Is this enough to lose some weight?

[earthakatsuki]

So I have had a Fitbit Charge for awhile now. Since I got it, I have been pretty good about eating pretty well and tracking everything. The past 3 weeks (I only weigh myself once a week. Should I do it more often?) I have gained 5 pounds. My goal is to lose 130 pounds. I get about 10,000 steps in every day. I have an office job where I sit all day from 9 am to 4 pm. Where my office is located, even if I park in the farthest spot, it is less than a minute walk. I need my car for my job sometimes so walking to work is out of the question. After work, I take my dog for a walk which is usually about 1-3 miles. Depends on how tired my dog gets. On the hotter days, I will take her back and continue the walk on my own. Other than that, I play a dancing game using the XBOX Kinect for about an hour every day. I will play hard songs and I am sweating and get really tired while playing. I will also walk two miles on a treadmill at 3.5 miles an hour. 

I think since I had the fitbit, I only went over my calorie budget twice. I don't do a lot of snacking in between meals. Mostly I drink water instead. 

Should I incorporate other activities into my routine? I have tried lifting weights before and did not have any fun doing it. I also tried full body workouts from HasFit.com before and i just couldn't stick to it. I thought about buying a pair of roller blades for a new work out but I feel like that would just be like walking with less effort since I am rolling. 

I also have one other question. If I do go back to weight training and/or full body workouts, how many times a  day should I do it. The upper body weight training program I was doing was a 10 minute one. About 5 exercises with 3 sets each. I was only doing it once a day.

Any help is greatly appreciated 🙂

[reuel]

i wrote something really long, but i reread your post, and here's the summary i got from it:

-you are 130 lbs overweight

-you have a sedentary office job

-you log everything you eat, and you have a good diet

-you do 10k steps a day and an Xbox game for exercise

-you are gaining weight

from what you wrote, you actually are doing pretty well. i do not think you'd be gaining weight based on that ... i mean, 130 lbs overweight, moving a lot everyday, and tracks calories - either you are just rushing the results (weight fluctuates), or you misreported something.

at 130 lbs overweight, i dont think you'd need advance exercise (you might injure yourself). but well, someday, you really should consider weight training... it will help preserve muscle mass while being on a calorie deficit.

my last tip is: find a way to gauge your athletic/physical abilities. if you are getting stronger and performing better (and tracking what you eat at the same time), you can pretty much ignore the scale. there is just no way you'd be gaining weight if you, say, improved your 5k run to 30 mins coming from 45 mins.

[earthakatsuki]

I am starting to wonder if it is the scale itself. I am using a scale I bought from walmart that was about 10 dollars. 

The best way I can gauge my exercise is the XBOX game is a dancing game. Since I started about a month ago doing that, I can do a few more songs without stopping. 

thank you for the help. I will keep doing what I am doing and hopefully it should all work out

[kaelarenee7]

Do you measure your food portions with a scale? If you are just eyeballing the amounts or using measuring cups, you could be getting incorrect amounts to log which would skew your calorie intake.

If your food logging is accurate, just give it some more time, or change up your exercise routine a bit. Adding in weight training a few days a week would be a good idea. Drink lots of water. Five pounds gained in 3 weeks could just be from fluctuations in your body or your body holding onto excess water, not necessarily all gained weight. If you continue to see your weight increasing, then you should re-evalute your routine.

[Heybales]

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@earthakatsuki wrote:

So I have had a Fitbit Charge for awhile now. Since I got it, I have been pretty good about eating pretty well and tracking everything. The past 3 weeks (I only weigh myself once a week. Should I do it more often?) I have gained 5 pounds. My goal is to lose 130 pounds. I get about 10,000 steps in every day. I have an office job where I sit all day from 9 am to 4 pm. Where my office is located, even if I park in the farthest spot, it is less than a minute walk. I need my car for my job sometimes so walking to work is out of the question. After work, I take my dog for a walk which is usually about 1-3 miles. Depends on how tired my dog gets. On the hotter days, I will take her back and continue the walk on my own. Other than that, I play a dancing game using the XBOX Kinect for about an hour every day. I will play hard songs and I am sweating and get really tired while playing. I will also walk two miles on a treadmill at 3.5 miles an hour. 

I think since I had the fitbit, I only went over my calorie budget twice. I don't do a lot of snacking in between meals. Mostly I drink water instead. 

Should I incorporate other activities into my routine? I have tried lifting weights before and did not have any fun doing it. I also tried full body workouts from HasFit.com before and i just couldn't stick to it. I thought about buying a pair of roller blades for a new work out but I feel like that would just be like walking with less effort since I am rolling. 

I also have one other question. If I do go back to weight training and/or full body workouts, how many times a  day should I do it. The upper body weight training program I was doing was a 10 minute one. About 5 exercises with 3 sets each. I was only doing it once a day.

Any help is greatly appreciated 🙂

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" pretty good about eating pretty well and tracking everything"

Pretty good isn't good enough as expressed above - you could wipe out a 1000 cal deficit (which is reasonable for you for awhile) pretty easy with sloppy logging, and you may not even be aware how bad it could be until you weigh everything that goes in your mouth.

Weight and hopefully just fat loss is about diet, eating less than you burn by reasonable amount.

Not the exercise, which is heart health and body transformation. Walking won't provide much transformation.

Do the strength training, the heavy and harder you make it - the more the transformation will be.

If you can do it that way, don't workout the same muscles without a rest day between them. Recovery is needed to repair, and repair stronger is the goal.

Exercise does cause weight gain as side effect, water weight increases. But that stops eventually, and fat loss can continue even while that happens.

So measure too, or have some clothes you try on from time to time.

But eat enough to reach your calorie goal - bigger is not better.

[reuel]

you are right, it could be the scale itself. i had that problem in my gym's 8 year old, over-used scale. the numbers did not make any sense, so i went into this clinic and used the scale there lol ... they usually do not have people come in like that, but since i am not disturbing anyone, they are cool with it and even expect to see me once a week.

i never trust those bathroom scales.

[Kryssy90]

Diet is key. you cant out train a bad diet. ever. you can be under your calorie intake goal for the day but what kind of foods are you eating? are you having pop tarts for breakfast or some eggs and fruits? the quality of food you eat is so important. even more so then caloire counting. i am also considered obese because when i started i was almost 75 pounds over weight. i have had this problem my whole life. and i have recently found out that i have PCOS which is causing some of my weight gain. a docors visit when trying to get healthy is always a good thing too. i would have had NO idea that i had a health issue that was effecting my weight if i hadent seen my doctor for a check up and asked questions about my weight. 

All in all we need to think of food as fuel for the body and give it the best fuel possible 

🙂 

[HelenaFitbit]

I agree with @Heybales on this, innacurate logging of your meals can easily wipe out a good workout, a good food scale will help you on this. 

[LauraBug]

I second the food scale, once I got one I was very surprised at what a portion size really was!

Also, I think someone else mentioned this too, try monitering your progress with measuring tape and do not to get too hung up on the scale number. I measure just my natural waist, bellybutton level, hips, and thigh once a week, but you can also do your chest, upper arms, calves ect. I wasnt losing any weight for the first couple of months because I think I was also gaining so much muscle. Only once I started taking measurements with the tape, I had physical proof of my body changing. Best of luck!

This article really helped me make sense of it all..

http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/07/07/how-to-track-progress/

[VivisFitbit]

@earthakatsuki You can also incorporate other applications like MyFitnessPal to have a better control of your food log. 

[VivisFitbit]

@earthakatsuki You can also incorporate other applications like MyFitnessPal to have a better control of your food log.