Having trouble losing weight

[Maz100]

Hi hoping someone can shed some light i have been trying to lose weight i started 5 weeks ago and have not lost anything i have been going to the gym 6 days a week for the last 4 weeks i have a personal trainer 1 day a week. My family says they can see i big differnce however i cant see any in my before and after photos so far. I am doing cardio and weights at the gym for 1 hr at a day i am eating around 1500 calories, i am 5ft 7 and weigh 92kgs i am eating healthy cut out all soft drinks and just drink water now. i am really starting to lose motivation. Please help me

[Jabrat]

How many calories are u burning - I have to burn at least 2500 a day to see weight loss or else I stay the same

[Bear35]

Its really hard to say what it is that is the issue. For me, I had/have a lot of inflamation here and there when it was suggested by my trainer that I have a blood test done. I had to do it through Lifetime and it cost a pretty penny, but it showed all of my levels......not just the ones that the doctor takes a look at to see what he/she needs to see. 

As far as the exercise is concerned, do you have a heart rate monitor? Do you know what your zones are? That is also another key to exercising.....if you know your zones, it will show you the points at which you burn the most (I forget if they said to me that its where you burn the most fat or calories--you might want to ask your trainer about all this). At Lifetime, where I go to work out, they have a test you can take that will tell you what your zones are and they give you workouts to do. This has helped me greatly! 

Also, Jabrat is right in asking about calories.........however, do you know how much calories you eat in a day? Do you know how much youre supposed to have? (I assure you that both questions, while similar are totally different). It could be possible that you are not eating enough calories a day and that is important to do. If you don't, it actually hinders your weightloss. 

In the end, please talk with your personal trainer about these things and about your concerns. She/he might have something more for you concerning this, might confirm or deny my claims--therefore giving you the correct information (even though this has come from my personal trainer herself), and therefore will give you a good direction to go into. 

[Heybales]

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@Maz100 wrote:

Hi hoping someone can shed some light i have been trying to lose weight i started 5 weeks ago and have not lost anything i have been going to the gym 6 days a week for the last 4 weeks i have a personal trainer 1 day a week. My family says they can see i big differnce however i cant see any in my before and after photos so far. I am doing cardio and weights at the gym for 1 hr at a day i am eating around 1500 calories, i am 5ft 7 and weigh 92kgs i am eating healthy cut out all soft drinks and just drink water now. i am really starting to lose motivation. Please help me

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Did you set Fitbit up to have a weight loss goal - so you are eating less than you burn daily?

If not, then you are correctly eating at maintenance, sounds like it's working well - though I question maintenance being that low with that much activity.

Are you correctly the Fitbit for what it doesn't do calorie burn on correctly?

You have to manually log weight lfiting since that is not step based, as well as spin/bike, elliptical, swimming, ect.

I'm betting you are actually burning much more than Fitbit is reporting if you don't.

Did you select a reasonable weight loss goal amount if you did and really follow it? 1500 could be reasonable for non-exercise days, it could be way to big a deficit on workout days, which are your majority of days.

Since your BMR is likely above 1500, I question your goal being reasonable.

Did you do a bunch of measurements besides scale weight, which only tells a small part of the body story?

When you start exercising, and especially gung-ho, you retain water for repair, and for storing more carbs too for what you are asking your body to do by the exercise.

And if actually eating at maintenance rather than less than you burn, you could also have added maybe 1/2 lb of muscle depending on how much you had before and how quickly you maxed it out. But unlikely just starting out.

Are you correctly logging your foods, meaning you weigh all solids and only meause liquids?

If not you are likely eating more than you think.

[Exercisescience]

Lots of things are a factor here.I am a qualified,registered sports scientist and know from personal and client experience that it is ALWAYS a measurement issue.Underreporting of intake/overreporting of activity.

Exercise scientists are aware of what is called a setpoint theory.What happens here is that once you start to exercise,the body may compensate by curtailing activity in other areas of your life...This is exactly my reason for buying my fitbit.On top of my exercise I aim for at least 15-20 k of steps per day.

Just increase this and ensure you know the calorific value of your food ...Hope this helps

[Snowflakepdx]

There are so many factors that contribute to weight loss as it appears on the scale.  Don't beat yourself up because it isn't showing on the scale.   You are making good progress with your exercise and fitness program. 

