting classes.

 

I hope you're not exercising >i>everyday!

If so, PLEASE REST!

Calm down! =)
Maybe you're eating too much or too little calories.
If you're 18, then you should eat about about 1700 calories. calories. If you're 25, you should eat about 1400-1600. 1400-1500 if you're older than 30.
Make sure you're fully hydrated and keep the sodium intake low.
Shoot for about 50-60% Carbs, 20-25% Fats, and 20-25% Protein. Try to avoid white flour and white rice and eat more complex carbs like whole wheat and brown rice.
Don't weight train 2 days in a row, it's bad for you.

Yes I'm exercising 2 hours a day, everyday. I don't feel that sore so I keep working out. I have only felt sore 3 times in the last 3 weeks in whice I only did cardio following days.

I'm 31 years old.

I've also been eating Chipotle burritos! I thought they were healthy but I just looked them up on this site and they are horrible!

Their website does not have any nutritional info.

Exercise every day is fine as long as it's the right sort, don't push yourself so hard every day you should have at least 2 days a week for your body to recover, on thoses days don't do anything that pushes you too hard take a walk in the park instead. Our body's need rest, they need recovery time just because your not sore doens't mean you you don't need it ..

2ndly if you new to exersices your body can store up water while it works out whats gonig on, remeber your body's not used to all this and is most likely panicing and holding on to water for dear life.

Also based on what very little i know on sculpting class's having never been on one i wouldn't be suprised if your were building muscle, while its normally impossible to build any meaningful muscle on a calorie deficit when you first start any kind of muscle building workout there is a thing called "newbie gains" which can casue you to gain muscle in the first few weeks... which as you know is heavier it might be that your losing fat but gaining muscle.

And lastly with only 13lb's to lose your not in too bad shape already the closer you are to your ideal wieght you are the harder it is to lose.

I know how seriosuly frustrating it is i came here 6 weeks ago needed to lose about 10lb's and last week was the first time my body finnally shifted a meaningful amount of weight ... 1lb it wasn't much to some but it finnally made me feel better.

Saying this though it might have taken me 6 weeks to shed 1 lb but i have also started to notice an improvment in my body i've lost an inch around my wasit and my clothes fit differently my belly looks better and even though the scales are for the most part not bieng helpful or friendly the mirror, my clothes and the tape measure are quickly teaching me my efforts are not wasted.

Don't give up its a slow process ... don't trust the scales they are evil.

 

 

 

I had the same stats when I relaunched my fitness goals in March. I'm 5'4". I'm also 31 years old. I was stuck at 132 for 2 months! As of last month, I am now steadily losing weight. I am now down to 125, with 5 more pounds to go! (Highest weight was 165 back in 2006.) Besides the exercising, have you been eating well? What kind of exercises are you doing? When I broke my "plateau", these were the changes I made:

1) I was calorie-cycling but realized that I couldn't stick with it because I could never coordinate high-calorie/ low calorie intakes with my activity level from day-to-day. I would either feel like I had eaten too much on an exercise off-day, or was starving when I was working out harder on some days. I felt it was easier to eat close to the same amount of food everyday, and just let the calorie-deficits cycling happen according to my activities throughout the week.

2) Consistency is key when it comes to my meal plan. Eat the same meals at the same time everyday. I felt that this helped "train" my body to know when food is coming, so I stopped feeling hungry all the time. I eat every 3-4 hours. I good way to tell if you are getting enough food (and if your calorie limit is working for you) is to eat a meal and observe: 1)if you are genuinely hungry (your stomach is growling, or if you are lacking energy) in less than 2 hours, you are not eating enough. 2) if you are still full after 4-5 hours, you ate too much. 3) if you are hungry after 3-4 hours, your intake is just right.

3) I don't eat carbs such as rice, pasta, bread, etc. after about 4pm, which in my case, right before my evening workout. I'll have a piece of toast with peanut butter right before working out to fuel up, and then after the workout, I'll come home and have just veggies and protein (like chicken) for dinner. This was the only thing I changed from my meal plans and amazingly, within a week, the weight started to drop again.

4) If you aren't already, incorporate strength-training into your schedule. What I found most challenging, yet energizing, was to circuit-train utilizing full-body workouts. For 2 years, I was doing isolated training (back and biceps one day, legs and abs another day, etc) and was seeing minimal results. Then I recently switched to doing full-body workouts 3 times a week and noticed quite quickly how much leaner and stronger I was getting in a short amount of time. I mix it up quite a bit, as well, to keep my body "on its toes" so to speak.

An example of my workout would be:

First 25 minutes - 1) 10 mins cardio 2) 3x Superset no.1 - Pushups, straight into lunges, straight into ab crunches. (rest 1 min in between sets).

Second 25 minutes 1) 10 mins cardio 2) 3x Superset no. 2 - Step ups with free-weights, straight into tricep kickbacks, straight into squats. (rest 1 min in between sets).

Third 25 minutes - 1) 10 mins cardio 2) 3x Superset no. 3 - One-arm back rows, straight into chest presses, straight into shoulder presses.

I currently workout 6 days a week: 45 mins of Cardio only (spinning, elliptical, or treadmill) on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. 60-90 mins of circuit-training Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. Fridays are OFF-DAYS, no matter what!

5) Oh, and, take 1 meal out of the week as your designated "cheat meal". With working SO HARD at being relentless in my exercise and eating efforts, it's nice to just let go a little. It keeps me sane and realistic. Can't be 100% perfect all the time! I use Saturday nights, to go out to dinner and treat myself to something I've been craving that week. Last week, I had half a rack-of-lamb with steamed veggies, a margarita and potato chips. The week before that, I had a sushi dinner and some wine. I still count my calories as much as I can those days and try not to go over 500 kcals my allowance.

Good luck with your efforts. Hope I was able to help some. :-)

Thanks for taking the time to reply.   

Leiela,  I think you're right I should be drinking a lot more water than I am.  I'm hiding my scale too!

Macmattey, I'll try your recommendations.  I'm so ready for a challenge.  I'm going to stop taking the classes and go solo.

I'll let you both know how it works out in 2 weeks. 

I have a goal and I'm not going to give up trying.

 

Good luck with it! Keep us updated with how it works out for you.

oh wow yea chipotle burritos are so full of calories! I got a free burrito and only had a burrito bowl with beans, guacamole, peppers and lettuce and it was almost 400 calories. Any of the meat adds at least 160 calories and the rice adds another 100 plus if you get the tortilla your looking at 100 more without cheese or sour cream. a normal burito is upwards and over 700 calories which is over half my allowed for one day. http://www.chipotlefan.com/index.php?id=nutri tion_calculator

sounds to me like you should log your calories and research everything you eat and make sure you deficit is what it should be to loose weight.

Hello Everyone, I just want to keep you posted.  I have lost 5 pounds since the last posting.  Thanks for everyone's tips!  ;)  10 more pounds to go!

what did you decide to do differently?

Original Post by betsyanne26:

what did you decide to do differently?

Previously I was doing 2 hours of random gym classes. I started doing an hour of circuit training on my own and using more weights. I heard weight training allows you to burn more calories through out the entire day. Not sure if it's true but it seems to be working. In addition to the 1 hour work out I decided to continue my yoga class twice a week. :)

I also only eat complex carbs.