Perhaps 1500 calories a day for a sustained period may be too few calories.  Maybe you are not getting enough sleep so that your body is repairing itself and building muscle.  The intensity of the exercise you are doing may be important,  If you trainer is only helping you by showing you how to lift weights and counting reps then get a new trainer who can help you with intensity and fat burning.

Don't assume that you have a slow metabolism and give up.   

One of the best ways to be successful is to find a role model and copy what they are doing. 

[Maz100]

Thanks just what i needed to here at the moment i was ready to walk away but now have my motivation back on track 

[Maz100]

thanksits so much to take in when first starting out i can see a differnce in my body the thing that is bringing me down is the whole weight. I have lost 6cm around waist so i know something is happening but then i go and get on the scales and it has not changed. Taken everything you have said on board and will monitor things closer (calories in calories burned etc) thanks heaps for you response

[EMJ]

Hi Maz,

Check out a website for Dr. Fuhrman (nutritional doctor). He explains that if we are not getting the right vitamins, minerals and nutrients from our food, then our body will have a hard time creating all the enzymes and other wonderful things it does to lose weight. 

What we eat gets broken down into enzymes, helps build hormones, and all kinds of stuff.

Do you eat any raw food? Are you eating packaged food? 

If you arn't into websites, you can also find him on utube. 

It works!

EMJ

[mz-lino]

ok maybe I need to workout more.  I workout 4 days a week I do a combination of strength, cardo and stretch for about 1hour and 15 min.  I am in the change of life through surgery.  Please recommend a proper eating and training schedule for me if you can

Thanks

mz-lino

[Heybales]

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@mz-lino wrote:

ok maybe I need to workout more.  I workout 4 days a week I do a combination of strength, cardo and stretch for about 1hour and 15 min.  I am in the change of life through surgery.  Please recommend a proper eating and training schedule for me if you can

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Don't confuse things.

Diet is for weight loss - done right just fat loss, done wrong muscle mass loss too.

Exercise is for heart health and body improvements - done right it can support fat loss, done wrong muscle mass.

Only thing exercise does for diet is make you burn more daily, so that when you eat less than that bigger burn, you are getting to eat more, hopefully at a level you can adhere to.

If you are eating less than you burn right now - burning more won't change that equation, except perhaps for making the deficit unreasonable, or more unreasonable.

Your workout routine is good, I'd give more time to strength, less to cardio, to retain muscle mass.

You'll have to manually log those workouts as Fitbit will be badly underestimating calorie burn, and you want as accurate as you can get - why else would you have bought the Fitbit afterall!

[quackers]

If you are trying to lose weight 1500 calories sounds like alot. Maybe knock the calories down to 1200 per day? If you use the MY FITNESS PAL APP ON YOUR PHONE AND SYNC FIT BIT the activity will make the calorie count higher so it adjusts. Low activity levels =  calorie # stays the same. Higher activity higher calorie count.

[Heybales]

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@quackers wrote:

If you are trying to lose weight 1500 calories sounds like alot. Maybe knock the calories down to 1200 per day? If you use the MY FITNESS PAL APP ON YOUR PHONE AND SYNC FIT BIT the activity will make the calorie count higher so it adjusts. Low activity levels =  calorie # stays the same. Higher activity higher calorie count.

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It is literally impossible to give an informed opinion as to what sounds high or low when you have no idea how much they burn daily.

If the only calorie levels you have ever seen are 1200 - then indeed anything sounds high.

But basing eating goals on bare minimum for a sedentary short woman is not smart if you actually aren't a short sedentary woman.

That's why Fitbit is trying to base it on eating less than you burn, not some small amount above or right at bare minimum.

Eating 1500 and burning 3500 on most days would be eating way too little.

Eating 1500 and burning 1500 on most days would see no loss.

But you have no idea what they are burning.

But very correct on syncing the 2, since many people select the wrong activity level in MFP (sedentary) when they really aren't outside exercise, and then they fail to follow the method of correctly eating back those exercise calories so the deficit stays the same.

But same problem of selecting an unreasonable deficit.